 First on the agenda is reception of guests Michael. Do you want to introduce yourself? Yes, I'm Mike rushman I'm from Cabot Vermont, and I've been working with the owners of the Brooklyn mall for the last two and a half years on the various initiatives that you may have heard about the Transfer new transformation of the 65-acre parcel into more of a town center mixed-use Pedestrian oriented project and we've been working closely with the town over that period I'm some of the things that have happened as a result with the big art little art Exhibit that we had walked the long trail in Berlin mall We'll be starting that for the third year here in January and the recently announced 100-unit senior housing project will be built Access property at the mall adjacent to Walmart And I invited Michael to come and speak to us in very general terms about different things that the the mall Property owners may be interested with respect to land that borders the school property And also, you know things that may have be of mutual benefit for the school or for the town And so we won't get into any specifics, but just to have that General discussion And we can look at when we have that under let's look at 1.2 agenda review and revisions I just want to talk about the board meeting schedule going forward and what we have for thinking about future board meetings and With my head being and what it's been in for the past week It's I came with the decision today literally that I wanted to have this discussion with you every local board Okay, right. All right No objections. We'll add that as three point six any other revisions to the agenda So that would be my my next suggestion would be we can move up the discussion about the mall property for our guest who is here And that's number three point five that will take that up We can take that up next So like I had said, this was just to have a general discussion about Some of the things that were are being considered with respect to the mall property Michael, did you have a Map perhaps that we could look at while we have this conversation Yeah, you can describe what's on the map and what we're looking at here All right, as I mentioned the mall has a 65-acre parcel and back in the early 80s when the act 250 Permit was first given. There were several so-called out parcels that were created Most of those out parcels have been dormant for the ensuing 30 plus years Recently a couple of those were combined and became the site of the coals department store another one of them out what be Which is that little triangle just below the garden center of Walmart is where the senior housing project will be And then there are two others out lights a and c on that map where it says two plus acre hotel Residential restaurant site underneath that label so right in there now If you see on that diagram, there's the roughly 10 acre. It's called oftentimes the Town Forest parcel or whatever, but it's it's really as you know a portion of the holdings for the Berlin elementary school and it is a Effectively landlocked parcel because the only road front as is on route 62 and it's Literally impossible to get additional curb cuts on route 62 If you look at that green dotted line that's there. That's the approximate boundary line between the school parcel and a fairly thin strip of land that runs along the mall access road so The mall there has a thin strip of land that has all kinds of road frontage But it has no depth to it. So one of the things you do as a developer in my background is law planning and development Is you try to look for situations whereby? Combining things a little bit differently or whatever you can try to create that or create opportunities So something that Occurred to me a couple years ago actually and I've worked off and on Since then is whether there would be an opportunity with the mall and possibly the town in some kind of a role and the school board Or can you create a development that would be appropriate for multi-family housing potentially affordable multi-family housing That would both benefit the school district in terms of creating some Value to a portion of a piece of land now that has no real development value, but maybe more importantly would increase the student base for the school and with students that would be literally able to walk to school on a trail system through the woods without ever crossing a road I Have had some discussions with third parties the mall owner itself is not a residential developer We're not developing the senior housing project. It's a Vermont developer that we've located And I've had discussions with other third-party Vermont based Developers that I think would have an interest in a development pad for multi-family housing there And so this was something that I brought up with both the past chair of the school board and with with Chris and And I know with that 46 year facing, you know sort of Deadline in terms of a change in status and so there may be a maybe a logical time To look at whether there's something here that could be a benefit for all parties concerned So that's basically where it is now. It's at the talking stages We're happy to cooperate in some fashion. There's a more complicated version of this that Unfortunately involves yet another third party that that I don't control and that Potentially could lead to the school ending up with additional and immediately behind the playing fields that you have now that would allow for expanded playing fields so that's sort of a Plan a plan B if you will but as I guess back it back That's just north of north of the words approximate so my that's that's mall property But there's a third party who has an interest in it as well So it's not something that the ball unilaterally can do by itself and that goes all the way out to the paint term So the first one that I described is something that could be done simply between the school and the mall owners One that would involve a playing field to require at least this out-of-state third party to Sign off on it some fashion and that one probably would be more likely maybe to have a town role In it as well that maybe those playing fields would be some kind of a cooperative venture between the school So what up in the conversation that I had I? Conversations I've had with Mike and and recently with the town I Would you know our interest I think is in some multifamily development That's a possibility to help improve our school population And also in improving our rec fields if there's any way that we can can do that Those were the two big things that I brought up, but I wanted to have the board and superintendent and principal way in I'm just some some of the general general ideas behind this and what we would be looking to get out of some sort of Deal involving the mall owners and the town and maybe if I gave a couple numbers It would help with the scale of what we're talking about here Pending and actually get out there and doing a survey on the property that would be involved a lot of that property You know it's class 2 wetlands and so that obviously can't be touched There's a buffer back from that so it's basically a strip that would be parallel to the entry road So it would be sort of a long narrow kind of a building as opposed to a more square building I think we could potentially be talking about 50 to 60 units of multifamily housing Which would be meaning two to three bedroom units? And if you think of one and a half to two children probably per unit you could be talking about seventy five to 120 Students coming from literally that one project now they all wouldn't be school-age, but most of them So it's it could be a pretty significant addition to school-age population Are you looking at low-income or? Residency like partnering with It's Rather not get into because no deal has been struck with anybody it could be anything from Affordable, which right all kinds of definition right low Yeah, a lot of the focus now is on work force housing which is sort of 80% to 150% Median income and then another model that works well in Vermont I worked for housing for my back in my first stint for month But is a fixed income project where some of the units are Affordable to meet those standards and now that then other units are our market rate units, so it's early Stages of those discussions, and there's more than one developer that I've been talking to and so You know someplace along that spectrum. Yeah That's fair Now did I understand you to say there are two? proposed residential developments One right now for two locations for proposed residential development well the one that's been proposed and that that a Private developer is going to move forward on it's a roughly 100 units senior housing project It's everything from independent living assisted living and memory care all under one roof Meals provided three meals a day for the assisted in and memory care units one meal a day for the independent So it's a it's both a residential project and an operating business If you will both the assisted living and the memory care are licensed by the state To be licensed that's on that little piece