 To order at 6.33, I believe. Welcome everyone. Reception of guests. We have no guests. We are all hosts, it appears. And reception of guests. It's sort of a funny way to put it too. You can give us another term if you would like. Okay. Yeah. Later. Okay. Agenda revisions. Berlin. It's okay. Agenda revisions. Do we have any from the board? We may, time permitting, have a brief executive session at the end to continue the check-in with Deborah and talk about goals. We'll see how it goes. What I'd really like to do is achieve my life's ambition of finishing by 9 o'clock. So, and I have a, I think I circulated among you the idea of when we hit 9 o'clock, if we haven't already finished, we will actually have board action to continue. And by a majority vote, we can continue for half an hour. And then, you know, every half an hour repeating that procedure. Does this seem like an acceptable idea to all of you? Because I think it's important for us to set a proper example in the self-care department. Otherwise, our fellow hosts may think that all this talk of self-care is just idle chatter. So, yeah, but George is going to call me if I don't hurry this up. So, that's the only agenda comment that I would make with the possibility of an executive session. Public comments. Has anybody any to report? I've heard a couple. One request that committees basically do what the board does and have someone kind of a rapporteur or somebody, just a very brief information in front porch forum on what each committee is doing. If the committee chair could designate someone for that purpose, that would be great. Negotiations, no. Negotiations is a different animal. And I think you do your own. There's a little summary that comes out, but I don't think it goes in front porch forum. Right. And that's fine. Yeah. So, thank you very much. Let's move on then to spotlight on Stephen Dellinger Pay. Well, great, because I'm good to know. We're not going to take a tour or anything like that. We actually did not prepare anything major for tonight or just to be very honest with you. But we did want to show you one thing that we've been trying to do more of here and actually participate. And so it's a little participatory. We have been doing these postcards with our, having our teachers put together a postcard that goes out when something good happens to send home. And we've taken times with a whole staff to send out, just pick a kid, send a postcard home. And, and so we are offering to you the opportunity to send a postcard to somebody within our school community. So somebody who either works or volunteers with our school community. And we're actually putting Debra on the spot for just a second, which is we're going to give them to her so that they get to the right school. And so that it can be with any of the schools with anybody there. But just a thank you or a note of kindness, whatever you want to do, this is what we've done. And actually, we can do that. And so it's something that we've started this this year. We did something last year as well. And, and so we just want to offer you guys the opportunity to do the same. There's going to be a lot of activities that start coming up in January, where we'll be able to see like art show stuff and pieces like that. And we thought maybe just a couple of minutes here and probably in before 10 minutes. If there's any questions that you guys have about. I have more. Oh, I thought you were going to get the whole pack. No. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that. That basket sits in my office and teachers come in every week and take postcards to send and we can do it. And so if you can address at least their name and and what location that's great. And if we do this by the end of the evening, give them to Deborah. Absolutely. Wonderful. Oh, of course. It can be adults. It can be students. It can be anyone in our school community. You want to send a nice word to our teachers do this all the time for students and actually our administration does as well. And you can imagine that someone that has had negative interactions with me, for example, because of some behavior and they come into my office and it has not felt good to have to own up to whatever they're responsible for to later a year later get a card in the mail that says, Hey, I know you're doing a really great job with this or I know you help the student. Thanks for that. It's just it's a good thing for us to do because a lot of times just like picking up the phone and making that positive call. Yeah, families don't always hear enough positive they hear everything that goes wrong, but they don't always hear all the things that are going right. Yeah. And so we started last year with our staff working on that. And this is one way that we've done it. And you'll notice that most of these photos are of our students or they've been taken by students or they're a student artwork, for example. So that also is a way to kind of showcase what's going on here. So it works in a lot of different ways. Yeah, great pictures. So we thought if you wanted to take the time out of writing great. Otherwise, if you wanted to recoup the time so that we could continue with that nine o'clock goal and write them at some other point and make sure they never get some sushi to distribute, that's awesome too. Yeah, thanks. Stephen, this is a really cool idea. Both Stephen Jody. Thank you, Jody. Yeah. I think the other day at one of those meetings I was calling into, I labeled you a genius. And you said no, it was Mark. Mark Andrews. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So but I seldom am the genius of most of these great ideas. So we need to make sure that we point to the people. You just give them a right to hire really good people. And there's a genius in that as well. Most definitely. Thank you, Jody. It's great. Good. So I think what we'll do, feel free to write these as we go. If there are any sort of slow spots in the meeting, I doubt, of course, that there ever are. But no comment. Otherwise, what we can do is move into the book reflection. And Aaron, thank you very much for facilitating this time. Does anyone need chapter seven? I do. Of course. So do my part to apply some time tonight as well. Today are up on the board here. And we're going to use the three level of text protocol. Probably is familiar with that before. So it's not everybody needs one, but just to just to kind of make sure that when it comes to the timing of it, each each group is five minutes of each increment. This is five minutes. I'm going to have a timer going. Three of those minutes within the five is one person highlighting passage that they selected. The other two minutes are for the rest of your team to respond. Within that five minutes, kind of two things are happening. The last time we did this, we got a little stuck on the five minutes being one person talking and then it kind of fell apart from there. So just to remind you how that how that works. So the group is up on the board. Everybody decided where they want to go with the group. At the end, we'll just take a couple minutes to see if there's any debrief of the process. I'll announce a lot of like and that and Alicia was it's not here this evening, nor is me. But I think the groups are going to be okay without them the way they're set up now. Okay. I'm sorry. Yes. So I get the groups in the back work prior to tonight. So did I speak to that? We're around. Sure. Five minutes. Okay. I guess I have the floor. In our group, we're we're overachievers. So we went immediately to the, what do you have to do to get an A and and we talked about the legislative aspect of of the board. The board as legislature, the superintendent is essentially the executive and all of you as part of the executive branch. We talked about the need for openness and curiosity and being consciously uninformed in a positive way as well as the need for a really strong and trust building evaluation system. We talked about collaboration and how important it is both ways across all the way through and to get to the best collaboration. There needs to be trust in the vulnerability required for that. And some of the things that might get in the way of creating that vulnerability. Then we also were talking about the tidaliness of this this chapter and thinking about what does this mean for our search for superintendent. We had a similar conversation and we talked about the district should not always wait until they have all the pieces of the fossil to mark on the path of becoming a PLO. So be in persistent. But also that we have an opportunity but also a responsibility to collect the data from from everybody to make sure that we're headed in the right path. And then we were talking about that how can the schools are helping us to find superintendents of believing collaboration. So how important that is going to be for us to find somebody that believes in this process of where we're headed. We have the same trust on the same. Yeah. How do we create a culture of collaboration? We mentioned the need for data too. I think that the questions in this chapter are great. I think there's way too many of them. But I would love to get a canvas of the entire WCUSD community and start trying to get a sense of what priorities are from from that. That was a very small part of what we talked about. I'm just repeating on the floor said. I think the core of what we talked about was that whether you call an organization a PLO or not, it's a mechanism for surfacing priorities from the professional educators so that the board can weight those, prioritize those, represent the community. There's sort of some process and governance talk in there. And this anything I think the conversation is wide-reaching. And really what are what do we want to get out of this for the larger community, this whole education thing? I also focused on trust, that quote on trust. And what does that really mean? And how do you know if you can be honest and vulnerable and building that trust? Thank you very much. And thank you everyone. So we are at agenda item 4.0, a consent agenda. Floor moods, jail seconds. Any changes to the minutes of November 20? Good to me. Everybody's okay if we move to a vote? In favor of approving the minutes of November 20, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? None opposed. Good. So how about the board orders? Okay, would make a motion? Okay. To approve the first warrant at $421,789.60. The second one is $18,082.68. Second? Chris seconds. Thank you very much. So any questions about the board orders? There were questions. I did have to. Oh yeah, okay. Pink slet. Vera? The ad is self-storage. Do we have any idea of this? It's for community transit items. We just recently transferred the items from personal locations to an onsite. While we figure out the permanent need for these items. And the orange bus that is 50% down. And that just goes from this little, the bus bar to orange, takes the one stopping orange or? The bus stop. You want to speak to the stops? Two stops, I think. So the stops are both, it's orange and wash, and stops are varied. And is it a contract at a mall? Yes. So it's not a fee for service at that point? We negotiated at the time of the bus contract. And then I had a question on the $18,082. I'm assuming it's a mobile phone. Which studio? Our custodial staff, we have some mobile phones within the custodial staff. That's the wonky talkie idea. Well, so that they can get a notice in the middle of the night that Boiler is not working. We wanted to have that, right? Yeah. I prefer that they had that. So I have a question. Sure. She looks like they pushed them into Orange Southwest. Oh yes, okay. So students, one student, I believe attended the check center. In the last six semesters. So there's a six semester averaging. And is that the same for the share cost of the barrier? Yes. Other questions? Sorry, we were just conferring on the name. Orange is great. That's it? Super. All right then. If there are no other questions, let's vote on the, on approving the board orders. