 So down to 2.1, approve the minutes of April 24th. I'm going to throw them in to the tree if anybody has any changes or feedback on them. So I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of April 24th. There's no other discussion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And on to the 3.1 is the annual financial management questionnaire. Can help you with that, if you'd like? Sure. I've seen it once? Yeah. More than once you have. If you can pass that, Julie, to Vera. In 2012 or 2013, the legislature passed an act that required that all schools and the auditors, the auditors agency, the department agency, asked that we self-assess where we are with procedures and counting procedures and required us to have a discussion with the board about that. The formula you have in your packet is one that we've had for the answers to that formula had changed for at least three or four years. Lori does a great job in her team in the financial management. Our self-assessment goes to our auditors, who, if there was something wrong, would report it back to you through the audit, but you haven't heard anything on that. Your auditors haven't had any findings or exceptions. So I think we're doing everything we need to do the way it's been. So this is one of those things you're required to do. You're required to have a discussion in your meeting. You do not need to take a motion. Vera's just saying that we did have this discussion and that you had a chance to ask us any questions about how we may have answered any of those questions. So I'd be glad to answer anything for you. So this is a self-assessment? It's a self-assessment. Our auditors will check that with their, because they do a sample audit. They don't do a detailed audit. And then the answer would change based on? Really, what they're looking for is that Vermont has, if not the highest, one of the highest rates of embezzlement in public and private in the nation. Rates. Rates. And it's because we're such a small state. Interesting. So this was started as a result of that around 2012, 2013. So the auditor could come in and say, hey, one of the questions, does someone other than this treasurer review the bank reconciliation tool? Yes, the senior payroll accountant, business manager, they could go and look, are they signing off on those each month? And so the auditor can take some of this and look for where's the documentation behind that. All of our business practices have at least two, almost at minimum, three sets of eyes. Like when we talked about the board order, there's four sets of eyes that go across that board order before it's even printed for you folks to sign. So you should see what you're looking for is there are multiple positions and are there electronic systems? There are still, in Vermont, some school systems that work on Excel spreadsheets and not a financial system. So it's trying to lessen the points and possibilities for embezzlement, which is get everything electronic, get it into electronic system. It's hard to change it. Small companies sometimes use QuickBooks, but we use NEMRIK. There's infinite visions as well we could use as well. And then, are we giving receipts, are we using bank, we don't have an open checkbook, you've got to print it through the checkbook system that we have. It's actually a good resource just for us to see the money flow from a purchase order through the payment and the flow. It's been a few years since we've done that for board members, but how does the whole financial system go from I'm a teacher and I need 27 scientific notebooks to how does that get paid? Right. The life of a PO. Where he's very good and efficient at her job and definitely I feel like the checks and balances exist essential for the financial system. Is there any other questions on the report? We'll move on to the parking lot update. Well, you can see that it's improved. This is probably the last time from this winter. So as you know, it's a temporary fix, but still I think pretty decent of a job to get us to whatever next point we decide to go further with the entire driveway, the circle, or beyond. So yeah, I mean the particular job came in under $15,000 and patched the stretch that was the worst. They did patch the holes or the potholes that were around the circle. So that's what we're at for right now. And I guess as we move forward and discuss whatever else we might want to do in the future, hopefully that will last a good amount of time. They did say that they would pitch it a little bit so the water would run off and I've been kind of watching on some of these rainy days how that would work because I think part of the problem is kind of a low spot there. So it seems to be doing that, going down to the ditch. So far, so good. That's what we're at. Definitely much better. Did they say how long it would last? I mean, did you generally do? No, I didn't ask how long cleaning like that would last, but we were given when we were doing the building renovations. Nicole, was that if we did what we did, something like that there. And that was probably a three to five year solution at most because we didn't do anything to the subsurface and we know we've got silk mixed with gravel on sand. So we're going to, you know, in two years probably the frost freezing is going to start cracking I think because the sub-base isn't. And there's so much water we're going through that wetland area. Sorry. That's not bad. So that's what we know about it. We were told if we really wanted to redo it, we've got to go down three feet, especially in that wet area. Definitely better than it was. Oh, yes. Something that was brought to me relating to the driveway was the speed of during drop-off and pick-ups. So I'm not sure if it'd be beneficial just as an FYI to say again, repeat it on a loudspeaker, especially at pick-up. It's still a school parking lot. I know the potholes are not there, but 15 miles per hour is the closest we know it there. So I definitely got that feedback last week. I'm really excited. That's why. I love the fix, but still have to go slow. All right, 3.3. The community building access and easements. So I brought you a sample warning that would show, and the biggest thing that's part of the warning is that we have to post the easement so people have access to them along with the warning. And this is one that's come through Scott Cameron this morning. He helped us with it for Calis, so it's pretty much the same warning. The pieces that you'll want to, and Scott wants to talk to you about Thursday night is exactly what's the board want to do and try to do with the easements. And then he's willing to take those and turn them. If you want them just the way they are, that's fine, but he thinks it's worth having a conversation with the three of you about what are you trying to accomplish here? Because he's got some thoughts that were included in Calis. And Scott's a great attorney. If you say no thank you, you'll go straight with what there is. And if you like it or go with some other needs that need to be met, he's more than willing to do it. I think it's great. I mean, to have what Calis had to work from is a great starting point. But I think, as Scott has suggested, what works for Calis, we might need to tweak here at Berlin just because it is a different piece of property. It's definitely more of a commercial piece that could be something different years down the road. So I think it's definitely worth having a conversation and maybe tweaking the easement a little bit to fit what the needs are here. And I think one of the suggestions Scott had was making sure that even though there's public access, why it's a school or whether it's a town building, that if it were ever to be sold for the private industry, that that easement would go away. I think it's protecting the land in that way. It's protecting your valuation for the town folks because this is a very valuable piece of property that you and I know because you were approached at one point about financial selling it for commercial pieces. And the town would hate to lose that evaluation by always having in the easement public access. Yeah, I mean, to me, I just want his view on do we have it all covered between that gap, between the way that it's written and what the easement is trying to make sure