 Unified District Board of School Directors. This is our regular meeting Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021, at 6.30 p.m. Alive and in on virtual at the Rochester School and by a Google Meet Call to Order. Any adjustments to the agenda? Thank you. Excellent. A timekeeper. Sure. I do have enough battery on my phone. If you're not, I can. We've got 89 here, so you can trade it off. Okay. So. Would you like just a clock or? Well, I'll do, yeah. Okay. If you need it. Okay. Okay. We have a 10 agenda. Five minutes. Four comments. Let's give it five. I don't know. Do we have any word comments? Bill, do you have any word comments? Nice haircut, by the way. Reports to the board. Let's give this half hour, you think? Probably 15, 20 is going to be fine. Yeah. Maybe. Did you give it 20? I'm going to say half an hour. Okay. Discussion items, seven. Half an hour, be optimistic. It's pretty optimistic. Yeah, 40. Do you want to actually give each one? Yeah, let's do that. Spring, 2021, 15. Maybe 10 to 15. 10. High school, Rochester High School Status. 10. Yeah. Good. Stockbridge Generator Bids. Most of the information. Do we have a vote on that tonight? It's up to you. Oh, for funding, the generator. I think it should and those two go together. But... It's a 10 for less of 20 maybe. Yeah, 10 for the whole thing. Annual Board of Retreat. I think it's going to... 10 hopefully, but we'll see. So that's 40 minutes. That's about what we figure out. And then action items. Most of the time we end up taking action when we discuss it. Vote some. Give that another 15. And the new hires... Resignations. And these are all hires, I hope, yes? Yes, they're all hires. And we received their resumes. What's that? Yes, yes, we did. I just... Seeing next to the resignation name. Very good. What do you think? 15. Good, thank you. And then we're on the back of that page. Except for your session, who knows. Future agenda items. Public comment will be again... What do you do? Five per person maximum. Yeah, five per person maximum. Hopefully usually less. But that's up to them. Good, all right, thank you. Keep this going. Consent agenda. We need a match, don't we? To keep this table. Because that's kind of proud of us. Nobody smokes anymore. So nobody has matches. Sorry, technical difficulties. Be right with you. Thank you. That's how I built my house. All right, consent agenda. 4.1, approve the minutes of Tuesday, June 1st, 2021. Regular meeting. Any corrections to this? All in favor of approving the minutes of June 1st, 2021. Say aye. Aye. Patrick, are you there, Patrick? Uh-oh, we don't have a quorum. Oh, there you are, thank you. Yes, yep. Thank you. Who moved that? I moved to approve the minutes of Tuesday, June 1st. You might want to fire me out tonight. Second. Thank you. All in favor. Aye. Patrick, one more time, please. Aye. Thank you very much. Don't beat me up too much. Sorry, give him back my slide. Yes. This in person thing is all odd. Okay. Board comment. My only comment I wanted to make is this idea of Jamie's to take a month off, especially after the year we have had on this board was greatly appreciated. And I think it was also greatly appreciated by the staff to really have some time. I think it's a great thing. And I hope that we will be able to be in good hands. I hope that we will be able to be in good enough shape next year going forward to do it again. I certainly felt the results of that. Good. As you can see, I have no idea what I'm doing. Good. Any other board comment? No. Patrick, do you have any board comment? I don't right now. Thank you. Moving on. Starting with 6.1, the superintendent. So good evening and you have my report in hand. I'll add that I am not at unpacked the announcement today yet to give you all the details. And I expect firm guidance to come out of the AOE and Department of Health later this week around how we'll reopen in regards to their recommendations. And so I have a superintendent's meeting with Secretary French Thursday. I'm going to release it typically just before that or just after that. So I expect that I'll get guidance Thursday either morning or afternoon. And I definitely think that we can expect that we're going to be masked in buildings to start the school year and then we'll await other guidance. And I think that that recommendation around masking will be at least through the first couple of months is my sense. Based on what they're doing as a ratio for those students who are actually vaccinated, 80% is what they're looking for. And will it be different between elementary and the upper grades where the kids have an option to be vaccinated if they're 12 plus in middle high school? Stay tuned. I think we should all expect old grades or master's. Good. Good questions for our superintendent, Bill? Patrick? Any questions for the superintendent? No, not at all. I had a question on his report on the trainings that are going to be happening at the beginning of August. I'm just wondering how those are being paid for. Is that with grants? Because we're asking the teachers to come in these additional number of days for the strain. PD's covered with grants. And then all other summer work and required planning time for teachers which is paid at 25 an hour is covered under S or 2 as well. So the British training and the Utah training is all S or 2? Okay, wonderful. Thank you. And the thinking of for how to pay for it next year? S or 2? That'll start to rain? Yeah. I think that we need to start budgeting a few years under our belt and write the ship and then we should be able to do that. I think it's fantastic. It's important because people going and talking about kids getting kind of geared up for school how about teachers and administrators kind of getting the focus and thinking about the important things moving ahead goals along other things. So no, I can tell you some horror stories where that didn't happen. And in a sense some work greater than this one. So I commend staff for doing this and I think it should be a priority no matter who's paying for it. So just to remind you S or runs through in three summers. So we're not just talking about two summers. We have the third summer too. And my hope is that we will have a real strong base of PD at that point. So we still may offer some summer programming but it shouldn't need to be at the extent that we're doing it right now. Not familiar PD is professional development for teachers. And Esser is the COVID Yeah, part of the CARES Act. CARES Act. Secondary. Yep, just I think it's always good if we acknowledge acronyms that we are very facile with but others might not be. Good. Further any further questions? Very good. Please. Principal report. This is a difference for us anymore. I know. So you have my report I guess I'm still on principal's report. Let's see how that will happen. I think the highlight that we should really commend folks for is we have a pretty extensive new staff especially in Rochester as well as some new folks in Stockbridge but every classroom teacher K-6 and either campus is participating in one if not both of the professional development and that was it wasn't like it was not a hard task of folks. People were great to jump on and wanted to participate in it and we are still working on coming together for some team time before the professional development in service time to just allow 4, 5, 6 teachers on both campuses to kind of coordinate so we can do some more things together as well as K-3 and just really feel organized. And I guess I assume that this these trainings that I was talking about a day for ARSUD or they all they're the whole issue so they're able to collaborate with other yep. And when you say the team that's just ARSUD you're a team where a team building is just ARSUD is SUI good good questions for the principal Patrick questions for the principal from the report thank you thank you good wow this is nervous my right foot hit the break I don't see anything you're right. 6.3 business manager please. Hello everyone you have my report August is very very busy in the business office trying to do all year-end closure for FY21 preparing for audit but also getting everything ready to go for FY22 I am going to be taking vacation the week of August 16th so that's in that mix as well but otherwise when I come back in September we'll have your FY21 year-end projections so if there's any questions Jeff because I'm clueless you probably even said audit. All the audit stuff is due uploaded by August 27th and then physical audit they will be in our office in September we think we're on track to get it on schedule for maybe the first time. As of right now we are still still such respect and admiration from our community I think that's great congratulations. Questions Bill is this a comment and a question a comment is congratulations you're taking a vacation during a key time so that shows confidence in your staff and your numbers and I think we all feel comfortable and very much appreciative that you're able to do that it's not easy so I hope when you're on vacation you're not thinking about yes and you turn your phone off the one question I had was on your report the last number committed revenue equals 144,610 surplus at the start of are you talking about the start of this coming at the end of last so this was based off your FY20 audits so that was where we ended in FY20 to gear up for FY21 so however we end at the end of FY21 we'll have an impact on that so far the number of the 144,000 is not the number we're going forward to in September that's the number you started with in June last year in September we're going to the number we're going forward to thank you questions for the business manager no thank you Patrick, questions for the business manager no thank you very good thank you Tara WRVSU policy committee anti-racism policy draft number four this is 6.4 so Ethan's on the policy committee feel free to jump in I can talk to folks about draft 4 is that there were some changes suggested by the policy committee that had to do with some instructional parts of the policy the other thing that changed slightly based on feedback I received from some community members and a few board members was the statement that was part of the procedures just so you know the anti-racism statement you'll see white supremacy was removed that's something we're going to need to discuss as a policy committee on the 18th the feedback that I received on draft 3 there was about 2 or 3 people that had questions about the statement and so this statement is different and so I think that that's a big chunk of what we'll have to discuss on the 18th I reminded that we are having a policy committee hearing on the 18th for all the communities of the SU it's SU-wide and we're hopeful that folks will attend and share their thoughts or concerns I will tell you that when