 Since the agenda approved the minutes of Thursday, October 20th, it was the board retreat. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the board retreat. Back at it. Is there any discussion on those minutes? All right. Hearing none, so moved. Approved the minutes of Tuesday, October 25th. It was a regular board meeting. I make a motion to approve the October 25th minutes. So moved by Sarah, seconded by Rodney. Is there any discussion on those minutes? Hearing none, so moved. Board correspondence slash communications. You can just say we received a complaint about policy A1. We did receive a complaint about policy A1 and it is on the agenda for discussion. And action tonight. Is there any other board correspondence that anybody needs? Public comment. Seems like we have some public on. So I'll go through. I have a tweet. Davis, do you have any public comment? Hilary Hoffman. Hi, sorry, it took me a minute to turn on my camera and my microphone. I did have a public comment to offer, but was going to wait until after. Are there two public comment periods or is this the only one? Just one tonight. Just one, okay. And what's the rule for public comment? Is it three minutes? Usually I try to keep it to one minute, but one minute, okay. We have a fairly good size of agenda to get through. Yes, okay, thank you. I just wanted to briefly speak as a resident of Royalton and a parent of three children who are currently attending the White River School District and one who's graduated from. The White River School District. I wanted to speak and address the board and ask the board to dismiss the complaint that has been, I guess you could say filed. I'm not sure what the procedure is, but presented to the board. I'm in addition to being a parent and resident, I'm also an attorney. I'm licensed in Vermont. I've read through the complaint. And I don't see a basis for this complaint that's described in the complaint itself. So I don't see any rule or policy specific to the supervisory union or the school board that has been alleged to be violated in this complaint. I think that anyone who's been paying attention to the conversation that's been going on in the broader community understands that the complainant in this case has a disagreement with a school board member over a policy position that that school board member has adopted and has spoken publicly about. To me, that's not something that should be punished or sanctioned or receive consequences in any way. I think as an attorney, the first things that come to my mind are the First Amendment rights of all of the members of our community. I think whenever a government body starts to consider taking action that in any way limits or possibly chills the free speech rights of a community member, that that's a really sort of slippery slope to walk down. So that's one reason that I would encourage the dismissal of this complaint. I also wanted to express my support for the school board member to whom and against whom this complaint has been filed. I understand that the facts and circumstances of this case go far beyond this complaint and that this board member has been subject to other conduct outside the context of the school board that I find highly objectionable and highly concerning. So in short, I reply, I'm requesting that the supervisor union dismiss this complaint. Thank you. Thank you. Kate Jarvis. Do you have any public comment, Kate? No, I didn't raise my hand to speak. I've already filed my complaint, so I've said what I need to say at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Kate. Marty? Good evening. I have no comments. Thank you, Marty. Michelle, Samma. Thank you, Michelle. We have an unknown caller on if there's any comment you would like to make. Thank you, Maggie. Now we have Maggie. If you have to go, Marianna, it's okay. Unknown caller, last call. So just to add, I know, Marianne, there was a mention of you being able to go. When we do get to one of our action items, one of our voting members have to recuse themselves, and that would put us not having a quorum to take action. So if you can stay on, I'd greatly appreciate it. The quick, you have my report in hand. Lots of great stuff happening around the SU. I did want to just mention that there's a couple of discussion items that will be able to provide some updates on under discussion in that I sent you all a note. One has been, the motion on the Lincoln conversation was that they'll become their own supervisory district board, moving forward and operational for July 1, so that conversation is over at this time, and I'll take any questions folks may have. It's hard to believe it's already November 22nd. It is the fastest school year I have experienced thus far, maybe just because I'm not doing COVID calls all weekend long. It is flying. I just wanted to thank Jamie for his hard work and Tara and everybody else in the central office around the Lincoln School District. It was really, you were great and really appreciate all the hard work you put into that. Thank you. I know there was also a bunch of community members who sent their letters to the big board and I fully believe that their participation was also very helpful in swerving the mind of the board, so I'm glad I did it to them. Bill, you had your hand up? Yeah, hi. I just wanted to mention that last week was a Wildcat night at the White River Valley High School and they invited all eighth graders to come to the High School and meet fellow students, get a tour, have a wonderful food, and meet a number of teachers and their specialties. And I had the privilege of attending that and this is one of the things that we talked about. I know it's big as a priority that we explain and show what a great facility and great teaching institution we have and we encourage students that are moving ahead after eighth grade to strongly consider our high school as a suitable choice and I was impressed with what I met and talked with and I just wanted to thank those that convened that and encouraged that to continue because it's as we all agree is very, very important. So thank you. Thanks Bill. I'm glad you were able to go. The Rudd board members and I were in a board meeting that night so we didn't see it. But thank you. The questions and discussion for Jamie? Chief, happy to meet you. Yes, thank you. You also have my report, the sort of the highlights there are that we continue to expand our system of supports for all students. We're in the midst of another six-week cycle. Not every school done the exact same six-week cycle but in terms of monitoring progress of students and ensuring that we're sort of targeting what skills they may need and doing intervention that way. We've been meeting with interventionists and their principals and the data teams to continue to build that out at each of our schools. In terms of proficiency-based learning, again we're working on that at all of our levels and the middle school math team started a couple weeks ago and met again yesterday. The high school will be meeting again in the beginning of December working on their proficiencies and elementary teachers are right now getting very familiar with their new report card. Some of which will look very familiar and some which has a little bit new fielding questions from teachers looking for just support around what proficiency might mean. Are they interpreting it the way that others are and so we're doing a lot of support that way just to ensure that folks know what are the kind of the end goals that we're looking for in each grade level. And then I think the last piece is around the updates on the assessment system and the state assessment and Superintendents sent out a message last week to our community with the most updated information we have on Pognia which is what's replacing Smarter Balance or SBAC and we continue to have just about that much information what we have we've shared with you around the new assessment. We anticipate being trained at the SU level in January on it and then being able to roll that out to our buildings hopefully in February and so folks will feel ready for the state summit of testing window which opens in people this year. I'm happy to take any questions on anything in the report or anything else that's come up. Anybody got any questions for Onda? Hi, thank you Onda I really appreciate it um I've been doing some so I will I like what I have read about Pognia which is not very much there's just there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information out there yet for the public um I did read an article I think in the Burlington Free Price about the state's efforts to map SBAC scores somehow onto Pognia so that we would have some fluidity in how we're measuring and I wondered if you could speak to that at all. That's a that's basically what we've heard that part of the contract with Pognia is that they will do that work to show sort of how the new assessment um aligns to sort of levels of performance in the in the previous assessment so I that's part of their sort of scope of work that they're expected to do and I'm guessing that will come out sort of after all of the Vermont students take it this spring and then they can map it on so I don't know if that will I don't know how that will affect the timing of which when all the results will come out we certainly had sort of delayed timing on on smarter balance side which I don't know if that's a smarter balance thing or if it's a Vermont thing but that that you could imagine that might impact when we see the results statewide for the next one if they're trying to do that mapping ahead of time. Sure I guess I'm a little concerned that we've put so much effort into being able to track kids and I you know I'm sure that I'm not alone in the worry that this is starting having to start all over and start to collect so for years more worth it. Yeah. Um so I will continue to if but please if anything else comes up if you would share it with us. Thank you. All right. Bill. Two questions. One is on track my progress. It sounds like that it's a viable measurement tool that really provides credible useful specific information that teachers can use