 Is there's going to play a board presentation? Carl, do you want to mention about where that can be found? For the people on the phone if they want to follow along. Ah, that's a good point Ray don't start it yet the video is available on the Stockbridge Central School website the WRVSU Dot org slash R-SUD website Did I did I did I get that URL right Ray? Yes Carl, sorry. Thank you this is This is a YouTube link that Can be shared and Distributed it's it's it's not private well, it's unlisted but The URL is available and it's it's it's intended for public sharing as anyone see fit. So with that said go ahead Ray Mr. Stockbridge unified district budget informational meeting This presentation is designed to give you an overview of the upcoming 2021 budget that the board is putting forward However before we get into the meat of the presentation a couple house keeping items regarding the upcoming vote Poles are open 10 a.m. To 7 p.m. On Tuesday, June 30 Rochester residents should vote at the Rochester High School Stockbridge residents should vote at the Stockbridge town offices Absentee ballots may be requested over the internet by going to sos.vermont.gov slash elections slash voters Slash early dash absentee dash voting or by calling the Rochester or Stockbridge town offices The agenda tonight is pretty basic You're going to go through a general overview of the budget in this presentation Then we're going to go live to the Google meet for some board comments And finally we'll take question and comments from the public Before we begin however a couple of ground rules I Want to remind you that the board bylaws have rules about limiting public comment each resident of our district may offer one comment or question We will allow multiple comments and questions as time permits. However, it's important to remember that the bylaws limit comments to one Second the board bylaws have rules about discussing private and privileged information and Finally and most importantly this informational meeting is solely to discuss the proposed budget for our district Not building usage nor merger consolidation concerns The board welcomes the public's input on those issues at our next regular board meeting which will be held to July 7 But that is not Appropriate for the tonight's conversation so questions like that will be deferred Thank you for your consideration in that let's begin Our situation changed drastically at the last winter COVID-19 changed everything it closed all the schools in Vermont It put people into quarantine and put the board's work on hold This was very important because unlike a lot of school districts in Vermont Arsad Rochester Stockbridge Unified District doesn't vote on town meeting day. We have a floor style meeting in the in the beginning of May However with a May floor style meeting not an option We worked with guidance from the Secretary of State's office to organize a one-time Australian ballot election On June 30th the details of which I just went over The board felt it was important to hold an election now Despite all the concerns about distancing and quarantine And shifting from our usual floor style ballot to an Australian ballot The board felt it was important to hold the election because the board really felt that it was important to give the administration Funding assurances so they can appropriately plan for an uncertain September As many of you have heard the AOE has given guidance saying that school should be prepared to open in three different models a hybrid model where some kids are home and some kids are at school and those populations rotate a Completely in school model, which would be similar to business as usual with a number of distancing and health precautions taken or a completely distant model like we ended the year this year Given all the uncertainties of Preparing and planning for that the board thought it was important to give Give the the the administration the ability to do that without having to worry about the 87% clause Because Vermont statue says that if the school district does not have a past budget on July 1st That district will be limited to 87% of last year's budget Why is 87% funding a big deal? Because the board is limited in where cuts can be made Items that cannot be cut include the SU expenses sped expenses tuition expenses transportation expenses technology Support at the SU level These funds represent 40% 44% of our total budget You can see the the pie chart about that on page 29 of our excellent booklet The budget has to include the expected 3% pay increase. That's going to be negotiated or finalized for union personnel the nearly 13% the 12.7% health insurance increase that Can't be frozen or changed because health insurance is provided at the state level basically 87% funding means 573,113 dollars of spending would needed to be cut from our local programming at our local buildings In Our local buildings are a good collection of kids. We have 90 kids in Rochester and 44 in Stockbridge We have over 25% of the students attending our schools coming from the three neighboring K-12 choice districts Granville Hancock and Pittsfield Representing over a half million dollars of tuition revenues and of our 7th and through 12th graders These 74 kids we tuition from Hartford to Middlebury From Rutland to Randolph The expense of tuition in these kids is 30% of our annual budget Those 134 kids in our two campuses are taught by 18.2 full-time teaching professionals What's important to notice about our staff is that we've managed to transition Three and a half or nearly three and a half positions to being shared positions The school nurse the guidance counselor the music the music teacher and the art teacher are both shared between our two campuses As far as the budget you've been presented It's important to note that this budget spends nearly 17,500 dollars less than yet last year's budget dollars and As I mentioned before about shared staff model Consolidating further this year has saved us point six FTE full-time personnel savings due