draft 4 went out I did get some pretty critical feedback from community members now how many there was probably 4 different sets of parents that had some concerns about this policy specifically around the teaching of critical race theory which is not what this policy represents my letter tried to address that previous when we released draft 4 to the community but I think those concerns still are there and I've invited those community members and our parents and guardians to meet with me to share their concerns one on one so I can listen and share that back with you folks and so that's where we're at and as far as draft 4 Ethan you want to add some things? A couple things correct me if I'm wrong but I think that the real thrust of this is not as much about education as it is about safety the focus of this really is on ensuring that any of our students in the BIPOC community have a safe place to come and feel that they have a safe space and brave space to talk about these things I think it's for all of our students to share their feelings and beliefs that's the idea of a brave space is that there can be some debate about things and that you can share your beliefs in your implicit or explicit bias and that there's a way for you to talk that out and so that's the idea of a brave space our focus is to teach like I've said US and world history and so what this policy does is speaks to the fact that we should be teaching about our history but it does not get into suggesting what our curriculum is it does get into ensuring that our staff have training and equity and ensuring that they feel like they have the tools necessary in the event that there's conflict or questioning and or debate within their classrooms which actually we'd welcome because that's what should happen and so we did start some PD I think it's important for folks to know actually Principal Stetson was part of that initial launch after the start of the year I believe we had we had representation from every district and from each teaching staff was the number like in the 30's it was it was split between an elementary cohort and a middle school slash high school cohort and it probably was total 40 to 50 staff that's a pretty good chunk of our close to 400 already so the idea is is that we'll pull that group back together if this policy is adopted to then give us some recommendations around what type of training we should pursue based on their experience I'd just like to add a comment that I made I believe it was the last policy committee it was a while ago now I really felt like it's getting close to time and try it out that I think a really good policy you think you're there but doesn't it it may not be perfect for everybody but it's a good start and to put it out there and see how it works and I don't think that's I think we're getting there and I felt like there was very much a consensus of the SU board that we were getting close to being ready to vote on it and I feel that way too because I do think you could tweak it tweak it and tweak it this is going to be controversial and I think it's very important that we all I sent it all the last draft to you all and I really would encourage you to read it and to know it because you're going to get questions about it from the public and to be able to speak and to bring those questions to the board meeting, our board meeting so that we can really address them and to send them on to me as the representative of the policy committee as well and to Jamie as well I think it's really important that the board understands that this is the policy of the board you're directing the administration to then leave the staff down the road of this policy but I do think that there's some misinformation that this is Jamie's policy and the board has been wrestling with this policy and working on it since last fall so we started off as an equity policy which is what I had suggested because I think we have other minority groups that we need to address as we move forward in our schools but the board was very clear that they wanted to pursue anti-racism at least the policy committee and so I just think that's important that folks know equity policy will follow what happened to the equity policy why isn't this an equity policy at this time was an anti-racism policy the equity policy will definitely come along it probably won't be somewhat similar in form and language even but so as I say you know know it and be prepared because it's going to come and it will be it is already controversial when you say there's going to be hearing on the 14th that's like a 18th is that like a vote that would just be the policy committee to answer questions take feedback from the public to really have a conversation around it that would be virtual and in-person of course, September 18th August 18th thank you so it's two weeks from tomorrow good any further questions Patrick do you have any further questions on this to try to educate or is this a policy that's kind of just like in the dark starting forward or is this something that's handled on you know in a school assembly where they just kind of talk about this policy in the beginning in that way it's kind of known that racism is something that we deal with in society and it's you know not something just to see for it so know how I'm not saying educate but I think that people need to be aware of it if I may respond I think the difference is between education which is absolutely part of this policy and curriculum curriculum what is in the curriculum is not specifically addressed in this policy there is a general encouragement to teach openly about these issues in the curriculum but education is very much a part of the policy in terms of letting everybody know and be a part of this process and understanding what the implications does that help clarify that Patrick yeah definitely welcome Justine good to see you hi just to let you know we're at 6.5 no actually 6.4 because we haven't quite finished it this is WRBS new policy committee anti-racism policy draft number four Jamie sort of gave an overview of where we are August 18th is a public forum on on this issue I've been saying that we really we need to educate ourselves about this because there is going to be a lot of talk and that we need to know Patrick's question the idea that it does not specifically address curriculum but it does encourage openness of those teachers to including in their curriculum issues about this but it's really about safe space and taking care of our minority members particularly what's the term BIPOC BIPOC and what does that acronym mean again who knows okay good I think we need to it's always important people of color black indigenous people of color again I just always like to define an acronym so we all know what we're actually talking about good do you have any questions at this time Justine I do not I've reviewed it along the way but I don't have any questions great thank you um yeah I have a comment and a question comment is it's been 57 years since Bloody Sunday in Selma 57 years okay I'm a little older than that but I remember that quite vividly in my lifetime and so it's startling that when we talk about anti-racism that should be controversial just I think all the time and all the energy and all the leadership and all the bravery that's been evidenced over time we've been further along that said I think it's certainly timely well over time that we do this and we're not saying what the curriculum is we're talking about something that's still lingering and still important to complete until we can overcome this that's my comment the question Ethan is where do we go from here time frame after the hearing on the 18th that the policy committee will then review the comments that they receive feedback do whatever final changes and then both this for consideration that's the plan I'd like to have this to you meaning the full board in September that's what board meeting is an executive board meeting so the plan would be that we bring this in September I see no reason when I heard from the board I see no reason why we wouldn't vote on it at that time we've got plenty of readings I think we've done your diligence you're saying full board meeting in the full SU board so it goes to the SU board first and then you vote in October okay thank you is that the timeline for asking that Bill it's good to know that good I think just one last issue if I may is that we have been challenged on you know that people don't know about this you know that it's not being spread in fact it has been posted in the Herald I think more than once public public things it's been addressed in the meetings it's been in the minutes you know there is only so much we can do in terms of getting the word out there I would ask people to be engaged and to show up show up on the 18th both support and against you know whatever or questions so that you can be fully informed and because it is a the more engagement we have about something like this the stronger the policy is going to be anything else good thank you let's move on to the drafts are the drafts available online yes yes I believe at the SU website yes thank you and spread the word of that you know I think I sort of mentioned it to people but I think it's a good thing to spread the word to even the building committee you know just start bringing it up in conversation I actually know too that my wife who is a Kimball librarian one of the Kimball librarians is interested in their policy because they're working on theirs as well as are many people at this time and they're curious to see where we've gone with it so far so that would be great if we became a template for others to follow good 6.5 negotiations committee we'll see right at the beginning and I've heard compliments if you want to yeah we've been negotiating a meeting with our professional and their union leadership since June weekly basis we can't get into details but I could say that I'd fairly say it's been constructive it's been we're communicating well I think we both sides respect where we're coming from and the importance of reaching an agreement as soon as possible and I guess I'm hopeful that we can achieve that goal certainly later thank you so Bill has not had Thursdays off you haven't had Thursdays off 30 days we didn't have July I might be on a date you got it though you got it great there's not really much you can question about that so good let's move on discussion items 7 7.1 spring spring 2021 SBAC what's that smarter balance assessment and I will need to copy this I guess mine didn't print so I had everything else with that I have it on so anyway let me finish this is the spring 2021 SBAC smarter balance assessment thank you data report principle stats and we're provided over a few of the our sense smarter balance assessment consortium all right results for grades 