 The select board meeting for Monday, July 19th, 2021 first order of business is to approve the agenda and I've already been told that we need to we're just going to omit the consider appointment of delegate to CV Fiber because we have multiple candidates now and we'll do that at the next meeting. Okay so item B and consent agenda is scratch and then there is one candidate that was mentioned that has withdrawn so the second interviewer will not be in the interview so unless there's any other changes I will take the motion to approve the agenda. Actually I take that back there's no other public comment. Is there a second? All right it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Consent agenda items minutes from the July 6th meeting and special event permit for Waterbury Arts Fest number 10th and 11th which I need to recuse myself from so Chris if you want to take over. Consent agenda items consist of the minutes of the July 6th meeting consider appointment of delegate and CV Fiber and special event permit for Waterbury Arts Festival September 10th and 11th zero motion to approve the consent agenda. We discussed that Waterbury Arts Festival I didn't know if that would have to be a consent agenda. So it's on the consent agenda which means if you make a motion to approve the consent agenda the minutes and that get approved without discussion. Yep I make a motion to approve the consent agenda items. Second. Thanks. Any further comments, questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. So now we are on the public portion of the meeting we've allotted only two minutes I'm not sure if there's anyone from the public that wishes to speak tonight. This is an opportunity to speak to anything that's not on the agenda which really other than the interviewing you know have anything else besides the private racial equity training so is there anyone from the public that wishes to speak before we move on to our interviews for the school board? Glad is it okay if we start a couple minutes early since you're ready? Okay great so as everyone knows we had a school board member who had decided to leave their positions so the process and Bill you can correct me if I'm wrong is that the school board actually selects the candidate for Waterbury it is not a select board appointed position for the replacement but we do have the opportunity to interview and make a recommendation as a board there was a specific time so all this needed to notify us or the school board by Sunday night that they were interested in the replacement in the position the position has to be filled by there's timing on that. I think the school board is going to vote on Wednesday night. Okay so we expect Wednesday night for the school board to vote on a replacement. Everything else you said is accurate it is the school board's appointment they encourage to seek input from the select board of the community or the where the vacancy has occurred this provision I think it's going to sunset in 2022 and I'm hopeful that when it does that the legislature will see fit to allow our select boards in town to meet a bypass but the point because it does seem a little odd that the black school board members from other communities decided who's going to be our one piece but that's what that's right now. So the school board will take the select board's opinion if you have one in consideration you don't have to interview and tell the school board well choose who you want we don't care but they have indicated that they will be interested in your opinions but they're not going to be on fire. Okay all right so we're only interviewing we're going to try to hold it to 10 minutes just so we can go through everyone. Glenn I know we're a minute behind so we'll make sure you get that extra minute but if you want to go ahead and introduce yourself you are on Zoom. I am yeah I'm a little under the weather today so I apologize I couldn't be there in person so yeah I guess I'll try to do this through Zoom. So I'm Glenn Anderson I live here on Sweet Road I've been here 30 years I think I know most of you in different capacities over the years I've met you or interfaced with the select board most recently I think it was in relation to the opt-in for the retail cannabis here in Waterbury I weighed in on some thoughts there you know I've lived here 30 years pretty much spent the first decade not necessarily having an opinion you know I felt that you know this is kind of relevant now too with so many people moving into this community you know I felt there is a period of acclamation necessary before I came in have you handed with a thought of you know this or that and it's not in my opinion xenophobic to ask people to get a sense of what this community is about before weighing in with big ideas and in many respects one of the other candidates you know in tonight's list Scott we've had chats over the years about this so you know from my vantage point I read the opening for this position and I just got the impression that nobody really wants to be in on this so this it was a surprise when I saw the result candidates and you know it's very thankful for this because I just have a lot of my plate lately so you know for me this was an idea of stepping up because it felt like there is a vacuum at a time when we really need service on this board to represent Waterbury Waterbury Center too right to zip codes which I think relates to what Bill is just saying you know as far as different districts and different select boards or you know portions of this unified district if you will are making decisions about assets that happen in different communities and I think that's going to be one of the most important pieces to think about as a community as we move forward into the next iteration of what this school system is about uh let's see I mean I've been the trail adopter here I'm you know Mount Hunger in the Skyline Trail for since 1994 you know I'm the founder and current head of the Worcester Range Collective where we have a presence on Facebook if anyone wants to check us out and you know that's been my activities to date it's always been quiet in the background I haven't been somebody that's looked to serve in an electric capacity I haven't really you know necessarily had a lot of time to I've been pursuing business and other adventures in my life but you know at this junction it just felt like something that needed to be addressed so I'm glad to see there's multiple candidates you know I'm definitely interested to hear what these other candidates