 All right, so we'll call the order at 6pm. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? The only thing I'm going to add is public comment to give everybody an opportunity to make public comment. We'll do that next. So anybody on here from the public who has a comment they would like to make before we jump into the agenda? I guess I'm not sure if this is the appropriate meeting for this, I'm not sure if this meeting is to discuss anything and everything or if this is a specific agenda, but the thing I want to talk about either tonight or at some meeting is just, and I've brought it to the attention to some of the principles, but I think as we go into this year, we need to have more childcare coverage for our kids before and after school and also on half days. So I just want to put that out there. And I don't, again, I don't know if this is the appropriate time or place, but I want to make sure that's something that we discuss. Let me answer that, James. Yeah, so Karen, I think you copied me on one of those emails. The plan is that we will have extended hours and that we would look to start providing service across our schools at 7.30. Right now, some of the guys we're going to talk about doesn't have mitigation being health checks at this point in time. So we do expect to have a more normal routine in the mornings. And we do expect our after school program hours to be much more like they were prior to us dealing with the pandemic last year. So hopefully that answers some of your questions around that. Yeah, I guess I was also informed that only about half of the half days will be covered, which I think is really hard for working parents. And also I was also informed that one planet probably won't start until like September 13th, I think, which again is a pretty big struggle. So I hope those are things that you're also considering adjusting. Those are all things we're certainly working on. I will tell you that staffing levels are part of the issue. And I just met with Carrie McDonald, our one planet coordinator today to talk about staffing those half days and how we might go about that. So I would say stay tuned. And I understand the frustration, but we do plan to have school open at 730 in the morning, but I can't speak to you about why the start date is when it is for one planet after school, as far as the later date in September, but I'm happy to have Carrie get in touch with you, Karen, about the reasoning for that. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Hi, I'm Michelle Sama here. I just wanted to know, I didn't see the agenda for this meeting. Is there gonna be an update on whether or not you guys are gonna be masking or any updates on what your COVID regulations and stuff are gonna be like today? But yeah, so Michelle, there's not gonna be any updates specific to what we're doing. It was to review the guidance given and then to discuss the idea and concept of us navigating this as an SU the way we did last year and not district by district. And so that's really what tonight's meeting was about. As far as further guidance around what our mitigation gonna look like and be, I'm still waiting for some additional documents from the Department of Health and the AOE before we'd even be ready to make those decisions. But tonight I am gonna update the board about how we'll approach this. Okay. Thank you. Based on the guidance we do have. Yep. Great. All right, anyone else? Thank you, Michelle. All right, anyone else? And if anybody has questions at the end, I'll make a round so you can get your questions answered after you hear the meeting. All right, so discussion items are Secretary French's fall reopening guidance on masking. I will let Jamie. So we received an advisory document on August 4th. Shane Oaks, our COVID coordinator is here as well as all of our building principles in central office admin other than Tara. I know I heard her have tonight off, but we're here because we've started meeting as an admin team once again here in August. And one of the things we wanted to talk to the board about is that we found that there was great strength in navigating this as an SU. Last year, as compared to trying to navigate this by individual buildings or districts. And so I believe, and you can ask the principles, but I think they're all here in unity to speak to their desire around that. And so that's the first thing. The second thing is, as we get into the guidance, is that I think it is way too premature for us to indicate exactly how we're gonna navigate COVID-19 and the Delta variants at this time. I will say that even after recommendations came out last week, that there was a bunch of guidance that just came out late in the week from the Vermont Superintendent's Association saying that the VSA, VSBA and VPA are now meeting to talk about what further guidance could they provide schools. And so as we're talking guidance, what I can tell you is that once we were no longer under a state of emergency, the state of Vermont can't mandate mass wearing in schools. That's gonna need to be dealt with at a local level. As you've probably seen in Vermont Digger, in other places, the idea of requiring masking of students has been put into question. I will tell you, I think no matter what decision we make, as a supervisory union, that there could be litigation either way. So what do I mean by that? If there was a decision to not require masking, I think that that could be litigated. If we require masking, I think that can be litigated. I was on the phone with your attorney, Dina Atwood, late last week to discuss that. So far, the Wenuski Valley Superintendent's Association, so that regional group goes from here up through Lemoyle North. So think about the 89 corridor. That's Wenuski Valley. I asked that group to meet today at noon to talk about where they are as an organization. I would say that that group also gets legal representation from Patriot Lin, another attorney. And so the nice thing is we'll have access to a couple of different legal opinions on this. And what Patriot has said and the same thing that our attorney Dina has said is that we really should wait before any formal decisions are made. I think as hard as that is for families to hear at this point, I think that this is something that's changing drastically. And if you think about the landscape two weeks ago, it looks very different than it did two weeks ago. And so what I'm gonna recommend to the board tonight is that we wait for further guidance that more likely than not, we're gonna start massed based on those recommendations. And I will tell you that both attorneys we've talked to are concerned about litigation if we weren't to follow recommendations. Title 16, VSA clearly states that the superintendent's role is to ensure access to a safe and healthy learning environment. And if we're not following recommendations put down by the Department of Health and AOE, I do think we're opening ourselves up in regards to liability. I think that the masking in regards to how we start the