next to the garden center at Walmart His separate one that I'm talking about all the way out to paint my bike I mean the piece that goes all the way out to paint her up. No, no that that Immediately adjacent immediately adjacent exactly so as you come in the entry road and just as you get to Walmart You can turn and go around behind the wall right there There's sort of a knoll which would be created down but right right there the second Development opportunity the one that I'm talking about would be along the entry road as you came into the ball It would be on your left and it would be parallel to the road there and that yellow Excuse me orange area with the orange dotted line does not impinge on the wetland. That's correct. That's my rough Approximation again not going out there with a wet one's consulted but looking at the weapons maps that the state has Knowing what the buffer is at separate. So that's just you know It's more than eyeballing it but it's it's just an approximation at this point of where I think the development You have a faint orange line just to the east of the school parking lot Is that wetland delineation or is that a subdivision within school on property D? Or maybe I'm seeing things Parallel to the dotted green light The orange lines that are on here are parcel lines, but they aren't They're from tax maps and they're on you know a state database They aren't completely accurate and that's why I dropped that little green line in because I have a survey of course of the mall property And that green line is very close to where the actual property line is as opposed to that orange line That is I don't know 50 or 75 feet to the Left of it on that sheet that you're looking at. Okay, so there am I Maybe it's just the photocopy. So there is no orange line just to the east of the parking lot No, that's just that's the printer Yeah, no, that's that's Property line is tensibly for the school This is So, you know what the number of this is is Both the school and the mall owner in that area have Pieces of property that they really can't do anything with and at the moment neither by itself has any value But if they cooperate and put their two pieces together There is a development opportunity and maybe more importantly, there's an opportunity for multi-family housing to be built there you brought up the the opportunity Essentially created by act 46 and the schedule for act 46 is maybe May determine what we can do here So you're aware of that. Yes. Yeah So, I mean I don't know who's gonna be on the new board Peter, but I mean I don't think Thanks I Don't see this as a huge I mean the board's gonna want the new board would want to have some issue in it But I also think they would look at you know, what does this board think of it and support that? Yeah, I don't know I mean I'm right where Chris that's advantage that you saw Chris You know kids and a way of maybe supporting getting more playing fields I those are those both are great things that we need so I'm more than willing to I would want to think about it and see it see it through I'd want to talk to our council Down at Scott Cameron's office and just say what do you see? What do you I've talked to him about timeline for property transfers and all that? So I think it's something that will get into that new board But I don't think it stops us from talking about these things right now either so No, it's a good place for it to start Excuse me, and we're certainly aware that you've got all kinds of you know issues You've got to address as part of this that are more central to the educational mission And so you know we're here ready to help out however we can Participate in whatever discussions make sense to you when they make sense There are also some pieces of this that have to do with a town center designation Yes, something that we started on two and a half years ago is there's a state program That allows the state to designate new town centers Which is sort of akin to their designated downtown to be as a village centers There are only two that have been done in the state one in South Burlington one in Colchester, and we approached the town Meeting all owners about this two and a half years ago, and I started working with them We had several meetings with the state they were encouraging But there were things in the town's town plan and zoning ordinance that needed to be updated to Incorporate some statutory language the town plan as you know was was re-adopted a new one in August and the zoning is up for a New zoning ordinance in March Assuming that that goes forward we'll week when I say we I've been sort of dispatched by the mall owner To help the town with the application and so Tom Podelsky and Dana Edmond I meet every couple weeks on this now And we'll be preparing to file an application for that in in March or April of next year and that basically Increases the town's priority for certain funding Programs there are from the state may make a tiff district easier If you're a developer and they're trying to do residential particularly affordable residential It makes the development process simpler including the act 250 process and generally Signals to the regulatory bodies that the state believes that development in the location Makes sense We're we've met with Chris and one of the things we're hoping to do is Incorporate the school district property and the fire department property Into that it could be up to 125 acres Because one of the jet to show is public facilities either are in the town center or there's a plan that they will be Locate relocated to the town center So so to clarify the town plan was updated to be your yes Yeah, it was all required. Yeah It was it had to be done for all kinds of other reasons, but it's not that time We get that and that zoning still needs to be done, but it's headed in that direction Yes, in fact, they were well along in the zoning and then sort of put that on the back burner because the deadline came up for Under the state law that the town plan had to you know be revisited and Updated so yes the zoning I think just in the last week the Planning Commission took its final action And I believe that public hearing now is maybe the 20th of December Great time for hearing The other thing is that the fire department land belongs to the school Okay, that's a lease. Okay, that came up So that's another issue you're gonna have to look at Yeah, yeah, it's again just having Uses like that in the town center or some of the boxes that we have to check off on this application I don't think that's a deal breaker in any respect. I mean it's right beneficial to everyone. Oh, yeah, there Which is the intent when it happened The long-term lease I think it's a 99-year lease The other thing about the strip of land that goes all the way out to pay turnpike Is it potentially provides either a secondary means of interest to the school or actually a Different primary means of ingress to the school further away from the stoplight You guys are even Certainly well aware of how that traffic can back up there All right, well, I thought the time was ripe to bring this to the to the whole board We've expressed interest. I think it's important for the town and for them all developer to know that we are interested in Open to further discussion on this. I think we have that from Discussions here. Are there any other questions from for Michael? Thank you for the time tonight Interest that the two chairs have shown before this and hopefully something works out that everybody's happy with Great. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. You're welcome to stay. We have an exciting agenda Priorities, I guess, okay, I'll leave. Thank you with you. That's great. Thank you for that. Okay All right Any further discussion on that one Until hopefully you made a note on the fire department thing. That's something that I just Just learned that from Peter to that's one of the things that it's one of many things I'll be talking you saw some of this on Friday. I'm gonna be covering some of the things on that It's good. That's why I asked for that extra piece of agenda. Okay Just as a footnote to that we talked about institutional memory. Yeah, last week that was Designated as police and fire. Okay, and the police and fire had a falling out so they never Things like that never but we thought that would be really good. Yeah adjacent to the school I think it is too. It's actually a great place. It's what makes our only school that has the evacuation place It's by foot and it was far better than the alternative, which probably would have been McDonald's. Yeah. Yeah Let's go back up now to 1.3 public comments and correspondence any any public comments or correspondence anyone wants to Address Right 1.4 future meetings. We have our January 14th meeting here February 20th Carousel meeting at U32 And I'll also note this at January 9th bill is the organization. Yeah, that is gonna go through all of that Chris I brought I brought a one in my handouts. I gave was an updated timeline from Friday today There's I actually put a couple more things on there that were on there on