and our support teams can use to help the kids move forward and I just wanted to have you tell us whether this is an instrument that you have faith and confidence in moving forward or is it a possibility that in every other year we're going to be moving on to something else. How do you score that instrument right now on and then I'll give you a second question. So I do I don't have any plans to to change the benchmark assessment that we're using. I do think it's giving us really valuable data particularly at the student and classroom level in terms of understanding sort of how students are grappling with the material that's at their grade level. You know where they've got their strengths and where they need some more support and our teachers and interventions and administrators have been sort of becoming more and more familiar with that especially with the schools and districts that it's new to this fall. So I don't think that's I don't think that we'll we have any plans to change that if nothing changes on track my progress aside. I can't guarantee any companies these days and I think what we what's also encouraging is that they are working on some additional materials and tools that we might be able to use. We've tried out a diagnostic which you might use with not all students like we use the benchmark but you would use with some students to get some more information. They are developing one for the English language art side that should be ready. I've heard in February so I think as their tools also continue to develop it'll become an increasingly more useful tool for us as long as we're able to align those directly to what sort of actions we take with those tools. Thank you. Second question has to do with the mood, the feeling, the feedback from our universal instruction teachers and our interventionists and our special education support team. They've had a chance to see the results of the fall testing. They've convened in teams they've analyzed it. What's the mood out there is do we have a as our team feeling that these scores not only must improve but will improve because they have a sense of how to do it and they have the teamwork to accomplish moving us forward in achievement. What's what can you tell us out there Anna? That's a good question Bill. I think in general our teachers express a lot of optimism for what they and our students are able to do together. I think in places where we see growth there's certainly excitement around that particularly around areas that we've had some really good attention in the last year or two. Maybe for instance kind of early elementary math where we I think our students are really benefiting from having a consistent approach from even pre-k to k to first grade and segregated for seeing the results of that. I think in places where the performance level performance is lower than we would like and maybe even then we expected there's a sense of all right we've got to really dig into this and what other additional supports do we need. I think in some cases we've had folks reach out and say I'm not quite sure what to do next. I have tried this and this and this and I need something else to happen and so in those conversations we're looking at some professional development we're looking at are there other schools inside or outside of our SU who might be using a similar curriculum approach that we could go do some observations. So we're kind of reaching out at different levels. In my report I talked about sort of the multiple ways that we're sort of tackling some of these some of the gaps that we have and that's I think both through being really clear on proficiencies getting better materials in front of our teachers and students really upping the game on professional learning and then also using data to make better decisions. So I think those four prongs are really important and they're all sort of pulling hopefully in the same direction and in different places we're sort of relying on one or more of them in different ways. So it's always hard to capture sort of the the 10 different schools in in one tone but I think in general that's that's where we are and we certainly know there's and our teachers and administrators know that there's more work to be done certainly in a couple of really particular areas. Thank you. All right guys anything else Caronda? Hi you also have my report and just something new that I wanted to start this month was just doing like a spotlight on the new rule changes that are currently taking place and then you know one or two that are coming next July because there are so many. I just thought I know I'm giving giving you the link where it has all the comparisons and it's a really long list but I just thought a nice little spotlight on some that are super duper important would just be really helpful. So my first spotlight for this month is the parental input section which really what that is is on the IEP itself they now have included on the present level food an actual section that says parental input which gives parents an opportunity in the meeting to just have their voice about what they think is important for the team to know that maybe wasn't already discussed but then also when the meeting is over and they receive a copy of the IEP in the mail there's actually a parental input form that goes home that the top section is almost like a a small reflection about the process itself like how it felt for them how it read for them and then there's a bottom section that again gives another opportunity for them to give any sort of feedback or information to the team that they think would be important that may or may not need to be included in the IEP just because some parents you know when they attend meetings can be a little shy or they feel intimidated or whatnot at the meeting so just kind of giving them some private time to write something down it's just like another another outlet so I think it's actually a wonderful addition to the process so that's the parental input section and then I included to me and started talking about in October about the possible position of like a 5-0 section 5-0-4 coordinator or whatnot and I said I would just kind of dig up some information so I included that in my report as well currently in in what we call docu-spend which is like our database system there are 64 section 5-0-4 plans in there so that's su-wide the largest number being at the high school with 24 students I did also send out kind of a you know a poll to some of our directors here in the area just asking them you know if they have a position that's similar to this you know what does that look like you know what do their numbers look like I did get some responses back and they all do have a position that's similar again we all know the titles are different everywhere you go some do call it a 5-0-4 coordinator some call it something else but the main focus when I found hearing back from everyone is if their main focus is high school they all have more plans section 5-0-4 plans at the high school level so what the person focuses on is case managing at the high school level but then working on compliance at the other levels and training making sure everyone is properly trained filtering through all everyone's questions that come through on a daily basis etc so that's what you know those that particular position works on in other districts in the numbers range when I talk to the director and not pillar their person has 65 they can't manage 65 which 65 would be pretty much our entire supervisory union at this point there are still plans being uploaded you know on a what feels like a bi-weekly basis but other other districts they just like they contract or they give like stipends to what they feel as student leaders or teacher leaders to case manage plans but there's no kind of training or compliance or anything affiliated with that it's just it's just straight case management so yeah so it really it really varied but the thing that was consistent was that they all did focus just on case managing high school and that they really did focus on kind of compliance also around that position so that's what was consistent so just some things to think about when you know Tara does the budget later on yeah any questions good evening everyone you have my report which outlines the happenings in the business office throughout the month of December so i'll answer any questions you have on that otherwise i'll come back later any questions guys as i uh bring up my report uh you've heard about the transition from aspectic copy of my department will help support in that and uh also supporting the new elementary report cards we had a good training for teachers yesterday feedback on that and um it looks like our adm is up about two percent so two percent it's in the right direction let's cross the s u and uh i will entertain uh any questions couldn't get five right i believe we counted every student we are we'll take two all right it's in the right direction policy committee update we had a policy committee meeting right before this maybe Maggie do you want to keep an eye on her oh Maggie right on the spot put you right on the spot Maggie been our spokesperson you're doing a great job so i don't want to mess it up i did are you the right you have the right person Sylvia's done it to it well i'm glad i finished my supper um hold up i don't have late so isn't that how that works you give it to the people that you get assigned things when you're not here yet sorry i was coughing right into the microphone my apologies okay so the policy committee continues to explore the concept of flags and perhaps differentiating what is a flag what is a banner there was um so we had um uh the one of the lawyers who actually wrote the policy join us today to help clarify what was written so far and one of the directives that we or directions actually that we we went in after last month's meeting was um after a question came up about the Supreme Court ruling regarding a school in Boston that had a flag policy and concern of perhaps we should just limit um our flag polls to flying the United States flag and the Vermont flag only what we understood then