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? None opposed. Great. Okay, now we're into the 5.0 reports. Now, because we have the superintendent's report and the leadership report written, there's no reason to recap that. Although I would just like to express thanks. In the same vein as Deborah's letter to the Washington Central family, which I thought was quite nice, and to all of you for having fleshed out what has been happening in your domains over the past two weeks, there's obviously a lot going on. So if any board members have questions on any of this, please feel free to post them. Dave Melnick is pretty busy, it seems. Yeah, I guess that was my request. They had some highlights to share because we're recording this meeting too, like just highlights of that training. It was amazing that we had bus drivers in the room. They were incredibly, I guess, struck by their learning. As were some of the parrots, it was the first time they experienced some of the learning around problem and health care. And we do have 15 people of that group that have volunteered to take an undergraduate class that starts next week. And, yeah, I mean, just a feedback from it was amazing that people barely want more, right? And they see the impact in the kids, and so that's one of the folks to learn more about how to support the kids that are in our schools. That's great. Thanks, Kelly. I was just really struck by the commitment to community service both in the trauma-informed learning and what Gillian said about Doty and all of the donations and community service work. It was just great. That's another good thing to get on camera. I really appreciate getting all the newsletters. Sometimes I go to read another newsletter, but then when you get into it and you see what's happening in the school, it's very informative to see across our system all the great things that are going on in the principal's voice in the newsletters. Yeah, it makes it real. It really helps a lot. Thanks. Anything else on superintendent and leadership team reports? I just wanted to point out that the negotiations summary statement is included on page 7 of my report. I do not have minutes available because that group met just before the holiday. I would like you to read that aloud or just refer to it for all of you so you know where we are with that first. Linda, do you think it needs to be read aloud or Jonas, sorry? I think we got it by email didn't we too? Okay. Good. We forgot to add something at the beginning of the meeting. Just as an announcement to all of you, we did suffer loss this week. We had a former teacher, Susan Dintett, passed away over the Thanksgiving holiday. So that was something that we forgot to mention at the very beginning of the meeting. I know that the staff, you 32, when we gathered today for our faculty meeting, for those of you who knew Sue, we felt that a moment of silence was the exact opposite of what would be appropriate for her. And so there was a sharing of some stories that probably should not be on camera but we're certainly very kind as to who she was and the work that she did for the students and families here for over 30 years. I understand she was fond of Hawaiian shirts. She was very fond of Hawaiian shirts. Apparently next week the case managers are all men where they're Hawaiian shirts for the case managers. She was a special identity teacher. And our middle school friend. It's beautiful. And she worked with my older boy very well. Well, she was the last on eighth grade troops. She was the last. She was. So I guess everybody has a first time you met Sue Dintett's story. I admit, and Sue was a wonderful educator. It was a big loss for us. And our current students, because it's so fresh in my mind, she retired this last year. And we'll inform you of the arrangements so that in case anyone is interested in attending. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah, deepest sympathy for her family as well. That's a bit of a somber note to introduce you, Towns. Okay. Yeah, he'll bring us back up. So as you all probably know, we just had our Thanksgiving break. We only have a few more weeks until our Christmas break. Which is, this special time is very nice. As far as things that have been happening around school, there was a seventh grade planning meeting for Lotus Lake Adventure Days, which we'll be having next week, where people from Lotus Lake come and they take the seventh graders outside to take part in activities, and that really build cooperation and teamwork and respect for the environment. We are getting our pre-ACT scores back. The pre-ACT's were today, I believe, and the pre-ACT's are next week, and grades have been going to different meetings to understand and interpret the data that they're getting. This weekend, stage 16, the middle school theater program, is going to be performing their play for you and me. And also, there will be auditions for the New England Music Festival, which will be happening this weekend. And that's my extreme report. Thumbs up, indeed. Thank you. Any questions for Townes on any of this? Have you seen rehearsals of the play? I have not, but I would like to go. Just an informant of this information. If you're looking at the Times Argus for the start time on Friday, it's wrong. It has it starting at six instead of seven. It starts at seven to eight. Just if you're using that information. Very good. I'm not late. I'm arriving early. At least it's early now. Yeah. Thank you for that clarification, Chris. And thank you, Townes. Superintendent Search, Dorothy, I think you may be aware, had tripped and fell yesterday in front of Hunger Mountain Co-op. And she's doing fine and showing her incredibly strong and tough nature throughout it all. But she would have come, except that she didn't want to just gross everybody out as she put it. She is the chair of the Superintendent Search Committee. So in her absence, if I might call on Flora. Sure. So we met about, we've been meeting every Monday at eight in the morning. And I think you all were aware that we added two new members to the group at our last meeting. We had Chrissy, George, and Kate McKinnon to our group. And for the board, you have Dorothy, Scott, Chris, and myself. And then we have Lori and Steven. And then as principals, we have Aaron and Alicia that have joined us, too. So you get a full view of the group. And this is just doing the, what we were calling the, whether we decided at the end it was going to be the steering committee for the Superintendent Search. We thought we were going to talk tonight, right? About what is... Of course. Yes. Okay. So we were going to talk tonight about what the interview committee was going to, right? What the interview committee was going to look like and who was going to make the decisions for the interview committee. And I should back up a little bit. I was not prepared to do this. Oh, I'm so sorry. But it's okay. But I got it. So we had a, the ad has been out. And it's going to be out, it's going to be on until January 10th. We have created an online survey that will be live this Friday. Every school, every building is having a forum in their building for their staff and any community members that want to join. And those dates have been scheduled and also will be out by Friday with an introductory letter of what we're doing. And then we're going to have a main forum for the community that would be half budget and half Superintendent Search. So it would be on the next Wednesday, the 11th. And we'll start with the Superintendent Search to set the tone for the budget meeting. And that would be, we reach out to the Friends of Education for Center of Warrants that you guys are familiar with. They put out our bus stop and they have been involved with our school for 25 years. So we're trying to create back that partnership and they will be reaching out to the community to make sure that we get as many people as possible to this meeting. We had a meeting with them tonight with Mark Andrews and myself. And they'll start working tomorrow on this. And then on the interview and then moving along, we have to decide what the membership for this committee as committee would be. So the board has some decisions to make. So mainly the interview committee would be the ones that would be, obviously doing the interviews, going through this school spring with Mark Andrews to decide who would they interview. And then the board has to tell us, you know, tell this interview committee how many candidates they are expecting back. And we were thinking, you know, no more than two. We were hoping that this interview committee would be no more than 15 people if possible. And it's still big, but so we took many members to, you know, we can go through the membership, but ultimately the main decision that I think we made on Monday was that it would be up, because it's the most important job that the board does. It would be up to the board to receive the applications of the people interested for the community and the parents and decide who is on the interview committee. And then obviously there would be a presentation from the teachers, from the administrators. And we talked and talked about how many board members. And we, at that meeting, we were not all in agreement, but we felt, and Mark Andrews also recommended, we felt it was important that the four of us stayed on the interview committee, but that decision we couldn't make it ourselves was up to the entire board to decide. So since you guys had assigned us to that, but then we made it bigger because we wanted to include everybody and have more voices. And then the last thing I would say is that we, you know, we really, even though this first interaction with the community is more to inform them that we're doing this, the information that we'll be getting from the community will be used to draft our questions for the superintendent. So even though it won't feel as collaborative because of the timing, it is still, that's the intention is to inform our questions. And I don't think any of what I'm saying is just information. It's in the minutes, right? Yeah, it's in the minutes. Just to be clear, I don't want to... Yeah, I think that's a pretty thorough account of where we are. How does it sound to you? The survey you mentioned, who is that intended for? So the survey, when you start a survey, you will identify yourself with your users to graduate. If you're a parent, if you are a teacher, if you're a staff member, if you're a community member. And so we would have that data, though. So it's for everybody. And then also when... The same questions for everybody. And then for the forum, we have five questions that would be asked in this committee, but it's also informed from... The questions came from the ad that we put out and the survey. So it's all connected. Yeah. Having just read this chapter, I wonder if that information, that data that we get, that could be served double duty? Yes. To inform some other things. Absolutely. I would have no problem with the four members of the committee also being on the interview. Committee, I think that's appropriate. And our running by you, any others from among parents, community members, just so that you feel you have. Because this is the board, the whole board's responsibility. And we want to make sure that you feel like your position to make a good decision by being involved in crucial points along the way. For the survey that's going out, and it's going out to everyone in the community, and then all of the school buildings. And the central office. Correct. Please. So I'm hearing that the makeup of the committee, you would like it to be 15 or less. And four-ish board numbers. And then everyone else on the committee will need to write a letter to the board. Some letter of interest to the board. Right. It'll go to Carla. And Carla will just sort of collate them and maybe do some screening as well. In case they're just unsuitable candidates. I don't know what to expect. But there would be, you know, we would make sure that there's representative, so the central office would have at least two people. So it wouldn't be just suddenly all parents or all board members. Right. We didn't have agreement of how many board members. People felt like you should be even for two board members who were just going to have two committee members and stuff like that. We just felt that as we were forming, this is a very important decision. So we're not trying to dictate it, but this is the most important decision that we'd be making. Is it the most important decision that you made? Yeah. Yeah. And then as Stephen keeps reminding us, this is a board decision. So we want to be inclusive, but it has to be balanced in such a way that we're not so inclusive that we can no longer, you know, perform our own function properly. But the committee's recommendations will come to the board. Yes. And the board makes the final decision. Yeah. Probably two candidates. Yeah. And just to get here, I think the proposal would be two staff members, two administration, two central office, two community members, and two student members. So that's, you know, there may be an inundation of certain category of applications. It's still, I think we're going to figure it out in that way so that we have a broad base. Great. Thank you. Thanks. Anything else on superintendent search? We're good? All right. Negotiations. I know Deborah has touched on that already in her report. I'd just like to thank you, the negotiations team. And I hope that, you know, how are you feeling about how it's going? We had our first real IBV time and it went well then. I can't remember, maybe you did, Deborah, if we were thinking we needed more board representation for, well, it was a difficult week because it was the holiday week. That's true. But we were missing three board members. So we had a small but mighty group and the conversation and the discussions were very positive, I