year, we need to be clear with folks that we're starting one way but that that could be subject to change. But again, I don't think we wanna make any formal statement on this until we have further guidance and to our language. As far as other mitigation risk go, they're right now not clear of how contact tracing is going to occur. The information we have is a way further guidance. And so I can't speak to that at this time. As far as health checks, there doesn't seem to be an indication around a recommendation other than to educate our families about symptoms and warning signs and asking folks to stay home. It's clear that if a student does have a temperature of 100.4 they should stay home and if they were to have that temperature in school that they would be asked to go home. As far as quarantine goes, we're still awaiting guidance on that specifically in addition to those of our students that are vaccinated and or staff. As far as when the vaccine is gonna roll out for students younger than 12, I've heard all kinds of different dates as you probably have as well. I've heard that we'll get some updates soon. I've heard information about late September and then I've heard information of January. So I don't have any type of, specific guidance to give you there. And I've heard those dates from pretty reliable sources in the agency of adding Department of Health based on information they've been receiving. The rest of the guidance talks about right now because we're not in a state of emergency, group size is not limited. Okay, so I think that's important to note in regards to whether and how we go about navigating. I think there's a lot of people worried about potting. There's not a recommendation for potting right now. I will tell you about how we go about keeping track of our students in regards to if we had the contact trace, we will make certain that we have appropriate procedures in place once we've received the contact tracing guidance. Which I was told today should be coming out soon. You'll see that the guidance talks about that masks can be removed when needed for instructional or operational purposes. I've asked for further clarification from that from the secretary's office. And so we'll wait for that guidance around what that means. That's pretty broad at this point. And outdoors, of course, we would not require masking but we certainly would use our best practices as we did last year around social distancing because what we did last year worked, right? Like as an SU, we navigated this very well. We stayed open five days a week and we ran a high school that was not potted. And we were able to navigate that with only a couple of issues all year. And we were able to have our students take full course loads. So we know how to do this well. The plan is for Shane, he's pulling the SU nurses and I together next week, Shane. I saw that's on my schedule. Yes, that's correct. That's Shane Oates, he's our COVID coordinator. Same COVID coordinator we had last year, Shane did a terrific job. And so what I expect is is after that meeting we'll start to solidify our plans of which the board would be updated prior to the public much like we did last year. And so what I'm proposing tonight is that we do have a roadmap for this. You guys empowered us to make these decisions as administrators in regards to day-to-day operations last year. I think it served us well. I didn't hear a lot of complaints and we were able to keep our schools open which was a terrific success. So that's really what I'm looking for us to do now because I do think it would be a disservice to us as an organization if we started going different directions with this. And I think that's all I have unless there's other questions folks have. I don't have any questions. Oh, one thing that might be out there for folks is we were not identified as a school to host a vaccine clinic at this time. I have not been contacted about that. And we did work with the health hub to offer vaccines in our schools last spring. My hope is, is that we're able to navigate that and do that again here this fall. And the sites will be three times. So once we're picked, my understanding is, is that there'll be three dates. So if a student missed the first one, they'd have an option to still hit the second and third opportunity within a school setting. So if a student was able to make the first date for vaccination, they could get it the first time and the second time, if they missed it, then they could get it the second, third time. Casey, you had your hand up. I did. Thanks, Kathy. Jamie, thanks for that update. It's really assuring to hear that you're covering all the bases, as usual. I wanted to know, last year, we spent a lot of time and effort, much of which was volunteer provided in establishing outdoor classroom environments. And I wanted to know if those are still standing and you still intend to use them as much as possible. Many of them are still standing, Stacy, because we chose to purchase those tents. Great. And some other schools purchased the tents on top of that. There will be extra money available for us to go ahead and rent for their tents if schools need. We've saved aside money to do that in S4-2. So we'll be able to navigate that as needed. But a lot of folks now have permanent and then if schools decide that they wanna rent tents again, then certainly we would support that. I think the fact that we can get students outside and be mass free within the guidance speaks to the fact that having students out in fresh air really helps us navigate the risk of COVID-19, even with the Delta variant. So I think that we definitely need to look to utilize that like we did last fall. The other thing I wanted to mention to folks about was that there's been a lot of questions about remote learning. It's very clear that we are back to the way we used to do attendance. So unless 50% of our students are in our building, those are not student dates. There's no more remote option for schooling in that regard. So if we decide, one of the questions that I've got for our nurses and for Shane and for guidance that we've gotten, we've worked closely with Dr. Miller from the Health Hub is around contact tracing. Because the way we navigated as an SU last year is if we had a positive case in our buildings we hit the pause button and we went remote. Well, if we just hit the pause button now, we can't just go remote because if we go remote we don't get to count those as student days. And those would be tacked on at the end of the year. And so it's very clear that the agency wants students in buildings five days a week. If we have a student who has a medical need and definitely needs a virtual learning option our plan is to contract and work with BTVLC to provide that. Because our focus is now getting back in buildings five days a week. Thank you, Jamie. Any other questions about Jamie's suggestion that we navigate this as an SU? If there aren't I would entertain under action items which we need to do a motion. A motion to empower the