to using that shared staff model despite having to cut Some field trip expenditures and fund some supplies pretty leanly This budget finishes funding funding our literacy program resources by bringing in the resources for our 4th through 6th graders Finally the equalized tax Rate increase on this budget the 3.89 cents increase of which two cents is Due to the loss of the merger incentives in the third year This increases the annual taxes on a two hundred thousand dollars Vermont homestead by $77.83 if that taxpayer is not subject to Vermont's income sensitivity program So we're pretty happy with where we brought this budget in Finally, I want to explain how we got to that tax rate. Let's walk through the chart found on page 29 of the booklet the board began with the presented expenditure budget from the administration of 4,300,391 dollars and 125 which is shown here at the top The offsetting revenues Which are listed on page 27 of the budget Reduce the education spending down to the three million three hundred and thirty nine four hundred and sixty eight dollars Shown in the line marked number one That money is allocated to our equalized pupil an equalized pupil is Vermont's equity calculation It allows that for more spending for a high school student less spending for a pre-k student more spending for a Student who's got English as a second language more fruit spending for students that are eligible for free and reduced lunch our hundred a our 100 some kids Translates into a hundred and seventy seven Equalized pupils when you add in the kids that attend the Rochester and Stockbridge kids that attend our two campuses to the 74 kids that we send We send elsewhere Dividing The dividing that number equals the education spending per pupil cost, which is shown in line three here as 18,863 dollars and 85 cents the Vermont Department of Taxes has determined that One dollar of property tax yields ten thousand eight hundred and eighty three dollars of Education spending as shown by on line four So when we divide that out that creates the Equalized residential tax rate Dividing eighteen thousand eight hundred and sixty three dollars and eighty five cents by ten thousand eight hundred and eighty three Equals the tax rate shown on life line five of one dollar seventy three point three three cents Now we take that tax rate in line five and we reduce that by the merger incentive the third-year merger Merger incentive, which is for four cents which is shown on line six That equals the primary equalized tax rate one dollar one dollar sixty nine point three three cents That is shown on line seven This number is common for both towns However at this point the common level of appraisal comes into play the common level of appraisal is that is a calculation that that Vermont does to ensure that if you own a three-bedroom colonial in Stockbridge Or is it that you pay the same amount of taxes someone that owns a three-bedroom colonial Colonial on two acres in Randolph or three-bedroom colonial on two acres in Winooski They look at sales over the last year They adjust that by the types of property in the and the state averages and that produces a factor that Makes the tries to compensate for inequities across the state in property appraisal so Rochester's Equalized or CLA is 1.09 point eight nine a house in Rochester is worth 109 point eight nine percent of the state average a house in Stockbridge Stockbridge is worth 100.7 percent of the state state average What that means is that is that that common district-wide? $1 69 point three three cents equalized tax rate when modified for each town's individual CIC LA Becomes $1 and sixty eight point one six cents for Stockbridge and one dollar point fifty four one dollar fifty four point Oh nine cents for Rochester that will be the tax rate. You will see on your property bill Thank you for bearing with me for this basic explanation of how we get to your how we developed our budget Why we developed our budget and how we get to your tax rate tax rate and at the end Before we go to the live session. I just wanted to say thank you all for all you do to support all of our kids Okay Thank you Ray for playing that. Thank you all for Sitting through that. I Hope it was I hope you found it informative and it explained things that'll certainly make our question and answer Go faster before we do that though we have Some board comments that we hope will answer some of the things that we feel are relevant Lindy Stetson the One of the two co-principals who's based out of the Stockbridge campus is going to talk about our literacy spending So when you look at our budget line item by line item, you may have noticed quite a Increase in spending under the general elementary books and periodicals line item and that is to truly finish funding To the best of our ability our literacy initiative that we started this past year and up to Before we dismissed for distance learning. We had seen significant improvement in our students The SU helps with Medicaid funds to fund the initiative for mostly the pre-k through grades three Most of these funds will be used to continue funding the program for grades four through six as well as we've started to implement Direct instruction for students that general instruction may have missed and These funds will help support any of those programming needs as well. Thank you, Lindy I'm sure many of you are curious about what school is going to look like In September and what we're budgeting and planning for We are fortunate that our other co-principal Bonnie Bourne happens to be heading up the SU reopening task force and I'd like her to she's going to give us some basic high-level overview comments about what What we're preparing for in September and what this budget is intended to support Yes, good evening everyone as Carl said the White River Valley Supervisor in union put together a task force to begin to address the different scenarios under which school could open in the fall at this point the direction from the agency of Education is