think, between our groups. Good. I think that will be the last session that I will miss. It was like the Monday or Tuesday or Thanksgiving week, it was a pretty hard week for some people. But I think it seems to be a very cordial group and following with the IBV seems to be a very comfortable way of handling it. Great. I'm happy to hear it. Good. So Han is totally managed county at the Red Hand. This is Caden's home, actually. It's very calm. It drives a car. Not inside the Red Hand, but inside. And she said, she thought the Anizuchi Conception went really well and the IBV work that she's ever seen is just her anecdotal comment. No substance but just flavor of how that went. Yeah, she wouldn't say that if it were, if she didn't feel that way. And it was efficient for you. That's a great, even better. Thanks, everyone. Good. All right. Well, now we come to the meat in the sandwich. Is there something wrong with that? Unless you're a bitch. Oh, okay. Where is the meat? Okay. Finance, budget. So, I'll turn it over to Deborah and Laurie and please feel free to structure it as you like. And I guess I'm going to have to get out of the way. I think it's starting to rain. I can see the light on the back. I can see the light from there. And clicker there should work our testimony. Great. Thank you. Thank you for reading for it to arrive here. In addition to the material and your faculty, we'll have some additional handouts to share with you today. But rather than going through the detailed material, I thought it might be best if we'd start from the summary information together. And this is a preview of our future budget form, which is scheduled next week, as was mentioned. That will be at 6.30, just for those who are interested. Whereas the other meeting will be at 5.30. Okay. Great. So, that will be the first of our forms, followed by the 18th. We will have a previewing of the board. And that will be our second budget form. We'll call that we cancel the one that was supposed to be this evening. So, we're off to date. So, this is the point in time, of course, where we'd like your questions and your feedback and feel free to raise your hand. And this will be, is a very rough draft of a presentation. It will include much more information about our schools and our students as time goes on and evolve. So, first slide is our goals for the board that were set over the summer, including working with the community, engaging along Trump's plan, and supporting improved educational and academic outcomes. And you will all first recall that the board's work plan and schedule incorporates each of these goals. And there are specific strategies and activities that we are working on over the course of this year. Here are a few school highlights to be expanded and expanded on greatly as time goes on. Let's just to get us started. We have our October 1st count, which is 1,574 students pre-school through graduation. We're reporting a very positive, stable enrollment. We also are very positive about, of course, our excellent faculty, staff, and certainly our administrative team as well, our dynamic student body, and many, many of the things we've been talking about and reading about are very innovative educational opportunities which are available for students. And of course, we merge to a single district on July 1, 2019. Before we take a look at the budget pieces, I'm going to just make up a moment, because I wanted to make a special heartfelt thank you to our administrative team who have been working really hard for more than a month, I would say probably since September toward the process of helping to make sense of this newly organized district-wide budget, which is very different not only for all of you, but certainly for administrators, those who were continuing for a prior year who were more likely to work directly with the school board and this week we're intended to develop their school-based budget and at the supervisory union level, of course, to work directly with the SQC board to develop an SQ budget. So it's a new process here. We are finding our way. We know it will improve even more as time goes on and we are still looking forward to your feedback as to where we are. We also took the request to heart that Chris initiated in our last meeting and which you asked us to bring forward our prioritization. So one of the reasons why the materials were late breaking is because we met just yesterday and we were refining the packets and materials up until this afternoon. So we're going to go through the rules at least on a surface level and then we can discuss them in greater depth. So in our last meeting, we shared with you draft one of the budget and at that time you can see that for the adjusted budget for this year which is in the first column was noted. The total combined for all of the schools within our new district was $33,854,769. And moving to the right column under total budget, the larger number there represents the increase that was incorporated into draft one. Remember that draft one represented our level service budget and remember that that was not a zero increase but rather increases were incorporated such as equal change agreements and inflationary improvements or changes that we were dissipating. So in our first budget the total expenditure draft was 3.6% over right here which represented a $1.2 million increase. And when you look at that and subtract revenues that we had anticipated at that time we were looking at a total net impact of taxes of $937,505 or a 2.77% increase. You know we introduced this to you as just a way of setting the stage for the next level and I think you have this in front of you too as well. But before we make the move our level our draft one aid budget I do want to point out that in your packet this evening also is a letter that was recently distributed by the state in which there was an estimate of our tax impact of school funding increases. And one of the things that you'll note on the second page of the second letter in your packet was that all of the schools of Vermont were cold and as a result of that the average increase will be 5%. So across the board we were looking at our first draft of 2.77 but it's looking more likely that the average increase will be 5%. That's just something to share with you in preparation for draft money. So same chart on what difference it is on the right hand side and as you can see we have increases here which I'll be referring to you that incorporate the leadership teams consensus on some additional areas that they would like to see addressed in the budget this coming year. And these were prioritized and thanks to all of our teams often in particular are more encountered and recalculated to come up with the estimates that you see here and the net impact on taxes increased from 2.77 to 4.83%. And we have documents that provide more detail on this background so just a few moments which we'll share. First of all before we move on to looking at more detailed information about the additions does anyone have questions about these charts or on these documents so far? What about the penalty box? It's too soon for us to tell we need to have our people count and that's not available until the 15th but once it is available we'll be able to have more information. And what we're hoping is that you'll provide us with tonight is questions about the additions and or comments about or direction actually about the percentage that you want us to aim for because while the statewide average may be 5%, that may have been the goal that this district has it may have a lesser goal and we've been looking at about 3% increases annually for some time across the district all of our people working as an SU so this is a change this is an increase only. So I do have a question about the salary and benefits increase of 6.11 Is that new positions is that just with what we have is Well the percentage increases the percentage of the total budget this particular one I'll back up to the last one we were looking at 3.9% so what that tells you is that our suggestions in this draft are increased positions so we're looking at more personnel as we come to draft 1A and we'll look at that in a bit more detail. Thanks Taking a look at draft 1A and if this may not be the draft we'll look at but this part is often helpful and usually a visual of how our budget is broken down 70% of our budget is salaries and benefits as you follow that circle clockwise you'll see transportation services is 4% operations of plant in miscellaneous 3 special education including contract of service is 9% non-salary 9% and the debt service in capital 5 I think that's fairly similar to how most school systems see their budget breaking down questions about that is that helpful about visual alright so this is the list can you say you certified for draft 1A no but we can certainly prepare that is it not that you know if it's comfortable in terms of percentage of salary and benefits overall budget being around 70% fairly similar the difference is about 750 the sheet that you have here actually you can look at this and this is you can see the changes right here so just exactly to your question I know we don't have a copy I'm not sure we should put this included but the difference between the two was 761 and 559 so the first few areas actually are related to special needs programs and students including contracted service changes and then staffing changes triple E is refers to preschool special education student needs so our team worked for and they said for several weeks to identify what we anticipated our needs to be part of this was outlined in the service plan that was concluded in October but it has one of those areas in special education where there are fairly regular adjustments due to student needs students moving into the system or being identified requiring additional services etc so those are as you can see that makes up the bulk of the the personnel changes that you see here those top three areas the next elementary classroom teacher this actually rounds out to that half time callous additional elementary teacher that the board approved I don't know I'm joking I'm joking I'm going to make you the budget lady I'm kidding I'm getting ahead there we go my computer says that anyway so these are what we consider requirements because our IDPs dictates that students are first for special needs and that's why they're listed on top they were not included in the level service budget because we gave you what we currently had these are all additional costs in the special education instructional area the other charge the board asked of us was to consider equity across the schools in relation to other instructional relevant or student support programs so we did recognize that there were needs in the area of instructional intervention and I believe this equates to 2.5 FTE one of which 2 elementary schools and then another 1.5 person so with this infusion of additional support we anticipate that we'll be able to support our students who have the need for academic support in the poor content areas and these can be specific to the elementary level just for these particular interests and at which schools Berlin will be popular and Calis the next is behavior support this is a separate and apart from the behavior intervention support people who might be encapsulated in the top section most of our schools have a school-wide individual who serves all students in their behavior support there are a few students who have more counseling support than they have behavior but one school in particular needs I think it's been an ongoing concern but we felt at growth level where we would like to recommend that an individual be employed to provide school-wide behavior support which is lacking at that school and at Calis so that means that the principal has full responsibility for all presently I'm awesome but I'm not bad yeah but for every single office referral comes to the principal and that really impedes our ability to support our teachers and improve their destruction so would this be a full-time person and is that a conservative estimate between society and that it's not important about a teacher we're talking about someone that has some behavior on training Kat is this largely relating to your surge in enrollment some but I've also had the concern that maybe Kelly talked about this a couple, was it just last year we talked about the changing student demographic there are some of these students who are coming to us with a variety of needs sometimes they are identified that they have an impact in an academic area and it was into special education because there are a lot of kids who struggle and it disrupts their own learning or their learning for others that they are not on a plan and so we don't have to support them in a certain place other than they get to the clinical process which doesn't keep them engaged in learning it doesn't give them a track back finding someone who can really support getting kids