we're bridging to put any of our potential risks. And he can help you with that. Yeah. And you'll have that meeting in executive session as you should with your attorney. He can go right up what you need to present to the voters. So what we'll need to do is have you meet with Scott and then somewhere before when we do, we need to figure out the date that we'd like to have that public meeting and then 30 days before that and have you come together and quickly approve the warning. I can't suggest, I can't recommend tonight that you approve that warning because you haven't seen the easements. I think it's right to get the easements done and then do the whole thing at once. So it is going to mean Thursday night meeting and one more meeting, but the other meeting can be 15 minutes and Julia, if you're at work and need to be on the phone you can do it through teleconference. Okay. It can be just one of those types of things. Yes. We'll have to get your signature that day somehow. Yep. But the meeting part of it can be... Did you have any questions on that? I'm just reading. Okay. And we'll have time to ask our questions on Thursday. Okay. Great. You have all three of you have copies of the callous materials? Yes. Or should I make sure they're ready? Does anyone need any copies for Thursday night? I'm just not going to be able to be here Thursday night, but Scott, you guys will be fine with Scott. Yeah. I'm going to ask Aaron. He hasn't asked him yet, but I'm hoping he will be fine. I'll just reprint off a copy. I gave my copy to, I think, Justin, or somebody on the select board and I ended up with my copy. But you have it. I have it. Okay. Can you share a copy of that with me? Yeah. Okay. That's what I'm saying, the callous one. Yeah. And I'll at least get to Aaron, the Berlin one, because he finished that on Friday afternoon and I just didn't shift that up. He had basically a fine and replace of callous and Berlin with the easements. To make sure Aaron can print some of those off. Board member, we can see update. I have had nothing. Nothing. I haven't. I tried, but it's very little interest. But there's such a short time now, really. So it would be harder to find the right person that would want to fill in just for a few minutes. All right. I have 46 update. There was a piece, I believe. I think it was just some of the memos that I've sent around to the transition boards. And I believe, I've heard that Thursday night, since I wasn't able to be there, the transition board approved recommending the budget to the emerged board. You worked on some articles, amendments to the articles of agreement. But you hadn't come totally to a decision on article four. Did I hear that right? We were not split easily, but it was a five to six, which I believe in a meeting prior to that, back in March, it was like a three to four by a straw boat, so it was still... And it still is a straw boat piece. Yeah. So Chris is writing up some more, trying to write things up, and at least have a rough form for Wednesday, but he's not going to have the warning ready go on Wednesday. So he said he gets... So then we'll be meeting again... I'd watch your email, if the meeting's happening on the 15th or not yet. Okay. I know there's some question whether it's happening or not. Okay. I just haven't heard the answer to that. All right. Other than that, I mean, things are moving forward with the Act 46 as they need to be, so that the organization is up and going for July 1, and there's no lapse in the different moving pieces, so it's still still going to be moving forward. So I think Central Office and board members are doing the best that they can to make sure that, right now, everything's running in parallel with the current boards and transition board and new board, and making sure it goes as smoothly as possible, which... I'll go with it so far. It's been... We'll see how it goes from here on out. Superintendent, search update. I don't know that anything has really happened since... Interviews are happening right now. Today and Thursday. And then the executive committee will meet on the 23rd. And do some interviews. Yep. Yep. And hopefully presenting a final candidate on the meeting on the 29th to the board. And there actually was... I was very surprisingly shocked and impressed that we had explaining file for candidates as we did being kind of asleep in the process. But Mark and his due diligence and found us some good candidates, which was good for hope. Reports to the board. 4.1. All right. Good evening. Good evening. So you have my principles report in the packet and there's a lot of information I want to go over today. At the top, you'll see that I want to talk about behavior data, which I had a handout for. And our MTSS, which is Multi-Tiered Systems Support Action Plan that I wanted to go over. So before I pass this out, it's a busy time of year here at school. For all schools, May is very busy. So things are... Things are going well. Things are going pretty smooth. But we still have plenty of time left. And I've been kind of sharing this message of finishing strong with students and staff that right up until the last day we work hard and not coast to the end of the year. So it's looking to be a solid end of the year with the way things are going. So I'm going to pass around our... some behavior data. And I thought I'd share it. I mean, it is May, so we're getting towards the end here. And I have a number of different graphs in this packet. I just wanted to walk you through some of the things that we look at when we are looking at some of our overall behavior data. What this is in this packet are any office referrals. So if at any point a teacher is feeling more, a staff member is feeling that a student action warrants coming to the office to see the principal or perhaps the behavior specialist, Lucia, it's documented and goes into this system. This is... you'll see SWIS at the top. This is one of our... this is our data collection system that we use to track these kinds of things. We review this with staff throughout the year just to see how things are going. We analyze it. We look at different aspects, which I'll show you today. And I would say that overall, not only looking at the data, but just in conversation with faculty and staff, everyone is feeling like students are doing a better job with their decision-making and teachers are doing a better job with expectations and follow-through and just our whole positive behavior system and how we support students in their behavior. So on the very first page, you'll see average referrals per day per month. The green bars are last year's monthly number of... again, these are major office referrals per day and it is averaged out. It's not obviously every day I'm getting one or two referrals. There might be some chunks of days that you'll see that can be higher than others. I think overall, we're kind of 50-50 compared to last year, some months this year were better than last year. I think overall, as you can see at the very bottom of the table, and again, the year isn't over yet, but 239 total last year and 171 currently where we're at. So as you go through this packet, there's some more details that we do look at as a staff. So like page two looks at actual areas of the building or in class or in the hallway or on the playground, in the cafeteria, on the bus. So you can see that in some cases the number of referrals or locations of poor behavior are lower. But in other areas like the bus, for example, we've had some more challenges this year. So these are areas that we can look at and say, hey, we know that there's issues on the bus. Let's identify a little bit more who, what's going on, how can we support kids to do a little bit of a better job in those areas. So obviously this is important to look at. Jump in with questions as I go through. I mean, a lot of pages here I don't want to stall. So I do have some questions. So the playground is obviously a hot spot for behaviors. And I know there's been discussions about what to do for playground to get the kids more involved in physical activity out there, but yet not too structured where they're kind of doing some of their own problem solving and finding that balance. Obviously it's going to be different with different ages. But adding more