3 through 5 3 through 6 for us 3 through 6 so what you'll see is just a little background so there's an English language arts portion to this which is given over the course of two days and the first day is more sentence structure vocabulary comprehension type questions and then the second day is a writing task or a performance task of some type that can be a wide variety of kids being given a prompt and having to write a narrative or having to do like an informative essay where they're reading different documents and developing something based on the prompt and then the two are combined to create their assessment of what their students are proficient or higher and also very similar for mathematics the first day is more practical problems given a problem and now solved it could be a word problem and then the second day is also a performance task where kids are given a multi-step problem and they kind of have to write out all their steps and what their thinking is and why so as you can see we there hasn't been a state released proficiency rate yet and I'm not sure that that'll happen because of COVID and testing wait frankly it doesn't sound promising like that's going to happen because it hasn't happened yet so we were able to kind of see ourselves in comparison to the rest of the supervisor union so that's what you have in front of you is like what does grade 3 look like SUI and where do we compare as R said and the percentages combined because we get some smaller numbers that could become identifiable so we saw some great growth you know you look at our fourth grade group in English language arts and 60% of them are proficient or higher which is a great celebration and and as well again fourth grade in math has also jumped as well as sixth grade in math so it's great to see some growth we definitely have ways to go and room for improvement but we have some celebration too when you look at how much kids have grown throughout the year and so this is not comparable this is comparable to earlier in the year this is a percentage of growth compared to earlier no this is like so if you look at the back it's kind of in a summary piece when you look at that second paragraph it talks about how to look at who is considered proficient or higher basically it's their performance on that test means they're tracking to demonstrate the knowledge and skills for that grade level right exactly and the scale score number kind of gives us the range of students continuous score from the test and was this to SBAC take in the fall as well no it was once a year I don't have data from the prior year so you'll start to see cohort data year to year but we didn't do SBAC testing in prior year due to COVID and so the other thing to caution everyone to remind you is it's just that it's not the most reliable data this year but what teachers will be doing is digging into this data this fall through our course that we have offered through the Upper Valley Educators Institute to look at trends and to look at what standards are we lacking you know you can start to look at data both as a district and then across the SU and start to analyze we are universally in the curriculum are we not hitting on certain standards and so that's how the data will start to be used in the teaching teams this fall to identify where are the gaps in our curriculum and or our approach to instruction and to address that this is how I understand things does that mean that there is a number sort of missing here which is what the goal of proficiency is for 80 is 80 I mean I would tell you most supervisors set their goals to be 80 to 85 percent that's what research shows right you want 80 to 85 percent of your students on grade level and then you want about 15 percent that may require a boost and out of that you want about 10 to 12 percent who might need some targeted intervention meaning small group double dip and then research shows really our special ed population should be about 5 percent the research shows students who have specific learning disabilities is right around 5 percent and so if our MTSS system starts working one of the big data points we'll want to see is our special ed referrals decreasing across the SU because what that means is we're meeting students need universally and through our double dip the targeted intervention as you hear about that it doesn't get to a point where they qualify for special ed special education still requires adverse effects so what does that mean it means that students essentially have to be at least to be in the bottom 15th percentile to qualify means you got to be at least one and a half grade levels behind so and you have to find adverse effect to qualify for special education so that is a data point when I bring it to the SU what do we talk about referrals evaluations and the percentage of our student population who's currently being served via special ed that's a data point that I certainly am monitoring very closely because as we get better at our universal instruction then we should really keep students up I will also tell you one way one of the things to know about the smart consortium it is hyper focused on written expression and I've talked to you guys about that before that is not an area we've spent much time on as an SU on professional development and because communications a big chunk of the math test as well so it's not complete something in standard algorithm and get the correct answer like most of us will learn to write like this is how you do a problem in multiplication you do it you get the right answer this is here's a word problem read it comprehend it complete it now explain how you got there and why and so you know these scores will not come up until we get that written expression as well same as the writing piece it's very much not it's not the read this text and circle what you think the main idea was right like if you're good at that as comprehension you're not going to be proficient on this test so it's a tough test for what you think it is yeah it's very rigorous and I know that we sat down the three of us sat down a couple weeks ago and there was there's a real emphasis on more writing we just need to increase stamina I mean at the at the end of the day as you as you walk around in classrooms we just we don't have students engaged in written expression enough and so we just got to increase that and again part of that comes with our PD plan right like we gotta shine the light on it and we gotta provide teachers tools to teach it and then we gotta hold ourselves accountable to it you know the good news is as you start to look at our reading scores though our kids are reading to learn now they weren't right so we wanted kids in third grade to be reading to learn not still trying to figure out how to read and so we're getting better at that we got lots of data now at the SU that's saying our kids can read and that their fluency is increasing and that they can understand comprehension the issue that now is we gotta take it to the next level and so that's what we're looking to do so that's good there's some celebrations here but there's a lot of work ahead of us and just to understand again for migraine each step of this process that you say they went through that can be isolated to see where the strengths or weaknesses of that particular student is but the score is the whole in general so they might be doing quite well at this and then they drop down for example an English language art breaks it down into four different areas and then you can even depth deeper if you wanted to with the teachers to be able to see those breakdowns or is that complicated? you can see them as a district I would be curious because I think they would also understand this test a little better too we can bring back in September I'm pretty certain we can give them the skills right now it's on the updates we can't walk in right this moment I love you to see that so that you can see how we're going to start because you know I think one of the the strength of numbers what they say in this week is of numbers is what they say and I think the more detail we can get into the more we can defend or support you in what's happening good for the questions about this Bill? I'm learning pretty steep on the test I guess a couple questions one is does the English language arts include reading comprehension so that's part of it but it's not straight reading right it's not like here's the past if there's a wide variety it's comprehension analysis written expression hope no cameras how does this bump up these results with our goals for this test the SBAC English math results and the science results did we have goals going into this last fiscal year and how are we doing in relationship to those goals well the goal is again we want 80 to 85% for our kids proficient so the problem I have is I can't tell you what we've made a 10% growth from one year to the next because I don't have baseline data so what I will tell you is is that in a COVID year when we're in the 60% that's good and if you look at the state average that would be out or above I'm basing that off of historical data when I looked at these tests in the past so that's a positive trend for us there I will tell you there's a reason why we're talking about math all the time the math scores are not good and I think in general that our students confidence in mathematics would speak to that I don't think this is inaccurate data there and I think again when you look at your English language arts data Bill that written expression is an area that we are lacking in and so in the older the students get more than that matters you know in third grade they have to write and they expect quite a bit of actually writing from them but that matters even more as you go on the fourth, fifth and sixth because most of your comprehension is going to be reading a close passage and then having to write about it I guess we're going to have a chance with our retreat I think I'll wait for that but I think it's very helpful to 85% and that 12% and that 5% and the question is this and this isn't the only metric that we're using but for this I think it's helpful to know when we plan to get there and to the extent that that's a real stretch and I think the board should be aware of it and be prepared to reward our team for achieving it but I think we should try to shoot high and to me I don't know how long it's going to take but I think it's helpful to set a target and that's something that I'll be talking about more yeah this is where the rubber hits the road yeah this is the bottom this is exactly why we're here this so excellent yeah so specific goal date absolutely and you know I will say that there's folks that are critical of standardized tests right I don't fall on that camp I'll just tell you as an educator I think it's a data point I don't think