recharged to look back in if it's really important for us does our district have a civil worker I think we have that's actually something I know we do have folks that provide natural enrollment at a school level but can we explore those of you we have a part-time social worker here at U32 yes, licensed social worker they've been here, did I see the only person there what does that person mean? social worker what does he think that I know mostly with students yeah, mostly with students certainly some of our cessation programs around here in terms of vaping yes, but yeah controlled substances it also makes connections with outside agencies oh definitely but we only three days a week well anything else for questions before I move on? the next area is what I think that you should be familiar with and that is the increase in the number of once again here we go in the number of our high quality instruction those are people who work with our teachers and as I'm sure you recall this has been a focus for the district for some time and it had been our plan to increase by one each year for the next standard of years until we get a sufficient number of people to fulfill that request we've spent some time this past few meetings in particular this last meeting talking about how this is an area you know a high priority area and also one that we feel we need to do some work this year in preparation for the increase of the individuals who will serve in this role primarily to ensure that we are able to select the right individuals and when it comes to looking at selecting coaches in the school district the most effective way is to find a very highly qualified teacher who also has very positive skills in the area of collaboration for the making of instruct adults in a manner that's going to encourage them as we let someone start talking in their earlier conversation so this is for one single individual person to serve in this role across the district correct we have 1.2 1.2 and 1.2 but they aren't across the district they're in our I've got all this one of them works in the district one of them works in the district one of them works in the district community connections is I'm sure you are aware of a program that we've been fortunate enough to have in our schools for I think it's going to be a year or two or so it was initiated through a partnership with the Washington Central Friends of Education a professor writing in a 21st century learning grant to initiate the program with both opportunity for both preschool students and their families and our after school workforce this past year there was a restructure at the end of the year in a lot earlier school district decided to leave our partnership and develop their own program so as a result there has been some adjustment in the sampling previous to being our previous director had retired so we now have a part time site coordinator part time program director who was thinking about what we spoke about in the past but we are still trying to right size the participation and revenue and close the substitute that all is necessary in the black our participation in the next year will likely be some substitute for retired we are estimating it to be at $60,000 we will know more as months go on and we see how this year first year is a single district see how our finances unfold but that we feel is a priority it certainly helps to maintain a high level of preschool enrollment because it keeps the answer here and without that families who will not be able to enroll their children in our part time personal programs part time director is community connections now just in year 32 times and their sources of funding where is their structure are they at the federal funding they are we had done some research on this because it had been thought that they were a separate entity but ultimately they have a trade name called community connections but they are under Washington central tax ID and they have been all along so they are us and their bills go through the words that you sign okay so there is no other source of funding all they have funding sources yes they receive child care subsidies for families who qualify so students who participate in the program they submit planes in the state actually reimburses they have currently no other grant funding they charge parents fees or we're looking at the fee structure as well they do get a few thousand dollars from towns that you mark that money for students who can't afford to take to participate in some of the programs and so that's pretty much a summary of that yeah does the structure work my understanding that about 70% of our preschool students are participating in the before care and after care wrapper before we used to have a lot of students that didn't come to our schools because they didn't have that before after care so they have expanded their program to meet our needs that's great so it would make no sense just to absorb them completely and have them become just another just another there's some licensing considerations and I guess it's a topic for another time but we have been researching all aspects of the program okay very well received I do have a question would this additional funding facilitate an after school cc program at dowdy if there are division students what do I need to be I'm not going to tell you the number but in order to sustain a program there needs to be a certain number I'm not sure I'm pretty sure I don't have to check I can write that question down and so the question is is there an opportunity for dowdy to have an after care program and what we need to be so as I'm sure you know right now for those students who need it we offer the option of blessing to run the program and the same is true Calis-Tesla it isn't ideal and the more students participate we can operate for them we can okay I'll write that down next is our work-based learning coordinator if full-time was stated that way because this is an initial time I think at point four to an insistence second or first time so this particular position has actually been categorized by the city and there's a specialized certification or a license that teachers must have and they're responsible for fulfilling our requirements of Act 77 which is the Fussell-Pack Ways Act in part in particular in relation to making connections with the industry and community and also the colleges and supporting our students having experiences outside of the regular school one area is sometimes called extended learning opportunities so in any case we have a person delivered this topic right now onto this area and there are many more responsibilities that this person provides but it's not sufficient to meet the needs of our students and we'll recommend that this position become full-time and see if you want to add anything further to the responsibilities that that person takes on so this person coordinates all of our all of our mentors or our pilot, our branching out our CBL program our, you know, all of those programs and so really what this amounts to is we have more kids now interested in these programs and this person has time to place them and so we had the person at point five, we moved over to point six just could give three full days and we we have more than enough work so just so you understand to this work-based learning coordinator coordinates with the work-based learning coordinators of Harwood Montpelier and Spaulding so that the four of them are working within this region to get these kinds of opportunities going and so the sky's the limit on this really in terms of our kids being involved in community activities we're only limited by the amount of time this person's working right now do the other schools have comfortable like full-time? Spaulding is the only other one with a full-time although I think two full-time now but the I would say the caveat to this is if we don't we have the position of hard time if we did not have the position at all we would be required to contract with the tech center for them to provide a person who did this and we actually supported our person providing this license which you can't get you could not get I think you can now you could not even get it in this state to get this certification she did it all on her own through all kinds of craziness so if we want our students to be involved in community learning opportunities this is the position you have to have and that person has to have that certification it's super specific so that totals our if you can see the number from the side it goes to 760 1559 and there were a few other priorities that we worked from that I'll show you in our handouts that did not we felt did not have the same level of urgency for this year but things that we may want to address in future years which would be a discussion that the board would have and you'll see that just in just a moment you might have noticed I heard from some board members the question about the elementary foreign language and that's on our other list as well as we've all received a proposal from a few of our teachers that's also on our other list we tried to make this as comprehensive as we could hopefully we'll be able to have a conversation about it so if you have no further questions about this I actually do maybe quick maybe not so looking at this is what you guys prioritized right roughly looks like 65% of this is to support special education instructional intervention behavior support and the list of things that you didn't prioritize or things like orchestra right and prioritized but below this right and you have to understand that these are we were tasked with bringing a consensus recommendation which is what we have and it's all of you who decide yes of course your guidance and your prioritization is absolutely invaluable to that go for it would you make the argument that these that supporting these priorities and supporting the behavior and special education and instructional intervention that that making those priorities and providing those resources towards the entire school community that there are benefits across the whole population of students I would say so one thing is I'll take the foreign language just as an example is some of the things we looked at and said okay what is it you know we all agreed that we need to have foreign language in the elementary schools in all of them instead of just one but then looking at it and saying okay so for next year just this idea there's work to be done before we can do it what is it going to look like how would you structure the position and so some of the things that got pushed off weren't unprioritized for next year because they weren't viewed as a priority but that they were viewed as more multi-year tasks like more work to be done more work to be done on developing the market's health teacher was also on there but certainly with the increasing number of students that we have who are struggling coming from you know having an adverse child put experiences they are disrupted learning of all students and having just been very recently a classroom teacher is as much as you're trying to do to work with all the students in your classrooms if you have a student who's disrupting and having these struggles and falling apart they by necessity take more of your attention so if you can support those students particularly in the younger grades can teach them the skills of self-regulation and all these things that then you're actually able to increase the level of the instruction that's happening in your classrooms because you're able to focus on the learning because you're able to instead of having to spend five minutes Tom and Chris down well, because he's Chris but you're able to remind him and you have the resources that you can pull in and the other thing that comes in with especially is these are coaches who aren't just working on intervention these are these are coaches who are often working and teaching about how you differentiate so how are you within your classroom meeting the needs of the full spectrum of your learners so those were the thoughts and stuff that were going through our minds and then in terms of some of the things like I could just pick out the health teacher that's Spanish or not Spanish, foreign language because that's the easiest the label is like, ooh, that we could do that for next year but we wouldn't do it well for next year so that was some of the thinking and it does the special education stuff is a have to, we can't not do it we'll go to special education but in terms of I think addressing the needs of some of the more struggling students it actually while it seems to a resource heavy on those struggling students what it does do is it frees up the skill of the teacher to really enhance the learning of all the students excuse me, we have 15 minutes left for this time being all together I was informed by our time keepers thank you go ahead I appreciate that and agree with you and that's why I wonder if when we talk about behavior support getting