equipment out there, which I believe is some fundraisers that are happening. What has some of the conversations been about what type of equipment to put out there versus I know that there's some kids amongst the higher grades, 4th, 5th, 6th, specifically, well 3, 4, 5, 6th, that have often expressed like wanting to play soccer or football in it. Often is one of those things that's taken away because a small group of kids have made a poor decision with it so then it's taken away from all of them. So what discussions have happened as you're looking into playground equipment, what's best fit for all the ages or is it just a piece of equipment to replace a piece over on the younger primary? Yeah, that's a question. And it ties in with behavior. Yeah, sure. Yeah, how they're engaged outside is important. So there hasn't been any formal discussion on what we want to see out there. I want to ask the kids what they would like to see out on the playground. We've had pockets of discussion with PTNA. We've had some discussion. We've had some parents that have wanted to help with some fundraising that have talked to me about some different ideas. One need that has come up or has been talked about for a period of time is a structure for pre-K. By regulation they have to have certain play structures and fenced in areas. So the thought was do we focus on that? Do we do something that might accommodate pre-K to 6? What's available out there? So to answer your question, we're really in the early stages of how can we start to gather more information of what the kids would like to see out there. I'm going to do actually a student survey to see. I've looked at different companies and different types of structures. You can imagine how elaborate some can be and how basic others can be. But it's interesting just with today's designs and the elaborate pieces that could be on a playground structure. Everything from little climbing walls to little cave things to manipulatives on the actual structure. Do we want a totally slide versus a three-person slide? There's all kinds of different things that I'd like the kids to have some say in. So that's where we're at right now. And I think too, maybe we haven't, even though some folks have wanted to start some fundraising, we don't have a target yet because we don't have an idea of what we want it to be. So I've allowed some folks that really wanted to get some ideas started for fundraising to go ahead and do that, knowing that we don't quite have a, hey, this is what we're aiming for right now. So I can't be before the horse a little bit on that, but that's where we're at. So great question though. So to kind of keep going, again, this is multi-year data here, green versus blue. You can see some of the different kinds of issues that we look at. I'm on page three or four. Refrosed by problem behavior. Sometimes, unfortunately, if it's a particular student that might have some challenges that might show in the data only because the number of kids are not astronomically high here at our school compared to other schools. So one student that might have some challenges might show up in the data a little bit more than others. So we do still see some issues around defiance and in this case, some aggression, whether that be aggression towards peers or not aggression towards peers, but just maybe aggression in the classroom on the playground when no other peers are around, but perhaps towards an adult. So that's reported as well. Can you give us an example? I see there's other behaviors, and it was one in the previous year, current year, it was five. What would fall in that category that's not covered in these other? Hmm. And it's higher then. That's a good question. I would have to look into that. I'm not sure off the top of my head. No biggie. I was just curious what would fall into this. I'm curious now too. I'm trying to think what's missing from that list is the extensive. All right. So the next page is two charts here again. So this is current year. We also look at just what month might be presenting more challenges than others. Typically December, as you can see, February this month, April was high with a number of referrals, and we do sit down and ask ourselves what could be some factors that might cause it to be a little bit higher? Is it vacations? Are kids anxious about February and April break? Is it cabin fever? Is it something that the teachers need to be focusing on or staff need to be focusing on that time of year? So we ask all those kinds of questions and think what can we do to improve the next time around? Again, just another chart about specific behaviors under that. You can even separate it out on the following page by place, which we talked a little bit about in the comparison chart. So this is all current year. Also, by time, we do track when these things are happening. So you might typically think, well, recess can be a challenging time for students, a little bit less structured. We can see in some cases, like at the very end of the day, after four o'clock, that's the bus. So we can look at patterns by time of day. Is one o'clock after lunch, typically? Typically, yes. It depends on what class. Like five, six is going after recess at that time. Everybody else is in from, well, as it depends, I'd have to think about what grade is coming in for recess at that time. So, yeah, that whole lunch-recess hour is right about in there. And then, obviously, we can look at specific students, which this is all by number here. So we don't have any identifying people there. Days of the week is also something that we track. And it's interesting how, for that Wednesday, it seemed to be high, or the highest. I don't know if it's the early dismissal or just, you know. It's different than what we usually see at most schools. Usually, at least my experience has been watching either coming off the weekend or going into the weekend. Because there's either anxiety or issues that have come from the weekend. Those are usually the high points. I haven't seen one. This is the first one of all these that really isn't even the standard pattern. Yeah, yeah. And it's apparently been like that. I think last year was, I was told that it was summer. And then, by grade level as well, we also contract. So, it just helps us in making decisions when we are able to look at this kind of data this closely. So, any questions? I have a lot of other things to report on. So, I'm going fast there. We actually saved a lot of time for some good things to go over. Good. All right. So, the next thing we want to pass out in terms of supporting students is our EST or educational support team process and also our multi-tiered systems of support action plan. I think I've talked about this at our other meetings just verbally, but I want to actually share with you some documents tonight so you have it. So, most schools have a EST process. And gosh, a number of years ago, the state of Vermont came out with some recommendations on a solid process. And most schools have been using this type of process for a while now. Coming on board here, there are some gaps in the structure. And I worked with a committee here, our EST team now, to tighten up on some of these things to ensure that we are doing a better job at ensuring all students are getting what they need. So, the typical process and one that we've revisited here is making sure that if teachers have a concern or even if a parent has a concern about their child that there's a process to advocating for them a little bit more stronger, a little bit stronger. So, teachers are asked to show that they are using anything and everything they can to identify what the student need is and have some steps in place to try to remedy that. So, we're making sure that teachers are taking the responsibility to use all their tools to ensure that they're helping that student with whatever issue they might be facing. If they get stuck and they're just not seeing results through monitoring and collecting data, there's a level of working with colleagues. We have graded team meetings here throughout the week and throughout the month for teachers to collaborate. It might also be working with interventionists to talk about what the student need might be. Communication with parents, obviously. We want to make sure