it's the only data point but I do think it's on us how to engage in rigorous material and demonstrate grit and so this test requires grit and I think that that's an important thing that we're educating on that and emphasizing it all the time because those are the type of students that we want leaving here to pursue their secondary and post-secondary pursuits right like they can think critically they can demonstrate grit they have stamina and so it's hard to argue against those things and this test does measure that too very interesting I'll let everybody go first and I'll get back to my cleaning I'm all set Justine questions about this no if I'm all set I'd like to see it broken down a little bit so I can understand it a little better but no I don't have any questions thank you Patrick sorry you got cut off is that a no I'm all set my question is in general about standardized testing is that I really get concerned that it's testing things that aren't necessarily done all the rest of the year that suddenly you're asking kids to write in ways or evaluate in ways that they're not being asked the rest of the year and I think that's unfair and often we'll shock a kid I was one of those kids so I just asked that person as an individual board member and as a parent of a child student that you look as hard as you can to encourage teachers to teach not that we're training for the test but that these are useful skills then they should be part of the curriculum agreed and that's where I said we got to analyze and see our gaps in the curriculum and this test measures the common core state standards so that's what it measures those common core state standards that were adopted across the country and so I want us to dig into this data to see what are the trends at district levels but also at the SU level I think we're going to notice that some districts are doing something really well and so alright let's talk about it and let's learn from it and then we're going to see that as an SU there's parts of the standards we're just missing, like you said we're not even teaching it so okay, what's that about and let's look at it and so I'd like to use this data to inform our revised curriculum that's a big chunk of on this work moving forward is what do we want kids and their understanding to be able to do at the end of each grade level that's understandable to our teachers and to our parents and guardians and community and it shouldn't be curriculum should be it's the end point for the year and it should be easy to follow and it should build upon itself it shouldn't be a secret and right and at the end of the day at the end of the day, Fountas and Pinel is not a curriculum that's a program and it's a tool that's not a curriculum and so we've got to really get better at defining again what are those expectations vertically and so that stuff I get excited about talking about all night you can probably see me I light up a little more in the building but I think it's some exciting work ahead and I will tell you, like I said in my board report, I'm just really thrilled thus far with Onda and her ability to connect with the principals and I think in the curriculum and instructional world we've got a really strong leader there I think you're going to really grow to really enjoy her as you get to know her well I'm certainly excited that you're excited because you aren't talking about how to get there how are you going to get there yeah exactly I know good moving on Rochester High School status can I hear about this at all first thing I'll say I apologize Vic sent a request to me and I just forwarded today to Jamie and he didn't think we needed any special action for that so that will be released to you it's basically the study committee as I remember or it's the grant committee yes getting access to the Black River they're anyways that's called a document anyway that's the CAD files for the successful consultant is yes I have that I also have floor plans on it but should have all of that did they ever print those out for us or were they just we have them in building in each building yeah thank you it's important I know I have this thumb drive, USB thing in my desk that's important but I was told never to lose it you're entrusted good alright then you probably know as much about the grant sure I'd be happy to inform us this volunteer committee advising supporting the select board worked with the select board and has submitted a request for grant for planning project for the school feasibility for the kind of programs that we have in mind for it we were awarded a grant of $50,000 for a simple match of in kind service and cash equal to about 10% that we have to develop and we issue and we've retained the talent has retained two rivers Waukechi finding commission to be the administrator of the grant so Victoria Lowfield who is known to a lot of people here from the planning work that she's done she's the administrator of the grant she deals with the funding people work and has issued the RFP after we had input into developing the RFP the RFP went up mid-July is due back by August 9 and we will review those responses and make a recommendation to the select board for their second meeting in August that's the time track we're on bit going as fast as we can that would be a contract technically a contract between the consultant and the town to initiate the actual work the schedule within the request of proposal says to get a full draft done by December hopefully it can go sooner but we'll just have to see how fast we can get it to move and conclude shortly thereafter so that's the status of the feasibility study funding and the process so far so the feasibility will be done study will be done by early 2022 especially completely in February and the reasoning behind the timing is that if it's looking promising something that we would want to bring to something we want to bring to the town meeting in March so there can be a full community-wide discussion and the select board would take that into consideration for making their decisions around that and just to clarify this is a feasibility grant that the select board did not it's not us and it's not a community group this is the select board Rochester has pursued and they are moving forward on that it just immediately raises the question that we cannot avoid is that right now I believe we have a September deadline for the building for maintenance heating of that building and that I think the board needs to make decision about this well I believe we got some quotes on the cost to to shut the building down and it was quite high I do feel that the select board is moving forward with trying to acquire and figure out what to do with this building and I think they have by getting this grant and moving forward they have shown their interest I am concerned with the amount that it would cost to shut it down versus the adverse effect it would have on that building and how could we maybe look at doing things in a different way since there is such a step forward by the select board yes let's get further input on this I think what we're looking at is an extension of our September date and I think it's reasonable to consider that we might even be thinking of extending it as far as this sounds like we're not going to get an insert from the town until the vote happens in March it's possible I mean there are two schools of thought in there that one school of thought I can't speak for the select board obviously but two schools of thought yes waiting until all the info is in and make a decision the other school of thought is just get accessed in responsibility for the building and then figure out whether the town is going to keep it tear it down whatever it may be but I think that that's an unresolved issue I shouldn't speak for that I'm not speaking for the select board I hear it's unresolved and I know we do have Pat Harvey if you're available it would be great to hear you check in on this because you see our you know but we have a decision that we've already made I certainly feel that we should it feels fine for me to extend but I do feel that it shouldn't be an open-ended extension I think it's reasonable to ask our public to accept a five month or six month extension with prorated whatever that's going to be heating or something to keep it going in support of this grant and other board members may have a different view about that what's can you summarize the select board's thinking in terms of these two options that Vic presented that you wait till everything's in and make a decision or that you get you get it under your belt take it over to the town the town takes it over and then they figure out what to do with it what do you think the select board is Vic is right on point with where we're going with it we are planning we have decided that we have to go to the voters to make a decision about whether or not the voters want to acquire the building and so we're targeting town meeting as that date there are still certain things about the building that the RSVD is not taken on any oil tank issue there's still a lot of things that are out there that we haven't seen the school board prepare to transfer the building over to us so there's just no action on either side I don't think that's actually unless I see I don't think there's a fair characterization we've certainly been preparing to move the board's got a quote in would be prepared to do that but we've been advised by our attorney that that's something that would be negotiated yes and it's not something we should going to sale you've been certainly made aware of the condition of the oil tank and even the estimates as I believe we passed the estimates that we received on to you so it's not like we've kept out a secret it's we said we weren't going to do this but our mantra is as little money as possible going into that building until we know what it's future sorry I have seen no estimates for I have seen no estimates for raising the oil tank I can send it to you Pat it would have been way back last fall I'm pretty certain because I still have to share we happy to send it again the quote was back in October well that's obviously a discussion and that we need to determine if that is a topic what are we going to do so what other action would make you feel like we're ready because we're ready to hand this thing over as soon as possible we've made that point for months as soon as we got the final survey we basically we sat down with you and I said we're ready and to say that we're dragging our feet about things I would have to need a specific list from you of what issues you think we are dragging our feet on because I certainly haven't been aware of that I thought we were sitting down to negotiate and you were going back to people so yeah yes please do as soon as possible so that we can take some