have to bring to the table and then consider whether you know I am the best for or maybe somebody else is best for this position you know I do think that it's something that there's a lot of traditional voices in this community that I think are getting uh increasingly displaced so I want to make sure that you know as those of us that have come new and I'm 30 years deep in this community so there's still a sense of obligation to make sure that we push this forward while giving our children the best right so things that I've done around here I've chaired the marketing committee for the Green Mountain Club helped you bring those guys over 10,000 I think I shared that with the school board you know we did a whole extensive thing for their hundredth anniversary Green Mountain Club was just one facet of local engagement for me but I've worked internationally on various projects I shared with the school board that have been in 125 different countries my work in research has been interpreting seven different languages it's one of those things where you know I definitely have been on an international stage I have a lot of expertise and information architecture budgeting digital transactions of legacy data and all sorts of technical pieces that is the stem or maybe steam now of modern education but that's not necessarily what I think is critical for us to move forward here in Waterbury I think what's more important as we move forward is looking at you know how do we look at this vision for what is education in these communities the Mad River Valley, Waterbury, Duxbury there's there's a mountain right between us right and there's a lot of buildings all over this these communities this unified district is interesting because so much vibrant culture engagement interdependence has happened with both the valley and Waterbury and Duxbury but in many respects there's still divisions everybody sees so I think what I want to try to accomplish you know and I can list credits and I can get you guys a CV of things that I've done you know originally you know I'm in a position that I can offer something but I don't want to come across as pretentious and suggest I have all the answers you know and that's something that having been incubated by Microsoft and in some of these other spaces I always found the insight not necessarily from the things that I would project on it or the hypotheses that I would have but it's from listening to people and I think you know if I were to look at three things that I'd like to try to accomplish on this school board if in fact I don't necessarily pull out of this in the event of you know the board deciding that you know this was the right fit for the decision I'd want to look at three ways one I want to understand what are the impacts of these assets moving forward so these school buildings are all being built in different ways and we're arguing over which middle schools are going where and who's sending their kids to what school campus I think more importantly and critically is that we think about what are the implications of putting tens of millions of dollars into different communities so I'm not opposed to growth I'm just saying we need to look at where our enrollment is putting the most impacts on and we have to be honest about what we're really doing to build up infrastructure for those communities like for instance our neighbors in Duxbury are having a hard time we know many of the financial obligations they're under right now bringing an asset into this community for them helps stimulate growth locally sure the hardwood unified school district is great where it's at but if we are really truly thinking about the long haul we can't just double down to one location and expect that's not going to just benefit one community as far as property valuations so that's a really critical consideration for me because it comes with things like displacing long-term residents and that you know I feel as a newcomer even 30 years ago has been one of the negative pieces that I want to try to make sure we don't continue that sort of mindset that we make improvements that we increase the education front of our children but that we don't blindly do it by saying you know everybody needs to go to college and tech schools are not relevant right you know everybody knows the wilderness making 70 bucks an hour and filling their time beautifully but we don't celebrate that enough right so for me building community first through the school system is so much more important than basically sending people out as a recruitment vehicle for the college and secondary education system though you know I went to EVM and it benefited me to many degrees I think we can also heal this community through you know looking at things differently and you know I have friends that are for staff across it and you know many of the things that I hear in Harwood as well but many of the things I hear are there's two types of communities that you know there's there's a lot of folks in the middle I go to school at Harwood the kids and then you have folks on one extreme their board is all can be and then you have folks on the other extreme that need a whole lot of attention we can get that balance right if we rethink things and it's not always about what necessarily has been dogmatically instilled in us is how we structure schools I've gone to private schools I went to a greater school for high school I've gone to public schools I understand a lot of the dynamics that come from both of those scenarios and I understand the importance of building enrollment here in Waternary and stimulating schools for the future of our community so I don't want to necessarily shut it down but I do want to you know get people thinking that instead of just blindly going for one approach that we really think about this whole community wisely so that was one piece the other piece I think is that we have right now this triangular triumvirate of school board teachers union and you know we were the superintendent and I think that's a slightly dysfunctional scenario and I think we see this repetitively in how we're hearing of news and different pieces that come through I'm just thinking recently of the Morton bus that you know kind of went off the road so there's a lot of things where then the superintendent gets attacked for not closing in on a school there's just all this hostility and you know I think if we were maybe looking at it as a square and at a point of interest which is the actual parents in the public and residents