Friday. Okay, things are becoming clearer Some are clearer as the days go by 2.1 the approval of the minutes Everyone had a chance to take a look at the minutes If so entertain a motion Is there a second Any revisions to the minutes Then all those in favor of approving the minutes signify by saying aye Abstentions Carl abstaining he was not here And most carries the minutes are approved 3.0 discussion agenda 3.1 budget draft number 2 So before we go into the actual budget draft that was in your packet on page Five I wanted to give you some contextual information which I handed out tonight One of the things that you've seen every year and it was in your packet, but I brought you a legal one That's a little bit bigger not much bigger What it's called the we use this as the budget final budget analysis from this current school year by budget functions That's what goes down on the Left-hand most column so you have the function areas of the budget and we're able to look at this across schools and everything That's up top. We start to look at enrollment Square footage of buildings or meals per day number of child children that receive IEP services and Enrollment pre-k so those are all kind of some demographic data and as you look at this information You'll be able to see that across the schools, but specifically you have Berlin where has a Berlin name that top of that column The next column to the right down below under the budget categories is the percentage of the overall budget and The next one to the right is the cost per equalized pupil So you'll see that for example Berlin's expenditure budget for this year is three point five million dollars Which results in a seventeen thousand eight hundred and one dollars per equalized pupil? Is there I know from Peter you haven't we've had this for a couple years But we need to put a really bold line by the call it the callus to the left of the cows column where it says callus That's all Berlin information there Yep, so anything that's colored yellow means it's a low compared to all six schools and if it's green it's high and Some of the things this year because of the way we're assessing them across schools especially superintendent and special education assessments We didn't even rank them green or yellow because they're done by equalized pupils Sometimes the green is good and sometimes the green is bad and same for yellow It's just a way of asking questions It's to help this sheet is to refine your questions not necessarily you want all yellow or you want all green It's just a way of saying how do I kind of look at what's happening for services at cost per budget Peter especially about say to Chris and Carl because you've seen these other years slow me down if I'm going too fast I give this to you as information down at the bottom You'll see other statistical information a lot of its operation by plant or special education costs We'll see what we divide it by For operation of plant whether it's capital fund or debt and capital and operation of plant We do that by square footage of the building and Then where you see the food service is it's the support per day per meal and Then this pre-k is cost per pre-k enrollment So it's just divided by the pre-k students The other green line corresponds with the other green one up above. Yeah The special education cost per sped student is divided by the the number of sped students that you had up above and the student Transportation's pre-equalized pupil I'm not that there's not much of a variability. I mean it's less than twenty dollars $21 from the cost of Dodie to the cost here in Berlin So sometimes the range isn't that great. It's not worth looking at the greens and yellows. Sometimes there's a big range So you can have to look into the numbers as well and then way over at the right We try to give it to you by the super the whole supervisory union So if you the furthest right column way over you'll see that and you can see what the costs are by the supervisory union So this is this year's current budget So I expected people to ask me what's it look like for next year So you'll see an eight and a half by 11 that I gave you that has Something that looks like this right here where I took some key figures for the budget for this current year's budget That's the top table and The bottom table is draft one All draft ones and you three two is already a draft two and you're getting your draft two tonight All the draft one budgets for this For FY 20 so that's what the bottom is and this is where you have some tax rate information there as well So again, you'll see that we have the total expense budget Each have off-setting revenues those are revenues that get you down to what's the local what's called the local education spending This is what gets your tax rate on the top table on the bottom tab You'll see equalized pupils again, and then on the bottom table. You'll see a differential of what's happening in equalized pupils For this year and for Berlin we went down eight students Sorry, where's that line? I'm on the bottom I'm on the fifth one down Chris where it says e p change Equalized people change see it minus eight cut it and then you have your local spending for equalized people So in this current budget you have in front of you is 18,117 dollars where last year was 16,892 Okay What's the big jump there? Well equalized pupils and an increase on your overall your increase in your budget Which is mainly HR because we the stuff that was below the line that Aaron one talk about tonight is not in draft one okay, and Then you see a calculation above and below the threshold for spending where you get into the penalty zone and for every dollar Over that you need to raise in taxes over the penalty threshold You have to raise two for the one that you need so you this in the black means that Berlin's 307 thousand dollars away from the penalty threshold and overall budget expenditure You're below you're below it you're below that threshold black is good Okay, if you go to Calis, you'll see their nine thousand dollars above the penalty threshold for spending EMS you see is 52 152 thousand below Romney's a hundred and three thousand above Doty's 29,000 above you 32 is 211 Overall the whole district It's 520 when you do those pluses and minuses The district's 528 thousand dollars no matter what our governance is going to be Whether we merged or not Next year the entire Washington Central Supervisory will be over the threshold and spend it all districts Whether we were one or six separate You mean FY 21 budget in the FY 21 budget we would be Okay, that's our forecast. That's with a look. Sorry. I forgot to add this caveat That would be with a level funded budget not level service level funded where we know health care and salaries are probably going to go up So then what you see down below is if the next line is if there's any penalty for excess spending The town tax rate with CLA from last year if there is an emerge Okay, so for Berlin that's $1.69 for if it were merged with CLA from last year and Under what's ordered actually let me say the next lineup the merge equalize Education equalize tax rate if it were one district right now on these first draft budgets would be $1.79 You see how it's blank all the way over to the district So then we said what would it be if we applied CLA because different towns have different CLA's what would be the merge tax rate and then We have the change draft one To the so we were looking at last year's tax rate to emerge tax rate. You can see the changes this year So an increase of five point four cents For Berlin an increase of three point one for callous a decrease for East Montpelier of three cents a decrease for Middlesex of 11 cents Doty four tenths of a cent increase So I've heard a lot of different numbers bill. Yeah, doesn't it doesn't make sense to me Not that I have any great understanding of it I thought you know the things that I've heard most frequently are East Montpelier's taxes are going to go down Towns without debt their taxes are going to go up How does that how does that mesh with this? Well because you're looking at people were only talking about debt that we're doing that Chris You have to look at overall at spending and our debt is not the majority of our education spending. Yeah, it's very tiny So therefore it's really based on how much you spend per equalized people look at the equalized pupil spending for each town In their budgets right now That's what drives taxes so the numbers that hit me when I saw this chart this one not one just gave is East Montpelier has a few more students than than Berlin yet Originally over 450,000 more in overall education spending and that Isn't debt, but it certainly is Cost per pupil that's going to be distributed throughout the newly merged district Yeah, and and I and it struck me that that's a lot more than that I mean their debt payment for their ten million dollar bond is probably two or three hundred thousand a year, right? It's it's about it's about five hundred Okay, it's coming down each year. Maybe five sixty. I'd have to go look at it. I was gonna say that that four hundred