from the lawyer Marilyn i can't remember her last name um was that the school in Boston had maybe three flag polls and so the last flag poll held um some um there was conflict there because the way that they had written it anyone could fly a flag regardless and there was some concern of you know what are we walking ourselves into where where it seems to stand right now and please folks direct me if i'm uh going the wrong way um is that we are wondering our if the language should be written of flags flown inside the school or outside the school is a flag limited to a flagpole and if it's not on the flagpole is it a banner and then do we have we have language for that and um and then just clarifying the policy or the procedures rather of how someone a student group would move toward putting like requesting to fly their flag and they would have um you know to articulate why it's important what it represents so they have to do they have some things some processes to go through but it's not so overwhelming that a student group couldn't do that um right now i think oh and then where where does the decision get made is it the individual school boards making the decision about the flag or banner or is it ultimately like the supervisory union that helps make the decision um within the with for the local boards it seems that we're a little conflicted in there's not i don't know if conflicted is the right word but we're not um unanimous with um people's hopes and concerns and so conversations are still happening and we're going to come back next month to talk more about flags versus banners within or without and i think we left it stacy or shannon or whoever was else was there i was on the phone so i couldn't see everyone um yeah are we um keeping is it going to be written for the school board making the decision or the local boards um i don't think are we exploring both because i think is where we're landing and we do at stacy is also going to check for us to see other schools that have policies find out how it's going for them if any any issues are coming up so we can kind of know about that but i think you nailed it maggie that's pretty much where we are we don't have a flag policy yet but we're we're working toward figuring out what that looks like for us and we'll keep bringing you back for information as we continue but thank you maggie you know i i actually respond well when i don't have a lot of time to overthink i'm just i didn't have kale in my teeth you were great bill now hi maggie thank you for uh that a summary of of the hard work of the policy committee um i'm aware i think there's been two drafts that i've been shared with me one was dated in september and that we had informal conversation at the su level and then i believe the community the policy committee reconvene talked about it more had legal council council and have a draft here that's dated november and so and i was looking at the two of them and they it looks like you've made some some substantial changes uh in language and in scope and i'm wondering whether you might highlight um the major differences between the first draft and the second draft where you're where you're going with that and in particular i was looking at the whole question about the policy on using our flagpole that currently has the american flag and the state flag for other flags and um i had to read it very very very carefully and i think i've figured out what the second draft is is uh all about but i i needed to hear from you i bill i don't um thank you for the compliment of thinking that i understand all the nuances of the language shift um i i don't um and some of that is because i was operating on the phone call so it was hard to read the document in my phone i it does work better in landscape by the way um that said i think i think that we are trying to establish like uh is the flag flown within or without the building because there are schools well there are some districts with no schools and there are some districts with schools with no flagpoles and there are some districts with schools and flagpoles so we've got a lot of options and so the language needs to be able to be specific to each entity so that um you know they're they're reflecting their community more appropriately and so how that nuance shift happens um i i don't know that i could go through but i bet um i bet jamie would love to he's kind of a master at no i don't know no master so so bill i think what the what i would say is the big piece is the committee it has not voted this last draft out of out of committee and so i think they're still they're gonna actually they requested some word smithing to this draft for a third draft um actually it probably would be the fourth because that that original flag policy had two so i think it's important to know that this one still is in committee and they have not taken any action to then take voted out of committee to have it be read by any of the boards or provided comment yet so this is still in draft form at committee level the one of the things that the committee's looking at and going to discuss next month as well is if you read that current november draft it could possibly be perceived and one of the things we asked our attorney to get clear about is could each district board actually designate where the display of the flag actually happens so that the district the district that decision making authority of flagpole versus a different location within their building is made at the district board level yeah and i think that's a question it's a really good one that we've got to figure out through the the hard work this policy committee what i had to read several times but i'll just quote the first sentence of the second paragraph therefore it is the policy of the white river valley supervisor union that its superintendent slash principal shall designate a space in each of the district school buildings for the display of flags and so i will keep going and going on and i'm saying that's terrific it's it's an opportunity for our students to express themselves and to have space within the school um they could do so and then you have a procedure to do that what was it appeared to me was unclear was therefore what about display not in the school and i took the second draft to mean that you're talking about displays in the school and our flagpole would still remain for our blessed american flag and and the state flag and if that's if you're meaning to just differentiate the two um it needs to be it needs to be clear if that's the case and it sounds like it was trying to differentiate that i think what Maggie's saying is the policy committee doesn't know if that's what they want right there yeah so more information to come well i just just my two cents worth is i love where you're going to so there's a display opportunities in all our schools i won't address whether it's su or the district level but i happen to believe that our flagpole outside our school buildings should be reserved for the united states flag and our state flag um and we we achieved both our ends through that that mechanism and i'll leave it there thank you thank you bill press hi chris driver's redboard um so conversation that we had um two meetings ago in regards to the the draft that i think it was i don't know if it was first draft second draft um that i had brought up was more i think you know having parameters for the children uh to to express themselves is great as we talked about but the issues that i see personally as well as researching it is is the potential issues of the decision makers and who makes the decision for the symbol to go on the flagpole and what i mean by this is you could have two different flags or two different symbols that meet all the criteria to move forward for a vote either at the let's say a superintendent or a board level but you could have one symbol that gets approved to one that doesn't and what that does at that point is it opens up the board or the individual making the decision to um litigation and this is what we've seen across uh the region as well as um nationally and that's why you've seen some issues like windham county and orange uh southwest i think had reversed their decisions here recently because they could not figure out about the decision piece of it so they went back to having a restrictive policy so i i guess one thing i would just stress is um because it seems like a lot of thoughts going into you know inside versus outside or different flag poles but who is going to be the ultimate decision maker here and is this going to be a fair process for all children given when they submit a symbol that meets all the criteria so and and looking at the drafts right now you know it wouldn't be fair for jamie to make the decision on all these symbols or his predecessor whoever might come after him nor would it be um a fair for a board um that could have views in one way or another to make the decision so one thing i had brought up and i know it's not an easy solution was the potential of having the children vote for it um you know they could vote they could learn a little bit about democracy um and exercise in their vote they could you know you could put you know ballot boxes out to be voted on in the school system for a certain symbol that could go up for a period of time but those are kind of the what i had stressed at my board level so just wanted to share that with you thank you very much chris and i do think we're thinking about all those things about who makes the decision and all of that so we're not definitely not decided in any one way yet no all right anything else for the policy committee negotiations council update sarah i want to run with us i know you were not here so i can't even get i can't even sign it you can because i am up to date whether today okay all right since you're up to date you rolled it so um the team minus me has met with uh so we're bargaining with the support staff um and um we have agreed upon Thursday evening says um every other Thursday evening as a time to meet with them we've agreed upon ground rules and we will um be moving forward on the 8th of December no yep thank you sir you