in this community we can get a little bit further you know I don't want to necessarily think that the select board itself should come in top heavy and have all these answers that's coming from a research mindset I always post people and I want to see what will actually work not necessarily what I want to see work and the last piece I think you know we really need to be honest about what happens next right so there's going to be a big bond vote at some point I don't necessarily think this position let's just say it was me let's say it's any one of the other kids I don't think that person nor at this moment in time should be the person or the board that's passing any kind of major spending package until this position yeah sorry say it again sorry yeah we're Carlos just letting me know the 10 minutes was was getting close I was just trying to get all right cool I'm pretty much done I mean the the three points that I just wanted to get at were you know effectively that was you know we need to create more input from parents and the community not just that triumvirate we need to essentially look at this position is a placeholder for whether that position is re-elected by the people of Waterbury then that person is I think entitled to to have an opinion about this bond I just think it's far too premature so I'm going to be up front I'm going to say this to the school board as well I don't think it means that it doesn't happen or that it will fail I just think we need to do it different so those are really my main points I'll let it roll and I appreciate the time thank you guys thanks Glenn a couple minutes for questions any questions for Glenn I'll start Glenn the biggest question I have and I'll probably have the same question for all the applicants I know I'm a fiscal conservative and sometimes we look at you know I believe in I believe strongly in education I believe strongly in the you know reading writing and you know the fundamentals sometimes you know it's really good that we could offer our kids stuff but the community is being very stretched economically give me your thoughts can you give me your thoughts on you know how you would do take that on to the school board with you know the high cost of education in our community yeah that's a great question you know I I look at it from this vantage point I've been here long enough that I see those impacts on property taxes and and you know I just honestly feel like we're as Waterbury in this union representing a huge burden right so we know that probably 70 to 80 percent of Waterbury residents through surveys and other data value the the Worcester range and the undeveloped nature of it you know that's a source of property taxes though with the potential of development right if in fact a school board I mean a school bond passes and we have this huge expansion that's bed-based to help fund that and make it sustainable is that the right choice though so I look at it and say well we can expand stuff but we need to also leverage to make sure that things like property taxes don't explode we need to make sure that those choices aren't putting us in a worse position as well as far as things like you know the whispers which I care about and I think a lot of people in this community so I think if we can figure out ways to say well let's protect upper elevations let's you know look for places where we can grow which is all part of that planning process in zoning but at the same point we're not necessarily acknowledging the impacts that increase in our school and that'll just create division and fights down the road so I just look at it and say how do we really plan and forecast for what those spending choices will do and if we're truly measuring costs then that will be in close to your point I don't think we're truly measuring the costs yet appropriately thank you Hi I'm Glenn Katie here um one of my questions is how are you with group work slash committee work are you really dedicated to finding out all the answers and do you volunteer for a lot of work and are you in this for the long term because we've had two candidates not fulfill their term in the last couple years so I personally would like someone who's dedicated to understand the process through work and actually contributing their opinion um and being heard so what's your take I appreciate it thank you I think ultimately um you know I work great in groups um I like to think that I have done performance evaluation in 70 different cities around the world um and for these headhunters out of Boston uh it's a marketing and creative firm I did that for a while a couple a decade for a decade and a half um part of that process in working with teams and getting that feedback is you know I'm seeing all this data of teamwork and how people are you know what are the successful pieces so is able to profile for for my client at the time um how do you you know what is the successful dynamic for a group to get things done and so I've seen a lot of that and I think I could bring that to the equation I think I've led some things with like at the Green Mountain Club you know we did some really fantastic work uh you know it's for two three years I was probably two years that I was involved with those guys and I think that's the kind of um you know I almost feel like I don't want to give up these volunteer positions when they end but sometimes life just pulls you I don't really want to get into this for just a year um I mean just for a month but if it was at least a year to get us through a period you know that I can do um there may be things in the future that uh you know it may just make sense to stay on the team but I tend to do the work I tend to a lot of them work you know in the homework so that I make sure that I'm not dropped off for the rest of the group just so we have enough time for everyone else is there anyone that has questions if they're quick otherwise I think you need to move on I do have a quick I'll try to make it well it comes in answer um but it's Danny here and I appreciate so much of what you had to say about the community the residents input um and particularly the economic impact but I didn't hear much by way of um the students and that the kids in the school so I'm curious your interest your passion your dedication what what about this position um in terms of the actual students interest you that's really great thank you Danny I appreciate that you know that was one thing that I forgot you know gloss over the fact that I have three kids in here and it's not that