action we have never not made it clear when we were pursuing this grant for the feasibility study when as soon as we knew that this was going to take more time we shared that information with everybody so we're not dragging our feet on I didn't say we're part of the grant was that we cannot transfer ownership of the property while we're in this feasibility study ok that's information new information to us no it's just reiterating what we knew that before when we gave our blessing on the grant that's the condition of the grant I didn't remember that ok good well in that case I think that's pretty clear that we're looking certainly for the completion of the grant but it's likely looking until at least March so it sounds like we've gotten our answer it's definitely not going to transfer before a vote of the public in March so the school board needs to accept that and make a decision yeah I would like to see us take the money that we were hoping to use to shutter the building to not shutter the building to be able to I feel that it's completely detrimental to the building and there is quite a bit of funds that it was going to take plus increased insurance let's make a motion on it then I think we want a motion with a date I'd recommend I mean we said by the end of September I'll throw this out I would recommend that you put this on your September agenda I thought it was earlier September I can have Lyle come and give you all the figures it can be worn under an action item I like that too Robert just a quick one it has been discussed that there might be some emergency funding for community action grants but we could pursue it because we want to own the building but the school perhaps could certainly if anybody out there wants to donate some money to the school to this building going we would very much welcome that I'll just say that right now we got a check for $10,000 we looked into community action grants just so you know part of the issue around it was is that they want a plan and we don't have a plan we need a blind owner somebody who's just like here so we have a plan coming but we don't have a plan for the building but good, alright so what we've settled is we will give the oil tank information that we have to the select board so that's not an issue I am curious I thought the action of the playground was going to happen before it's in progress okay good good the playground has to move to the boundary the pre-K playground has to move and just that we all have it in our heads that we are now looking at a least mid-march that's the earliest we're going to be able to transfer this building because we'll have a clear vote from the community so that's the date March say eyes of March is what we're looking at and I think that's important to get that out to our public and to start so they're not surprised power off shutting down the system after 56 seconds cancel is it the TV screen there we go so while we're still on the I know we're now 14 minutes of our 10 minutes but I was wondering what the status of the contents in that building are we have things flagged like we're in the process you know Jesse is still waxing because you can look at it it's still being waxed and teachers are going through and picking out what they need to move back over what and then we'll kind of so nothing is being given away at this point or being taken away we do have another school within our SCU who is in need of some library details so they came and we know where they are but they were in a bind and the conversation I had because there was some panic over Tundridge or Dethetric coming in getting some tables it's Tundridge this was the it was a phone chain kind of comment we need to be careful about that then make sure we get their facts correct it was within the SCU there are a lot of tables in that space maybe at some point they'll have something we need we do try to share I think that's a good idea so the shop equipment the tools in there I haven't touched that and I'm protecting that because I know you said you're pulling on or that's my understanding and the tables and chairs because hopefully Suzuki will come back again and other programs will use tables and chairs in classroom settings there's more chairs and tables than you could possibly I hope they get to go back to what Suzuki does next summer but I would honestly say that there's still plenty as much as I definitely love helping out other people in our SCU we want those with their tax you know we inventory that we saw it as a school supply issue there was a school that needed it and like you said you kind of comment so that as we go forward maybe they'll be sort of skeptical there are curriculum books too and things of that nature that you've been dispersing and there is going to be a point of dumpstering textbooks and you guys give us the thumbs up yeah so I'm sure that has made a shoe on the back mezzanine steps because there are still significant number of student records up in the mezzanine and Tim also spent some quality time with myself and Jesse and Ellen today as we moved the FireSafe vault cabinet over here which was not an easy float so things can be locked up and protected so now we'll be able to move all the student records that are in the mezzanine that need to come down versus what needs to go to microfilm but that'll all be able to come down and be locked over here but there are things like textbooks and English books school or and things like that and you know you're probably pretty close to a point of a dumpster up there yeah they're obsolete in some social studies well thank you no Russia I was building a test that the public knows that all of the board has taken a tour now of the high school building I think I'm also ready for another one too just because it was I couldn't spend more time both Bill and I started picking through books of course which takes you know it's pretty interesting but you do get a sense and I think we made the right decision with Suzuki as far as letting them use the south end of the building the other end of the building was just not ready for people to be in and I think that was a good decision yeah so I know it's been used as storage I know Stockbridge has been able to utilize that area to store multiple truckloads of it it's really just down to one truckload and then some science stuff that the science people need to I mean it has there's no doubt about it but it's become a catch-all for things that people are not using instructionally anymore at any level decisions need to be made K-12 so I mean we've gone through and done supplies which has been great we found some great things they'll post it and it's all those fun things that we can use and have it be ordered so wonderful that's huge thank you so in terms of a timeline of being sort of cleared out for anything that isn't sort of functional tables chairs things like that what are we looking at obviously school is going to start up for you soon it's going to get time lag might get a little harder to work on it well I think they need to concentrate on the academic records the sensitive information and not necessarily all the little pieces of everything else it is our goal as part of this process of clearing the building getting it ready being ready to transfer obviously this is an issue that we aren't ready to transfer because there is still school stuff in there I think we can clear the school stuff out pretty swiftly once we realize I think part of the issue too is that we've dragged our feet a bit not knowing exactly what the other party may want and again that's part of the negotiation piece so the quicker we can get the table and hash out those details around negotiation then we give us clearer direction what can we just do we don't know I think that that is part of the issue and that's also part of this feasibility study what is feasible to be in there so what type of equipment is needed so certainly books and stuff we can keep on banging through that but there's other things that it's not clear what's necessarily what folks may want or not but books markers things like that you know what I mean I know the shop stuff that sticks out in my brain the bigger items science stuff that is not the chemical folks need to come in and that's why I say the science folks are going to get together that know way more about some chemical things than I know can help because you have to have someone come in and dispose of that properly they need to be disposed you want to wait on that I hope your piece is going to be stuffy we've started a process I guess keep us posted as to what you're doing when by each as part of the principal's report I think that would be great to have that be part of the principal's report so we know specifically between meetings what actions have happened we can let our public know what process we're in because that obviously that is an obstacle to any of your questions oh good we can provide you with a real base information about what we plan on doing with the building and that would point towards what we would be concerned about with the building if we do install an adult daycare we're going to need lots of tables and chairs so we're concerned about retaining those items a daycare a children's daycare maybe not so much the tall tables and chairs but we will need some certain furniture for that as well and Vic and Robert can certainly speak for space of what we need so we could give an outline of the types of furniture and things that we would need based on what's in there right then but also help the process that we could see the inventory list before we walk through whatever's easy it might be they would walk through and use that anyway I do think a list from you and then we compare to what do we want to that makes it pretty straightforward so can we have those both by our next meeting inventory list and a need for long list do we have an inventory list created already or is that something you're going to need to do I think there's parts and pieces to start with I really need to talk to Jesse because that's a discussion between you guys rather than you each having to have this a full list it's probably easier to quite frankly just walk through and mark just like a tag we do have an inventory list for the shop when you know where to start that again and the last the last item about contents if we're going to start tossing certain things away is there any discussion about giving like the plaques and awards and the sentimental sort of thing to the historical society of Rochester so that they can I'm not going to throw away trophies or plaques or things of already Jersey I don't think you should I know my previous manager I will gladly turn that over to someone else right maybe the historical society would be willing to take it and store it for the time being who should we be talking to because