were up to date job it wasn't earlier but i am now all right um uh point that point to a w or bs u member benti development committee of the right river valley su board so this is where we talked about um coming up with a committee to talk about board mentors and work on that program uh the one person we talked about we tagged it effort to do it has declined so i need to go back to my board to see if i can wrangle somebody to do it so i don't does anybody else have did do we have any other interests well yeah i would strafford if i had a two i some of the boards i meet i missed this conversation due to me having two at the same night but it might be worth going around at each board i'd hate to hold this up because you wanted to have this done by the end of february right right so i don't know if every board has to have representation on the committee so i know in strafford we actually had two okay which was eric jessica all right um friend is somebody did anybody have interest from that board or we landed on that um we didn't have anybody volunteer um i might try and join i guess i will stretch them but i can try thank you andrew our said um christine kivak has volunteered to do join the mentor uh study committee justi yes sharon the soviet i missed that part of the meeting no one volunteered and we just talked about how it's harder for us because there's only three of us and people are feeling a little bit spread thin between other committees like i'm on the policy committee already um so people are going to think about it but i didn't hear back from the other two board members that there was interest okay stacey did you volunteer thanks for asking jamey um not yet i have put word out to see if there are and if there's other interest on my board i have not had any bites yet like andrew feel pretty spread thin but if no one steps up i will you know i'll step up for sharon if nobody else does well i don't know if you all need to attend number one either but if we can make that many of the appointments then i could then start to organize you as a committee and start we can start getting the meetings warned um and then move forward with that work and these will be on thursday night yes that's what i'm thinking so make some of it the people on the negotiations committee week like stacey you're probably not but even if stacey's not we have one two three we have five and even if andrew couldn't be there we have four at least i also think if we're i mean are we negotiating every other week or are we still going to meet an end you're right that is true stacey not that i like having thursday's to myself i'm totally dropping in for some of the 10 to stacey so i think we have enough to appoint a group and just know that some of us on the negotiations group won't be able to be there on that night yeah these are appointments so you don't need a formal motion so um all right so this is good i got this the full board there's a good with these appointments and i will be going to email out to this group thank you guys for the discussion draft number two of the twenty three twenty four budget okay here you go jump in so terry can talk to you about the numbers the only change uh since we met with you last month is an increase um in projected health insurance costs which terry can talk to you about where we were budgeted versus what we're projecting now and the addition of the 504 coordinator as discussed last month within the student support budget so what you'll see here is the student support budget due to our work i believe with our response to intervention multi-tiered system of supports is that we are in a kudos to the whole team right you don't see our special ed budget go down without the hard work of universal and targeted supports i think that that is a real thing to highlight and so the special ed budget is as presented is still down 59,941 in the rest of your operating budget which is fiscal services it's my office it's curriculum instruction and assessment it's all the other functions of the supervisory union at the instructional level and business office level is up at the bottom line of tera 76409 or 4% okay so when you go across the two of them oh it's also got technology in that 76 sorry right and then miss your department it's an important department technology and communications we when you combine the two which is what you are assessed with across the board is the two there's different assessment for special ed versus the rest of the um functions and you'll see those on december you're really looking at 17 thousand dollars or maybe just less that's an estimate 16 five terrorists said so health insurance we received notification from v high that they filed with the department of financial regulations for an average of 12.7 increased based on utilization so that is what i had to adjust our health insurance increases too i've done that on you all saw that at your local board levels this month um also in the state negotiated health insurance there is a reduction in the hra funding by 200 dollars for the professional staff no change in the support staff so that reflection has also been made in the hra funding in this draft of the budgets questions how are folks feeling about the addition on the 504 coordinator know what it does to the overall budget i was too especially after last month's session where um we just learned about how much folks are carrying with responsibility and a lack of continuity i think it's well spent money anybody else have comments about this draft of the budget bill hi um this is a question to annette and jamie it's wonderful when we can through sound management leadership and in great staffing reduce our budgets and in special education that's that's amazing my question to both of you is um we don't want to just hold it not just we don't want to hold the line we want to continue to improve move forward strengthen our ability to take care to make sure every child under our supervision and responsibility gets everything he or she needs to to achieve their fullest potential does this budget you're presenting here move us in a direction i'm not saying how fast i'm not saying you're leaping over tall buildings with a single bound but um is it do you feel confident it can tell us that this is this is going to make a difference in a positive way this budget as you have presented yes because it's it's actually all the stuff that we need um that's what's reflected in the budget to to run a really efficient um and high quality department so yes i'm i'm i'm very proud of our budget and i think it's it's wonderful and um and i so just just a clarity i was telling mr kanani about this before some things that we should be proud about that i think is actually helping our budget is that you know we um have decreased the number of students that are currently attending um therapeutic uh schools outside of the district um we've been able to bring back to students already this year um transition them back to our high school um because we have the personalized learning classroom that alternative classroom at the high school um and so we've been able to transition to students back already um and due to transitioning graduation um and some others that's projected to have six less students next year um so i so i think um yeah so just that in itself i think you know a is a huge budget saver um because on average you know it's 90 to 100 thousand dollars per student um you know when we send them to you know schools outside of our district um but i think it also talks to how well um our personalized learning classroom is and how important it is um at the high school level and um i can't wait to do a presentation about all our alternative classrooms um towards the end of this year just because they are doing such amazing things um and you know the high school program just had a Thanksgiving feast um today and each student um you know was able to bring in a dish that is tradition in their family because we do have different types of families that come from different backgrounds and cultures um and they were all able to share today and invite community members in and other staff and students into the room and it was just um just brings tears to my eyes because it was just amazing about how proud they were and how proud you know their parents were to be able to attend so anyway i'm very proud of this budget and i think it just meets the needs of all of our students thank you uh jami you have anything else to add on that no yeah hit it perfectly i was gonna say a big piece to this is it's not like it's cut it's cut in staffing no it's not it is not cuts in staffing it's it's actually our ability through the the program that you provided us permission to build and remember last year was only year one at that that nine through 12 level i think we're now starting to reap the benefits of keeping our students in the least restrictive learning environment meet their needs and it is resulting in more stable budgets fantastic thank you school attendance is higher already now thanks for that question bill so next month you'll see revenue as we get our december one letters before the next meeting and um the rest of the funding for approval right right um 22 23 board goals possible action yeah so um andrew do you want to take the lead on this i'm sure the board had did receive these last month and i know that we never expanded f um otherwise i i don't know if the board has further conversation or maybe wanting to approve it maybe somebody could word submit that if you think it would be good to take action on these it's awesome yes sure yeah now i i think we can probably just drop f unless somebody wants to yeah try and when i was originally writing it the first goal was basically adapted from jamie's goals and the idea was like how can we support jamie and reaching his goals so i'd gone through kind of each individual goal and kind of put what the board would do to help jamie get there and i just kind of ran out of steam on f and was hoping we'd get some people to you know get some suggestions on what we might be able to put there instead but we can also just drop that one and i think the