that we will open with in-person instruction. That means youngsters will be going to school there'll be some pretty significant Changes to the way that we go to school in large It will deal with things like daily health checks Youngsters will need to have a temperature taken prior to boarding a bus or prior to coming into school There will be facial coverings required Although there is a bit of leeway in terms of very very young children and what might be developments we appropriate There'll be significant a number of times during the day when youngsters will be washing their hands Cleaning our schools have always been clean, but they'll be clean to a whole new level as we work our way through this current pandemic Lunch lines will be not allowed lunches will be served I want to stress that schools will still be providing lunches, but it will be single service packaging The state has identified Three different scenarios or three different types of situations That we could possibly be in they refer to them as step one step two and step three in Step one it was what we just come out of this past spring schools are closed and Everyone is doing distance learning under step two schools open physical school buildings open with enhanced Accommodations in place such as the the ones that I've just mentioned a bit ago It's at step two that the state is asking us to reopen this fall and then step three Is still going to school under the roof of the school, but with slightly less Enhancements to it so we could go back and forth between step two step one step three Depending on if and to what degree the virus is is being transmitted Community transmission the very very strong hope and actually belief is that we will not experience Another closure like we have this spring in that the entire state was closed It's believed it will be more of a geographic closing. So for example, if there is a Signific if there's a rise in the number of cases in a community that appears to be from The spread then the schools in that particular location will be closed So for example, if something crops up down in Grattleboro Rochester will not necessarily be closed if something crops up in Rochester Fairfax schools won't necessarily be closed. So it's more of a regional approach The task force has five different work groups. They're hired at work We expect to present in a set of recommendations to the incoming superintendent by the Very very early in July and to June early July the last thing I'll say that I that I would stress is that the Guidance that we've been given today might change next week. It might not change next week We've continually been told to have plan a plan B and possibly a plan C So we are working on a number of Scenarios Thank you Thank you Bonnie Ethan are you out there somewhere? Hmm. Did anyone try to get in touch with them? I emailed him just after this started and I haven't heard back Okay um Ethan Ethan was going to Make two comments The first of which was That the board wanted to Take this time Since this is really the last 2019 2020 school year public meeting where we can where we can say this the board wanted to to acknowledge and Respect all the work that both Bruce labs are superintendent who is leaving as well as Deb Matthews who Has been a long-time sped coordinator for families in this area in special education coordinator for families in this area So Deb and Deb and Bruce are both moving on and we really wanted to Recognize and acknowledge all the work they've done for the children and the families in our area and Ethan You'll say this much better than me. So go ahead and please Please Take over for me Sorry just came on my son was bit by an ant just before I was about to Come on So I'm here, but had to take care of that Well, I've known Deb Matthews for a very long time a very close family friend for years a teacher at Rochester a really innovative teacher and a great time in Rochester schools where she was bringing in lots of other programs and One of the sort of top teachers of the time and then after years of that She changed over to special ed both first at the school and then at the supervisor union. I Believe it's something like 30 years of work here really focusing on the kids really being an advocate for everyone and I you know, she's done a great job for us for years and I I have I'm very Fond of her and very glad for her to have earned her retirement and taken her place there Bruce I've known for less time, but I feel that the RSUD board sort of bonded with Bruce early on as we came on after the Transit after the merger and just always had a great response or a rapport with him He was straight with us. He was communicative He had the same values of us totally about literacy And and and work and we could talk about problems and disagreements and work it through with him I also wanted to say that I think Bruce did an incredible job through this COVID crisis I was a communicator as keeping people together. I really think in some ways though it was a terrible time it really brought the whole supervisor union together his weekly meetings and Did a great job. So both of them are going out on a high point We're very grateful to them and and wish them all well in the future Thank you, we then I appreciate that and it's been an honor and a pleasure to work for the supervisor union district I'm very grateful To all of you for the work you've done and I Appreciate the kind words I'll miss all of you. So thank you Yeah, we will miss both of you very much. Oh Just hope you'll stay out of the papers and be in there for good things Who's Thank you, thank you for that comment Ethan and Megan you had a comment you wanted to make as well Yes, thank you Staff and administration for all the hard work they've put into our regular school year and our emergency online school year I was humbled and just thankful that everyone scrambled and worked hard to create Education and caring and keep our kids connected through these unprecedented times I Just well, I've lastly want to thank Our