 Do we have any revisions, changes, additions to the agenda? None, I'm going to move us to public comments and correspondence. Any public comments or correspondence? I have comments related to the warning and I don't know if I should, if I'm, can I make them during the discussion about the warning or should I do them? Yeah. So Ruben, I just wanted to share with you what my intentions are as I'm running for the U32 School Board. My term is up and I'm getting to move out of East Montpellier over the summer, but I'd be willing to obviously serve for until that time. Originally I thought that that would probably be enough to get U32, you know, basically over the finish line and I communicated that to U32 Board and they were fine. Now it's not exactly clear if July is really helps all that much, but given the late date, I figure I might as well run, but I wanted to inform you because you would be in the position of appointing someone to fill my seat. I don't know what I do, just look down at someone. I can't thank you for letting us know. Sorry that you're moving out of town. Yeah, to Calis. To Calis. Well, I guess congratulations. Maybe you think in Benson we're not trying to close their school. Yeah. As I heard it again this weekend, it really, really irritates me. Good luck with that, though. So does the cynic. We did talk about in the articles we made at the beginning and we guessed that because you need to serve until December that we were gonna fear out away just like we've done in negotiations before that we can do that appoint somebody at least towards the end, depending on what happens, right? Because right now we don't know if it's 2020 either, yeah. Sorry, I totally jumped in and started without you, so let us know when you're ready we can pause for a minute. That's okay, I'm glad you made it out, just, on my way here as fast as I could get. Yeah. No, don't worry about it. I completely forgot to look and make sure that you were here and set up. It's a great design. I might have something here. Oh, we've only done it in public as of this year, okay. Yeah, you haven't missed much of what you can call the water. Oh, okay. I can distract us, because the school for liquidation month I brought you guys some blueberry lemon bars. In case you guys have been running around a bit with me and I'm just a little hungry. Okay, I'm gonna move us to, I would take your motion to approve the minutes of December 17th, so moved. Second. Is there any discussion of the minutes of December 17th? Hearing any all of those in favor of approving them as presented please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Discussion to then agenda town meeting preparation 3.11 board communications plan. So let's say I would start off you finish your report last week. You get the full start to the first chair to be in. Yeah, I just want the record to show you. Aye, for the first time of the year ever, was not only on time, but got my report in first. Oh, that's a positive. Congratulations. It was the first one to be done. So the report as we talked about last month is going to Murrowmore to death. It's going to be all set to go, so. Yeah, yeah. I can do that update to kind of give a little pause as I saw something floating. We usually just talk about the reports forum and this live show for, so I've had a question. You know, I'm assuming that people do our usual, you know, just show the school at town meeting, like still have information on town meeting or not, I'm just, I'm trying to, I think there'd be a lot of questions and a lot of, so I think, but how many day? Questions about what? Cause we're not voting on a board and, but you can't talk about anything that's on like person, people or? No, I mean the questions about where we are in the process. So like, where are we at the school? You know, that's life show as we usually do. And take the opportunity to inform people where we are in, you know, between moving forward in 49 or the last, whatever it is. So my sense has been that we're going to pretty much proceed as we always have with the absence of a vote. Yeah, it'd be very clear that we have no authority, but this is what we've done. So it's communicated to you on and to me on January 10th from the agency of education. It talks to you about the state board order and the current state of the lawsuit and that there was a postponement right now on the agreed upon scheduling, interim scheduling agreement for things to February that you were under authority to present budgets and it was very direct on that from the agency. Is there, does that preclude us from presenting what we had recommended to the transitional board? I don't think anything precludes you for saying whatever you'd like. It's whether you have a vote. Well, I think it's very clear that we don't have a vote in it. So in my mind, and I'll leave this on for your consideration, but in my mind, we proceed as we have in the past with the obvious difference being that we're not bringing budget for consideration by the vote. Scott, you all say? I'm sorry, but I'm obviously in a state of incredibly confusion. We did the U32 at five. Well, I was getting a car out of a snow bank. I'm so sorry. Yeah, it's out. Yeah, thanks. My apologies. Oh, great. Wonderful. No, thank you very much. And my apologies, everyone. Sort of cameo appearance. Well, you're very kind. Two hours ago, the car. He has a meeting on Wednesday already. He's gonna say meet at all the meeting. Look forward to it, Floor. Thanks, everybody. Take care. Bye. Okay, so. I was just curious why you're not presenting a budget because according to the state statute for 22 and for 28, you're required as the entity that controls this school. But the state legislature has been very clear. The state legislature didn't change those laws. I think what happened is that the legislature did not plan on there being an appeal to force mergers. I don't think they planned on any of this. And I don't think they planned on the Attorney General's office and the AOE needing more time to respond. And so right now, you guys are the ones that are in control legally of this entity. And I'm not really sure why you're not when there is a state law that you're responsible for presenting a budget to the electorate to be voted on in town meeting. Now you can say that we're waiting until the organizational meeting, but