I just was afraid of leading with that a little bit too much that it was going to be all warm and fuzzy I have kids you know I want to serve them um we need smart professional people not necessarily um someone that looks like me right it just people that will be committed to our community that care about things uh you know my daughter's on the rec committee right now around the um the recreation department as a camp counselor uh I think it's important to instill work values in our kids um and serving our community so I'll try to keep it brief but you know I've definitely done a lot of volunteer work I try not to take on too much that I'm not you know so that I'm I'm not on multiple boards so that I can just have a resume I want to be involved in something I'm passionate about um and make sure things get done and then when I can't be a service I'll step down um but that's kind of where I'm coming at coming out from thanks Glenn um I want to make sure we have enough time for everyone else thank you for your time if you want to stick around just in case we have any questions towards the end that would be great definitely you mind if I put you on mute and do the block out on the video that's fine yep thanks thank you all right thanks for your patience uh next up is victoria and how do you see your last name terababa great thank you for your story okay if you want to come up here you have to speak a little out because this little thing like spin around yeah here's fine that's perfect yeah go ahead and introduce yourself and wave questions okay so my name is victoria terahala I go by Tory um I recently moved here I'm going on my third year in Vermont with my partner he grew up here I grew up in Florida um winter has not frozen yet I fully enjoyed it we landed in Waterbury about a few years ago and I got my roots down settled ready to jump into the community um that being said I know I haven't been here a long time I am a newcomer um then that brings some efforts too you know I can bring a different perspective I you know I'm really really wonderful at listening I enjoy hearing everybody's input on everything and then adding my own little insight on you know I have substitute taught at schools in Florida and I have helped out at schools in Mississippi my friends are teachers and administrators throughout the nation so I constantly hear about the struggles that they face and the innovations and ideas that they bring to their tables which I think could be an asset in this position that I could bring um I I always I know you had a question about group work I think eight when you're in a group and you suddenly see that small quiet person getting shoulder to heart so that is one thing I make a point of is making sure that everybody's heard because sometimes people have an amazing idea and they're just a little nervous so I like to make sure that things are heard and considered properly and that being said I know that I know that students around here everybody's very concerned that we lost a lot of education time in COVID and with all the teachers working in doing school plans they they're exhausted they don't want to do some of the programs but some of the some of the parents even some of the students are like we'll shoot an hour behind like what do we do um I think one of the important things to do would be to see how much the teachers can contribute but not try to push them and then also work with parents to see what can be done I mean I know when I was growing up we were all sent home massive workbooks over the summer like here complete this and we'll give you a little visit at the beginning to make sure your parent didn't do all this in the summer which could be could be something to be considered um I I really I really love this community and I want to get involved and I thought this was a big start as far as my background I am an attorney and I work in Burlington as part of going to law school you learn to think of well what's the worst thing that could happen with that decision and bring some ideas I kind of avoid that so that is another thing I could bring to a table um I am open to questions if we want to start that or actually keep going on about my background so we'll see you guys um any questions I'm Tori I'm like glad to meet you uh following up on my initial question I know you've come from two states that are very conservative in nature Florida and Mississippi how do you relate to how they treat education funding compared to how we treat education funding how would you look at it on our school board right so I will be the first student watching Mississippi Black Education Fund in this slightly worrisome facility um I come from the southeast part of Florida so the coast and it is generally much less conservative yeah than the rest of the state so that's kind of my background in seeing that um but I do know you are concerned about the rising costs of it and I know a lot of people are and I I will admit I don't know enough on where those costs are going and I think that'd be a good place to start you know if it's going towards building and repairing we have a lot of contractors that live in this area you know how could they help us out with those costs you know and sourcing it from the parent community and going along with that you know just going towards even lunch costs you know a lot of things depend on a school to provide food to them um how could we source it from farms if we're not already could be an idea um you know and technology books I I feel like the library is a hugely underutilized resource and maybe we could move them in and help us out with the cost somehow too like I said I don't know where those costs are going right now but that could definitely be or it would be one of my first questions of let's look into that and see what can be done to figure this out and not jump up the cost much more in the future. Okay thank you. I'm Dan. I'm from Fort Lauderdale originally so you too. I'm curious if you had a chance to look at any of the videos of past scoreboard meetings from the district or read any of the minutes and kind of get a little bit up to date on some yeah so I read some of the minutes um I know one of the more recent ones was you know do you apply the fact that Black Lives Matter flag um which is a very large area of controversy um I did enjoy that they tabled it you know I was like hey maybe this is a very good time right now but we're going to table this and we're not totally shooting down this idea um that being said I think you know