rest of them are pretty strong um so yeah the first one was mostly mimicking jamie's goals and then the ones after that were ones that we came up with during the uh board retreat and yeah um i think the other one that might have needed a little bit of work was the creating a board mentoring program because i thought that that goal could be kind of what we'd like to get the subcommittee to bring back to us for um the mentoring program not like specifically what it would look like but kind of how you know what what we'd like the subcommittee to come up with so i think that's all i have to say about the goals i think they're great i think you did a great job um i can't and i'm trying to think of as of how to expand on that that nothing's popping right into my mind so i'm not sure that that needs to be expanded i think if you get rid of everything after reputation that that in itself is a laudable goal and you can just stop there i mean not that not that we're gonna stop at our reputation sorry but but the notion of the board helping to improve the reputation of of the district um is is a measurable and it's not a measurable goal but it should be a goal of the board so and f we're just going to take out the last word by and just leave it as help improve the wrbs use um station and then leave it from leave it there i think that's actually a really good idea thank you uh bill could you hand up yeah i was going to suggest uh that it'd be wonderful if we could vote this unanimously tonight but voting it uh and making it our commitment there's possibly two different things what this is all about is that we commit ourselves every one of us to do what we could do to achieve these goals in this calendar in this school year and so it's important that everybody reads it it says yeah i i'll commit it it's not that we're all going to be on 100 committees it isn't going to be that we're all going to be volunteering and and not having to spend any time with our families or friends but this is a serious act that we're saying hey uh vote we're committed to improve rsu and our and our district schools and this is what we're committed to do in this next year we may achieve everything and and you know um hallelujah we might miss some of these targets um this is no guarantee that we'll do everything perfectly but it is a commitment and i'd just like to say if we are ready to commit uh to do the best we can as an su board and district boards and i i'd love to move it tonight kathy and and and and get it voted and and move it ahead well all right bill would you like to make a motion i would wait stacey and no no i lowered it thank you all right bill so would you like to make a motion um i move that in order to strengthen the supervisory union and individual district governance and oversight the white river valley supervisory union board will adopt the following goals for the 2022 2023 school year and as listed second is there any discussion before i call the vote so i'm going to i'm going to call each board member and just vote please uh andrew hi could you just ask bill uh i sylvia shannon dammy dammy are you there i'm here but i'm not a board member i'm a public member oh sorry we were thinking you have a tammy that's also a board member sorry so stacey it's up to you i am an i thank you so i and it's still not mariana mariana are you available to vote you get shannon you got shannon yep that's why i'm going to go robin's an i and kathy's an i i'm still good so we are good fantastic thank you guys thanks for all the hard work everybody's been putting in to current status of draft number three of the strategic plan yeah so um the good news is i have undivided attention to getting draft three completed for formatting tomorrow as long as everyone in this office lets me have that time to do that work and that's why yes do we note it all right so i'm going to focus on that i want to thank bill for meeting with me um and sharing some of his feedback i feel really good about the direction of draft three i want to thank everyone who's provided feedback on this um that goes from the board administration staff that provided feedback i feel really strongly that a draft three will be ready for board discussion and possible action in december i want to remind the board to provide feedback to me directly if you have it on draft two draft three does um the other highlights around draft three is it will have a conclusion it will have actionable tasks within the fiscal department that's going to be a little clearer based on the work that we're currently doing and maintenance and facilities and the work of the board it will incorporate the the strategic plan incorporates some of the tasks that you've laid out for yourselves as a board within the strategic plan so i do think it's going to finally fill it out um and bill did i miss anything you've got it all right any comments questions discussion on the strategic plan and where jamey's at thanks everybody for your comments and help on this all right so epa electric bus grant yeah and so and i may actually ask uh members i don't think there's a lot board members that are on the actual energy committee on tonight but ray is on the energy committee so he can fill in some gaps for me too so as an su board um we went through the application process to pursue um a grant for electric buses in the infrastructure to support electric buses um last spring that grant in that work was sponsored by two rivers out of quiqi in the energy committees that represent strafford and sharing uh the towns of strafford and sharing and there's been membership from those groups on our su energy committee um and also our set is represented by patrick hudson the su did receive a significant grant that would cover the purchase of three electric buses the way that that process would work is the su would purchase the electric vehicles and then we essentially would lease them back out to our transportation provider our transportation provider would be responsible for the upkeep of the vehicles the maintenance of the vehicles and the electricity used to charge the just like our provider currently pays for diesel fuel they would then pay for the electricity that's meter the infrastructure we would look to build on one of our campuses within the su because i don't want that i want that here because those buses if we choose to go with a different provider would be leased by that other provider but we will want the charging infrastructure with us so a reminder that we're currently up for bid on our transportation services and so it would be important that we hold the the charging system on one of our campuses the what as far as butler bus goes they have demonstrated support and it's actually they are also the transportation provider for also windsor central woodstock who also received the grant so we know we we do have support from our current providers that would be something during the bid process that would be a follow-up question for us if if we select to go with a different provider to make certain that they are willing and supportive of using electric vehicles because those vehicles stay with us they don't stay with the provider so why would we want three electric vehicles well one it aligns with the work of the energy committee and the work of our state around renewables and two we're actually we would get new equipment at no charge for us and actually see a payback because currently part of our contract with service with our providers is they purchase the buses and part of what we we pay for that we pay that down we could see savings in our contract because we actually would own three of our buses that they would lease from us the other piece to this grant is it does pay for the infrastructure the districts right now that we would look to leverage these vehicles with based on talking with our transportation service would be to leverage them in strafford and in sharing we currently have two buses in strafford and one bus in sharing also the charging infrastructure could be well suited there you could either way wherever we decide to put the charging infrastructure the bus could be easily access off the highway and serve that other member district you see what I'm saying whether they're charged in sharing whether they're charged in strafford either way it's easy for that driver to get the bus and start their routes and those two towns really were the energy and sponsorship behind us pursuing this we have not accepted the grant yet this is still in conversation we do need to make a decision by next month in regards to whether or not we want to accept this grant and I'm coming to the board to share this information and say that you know it would be three electric vehicles the grant would cover in the infrastructure and we know that our current transportation company is more than supportive in in regards to this and they transportation company was at the energy committee as well not this last day but prior and Jeff Martin who represents strafford and Sharon at two rivers out of kweechi did do a lot of work with Terra to pursue the grant and I see Sue's got a question so the the way it works right now so the the su pays for all the transportation cost you allocated back to each district so with these buses regardless of where they're located lower the total transportation cost so we all receive benefits even if they're just located in different towns that is what I discussed with Jeff and butlers yes because I even if those are the districts using it I want everyone to reap the benefits of it okay thanks great do you have any other question of I don't like spending these buses with me at three normal how long how many years did it go well the grants is we have to use them for five they want to see them operational for five I asked the bus company that what do we do with them then it's they're fairly new right transportation right and so the longevity I don't have like actionable data on did that come up in your energy committee my sense was that right now what we currently do is try to recycle our buses every 10 years is what I'm talking about right they're they're feeling like that would stay