that's like buying a house and saying, well, I'm gonna rent out part of it and get this much money to help me pay the mortgage. You don't know what's gonna happen. Agreed. So I'm not sure why you're not putting a budget out to vote. There are schools in the state of Vermont that are doing that. Schools that are in a forced merger situation that are putting budgets on their school district town meeting to be voted on. So my sense is that if we do that, it's going to create a lot of confusion in the taxpayers because it's already, there's a million things up in the air and there's a million moving parts. And I think the act of presenting a budget that we actually don't have authority to present at this point, I understand that you have a different view on that, but. I'm not sure why you don't have the authority to present it. Because the transition process has been pretty clearly laid out in my mind. And the transition board has not been sworn in. There is no transition board in control right now. So the way that I am looking at this in my mind, if something occurs and we need to mourn a budget, we will mourn a budget. But it's not this. Can I just ask, is that the way it follows? Every one of you feels that same way, that you don't feel like you need to follow the state statute that says you're required to present a budget. I'm following what's been said. I said on the spot, 46. And by our attorneys. And attorneys, and I don't think it has to be on town meeting day, but it comes down to. Yeah, it does. You have to have a budget. Yes, it does. That's what the statute says. I understand. You've decided to do it before. Sometimes schools say, well, we want to have the meeting on a Saturday after town meeting. You vote on that, like if we decided this year we wanted to have it on a Saturday after town meeting, you would vote this year on that, but then that wouldn't take effect until next year. So I'm not, so no, you are required. And that legislative law has not been changed. I'm following what I've been advised through this whole act 46 mess, that if our communities had had the right to vote, we wouldn't be in this mess, but they never did. So this is where we are. And we've been pulled now to warn it in February for the transition because of the delay. Well, I think for myself is we'd be, because we are the school board members, we're trying to follow what they're telling us where we are. So at each step of the time, we had to change things when we needed to change them. We submitted an alternative because that's where our communities wanted. We got rejected. They told us to do a warning for the 14th. We had to change that. So at every step of those, so I think what you can be sure about is that each step of the way we're gonna do what is best for our community, what they're telling us to do. So at each step of the way we're not here to oppose at 46, we're not here to propose an alternative. We're just trying to stay on top of it by our fingernails, literally. So every week things change. Every week we change the timeline. Every week we're like, are we putting articles to vote or not putting articles to vote? So it would be really for us premature to assume that we would just create like Rubin was saying, create a little even more confusion because then we would put a budget to vote and then if it's not the right thing, we would be underwater every step of the way. So what you can be sure is that we for real are doing the best we can to stay on top of it to whatever they're telling us. We're not, we're respecting both timelines, the lawsuit and what the AOE is telling us and we're trying to combine it as best as we can with our legal counsel and bill. So it's not, we're not the experts. So we're the experts on the school or the kids but we're legally, we don't, we don't, I don't know. That's sort of how I feel. I feel like, please be assured that we are gonna do everything we can to do the best we can for the community. And the day being, the AOE. The what? The day that's telling you this is the AOE. No, no, it's our lawyer. We have a lawyer, Chris Ripple is our lawyer for. Two places, you have the agency of education that sent that written documentation that I have in front of me on my computer which I've shared with all board members. Yeah. And then also Chris Leifold, who the Articles of Grimy Committee hired for all the 46th and transition process. Thank you very much. And was the question ever asked, how does it get from the side of looking at issues and statutes that say you must present a budget? It was, it from, I didn't ask that direct question of anybody. What I did ask was that what I was told is that we're under the current order that was decided on November 28th in the state board. So Stephen and Darcy, you're. So. I won't respond as an individual. We should have a motion as a board. And if the question is of the board, we should reply as a board. We're not individuals who are group. And then we can express our individual opinions in relation to the motion. And I'd be comfortable making the motion. So my motion would be that we follow the agency of education and Washington Central Supervisory Union legal advice, not to present a budget for vote. All set. Can you add at this moment? At town meeting? If the agency of education guidance or our legal guidance changed, then we wouldn't be bound by that vote based on the current agency of education and legal advice. So then I would think it's appropriate as individuals could discuss that. So Darcy, any motion on your side? Discussion? Sure. Okay, so my view is I want to follow what's been recommended to us. I also don't know what would happen if we tried to pass a budget that passed. What would then happen if we tried to then, not just for the confusion standpoint, but is there anything legal that we'd have to then, or is the budget just a temporary thing that could change? You know what I mean? I don't understand that process enough to... So there's a debate happening right now amongst school attorneys if there were a budget and another one had to be done about how you could have sent a budget that's on the side of the electorate and that the electorate would have to come together and be sent better. Okay. So that goes back to my concern about the confusion, which is that if we warrant a vote and it passes or it doesn't