thousand dollar Difference means probably and let me tell you what changes Yeah, their debt and what changes it faster for them is not their expenditure change, but the change in equalized pupils You ask why did jump so much for Berlin that eat pupil difference decrease remember? That's the divisor and you're under 200. So you changed your pupils by four percent Yeah Which I'm still still looking at those numbers you're talking about Carl So in the in the green and yellow sheet you hand right the per pupil spending for East Montpelier is 20,600 and here we are at 17,800 and that's this current budget year Yeah, so go to next year go to the sheet I gave you the other one that has all the numbers on not that one all right So now go look at local ed spending for equalized pupil. Yeah And ours is going we're we're jumping there. Yeah, and remember this the majority we have over than 50% of our students Are at you 32? Whether I look at the town of Berlin or the whole Supervisor Union That Union has that equalized per pupil so What it does and this is what it does that you know we if we look at the overall tax rate, right if you've got 50 about 50% of you you're already equalizing your I should use a different word You're leveling your tax rate a little bit between the five towns because you've got over half your students being educated at you 32 under that cost per pupil of $18,921 so The with that there already and we know that we have more than 50% of our kids there across the SU and in Berlin There's only one town that doesn't have 50% greater than 50% that's middle sex right now they you You already have some Soffoning might be the best. I'm not sure what the right average I'm trying not to use equalize it, but we have some equalizing of the rate the tax rates And so you have tax rates in Vermont are not driven They're driven by spending per equal local ed spending per equalized pupil. That's the way tax rates are done End of the day to sum it up in less confusing way though. You smart pill. You're certainly gaining an advantage How about middle sex Carl? They have a higher cost per pupil They're at there above the threshold spending and they're getting 11 cents down Well, it's because that they do last year decided to spend right up to the threshold This year they have a hundred and three thousand if they were their own district if they're not There are below the threshold because the whole issue can be below the threshold I don't know if it's the one of the unforeseen consequences, but as a as a board member and a Berlin parent and a Berlin community member the Thing to do for our community and our students is to jack spending and I'm not advocating this because This frustrates me. I'm not advocating it but the thing to do was to have more improvements when it was time for our bond and a bigger bond and More spending right now because if we got up to that threshold level We might have two extra FTEs here at Berlin that are going to be paid for and distributed throughout the SU and that would that would provide School-wide improvement and a better education for the children of Berlin It's sad that it maybe that's the purpose of the law. I don't know Maybe it was a purpose I never saw that it puts you in situations where it allows you to ask this question and ask to one board How do you want to use your resources? So is equity if East Montpelier students are at a higher Proficiency rate taking some of that four hundred thousand dollars that they decided as a community to spend For maybe and and giving those two extra teachers to it's a good question for the new board It's what should be asked about the new board is where do you want to put your resources? I just finished Chris. I think it's heard this from me I finished just finished writing a paper about rural superintendent and leadership and That one of the most powerful things for causing student improvement is putting your resources to where the kids that for the kids They need it and where the school performance is Which is right here? Right now. Yeah a couple of mouth coaches, and that's what Aaron has in the budget. I mean he's not putting it in I want to talk about it So that gives you some big I wanted you to have some big contacts because I know people are going to be asking this I mean this is going to go to these budgets are going to go to the transition board and then new boards I said miles will start Putting together something like this So in the new we kept the budget the same we have been able to Figure out the from draft one to draft two we've gotten more precise on staff turnover changes and on Money that we put in the budget for anticipated movement across the index So if someone's getting another degree, we've been able to put that in here with that all said The net impact on taxes and I'd be glad to go through each of these lines I'm not going so fast that you don't you don't time to ask questions. We also are sure of the Washington Central assessments So those are exact numbers now. They last time they were estimated at 3% So the total for that is a increase of ninety four thousand six hundred and twenty eight dollars to the budget from FY 19 this current year or 2.7% increase and There though they really haven't been any changes up there what Aaron wanted to be and he wanted to be here tonight I'd be glad to try to call him and get on a cell phone on a speakerphone Wanted to talk to you about a couple of things that are happening That we we anticipate and so I can go down through those and then if we want to do some Detail calling so we anticipate we think there's a retirement coming We don't have it in hand. So we wanted to let you know that that's about a sixteen thousand dollar change increase We have one teacher here on a one-year So if we replace it with that one that teacher is here on a one-year contract because we have another teacher You may remember from last year Michelle Turcott took a year leave of absence to go do some work and be with her family for a year We're also in Anticipating that about point two of our our schoolwide program Funding is going to get cut point two of an FTE which is about twenty four thousand dollars federal grants are going down There's some instructional support and programs books and supplies The air initially came to us about fifteen thousand But we were able to find money from this year's budget that there's about eight thousand and one time costs For things that don't happen every year, but there's some things in the lot here in the library and in the guidance materials that should be Put in annually. That's about seven thousand and then he did add an extra math interventionist This assumes at that point two that we get point two and funding through a different way of consolidated federal grants But that we have an extra math interventionist coach interventionist, I'm sorry at seventy six thousand And we're seeing a real uptick in our pre-k population. We could open up a third section of pre-k We have so many kids that in town here. Yeah in Berlin, which is great. That looks good for future population That's really exciting As you all know our kindergarten was really light this year coming in but we could have a second We have a third section right now, and we definitely see that going into next year Is that all Berlin pre-k? Yeah, all Berlin we've usually had like one or two that comes from another town But we we could have with what we're seeing in child find and what we're being told about for folks that are interested for next year between Basically this year's three-year-olds and this year's two-year-olds would be our three and four-year-olds for next year We could have three sections I will tell you that also the student need in the pre-k is going up And the supports they need So this is that means that students that that will need services whether it's IP 504 We see that happening and that's that's just a continuation I'm just telling you it's getting greater. I've been telling you every year. It's getting greater what we're seeing from the Societal issues. It's just we just it's gates early in or earlier We're seeing that as well So we wanted to bring you all those price tags We weren't expecting you know all that but to say these are the things we've been thinking about these things We were talking about Aaron, and I had this conversation. We thought it was good to have this conversation with the board His priority is we kind of put him in a priority level there of Things a seventh although the seven thousand a small in the third, but we tried to rank that in a prioritization piece Because we just And Can you speak to this bill or should we try to get Aaron on the line about the need for the math interventionist? Yeah, I mean We've been saying in the supervisory union and hear that math this needs to be our primary focus We'd like to have Kim for own some of it's our class structure with the multi grades We teach math in a single grade so Kim's been doing some of that the reason to take point two of her out of the grant And so she can do more of that and be more flexible But we also need to have the math