I don't want to start with the question cost but um it's amazing how many new authors have come into the light or even old authors have come into the light of minority authors and ones that just haven't been looked at anymore um and I think it'd be really cool to have the opportunity to sub some of that material in instead of the more traditional probably controversial like huff and slayer one but I mean you could find the perspective of that but any better more learning from a racially sensitive way too. I have a similar question to Dan he says basically what have you heard because in our high school we're tackling infrastructure problems and updating the building needed a lot of repair and we're talking about consolidating middle schools and if we're talking about cutting costs it's usually extra programs like sports or the clubs that come first so and do you have any like background with dealing with side of being lawyer situations and how you would work together with other different towns that are dealing with problems of their own like specifically basin doesn't want you to go to school so having a lot of different issues come at you at once how do you delegate that and how do you deal with that? Right um sometimes uh so I when I was younger we did a lot of moving so I didn't get to buy my third down to a year which was frustrating but also makes this the chance I get um but one of the things I did in law school is I did head one of our fundraising committees and it involved and I was one of the representatives for our class and it involved a lot of weighing everybody else's opinions and viewpoints in it and trying to trying to reach an agreement with them and I totally understand based on all of your school passing kids takes a lot of time and resources and we feel like we're losing that but small class sizes to the point where you have five kids in a class isn't really the most conducive thing either towards education you know and we have limited resources on teachers too so if we gather them and kind of bundle the resources that are I think we're going to explain it to hopefully address some concerns as they come but um maybe we'll be helpful and then so that would you know hopefully help at least a little bit but take a while more time um and as far as like infrastructure with the schools have found the right one um I I do not get on to you watch that video um I did where I was with the hand floor at one point work for the purchasing contract that we do not count and so I have learned how to kind of assess a bit of you know but still those often but also look at who's actually qualified to do this work um and get it out to the community which could be often if that wasn't what you can consider but imagine that um it's a you know start that process so this is the what's going to need to be done and who you can come in and know about this you know also please try to get me qualified uh to be really good at and keep the budget in mind. Hi my name is Chris um I'll just start by saying when you're introducing yourself saying that you just moved here and you know let your new company whatever um I don't want you to feel out of place because of that um you know I've been ridiculed by some people for uh touting at times that you know in the native remonder and there's a certain mindset that comes with that but um to me a remonder isn't being a remonder isn't necessarily that you were born here it's what's in here and what's in here that makes the living um um and I know there's a lot of people that call themselves the momeners that I would not because they're just bad people um so other than that um I appreciate you stepping up um some of the things that you talked about are very good issues um I think our school system is broken it's been broken for a long time um when I left school at 17 I couldn't get out of there fast enough um I made a career in the industrial arts and construction and then I contacted for 40 years some of your ideas um um I appreciate you know about lowest bidder and this unfortunately our government has set forth guidelines that pretty much shackle um communities through certain protocol when it comes to commercial projects um certain guidelines certain rules certain and a lot of it is what's costing us way more to build these structures than we really could do one more I know because we've been through a lot of this like this in the municipal building fire station other instructors that um quite honestly people like me can shake my head at you know at the outrageous college part of it is orchestrated by these rules as well because when it comes to taxpayer dollars it's a free fall um anybody's position on the school board from waterbury who's spaced with some pretty heavy headwinds from people in the other five communities from communities worse than others where in from what I understand um it doesn't matter what it costs to educate our kids they'll they want to pay it no matter what even though it's driving other people in other communities out of their homes if you watch the tax rates in the last number of years education has always a huge part of the increase municipalities like waterbury for instance like I'm assuming you guys went with a 52 a cent tax rate here 51 okay so that's down from what we had proposed earlier in the year not knowing our revenue sources what now we were proposing 53 we went to 52 one of the big reasons was to help offset the increase in education that's a never-ending battle um and you know I wanted to make a couple comments before yes so I appreciate your comments um whoever does get elected to our position means it's going to have their hands full um I think you're here to do it uh if you want to say um I tried to describe to my dad why vermont and I said it's one of the two places that I got him and I got like him so uh I understand you like that um and thank you for getting me insight on some of those challenges and procedures that you guys face uh and one of the things I yes I did a whole traditional education out of law school and stuff um but my younger brother was one of the my school son out please don't go to any more school uh so I've seen alongside I mean I do I do agree with what I'm saying also is there needs to be some kind of input and value based on technical schooling also because we're losing so many kids you know there's that fault we can't judge the fish by their ability to climb trees some kids just aren't cut out the book they don't want to do book learning additional learning but