that would be great to start getting that stuff out now the strong side Nancy Nancy Wally they might want to rent some of the high school yeah so they might not need to move out they might actually want to be put a name on a door inventorying it for us that would be very useful because it's certainly been very useful because I don't think we should ask our principals to be inventorying historical items exactly I'm sorry what was the last name Nancy Nancy Wally L.E.Y L.E.Y and she's a and I think yeah if we could ask them to inventory great love this topic but we are at 24 minutes it's totally fine I appreciate I appreciate your and this is this is a big and it's very good to keep at a full discussion because we haven't talked about it a lot in a while and I think this is good for everyone to hear the discussion select board envision and us thank you very much thank you very much and thank you Pat I appreciate it very good 7.3 Stockbridge Generator Project BIDS I thought Lionel was getting on but we must have lost it so I can pass this around what it shows is that Lionel put out to bid the need for the Stockbridge Generator I believe it's 5 companies he reached out to 4 declines of bid and all the documentation is in the file that Tara has in front of her and Brookfield I think it's right on the top was it Brookfield who had given us the quote 04 so they came back and gave us the quote and I believe it's 20 even you have it 28,653 dollars and that is fully installed wired everything correct Doug let's see I can read this if you would like 48 kilowatts I think the concrete pad is all remaining inside Procontroller ProGun upload generator controller software 5 year warranty battery for generator unit dealer prep testing convert unit to LP gas convert engine to cold weather operation install engine block heater install total heavy duty interstate battery amp transfer switch and some other electrical specifics install full building surge protection heater for the ATS engineering plans complete wiring of the system from the generator mechanical installation install a precast cement pad it's there a bunch of glass lined backfill by others sorry that was the piece it has to be dug they just don't do that work they have come and scrape it and where it should go and where it needs to be dug and that is installed for scope of work above so the other thing Lyle I know wanted to add to you guys is that he's specced this out to ensure that the HVAC system based on remember we were doing those audits is that that work was to take place over the next two summers and let's say we overhaul the HVAC system in that building that this would be large enough to run that and operate it the generator so if we lose power we don't lose the ability to continue to push our air around if we get good high quality air and heat throughout the building that was just something that he wanted you to know and he did also set up a service with it as well that will be a separate animal expense but he provided some guidance on how frequently to service it for the first three years and then do we pay that now for this generator? the servicing? yes no this would be like a year out my sense is we don't have a service plan probably oh yeah I think we should this would be the service but is it paid for by the town? I have never seen it before yeah so I think because I think it's emergency management put it together so I think he should because it may be an expense that we might want to parallel there that becomes an S the select board of Rochester to take on the expense of maintenance because it's an emergency shelter issue correct? yeah that's something we I think just find out what the situation here is and I think we should parallel it in fairness or at least have that discussion if it is an emergency shelter in Stockbrook then it's definitely benefiting the whole community and how can we help with those costs now I love the generator idea we have it's better we looked at like batteries and solar and like that type of stuff once and it was just like astronomical or just not efficient for a industrial size building my sense is that you won't have enough not to be able to it's on well water so not to be able to do everything water and electricity it's a lot of power comparable costs if based on what my battery costs and how many kilowatts you want you're going to be in the same ballpark or more you said 47 kilowatts yes that sounds right 48 48 and that's a good right so you need at least two double two double power walls the fact that when this happens often as in I mean I've been off the grid for years and when this stuff happens is often not only lightning storms but it also happens in the winter and when the snow load on solar can negate your solar well battery would battery would come off the grid and give you a few days storage but the thing is is that it won't be as long lasting as once you can provide fuel to the generator you've done it for and that will indeed be able to as to keep school open by having a generator it provides phone and all because I know we had an issue here in Rochester that we had the generator but we had no phone so we had cell to close school so those decisions seem to be made prior to my tenure we had an issue with that in Chelsea over here this year and it was clear to us we were going to get phones figured out so we didn't need to close school because of a phone issue I'm looking at Ray because he knows how grumpy I got about it that's what happened the decision got made in my group but anyways this would ensure that we would be able to continue to be able to close school which oftentimes in a without power it is a better place for the kids to leave them and to be able to be fed that was in my past position in Williamstown we put one in and it was that it was just that it was a focus on not having not losing power having it be cold the whole town's cold and now we've got our kids at home cold with their parents right at work so it became a safety thing for us too to be able to say well guess what we can still heat the school, serve lunch and welcome our students and so that was really how that decision is that we were able to stay open and do that and there was a pretty big windstorm in November or a few years ago that necessitated that conversation for us I think we ended up moving down two or three days because of that then Williamstown probably you guys were too we were well that's why he was talking about Rochester had power but no phone lines doctors had yeah it was two days so not that would be fun not to discuss this the backup generator and the importance of it and everything else like that with the Stockbridge Select Board would be select or members of the board members but I don't believe they're on the board and Jim Chance isn't on the board correct but not healthier not more yes so Jim was part of the initial conversation and really a driving force to try and get that started two years ago yeah I think it's be timely to meet with the select board and tell them what's going on I think the school is a community resource a huge part of the education of our children but it's also going back to Irene and before our emergency center helicopters came down that's where the National Guard that's where we mobilized that's where we had our emergency meetings we need that to be available 724 for all those reasons and so I think it's appropriate I don't know whether the board's discuss what to what extent you want some cost sharing in here or financial support I think it would probably be helpful to have some sense of that but we'll all be on the school like so much of what the school does but again I'm not sure as I remember Robert I don't think the school paid for this generator I don't believe it I believe it was with the grant I can't remember but I believe it was with the grant and I believe we paid kids in the budget every three years to do maintenance on it so I think that is well this came up based on a request from you to put it on the agenda because it was something we had and I do believe it's a priority and so the board could certainly appoint someone to be a representative and go to the town to discuss it so we don't have to take action tonight is this available electronically or can I get a copy of this estimate so we can great the other thing to know is the other discussion item is how to pay for it is that there is funds in a reserve account which Stockbridge did contribute and so that was going to be our recommendation that reserve fund well I do want to go forward with this project I think that it would be right to talk to the select board and ask their support and see if the Stockbridge slide forward and I think we should go forward with it and maybe be ready to pay for it out of that building reserve fund that Stockbridge has always had originally put their money into but I think if on the town Stockbridge is willing to be a partner with us at all on it I think that would be beneficial we do have the service plan going forward annually that could be maybe something they'd be willing to to take on excuse me take on or maybe they are willing to put some money in towards purchasing it so I do want to go forward with this as a Rochester other Rochester lift where I definitely do too I'd like to hear from our other Stockbridge members Justine do you have anything to say about this I'm definitely on board with this especially because of the emergency shelter idea I think it's really important I don't think I'm the one to go to the select board since my husband is on the select board but I think that we should definitely approach the select board and see if they want to team up I think is a great idea we should keep going good thank you Patrick hi yeah no I think it's a great resource to have for both the school community and the town itself I did have a conversation a while back about possibly being able to help with installing it which is still a possibility and I have had a conversation with my master electrician and electrician that work directly for me and I can kind of circle back to this week and have another discussion and see what their thoughts are because I even can provide the digging and I don't mind as long as the materials and everything got paid for I think that I could be willing basically volunteer our times to do it so I can't guarantee yet but I think it's worth me just taking a look at that and if that's a possibility you can save a lot of money so I don't know what everybody's thoughts are on that well first off Patrick I want to apologize because you left me a detailed voicemail some months ago talking about this and I forgot to get back to you about it so I apologize but yes I think any way you could help and this is is it great, Jamie Patrick would you be willing to sit down with Lyle who kind of does the consulting