that the parents are aware of what's going on. If teachers are still feeling stuck, then they have a process to be able to refer that student to our team. And then we meet with parents to have a little bit more of a formal support plan in place. You may have heard it called the EST plan. And we meet to talk about all the things that the teacher has done, but also think kind of like a think tank, think about what else we can do to put supports in place for students. And then we monitor that throughout the year. We might meet, depending on the need, monthly or a few times a year. But it's a little bit more of a structure process to make sure that we're supporting students. Is the ES team variable by the situation or the student or the need? The board team is made up of a number of different people in the building. We invite relevant people to whatever the case may be. So it is variable? Absolutely. We need a specialist to come and be part of the process and we invite them to come. So it might be OT, our Facial Therapist, joining to help with a particular need, interventionists of course, outside folks that might be relevant to come in. At one time, the EST also was a group formed for students who also needed to be challenged academically or enrichments as well. So is that still being done with the same team? Yes, and we've made that clear that this is for all students. So on the other end of the, you know, other side of the coin, if you will, a student that might be advanced or struggling because they're bored, then this is also the same process to be able to help them with that support. So that's a little bit of an overview of the process. Coming on board, there were a number of different committees around student support, our behavior support system, and there's different tiers within that. So there were committees within that tiered system, and a lot of it was the same folks because, you know, only so big, and some folks have shared responsibilities for different things. So it made sense to have one solid leadership team or our EST team that does a lot of these same functions. If you turn the page, you'll see our action plan, and this is specific to student support. Again, MTSS is multi-tiered systems of support. Same committee, and this past spring, we attended some professional development around how to strengthen our system, and we came up with a mission to focus on fostering a coordinated system of supports, monitor progress, and support staff with necessary resources to increase academic outcomes and social emotional well-being for all students. So we took those core elements from our mission, and they're within the plan here. So you can see on the left to increase academic outcomes and social emotional well-being for all students, and then we have goals and tasks and a timeline to kind of drill down from those pieces of that mission. A little bit further, we talk about our coordinated systems of supports, monitoring progress, and supporting staff. So you can see that we have a number of different things in our task list that at this time we feel will be important to get us moving forward in a more coordinated system to support students. So I talked a little bit about our EST system, just a moment ago. An SEL program is something that we've been talking about, and at the Supervisor Union level, the committee is now formed to help implement. SEL is a social and emotional learning program. So across the Supervisor Union in time, we will have a program to be able to help students around that. Yeah, jump in. So you haven't picked a program yet? No. We'll be piloting it at the Supervisor Union level and then looking at not next fall, the following year to have fully implemented something across the SU. I think the discussion of the leadership team was trying to bring more resources for teachers so they weren't creating it from scratch. We have all our element teachers go through a responsive classroom, which is a big part of that social-emotional learning, but we feel we can give them more tools to the teacher if they have a program that they're interested in. Definitely. Can I ask a quick question? So is this what you do, like if someone thinks they might need a 504 or IEP, is this what you would do or is that a different kind of... That's a great question. One of the things through this EST process, as you can see, it's kind of like a step-type of thing through this flow chart. But one thing that we... I didn't necessarily mention here, but we had a lot of discussion about this because I've seen plans where, in order to go to a special education or a 504 referral as you have to go through this, but in some cases, whether a student might move in or there might be some serious red flags on, wow, we really need to have a discussion about needs that we're seeing. We agreed that this isn't a have-to to go towards a special education referral. A teacher with communication with parents, myself, a special educator might decide we need to just go towards a special referral or a 504 just based on what the student is presenting. Does that make sense? They don't have to go through EST. That could be an option, I guess. The parent might not know what they need. They might not know what a 504 is, they might not know anything. What would they do? Would they go through this or they would talk like you were saying, talk with you? If a parent had a concern, talk to the teacher, talk to me. We've had parents that have requested a special education evaluation and we were a responsibility to meet with that parent within 10 or 15 days to discuss it. So if something comes our way in terms of a parent referral for a special education evaluation then we have to sit down right away and talk about it and as a team decide what's the next best course of action and not just, you know, kind of brush it off. I thought that we ever would do something like that. I have one more question. A teacher or parent has a concern about a student for any concern, generally. Just a general concern. A teacher might have a more specific concern around their progress in reading or maybe it's a behavioral thing that isn't a new behavior that hasn't been happening. Maybe there's a change in the student in how they're presenting themselves and it might be concerning. This is also different than the CSP. The CSP, yes. But it kind of has a little bit of some... A lot of those when you think about CSP which is a coordinated service plan which usually goes with students already on IEP that doesn't have to be. CSP does not have to be but it usually does. It coordinates with outside full service supports like some outside supports. Right. Erin's going to talk about that. Any of those plans... I think it's the next level up to think about is how do we best support all students? Right. Some people start to think about these as layers and they aren't necessarily layers either. Erin said you don't have to go through an EST to access a 504 or IEP but you don't go through a 504 to get to an IEP. You need a process flow for all of those. And the one thing... There are a lot of if ands, statements but a lot of it is that the most important thing is that conversation between the teacher and the parent and the student and where are the concerns. I think that's what you said Erin is that's where it starts. And parents being aware that they have options. Thank you. Sorry about all the questions. So we're back to the action plan on I guess page two of this packet. We'll see one of the other tasks that we've talked about and this is one that's kind of one of those big lofty ideas is talking about how can we look more like a full service school. Now these kinds of things I would... I wouldn't... Something like this is something that in my opinion might be shared at a higher level than just the school. You know I could see perhaps a conversation with Kelly around some of these supports. You know when we're talking about an in-house therapist, Dr. Dentist Barber, you know these kinds of things that some families might have struggling access. How can we help provide some of that even if it's just a little bit. So it's one of those twinkles in our eyes right now of perhaps thinking about some of these things to help with kids schools have done it before. And it just kind of tickled our