interventions for students at a younger grade so we can get kids Back on the track More quickly. I know they're not serving and I don't have the actual numbers Aaron probably would All the kids they could serve with Kim for owns time by herself For math interventions, so it's it's supporting the straight grade math teaching and Taking two point two out of Kim's current position that's funded by grants gives us that flexibility Because the grants won't allow her to be a classroom teacher. She can do interventions and coaching And then the other part would We'd have the other person focus on interventions Yeah And it's kind of what Carl was saying earlier if we had a mat another math interventionist we can provide more of those Supports earlier on for kids and we're kind of having to make some tough choices in that It's not that they're not getting interventions. It's just it's it's easier to provide More with more folks at the home. I think I'm stating an obvious piece, but and I'd be glad to give them a call So let me see if I can get them. I Disagree with that. I mean having heard it from Aaron and at you 32 as well so that be I'm trying to Try to catch back up here. Would that be a fourth interventionist that would be to literacy and to Math and we are I mean our literacy scores are starting to turn as you saw a back In the October the October meeting Hey, Aaron, it's bill Good, I've got you on speakerphone. I'm here with peter chris and carl Hi, Aaron I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more. I've introduced the budget and the budget considerations down at the bottom But I we were talking about the additional point one 1.0 math interventionists And I was wondering if you could give some more details about You know the data that you're using and the sourcing of that why you see that and what that will gain us No, thank you. I think that confirms what you told us previously and what we heard at you 32 recently Hopefully can do it Are there other questions about other items that are there on the bottom for Aaron? He Aaron I talked about you know trying to free up kim at that point two And then that we Anticipate every time and if that were to happen That's what the staffing changes were and then I explained the pre-k section that we're just seeing a lot more kids Uh that we could do a third pre-k section Why don't you give a couple? Why don't you give a couple a paragraph to each? How about that? Yep, I did that one. So that one's pretty self-explanatory And then and then the instructional support programs books and supplies You want to just give a little bit about that any questions for Aaron? No, but I think um while he's on the line maybe, um Trying to understand what what are the consequences if we don't add another pre-k Section Did you hear that Aaron? I've done the actual just pure number calculation If you think about the act 170 166 vouchers Nine is the place if you have nine kids in a classroom If and I I'm not talking about education outcomes. I'm talking just finances here It's more cost-effective to have the classroom at nine below nine The vouchers are more effective And that's without looking at from an educational outcome piece, but just a dollar and cent Peace with your educational outcome analysis here in 100 percent I just wanted so the board understood the numbers when you look at it from a number of budgetary piece So we have 30 30. Yep, we have some on waiting list after that. Do you remember how many are on the waiting list, Aaron? And there's some indication that there will be more Yes, yeah, what yes and what we do look at and Aaron tell me if I'm wrong, but You know as you said there's other kids that we always get seemed to get a few more kids that come into kindergarten That didn't even go through our pre-k system Which I'd like to get everybody in or even you know just to let us know they're here Um, so we always have a couple of those and we have you know from what I remember Kelly telling me Aaron And you may have told this to me too, but we think the two-year-old numbers are as high as our four-year-olds if not higher And the percentage of students in these classes With special needs may go up next year Well, that's what Aaron was just telling you about of family. He was at just the past week I was in a meeting that way That's that those are our trends. I don't have hard data on that peter, but you know, we're seeing that Needs of students are still going up and it's getting younger and younger We have a cost for a third session So we do right that 45,000 We put a second session into callus It costs us because you have to have a teacher And a pair educator for 15 kids You have to have two adults there the whole time and to put that second Put that second session in this this county here because this happened after the budget account and they use fund balance this year to Cover was 45,000. So I said, let's just put down 45,000. We know that that's in the ballpark To do it you said a teacher and a pair educator for 15 if right if we had a third session We might have fewer We might have fewer but you have to you have to have two adults in the room at all times It's a pre-k standard You can't have you can't just have it one adult Well, 39 just 27 and we're already at 30, right? Okay. Anything else for Aaron? Thank you, Aaron Thank you, Aaron. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for today. No problem. I understand Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow, Aaron So you're looking for some direction from us tonight? Yes, I am So we're looking at a 7.5 percent. That's if we took everything there would be 7 It would be 7.5 Which I understand that that's really high I Lord put down there and showed me this sheet in the first draft that first, you know drafted this report I'm like, I don't like that number of lawyer. She goes well, you said to you and Aaron said to price all these things out Like yeah, I guess we did tell you that so So those are there. I I you know, I'll tell you I and I'm not saying this to devalue any of them I didn't expect to get all that but I wanted to kind of bring a menu of our thinking Our thinking towards resources for kids Um and to know What we're trying to what Aaron's really trying to lead the school through and talking about how can we Better support kids in Berlin If it is a trend, that's something to have to be considered for years to come That's the way it works. Typically, it's The roller coaster I must have missed it. Can you help me understand again why this the retirement results in a cost for us? I can explain that to you. So Without trying to put out too much information on the staff member in public session You could have a staff member that has a lower education level Although they have many years. They'll they'll they'll tap out on the We have a staircase for different levels of education for how many years So you keep getting increases if you looked at the salary index And there may be a differential in benefits So you're anticipating a higher at $15,000 I'm anticipating to replace that person. We've been very pleased and now I am pulling out a staff member in public meeting But of our person that's a one-year replacement right now. So that's what that cost is You could tell me to re-advertise and rerun and give me a top level for that for that. That's how you have a specific number Okay. Yep. I've been in our classroom once Aaron's been in our classroom a lot He's doing an awesome job of getting out to people's classrooms and give them feedback and He's really here. Yeah, he's he's all over the place He's doing a great job. So that's you said these are in order of priority Yeah that and try yes because we really think if we can free up kim out of some grant funding We can give her more flexibility to do her job based on what's coming up When when she doesn't have that flexibility because the grant restricts what she can do It just ties her hands and Aaron's hands with the building If if you did that but said we're not going to give you a math interventionist It doesn't mean we might be able to use that other grant funding some other way to help interventions around here I just don't know the answer to that right today because Trying to hire someone from point two is really hard to do especially in interventions. They They can pretty much choose where they want to work in this state The jobs are out there And we're we're looking at this budget Under the assumption that this is a recommendation to the new board To the transition board, which then we'll recommend that's why I want to talk about the dates At the end here tonight of like what's on our agenda for us for the berlin board And how much more work we do here Because the transition board is going to start working on january 9th, right? Our fund balances available to us for any of these items They could be they could be but just remember you're making a double hole a year down the road Because if it if it's operational Something you might find i'm just going to use easy numbers here if something was $10,000 in operation You took it out of fund balance in two years. It'll