two towns community members who value and support local rural education and our small value Valley, I just I just want to say thank you to everybody Thank You Megan Okay, so I believe that includes our board comments I'm now going to go into question and answers and the way we're going to do this is the method that has worked across the SU for these informational meetings, which is I am going to go down the roster of all the 32 people that are not board members that are on this call and Just go one at a time and ask them if they have have a question or comment and Depending on how long it takes to go through it once we'll consider Whether we'll go back to the top and start again if we give everyone the chance to have a second comment Everyone will have a chance to have a second comment. We're not going to Just say we'll take comments till till till a fixed amount of time Again to remember to to remind people what we said at the top of the meeting we have a Regular monthly board meeting will be held July 7th. There is an open public comment session at that meeting The comments that we're going to be or the the questioner comments We're going to be responding to at this time will be strictly around around the budget and what we're asking The voters of both communities to approve on June 30th Leave anything out board members before I open the gates Yes, thank you Ray it is for for those of you on the phone it is star six to unmute and star six to mute When when you're done? so the first caller on the list is Star 11 if your phone number ends at 11 you have a chance to have a comment unmute yourself and Make yourself heard or I'm going to wait a few seconds and move on Okay, we're going to star 29 if your phone number ends in 29 and you have a question or a comment Please star six to unmute Okay Star 52 if your info number ends in 52 and you have something you like to ask us or tell us Please unmute with star six and do so Hi Carl. It's Beth Dolly My question may not be Approved but we are looking at the budget and 5% of the budget is the buildings and yet we are not allowed to talk about the buildings Um In the context of this meeting we are not going to discuss the the futures of the buildings or or what is going on what I can say about the buildings is that the budget We is is has been built the way we always build a budget, which is to be both Lean as well as conservative if you look back at George we have always returned Three to five percent of the total budget as as an overage if you look on page 27 where the revenues are we'll see that the first item at the top of that page is a hundred and forty three thousand I think of Of a surplus being returned So we build the budget based on paying for the buildings like we're going to have to pay for the buildings Through a winter for the next year based on our prayer on our previous usage So that's where we're at. We are of course Working and having conversations and moving things forward. We're putting the we're getting the we finally got a PDF version of the Building committee the engineering study that was commissioned by the board is being put on the website I believe it was put up This week We got we finally got the clearances and worked out how to get the PDF PDF up there. So the communities can read What analysis has been has been done of the building and again, Beth You are welcome to come to our meeting on July 7th and we can we we can discuss that but we budgeted for you know, the buildings being as they are because We can't we we we can't To do otherwise would be would be improved and I really hope we resolve the issue in in a way that returns a Bunt of a bunch of money to the surplus for the 21 22 year. Thank you, Beth That was you were star 52. I think or were you start 68? I'm 52. Okay star 68 We we advance Carl. Yeah, I'm 68 Tim Pratt. Hi, Tim. Hey, how's it going? So if you divide the 202 kids into the 4.3 That comes to 21 to 50 not the 18,000. I was just wondering How you can explain that when it's actual cost that we need to be voting on? Thanks Tara help address Tim's that Tim's question the equalized per pupil the per pupil spending is based on Look on page 29 of The workbook that was sent the budget book that was sent around You take your budget expenditures you less your offsetting revenue Which gives you the act 68 education spending? So that's the amount that's to be collected by taxes And from the education fund and you divide that by your equalized Pupil and that is what gives you your education spending per pupil cost of the 18,000 86385 So that number is not based on your enrollment as it stands today That is a formula that is calculated by the agency of education That as Carl explained in the presentation has waiting factors for the different levels of students And that is only for your resident students That does not count students that you receive in on tuition the board in January set and announced tuition rate of that 16444 so that number is what's used to charge the schools that send students to your district and then at the end of the fiscal year usually in December the agency of education Sets the allowable tuition rate and that can be higher or lower than what the board sets as The announced tuition rate so those are actually two different numbers that come from two different sets of information Not sure if that explains it or not Thank You Tara. It's also important to note about The allowable tuition is that Allowable tuition doesn't include When when you calculate what what you can charge as an allowable tuition, you're not just allowed to set a number Wherever you want it and then as a matter of fact the agency of education will if you're allow Allowable tuition ends up being three or three and a half percent or three percent above or below Their calculations you're either issuing refunds or or collecting But the allowable tuition does not include special education expenses or SU expenses It's really trying to look at just what are the expenses of a local building So that's where the