 call the meeting to order at 533. Okay. We're going to start with adjustments to the agenda. We do need to add an action items 8.3. Yeah. Um, the, uh, see where it was. Um, the EI lease agreement. 3.3. Yes, we need to add. Is there any other adjustments to the agenda? Okay. Okay. I'm going to move on to, um, motion to approve the, uh, minutes from Monday, June 5th, 2023. So move. Move by Robert seconded by Bill. All in favor. All right. All right. So moved. Um, Do we have any public comment? Do we have any board? Okay. Thank you. That I want to acknowledge and to thank the repurposing committee for all they're doing to fundraise money to help support. They continue. Of the high school building. Uh, this group put on a lot of their time and their talents into raising these funds. Um, And then they put up a couple of minutes. First for holiday cheese, steak, cheese cakes donated to the heat fund. Uh, Ladies donated ingredients. They're timed their kitchens to fill these orders. Uh, there was a holiday jumble sale in December was musical entertainment and activities for kids. Along with a holiday sale. In April, trying to get a fund in appropriate. They had a campaign kickoff booth at the Harvest Fair, alumni appeal letters. And really, most normally, they pitched in to clean and organize the rooms in high school this June to prepare for the Green Mountain Suzuki Institute to come in. And so they did a significant amount of work, and they really helped with that cleanup and organization effort. So they were able to, the repurposing committee was able to contribute over $12,000 towards heating a Rochester high school building. So thank you very much for all the work that they've done. I do have a repurposing project 2023 in review. Anybody wants a copy of just like of all that that committee has been doing, what they've been meeting about, some of the going through the RELLA program and the phase two studies and stuff. So I have one of those if anybody is interested in just knowing a little bit more. I figured at least you would take one for me. And you'll take one too, perfect. So on that same note, the repurposing committee is moving forward with the repurposing of high school. And most notably, they are looking into creating a nonprofit corporation at this point. So there's really good momentum going forward. So I'm very encouraged by what's been happening and where they're going. So I think that's really great. Just like second that support and appreciation. The future, so much of the future, I think in a positive sense is in the repurposing of our high school that benefits kids of all ages. But it just doesn't happen. People have to work at it. And this committee has been working, working, working, working at it. Another thing that happened when they were cleaning up for the summer was it allowed the Summer Music for Kids program to have a place that was clean and healthy. And those are kids that basically come from Stockbridge and Rochester for the most part. So that, and they utilize that space. And thank you to our son and the community. So it's an example, a great example of community working together. And you're here. Great. Excellent. Is there any other board comment? OK. We will move on to the superintendent's report. Are you taking over from the superintendent? I am. I think his report probably speaks for itself. We've had it as, although Summer does maybe slow down a notch, there has been a lot going on both in our schools over the summer with one plan of programming and teachers doing professional development. The administrative team just got all got back from a week together, working for a couple of days together, meeting up with other principals and administrators across the state at Killington, and then also having a chance to meet together and really plan for the upcoming year. So that was a great meeting last week, supported by the Vermont Prinsles Association. And yeah, there's been a lot. We've had a great day of professional learning going on across the board, and we are making final decisions around sort of calendars, assessment calendars, and in-service days, and all the different options there. So this is the last big push to the first day of school. Excellent. Does any of you have any questions or comments on the superintendent's report? I remember growing up. When summer came, we hit the pond, and what kids do is to spend the hop, skip, and jump in the summertime. And I don't recall any activity going on in the school from summertime, for the most part. In fact, I live in a community where if kids were having trouble in school, they went to private school rather than they couldn't handle the public school. So this has really changed, where now we almost have a set of 12 months, but instead of nine months or eight, 10 months, it's pretty getting close to a year round. And is that something that's happened in the last five years, three years? Can you give us some kind of perspective on how we've ramped up to make sure that kids can continue to learn during the summertime so that they're better ready to get back into school in the fall? How has that progressed here in the first two months? Yeah, well, I know I only have it. This is only my third summer here. It's certainly been running every summer I've been here. I know we've been able to increase support through the allocation of funds related to COVID recovery. Certainly summer and after school was one of the buckets in which recovery plans were written to ensure that we did that. I think the hardest part is that how do you balance taking a well-deserved break, both for faculty and staff and students, and continuing that learning? And I think we are continuing to dial that in because everyone in these buildings works all out from August 30th to June this year, June 21st. And so meeting a break, but also knowing that there is something that happens if you don't touch any of this content for eight to 10 to 12 weeks, that you are going to have summer sliders slip back. And so really trying to think about who would benefit most from having more exposure to content in really fun and engaging ways. There's other ways to come at it sometimes, especially because the groups tend to be smaller. The classrooms aren't as big. We sometimes have small groups of students that you can really get at some of this important content in other ways that you don't necessarily do with a classroom full. So I mean, nationally, I think it's been going on for a while, depending on the circumstances of the environment. But I do think it's something to figure out how to continue doing it, even as the COVID money starts to sunset after next year or after next summer and ensure that both our staff and our students get the support and the break that they need. Thank you. That really sounds exciting and worthwhile. Yes, Trevor. I just goes along with my longstanding philosophy that when it comes to instruction, you're dealing with competing aspects of time, amount of time, the quality of instruction and the quantity of instruction. And in this case, we're extending it by increasing the amount of time that we're instructing in the summers. But it's something to always keep in mind that when we have an accomplisher, goes to other ways is to accomplish it by extending the time we instruct. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on the superintendent's report? I'll move on to the principal's report. Whoops, so you guys have my report in hand and it's been a different type of summer because I have to give great appreciation and kudos to our One Planet programming staff. I think that's the piece that I didn't put in here well enough for the fact that they have been extremely flexible and supportive of posting summer camp and tutoring while we've had ongoing construction in Stockbridge. So they've been really flexible to adjusting things to be able to make sure all our students needs are met but also that we're safe the whole time we're doing it and EEI has been great to work with as well but it really I think has been a day to day like, okay, what's going on here? Because this group of outside contractors need to come in and get into this one space. It's normally a one planet space during the summer. So I just really appreciate Blythe Bates and her team and that they've been willing to roll with it no matter what it brings each day throughout the summer. We've had several students participate in summer services which is about 15 to 20, which is about the same for the past couple of years now. And then for the most part, I think the only thing I'll bring your attention to and then I know construction updates is its own agenda item tonight. So I won't dig into that. But Rochester's fourth grade was selected along with other schools in the SU to participate in the what's called the NEAP, which is the, I'm not gonna get the acronym right. It's the national, Anda, what's the breakdown? National assessment of education progress. Yes, national assessment of the education progress in both literacy and mathematics. So that's under first bullet point under number two and it's a nationwide assessment for fourth graders. And I think the last time anybody in Rochester start first was picked was five years ago. So before COVID they came in and tested fourth grade as well. So that is coming up and that'll be in February, but that's something that's gonna be a little bit different about our school year. Yeah, I'll take any questions folks may have. Yeah, Lydia in that last one and we'll, I'm assuming we'll be getting, you'll be getting the administration staff and the results of that test, that national test. And is that true? And then one thing we'll gain from that is just how we're doing compared with the rest of the nation. How do we benefit from this? In other words, if we don't get some information back. We do get information. I just don't remember how detailed. Cause we did it so long ago and I remember doing very poorly on it. I do remember that much not doing well. So I will have to look back into my notes. I'm not sure exactly what it'll be. I think it's more of a collection tool that we'll get to see, but also it's how they're gonna, they being the greater like educational oversight in our government, how they're gonna inform progress that our students are making academically nationwide and where kids really are. So that's kind of the tool that it's used for. So I'm not sure like what the breakdown will look like when we get the actual reports on how it'll inform our instruction, but there is a piece of training that still hasn't happened yet that I'll learn about more. We don't know. Now there's other testing platforms that we are using. Is this happening in February going to be in conflict with any of the other normal testings we do? Is fourth grade all one of those grades that maybe doesn't have as much of those testings as other grades or? It'll create an additional day of testing for them. It's not gonna be in conflict, but it will create an additional testing time that they're not used. Like this is different for them because normally I have track my progress, which is our universal screener three times a year. And then fourth graders also participate in what's called the V-cap testing or the Vermont cap testing at the end of the school year in like April, May. So this'll be something that'll be different, but my understanding is it's one morning. And then we'll go from there. Great. Well, we do get an advantage of one snapshot, one grade in one school compared to the nation. However, they do it. Well, they pick up like all of fourth grade. So they take snapshots from every fourth grade around the country. So like they'll do fourth grade and I think eighth grade is the other grade they really focus in on typically. So that'd be interesting. Second question I had was on how are we doing with a staff teacher recruitment? Are we fully staff going into this fall? Yeah, so you're jumping, jumping, which is totally fine. Yes, we, I'm still looking for one part-time position, but other than that, I have, we have a music teacher for the fall, which is great. So I'll go through my whole laundry list in new hires, but towards the end of the agenda, but yes, I have classroom teachers for all grade levels in both buildings at this point. Well, that's something to smile ear to ear, thumbs up. Next going. I like to think that the reason you're fully staffed is that your team and you are getting a reputation that this is a good place to, to process the teaching profession and taking care of kids. And I really believe that whether you talk about private or public sector, people check out the company they're joining or the organization and they want to join organizations that have a future and have a good reputation. So I, this sounds pretty darn good to me. It's exciting. I can't speak highly enough. It felt like we were a little short about, I don't know, probably three weeks ago and actually our teachers helped go out and find people which I think speaks volumes. They really were setting up a place where folks want to bring other folks to come and work with them and are selling it themselves. So that feels pretty, pretty good. That's great. That really is great. All right. If there's no further questions for the principal, we'll move on to the business manager's report. Take it away, Adara. Good evening, everyone. You have my report. It outlines what's happening in the business office throughout the month of August. This is an extremely busy time of year for us as we're trying to close out fiscal year 23 and start fiscal year 24, completing onboarding for all the new hires and making sure everything is set up for payroll to start, so busy time. And the biggest thing on my report is the discussion item which Amy mentioned. We have the final lease agreement document from the lender in the interest rate. You had previously approved with not to exceed 5%, but final interest rate came in at 5.369%, providing a final payment of $39,753.60, which is still within our FY24 budget amount of $42,974. So I do have an updated motion for you to approve, which I just put in the chat. Okay. I would like to go ahead to that action item since we are discussing it here with Tara. Is there any questions? This is the motion that we would need. Anybody want to make this motion? So the lender is, we should final interest rate of 5.369, but we need to know what's that referring to specifically. So this is your lease agreement to cover the performance contracting that was previously outlined in your February meeting. We are obtaining the lease through municipal lease services and the actual lender is, I got a quick screen here one second. Flagstar Bank NA. Say that again, Vanessa. Flagstar Bank NA. Okay. So probably that with motion to accept the final interest rate of 5.369% lease agreement with Flagstar Bank NA. Yes. Okay. I'd like to make motion to accept the final interest rate of 5.369% with Flagstar Bank NA. Second. Motion. Any discussion? Nice, but a motion has been seconded. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. All right. Motion passed. Thank you, Tara. Is there any other questions for Tara on her business manager's reports? All right, great job, Tara. I know it's a tough time of year, so keep up the good work. Thank you. Okay. We will move on to the policy committee and the two policies have been put for us to read through and if there's any questions, concerns, next, later this month, the SU board is looking to adopt these policies and then we would look at adopting them at our next meeting. So this is a good time to read through it, see if there's any questions, concerns, comments to be made. I did have a question, concern comment on the fire and emergency preparedness drill. Just that it speaks to the, this option-based response drill, which is specific to actions to take if being confronted by an active shooter or intruder. But I don't see where we're talking about also having a fire drill anymore. I didn't know if this action-based response drill is now in place of a fire drill or if we're going to, if we'll do both, one, I mean, it's looked like in the fall and in the spring, it needs to be done twice and I just didn't know. We were also gonna have fire drills or, Lindy, thank you. Yep, so part of this, the reason it says options-based response drill is because the state specifically and has not picked, sometimes it's called shelter-in-place drill, has not picked a specific response within our buildings to if there were an active shooter situation. So it's a conversation that you have as your emergency management team about what works best for your school system because there's trainings around high-flight flight or shelter-in-place. So the short of it is that's where options-based response comes from. But in our crisis planning and in our emergency management, I'm not sure exactly what language would speak to it, but where it says each under administrative responsibilities, the first full paragraph there, it says each school site conducts age-appropriate option-based response drills, including file drills, fire drills. So the first 30 days of school and the last 30 days of school, we have to do both, and then you do within 30 days, and then you alternate. So you have a fire drill one month, option-based response the other, and that's part of, you have to keep a log that the AOA can request to see. Okay, so this policy is not restricting to only two options. It's just incorporating them all together. You can't do many, you just have to at least do one in the fall, one in the spring. Okay. And because our preschools are licensed through the childcare division, they have to do each every month. So we try and keep up with that as well. And same with our one-planet programming. They have to do a drill each of those every month. So we try and build some of that into our overall schedule because it's helpful to know like, what does that look like at nap time in preschool, right? Or what does that look like at lunch time in either campus? I guess I was just concerned with it being so narrowed in the policy statement that to conduct option-based response drills. And then later it's saying on, you know, option-based response drills. I think it's worth the question why it's biannual, at least biannual, but we've all been taught that it's supposed to be once a month. For the definition, option-based response drill could include all, you know, it does include intruder, but it also includes other emergencies as well. Right. You know, maybe just defining it in that case, you know. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I think, you know, I'm looking at the administrative responsibilities, which, you know, those are the procedures that we would have to put in place in-house and knowing that we do this every month. Good. Okay, hold on. I would go ahead and have a stand-up, sorry. Nope, go ahead. Just on the access control and visitor management, the school site says the school buildings, and I understand why because we're talking about limiting access, but we don't have any policy concerning grounds. Grounds, you know, that's what our policy and control and options are concerning people coming in on our grounds. So that would almost be a second, a separate policy, right? Right, but I would point out that this is broad heading. This is, well, this is very specific and it's not complete to the overall task. Okay. Yes. Just go back to the fire and emergency prepared in this drill. I had a great deal of problem understanding this thing because I kept going back to options-based response drills. I've never heard of that, small caps. And so I'm wondering, is that a terminology that comes from a regulation, a law that we have to use this language because, you know, I'm pretty slow, but I had the hardest time getting my mind around that term. To me, the more sense was fire and emergency preparedness drills. Oh, I understand fire drills are and emergency preparedness can be anything. And one of the key things is a potential shooter, but I'm wondering here, why should it only be limited to a shooter? I mean, it could be any number of people that come in there and threaten the livelihoods or the health and care of our students. And so my recommendation is that somehow if we don't have to use that, we use the language that we could better understand in reading this document. And at least for me, fire and emergency preparedness drills, I can understand that. And then within those drills, plural can be a series of options. We're gonna deal with this problem, this problem, this inside, outside, upside, downside. And that would certainly help me. I think you wanna have a policy that when readers read it, they understand it. And I'm one reader here that had a problem with that. Go ahead, Lindy, response. Yeah, so I don't think we can change options-based response because it is something that's being used by safety. I'm gonna say gurus, okay? And I think it's coming from, whereas, yeah, it came from statute. That's what I thought. So that's why we're using options-based response. And if you do read the definition, it's not just active shooter, it's also intruder. So there's a lot of steps to an options-based response. It's not just shelter in place. It could be, there's something going on out in the hall. So we want all kids out of the hall. It could be something going on in the parking lot. So there's a lot of scenarios we run through. And that's why I think that term has to be in there and additional to the state statute that Parker just pulled up. I wonder if we'll have to re-name, I don't know, either including the fire in the, yeah, go ahead. No, I think you're right. I think our eyes are going to options-based because it's under the definition, but the name of the policy is fire and emergency preparedness drill. And then what we're required to have is an all hazards emergency operations plan. So those are the more inclusive language. So whether we include the definition of what all hazards emergency means, or I think it just is options-based pills newer. So I think it's popped out to us, but the plan is all hazards emergency plans. And they've been wanting to change the heading, like that says fire and emergency. Maybe it needs to be all hazards policy. You know, talk about that option. Anyway, it's important that it's going to access, access control and visitor management. The question I had there was the hours that we're doing this and we have basically a sign-in, central sign-in process when somebody wants to come in and the door gets unlocked. And it occurred to me that the schools use beyond the normal school day. You could have sports in the afternoon. You could have the PTA at night. You could have the district board meeting. And are we, it's just basically saying we're going to have a sign-in process for whatever and whenever our school buildings are used. And that's a question. And it seems to me this limits it to school hours. And I'm thinking, well, if he was, what about before school and after school and vacations are we going to lock our schools and keep security? And then I was thinking about the administrative unit. The SU administrative officer says, why should their hours be based on school hours when you're there probably before schools and probably after school? So I just think this needs a good editing job. And it's a good first draft, but I think it needs some work. I'll send this down to you. Excellent. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, if there's no further discussion on the policy, we'll move on to discussion items. Seven one final preparation for board retreat on nine nine. So as I looked closer at that date, nine nine is our town's harvest fair. I know we had tried to avoid it. I think we initially thought that it was going to be on the following weekend the same weekend as Tombridge. So the following weekend is the temperature fair on the 16th. And I know that our SU, I believe it's going to have a booth there. And if we could avoid that, I think that would be preferable from Jamie's point of view because like they're going to be having a booth that the SU will have there. That's great. That was me, sir. Oh, okay. We're going to get to 7.2. Okay, we're almost there. But Jamie's coming at this. So Jamie suggested that he has either the Saturday, the 23rd of September or the 30th available if that is available for any of us or take suggestions. Does anybody have availability on September, August, September 23rd or 30th? That's a Saturday about 9 a.m. I can do both. Okay, I'm available for both as well. Same here. Okay, Pat, looks good for both. Thank you, Dave. Is that the dates again? It's the 23rd or the 30th. Both are Saturdays, the last two weeks of September. Yes, I'm free for both. Okay, and just team. Sorry, yep, I can do both. You do either one. Okay, wow. Sorry. Amy, I can't do the 23rd, sorry. Okay, Lindy can not do the 23rd thing, but can you do the 30th? I can, yes, sorry. Well, we definitely would like you involved. So if the 30th works for you, then let's put in the 30th. Yeah. Okay, September 30th. Now, Bill has sent me some ideas for some agenda items, you know, you know, looking at, you know, where we are, where we've come talking about our board goals and our governments, you know, and a number of different things, going over some Robert rules. Also one I thought would be a really good discussion item is to talk about our annual meeting, our animal budget town meeting and discuss, you know, maybe why we are doing it the way we are now and is there a way that we can maybe improve on it? I think that, you know, could be a worthwhile conversation. So if anybody has other, you know, some more agenda items or other things that they would, you know, want to try to talk about at that retreat, please email them to me. So we can, Jamie and I can indeed put together a bit of an agenda for that day. All right, perfect. Okay, let's move on to Lyle 7.2. Welcome. He's got a stand raised. You're still muted. There we go. How are you? Hit the wrong little button there. I know. Good all the time. Yeah, my computer's dead at the end of the day, so I'm having to use my phone here. So you guys just wanted a report on what we did insulation-wise at the high schools. Is that what I'm gathering? So, yeah, there's, you know, we was meeting with the repurposing committee. I know they had met with you a little bit about some ideas of some heat mitigating, some stuff that we can, the weak actions that we talk have taken are going to take to just help reduce the cost of heat over there. And I know there was a specific question, well, I guess it's the next agenda item about the roof, but, you know, what have we done to help make that building a little more efficient? I know I'd heard possibly some things that you had been working on with circulators, so if it was a light enough, that would just be great. Yeah, so what we did is we met with a gentleman from Efficiency Vermont, who came with a thermal imaging camera, and we walked through and looked for problem spots where we were losing heat or where cold was pouring in. And we identified quite a few issues, which prompted me actually to buy that little thermal camera because it's something that plugs in your phone, which is a super useful tool. So now I have one too. Yeah. And so we found when we got our heads above the ceiling tiles is that in many areas, and I took a couple of videos that I tried to send to Jamie, and I don't know if he was able to open them or not, but I certainly can share them. We'll figure out a way to share them if you wanna see them. In many cases, they pretty much depended on having like just bats of fiberglass insulation placed in a certain spot and never moving. And the reality is lots of those bats of insulation had been moved over the years because of people trying to do maintenance up there, people moving wires around and so on and so forth. So what happened is essentially you have vented soffits at the edge of the building, which are meant to keep the attic cold so that you don't make ice and melt snow and all stuff. But that same vented attic area in many cases, the only thing that kept that cold air from getting into the building was the thickness of a ceiling tile. And I kind of referred to it as like, it's not a cafeteria area, it's that big open area. I'm not sure what that was used for, but that area in particular has a large metal beam that goes across. And above the beam, there was no insulation and it was a gap of three to four inches. And below the beam before the ceiling tiles hit was a gap of maybe six inches. And you could literally look under or above that beam and see the daylight from the soffit vent. So essentially the outside air had, there was nothing stopping it from getting in above that ceiling tile. And that was the, that's what you had for insulation. This has been one, that one large common area in the high school. So it used to be the library, that large open area with glass and ground. So, but there's different, you know, it looks like there's different ages of construction or something or part of it has an attic above it. And of course that's much less of a problem. So we weren't getting a lot of bad thermal imaging issues there. But anywhere where we had that soffit vent, if the insulation wasn't up on top of the tiles, you had nothing. It was the same in that back art room area where we had water damage and the tiles had been destroyed. Same deal, you could see where the air was getting in there from the soffit vent. So we repaired all those tiles and repaired all that insulation. My contractor friend lent me one of his guys on a Saturday and he and I brought up a bunch of insulation and we just found all those problem spots and reinstallated all those areas and replaced all those bad ceiling tiles. It's not perfect, the bad design for sure, but I think it's a much better situation than we had when we started. The other thing that we focused on was because you have unit ventilators in some of those places, you have these things called relief dampers so that if the building overpressurizes from bringing in outside air, it has a way to one way flap basically out. It's called just a relief damper, it's exactly what it's described. And really those relief dampers, what they were really doing is just letting cold air in because the flappers had long since failed. Some of them, it looks like they had put some white thin styrofoam in there, but it wasn't very well fitted. Probably because a teacher had complained that there was a cold draft coming through there or something. So what we did is we took every one of them apart and there's probably a dozen of them or something. It's again, that certain type of that age of the building, that section had this system in it. We went through and put in well fitted two inch styrofoam board and then taped all the joints too. So in the end, those, when we hit them with a thermal camera at the end, they were actually warmer than the wall. So that was really cool. So yeah, we just tried to tighten it up basically and put our heads above the ceiling in a lot of places. And we left some insulation on site. And I'm sure that we'll find other areas when it gets cold. If we find more areas, we'll have some supplies there to keep on doing those measures. But I think we're in much better shape now that we have a little