be a $20,000 hole Yeah, so I get that well in the case of early ahead it's If it's a trend that would definitely happen. Yeah It's not a one-time Are we able to limit the numbers of students and Pre-k we do right now because of the waiting list because we have to stop at 15 to limit it below 15 You can I wouldn't suggest it. I don't think it really does different for learning I wouldn't suggest it. I think I think they're limited at 15 for the top. That's what they're licensed for And remind me though there's not a Revenue side to pre-k There's not at all We get our point 4-2 for for towards our equalized people But that's what we get Remember it it's one of the things and i've been guilty of encouraging this so it's to think of revenues and expenditures But really our equalized tax we get all the money. We set that that's adopted by the voters for the budget The state then turns around says your taxes is this or this because you You're spending for equalized people is that So let me be naive or for a minute that the state Has mandated pre-k is that that's correct? And but they and they do fund us do they fund us to the extent of k through six No, no, it's point point four two of a of that of an equalized student And I based on some formula that they came up with yeah, how about the special Ed so we don't get special ed components for pre-k We don't get any educational support for special education for pre-k Where we do get reimbursement In our other in our other grades Yeah, i'm still kind of catching up on the budget here, but uh I don't know I again i'm torn. I feel like um Berlin's fiscal responsibility is Is coming back to bite us, but also I don't want to uh add An obscene amount to the budget that gets voted down when something potentially happens where The merge is delayed or there's potential for better circumstances for the merge So act 46 is is clouding my vision on this is what i'm saying Yep, I totally understand Be easy to say well, we'll pay for it out of the fund balance, but don't worry about it yet A year from now Let me ask you this bill in other elementary schools in the district Do they all have pre-k everybody has pre-k we have one section of dodie With how many in uh 15 And they've wrapped around with all-day care just as you have here berlin and dodie In east montpellier three schools have been able to oh, no calis has to They don't do that. Are they ready with nine or ten? That if we merge oh, yeah, yeah, yeah No, no, I I have to tell you we actually in calis we have one or two students coming in from other towns east montpellier we have Three or four, but they could They have enough on a waiting list now. They kind of wish that hadn't happened Romney is full They have a waiting list And they have two sections geographically speaking Merging doesn't help berlin because we're almost an island 20 20 minutes away from the nearest elementary school, I think is At least my peers are solid 20 minutes. I think that's probably the closest It's probably the closest So it would be tough for us to share students away from berlin and lituber I think you would get parents happen to be going. I know this that you would there are parents Whether they're from our five towns montpellier berry south To our west that are working in this area. They're asking us for pre-k openings because they'll bring their kids You don't think you wrap around care To go to work and use this pre-k and a care and that's why I mean, it's one of the things that Has taken me a while to get the respect that we have for a district that we're able to provide these wraparound services With you know, we own community connections and with cc and that work to say we can give you a full day package parents And I think that's why we're getting so many people Well, I'll just say I think I can I can very easily support the first three. It's the the bigger spends on the Interventionists and the pre-k section that are giving me a heartburn Without those we're somewhere around four percent okay net increase there So with you know, they're another three and a half percent or so To add those in I'm with carl and that if it's a if it's a This just does not feel fiscally responsible to say this, but if it's a berlin budget I'm worried that it won't pass at that amount if it's a district-wide budget I I think it's got a better shot and i'm not as worried about You know what? I think maybe you just answered our question has From my perspective. I think The berlin budget is what we're looking to present I would say we don't include those two but For our transition representatives. We recommend That they be put in the budget for that exact reason Berlin's budget would not pass with those in it And the transition budget will be so big and hard to decipher and And with so little community ability to have oversight that it might slip the roof Is that not how it's going to work though bill are you going to get you're going to take whatever School, you know the berlin budget the run the budget the nick alice budget And just roll them together this first time that's what the that's what the executive committee told me to do And and so back in august so the transition board will then take a look at this as well And could make some they could make changes Which then you're you know one sixth Of a board arguing for an increase over what the berlin board Has already asked for well that's what's going to happen from now on anyway Yeah I think you you know the transition members whoever they may be will have If they feel comfortable they'll have to bring that recommendation and for that and with the exact explanation of why As a transition member Would that be a difficult case to make I think so You think it would be difficult for you to make yes To say I have one spending decision when I'm sitting in this chair and then you know when we all get together I'm going to say well since we're all sharing this I want to spend more everybody I think we'll say that I think you're going I think I actually think it's going to be a good discussion Because I think it should be this discussion and this is what I've always felt for the seven years And I'm not saying it because I'm pro-merger. I know I've been very public with that But berlin elementary school Has not had the resources it needs To tackle the problem over the student performances And so because of that We've been we were able to put our money if we did it first with pbis And we saw our our behavior improved in the school And we we went through some ups and downs on that But we we've been able to really weather that With that work and then we went into literacy saying we're going to put two literacy interventions in this and Wow, the s-back data Is changing a little bit the local literacy data is changing a lot And that's usually how they stagger the locals will the local assessments will change faster than the state assessment It will come up so You know, I think it's about it's back to what I said earlier about what research is showing It's putting the resources behind where you're trying to make the improvement Or Matt's looking across the su and I look at scores When you look across the su at scores, is there do you see a correlation between Per pupil spending and scores? No, I see a better correlation between free and reduced lunch So it's between Students at risk And scores And so berlin with the highest free or just lunch And the highest one of the higher iep counts. So it's more staff or more Spending the answer more staff Which is more spending which is more spending, but I think that is a case That would appropriately be made in the new structure By whomever our representatives are without without pause. I mean it shouldn't be Awkward or difficult it might be difficult. Um simply because If someone if the new board is truly looking at the entire consolidated district They should be able to recognize that Exactly what bill has just described that that berlin has made progress where we could And our our current needs are X and y and this is how we can justify them And the fact that we can't today justify That percentage of increase Uh In order to expect a vote to pass Is legitimate I think because there should be another table that's with this and maybe I'll go make it You know in the next week. I I thought about it today. I just don't have time to do it Which is let me put the student results up here And what's that tell you I mean I'm trying to make like a dashboard For board members nothing more than an eight and a half by 11 But that's just a dash, you know just kind of like where's we can get y'all the details and give you a lot more numbers But how can I give you a dashboard? So you kind of understand You know those relationships Another option Could be I suppose special articles Can we do special articles? For the the two components that we're currently saying we are wary of You could um, I think in either governance model you could I mean that's Another way to do it and it requires then an explanation to Whatever voters may show up at an informational or town meeting In you know a brief a brief description probably in