allowable tuition ends up being And is this way pretty much across the state a little bit lower than the actual tuition that is charged to town residents all right and Tim was does star six eight so star six nine Star six to unmute if you'd like to have a question or comment. Hey Carl I Was it was my understanding that they are thinking that the kids will have to have music and art in one room And not travel for it. I mean, who are you? This is Leslie Rogers. Oh, that's okay. I just wanted to we we need to make sure that you're a Stockbridge or Rochester resident And we know you are okay Yeah, I thought that you weren't doing names, so I didn't So it's my my understanding that they there are things Children to be in one area and not move around a lot So does that mean that they do not need the building the second building in Rochester? If so, can we winterize that and not use it for the year? Well as I move me I mute myself trying to unmute myself. Um, I believe that that is still Something that the that the agency of education Hasn't really decided it's one of the ideas they've bounced around but I think the best person to speak to that would be Bonnie Sure. Thank you. Um As the guidance stands right now The art teacher and the music teacher will be going into classrooms as opposed to youngsters going to the art room or the music room the little the little worry that we have there is that if the virus starts spreading more and We have to go back to smaller groups of children such as back to 10 Then neither school at this point is probably large enough to hold all of our youngsters in groups of 10 So space would be a challenge staffing would be a challenge the question would be at that point You know would we open or would we not but in terms of the guidance right now the existing guidance Youngsters will not be going to the music room and they will not be going to the art room The other possible situation I could see happening is we're trying to get clarification if there's a COVID-positive Someone test codes at COVID-positive after having been in a classroom the guidance on cleaning is clear It says you have to close the room for 24 hours and then begin cleaning after the 24 hours It's not as clear on what happens with the youngsters now My assumption is they would have to quarantine such as the situation exists right now But that might be another situation where we would be looking for space If for some reason we couldn't enter back into a classroom. Thank you, Bonnie That moves us to star eight zero Okay, it's star six to unmute if you have something to say the person at star eight zero if not We will move on to the person at star eight four Again star six to mute to unmute and we'll move to the person that's star eight seven Okay, the last person that's just on a phone number is the person at star nine four Star six to unmute if you'd like to say anything. Okay, Beth. We had heard from you I see your camera face there Bonnie Bruce Deb Matthew Ethan Bowen Janet Whitaker Janet Whitaker if you would like to Unmute and ask a question. It's either control six or command six depending on if you're a macro windows Thank you, Jen We now join Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. You were trying to hit you You're on mute you it's it's it's command command or control D depending if your windows are Mac That's Kim Robertson Joanne. You're not speaking. We can't hear you Joanne, are you on your phone thumbs up? You're on your iPhone Okay. No, you're not. Okay. Okay. We'll come back to you while you try and figure it out Okay, so the next person on the list is Julie grappy Julie She says she's good across the table Kathy burns Kim Robertson you're up Up Joanne Joanne you got on I don't want to interrupt Kim Alright, my only thing I do have two things, but I'll I'll just stick it to one. I'll stay with one The whole COVID thing if it comes back Wouldn't and you did say the children would probably end up being quarantined as well But I mean obviously other school systems are going to have the same situation if someone becomes sick so We not every school has their You have to have a spare building because of COVID So I I just don't understand how Our school board can follow through with the same process again this year and next year There's going to be field trips. There might even be field trips this year And we're gonna need money and you know that that's just money that's wasted So that's my opinion and and I don't like budgets that are backed into You find out what you know to stay out from under the threshold and then you back into the budget I just think that that's not a good way to build a budget. That's all I'm gonna say Thank you for your comments Kim You are next Thank you. I guess I have a comment since we're not allowed to talk about 5% of the budget which is the school buildings and now you're saying You're not going to use that building except if they need it for COVID Especially I just have to comment and say I find it awfully convenient that the major concern of all the sacriage Citizens is being sys silenced by this board by not allowing us to discuss what is a good percent of our budget Thank you Um yes, yes, the buildings are 5% of the budget And yes, um, I'll re inter reiterate what I said before um You know the board looks at how they figure out um You know What supplies cost by looking at historically what supplies cost? Um, when we look at what building upkeep costs we look historically at what building upkeep costs The the fact of the matter is at this point in the budget cycle. We do have the two buildings And it would be in the board's opinion Um inappropriate to pretend that the two buildings were that that we could pull not not pretend that's that's that's poor language I'm sorry that the the board felt it was inappropriate to presume That we could we could resolve the issue and the board's historical Perspective on budgeting is to budget for the conservative options not to assume that it's going to be a really mild winter and we can you