better understanding of how the building was designed and found some of the really bad spots. That's really wonderful to hear. Now, the circulator pump, we had, I took three of them out of the old Burlington High School that were the newest ones that we had. And I know they were running when we shut the building down. And I believe they're gonna be able to be a fairly easily retrofit installation to replace three of the missing ones in the heating system. Because right now you have places for six circulator pumps. You have three zones, but their purpose in life is to have some redundancy. So if one fails, the other one comes on, which is what happened to us when we froze up once we lost the circulator pump and that whole zone didn't have a secondary circulator pump to take over. So our goal is to get all six circulator pumps operational. And so we do have some redundancy. Jessie's working on getting those installed by Ploufs. Apparently she had a health scare. And so she hasn't been around, but she's gonna reschedule that appointment to get those installed or at least look at the installation of those. So hopefully going into the winter, we'll have a little more redundant system in place. That's wonderful. The installation work, all that initial work you were talking about, was that done this winter? Was that done this spring? When was it done? So we were kind of wondering what we'll see as a change in maybe the cost of heating, of course. I think I'd have to look back at the time sheets, but I think it was a couple of months ago we did that. Okay. Yeah. So more towards the spring. Yeah, this season we'll see, this coming season we should see the difference. Okay. Great. Robert? There was some discussion that the repurposing that Jessie is stretched awfully thin. And if there's any work that members of the repurposing committee can do such as monitoring temperatures or whatever, we would like to be involved with that. If I don't know what the schedule is for checking the building, especially during the winter, but we could, we understand that Jessie is has way too many things under plate and we could augment her. Great. Is there any other questions for Lyle concerning 7.2? Yes. Go ahead. Is that okay if we take public comment? Just on this issue. Yeah. Hi Lyle, I'm Vic Robano. Could you comment on just heat control in the sense that during this past winter, there were a couple of days when high rollers were in the building for one reason or another and it was really, really running hot around the lobby to the auditorium, for example, maybe a few other places. Is that a matter of thermostat control or holes in the roof and he's trying to heat the outside atmosphere? What might cause it and what might be done to fix it? So your system there is pneumatic, which just means you have an air compressor that builds up up to 30 PSI and the thermostats in there, of course, are from 1970s and essentially their default, if they fail, they fail full heat. So we've had the pneumatics control guide go through and check thermostats there a couple of years ago now, I think it is. It's probably due for him to go through when it gets a little cooler because it's impossible to test things until the temperature drops a little bit and then he can actually see how things are operating. But it's likely that if it's super hot in one area, a couple of things could have happened. When the flood happened, the plumbers basically just made sure that heat was flowing everywhere and they could have pulled off a pneumatic hose to that thermostat or cut it inadvertently and that would make it react and just go to a full heat situation because you want them to fail in full heat to keep from freezing up. So if the compressor died or something like that and you lost air pressure, default is the heat. So I suspect that either it's a faulty thermostat or a result of the emergency work that happened there and probably it needs, the pneumatic line needs to be reconnected or something like that. And related to that back in the shops area, that ceiling mounted heating unit was going like an inferno. Yeah, that one was, I think, that one they may actually have, I know they had a motor problem with that and they changed out the motor and I know Jesse had been working with the contractor to get that to operate properly again. But again, I think they felt having it go full heat was better than having to do nothing. But certainly, I know there was some control work that was happening to that one. I think it's because we've had so many different things happen there, I think it's probably wise to spend a little bit of money to have Brian Boucher come back and just get as much control of the building back as we can, as cheaply as we can. Thank you. Thanks. That's right. I just want to also mention that that's happened at the auditorium as well and that's a large space that's being heated. So if he's looking at places, that's a special place to check. Yep, I think our schedule to say in late September or something when it cools down to get him to go there and put everything through its paces and just make sure we've got as much control as we possibly can with the system we have left. Excellent. Cynthia. Yes, I'm wondering about the areas underneath the tall windows that don't have any insulation under them. Most of them are metal and some had plywood put over them but there was never any insulation put in. A lot of them don't have anything under them. It's just right to the outside wall. Have you looked at that? I haven't paid a lot of attention to the windows. I will say, I believe we have quite a bit of styrofoam board on site that we could put in places like that if we feel that that's a useful use for that material. It was always extremely cold. Yeah, they're all in windows. Yeah, it's not great. And no, weren't good at all. Excellent. Well, thank you for all the work that you have done on us. It's really wonderful to identify these areas and to kind of get our most bang for our buck getting that insulation in that ceiling. So that's wonderful. I appreciate the update. Sorry for the questions on 7.2. Otherwise, we move on to 7.3, which we still need to lie up for in regards to the auditorium. Yes, Robert. Just a question. Do we have any recording temperature monitors around the high school at this point? About, I don't know about recording. We have low temperature alerts wired in the building so that if something happens, we'll know quickly enough that the problem last time as you probably remember was it was somehow programmed in reverse. So it was programmed to go off on temperature rise, not temperature fall, which did not wanna go up. But anyway, so I know we have that. I don't know if we have any data loggers because we don't have a direct digital control system, but rather pneumatics. That's not something that comes with an old pneumatic system. All the new DDC control systems have data logging capabilities and trending and so on. We don't have anything like that in that building. You can get fairly cheap data logging equipment that would report to Wi-Fi. That's for sure. It's not a huge deal, but... Is there something that would be welcomed if the Propulsing Committee could come up with that equipment? I don't have any problem with it. It would give us an idea of where we had problem spots, but that's gonna lead to more service calls to address service issues. I like knowing when something's going wrong. That's for sure. I like alerts, the fact that we have freeze control monitoring is huge to us now that it's programmed properly. More of that, I would welcome, that's for sure, because the more of a head start you have to go and figure out what's going on, the better off you are service-wise. Great, 7.3. Okay, 7.3. The auditorium roof. Robert asked for this on the agenda, so I'll go ahead and review. Yes, there's a place