an article But at least identifies What you've identified as the needs of the current borough and elementary school or we can just say, you know, we can't This is our limit And Take it to the next Yeah, I guess that's what I would suggest is that we Do the budget for those first three lines included Um, and I can take direction as a member of the transition board that we would had this been a discussion among the full New consolidated board we would have included included lines four and five as well I think another justification is that The last time we had a six percent increase our budget failed Granted it was largely due to the the bond of it I think it was six percent plus the eight percent from the bond as I recall it was 14 So if that magic number was six seven would certainly be Difficult to attain approval for I if you're all you think you've got it chris is a board then I'm I've got them written down. I have what I need. Thank you very much Peter First three items reluctantly. No one was last too. Yeah Thank you. Thank you for your work. Thank you for all that information Board member vacancy updated. I don't think we have one. I don't Don't believe I advertised in the last and I was going to do do it on front porch forum since our last meeting I don't think I did that I had done it the month before with no takers I'll uh, I'll try I had a couple of people I was thinking about speaking with and The thought occurred to me why wouldn't anyone in their right mind? On the board at this point To pitch it as exciting times It's a lot more perspective than Most of the people there's something about the right mindedness of that That could be said If it was it would need to be somebody that had board experience so Rather than advertising. I think the right way to go would be to Attempt to find a former board member that wants to serve two to three meetings Actually, well, it depends how it means you want but we need to be able to go to december 2019 And we need to be able to go we definitely have to go till june 30th And they'll be needing one meeting after there before december 2019 to accept the audit, you know So one of the things that I am a little worried about is quarms And I was going to bring that up some more in this board meeting schedule and all that Do you say in regular meetings until well, that's what you you can do no you can decide Well, it might be easier to get a quorum if if there's really nothing for us to do To say, okay, we have a we have board orders board orders and if there were ever needed students hearing for that Yeah So board orders are monthly They are monthly. You do have a motion that gets you so you don't have to do them monthly Um, I know some places as they were in this merge. They went to bimonthly or quarterly. I wouldn't suggest quarterly but um and This gets more into that meeting schedule piece of We I need I need to make sure we have a board majority Otherwise the select board needs to appoint to get to a majority Um, as I understand it So that we can keep the board this board has operations right through Of all this fiscal year, which the reason why there's a meeting after june 30th is to accept the audit Yes, I imagine that's going to happen in some towns. Maybe maybe not you 32 We have the situation where if everyone if no one ran we'd be We would have a minority board where there wasn't a majority Of the seven scenes. I have to look this up myself But the vacancy process for school board is if it's within the if it's with the district within the town It's the select board. I remember calling at one point Or having someone call christer michelle call your office. Yeah And the thought was we didn't press hard and they said you really want us to go after this I think there's a provision in there that I never imagined would be used But I think if there's nobody available then the secretary of state actually Has some role you might be able to figure that out. Oh, I'll check it out Do you want to do you want to go to that bill sure what I wanted to do was to start to talk about So Um I enjoy being with all of you My time is getting crunched more and more with nights and and chris has heard this at the executive committee But i'm going to start really having to decide where I show up So it doesn't mean you can't have board meetings and erin can service You as staff the meeting Um, I didn't know once I believe that the transition board will probably Need to meet almost weekly if not every two weeks Um, I'm trying to do it on wednesday nights Um I I could be wrong. We could go very fast, but in washington central. We tend to like to talk things a lot So, uh, I'm anticipating that we'll have that There are three things for them to do and then the new board will probably meet Two times a month plus some subcommittees I'm going to suggest this to transition board. They recommend to the new board You think about at least a finance a facilities and uh, school quality Standing committee So ask bill on the transition. Yeah board. Is there such a there's not any provision for alternates There there is a provision if the clerk and the chair don't want to serve the board can name I mean standing alternate there hasn't been one that I've seen because I You get busy tight and veera has just not come tonight because she's overwhelmed with so many meetings, so It'd be nice if we could do alternates, but I don't think the law provides for it from what I saw um So what I wanted to do was say I I handed you this schedule right here You all have a copy of it. It's literally the reason says draft because I keep changing it every day Um, the organizational meeting as you saw in the warnings on january 9th There's a typo on here around first Like I said, it's draft the first transition board will be that same night after the district meeting probably for organization We figured out on friday with the articles of agreement that january 19th We have to post for the new articles articles of vote people are going to vote on them There would be a hearing on the 14th, and I bet the transition board will want to meet after that hearing at some point To say where are you with the articles? Um, even though the article subcommittee may want to meet as well, but I think I wanted to reserve a board meeting then um The petitions for the new board And for the local board to continue or do by january 28th. I got that confirmed today from town clerks Uh, they usually like to happen before then they like to have around the 21st um, and then there's the article vote for The electorate vote from all five towns on the article is going to it's going to be february 19th I left the 90 days in their town meetings on march 4th Um, I was looking at today to have a new board meeting somewhere around march 13th I figured the day after the election was probably a little quick. So I had to go to the next wednesday um And then trying to get to a budget vote for our merge district We're looking at april 30th right now Which would mean a warning would have to go up between the 22nd the 31st. I know some other districts that are in uh Enforced mergers are looking like the seventh Of may or the 14th as the latest, but if it were to be voted down We want to be able to come back for a second vote So I the secretaries Of the agency of education Is suggesting get it done no later than may 1st I think they're trying to get people into that april 30th day Because since tuesday's generally our traditional election day. I'm trying to keep with that tradition of tuesdays so the town meeting Town meeting day vote will be on both boards the existing board and the merge board Yeah I actually today said a meeting just so you're aware of I've got touch with all the town clerks and we're meeting Next week Yeah, to really like clarify All these different parts and pieces and You know does the board of civil authority need to be there for all three and I think these are things that are going to go to To may hit your office. It's definitely going to hit our attorney who does our Municipal pieces and just say let's make sure we have all these figured out and get everything in alignment It was actually rosemary's great suggestion this morning. She said bill. I think we all need to come together And I said I think that sounds like a great idea. Let's do that So when she said that to me about 8 30 we said let's put this together I will keep adding to this timeline and I will be sending out via email as there are significant updates Um, so all of you are in the know of just kind of what the calendar is And I said I'm friday and I started doing today is prepping a screen An online video that I'm doing mainly for the staff but can be used in the communities as well just kind of Here's the process Here are the timelines I won't know I would say I definitely don't know anything but if you don't ask me the question I can't go try to find it out So if you have questions, please let me know just jot in an email to me I'll be glad to try to find it or answer. Donna Russo Savage has been phenomenal every time I send her a question She's back to me within an hour or two and sometimes that