some that's not licensed what's the ultimate long-term cost of putting the cost up now of looking at someone that is more licensed and is more trained but then that professional development is already embedded in that staff and then transpire more cost to the district I'm sure you guys have that conversation but that's one thing that I'm wondering this is one position and what I mentioned earlier is that we have behavioral intervention which is another level of support in special education built into the categories above and into our existing staff so we actually have a plan to look more closely at what supports Kelly is bringing together to never have principles to reason on that are there ways we can refine and improve how we are for many supports helping me improve the quality of the support for individuals in those roles it's only been a few years since we've actually been using our own staff along with hired first-year service consultants from other areas to do that work and really just be thinking of that process but I would just want to echo what the only had say which is that if our students would greatly are supported it really does provide not only does it provide time but it also results in a refinement I think an improvement of the skills of the regular classroom teachers they have skilled individuals working with them and that affects all students I remember when we talk about equity well we have yet to define it I think we have consensus that it is not a matter of bringing everyone up but bringing them according to their needs so when we looked at our staffing recommendations we can say well everyone must have this number of this staff it's really where are we with our achievement and our print staffing and we thought long and hard about that with these recommendations well then I remember Chris you had talked about putting some money towards professional development a few months ago you were talking about the capital bond we talked about allocating it sounds like what is happening here in terms of allocating resources to the schools that may need more help than other schools my sense could be schools that would be getting more help as a result and it sounds like that has happened since we've been my sense is that we've been looking at improving resources or any resources to address students at a younger age with the theory that addressing younger helps when these students are older and I think in the time it's gone by where we would see the proofs of that and my question is are we are we seeing the proofs of that that underpinning of putting a lot more resources into the putting more resources into the younger age students to deal with behaviors that would then require less resources and an older age because more to deal with the older age or it takes more resources to deal with older age students I mean and tell me from this stating what I think we at least see rationale for increasing our resources as younger ages has been is that it pays off in the future because you're not going to pay as higher cost later. Right I agree with what you're saying and I think yes in some of the kids it's paying off but we are also seeing an increase and we continue to see an increase in the number of kids that are moving into our district or kids even that have been here a long term that have some significantly challenging behavior they're getting younger in our preschools they're coming in and I mean this year alone we had many kids move into our system that we were not anticipating at the start of our school year it's oftentimes it's the kids that are moving around a lot and they tend to have more challenges and so some of that is very unpredictable right we don't know until they show up but some of our schools a significant increase in that need this particular school year actually burling any small failure but at least the experience is proving the theory for the goal for the rationale of what we're doing yeah I don't know that I had like hard data that I could show you but I think that our behavior conditions have been fairly constant over the last three or four years in terms of numbers of staff I don't know that we could say that we have a value to data which I think is what you're asking for in terms of but I do if I may I would strongly recommend that that be a question that our team looking at our behavioral support programs and how kind of they are if they would go under that question and come back to us with further thought but it is a very more question we have to ensure that the supports we're providing are having an effect I think it's something for our community too is the needs and results that we've been getting over time to I think one of the data points and I don't have the exact numbers for this group but one of the things that we do know is that while we've had a pretty significant increase in the number of kids and the level of services that we've need that is not matching that is at a higher rate than what our increase in cost of them and so I think that that's a really good place that it's not obvious necessarily but when you look back that we put those resources into the younger grades we've kept our costs down at a rate that's much lower than we need and so that's a really good point to make within our special ed program because that's and we can see evidence of that when the kids get to the middle school and the high school level is that they've been getting some services for several years it's easier to continue services that were here as opposed to trying to make them up by the time they get to middle school it's time to support individuals who might be active and the interventions my understanding of their own right is not just for the special ed because really the intervention is more before they become the special ed even though I shut in their arm I'm giving them a little extra math before they so it's not really for the special ed and also if the kids that might not need that shut in their arm can be make it a ukulele so it is really for a larger range so yeah just so that it's good because a lot of people sometimes especially in when they're watching it on TV and we had because we had been doing this for a little bit longer we had a pushback through the year so I just that's exactly why I asked the question the way I did but to get these guys on the record saying exactly the feelings so that's sort of where we were going and then my only question about I understand they I understand adding where it says high quality instruction approaches my only question is like where are we our chapter today in the book was perfect for this conversation where are we in each culture in each building now to the point that the work of the instructional coach it's everybody on the same page I'm assuming you guys know better than me because as you said it's not just about adding people because if the building is not ready the culture is not ready to accept this then we might use the resources like I totally didn't understand it for a long time but that would be the last thing that I would do right now if it was started from that time right so I'm here the coaching is part of a larger professional development plan which we also refer to in the past and we have been providing very high quality professional development to our staff over a number of years the coaching is in a recent addition from the last few years and what that really provides is based on what we know about research is that support to assist a person from taking the knowledge that they may have gained from the course of a workshop and translating it into practice having a person to support that is the most effective way to improve instruction, improve quality of instruction for all teachers the other thing that's important to know that this is not an evaluative or supervisory role it's completely voluntary based upon the interest of the individual to take the science and support which is completely confidential and detailed with supervisors and that's another reason why I think it's so successful because there's not a worry about is this conversation we're having going to be part of my record my evaluation record and of course the people who serve these roles have such a solid amount of expertise and they have the opportunity to research and provide support in many areas they're really remarkable that it's an important component of our professional development program not the only one, but an important one so this is for one assist shoe but our thinking was one this year and one next year you don't have that in front of me any other questions? I'm down to five minutes are there being things that you're just continuing because you're not satisfied with that phase or doing the official began no reductions based upon poor quality or lack of satisfaction at this point but we are looking for your feedback around the number the additions and be happy to continue the conversation or do more research if you would like that about maybe solutions for the next meeting alright so the hit up that was we passed it around as a chart in the back the very last page and this is a this is where the other 15 items are listed we have as a future goal future consideration and this is again the consensus of our administrative team did you get down to your section I think I gave it to floor did you get them all oh they need to say it I think I have more do you get one here so you'll see the rest of those there and you'll also notice I just wanted to thank you for your attention because we did speak a little bit about adding some instructional programming to the elementary school and it was a strong desire on the part of our administrative team and myself to really consider the length of our school before we made any adjustments to by any additional programming across the board so that is not a problem based upon our current teacher contract however our support staff contract will be negotiated to allow for the potential of an additional half hour per day okay and there's also a class that you can see associated with that for support staff members who work with children who need to say any additional okay so for that reason while I'm confident that we're off to a great start with negotiations I don't know that we can manage to finalize that part of the negotiations in time to look at it so that's another reason why we looked at other programming as a year out okay so to be true to our plan the only thing that's on this chart I think you already have in your handout this is a list of our capital project funds that can be available following the passage of our budget and with the level 1 service information included and it's broken out right now by school or supervisory media based upon our the way in which we've managed this information in the past and I would also say that in those beautifully spreadsheets we have a lot of detailed information that was compiled by John McGarron and Bill Ford neither of whom were able to join us this evening so we thought we might take this on in a little time but here are a few projects we will be coming back to after the finance community reviews and then more detail for action and one is a citing and window project in Jody that had been in the Worcester community the former board for the Jody Memorial School and there's also some ongoing conversation around an acoustics project that was approved and where funds were set aside by the board prior to the term period so those would be things we'd be looking at advancing and then finally at U32 as you can see there we've just had a very large outlet with our track project but with this amount that's remaining or some other discussion about how we might extend these resources we have some projects within the five year plan that have been in place for U32 which we can also address at our next meeting just in the interest of time I don't have any questions about that sorry for the amount of time to look at those and more detail but as you'll notice from my memo we feel that in addition to the just that we did with our recommendations for additional stamping we feel that it's the leadership teams that really should assist you in prioritizing projects that we can have to be the first in the capital realm as well so we're continuing to do that with any questions? There's somewhere in there about Jody and Firedoors and they are not going to be anywhere near $12,500 which is a number that got thrown in there somewhere and I don't know which page it's on but I did just yeah thank you very much obviously there's more work to be done we feel the estimates might be quite high you're saying this estimate is high or low? for the $12,000 it's way high can we hear that? not very much so Debra can I just talk about this sheet right here those estimates I would say that these are on the very high side for a lot of DU32 pieces so just I would just ask you to take these with a big grain of salt this sheet right here is I can say for DU32 because we've been