that many people have reported to me that right down in front of the thrust, we end up with pools of water. And this has been going on for, I don't know, it's quite a sometime, at least a year, and it hasn't been addressed, and we're just concerned it's hitting the ceiling tiles and such, but it's just indicative of a problem, longstanding problem that hasn't been addressed. Is Jesse aware of where this leak is, so that I can, I've got to have, I typically have rod roofing go there, the elementary school to check that roof out before the winter, but we could probably have them check that out at the same time when they're on site to avoid two charges. But if she can describe where the issue is, then that would help, and it's the first I've heard of it, so. And then, yeah, I was just gonna share, rod roofing was there prior to all that, they came in end of June, prior to all that heavy rain we've been having, and then he came back after the heavy rain to check in on stuff. So I'm just curious, Robert, if you've heard of that, because it was reported to me as well, but I'm curious if you've heard of it through the July timeframe, because that probably happened right at the end of June, beginning of July, that they came and worked on the high school roof. I am not unaware of any reports. Okay, I will double check with Jesse, but I just wanted to share that they have come in just recently prior to all this heavy rain and worked on it. So if you know if that addressed the issue or not, I just wanted to ask. Okay, well, maybe we could try and see if that issue has indeed already been addressed. Because when she checked the building after the first round of flooding, I guess is what I should call it at this point, or heavy rains, at the beginning of July, there was nothing in the high school. Oh, good. So there was only a concern in one area in the elementary, but I just wanted, it's a big space. Maybe if you know of the exact specific location, then we can just verify that. Yeah, absolutely. It's right in front of the first row of seats. Okay. Where the thrust is. Under the auditorium, left to right. We end up with a puddle there. Okay. Okay, great. Oh, yeah, now I know where the floor is. Yeah, one does. I heard it above. Okay, well, hopefully it has been addressed and it's a non-issue, but if not, we now can address it. Perfect. Great. 7.4, summer capital project upgrades on EEI from Principal Stetson. Yep, so we're on track right now to have teachers back in the building by the 23rd, which is earlier than in service. So we're kind of in the final steps this week. They're sheet rocking the ceiling back in Stockbridge. So they've taken the ceiling down and put in all the ductwork for the new HVAC system that will go into Stockbridge, as well as updating all those controls to DVC controls, just like Lyle was talking about. So that's a work in progress and they should be, I don't want to jinx myself. On no more Thursday, I meet with them every Thursday. The rain definitely slowed things down for a little bit because they had to get up on the roof because that's where the HVAC unit will go. We will have temporary units to start the school year because the brand new unit will not be here till September 21st. And then they will install it, but it's all prepped and ready to go for the install and the temporary units will work and are working right now. Wonderful. So we should be good to go. The lighting will happen once school starts. We don't have a specific date on that yet, but they'll be able to come in after hours and update that. It will mean in Stockbridge because pretty much all that HVAC worked on the hallway required the ceiling tile to be torn out and the lighting to be done. It's all prepped for the install that will have temporary lighting in the hallways to start, still well lit, still everything, but it won't be the new lighting that we're expecting. In Rochester, the oil tank is gone. Yeah, it was huge. It was an impressive operation. So it was dug out, removed. They have, the asbestos has been abated in the boiler room and part of the gym and then that front closet when you first walk in. They have been in the boiler room because the boiler's here. So they've been putting it together with all the piping. All the piping is done in all the classrooms and now they're in the process of installing the new radiation. And I believe if they haven't already that by the end of this week, the new backup propane tanks will be in an underground and the pad for the silo where the wood chips will be stored will be is done. So we should, we're again on a great right on track and the DVC controls, they're in the process of wiring those throughout the classrooms and offices. And then again, lighting will be a little bit later, but there was no lighting taken out for the process of this project. So kind of where we are. Excellent. And you're feeling comfortable and confident where this project is and good. Yes, we seem to be off in the right places. They'll still be working in the gym pretty close and the boiler room pretty close to the start of school, but everything else will be out of the way and ready to go. Once it's in, it'll be a game changer. So it'll be good. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Not wonder. We're gonna have heat in the morning. Good. Or be able to do hot yoga. We had one or the other. So I'm excited about that. Wonderful. Good. I will not miss that steam boiler one little bit. And I hop in last week and checked on several of the projects and I felt good about what I saw too. Now it sounds like it's even further along. So I'm happy with the progress. And I do keep in touch with Eric to make sure everything's where it needs to be and he's been in good communication with us. Wonderful. It makes me feel very confident and comfortable that you are involved in this project. Yeah, then I'm very happy that Lundy's saying all this with a smile on her face. So, you know, this is wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm very happy to help. Yeah, I was thinking, thank heavens. So the tank got pulled and there was no leakage. Yes, correct. You want to plug out spending money? You know, it's like finding a specialist when you don't expect to. And then leaky tanks can just break every budget. This is a question either for Lundy or for Patrick on. We were blessed to get a used solar system that we were going to at some point install on the Stockbridge Central School's roof and save some energy once that's installed. And is that still in the so-called pipeline or is it all dependent on whatever? I was thinking we need to do these capital improvements there first, but either one of you know what where that might stand the donated solar system that would go on the roof. So it's in the pipeline to be done because you guys had approved it. One of the advantages of this EEI work is they went in and reframes not the right word while with the roof, but they like added more to it to be able to support the unit, which only benefits us with putting the solar panels on the roof as well. So we haven't really moved forward with the install yet because it kind of feels like let's at least get one. One thing to do first. Yeah, and to do some structural work there too. Thank you. Thank you. Great. All right, is there any further questions, comments on the summer capital projects? That's great. Thank you so much. All right, we will move on to our book club. Chapter seven of our book study was the governance job, systems thinking and strategic action. I have to say, each time I start a chapter, it does take me quite a bit to get into it. It really is like, what am I reading? But then a few pages in, it's flowing and it's, oh yes, we are doing it that way. And oh, we could improve and do it a little bit more this way. So this is great. I'll let Bill take it away since he is