superintendent to continue making administrative decisions on school operations. We'll make the motion. Chris Riley from Rudd. Hi, Chris. Do I have a second? A second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. So moved. Thank you guys. So I'll just add that I think as we come up closer to our full board meeting in August and the other district meetings, certainly I'll have more and more guidance to give you, right? But again, I do think the weight approach right now to see what comes out between now and the end of the week is gonna serve us well. Certainly I want the guidance to be here as much as any of you. So we can start to make some informed decisions. But I also, I understand that this is a moving target right at the moment. So I'm trying to be patient. Principles will tell you I'm probably more patient now than I was at the end of the last week. And the, you know, I will say this is that I have been, I did voice for our SU and advocated with Secretary French last week that I think the agency, if they have guidance, if there is guidance that they need to come out and strongly state their guidance because that could be really helpful for us as superintendents and as school boards and as principals. And so I hope that there'll be some more firmer statements made even though there might not be mandates if there's something that they believe in and they put it out as guidance, I think that they really need to speak to that and talk about the why. And I'm at this point, I don't think they've done that as well as they could have. So I want you to know, I also, I did communicate that directly to the secretary and he said that he'd take under advisement. Basie? Yeah, Jamie, thanks for doing that. I wonder if any support from the board would be helpful there with respect to communication to the AOE. We're all getting phone calls and clearly the situation is changing rapidly and people have questions and the first day of school is really close. So without a lot of guidance or with guidance as thin as it is, it's really difficult to advocate for folks if it would help for us to write, to send letters or make phone calls, let us know. Well, I don't think it would hurt possibly for us to look at printing, drafting a letter from the SU board. And I'm happy to work on that with Kathy and then we could share that and then look to get it up if other board members think that that's appropriate. I just think in general, the more cover and support that the AOE can provide us, the better. Because at the end of the day on this, it's clear to me that not everyone's gonna agree around how to navigate this, I'm fully aware. I've heard this from both sides already since last week. And I think just strong statements that make sense. Vermonters are common sense folks, right? I'm a Vermonter and I get common sense. And so I think help with that would really go a long ways. So if the board is in support, even if you guys just show me some thumbs up around trying to draft something with Kathy and then get that out, I'm happy to do that. Does that work for everyone? I'll work with Jamie on a letter. Get the thumbs up, okay, on it. We will do that. Does anybody else have comments, suggestions, thoughts, anything we can go around real quick if you wanna say something? Rory? Yes, hi, can you hear me? We can hear you. Okay, great. First off, just wanna thank you guys so much. I'm a parent and just a parent attending this meeting. Thank you so much for everything you've done. I really appreciate that you guys have kept the schools open. I know this is like really challenging for everyone. I am here to voice my own opinion that I would not like to have my daughter wearing a mask when she returns to school. That's why I'm here. I completely understand other people have different opinions, points of view, but I wanted to make sure that my voice was heard. I've spoke with many others who share the same view as me and a lot of people are scared to talk. A lot of people are scared to speak up. So that's why I'm here and I just wanted to say that. I would be more okay with social distancing and that kind of thing, but the mask for me as a parent, I feel is just an absolute overreach. And I would ask that if you are asking me or asking us to put masks on our kids, that you provide us with the scientific studies that you're referencing that show that we should do such. And anyway, that's all I have to say. I really, I respect all of you so much. I thank you so much for everything you've doing and that you've done. And I hope you'll consider just my thoughts on the matter. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you for coming to the meeting and speaking up. It's important before we hear from people the better informed we are. Anybody else, Michelle? Hi, I guess I'm on the opposite side of things. My kids were in school last year and wore a mask every day and it was never an issue for them. Some days they would even forget to take it off when they got home. I'm a scientist. I teach college microbiology. I have a doctorate in pharmacology. So this is all stuff that I understand really, really well. And I think the one thing that we have for our unvaccinated kids is an extra barrier between them and the people that are around them. I'd like to protect the kids but I'd also like to protect our teachers and our staff knowing that there's breakthrough cases and knowing that it's really hard to find substitutes and people to work in the schools. I just feel like this is our best shot at having a year like we had last year. And I agree with what Rory said. I think you guys did an amazing job last year. It was awesome. And I just really hope that we can have something similar this year. But Delta's a little bit scary and I think that if we don't go into it with the proper measures in place that we are not gonna have that same level of success. So that's kind of where I'm at. My only other thing, everything that you said Jamie was awesome. And I'm psyched in the direction that you're going. I just hope that we get to a point at some point and some maybe in society where litigation isn't the primary concern but human health and the safety protection of our kids is kind of the primary focus. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Anybody else? Principles, Shane, anybody have anything else they wanna add? Board members? Rory, you're muted. Yeah, okay, great. Yeah, I would love to talk to Michelle offline if she is interested in doing that because I think we're all, we all agree that we want health and safety for our kids. So, and I would love to see her opinions of the data that she has and what she's going off of. Rory, did you see she shared her email in the chat with you? No, I didn't see that. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, great. All right, anybody else last chance? All right, guys, thank you very, very much. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. All right, guys, adjourned. Thank you for coming. You're at our full board meeting.