looking at some of these numbers we don't think we're going to be getting anywhere near this I should get into the aiding business you should because we've seen much lower numbers than that I think the one thing to look in that most work hard in this sheet which is pretty long is to look at the exclamation marks I think that is the column that we should be looking at so if it has four exclamation marks look at it the ones that's not really what that would be the easiest way that's exactly right like those the importance is much more informational than the dollar amounts that I hear looking at this for if it says something like failure of existing but it has one exclamation point what should that tell us that it's not a high priority right at this moment but we'll have to be taken care of in the next couple of years okay thank you or it's not a code issue yeah I have a chance to offer you a moment to speak about the budget do you want to highlight anything else well we had color coded copies for some people and Steven ran and made extra copies and so yours don't have color so I spent a few minutes putting stars beside the changes so that's in your packet in the letter well no I'm talking about not the capital but the budget so the back page has the list so if you flip it back one more you will see the updated draft 1A and see how pretty mine is but ours is by the items that we summarized Jebra's presentation by so this just highlights the areas that we put into that shoot when we showed you the very end what the leadership team was recommending so do you want to take one minute and just say what that is so where the stars are at the top are staffing positions that we were recommending adding you'll see 181,198 for special ed program staffing you'll see 543,390 for academic program staffing so it is a staffing increase of 724,000 and then the only other item served was a contract service down below for special education programs and that total was 36,971 so those three lines are the expense totals that Deborah showed during screening a different way I was just showing it to you in a summary fashion and then special education programs also have an offset by revenues so you'll see the final star down at the bottom section under revenues that by including these special education changes it would also increase revenues by 66,043 for an increase of 695,516 so that's my highlight thank you for giving me a chance and do you have any feedback for us about the items that we recommended or about the percentage we'd really like to know because this will be an opportunity for us to come back and we discuss whatever you need to say yeah, Lori historically there's 4.82 high numbers that low that average we've been hovering around 3% over the last 5 years as an impact on taxes in your experience has there been a district-wide budget or maybe even just for U32 is this historically high we've had a few schools with that percentage we're close to that over the years but on aggregate it's hovered around 3% around a little less we have not exceeded 3% at U32 I think the whole time I've been here I think we've been less than that at one point but we've never exceeded 3% and also I think it's important just to remember that there is a one-time budget in our favor of the debt being repaid and there's a political dimension to this of course because there's something of an expectation that merger is supposed to be cheaper so we have to have that in mind as we defend this budget well, we need to defend the budget whether we're merged or not I think it's a dead letter and we're dealt merger or we're merged I don't think that has much bearing just so that the expectations are understood what will have to be what will be in people's heads and I think it's been explained very well and it sounds as though just based on the questions that you were asking earlier Jonas there's an aspect of having to run to stand still anyway I mean we all know that health care costs increase way above inflation do we anticipate that the interventions the special ed costs will that keep increasing more than 3% in the future is there any demographic or I think Kelly sort of intimated we're largely at the mercy of forces way beyond our control is there any sense that this might crest at some point based on what I'm hearing across the state no it's actually a really interesting question though in anticipation of of the black grants are we in a better position if we spend more going in so that we're we get locked in at a higher level then right so we're at 173 we'll have a three-year average of our actual spending going in a future it'll be it'll be the one I don't know exactly what year that will start Laura you might know but I think within the next couple of years three years prior and it'll be a three-year average of our actual spending and right now we're in hold to what March or has that been pushed out even more at 173 it's full implementation by 2025 right and you know one of the other things we also do is take a look at other agencies and services that provide support to students and I think it's my understanding that the governor has asked all agencies to come in with a zero increase in their budgets which includes the agency of human services I serve on the department of children and families advisory board and I know that they are making several cuts which because we are all in partnership working with students with special needs in particular our most vulnerable children and we have a responsibility to surround and support every child regardless of how many dollars are available from other agencies or grants or programs and that is another factor that's a point I have a question on the recommendations here are the first three bullet points recommendations or requirements based on the distinction being recommended to serve students the way we should or is this required to serve the students the way we must the letter the letter okay so it's a necessity okay so it's actually a quasi level of service it could be based on the new information that we have on the new students that we have I think it's a good point Chris it would be good to it would be good to see the must-haves separately from the triple E line up that's a must thank you you said but it's combined with best practices right it's not just correct it has an effect on all children it's the one that is recommended it's as opposed to the presentation I think but in terms of the we have a one time no debt payment is that just for this year or does that continue we have another we pay off another one next year right I put it in the memo that we just handed out at the bottom there U32's first bond is paid off this fiscal year for $462,000 the second U32 bond will be paid off in budget 21-22 and at that time the budget will go down $159,000 but those who continue on they're not like all of a sudden going to spring up so it's not like we hope that's the finale one years great thank you so how do you want to do this do you want to let this sink in and have this be the trial balloon that we float on the on the 11th and see what people's reactions are are you with that okay does anyone have suggestions for the presentation that you would like us to revise or add more detail would you like to make a note maybe even some sort of and also pointing out that the palace 0.5 is already in place based on student need that it's not we're adding something for next year we had to do that that's important as well do you want to increase enrollment yes is there any sense that are will we as students need to address is it important because other service agencies or not that other budgets have gone down to ours so we're taking on a greater share of the social service so I think we should emphasize that as well sometime ago we would receive free services from these agencies in the last 10 years and that's now it's practically funded based upon use based upon the service required and it's statewide it's not just we want some beautiful system that's not anyone else doing we look at our society and we're supposed to fix it in school right exactly it's world-wide a little bit study just came out about the academic humans are falling worldwide yeah we're just so fortunate to have such a wonderful collaborative and supportive culture of faculty and staff that really care for our kids every day they make a huge difference we so appreciate that that is a not typical in all schools so we want to grow and develop that because it will of course support our students and their background yes and we've had townspeople who have been willing to fund it as well which has been very important to all of it so I had a very good suggestion that we just go around to each one of us and just here to make sure that everyone has a chance to at least say something so Vera what about this budget finance committee co-chair I guess I would like to see the top three error necessities but I would like to see the snapshot of a 3.5% increase as an alternative to this is that feasible I'm just writing a list okay that's no one 8 more to go thanks thanks Chris it's hard for me not to turn all of these meetings into an interview glory session I appreciate that what I heard the word cuts was mentioned in some context I just want to mention that reading the chronicle over the last week seeing the article about the teacher, the table the white table books you've been walking by and the distress that seemed to have caused among the student body one of the things I think we need to do is maintain the culture and maintain the atmosphere and the school people want to be here and that it's that students and children feel like they are supported and that they're that just struck me and I just wanted to get that on the table thanks Jen yeah I'm fine with this budget as it's presented but the alien point was really good I can put that in numbers somehow or in a presentation I'd like to hear if public come out next week to hear concerns I don't have any jumping out at them but I'd like to hear what we learn from the community yeah I'm happy to see and present this budget and get input from the community to see how they feel I would like to have the presentation stay away of what other agencies are not providing just because we have the kids here and this is what we need to do so I don't want to sort of getting that rabbit hole that they're like well they should be doing and so on so I just want to go that way and then if we're going to also present on 3.5 I don't necessarily need to see that for the next meeting but continue to do it not cutting our interventions and our professional development thank you yeah I'm fine with presenting this as it is and I would support also having a kind of out budget 3.5 just to again to have the comparison really I echo I support this budget and I think the community feedback is important I think if we're going to look at looking at a 3.5 how could we maximize on what we have now for professional development and make sure we capitalize on using that I support this budget one of the things that I feel was missing or might be asked was where we are population-wise trend you know are we still on the downward trend what does that look like and how do we compare it to other schools we just we didn't really spend too much time on population and I think that's one of the things that we're going to hear about yeah thanks I see notes are being taken so towns what do you think about all this I'm not going to pretend to understand all of it you can pretend to understand some of it I don't do that though but I think the presentation was very helpful and I agree with this budget I guess I support it as a student great thanks good alright shall we move on then Steven you'll meet your goals education goals of all the students when they graduate under students I'm serious about it does that count to me to come to a callback with me I was saying George would be here I would support it if you would great okay so moving into policy Chris I think there's a little bit of sunshine coming this way tomorrow night don't do it thank you for walking though I really appreciate that so we had a budget committee meeting on 25th I think and we have our unapproved meetings minutes here didn't anybody have any questions about the minutes so one of the things that we ended up deciding is that on the elementary school's tourist policy that we've been working on that we put that on people people don't understand what's going on we won't be able to take any time to it but between now and April we'll be gathering information about other school's tourist policies and other districts and see how they're working to gather information before we start setting about attracting a school's tourist policy time and also the realization that the articles maintain our current class and school structures but at least until June 30th of 2021 also I'm going to draw part of that decision in terms of putting off policy school of choice policy discussion