our study leader. Yeah, it is hard. If we put the book down, sometimes you're reading a novel and you can quantify it in whatever the case, come back and pick it up or you'll ask them unless it's who done it, one of those novels. But this one, it takes a little while to get back into it. The author does kind of say what he's going to say and then says it and then recaps it at the end of the conclusion. But he mentioned five governance responsibilities of a school board. And again, this could be true of any governing boards, but they're important. The first one is the strategic direction. And we're trying to do it here and the SU board did it in a big way of coming up with a strategic plan for the SU. And if you haven't read that strategic plan recently, I'm gonna bring one to the retreat because goal six of the SU strategic plan talks about effective school governance, meaning us and all the district boards. And it's a good checklist to see if we're meeting those goals that were set within our SU strategic plan. But again, the author's trying to get us not to go into the minutiae, not to get into the weeds. It's the bigger picture and looking, trying to always look forward. So that's huge. Talking about policy direction and we're gonna talk about that I think a little bit in the retreat. We've got a ton of policies. One question I have, I think we should talk about is, are we aware of the policies? Are they accessible? Should we have a mechanism for us to start reviewing these? And I think the state is gonna be encouraging us to do that as a school board or review policies, these policies within three or five years. So these policies are powerful. So we don't have to reinvent the wheel when something happens, we can go to the book and get guidance that way and not stumble over a reaction or an action that wasn't fully thought out. And as you know, as we've gone through these policies, some of them have taken five or 10 drafts before they got a right. And then not only for the SU board, but for these district boards. So there's a lot there. Stewardship, I think it's a real powerhouse that I think this board does a lot. But that is to take care of that. We're supporting the people that get the things done that achieve these goals that help our students excel. And we never can forget that at all. I think we're really good on that. We see the budget as a plan of action. It's more than money. It's how we're gonna carry out these policies. How are we gonna carry out these goals? Well, that gives us the money in there. And I think the board's really strong on that. And I've been impressed that this board doesn't get into the weeds so much. It's the bigger picture of even on the budget. And I think that makes this budget more coherent and valuable. The fourth one is oversight and accountability. And we've done that. We've got protocols. And then a while back, we measured ourselves, evaluated how well we were meeting those protocols. And then I think it's appropriate each year that we revisit the protocols. Are those the ones we wanna continue? Do we respect them? Do we need to add them or something like that? But an accountability is are we holding our administrative team accountable through the superintendent. And not every SU in the state of Vermont has a robust superintendent evaluation program like this SU does. And one of the powers is that it's well, very well crafted. It's consistent over the years. So we compare last year and two years. And it also establishes goals that the superintendent sets with the approval of the SU board going forward. And one of the things we need to be as aware of the superintendent's goals and what we're doing consistent with the support in those goals. So, and the last one is community leadership. And I need some help there. But it's, I noticed in Linda's, or I guess it was in Jamie's report, their equity coordinator is gonna pick up and continue these community gatherings that I thought were very, it's not the only thing. We've got Jamie's reports. We've got all the information coming from our principals throughout the SU. But we have to remember that we're part of the community. We need to have that link. And so I thought they all did a pretty nice job on that. But I'd be interested in anybody else wanna sharing something that's, that struck you as something as important or useful or a waste of time. Well, yeah, go on. Well, I think that it struck me that the, we could do better in community leadership of just as the SU was having a table that the, in the coverage fair, we have our own local events here. I believe there's one in stock for each one. We certainly have Harvest Fair in Rochester that we can make a presence to a little table in the tent. I'm not sure if the board would be interested in doing that. And that would be a table and a tent for the school, it'd be the district, it'd be, right? Just to maybe the celebrations that are happening in our district. Yeah, and letting people know the great things are happening. So many of us, they go back all, I remember 10 years ago of this problem where I was really pissed off on that problem and things have changed, and are changing every single week and year. And we need to get that good word out so that parents wanna live here and send their kids here. And the kids aren't tuition someplace else, they wanna stay in our district no matter what their grade level is. So that's something that we should probably talk about more and at the retreat, Roger. Right, well, I think that, I mean, it's not only Harold being some of the, you know, the celebrations, I think just putting out there our fundamental philosophy, which is repeated over and over again in our reports, that, you know, we're doing evidence-based learning, we have set goals, and this is where we are on them. You know, this is, and it isn't just guessing, we measure. We measure our student performance a lot and we are seeing improvements, which is, and when it doesn't improve as well as we want, we modify our approach. That's really one of the important things that we are due that's making a difference, is that, you know, this is all, I've, in previous way back years, we would have, oh, well, we need better math scores and they say, well, maybe we'll do a program and then run a year and then say, oh, well, how's it going? Well, you know, it's, it wasn't very scientific. It wasn't, it was just, it wasn't measured and we are doing it now and it's effective. Any other comments, suggestions on chapter seven? Yeah, it just reminded me of our mission vision work and it was kind of like put on the back burner when budget came up and some of the stuff we were doing, you know, kind of ties into the community outreach. I remember we were talking about having, you know, binders outside of the classroom with different things to show, try to communicate to parents, what's actually going on, you know, when they could be hearing and reading about these acronyms and stuff, be able to look and kind of apply it directly. I think Robert's idea of engaging in the community at these events would be helpful, not only to share what we're doing, but also give a venue for the community to be able to ask questions and share their concerns. I feel like while some people come to the meetings, or you know, it's usually when there's like, you know, something dramatic going on, but I'm not sure if everybody realizes that they can just log in and learn. I think, you know, it just reminded me of these ways to connect with the community and yeah, with the focus on our mission vision and wanted to revisit that. Okay, thank you. My idea was to be something we can really discuss more in our retreat to see if that can fit into the agenda. That's great, thank you, Josephine. I was thinking of the retreat we talk about, do we want to continue to have kind of like a reading board