know, we can uh Uh low ball heating oil because it you know, it lets us add in a trip to boston um And then say oh well, well, we thought we could you know this heating budget would would would pass but it didn't So now we have a deficit The board has historically tried to budget conservatively conservatively so that we have historically given back You know, uh, that that three that three to five percent cushion that we've put into a budget Like I said, if you look at page 27, we gave back the community 143 thousand dollars in this year's budget surplus We gave back more because we were even more conservative. We didn't know what the buildings were going to cost The year before where we gave back nearly quarter million dollars that we that that that we over budgeted The board feels it's important to To you know be lean. We don't want to over budget 15 percent and say look we gave you back a million dollars because we took it from you the year before But the board does want to And has historically tried to be tried tried to be conservative about about the way it built the budget So it built the budget for for a worst-case buildings a scenario And as far as having, you know continuing the conversation as i've said We have an open public comment session I believe we're going to be discussing the buildings on the agenda We haven't put together the agenda for the july 7th meeting, but that would be a fine time to You know to log in and then there we will be having that sort of discussion the discussion tonight is about Why we're asking for the funds we're asking for to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish for our kids for the 2021 School year So that's that's where we're trying to keep the focus tonight But it's also about the budget and why it is what it is and if we can't address areas that we're concerned that's a shame Okay, thank you for your thought I believe I answered that question by saying that we historically build the budget based on previous years Outcomes and the previous years outcomes have involved two buildings But thank you for your thought. Um next on the list is Nancy Does Nancy have a comment? Nancy has some really cool-looking furniture. Um patricia harvey. Do you have a comment? No, I don't I would like to thank Deb Matthews if I did have a comment for all of her years of service. I remember in 1993 When my son had cancer while still in school She she stood by him very closely And he still has that teddy bear Which shows the heart that our school system has um And if I had to make any comment about anything since this is our one opportunity a year really Um, I would love to see us go k2a and I know everyone might cringe at that but Just in the heart of the system a couple more years on our children. Thank you Thank you for your comment patricia Uh, that brings us to samantha demand or diamond. I'm sorry if I just mangled your last name And if someone with groppy I'm used to people mangling mine. So samantha if you have anything to say That's okay. Um, and I don't have a comment. No Thank you. I'm glad you stayed and listened Um, okay, we're gonna go back. We have uh, it's only been 45 minutes We want to do another round of questions board Carl Yes, uh still would like to say something Oh, okay. I did I did I skipped over you bill. Yes, you did Sorry Thanks, carl. Um, and thanks for the presentations. It's um Nice to be able to communicate even this rough time where we can't be together In the same room and I wanted to The school committee for its excellent um Report annual report was very very informative. Um my one General suggestion from the future is for those of us that are Getting a little seeing Challenged the the print of the numbers might be a larger font um I did want to just mention that for the last over 10 years Um each year I've been given handed out at this school board meetings um a spreadsheet going In fact of the proposed school budget um Either you're paying by income sensitivity in about two-thirds of our households That way in vermont and I wouldn't be surprised. It's about the same in stock bridge and The others if you're paying by the value of your property And um and I lay it out for 10 years so you can see Uh in numbers um in dollars and cents how The school budget has impacted The taxpayer And I just wanted to say that i'm sorry I can't do that but if those of you Um, I don't know if you can see me, but if you wanted to email me at edge east vt At gmail.com. I will email you The spreadsheet so you can see the impact of the proposed budget this year and you can go back 10 years and Take a look at How the budgets have changed over time and I must say that uh when I look at the bottom line the increases have been Very modest, but if anybody's interested in that information, please email me and I I'd love to share it with you. Thank you bill actually I'm sorry go ahead even yeah, I just want to say bill we we'd really hope to have your page in there And unfortunately and this year, you know, we learned a lot We didn't remember it until too late. Um, we tried valiantly to get it in before it went to the printers But it just didn't happen. But please know that it we find it uh, you're you're trying to be a very useful item And very much would like to have it And we'll remember it next year to get get it much sooner so we can have it as part of the bulletin Thank you and actually I was about to add that Janie sent sent us the link to your Sheet and with your permission, we're going to add that to Our website of resources so that people can just find it where they find The pdf of the annual presentation the youtube link for the the presentation. We just gave The pdf for the engineer report and so on great great idea. Thank you Thank you bill Um, okay board. It is uh, it is 720. We've been at this nearly an hour. Do we want to go through another round of questions? Or are we uh, uh wanting to uh Move on I put that out to all of you. Hi, megan here. Um, I would entertain more questions if the if people have them Yes Janie