they would be amazing carpenters and metal workers and everything yeah and and do anything part of it you need to shift a little bit well I think we need to move on thank you and please stick around and see if we have any other questions Scott so introduction my name is Scott Oliver like when you're 30 I've had four I have four full grown adult boys who've all made it through the school system they've offered sports they all did extracurricular they've all moved on to college to work in the school system now my wife was a secretary at the most for 15 years she just finished up her tenure there and that's just going to go on and start her own business so it was like no pretty fun um I've been working very closely inside of this with the town but I was at the town with the school board and then having conversations with many of the board members that are already there um they did run last last election when I missed it by a handful of votes and I was pretty disappointed but now I was also even more disappointed than I found out with this appointment where this suggestion of a candidate for this group is only until the next time meeting because I was looking in for the full two and a half let's get this thing rolling and make something happen so I'm happy to be back and do the reading and I stand around that for the future um my background I have about 30 and a half years of the agency interpretation as an occupational health and safety manager that means not only did I go out there and teach employees on how to run fault protection working over water equipment cdl you name it we did I also with the guy in the ditch with the shovel and also the guy in the plastic mold tonight making sure those safety things are keeping up here um in the community I've been a 32-year employee at the one's mobile part-time this is part-time it's actually about hours a week so it's holding off our time as a matter of fact we didn't even do the actual work for the state today I was thought I was at the store helping um like I said I'm very very excited about this whole thing I think there's a lot of stuff that's been done real well um I call the don'ts mobile money in a copy shop I have many conversations on many levels and many backgrounds with many people it's pretty interesting to like a liaison to the group to be able to bring them to another and I think that's what we need here between our you know our our watery towns like board as well as the higher union like school districts to have some more of those talking time talks to see what the community members are really thinking and if you can wiggle under the fence and you can get some of that information you can bring it back and you can bring it back at positive fashion that's what we're going to do in this computer um budgets we now talk about budgets right now with COVID it's like you know I work regular construction now in the next three years I also do operational health and safety there and then helping manage a 30 million dollar building renovation in uh our method right now and I'm just probably about costs rising costs of materials so give you a perfect example three four the sheet of uh federated cvx filing with $50 a sheet when they ordered it for $157 a sheet when we got it so what do you think cost is that due to hours of budget when we're talking from 30 40 million we're trying to couple in education books staff and retirements I mean it's just both mine and it's really gotta be fine to decide how we're gonna do this we need to move forward in the financial portion as well as thinking of the kids and you know the process first and see what we can do to make things better um like I said with this with the COVID going on I think everybody's been strapped um there's a lot of people that aren't working a lot of people who continue to not work and uh you know a lot of the need that's going on in the community right now especially with the food programs that have happened you know it's these are the things that we need to concentrate on and move forward I think being that liaison between the community is being able to sit down and have these people talk to us especially to be able to take the line that was on the budget and find everything down and figure out where we can make some cuts in costs and changes to better our education program as well as meet the taxpayers needs I think we're gonna have a lot more a lot more community support and a lot more understanding on how the process is going to go so that's you know this we want to give you my introduction that great questions I'll address it maybe a little bit different like as you address some of the issues that I did have how do you feel if you would advise the school board on controlling funds you know directly number one and have to understand how where the costs are how the costs are brought to the table where they come from um what what's coming by federal money it's happening by account money who's who's who's who's who's that the most scared to do in the fiscal power and then when you don't understand the dynamics what are we playing because budgets aren't just one year at a time and that's how they do budgets are two to five maybe ten depending on what we're doing if we're going to put together a building we're going to add on and expand on the cost of the middle school like we were discussing this not this isn't going to be a one-year venture where you're going to put $70 because I remember when they built cross the middle school they had 80 federal funding they could have turned around and built an entire building for an elementary school over there when they put that store the tuition they only paid 20 percent of cost they said we put we had a bond for $7 million for wanted elementary school that wanted in 12.7 million dollars okay and we move forward with that so now we're back in the same same situation again which also protrudes from the higher costs in you know the way like this and the inflation is moving a lot faster than what people's you know rate of things are so we've really got to think about that and you think about the senior citizens who live here I'm a four-generation watery resident you know I own two properties and I look at my tax phone I go two jobs two I mean I understand we all play we all have to do it and then we have the new ones you know the new people that want to come in who want to make an impact in the community who better hope they have a really big checkbook or a really good job because they're not going to fit in you know some