fancy to investigate some of these kinds of things. Well you wrote in here and you know because you've heard at our leadership team meetings that Callis and East Montpelier and U32 are partnering with the Plainfield Health Center. They also received a grant to be able to partner with the schools. So and since they serve in all that they serve a seven or nine town so every school within their service area. We're not in their service area. We are not but we do have we have a hospital pretty close. We do yes. Going a little bit further just some other action steps that we look to take and some things again that we've already started. Helping progress monitor assessments. You know what is it? Ensuring that students that go to intervention whether it be reading or math that we're having more conversation with interventionists about how it's going. And also helping support through programs. If students aren't intervention for a long period of time then we know it's not working and we need to do something else. Perhaps it's the approach. Perhaps it's the material. Perhaps we're not targeting specific skills. So our committee wants to be able to kind of help monitor that a little bit better in a supportive kind of way. We've talked a lot about scheduling. There's only so much time in the day but kind of trying to balance what intervention looks like during the day here at school. So having a little bit more oversight as a team on the school schedule to say this is going to maximize classroom instruction when kids might come out for intervention and how it all kind of flows so each kid is getting a maximized day with what they're getting. We've talked about specialization and that really is capitalizing on teacher strengths to teach that specific subject area. We see it more in Fifth Six where Mr. Smith might be teaching the math and science and Ms. Boucher might be doing social studies and reading so students would go to the different teachers for that. Those subject areas because those are the strengths of the teachers. I've had hesitation to do this in any of my career thinking about first and second graders going to different teachers for instruction but after going to these workshops and having more conversation and a little bit more sold on it and thinking that there could be some potential someday to explore it a little bit more again kind of in the beginning thoughtful stages of is this something that would help benefit our students? If you think about every classroom teacher needing to teach all subject areas within the day, if we have folks that have strengths in math versus reading then perhaps there could be some sharing of that instruction to help kids. So more on that in the future. A few other things that we've talked about. There are seven Vermont principals through MTSS that are really powerful for us to revisit. I didn't attach it but if you google it you can see what those are and they really help guide schools in doing all the right things to support students. Rules and responsibilities for staff again targeted intervention making sure we know what kids are in intervention at this committee level. Everyone considered an interventionist at the school that we visited. There were parts of the day where different staff members worked with kids in some capacity and even if it was just something small it might be here like Mr. Pockett doing something with kids for ten minutes in the morning. So not necessarily saying that an interventionist is a licensed person but for a student intervention they'd be spending ten minutes with the custodian and doing something in the morning for a small job that might get them engaged in the day. So not intervention by definition but more how are staff connecting with kids throughout the day in a positive way. And on the last page some things around monitoring progress we have started to do monthly data analysis as a as a staff as teachers. It's formal time using a protocol to look at student data and create a plan to address whatever they might be seeing in that data. We plan to do that more regularly going into next year at least once a month during a staff meeting if not twice a month. We have been wanting to really figure out how we can better maximize some of our data tools like Infinite Campus, Star 360 it's all there but we need to we just need to develop teachers to be able to utilize it a little bit a little bit better. I think some of it's just more of a comfort level. And supporting staff obviously like I said data analysis we have our math program that is beginning up this next year I've been working with some folks to ensure a strong professional development plan for teachers to be able to roll this out effectively. We have some teachers attending an Orton-Gillingham training in the fall that is a approach to really understanding the English language a little bit better and how it the structure of it so that comes into play in teaching, reading and more of a phonics based approach and our actual committee meeting with grade level teams throughout the year to help with a lot of the school initiatives that we've put in place over the year like responsive classroom and PBIS things like calming corners and other kinds of initiatives around instruction or behavior. Any questions on that? I know there was a lot. No I mean I think it's great so what are the next steps? I mean it was a great foundation how does that work? Well this committee we actually meet weekly which is in my opinion excellent because at the top of each time what are we going to do? We've been trying to structure our weeks a little bit better at first we decided that every other week would be looking at student data and then the other weeks would be meeting with teachers or parents if it's part of the process or even working on our action plan steps. It's been a little bit more structural right now right now we're kind of mired in here so we've been talking a lot about how do we get what does intervention scheduling look like and how that kind of fits. So we've done some things as you can see Spring 2019 the social emotional learning system was something we weren't sure was going to happen so we had been investigating some ideas ahead of time but it's good now to look at an SU level we've had meetings more recently where we've talked about certain kids that might go through this process just a matter of keeping up on the structure that's moving forward so it's been a lot of this part this year like a lot of this we had to revisit the whole thing so teachers have come with a lot of questions like what do I do about this and what about that so we go back to this and say to make it more systematic. So will more time be spent during staff meetings as you're progressing towards more integrating in the fall so that the whole staff is well aware of the process and the goals in the end. Yes we've had two staff meetings where we've gone over this so I think it's just keeping it at the forefront of people's minds for sure. A couple of things in my report that I wanted to highlight so as you can see there's a table of next year's configuration or at least at this point what it's shaping up to look like we currently have a smaller kindergarten class and that kindergarten class moving up to first grade is going to create two one two classes so you can see we'll have two kindergartens next year we do have quite a few pre-k students coming in or moving up and then a number of kindergarten registrations already so we will have enough for two kindergarten classes and two first and second grade combined classes three three four and three five six classes so that's what we're at right now I'm sorry short so two kindergarten classes two first and second grade combined classes three three four classes three five six classes the three four classes do a little bit kind of what you're referring to like Mr. Smith that's what I do in regards to like what they're specialization well again we're not quite ready for that change at the K-4 level yet it was really the second half year where we started to talk about that I wouldn't be comfortable just throwing that on anybody K-4 going into next year quite yet but to me it's a to me it's a big change for a teacher to do that in my opinion so right now it's just five to six so if