development device. It doesn't have to be books, it could be articles, it could be podcasts, it could be just discussions on whatever, but I think it's timely to say, how did this go and do we want to do something like this or something different going on. Excellent. I mean, I underlined a couple of things in the chapter in under, you know, setting a strategic direction. You know, I've really highlighted that it is important like in this work with this climate, this we're changing, everything is changing so rapidly and it's really important that we acknowledge that and that we really try to, you know, the board's ability to chart a direction for the future depends upon maintaining its work and addressing new challenges. And like it's really important to be forward thinking and that it is changing fast and we have to adapt. And that is, you know, can be very hard, you know. And I think we do a fairly good job, but I think that, you know, spark me as to that is a very important thing for us to keep forefront. It's a question of being proactive versus reactive. Exactly. Exactly. Excellent. Is there any further discussion, comments on the reading or look at this time? I do think that is one of the things like that you had mentioned for the retreat is to evaluate what we've just done and talk about how we want to go forward. And I think that's important to discuss and then retreats really good time to let our hair down and do that. Excellent. If there's no further book club discussion, we will move on to new hires slash resignation. Yep. So I have a list of folks that I'm excited to introduce to you all tonight and their comment. This information is also going out to families here by the end of this week, beginning of next week as folks finish the hiring process, which means all their paperwork and stuff like that. So just to be completely transparent, some of these names are new to parents as well. It's not cause we're hiding it. It's just the hiring process takes a little bit longer than anticipated. We want to make sure folks sign on the dotted line before we announce this, but. Yeah, definitely. So we're excited to have a new preschool teacher in each building. One is Burley Griffith is not so new to the Rochester community as he's been our para educator in the preschool classroom for at least five years, if not longer. And he will be taking Lauren Skaspis place. Jessica Landgoys will be joining us and she will be the preschool teacher in Stockbridge coming here. Megan Hartley will be the kindergarten teacher in Rochester. Grace Ulrich will be the second and third grade teacher in Rochester. And that's kind of the position we're never able to really replace when a teacher left us the end of July beginning of August last year. So we had to change configuration. So we'll be able to, we were able to find someone to actually fully replace that person. Also in Rochester will be Robert Moffitt. He will be five, six slash math and science teacher for upper elementary. In Stockbridge our four, five, six math and science person and classroom teacher is Corina Dobson. And then our music teacher who also will be working in Chelsea and will be working in Rochester in Stockbridge is Jeffrey Perry. And that's all, I shouldn't say that's all. We have really great people. I'm really excited for them to come and join. And some of them have already been attending some professional development and already started to meet each other. So that's been great as well. Wonderful. Glad to hear that we are full again. Feels a little better than it did a couple weeks ago. I'm reading by your smile that not only the positions feel that you've seen very pleased professionally about the quality of candidates that come our way. And because it's more than somebody in the classroom than somebody that can turn on learning and to every kid as possible. And it sounds like we've got some talent joining us that can help us with that. Yeah, I would say all these folks are really student centered, which is why we're here. So I'm excited for them to join us. And I don't know, it'll be here in the next couple of weeks. So I'm excited for it to get started. Glad to hear that. Do we have any, are we gonna have any language? I did not have luck. It's still out there. So it's not to say that it can't happen, but right now I have not had much luck in that realm. So I don't have a great solution for that at this point. But yeah, so something we're still looking for, if that makes sense. I wanna commend you on, yeah, I had a lack of the music each of the last year. And we used artists and residents to fill in some of those holes. And if we can use, be inventive in that fashion. Yeah, absolutely. Right, kind of do some type of artists and residents type language. Yeah. To do a small unit of introducing whatever, Portuguese or whatever, maybe someone local is able to just expose the kids to, just as I remember when my daughter was in kindergarten, somebody came in and just did head, shoulders, knees and toes with them in another language. And she remembers that. Right. It wasn't a big thing, like this big thing, but she remembers that she was exposed to it. So that's definitely important. So great. Okay. That's wonderful. Is there any public comment? I don't believe we have any public on, do we? Okay. So, you have another comment? Yes, go ahead. I don't know the Vermont School Board Association sends us these notices every week or every two weeks and that sort of thing, but they're jam packed through information. And I was just looking at the most recent update. And you can see here is what it shows on your, when you click on that on your SU, they send us an email update, but they've got a ton of podcasts. Yes. That are coming up. And I just want to read some here. They've got best practices for school reports. School board chair, vice chair, networking, where you can just kind of talk about, ain't it just awful or point with pride? New board members and networking. Okay, because I went through that and it's nice to talk to somebody else that's as clueless as I was. The opportunity of governance standards to state just adopted I think 95% of what the task force recommended on a governance standards. I was on that task force, but we're going to need to carry those standards out. And we're doing a lot of that right here at our side, but there's going to be a webinar on that. And then there's a regional meeting, zooming of the school boards in each region and ours is coming up for the Windsor County. And so it just gives you an idea that there's a lot going on and that if we can read, we can listen. And other times we can explore with other people that are doing the same responsibility. So I just recommend that you just kind of open up this email when it comes and just kind of scan it and see if there's anything there that's helpful to you. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Val. It's definitely an important- Good idea. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of resources out there through the SBI. So that's great. Okay, our next regular scheduled board meeting is going to be Monday, September 4th at 5.30 in Stockbridge. We then will be meeting September 30th for our retreat. So please, if you have some ideas or some stuff you wanna hash out at the retreat, please let me know so we can make sure to work that in so everybody's voice is heard for sure. Does anybody have any future agenda items for our next regular scheduled meeting at this time that they would like to bring up? Okay, if you come up with something between now and then just please shoot me an email and I'd be happy to look into it and get that on the agenda. Okay, well, if there's, I guess that is it. So I'm looking for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All right. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night. Thank you.