they're not going to get to make it in this community so we're really taxed at the same time on lots of levels and then we go ask them for 40 million bucks and then we say well this is what we want to do this is what I'm going to do I just I don't know how it's all going to shape together and I think that's more like a discussion for board as well as the other school board members coming to their respective counties and saying hey guys what are we doing what are we thinking about what's what do you want to see come out of this based in I think that's a perfect place to have that conversation with their liaisons to the school board is because like just like we should have been here and then see what happens from there because there's a lot of dynamics we're talking about busing we're talking about the non-time of the children who spend on these buses you know and then all breaks into dollars and cents and like Katie said then you start cutting deal between the cross and soccer and you want to put four million dollars into a tracking field like they're discussing because they want to hold events where's the money going to come it's just each one and you don't have any accountability on what we could have done two years prior or you know or plans for five years ahead to make these types of things happen I love this community I did it my entire life I don't know how to move I bought a second home because I want my grandson my two-year-old grandson to remind you to live in this town and guess where he is is a quarter mile from my house so it's one of those things where I'm invested in it investing for 15 years you know I'm a small town guy I do small town stuff I've also had enough experience by my back and construction trade with both the state of Vermont as well as Englebrook construction and I've got enough community assets back to court between like coffee tops at the store as well as community members and Howard Union's like school districts from district members from other towns who are already bouncing things off with me every single day so to me it's just going to be slide in and let's get to work and hopefully I can make a good impact with everybody with that basis from you know from that small end of the table to March and then have another opportunity to uh to go into what to re-reliable for another longer to be returned so that's where did I answer your question answered very well first thank you yeah I'll just clarify like Scott said whoever gets appointed serves until March of 2022 and then the seat will be a two-year unfiltered two-year term through vote through a vote through a vote so outside of budget concerns which is such a huge part of it what are some of the concerns or main topics that you heard from folks that you talk about that you talked with and or that you have as well everybody's always always everybody who always asks me what's this going to cost that's what the biggest concern that everybody has in in some ways that's a great thing because I think they're inside of that budget area like they're you know using their own chat book to pay their bills but on the other side of it there it's it's a little concerned at the same time because there are things that we really have to do with you know buying together and push ahead to try to get done to make it better for everybody else you know we we've talked a lot about the the the swapping of the seventh and eighth grade to the middle school how the K-5 program runs after school programs meal plans like I said my wife my wife worked there for a couple and a half years right from the office to the whole entire town of automations Miss Donna and everybody you know had her here and then I had a little she got home and I would share some of those concerns with some of the board members that occur on the setup map so it's there's a whole a whole game of the things and I think the biggest one is to make sure that we give our community the best education we can as well as considering and making sure that the other the other towns in this unified school district are also in good faith doing the same things like I said I mean I don't I don't really know how they break down how that $30 million high it's what I think the number of pounds or how their tax rates are based I don't know any of that I think that's because you get you get the information and it's just why I'm not the one I'm not the one I didn't just drive the crazy because you know that one I'm that one line ends at seven sub parks so one of the other seven sub parks and if you don't use it in that line I don't raise the money though could we have used it to keep those 14 groups going could we have used it to better the education of our students by notebooks and you know this is a regular budget or well I think the bond the bond to me is it's the same thing it's a humongous list of line items that you're not quite sure how things are I don't know if the checks and balances are in place and I've never really done that you know but that's shame on me for doing so as well shame on anybody else's number but yeah so did I answer as long as you're answering your question yeah I mean if that was here I'm just curious if there are other concerns or passions of yours but you talked about like you said there's a lot of things up there really needs some fine tuning in there's some great programs out there that need more funding be better programs you know just like I said it's a matter of how how are we going to take that that part of money and how are you going to distribute it throughout every program every every basis or infrastructure um new you know new concepts how are we going to how are we going to drive all that in and then everybody's going to buy into it at the same time so it's a poker game you know it's who's you know who's the better conference to put it with money and you can talk to the other questions you know they'll send me a message saying that I know what I thought about I don't know that I've ever thought about actually being on the school board I've always said that's where you should be in order to be a school board member and to be an effective school board member I've looked through some of the budgeting process we know the line hoodings you really need to know the internal parts of all those line hoodings as to how the money we use might be the money and how it's spent and where in order to try to create a better budget yep um to know where you can make changes that doesn't maybe impact or does impact the quality of the education