work across the SUM these projects get up to speed work with him and then would you be willing if the board's wanting to try to take action on this next month be able to go to the stock bridge board to get a general sense of their thoughts prior to September do you have availability to do that or yeah no I could definitely make some time to do that great so Patrick I'm going to email you tomorrow on your SWRVSU email and put you in touch with Lyle just so the board knows that Brookfield is prepared to take action on this as soon as we're ready great so yeah as soon as we can hear from the select board I think that idea of taking on the maintenance sounds great because it does sound like one of the things that M strung us I think that's the word before was the financial and I do believe that I believe that I mean do we want to vote on it tonight as far as how we pay for it or do we want to wait till September I guess we could wait one more month yeah yeah yeah no that's good I think we should plan on definitely taking action whether we hear from the select board or not we will take action at our next meeting that's good thank you Patrick yeah wonderful yeah thank you excellent so now annual board retreat 75 sounds good let's do it let's do it when just Dean I know your schedule is I think is the most problematic is a Saturday morning is a Sunday what's yeah I can do weekends I don't have any more time off that I can take during the weekday got you so calendar calendar we would like this are we talking are we talking morning afternoon I love mornings I'm much fresher in the morning as far as meetings personally providing breakfast why do we got the coffee yeah well that's it Saturday morning Sandy's is open if we do it here we could get coffee and very nice good from there set what am I looking at here sort of in September the 4th the 11th the Saturday morning the 18th anything jump out I know I got something Sunday the 12th but 11th is harvest here what's that 11th is harvest thank you okay so let's not 4th let's not every day weekend yeah alright we're open until the 20th what about 28th August 28th right before school starts yeah I'm sure we do you have a little idea of what topics you want to cover well he's got a Jamie's got an agenda okay that's what I mean but no the most point no no he's got some definite ideas and I know you both have some very different ideas wonderful I think I think then let's let's go to the 18th is the next available that's the average fare well that's Saturday Saturday morning Saturday morning Saturday morning 18th September Justine's going to thumbs up Patrick you guys picked dates right between Tuesday weekend horse shows that was perfect great I'm great I should wait to come back because I knew your horse schedule was a little crazy and I told him you don't even need me what time 9 to noon be great 9 to noon and here can you do a hero to someone's house that's up to you guys uh I'm just saying here Rochester because Sandy's is there we could get good tray of well truly nice I think I have a great idea I like this this is a very nice when you put the things up and the sun's on the other side it's a very nice room plus it does a publicly warmed meeting that anybody can attend so I think that's to do it here 9 to noon the 18th right by coming into the school is that going to be a problem depending on I don't expect that they're going to limit access to buildings this year it's really just going to be about massive but we will have to we're going to be vaccinated so we don't have to I think it's going to be with students around the building so I think Saturday should be okay Saturday 9 to noon you talked about having just a casual lunch at the end of it yeah in that case we would do noon to one and one would be lunch 9 to noon is the meeting is the retreat and noon to one would be lunch how do we feel about that Justine I can be there good Patrick Pat yeah sir Bill Wendy, Jamie I don't need to come oh yes you do yes I just think it's the assumption great we got it we got a date Jamie you already have the beginnings of an agenda a little bit yeah some ideas and I think Bill definitely has some ideas send them my way and we can connect to Bill send your ideas and I think be realistic I think we need to be realistic three hours so that instead of cramming it we pick our top three and we can review the agenda as part of the agenda in September excellent I think that's a very good idea just want to pat our regular September so bring your ideas bring your ideas all of them and then we'll wind them it down to three or four that are the real key ones we did that in Stratford June and that worked well we had folks vote on their top three very good glad we're doing this thank you all um boy then we're 8-1 Stratford Jenner we've got three candidates for vacant Rochester school board anybody want to be we did get a letter no hi Jen some kid just said they wanted to I'll do it Jenner is in that's great um welcome Robert I assume this is why you're here you would like to be on our school board I'm volunteering to be on there's a difference there I've been on the school board before I was going to say do you have any experience in this line is obviously 13 years some of you don't know 13 years not continuously I got called back once or twice I got a fill in for people who were coming off the board as a matter of fact my first term was from someone dropping out and then I got lucky a few times and you know I have a lot of experience but a lot of it is very dated even in the short periods of time when I came back I kept on finding all sorts of rules had changed the house was operated to change so I can't even imagine how I will be counting on everybody to break me up this week well I don't want to tip the table over my eagerness to embrace you and bring you on the board basically yeah hold on to your coffee I personally would love to have you and I think there are some tips I can give like some of the best negotiations I've ever had was with Mrs. Borden and she always brought wine to the negotiations we had a great time and we negotiated great contracts there you go I'm glad to do that anymore of course not nothing's fun anymore do we have any further questions for Robert Justine hi Robert I uh do you have any exciting visions that you wanted to share with us in joining the board other than the things that you just said about being dated oh well you know I'm tend to be a little outspoken I'm certainly a big advocate for COVID meeting law as you may have heard from me before I'm very I'm really demanding as far as the letter of the law and very push with the spirit of the law on it but as far as uh I'm very encouraged about the way you know the curriculum I mean the integration of the testing with directing curriculum in a real fashion and I hope it's been I've been told that so many times before but I'm hearing the the real steps that that could make that work and I'll be very looking forward to hearing about that and discussing that because that's always been you know in the past I've described that being on the school board is like pushing your pushing up against the wall just a brick of wall trying to get changes and move things which can be discouraging and things do happen and I'm looking I'm very excited about what I'm hearing on curriculum development that would for me that would be the one reason to have you is that you have the experience of hearing it before and not seeing it play out and knowing what that looks like and so you could you can hold them and say I've heard that before where's your proof so that's another reason anything else justine no thank you Patrick no I think Bill Bill no I've had to join us no great there's a mythicism here be careful do you know these two are related I do see now you throw some of the pots we can't take your rubber no I don't think it's close enough to actually have any very fun at all so board could just make a motion and do it in a point or you could go in executive session to debate but that's usually not on my account I would entertain a motion to accept Robert Mayer as the third Rochester board member to fill out the term two years still to go so you can only appoint to the next election okay got you thank you sorry I made for you guys someone make that motion to appoint Robert Mayer sure so moved I just was trying to let somebody else do it I'll second second for Bill excellent in favor justine I Patrick Bill I I need to get sworn in as you probably remember and soon we'll look forward to having you as official board member and Robert we'll get you all the BSPA stuff I've got a new board orientation folder that we created that I'll send you and the SU board has committed to a regular board training calendar that all board members will be invited to attend whether they're voting members or not for PD and so that will roll out starting actually it's and the way we did it is they're just going to be like 30 to 45 minute PD do that and then we get ready for a board meeting nice and we're hopeful that we can still keep those to about two and a half hour even based on that very good thank you Robert new hires and resignation correct all new hires yeah I was going to say I just have new hires good thank you right so for our Rochester 1-2 position it's to the board of Megan Cornelia how do you pronounce that name Cornelia she might correct me but it's not Cornelia she said it was Cornelia interesting I could be getting that wrong I mean it's looks you could actually met her Amy when we interviewed for the position she had a different last name with that okay okay well then my questions that I had are answered um and she seems like a great fit and she's already been we interviewed her last year for the long term sub position for sixth grade and I would say the only difference between her and the candidate we went with is she had all primary grade experience in terms of student teaching and substituting and tutoring and we just didn't feel like that would be a good fit for the group of kids that we were going to have her well I thought she was from that previous interview I thought she was very enthusiastic she was the good part of the team you know my concern looking at her resume was just that she had been out of teaching for so long almost since she had graduated from so if you look at the timeline in 2008 was a recession in that education world which meant it was pretty hard to get into education specifically where she had moved to Colorado specifically to be able to get a teaching job at that time was more from the teaching program in Colorado so she stuck with it and done some tutoring things on the side and she'll be a great a great fit for our our team yeah she looked like a good on to interview her I was gone and on to have really positive things to say about this great