you okay Yes, absolutely Okay, then we'll go back to the we'll go back to the top of the phone numbers. Uh star 59 It's star 6 to mute or unmute unmute you you have the floor if you'd like it I'm sorry. Go ahead ray Carl I I just um want to make sure that the uh callers understand that Most of the area codes of course are 802 and when you say star 11, for example, that's the last two numbers Of their number they're calling from Yes, I know that seems obvious to us. I'm not sure that's obvious Uh to the callers That is that is a very good point. Thank you. Uh, thank you ray I am looking at a list that shows uh An area code and then a bunch of stars and then the last two digits of a phone number So i'm calling you out by the last two digits of your phone number So um the the first one on this list is the star 59 Okay, um, we now have sort of 774 for that one. Yeah, and that uh, that could be a cell phone Um, I'm not sure where 774 is That's that's me. Irene sent if I was just able to sign in now, so I don't right now have any questions Okay, thank you 774 is a Massachusetts cell phone exchange That is if if you're a stock bridge, uh, or Rochester resident, we don't care where you get yourself on Okay stock bridge common All right, uh star 11, uh Whoever's the the the caller that's phone number ends in 11 Uh, okay. This the the phone number, uh star 29 If your phone number ends in 29 and you have another comment star 6 to unmute Thank you star 52 Hey, carl. It's best dolly again The substantial increase in the health insurance Is the health insurance Um, how do I want to say shopped? Or is it a contractual thing? Um, ara, are you still there? You're probably the best person to answer that question Health insurance is part of the statewide health insurance program. It's negotiated by the state of Vermont in the teachers union, I believe Um, Bruce may be able to confirm that I wasn't part of that when that negotiation started And they're the ones that dictate to each of the school districts What the plans are what the provider is And what the employee employer contribution requirements are They're the ones that set what our hra contributions hsa contributions, which is health reimbursement account Health saving account that is on negotiated at the state level and then dictated down to all the districts within the state And we've been told to expect a 12.9 percent increase this year Uh, which is pretty happy, but we really don't have any control over that So Then I guess part b of the question is what is the employee contribution? Uh 20% thank you All right, um And I think beth you were star six eight correct. So Star six nine no carl. I'm five two. You're five two. Okay. Thank you. I did that same thing to you last time I think um, so the the caller that's at star six eight Do you have anything you'd like to add to the conversation? Thank you. The caller that's at star six nine Uh, the caller that's at star 80. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I muted and unmuted and muted again Um, yeah, I this is leslie rogers I think I know the answer to this but um, because I think There was a time that said the public funds from rogers from stockridge is $9,000 And I think I remember that that rochester had some public funds But they were investigating how they could use them With the merger. Is that true or am I thinking of something else? Amy you're the you're the expert on the uh on the rochester fund situation Okay, um, yes There are um funds that uh, we need to actually go to probate to change the wording because it's specific to things like rochester high school Also, uh, then has has that happened yet? I mean it's been three years No, it we it has taken quite a long time to be able to understand these funds and to have any visibility of these funds So it is We have not gone to probate over it is it is a discussion that needs to happen all with the board before we move forward with that Okay, when that happens, um, they should probably also discuss some reimbursement For the last three years, correct? I think uh, I I think I don't know. I think is I mean as far as this budget goes There's not been a resolution about those funds. So we're not we're we're we're we're not uh Attaching them yet as far as what will happen with them once we get, you know A probate lawyer involved and figure out what's what's going on that is is is yet to be determined Thank you. Leslie. Um star eight zero I have a follow up for I'm not sure Leslie if that was what your question was or was your question In regards to the money that stark work contributes from the board of trustee public funds. I probably have that acronym wrong No, that was that was what I was asking for I remember them saying Something about they were trying to get the the funds from Rochester They were I remember them saying that they were investigating that and I What had happened with it in the last three years since we keep paying and they have not that was my question Okay, just want to make sure All right. I don't know if you want to clarify three years. We're not in three years, but Um, we're going to go to caller the caller whose phone number ends in eight zero Thank you. The caller whose phone number ends in eight seven star six to unmute if you'd like to make a Ask a question or make a comment Thank you. The caller who ends in nine four Okay, Beth. We already got you from your phone number bill. I'm not going to skip you because you're in the b's Um and scroll past you again. Do you have a a second comment that that you or maryland would like to to make or ask You are currently muted maryland Control d or command d to unmute I just want to congratulate bruce labs and deb matthews and all they've done for the students in our town Thank you Here here Here here indeed here here indeed. Thank you bill and maryland. Um We're good to see brawny bruce. Deb. They all work here. Ethan's on the board Janet whittaker if you had a comment, uh, you're welcome to make it. Um, I do I actually have a comment. Um, I often