on that's what butlers yeah my other big question actually I have was logistics like my question was how do they perform actually in inclement weather was a big question I had and butlers said that they actually weigh about 2,500 pounds more and so they felt like they would that they would be fine my worry was they're actually going to be lighter right and so they went perform as well but they're actually heavier which for me was not where my brain went it's going to be the whole yeah it's got a battery and then you still have the record in you and so yeah I just you know I'm really I'm not an engineer I'm good thank you hi um congratulations on making that happen it seems like really potentially great news um I wanted to know if you have spoken to butler about potential backup or contingency plans so will they still have buses available traditional buses available if one breaks down or if something doesn't work if they I don't know don't perform in snow or if they do but like whatever um yeah we'll still have that we'll still have three diesel buses always available to us as backup without incurring additional costs correct okay great thank you and chris hey yeah again I support the you know trying the electric buses in the thought process of I think it's kind of a no-brainer when we're in our own area but what happens if we take one of these buses for either sports or arts or something and we drive out of our area to another school that may not have the infrastructure we thought about how how will we charge these things abroad yeah the plan I would yes chris that that is why we'll still have our three diesel buses as backup because the plan is that we would use these for their normal routes we wouldn't use them on actual longer extending trips at this point in time they I did ask how many miles can they serve 200 on miles round trip on not a cold day is what I was told and we do know too that the strafford and sharing routes are well within that radius and so that's the other reason why we were looking to deploy those and sharing a strafford but if if sharing strafford had a longer trip then they would use one of our diesel vehicles I'd trust and see how it works yeah well Shannon I did see your question um oh I missed it sorry uh so uh it as far as board members all board members can speak at the meeting publicly it doesn't matter board member voting member not voting member um voting when it comes time to voting then then it matters so chris is speaking as a board member all right any other questions yeah actually I just want to follow up on that I have always extended invites to all 31 board members for our full board meetings um to come participate in discussion so and I just I share this with all you to encourage your other board members to come I just think there's a lot of information we discuss and share here and the more we can have all of our board members at the meeting participating in the conversation even if they're not voting the better uh Jamie you'd mentioned that you haven't yet accepted this grant do you need board permission in order to do so if you are all willing to do it um I did not warn it for action so I will just warn it for action next month okay great thank you but it's good to hear that it seems like the board's favorable so I'll put it on for action next month we have Mary and um we do but Sue is on too so we added Sue so we've got enough you know what I mean right guys 10.2 uh public complaint against board member policy A1 did everybody have the opportunity to read um information that Jamie sent out we should give Katie um and Kate since this is your document the the complaint that you said in would you like an opportunity to speak hi there can you hear me okay yeah yeah okay sorry about that I was on the road earlier so I didn't have a great opportunity to be able to respond um okay so um I'm Kate Jarvis I currently reside in Woodstock but my my two daughters go to Bethel and Royalton schools and they have since 2005 since we've relocated to Woodstock to Bethel or excuse me to Bethel Vermont so um my daughter graduated in 2020 and I have two other daughters who attend the middle school and the high school currently and I'm sorry I'm nervous I don't like public speaking um over the past 17 years I've done nothing but support our teachers administration and community so thank you for hearing and considering my concern without judgment tonight I wanted to to speak directly to Hilary Hoffman or to answer her her response earlier in just saying that with the utmost respect as Shannon's friend and an environmental attorney I also had an attorney review my my very concerning and official complaint and he's a Vermont civil and corporate law attorney and he strongly felt that Shannon's actions weren't not only action by the board pertaining to the conflict of interest but also potential litigation action in the courts um and to provide further clarification in the matter when Hilary mentioned not agreeing to other actions being taken I I believe she was referencing the fact that I did report Shannon's actions the public conduct and unethical behavior to the New Hampshire licensing board as she and I are both licensed professionals in the state and we're held to a standard of ethics regarding conduct and discrimination I being a realtor and her being a nurse and so we've both been through extensive training and courses to be able to uphold these standards of conduct the state did see the need to further investigate the situation and I'm hoping that the board also see that this conduct in ethic the ethics are completely inappropriate and unethical so I do ask I do have two questions for one it seems that there was some trouble in getting members to sign up tonight or sign on to form a quorum so respectfully I do ask just to see a show of hands or members to show that everybody has been able to fully read the complaint the formal complaint and its entirety and then also in in the case that the board chooses to take no action tonight what would be the next steps or proper channel so that the complaint which is that of many parents in the community can be heard and addressed by a neutral board or panel or council thank you so I did ask the board whether they've had an opportunity to review the material and nobody indicated that they hadn't I'm not sure what next steps are we're going to have further discussion with everybody and I can't see who's speaking I'm sorry this is Kathy the board chair oh thank you okay um but thank you for your comment so can everybody confirm that they had an opportunity to read it and in its entirety um I'm I'm not I everybody did you have the opportunity to to read the material sent to you yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes all right thank you board um Shannon I'd like to give you an opportunity to speak as well please so I do have a statement I am going to link it to the message board so that it can be included in the minutes and I'll read it thank you just for the wow um anyway you can imagine how frustrating this is for me as a scientist when the complaint we are answering isn't even correct in its most basic facts I'm not a nurse for the record I live in South Royalton I was appointed to an empty Royalton seat in 2022 after I moved from Bethel sorry I'm also getting over a cold but I have been elected to the rod board many times my seat is up for election in 2023 I am currently not employed in New Hampshire and I'm a genetic counselor that is what my license is for however my residence and employment has no bearing on the matter that this complaint raises regarding the substance of this complaint which is very confusing but seems to involve an allegation that I have a conflict of interest under 16 vsa section 563 based on some of my Facebook activity none of my private interests are at risk of benefiting from or being harmed by my actions as a member of this board other than the stipend we all receive for our work annually of about six hundred dollars I have no financial conflict of interest I do believe that we all gain an emotional and psychological benefit from a sense of accomplishment that our work on the board and I don't see that as a conflict the law cited in this complaint is a statute that outlines the way that school districts throughout Vermont can form school boards I'm sorry there's a little bit of feedback and it contains general guidance as far as the powers and duties of school board members who are elected by the residents of each town this statute provides the board members shall establish policies and procedures designed to avoid the appearance of board member conflict of interest however the statute does not provide for administrative or judicial review of the school board members actions relative to the provisions of the law thus while it is binding upon boards there is no enforcement mechanism for a citizen parent or other individual citizen claiming to be aggrieved by a board members conduct to challenge that board members conduct by way of this law similarly there is no power conferred on a school board to create a mechanism for administrative or judicial review of complaints against a board member the statute the complaint sites does not confer power on the electorate to take I'm sorry it does confer power on the electorate to take action directed at a school board member but this is through the ballot box not by appeal to the board as far as the complaints factual allegations they are similarly devoid of an argument I clearly stated during the Facebook debate in question that only a quorum of the board can make decisions or take actions on behalf of the board I made it clear to all potential readers of the posts I made in my individual capacity and using my personal Facebook account that they were offered in my personal capacity not as a representative of this or the red school board I am not required to make that statement when I speak publicly outside of school board meetings but I did on that occasion so it would be absolutely clear to those I was speaking to and with and to any who might read my comments that I was speaking as an individual and not on behalf