and then then to our recommendation for the second and third grade position in Stockbridge is Morgan Demers is a recent graduate of like a year ago over a year ago and she spent her past year this interim year as the floating sub in various city schools yeah and she's worked as a literacy specifically she ended up being in literacy intervention for about six months a year so we're always strong again and great experience in some social emotional pieces as well that we're looking forward to and then our school nurse for both campuses is we're recommending Chelsea Maynard you may notice the similarity I didn't ask I don't know if I can vote on her it's like cousins by marriage it's getting all so distant yeah I did ask I kind of took connection okay and she comes to us from a self background and has actually been in the Rochester Stockbridge communities working in home health already people's homes as a school nurse and she's already been in as well and getting more advanced resident Sharon has kids in the STO very excited to kind of jump in and work with students before it gets to the point that she's kind of seeing them now in her career maybe some preventative things I'll say one of the things I ask nurses a lot is about how they're going to support students socially emotionally and access to resources we have for students because the nurse office is typically a place where students who are internalizers will go to get support and so we had a really nice conversation about that it's actually one of the areas that I'm hoping to do some more PD in with all of our student nurses on some of our earlier release days is just to better equip them so that we can start to flag those things and make certain that that information is getting back to our social emotional teams so that we can try to be proactive in those supports and not reactive because really those students sometimes that are internalizers the reaction is the nurse meets the need in the moment but meanwhile they're missing instruction and so we want to keep them in the classroom as much as possible it was a really good conversation I will say that I remember being impressed with her engagement outside of just the band-aids helping us navigate COVID and those things is that she seemed to embrace that concept this is sort of a general question but is there much relationship between the school nurse and the guidance person? I will say the pieces our school counselor was on the hiring committee and she was really excited about the possibility of working together and that was part of the social emotional that Chelsea and the answer spoke to as well and they've already started working together that's really great to hear because I think that's really important that they're talking to each other good unless there's further questions I'll entertain a motion to accept this slate of new hires as described make motion to accept this slate of new hires as described second motion by Bill, Justine yay your name Patrick yay Patrick I like yay Bill Yes Grandville Handcock Board does yay almost I don't hear that you just made me think that was at Grandville Handcock great great we're in public comment Robert Mayer being the one person sitting in front of us I don't have people online though I don't have that list of course you might have to help me is it just Karen and Tim? great Robert do you have any more public comment? thank you Karen Rubin do you have any public comment for us? she's speaking sure I understand the timeline so if I had it right originally the high school was going to be winterized and we talked about shutting down you're talking about winterizing yes okay so originally the high school was supposed to be winterized in September but we discussed waiting for the feasibility study to come back and I didn't catch when they were expecting the feasibility study to come back but I thought it was maybe December is that correct? February fully complete in February the select board wants to take it to town meeting in March to determine what this went at that time and far as the arrangement of what goes with the building but Karen just said is that still up in the air is that to be determined is that all supposed to be worked out what's the time frame that it's going to take for that to get worked out to actually say if the town says yes we'll do this that it'll actually change can because I don't see that happening by the end of March because I've spent a lot of time to go along with that so that's how you guys are discussing having that happen we may not be winterizing that building this year and we at this point won't know the cost difference between winterizing and leaving it open and operational until September at which time you'll vote those to winterize around did I understand all that correctly that's correct yes I believe that's correct yes you know to the basic and I like you're adding the detail that once they've formally said yes after this voted town meeting that there is a legal process that needs to go through in terms of the transfer of deeds and all that and that that will take some amount of time we don't know how long that will take so that is and probably at least I would say at least another month that's what we were being advised before yes that it's going to be at least another month so yes at this point and we are going to vote up or down on this at our next meeting that there would be extending keeping the building at minimum heat probably the date would be sometime in April yes exactly that point is important correct correct I think that's up to the discussion at the time I don't know I can't speak for every member of the board as to what will be their deciding factor I personally will say that I you know this is to have that building active is a much better choice for our kids in our school here than having it being an empty space no no that all those standards I believe will still apply all the standards we've applied as far as it's used by the school or anything like that it will be minimally heated as it was last year which we have figures for in terms of what that cost that would be our standard and definitely not not using it for educational purposes is that clear no I hear you and I appreciate you reiterating because I think it's very important to be transparent about our discussion and about the new timelines we're talking about because obviously this is a change from how we've been thinking for the last year when we set September as a possibility and I think the more it's we're clear about it the easier it is for people to understand and to give us their feedback so I appreciate it thank you Karen much appreciated Tim Pratt do you have a comment for the board nope you're muted Tim if you are talking or maybe you're not there you may be watching the red socks I'm sure he is okay I think we've given you reasonable time Tim we will move on then one question that you need to consider is if the building is heated are you going to allow the town of Rochester to hold their annual meeting in the auditorium well our standard is no educational and we did let Suzuki in there to use the south end of the building so I think that would be at case by case basis is what we've been sort of established to keep in mind because it was virtual last year but there's also theatrical events are open probably with some sharing cost sharing for heat I think it's a case by case basis and I think people have to approach us with enough lead time so that we have time to discuss it and prepare a budget for them of what we would need so don't leave it to the last minute which is my problem all the time but I would instruct the players to if they want to use it then come to us months in advance so that we're well prepared for that possibility and then we can discuss it does that sound reasonable good thank you alright I believe we're at an executive session do we we don't need them great so we are still so we can't appoint a treasurer yet that's what I was going to tell you about the official resignation of your current treasurer so they'll remain in place and then the plan is chair do you want to give an update yes so when your current treasurer reached out to me to let me know that she wishes to resign from the position she already has found a replacement so we can accept the resignation and appoint the temporary treasurer through the next election at the same time so I just need that official space in my mind today to remind her that she needed to get it out to us so I will follow up with her but I'll call her tomorrow and follow up with her can you read the same example as the board you can appoint until the next annual meeting and then at the annual R7 meeting we'll need to elect I think this is a good time to mention that Jamie has advertised for our recording secretary but we do not have one still he is going to send the transcript of this to another board's scribe and I don't know direct them, ask them plead with them to do it who's that? I don't know you said you were going to do something with it so for today I've got a couple recording secretaries that cover other districts that I think will do us a favor and watch the recording and put the notes together within the five days and get them we'll need somebody to bill and then we'll get them posted you can, you know, approval next meeting Patrick was the clerk of the board it's Patrick the minutes have to go to Patrick I thought it was Bill for review and acceptance Patrick, how did they ever wield you into that gig? he was great, he volunteered he volunteered so Patrick I will put you in contact with the person once I get them to agree I've got a couple folks out in mind Karen, just to answer your question yes, Suzuki did use we made a decision that they be allowed to use the south end of the building this was after we toured all the board members toured the entire high school building it seemed the least they had a lot of work they very much appreciated the use of I think it was only the theater did they use the music room? they did so it worked very well and it definitely brought revenue they really do take over Rochester town so I know that the town is very appreciative of the board's decision to allow that good our next meeting will be September 7th 2021 at 6.30pm regular it will be at Stockbridge and also on Google Meads just so you guys know, I've got for future agenda items the board of retreat agenda I've got Lyle will be here for a big part of the meeting for the generator and also the building the cost to give you those comparisons and we'll be talking to you about all the excitement around opening school which is exciting this has been wonderful to hear all that you guys are doing it really is incredible I'm very encouraged I'm psyched I gotta say today was I've not had to talk COVID in about so today well look at this