and so we have a couple of policies up for consideration and the first is P2 which is a policy of the procedure policy that we went through we made some minor adjustments if I'm not mistaken and we are planning now for first reading in comments or questions about P2 and these are the policies that were already in effect that we're just basically going through again to decide whether we read adopt them or not these are part of the the sunset and we did incorporate some of the changes from the committee on to the draft okay good are there other comments did you make any changes of substance now so in the future the ones that are changed for me are just highlighted underline it on our copies or highlight it so that we can change it we have P2 which is recommended policy and this one does have some changes that in agenda preparation what the community did was the original language was that the items on the proposed agendas are the description of the board chair and the superintendent but we added on the clause the board members attending the meeting both to add an agenda item to the next regularly scheduled meeting that was basically a move to give to the board as a whole the power to put an agenda item on the agenda even if the board chair and the superintendent were insistent on it but we put it on to the next meeting so that these folks ever would be resistant to that but it's a it gave more authority to the board to hold the agenda for items that they wanted to see that if it wasn't being brought up or as we put on by the board chair for the superintendent the other thing that we did in terms of the agenda distribution I think we changed the language so that it was also put on the district so that it was there as a matter of policy as opposed to it's a good idea and the other changes that you don't like my mention was changing from three days to five days prior in terms of distributing materials to the board at least the way we are regulating that can make practical difference but it is a difference depending upon where when or for it would be scheduled because now again on Friday which is five days prior but it creates room for us any question on 8.20 is that enough to take out that clause I think it's a great idea ok next up is the comprehensive sexual policy policy C50 which was proposed previously ok so the flag policy we discussed and actually it's a lot of discussion I thought there was a question about whether we're going to have a presentation today and it sounds like not but based on what the previous board had done after this policy's live presentation we discussed what the board had done and after this policy's live policy also voted to install the second flag poll and I believe it has students' recommendations perhaps I think we've heard about this before is having a two-hole solution so that there are two poles from which to hang flags bi-polar solution bi-polar so I think we're verified the board but you've got to stop sorry Chris so anyway the question that we're discussing here is the policy on flags this is in terms of decisions to have a student group basically the procedure sounds like a student group they want to fly a flag they come to us and the board itself will decide based on these various criteria we discussed that the policy has not been really implemented because it's supposed to be the permission is supposed to be renewed annually and that hasn't happened so we want to talk about mechanisms for how that should happen should it be up to the student group is there a self-regulating where we would as a group just get a notice that the one year is up and then you'll alert the student group to be petitioned or what have you but it's just it's kind of like unenforced and nothing another thing that came up and was that I'm having the black lives flag on the main pole the U.S. flag and the non-flag there was a comment that many members thought that that was a violation of flag etiquette I went online and the flag etiquette and came up on the old farmer's almond act which was a whole series of rules and it didn't seem to me that was a violation of the etiquette rule because I think the etiquette rule that would have been talking about was the U.S. flag if other flags are have to be below it and it didn't say only state flags but just said other flags so I personally did not see it as a violation I don't know if anyone has a different opinion on that but that was one of the things that was raised but Steven so in addition to the farmer's almond act there's other sites as well so farmer's almond act has some statues but actually the farmer's almond act does a good job of summarizing the uniform flag code of the United States and so this is not a law but a code in our country there are several requirements that it puts forth there is the only thing that it says is that you cannot put an advertisement flag with the U.S. flag that should not be but there are no other stipulations other than that the American flag should fly at the highest point depending on how there's all kinds of rules about how flags are arranged so we won't go into all of that but also the Vermont each state has their own flag law as well and Vermont has one as well Vermont is really high above any other flags other than the American flag it only states that it carries forth the things from the flag code itself but it does have an interesting caveat in the Vermont one that if any flag is to face or mutilated or there's several things that have a whole list of things that Vermont allows for you to be imprisoned up to one year and fined to a thousand dollars we have done but there actually is a law in Vermont about how to treat the flag as opposed to a code which is what the U.S. code says so I think it's just important to note that there are some differences between those two we have not moved any flags we have one fair flag poll as the above the fold article indicated I've been speaking with the student group the Black Lives the BLAM student group and we had a very good conversation this week about like what do they want what are they their original intent you know when we started to fly the Black Lives Matter flag what was the original intent and how can we continue that given that we have two flag polls so they're putting together a statement about what they would like so I don't want to speak for them in this case because I don't want to misinterpret anything that they say but we will not move any flags until we have a statement from them and that they can bring forth here as well and so I think that they're going to come up with a pretty interesting proposal getting based on the conversations but I don't want to speak for them until they have that statement here's the thing we're not in any rush we have two flag polls we have a lot of spots to put flags and we've only got three flags to fly so we're okay right now good so our proposal we did questions about the flag flying policy as it is we should raise some I do think we should incorporate procedure into it so it's clear about having it renewed and things like that or not or for the group as the whole says we don't need to renew we just need to wait for another student group to make a proposal and it's important to note here is that it's always student based groups that have the right to petition to fly a flag what I would propose too is that if there's a group that makes a proposal and the administration ends up saying no that they have a a right to petition to have us hear it and make a decision on whether we approve the administration or not because ultimately it's the board decision on whether a student group should have the flag thrown or not and that's no disrespect to you folks so it's just so write a procedure for that type of review if we're as a group interested in that okay, so I'm thrilled I notice it's nine o'clock so as as promised threatened whatever what I would like to do if if it's possible to excuse the leadership team those who wish to be all members of the leadership team who wish to be excused and to carry on with their lives are welcome to to go home but very good I'm sorry I guess the sense of the leadership team on the peace symbols for evolution very good get their view on whether it should be modified or because because we're directing them to maybe something they already do but it does involve the direction to the leadership team sounds good so after the hit symbols discussion shall we let them go? absolutely, absolutely because it involves them would you also like to take a photo of extending I would love to thank you very much, Jonas thank you, I would entertain a motion to extend from nine to nine thirty I'll second Jonas's decision Jonas moves Chris seconds Paul in favor any opposed? none, okay, unanimous thank you, Chris so do you want to have a copy of the resolution? okay any comments from the board any comments from the board for the administration team? I have a question to people who will know the prevention of harassment hazing and bullying policy more than I do in order for this to go into effect does there need to be a victim? does there need to be a clear victim in order for this to go into effect? I was just asking Kat so this is one of the things that we've discussed so for there to be a true harassment complaint there really does need to be a victim to that but it does not mean that we can't address issues that are potentially harassing right, so I think that that's the line I think that we would have to go with the administration we could not have a finding of harassment like we could not say that a student was harassing someone else if there was no someone else because that is the definition of harassment is that there is a victim of that but that does not mean that we wouldn't be able to remove something would that fall under the policy? those actions taken? that would fall under the schools discipline policy is there like a clear guidelines well there is clear guidelines for responding to any disciplinary incident we've got that well established does the bullying, hating, and harassment about the need to be tweaked or added to to make it broader than it already is in order to implement this and so I would also say too this was a realization for myself is that a lot of these questions because they're coming from U32 we've been answering a lot of these questions but really in deference to my esteemed colleagues that appear as well like these policies and these procedures will affect all schools and I think that would just be I know that U32 has spoken a lot about flag policy and hate symbols and all that but just to be clear that these are things that the entire administrative team will have to address within their own schools and so just so we don't forget that because this is these policies are kind of growing out of issues here at U32 but they do affect everything so I did as much Google searching as I could about other districts that have faced similar questions and I found in Albert Marl County, Virginia which the county seat of which is Charlottesville the superintendent got impatient with the pace of deliberations in the board and wanted the authority to remove Confederate and white nationalist imagery from his schools when he felt it necessary so he formalized an interpretation of an existing policy that required no action for the board and interpreted as symbols, lettering, or insignia associated with organizations that promote racial hatred or violence or that support white supremacy to include Confederate symbolism and other racist imagery such as the swastika are not permitted in their schools because they cause substantial disruption interfere with our educational responsibilities and may lead to further unrest in the future I would point to our existing policy on student self-expression policy C27 that says this policy of self-expression that etc or E interferes with or advocates interference with the orderly operation of schools I interferes with or advocates interference with the orderly operation of the schools based on what we've heard from people who are in the schools and have told us about racist and white nationalist imagery and messaging often coded and obscure that I wonder if it would be appropriate either to amend policy C27 or express somehow that the sense of the board and express to the superintendent that it is the sense of the WCUUSD board of directors that symbols lettering or insignia associated with organizations that promote racial hatred or violence or that support white supremacy to include Confederate symbolism and other racist imagery such as the swastika interfere with the orderly operation of our schools which would have the effect of prohibiting display of Confederate and white nationalist imagery in the schools as we have determined that that interferes with the orderly operation of education that's very interesting so we send it well, send it to Deborah but also send it to the policy committee for further further working of this resolution