of our board the complainant has through her actions demonstrated that she fails to comprehend that an elected or appointed public official has a first amendment right to speak in their individual capacity a right which is protected by the Vermont and us constitutions however her failure to understand this basic constitutional right does not divest me of the right the complaintant has for some reason become so angry about my defense of the rights of transgender children in our school district that she has begun targeting me in my personal and professional capacity since I participated in the Facebook discussion in question she has defamed me to the New York to the New Hampshire state medical licensing board staff made complaints against my New Hampshire license specifically that I committed sexual discrimination on the basis of race and gender with my recent Facebook posts based upon information and belief she has also personally targeted other members of our community who have publicly spoken out in favor of protecting transgender students civil rights and their rights to privacy in short it is important for my colleagues on the school board to know that the complaintant has taken it upon herself to threaten my livelihood the income upon which my family depends and my career along with the livelihoods and income of other parents in this community who have defended transgender kids civil rights and their rights to privacy aside from this complaint Kate has on many days in the past month contacted our SU eight to nine times per day harassing them on this issue and taking our superintendent away for multiple hours each day from the very important work on education in our communities if Kate and others want me off this board they will need to find someone to run against me who can win it's just that easy that is the political process in this country and you don't have to like it but you do have to live with it to conclude I am outspoken I use colorful language I have a sarcastic streak a mile long and I curse like a sailor except with an air shot of small children I am a fierce ally for LGBTQ and BIPOC rights and the amplification of those voices I have never tried to hide any of this I believe that the people in this community know who I knew who I was when they elected me multiple times to the school board and those who stand for values like mine vastly outnumber the ones who would stand against us even if the numbers changed I cannot imagine adopting a position that would result in discriminatory treatment of any children representing marginalized groups in our society it is not my value set and it is thankfully not the value set of this school board thank you thank you Shannon I have board is there questions is there um from the board or from from the board too or do you have any clarifying questions from either party um hi this is Stacy I just quickly wanted to circle back um to Hilary's question in the chat um asking if there was an attorney representing Kate Jarvis Hilary says the Vermont Bar Association's ethical rules require the disclosure of the attorney's name I am not a Vermont Bar Association member nor an attorney but uh so um I have not fact checked that claim but I would like I would like to hear if there is an attorney involved okay would you like to answer that question sure I have no attorney representing me at this time I've had an attorney review the complaint that I filed thank you thank you just to clarify I have had days I want the board to to know this I've had days that I've had folks reach out to me about this particular concern and there are days that it's been eight or nine times those are not all just from Kate Jarvis I wanted that to be on the record may I speak as well when I have a chance go ahead thank you Kate um sure so I'm not an attorney and and I'm not going to pretend to be and that's why I need the help of an attorney obviously at some point um but there are many many parents can you turn your camera on so we can see you please no thank you do I need to I'm in the car sitting after work let me see if I can figure out how to you're fine you're fine Kate you don't have to no if you need I don't even know I'm in sitting in the car after a long day of work let me see if I can figure out how to no I really can't right now that's fine anyway I have been in touch with numerous parents who do not dare to speak up to our school board they do not dare to speak up to our administration they have been silenced they don't dare to say anything their children have been bullied because of the behavior of board members like Shannon so I have received so many comments that I have documented that I am prepared to take to the next step and I have received so many comments saying thank you for speaking up and thank you for stepping up for us because we don't dare to say anything because we will be called names and we will be bullied and we will be called this and be called that like Shannon is trying to do but I'm I'm not coming from a bad position or an ill position I'm trying to speak up and say that what's going on that public conduct and public comments were not right it's unethical it's not okay and it's not welcoming to our community and it is in conflict of interest it's she's voting on policies and she's voting on resolutions that are being passed on flag policies and many many different policies there's a conflict of interest and I provided plenty of proof in my formal and official complaint so okay thank you and so so you know it's up to the board tonight to decide what we'll be deciding tonight is whether that we find this a conflict of interest so that's that's what we're tasked with all right absolutely thank you um board do you have it you're welcome or do you have any other questions and can I say that we can talk to people and they said that it's what they found what game they told us and so um Andrew Jamie and I spoke with our legal um about this um and um Dina said Dina our attorney said that she's not finding that it's that it meets the matches to the conflict of interest policy that that this is not a conflict of interest we went through the reasons we talked for a period of time about it Andrew you are on the call do you have anything to add to that uh no I mean I think her the conflict of interest really is about whether you're receiving personal gain for it it's not whether you have beliefs that are you know cause you to think one way or the other about an issue and whether those beliefs are public that's you know separate I don't think that that if that were the standard it's kind of an impossible standard to reach because we wouldn't be able to say anything publicly without it being a conflict of interest um so the conflict of interest policy for Dina was really about kind of material or social or you know like an actual gain that you would receive for taking a position and it doesn't seem like there's anything that Shannon is like she's not receiving anything for taking these positions or it's just what she believes and expresses so um that's what I got from the conversation with Dina that I that's the same thing I got Andrew so that's fair assessment but is there any other questions or comments from the board Stacy hi um so I was not on the call with Dina but thank you to those of you who took that call um who took the time out of your day to to gather this feedback um this is a question for Kate Jarvis and um you know when you you'd mentioned um kind of bullying and other parents who are expressing fear um about standing up and I wonder if is there something outside of what you supply to us which to me looks like a social media difference of opinion and what this Facebook provides but I don't think we want to I think we want to just stick to this topic and this task for tonight oh okay so I would say based you know in my opinion based on just what we've reviewed it seems like that's exclusive to social media disagreement and I would recommend you know that's what the board needs to decide on it is not it goes much further okay so sorry I'm trying to listen to the board chair that's what we need to decide on tonight Stacy so that's what I'm saying that's what we need to to focus on I see here tonight whether this is a conflict of interest or not and whether we feel it's a conflict of interest and that's the extent of it okay terrific thank you hi so does that mean uh then that the next step is like do we uh do we take a vote or do we move yeah how what what's the process here okay maybe maybe i'm jumping ahead can i jump in for just a second yeah so this is our goal past from strafford board i'm not a voting member of the full board i i read through the complaints fairly carefully and i believe the complainant is asking for two things she's asking for a finding by this group this board that that's the actions of the respondent the board member violated state statute as well as a finding that it violated the conflict of interest policy i would suggest that this board does not have the power or jurisdiction to make a finding of a violation of state statute so as a preliminary matter um in regards to the complaint i would suggest the board should consider whether it has that power and come to the conclusion that it does not and and dismiss that portion of the relief that is being solved the second part of the complaint talks about specifically three sections of the conflict of interest policy and i went through each of the three sections that are being referred and i think the board ought to spend some time talking about each of the three sections and why it is um that it feels that it does not come rise to the level of a violation of any of those sections and i can suggest that the three seven three sections that were appointed were sections one sorry i think is a one two and five one is a board member will not give the impression that he or she would represent special interests or partisan politics or personal gain um and as it relates to that particular section of the policy it's really difficult to see as a result of the evidence presented that any of the um conversation had on public media or facebook has any any bearing