we have three of those classes that aren't specialized and they're going to do everything why are there three fours combined like how do we like it's hard to understand like where the numbers come from of why we're combining so the number of if you think about the total number of fifth and sixth graders that's sixty students so it's about thirty in each grade so it's about thirty fifth graders and thirty sixth graders the reason that and that's just about the same for every grade level same for three four it's about thirty third graders and thirty fourth graders so if it's not so much that twenty kids are going to have Smith this is a little bit more of let's say there'd be twenty kids in Mr. Smith's Homoone class and then from there we look at scheduling so because it's because thirty is kind of an odd number for splitting kids up I wouldn't give thirty kids to I wouldn't give thirty sixth sixth graders to one teacher and then fifteen fifth graders to another and that would be the same for any combination that's what's just it's an odd thing about the numbers here at Berlin it's just hard to see that math you're referring to to me I see two grades combined with three teachers just wondering we're going to more and more every year they're all combined now whereas there have been years previously somewhere combined somewhere right so for example like same thing with like three or four you know about twenty to thirty kids in fourth grade and twenty to thirty in third grade amongst three teachers how do you how do you separate that out the way we have to do is combine them all and then separate into to thirds like one two it's not that there's seventeen kindergartners coming up in seventeen second graders it's twelve or thirteen kindergarten so there's going to be more second graders within two classes versus first graders in two so they're still separating though at the younger grades with the one two three four are they still separating specifically for math and literacy? for math we do separate out but not for literacy not so much for literacy we don't we don't separate out from that teachers are differentiating within the student's ability level as best they can with math it's a little bit different going with the program next year it's a little more scripted by grade level so we just want to honor that process and try to separate it out that way that we actually came from has helped with some of that math instruction this year to help with that configuration so that is one area that we do separate out I actually personally think it's the three four grade I find it to be very hard to have academically those grades all being taught by one teacher because there can be such a wide range of learning at those levels and you know it's great if the math is at least being broke out but I would definitely I would support as much as possible doing that with literacy too just because it's um I find that grade specifically to be very difficult at the literacy it's a huge range as you're looking at scheduling for next year just paid back for us no I appreciate it the difficulty it is for the teacher to have that many children in the room with that and it's going to be tough we did a lot of sorry so it's a wide range so again with this chart I kind of wanted to more like map out who would be doing what so as you can also see we have a new we're working on hiring a 3-4 teacher in terms of that update we are that's posted and scheduled for interviews or where is that at we've interviewed this week we're doing demonstration lessons with some of our finalists another change that I'm not sure if folks are aware of but Mr. Smith next year will be what Kim Farone has been doing for math intervention so we have posted a 5-6 position that obviously says Smith on my report here but this was pretty recent so that change will be be happening as well so we're looking to hire a 5-6 teacher for one year going into next year this is an update on that I have a question so Ms. Desiree is moving again she was in Kinder last year now and now she's going back so what do you do for those kids who have her that are from first transition to second then they have to go to a new teacher so recently kindergarten and 1-2 are together to look at kindergarten going into first and second and current first and they had to create class lists amongst two teachers so there's a lot of shifting that took place going into next year so let's check out Maureen did you have what did you have for kindergarten just one teacher this year? yes it's very small it's probably the smallest I've seen for the seven years I actually have to say it probably it is the smallest I think it is we don't have pre-k on here pre-k is full pre-k is full that's great we have well right now there's five as of today we might have four so many might be leading both morning and afternoon are full and our waiting list is five as of today sad there's a waiting list but happy there is we're still getting calls I know Chris got a call today for another registration so a few other things in my report to share then a couple other things that I thought of on the report here we have a Memorial Day ceremony coming up I know Berlin has had one for years this year I'm helping organize it so it might look a little bit different but I think you'll enjoy it so it's going to be on Wednesday, May 22nd at 1.45 and we'll be welcoming Barry Pfw posts of 90 to we'll have students reading poems in a very unique kind of way we'll have music and it looks to be a very important and impactful event so I do welcome parents and community members to join us that day I think it's going to be really great so that's one of our big end of the year events of course we have a number of a number of different things we've been talking about scheduling the details of our PTNA's end of the year picnic which is on the 17th it's a Monday we have a handful of field trips that are happening at the end of the year 56th grade is going to Plymouth Plantation some local trips like today 3rd and 4th grade went to Barry Opera House Vins is a popular destination also towards the end of the year typically the last day of school we have a day where students go to the next year's teacher and get to know them and their classmates and do some activity a few other things that are happening we do have a concert coming up we do have our school play through our rec program that will be happening in June I believe it's gosh I don't have it in front of me but June 5th so those are just some of the end of the year events that are happening we recently finished our SBAC testing and things went well there weren't really any hitches or hangups with the technology or the teachers administering the SBAC obviously students sometimes are absent and we have a make up schedule this week for that as a school I just encourage students to do their best we don't do a lot of hoopla around it some schools might go extreme but it's back stuff but I just encourage kids to do their best I know teachers do as well so in those moments we're focused, we're quiet, we're structured but we try not to force students out we just do your best, take your time and that's what we hope for there are many students that need to do their make up not too many it hasn't been too crazy we can schedule pockets of it this week in small groups so it wasn't too bad that's good for some kids it's just one section there should be three kids needing a math session that they missed on one day and the next day five that missed the language arts overall we're maybe upwards of of considering that there were seven days of it 15 students that need to make up a piece and then some students that some sections which they're allowed to do a few other things I wanted to mention just an important thing in my opinion teachers meet every year on goal setting and we set goals in the fall and then I meet with them at the end of the year as they reflect and report on their progress and I've been very happy with teachers' goals this year and the progress that they've made they're asked to show evidence of their work and I've been really impressed with the amount of reflection that they do when we sit down and meet I mean some of us have been some teachers I've been meeting for at least an hour to talk about all