hear from stockbridge residents that we're paying everything and the budgets divided Amongst all rochester and stockbridge taxpayers. Is it not that is correct? So I often hear that comment and I know I am a stockbridge resident I'm not trying to go against anybody but it does bother me a bit that we constantly are saying that That's my comment Thank you for your comment. Janet, uh, janey and jenny are board members joanne. Do you have another comment or question you'd like to make? My only question is when you talked about this budget saves us money because we're sharing The nurse and different employees. Didn't we have those same people or those jobs filled before we merged? Uh, lindy or bonnie you want to answer that? so we shared uh A nurse and a music teacher starting at the beginning of the merger and next year instead of um Each building having a separate school counselor and a separate art teacher We will have a shared art teacher and a shared school counselor. So it'll reduce staffing Meaning we're not expanding either of those shared positions either of those people's contracts We're instead Do we have them the same amount of time as we had the other? People or do we get them more often? uh, so just like in past years stockbridge will have a school counselor for two days a week and rochester will actually Have a school counselor for three days a week where they had had a school counselor for five days a week and then uh, just like last year in stockbridge rochester or excuse me stockbridge will have an art teacher for one day a week And in rochester the art teacher will be there one day a week whereas this past year. She was there two days a week Is that right bonnie? Did I get that? She was yeah, she was actually an art two days a week and now it'll be uh one day a week And she'll be one she'll be one day a week in stockbridge Does that make sense join? Yes. I didn't understand. I thought maybe we didn't have a nurse and now we have one because we share one I didn't really understand that Because we're saving money, so that's great Yes, thank you. Joanne. Yep. Uh julie. Do you have a comment? I do have a comment hang on I think you broke it I think I broke I got to mute my husband. How exciting is that first of all? Secondly, I just want to highlight something that was said um in the presentation I Understand the frustration level that's going on I totally understand that we still have these two buildings and we don't need two buildings And we've got to figure out what to do with that. That's Maddening if We vote down the budget The school board has to cut over a half a million dollars from the budget If we vote down this budget it's going to impact students It's going to impact teachers. It's going to impact the quality of education for our students If we vote down this budget our pay the price And may and eventually we will get to the point where we have A balanced budget where we have the appropriate facilities But not by cutting a half a million dollars from our budget Thank you Um Okay, so Whoop no anyone muted Um You need your headphones to hear me. Uh kathy burns your next on the list. Okay. Thank you kathy kim robertson. Do you have something? Yeah, sorry kathy I do I want to say something to bebebin bruce. I want to thank you for being great leaders For me for the past few years. I've enjoyed working with both of you. Thank you so much You're here. Thank you kathy. That was uh, that was very very sweet of you you've been A dedicated para I've been on the school board. It's your your your service to our our kids in our town is is really awesome. Thank you kathy as well Um, okay kim, would you have a something else you'd like to say? Yes, I'd like to thank all you board members I know you work endlessly and it's a big job and you've done a good job at keeping the budget down I think the whole both towns Are impressed and it's a great job um, I would like to say also that If we don't want to pass You know not pass the budget the things that the citizens are talking about need to be addressed sooner Than later. Thank you Thank you kim lindy megan page nancy. Do you have a comment you'd like to make ma'am? Uh, okay, samantha. You are the the uh last person uh, who is not a board member or an employee on this list Do you have anything you'd like to add to the conversation? Samantha you're an employee. I am an employee I I I I I I assumed you were a Rochester resident um Thank you everybody. I think that uh, we are now uh over an hour into this. I think that uh um, we are uh, uh pretty much Ready to wrap this up Again, the vote is going to be held june 30th The polls are open from 10 to 7 uh at the rochester high school for the rochester residents in the stock bridge town hall for all the stock bridgeians, uh or stock bridge residents uh in in uh to to vote um absentee valets can be uh, uh made available uh online Uh at our url. I don't have in front of me, but is on our website You can also call the rochester and stock bridge town offices and uh request your ballot there Uh, thank you so much for your time and patience with this meeting And uh, thank you so much for your your civic interest and your community service It really matters a lot whether you're um You know your your your your pro or con the point of the best the biggest point to me is that you're all engaged and involved And I think that's at the end of the day What's most important is that we're all participating in our community. We're all engaged We're all making our opinions heard and we're trying to work together To get to the best place that we can get to in in our current circumstances and and and climb Um, I would entertain a motion to adjourn second it You have to be elected to the board before you get that power Jayne Nice to move Danny has moved. Ethan has seconded that the the meeting board be adjourned. All right Board members, uh, uh signify by saying aye. Aye. Okay. All board members Uh, thank you everybody this meeting is adjourned. We will see you at our next regular meeting on july