pass, let's assume that it passes, and then the transitional board or actually the new board, then taking aside the legal issue, we're asking the voters to vote again and then we have to explain what pieces they've already voted on and what pieces they haven't. And in my mind, especially given that our legal counsel and the AOE and the state board are all of one very clear voice. I see lots of downsides and no opt for our warning about you at town meeting. That's my personal stance on that. So for me, it's all the time sequence. So currently, guidance that I understand is there'll be a different board in place prior to town meeting that will have the authority to do that work. If that board is not in place in time and we become the board to submit a budget, then we'll warrant a budget and submit it. Won't be on town meeting day, but it will be in the later date. So in my mind, we won't be the legal board to present a budget in the end of February. So that's what I'm operating on. If we become a legal board, then we will warrant and present a budget. And we have a budget. So, so, so it won't be easy. So I call the question. Okay, so I have a motion on the second. The motion is to, we should make sure that my notes and your notes are somewhat in agreement. Move to follow AOE and WCSU legal advice, not to present a budget for a vote on town meeting day. May I ask you to do one thing? Sure. Change it to Chris Leopold instead of WCSU and not an attorney and no one in our office. WCSU legal counsel or? Chris Leopold. Chris Leopold. Would you consider that a friendly amendment? Okay. Are our notes in agreement? For what the motion is? Motion by your, move to follow AOE legal advice. AOE and Chris Leopold, the, do we want to explain? Just say the legal advice. So the motion is to follow AOE and Chris Leopold's legal advice, not to present a budget for a vote on town meeting day. Not to present a budget for a vote on town meeting day. I'm sure that could be done with fewer words, but that's what I do. Made by Steve and seconded by Lady. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Thank you. 3.1.2 school board member elections. 2 board members who need to, in a pretty short time, have their petitions out. Next Monday, we'll be in the short time. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah. I should better do that. Yeah. Probably tomorrow would be a good day to do that. Just leave it at school. Does that need further discussion beyond that? Does not, correct? No, and Carter was here earlier explaining you through too. 3.1.3, East Montpelier Town School District, East Montpelier Town School District, town meeting one. So we gave you two versions of the warning. One, do you have the public meeting on it? You were required to announce that public meeting about any district collection or district meeting. 10 days prior. If you did it in the morning, then you're all set. If this is when you want it, if you want a different time, you could amend it right now. Or we could do the first option on page four that doesn't say when the meeting was happening. So this is prior to what you were talking about earlier. And so Krista actually said, she said, why don't we give both all the boards which we've been doing the option that put it right on the warning or not? And so if you'd like it on the warning, we can do it with whooped on page five and if it's a different time and date, you could have ended that right now. That's been traditionally when you had it, which is the Saturday before and Friday. So just trying to, it was a good thought by Krista to give you some options. Is there any reason that we would not want to, I mean, this sort of loops back to the conversation that we started to have a bit ago, which is any reason to stray further from our norm other than, okay, I'm gonna clarify and say, in my mind, we should present just like we would normally do on Saturday morning for town forum with again, the very clear position being that we are here for informational purposes only and we are not going to be voting on Tuesday. But we're here to answer questions just like we always are. Does that make sense to everybody else? Because it's really just that article one and two. Correct. To present a report. Correct. Yeah, I don't know about the moderator piece. That's on the Australian ballot, isn't it? No, the moderator is not on the Australian ballot. Yeah. I think that you've moved through your... Does it's underneath the Australian ballot? Yes, okay. Articles to be on board are... Absolutely right. I wanna check that with the tone. Yeah, the moderator has been... Has it been... Yeah, it is on a ballot. Sorry, I'm used to almost everybody. I don't think, I think you're the only one that besides U32 that has a ballot. Good catch, thank you. Well, I was a little confused as far as the way it was done but those that fall below that Australian ballot, the moderator and the school directors. Yeah. So those, you are correct. Those are the only two things that we'll be doing. And the only thing you can discuss about those is somebody can stand up and say hi, I'm so-and-so. As far as you can't discuss what's on the Australian ballot, but you can introduce yourself. No speech-ifying, right. And so, Clore, when you were asking before about giving a presentation, that's the report. So that article one, you can do whatever you want. That article one. Do the slideshow and what we do. Question, Bill is... And not, well, I'll do that later. I'm just, in the part where we will do the report also, let's say that we by then now, when we would have an election, we can do anything about 36 and say, you know, so-and-so would be right, no? Yeah, yeah. That's right, the reports are pretty wide open. Basically, you're giving information of the district. So I would favor the warning on page five, keeping the Saturday previous. Me too. Because we should also have further clarity on the process at that point. And that would, I think the more chances we have to discuss whatever the current situation is with the community, the better. Agreed. Yeah. So I would make a motion. Do we want to jump to the action item? So I'll want to approve these, my players, town, school district meeting warning. I would appear to not favor that since I was in the motion. Yeah. So long as everyone else is okay. Yeah. The one on page five. Page five, yeah. Is it adequate to say, approve the East One Period Town School District Warning on BEEF? Just say the one that contains the announcement of the informational meeting. So the East One Period Town School District Warning that includes the Saturday morning meeting. That was seconded. I'm just going to sign this, send you the signature page. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Who is abstained? Dukie, Dukie. Act 46 update. Okay. We are having a, on articles of agreement, at least as much as I can do right now because there's a lot of other things going on in the state house. It's all in place. So, in general Act 46, there's a couple of, from the BSBA, you all got an email. There's a couple of bills going on in the state house to delay the timeline to 2020. As far as us, we've been working on articles of agreement and we still don't have consensus if this, well we now know that we can put them out to vote because that was, but we are not going to be the body anymore on February 28th. We cease to exist. And it would be the board, the new board that would have the authority to decide to put them to vote or not. We're trying to give them a recommendation with the understanding that we would be kind of talking to ourselves too, because a lot of the people in this committee are going to be in the discussion board, but there's no consensus among us if they should go out to vote or not. And we are giving three recommendations and we have so far four, both five articles now with the facilities that we haven't quite approved. Right? That'll be the fifth one, yes. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that'll be the fifth one. I think that would be the sixth one. The sixth would be we're pretty stuck on article four, which is not a big surprise. And it was the one that was the hottest priority, the one we waited until the very end. And we have three kind of three proposals on the table right now. One would be that the board, the town will have the power to decide if the school is closed or not. The other one, and that didn't have, it was four and four and two that we're not going to, that we're trying to get to consensus. And then the other one would be to have a super majority, but the super majority that they are pushing for is a 65%, which is a very arbitrary and to try to get, so I'm not even. I might call that meeting when Matthew showed the electoral math. Yeah. That even if you had, you know, if a town voted three quarters against the proposal, whether it was Calis or Worcester, and he used all the current registered voters, that it really took a super majority of the other towns to defeat them. And it was really interesting, how those four sides are great. Yeah, yeah. Here's the math behind, and I thought, I just thought the conversation kind of, I don't think it came to conclusion where it stood. Yeah. But people didn't talk about it anymore after watching this slide. Yeah. And so it would be a super majority and the vote of the town too. And then the other one is just the two thirds of the new board would have to support wanting to close a school to put it to the general, to the five towns to vote. And then, So the process would be a super majority of the board, a vote by the town? By the entire electorate. So what I would call four. By the towns. Yeah. Not the single town. Not the single town. Yeah. Yeah. But we don't have the. I understand that I can see that one being. That's two years out. And that would be, yeah, exactly. And that would be two years out. Nothing, nothing, nothing right now. And the only two real articles of significance right now because two of them is just legal terms. One would be to have a board of 15 instead of a board of 10. We all think it's, I think that's complete consensus. All those have been approved by everybody that we easier to do more work and then we wouldn't have a five and five box into decisions. And then the other one was, it's just really, it's supposed to be the local school councils, but it is very minimal right now, but it still suggests that that's one of the ways to get more community input is what we're calling it right now. And the last one that we haven't approved but that we're gonna discuss is Chris McVay brought an article on school and facilities use with the, if we wanted to put it to vote. And we were divided to, is that policy, but that could be something that communities do appreciate that we are putting up there. So that there's no. Is that like to make sure schools are still a public entity and usable by commit. That we would do all we can to make sure that the community has the best access possible. Kind of don't even know why there's a thought that at 46 or merging is changing any of that. We're still public schools in communities. No, and the biggest factor that always goes into that is insurance usually has nothing to do with governance. Yeah, insurance and facility maintenance. It's not being taken over by a private corporation. We're still community schools under one governance. I don't understand why that's even up. But I think the more we can, we talked and talked about it and then some of us kind of came around, like it's the worst thing would be that if we put it to vote and then commit and say, no, by not understanding it, right? We would still do something. All of these articles can go both ways, but hopefully it would be seen as something trying to reach out because definitely there is a lot of nervousness and a lot of upset and we don't lose anything. But it's not controversial, at least on my mind. I think that's all I have. We have February 18th, 19th, 19th, because we change it once a month. I've been scared to death to put anything on for a course forum because everything keeps changing so quickly and Bill has done some updates and news too and stuff. I've been asked a couple of questions about what's actually the transition plan, kind of like similar details. I'm not going to get into the micro details. I've got a project plan. It's about a couple pages long. Laura and I sat down during Christmas and built a project plan. So I'm going to give my next video is going to be about what's the transition process as we have to tackle that. So for now, Mark, you're kind. There's February 19th is the organizational, the organizational, it may be the organizational me.