the things that they've done this year for not only their goals but the different instructional domains that they're responsible for so we've had some really good conversations around that so it's been good work around that are you giving them feedback during the process? yep yep and our teacher point allows me to do walk-throughs so it's documented in the system where I go in it's kind of like a mini-observation and I give feedback through that realm but also during our meeting at the end of the year I talk about any strengths and concerns that also go into their evaluation as well yes that discussion happens as well for sure so that's part of that evaluation piece of the goal setting process some things around facility and maintenance obviously it's nicer out so we're doing a lot of outdoor cleaning cleaning up the plow damage is starting to happen getting the dirt off the driveway and talk about the driveway fix one thing that Chuck and I have talked about and just wanted to kind of put a bug in your ear is the fence that goes along the back of the property here I think it only goes so far and the thought or hope is that someday we might fence the rest of it there's some property back there just maybe something the next time you are out there just to peek thinking about if we want to put a fence along the wood line there just a little added and security where the piece that's not covered where does it go to where can it go to kids if they were to go through them there's a residence on the left side of looking here on that side of the field that you can see from the more towards this and it's more of a wood line kind of thing and it's not that suits are going beyond it's just more of a protection for us if again it's not anything that we're concerned about it's just the thought we have part of it fenced down along here is it worth doing a little bit more just with it open back there just the age we live in I guess just something to think about what kind of fence do you have now it's chain link on this side here probably 6, 7 feet high maybe so I do have in my report if it's anything you want to maybe explore the cost of or maybe for a future topic to discuss just something that Mr. pocket and I had talked about doesn't it run into nature trails is that what you need I think the gas is so the fence goes the roadside and then this length back here and then it pretty much stops where did you see where they built the parts and stuff in the back corner there that's the corner that there's like literally a short section before you get on to the nature trail so it wouldn't block the trail no it would just be the the shortest spot from that part of the playground to that back corner something to think about I think it's important to be secure if you're going to have security in the front we should have security the fence I don't know I don't know why we don't have a whole perimeter fence it wouldn't fence in the whole perimeter either way though where's it going to end someone come on to the nature trail area I can't know with the woods on this side it wouldn't block fence this in completely anybody can walk down the driveway so it's not that it's a concern thinking about the far end of the property and probably helps when you're out there supervising recess when kids are out there to know that hey there's a barrier there even if you don't see if it's within the woods just know like hey I only have to keep my eyes on the woods over here where there isn't a barrier as much as I do knowing that someone's going to go over a fence not that it isn't possible it's just another that helps with that monitoring kids safety along the same lines of of facilities and maintenance very you had asked about perhaps the need for any summer additional help and traditionally historically I should say we've utilized some part-time help over the summer we didn't I don't think we did last summer but in discussing some of the challenges this summer with a shorter summer because we're going to wait in June and also we're housing summer school again here that perhaps some some help you know whether throughout the summer or even towards the end of the summer we're going to really be banging out in the building ready after summer schools over so what prompted that question is it's a two-fold thing is there's been a lot of updates both interior and exterior there's the gardens that obviously need attention over the summer there's the flower gardens up front that I know people have volunteered in the past to keep those looking nice and weeding them out and just the overall every day of running the summer school here and having the kids in the school and doing the deep cleaning and it is such a short summer this year so I didn't know if it was beneficial if you're looking to hire some part-time staff that may be working with U32 for some students that could use that part-time job in the summer time and working with either Jody Emerson or somebody at U32 either of these little plants so it was just thinking too full that could be a really good thing so we do that that happens across the system different people some opportunities for some high school students to do some part-time before fall sports start and just making sure that everything that the updates that we've done both interior and exterior that we're keeping up on every summer they can easily get put on the back burner because they're not like I gotta get to that garden get it weeded or I gotta get to the vegetable gardens and make sure that that stuff's being taken care of but I don't want to lose sight of all the work that we have done on those pieces every summer being taken care of especially when summer school's here so there's already a group of staff that's dedicated to the summer school yeah definitely and I'm right on the same page with you about making sure that things are clean thoroughly like I talk to check all the time and the custodians about cracks and crevices but there's only so much time on their day too that's right supporting the summer health to kind of do those extra pieces yeah I talked a little bit about playground summer program again looking at my report here and just a few photos as always of some things and again I try to keep our twitter feed updated so I haven't posted any pictures in a while but I try to do pictures of fun and cool things that are happening here at our school I was trying to think what I was going to say but oh that's what it was one of our our candidates commented on the twitter feed on our web page I mean picture because of a thousand words and to be able to see just visually anybody visiting our site all of the unique and cool things that we do you know that's kind of a case in point right there somebody that's looking to come do our school see these great things that we're doing so that's all I had actually anybody have any questions about anything I do have some questions about so the playground fundraising I just want to put it out there to be mindful of what groups are fundraising for what and whom and how many times they're approaching especially local businesses here in Berlin I think some businesses they've been hit up for like the five six fundraising that they did for the field trip and then also have been asked for playground fundraising money and I think the sports program I know with basketball when they did their stuff back in February have asked for the same businesses to support so I want to be mindful of how many times our our school is approaching the same businesses and maybe putting out like a plan of okay this group is going to approach these businesses and making sure that everybody is aware of who's approaching what businesses so they're not getting hit up so many times so that's one piece or that the the number of businesses needs to expand so I mean so not the same business want to contribute to all those things great but I think we can't if we keep going to just like the same four or five of them that's not fair right good and if you have any new explored grants on this or on the playground no I haven't done any of that yet not that I won't but just I haven't yet the second piece with the playground thing is I would recommend a committee when you get to that point and I'm not saying that you're there yet but to have