that we're getting that's a difficult task I don't believe probably there's too many people on the board that have done that or has had the opportunity to dive into all those like line items um the other thing that you touched on that was you know that I think people are not maybe necessarily aware of this inflation thing the fact that we have done what we've done in the last year or the year and a half with all this printed money has basically watered down the value of the dollar to the point where it's creating this inflationary effect um and I think the impact through people who are either on the cluster of retiring will have retired with certain nest eggs are now looking at a nest egg with large percentage less than what it was due to the cost increases of everything and I kind of wonder you know I've been reading articles about different things wonder prices aren't going back to where they were then you'll never see that again the increases are somewhat here to stay I think as supply has burned up um you'll see the price has come down a little bit but you know you're going to be faced quarters on that board it's going to be faced with whatever bonds but it gets put forward is this going to work for the cost that's right but I honestly believe it should be checked balance so if you're if the communities together are looking together for a million dollar bond I don't know about anybody else but I really like to know that my money's gone and if we have to have a secondary auditing system to make sure that we have this money going somewhere it's going to break it's to be and not not spending it you know hastily because we ask for it and we're going to buy pools if we don't spend it or we can't ask for more than next year I live that way before I work for an agency and I don't want to live that way anymore so the checks and balances thinkers I did it I understand but like I said that's where that two to five year plan comes in that's where we need to we need to trust our school system to make sure that they have those checks and balances in place to where the money that we ask for that we say this is what we need to be able to operate for this one year basis okay then that money is allocating the way it needs to be done a COVID year you know I just gave you the example of the 200% cheap apply I mean you want to put a whole building up at 300% I mean it's going to it's going to thank you you're 40 million dollars is going to go to half the building that you want to go to seven million dollars and whether it's seven million or three million it's still not the year to do it because everything is so inflated that that money that we're asking the taxpayers for that really probably don't even have the money to be able to sustain what they have with the rate of inflation on top of it how do how do we figure it out so I'm me personally I'm looking at trying to bring positive ideas to the table I'm trying to get information from the community to be that liaison to say hey I had a conversation that who knows that's shot so after for 45 minutes well believe it or not 45 minutes if you put your hourly rate on it you spend a lot of time in volunteer you guys sit in here every day for hours your research for hours um you try to do the best for everybody at any given time and you've ever printed as a member of so hats off to everyone we're taking the time to do that because something just go to him because they don't want to do it they just want to complain so when you get six people in a room really really really hard to do what their goal is to do what they can I thought of this when you want to do same thing with the school board I didn't see a salary line on what they were going to pay us to do this I understand that the the reap and the benefits is is the better community the better education system and try to make me affordable for everybody that's here and they can work you know our businesses you know um our backgrounds our heritage is um new people coming in I mean that's that's what this is all about just to build if we could build a community on education then that's the best one because here's your leaders in the future all right we got to wrap it up just because we need to chat too but thank you very much you're very welcome um yeah any other I mean uh we might have gone a little long it's about any of the other candidates want a minute or two follow yeah it's all right if I just great thanks Mark so quick two minutes yeah I got you I just wanted to say thank you to everybody there um at first I thought 10 minutes was allocated for each of us to talk and then there'd be a question session so my apologies okay um second secondly I just wanted to compliment you know the candidates yeah let me just try to do this can you hear me okay better can you can you hear me now uh yeah just try to speak loudly maybe it's just the volume of our speaker that we have all right well so long story short I just wanted to compliment everybody there and say thank you to the candidates for also sharing just as a waterberry member you know I think that's I think we're going to be in good hands no matter what um but long story short I just want to ask about if anybody knows before this board the school board meeting what was the outcome of the weighted percentage of waterberries vote on the board and I mean I followed it a little bit but does the select board have any thoughts on that specific issue and that's pretty much it thank you guys um last time I knew it was the valley actually had to be one percent and we had 49 percent but that was a couple years ago so don't help me okay okay thank you guys thanks Scott um do we I don't know so basically I think tonight we have to make a decision on whether or not we yeah you can deliberate I mean you've got a training you can after the training is done if you want to talk about it okay all right can we do that I think that we can't just put all three people on board I like that we might have a table they all and everyone's again aware of the process we recommend yes yeah right it's still the school board's ultimate procedure I would just like to thank Tom Drake who's the principal across the book for coming attending and listening to these candidates so it's important to you so thank you thanks for playing out thank you um okay yeah we're going to a private session thank you very much thank you guys thank you guys yep so we're heading out yeah we're gonna do a little right after the training so I'm just I'm leaving zone we're leaving zone