it would take it could rework the resolution but also address the the policy exactly so the policy committee if you send it to me I'll go right out to them and Erin and Julie what policy what's that C27 so I have a clarifying question though and I'm not willing to policy or in front of me so let's say for example a student comes in wearing a red symbol if I were to witness a student using racially derogatory language to another student to a student a student water bottle student water bottle would not have to file a complaint under HHB because I as a reasonable person there's something about the reasonable person I could reasonably assume a student water bottle would feel I can't I'm not pulling a language right now because it's too late so what what I'm wondering and thinking about is so that then if student cell phone comes in wearing an anti-student water bottle logo then couldn't I, isn't that the same as seeing a student cell phone using the racially derogatory language towards student cell phone and student water bottle wouldn't have to make a complaint but that I would be beholden to initiate an HHB investigation under the reasonable language you would have to initiate an investigation but at the end of the day no matter what we end up calling it, no matter what conclusion that we come to, well when a sixth grader does something like that it was a I don't know, some God awful monster truck thing and sorry it was a monster truck thing my two-year-old does not have it I'm sure a two-year-old likes the really cool ones so there is that teachable moment but in terms of initiating the looking at it, student water bottle doesn't need to complain or observe the behavior I, as the building administrator, am legally obligated to initiate the HHB process whether it results in an investigation whether it results in just being misconduct an education thing or anything like that so it's not that student water bottle has to to go to administrative coffee cup and say sorry I am a I am a I don't know if that helps you deal any better because the purpose of the hazing and harassment of bullying lost towns are really these interactions between students are oftentimes really predicated on a power differential and so what they do is they put the onus on the administration to be the person, to be the people who write that power differential for them and then the what do you do about it is the important question because sometimes quite frankly people do these things out of just not knowing like my sixth grader with his confederate flat and so that's when you know it's a it's a process that moves forward but the policy really does put an enormous amount of pressure on the administrators because of that power differential really with bullying so does that yes is it pressure or responsibility it's responsibility it's not not pressure in a bad way but it's I think personally I get all emotional about it but I think it's really our primary responsibility as school leaders is to protect the emotional and physical safety of all of our students that's our primary job that really is and I think that part of this resolution the second paragraph which talks about that the board directs administrative officials to vigorously and promptly enforce these policies I think it's a statement that is very very important and aligns closely to your point and of course our obligations as well okay so when we give this what do you mean I'm wondering also what symbols is defined in this as to what this resolution sees at a simple as I don't think there is a definition there's so many there's a lot of discussion about that and I will list that in a moment talk about the policy and a list that we could have referred to and I forget how many were in it southern poverty law centers list yeah 100 100 so to try to identify them and then calling attention to all of the different ones that we didn't even know we didn't know how it would be feasible to ever list them out I would point to something like the policy that you're showing off but something like that something that addresses at least the main ones yeah that's great that you found that thank you so Chris do you want us to vote on first ratings and second ratings we have one more we have one more okay but do we want to let our ministry put it in okay do you think okay so then the policy is the which was melted down from a multi-page and and separating policy from the procedure right so it's now it's a single page substance is the same in it and I don't think there's any other in substantive changes to the policy that we discussed previously other than separating it out to have procedures set up from the policy and the rational rational for the policy is looking at things and procedures and that are there any questions does anything about lubricants I think that was part of the original policy I think the wording was to be inclusive of all mentions that was the intent yeah do you feel like that's not clear I don't know who's including me have you vetted this with the teacher who introduced it to us in the first place yes yes and she suggested some of the for instance it was STD in the last version that we looked at last week and we changed it to SDI based on her request and also there was a included delay in first sexual experience she requested that it said something else originally in the first draft that we looked at last week so her recommendations were in the here so one of the things that we discussed with the committee was the funding aspect because if you look at the city if there's no funding from community partners then there are methods on that is that something that we as a board will support funding if so we need to modify this policy a little bit I'm pretty sure Plain's heritage is covering everything maybe but they end up not there's no funding because the policy clearly ties the provision of the barrier methods to funding from community partners it doesn't prevent us from getting that decision right in the future? I think we're okay in a way it's worded now I think then the high school would come to us and say we lost support from our community partners what could we do the other thing that we discussed is whether we should have this policy sent out to all new students that come to U32 because it has a parental request section and it's a good perspective that it's just providing notification to an interest group being the parents if they wanted to exercise that right and our student family handbooks incorporate a number of policies so I think that would be the best way to ensure it was available to all families in other words the handbooks themselves are 56 pages I don't know the total number but in many cases includes many policies in the handbook which would be distributed to all families the other thing that and what I would like to do for all our policies is at the very end have a section that says procedures to this policy can be found at and then give the site where they're located because it's not always obvious since we have the procedures separate from the policies where to look for them I would like that as a uniform standard clause underscore that are most of them found in the manual maybe you don't know that I just meant it wouldn't have a different wording on every policy it would almost always be a different page number potentially and then it would have to be updated each year the policy I don't know that you want the page I think that's too specific not necessarily for a conversation here but administrative procedures probably should be kept as a separate binder that can be a separate list that can be accessed that way the common we don't go to different pages in different handbooks but we can start working that's just a structural issue we talked about how that's a working progress this year it's a goal of ours and particularly with the merger we understand that some of our procedures are best kept individual based upon the school but there are others that we should systematize any further questions is there a motion to adopt sorry there a motion for first reading of policy A2 and A20 and well if we want to adjust for any reason we want to modify it we're going to we'll bring it it's first reading so it's just first reading but you don't have that as to modify it right you can modify it after the first reading if we want to I thought we were going to defer action on that until we heard from the land you don't need that for that policy we're not the one thing that I want to make clear the ones that are going to be decided in Richelac are the administrators and the students they're checking the board of units decides we want to decide the plan we're going to decide the plan which hall the school and the kids inform us where you like that responsibility to lie I think you can stay with your policy this policy is fine we'll take care of it this is the first reading too so there's three first readings so move is there a motion to that's first reading of A2 A20 and F46 on favor aye is there a motion for second reading Chris your chairman instincts and do you have the motion down here is the chair of the policy committee it's beautiful yeah I should just let you go okay like Rich was saying anybody move C50 comprehensive sexual health services policy is that also first or second reading that's second reading I'll move the second reading yes so anything moves Jonas seconds any further discussion no on the favor please say aye aye any opposed none opposed great okay and we have the hate simple resolution and Jonas's text and possible modification on the C27 going back to the to the policy committee great thank you thank you policy committee that's great stuff yeah yeah thank you for reading okay 8.0 personnel and we're under one minute alright and we're also five minutes until 9.30 um leadership team please with our fans oh okay so we'll try to accelerate this okay I would propose possible renaming of the district for another occasion thank you but there is when are you going to answer your questions what about the terms and the environment yeah thank you everyone good night this is about recruitment and retention and retention thank you yes yeah oh yeah yeah okay okay good thanks okay okay in terms you don't have to say for this if you don't want to but if you could persuade your someone in your family back to the board maybe maybe maybe we were talking maybe um any questions about this it's pretty self explanatory but we need to we need to keep this on our radar since we will be not only needing to find five new members in each town to be elected on time meeting day we also have four members whose terms are up and who needs to be re-elected I hope on time meeting day so that's not our website I don't have that list with me but it is on our website so I'm not sure I would also just like to add if I may that on January 27th is the deadline for an individual group which is to run and for new people to bring forward their petitions what was that about? 27th of January yeah it is the 27th yeah but I thought it was the 15th you got it from a town clerk but you know what I'll verify it there's an earlier deadline for funding her class but for people she's right because the time is late so many days can we incorporate that into a few different I think we need to it's not like people are breaking down the doors to serve on boards we need nine people total I don't know if the four people who are up are rebranding we can just do it over and over again we can do it an hour from our office almost to all of the sites so we'll just get our office one of my hopes is that maybe people may not ever break down the doors but maybe they'll not be boating for the doors for people to have say exactly so the question is would you like to have an executive session in order to check in with Deborah on her course or would you prefer to have this happen on another occasion perhaps perhaps Flora Jimenez and I can set something up when we get together with Deborah on Wednesday so that we're not just struggling into it is that okay with us I'd like to not suppress it very good okay in that case don't forget to turn in your cards if you've written things I will distribute that for you thank you very much one thing about renaming the district anybody have anything I have a total thought what's your thought my thought minimalist based on what we've got pride recognition you square 32 I think we reach out to the community and we make it we make it that way it's funny though now we'd be better and then it would be Brooklyn district on that free time and then doldrums during the summer and then autumn leaves during the fall can you come up with some system to collect feedback from students yeah yeah and so that it's not you know boating that boat face or something like that they should have accepted that I agree I agree if I make capital region scholarship what capital region lower base lower base lower A.L. okay everybody on this on this 930 certified consensus thank you