maybe the PE teacher and some of those outside people that might not necessarily use it for their specific programs but be involved with it as I would even include like the art and music teacher just because there's so many different options for playground equipment now that incorporate the art and the music pieces so I would highly encourage when a committee is formed that some of those allied arts teachers be involved in that I would strongly vote for that as well for the fact that right tenancies the loudest person in the room gets most attention right so if you have that diversity there I think would be perfect sure it's not just the pre-k you know that back to me before I was right and I'm jumping to seven but maybe we could have the play I had it on my wondering if we have around on the future agenda just to keep check of it check updates from you next one is there any other questions for Aaron on the principles report did you have any leads there no thank you for bringing with me that's a big one that was great thank you for I actually I like celebrating the previous things that have happened in school but it's nice stuff that's coming up so the future stuff is great all right I have to apologize there's not a finance report in here we probably won't have one until she closes the books out of the energy I mean right now it wouldn't change much right now Laura and I actually had our weekly meeting and we're getting close to closing everything down so I know you'll have it in June I know you'll have it in June perfect executive committee pretty much went over that the minutes were in the packet on page 16 questions on that the majority of it was the superintendent search update anything that really is out of the Lori went over the accounting self-assessment we there's no questions on the minutes that are in there we can move on to policy committee those next three have not met policy school quality or negotiations there's no update on any of those we can move on down to the board members to appoint no I think I should have called 5.2 we don't need to do that yes we do folks that aren't covered by the ESP or the teachers master agreement okay so that's your principal the administrative assistant who deals in has access to personal files and your three custodians so I would recommend to the board that you approve for the principal 3.1 which is an alignment for what the teachers increases for the non bargaining and that for the custodians and for the administrative assistant that it's in alignment with the ESP contract which was 3.5% for the 2019-2020 school year I missed that so 3.1 for principal and what was the custodian 3.5 for principal and administrative assistant custodian on that that's been kind of the tradition that I've done for my years here is to follow that pattern I would like to go into a quick executive session and invite you in do you want me to do that now or are we into the end well if it's going to change on what we do here then I'd rather do that now quickly and maybe the four of us come around somewhere okay I don't think we'll change that so I'll make a motion to go into executive session on 7.4 so we came out at 7.13 so many like to make a motion for that recommendation I can make the motion if you can show me your piece of paper so the motion goes to 3.1 for principal and the 3.5 custodian and admin any other discussion if done all those in favor please say aye aye and then opposed accept resignations we don't have any for you tonight no we just left some of the stuff out here same with the hire we did as Aaron told you we haven't finished the hiring process so for 5.4 you can just put table because we will have one at our next meeting okay board orders I have them I'll make a motion to approve the board orders in the amount of 47,826 dollars and 5 cents are there any questions or other discussion on that none all those in favor please say aye aye and opposed future agenda items so we have playground I had an item the students I just curious on the data the students being absent or late and how it would affect the behavior or just how it would affect things students always absent always late does that affect their behavior or I'm just curious also on the data how many students are I'm just curious on the data and the absence and lights how it affects things I'm just curious on the data how many students are in favor for her to see perfect you know I should have asked to ask this to the agenda but we will meet again but right before I would like to quickly have figure out for graduation typically a board member or two or three help hand out diplomas for graduation and it's been a little different each year depending on who's on the board but typically there's at least a few members that are on the board that have graduating sixth graders so they always like to present their diploma to their child so we all actually have sixth grade graduates I would just like to maybe get some thought or feelings as to where people are at with wanting to do that or not or I know in the past we've always had at least two or three board members presenting the diplomas so it's either something all three of us can do and Erin can present the diplomas and we can just shake their hands or do something along those lines I actually I meant to send you on the email today but I got caught up in other things so I didn't get a chance to think about it I bet that if you guys wanted to think about it and talk with Erin he could help coordinate between the three of you so it's just something to think about I'm fine with I'd be happy to do whatever I I don't know what the history is whatever you want to do I will do so we can have a passion in either way so we can just think about it and communicate through email or just figure it out by our meeting on the we'll have a full board meeting on the 25th of May we'll have a 29th we'll be an SU meeting all three of you will be there so we could chat then and just let Erin know we don't need an agenda item for graduation no I think this is more about scheduling that's why I said you could communicate to Erin and let them know I need to talk to Erin to see if I want to make sure we have all your supports here for Thursday night that you need so I'll talk with Erin since I won't be here can I ask another question can we just super high level I apologize this is a repeat all of these board meetings that are happening that are combined and not combined I'm trying to make sure that I understand what my responsibility is to our existing Berlin school education for all these meetings so the next meeting that you would have is this Thursday because you agreed to talk with the attorney yep I got that one so the one after that is on May 29th yep but in between they're just so there is a vote on Tuesday the 21st so if you haven't requested an abs T-ballot there is that vote happening at the town clerk's office we have to vote on the 21st I guess and then the 29th that's okay please if I miss something right now May 29th there's an SU board meeting to interview the superintendent in terms of superintendent candidates I don't know how they're doing the process I'm staying out of it but I just know that that meeting is happening and you need all three of you are on the SU board okay yep and then the next thing that I know for you Julie is June 17th okay which is a carousel meeting and then graduation would be the next thing but it sounds like you already got that one okay so those are the things I know for you okay that has to happen alright I totally get it I totally get it probably June 17th I've been considering I know right nothing June 12th there's nothing June 12th May 29th do I? no you don't need to attend that but I do need to talk to you about Thursday night okay thank you no problem do you have any updates on from the town from our last meeting? did they send anything? I have not heard anything I got this one thing from the town clerk and heard from Justin I didn't hear anything from Dana so I have not had any official updates from Dana as to where they are at I'm assuming you guys did no if I had heard from them I would have told you is there any other future agenda items other than the ones that we have stated no I'd love to keep hearing from Erin on the action plan yeah okay