on personal gain to be able to say that um advocating for a particular group um equates personal gain is is going down a rabbit hole that as a as a board i think we should not be going down the the second um uh the second portion that she points to is that she has the authority to make or take action on behalf of a board and as she has clearly stated um she took steps to respond clearly stated she steps to distance herself from the fact that she herself could make out take actions on behalf of the board so so on that particular subsection of the policy i would suggest that there have been no backs presented in order for the board to make a claim the third is that her position will be influenced by anything other than a fair representation of all sides of the question um and it's difficult for me to understand based on social media hosts where there is no question before the the board um that that the fact that she that the the respondent is advocating for a particular group or set of individuals equates a um takes the step into um uh not being willing to listen to all sides so as it relates to the evidence presented by the complainant through her complaint i would suggest this vote of this board ought to take the possession when it votes um that that that there is no evidence to make a finding of violation of the policy um the last thing that i will say i promise um it is is that um the policy talks of three and only three things of the board is allowed to do by virtue of a complaint being brought to the board um it can either dismiss the complaint in the way that miss hoffman has suggested attorney hoffman sorry um or or it can do one of two things um it can exclude the individual from further conversations from something that hasn't come up to them to the board's attention or or it can publicly manage um the individual uh that is the only the sole remedy that is available under this policy so to the extent that board members feel and vote to um that that there has been a violation of policy i would suggest that the discussion then can only center around those two potential um remedies thank you thank you very good it's my time very well thank you um any other questions or discussions from the board um i'll make a motion that we issue a public finding that the conflict conflict of interest charge is not supported by the evidence and is therefore dismissed second any discussion on the vote on the proposal right now you suggested that we need to do we need to do two votes um we're just missing it here right just okay all right so bill go ahead bill you're muted okay can you mute susan i mean susan can you mute bill you're still muted how about that is that better sorry about that boy striking out um before we vote i think it's important for everybody listening and it's part of this that um as a member of a district school board and of the su supervisory board i took this complaint very very very seriously um i reviewed our policy a one policy about conflict of interest i read definitions of conflict of interest i read the state law having to do with conflict of interest and i agree we're following this policy as a board our a one policy um as it's been adopted by all the district boards and the su boards going back to 2018 and i'm saying this because regardless of our outcome we take our responsibilities very very seriously and this charge and these um time use that was spent on both parties and dealing with this was excruciatingly painful um it appears to me i wasn't there i wasn't part of them but when i read the record and heard from you tonight um really really really really rugged and i think we all feel that um it was unfortunate that this came to pass that that's different than what our obligation is tonight and that is to follow our conflict of interest policy and it goes back to as andrew said the definition of conflict of interest and we cannot do our job unless we follow that policy in that definition and i believe each one of us in our votes will abide by that definition and how the implementation is defined below it thank you any other comments before i call a vote can you just read the motion one more time please the motion that was that we issue a public finding that the conflict of interest charge is not supported by the evidence and is therefore dismissed that's just the text that's in the conflict of interest policy for that option yes so i think a yes vote is dismissal this is a smith right it's an affirmative right to dismiss all right so we'll start with bill bill yes so yes baggie yep andrew yes silvi yes sarah yes stacey yes the training vote on that no that would be a conflict of interest no timeout your voting members are on tonight doesn't mean she just takes doesn't vote on one thing and then another board member slips in and votes she's still your representative tonight okay i i'm sorry rodney is our representative it's chris who's not our representative shannon we've got it rodney thank you you are still the voting member tonight you are just abstaining from the vote doesn't mean that an alternate gets all of a sudden vote for you because you're here at the meeting right i just thought andrew and rodney were our other two members they were and they both voted okay um do you want everybody to know that that for comments that were on the social media page where shannon's personal comments they weren't representation of the board and we voted on this policy based on the board and what we have the power and the ability to do this is what we were tasked with so it's not an opinion it's just what our policy states and that's what we voted on tonight but thank you everybody stacey yeah i just wanted to thank you and andrew and superintendent canardy um for taking the time to go through this and do the due diligence and i know that everyone we've been talking all night about how thinly stretched we are so i really appreciate how seriously you took this um and i would say um the process is the process you know i welcome comment by any concerned parents about any of you know like we want people to be engaged in that communities and to bring things forward when they have concerns absolutely thank you stacey um so naggy raise your hand naggy hi sorry i was just trying to find the buttons um yeah i i i thank you for the process and uh whether or not it's appropriate here i also want to thank shannon for being the voice of who need better representation so i appreciate your words shannon thanks naggy andrew um so i do think we should you know like we adopt the code of ethics um as a board generally but we don't really have any policy for what to do you know in the instance that there's a complaint about the code of ethics side of things so i do think as you know the policy committee and the board generally should consider what like you know we have a set policy for the conflict of interest policy which had very discrete rules and steps to take and it would be nice if we had something similar for you know just general board conduct um policy so that's all that's can be something that we bring forward to the policy committee thank you andrew resignations new tires we have none any other business for the board tonight future agenda items do we want to talk about whether or not we could uh do the december meeting on the 27th or i would change the date good good idea sir i was just going to say that december 27th probably would be a tough can we do a future of job items first oh wait hold on sir we're getting further ahead than jamie wants us to i just want to make certain i capture all off um and so you'll get your final draft impossible action on the budget uh from next year um you'll get a draft impossible action on your strategic plan um as presented you'll get your normal reports um i'm trying to think about our data calendars are there a data report in december for full board sorry that's that's good i should know i think it's january oh i should know too action will be your annual financial management that will speak up so sorry your annual financial management questionnaire that we do every december that you review and accept the launch um we will have the epa grant on for action and you'll get a data report on what ray was just got discussing abm um if we put together tuition students so you get to see what that looks like across the su and then of course the budget did i miss anything in our normal reports and of course just reminding the board if you have agenda items if you know kathy and myself we work to try to get those included on the agenda tuesday december 27th is what we have for our next meeting date which is the day after you know a couple days after christmas is that going to work for people want to make sure we have a form so we can look at moving that date or we can keep that date order it won't work for me well it won't work for it won't work for me we're probably moving it then because we seem to be early january we want to go the week before guys or do we want to go early january we could go the 20 seconds we have 20 seconds to interfere with um negotiations could we go to january oh we are working on budgets so we need could you guys do the 19th i could do the 19th yes i could do it zara could anybody thoroughly object to the 19th of december right correct yes i mean i don't object on principle i just have to check my calendar looks like we're gonna shoot for the the 19th guys okay do you jamie is that too soon to get ready no i think and sorry it's maggie again is this is this just full board are we doing policy also probably do policy also probably yeah it would be a double whammy okay i just need to double check on that but i i'll get back okay are we talking about the black one now all right guys um so we remove our meeting to the 19th and i will entertain a motion to adjourn and i want to wish everybody a very happy turkey day thank you and i make a motion to adjourn you know i'll set up before you do just fun fact of the day uh the turkey was almost an eel we were almost eating eel thanksgiving which i personally would have preferred um so i believe it with that nice fun fact thank you everyone everybody thank you thank you