hour. It's like I don't know yet But we're working on a draft of that and we'll get you that She must be on it full time. Yeah, she is So you said a lot at town meeting the there will be two votes one for the merge And one for the existing for the existing terms are up To continue well For just those individuals that will become members of the merge board No, as to continue the local board needs to continue through to june to december 30th 2019 really we need for the For the board orders we need through june 30th Yeah, but we're going to need another meeting after that or to accept the audit and the way the Articles were written it was if the audit comes after june 3rd after december 30th 2019 the new board Accepted but we'd rather have The existing local board accepted. Well, it just occurs to me that perhaps We should have a full board if it's possible to have one just to be available to Whatever assist the interim board members So Vera is the only person whose term runs beyond town meeting day. Oh, oh really so hers does one Right. Oh, right. Yeah, because there's there's chris. Yeah, right. So, yeah, right When I guess under those circumstances I would Continue If if none of us run Can whom that's another thing to look up is who makes the vacancy appointments? Well, that's why I said it my interpretation and I wasn't talking with you chris, but someone from your office Was the select board does until they get to they make just enough to get to it. So you have a majority Yeah, and then let them take it from there Is that a possibility? I don't see anyone else. Yeah, it's a possibility I don't want it to be me. Let's say that how about that I think it needs to be a public body that does it Or an electorate So that was my piece and you can scratch off the three six. I I'd like you to think about it I am thinking right now Unless you ask for it to come back and I'm going to work through chris on this that You know, we'll be glad to we'll share you a budget with the updates you gave us But that in january we don't need a lot of input on budget from the burlin board Am I in the right place? I think so, okay. I think we've had all the input we'll We'll give on that. Okay. Thank you. All right We're under the act 46 section Communication building is there something in particular? No, I don't remember that I I I put out the front porch for him out from when we were working on friday I planned to put up the video and send it to staff But I'm going to send it to you and if one of you says hey, that would be great to throw out in the burlin Okay, I'm going to have it have a slant, but I'm going to also say if there anyone else out there looking at this So who's not a staff member, but I would like to more information And look at this as an informational piece I I literally kind of made the skeleton of the power point today. So I'm hoping to get it filmed Tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest Okay, and does this board have any opinion on you know, something that should come from the board chair Any sort of things that ought to be communicated To the community Kind of in an official capacity, I guess from the from the board I don't think it's our our job to to necessarily Advocate and I appreciate bill although you're obviously a um a supporter of merger that your Communication was factual and impartial and and wasn't a push piece. So I appreciate that Um, I know I know the community I serve And it's okay. It's okay for me to have my own professional opinion, but I serve the community So thank you. I appreciate that. I think there is some need and it may or may not be our responsibility but to Inform the voters or or or at least attempt to bring them up to speed before they vote on something Because it'd make the chances of a successful vote that much greater How How we do that Is is a big question in my mind Need to dump it all on you chris, but Are you fighting this in case in other towns bill that that the committee members and so forth and board members are are Interested in having some kind of informational Feedback to the voters I can say that most of the three or four superintendents that are in the force merger As we are here that I've talked to And I'll talk to more this week Have sent out pieces to their town already or have used the media to do that Just to say this is where we're at, you know, basically kind of we're figuring it out We'll get you more as we can kind of what I've been doing with you But now I want to get it out more than that and what went out in that front porch forum and I don't I know of one other community right now That's trying to get different articles going than the draft articles that are coming from the state board That doesn't mean there aren't more than one other, but I only know of one other That's trying to write and go for a vote before town meeting day for articles I think as much as anything I've heard this at the at the debt committee level of just a concern That somehow or other All this act 46 information Get transmitted to the voters or or summarize and transmitted or in some way Inform the voters prior to town meeting day, let's say Just so they have some Inkling of what's what's going on. I mean, obviously some people Have a pretty good idea of what's going on. Some people have been studying that for years and some that are totally Unaware of exactly what the ramifications are about, you know, the questions that will come up at town meeting are Why are our taxes going on? You know, how's this going to work for our children? Maybe not in that order. Hopefully not in that order, but And you know, what about what you know debt committee why is why are the Why are we absorbing debt from other towns essentially? and you know, there are justifications or rationalizations or reasons for those changes and If there's some way that we could We could Address that prior to town meeting. It'll be great. Well, I think we should I mean I think just for the article's vote if we need to do a lot of positive press of hey We have some in we can have some input here and this is our time to do it That's that's what's encouraging me to me about it. All right, so I guess A key point and bill cleared it up in an email that I sent to him is The articles of agreement that are coming from the Potential transition board We can fix or at least make more palatable The default articles which Which are are less than palatable. I think so we can Uh Write in some things that Are absent in the default articles or Or write in some things that We'd like to change from the default articles So my understanding is it's either our default articles Which might be a little better, but don't fix the key problems of act 46 and some people's opinion, right, but uh They are better than they're the lesser of two evils I guess there's opportunity again, that's my opinion. I'm editorializing there, but the default articles are the more evil of two evils and what we can do As a wcsu community is is try to Soften the blow softening the landing Yeah, if i'm not mistaken, I think uh, we already mentioned some kind of informational Output from from the board to the taxpayers. It may have been Primarily a budget, but you know, obviously the budget is impacted by the new structure as well Yes, there is a lot of explaining to do to let people know that what you know, why is the school budget not there on town? Meeting day. Why are we looking at multiple boards? Yep? Oh, that was the other thing Sorry, I forgot something I guess I'd want to know to what extent, you know, bill you you're going to plan to continue to Put out the kind of the general I think I think I mean, it's like I said when we were starting the budget process of all years not to be Communicating this is the one and I'm planning to use videos because it's actually faster for me to produce a video With either with slides or not or just me talking Um Use them as we want and then and to put them up and say here they are and people want to go look at them Instead of having to write a whole formal piece And I also I mean You know, I think there's many times for us to communicate about this and I think you know Chris you you helped me relearn this through the bond project the more you communicate even though it's a similar message The more likelihood that someone's going to hear it, you know And so, um, you know, I'm looking at town reports right now, and that's what I forgot to talk to you about So we can talk about that somewhere before we get done with the discussion. I want to talk to you about town report So I'm hearing the message that can more communication the better I'm glad to try to do that on front porch forum. Yeah, generally have and maybe through news to know through I think any means We're And town report Yep Why don't we finish with a 46 and I'll go back that was because we part of that future So I will just report real quick on the articles committee. It's not under here, but it you know, that is a part of act 46 we We worked for I don't know a good half a day on I guess it was last friday and and several meetings before that and I totally agree with Carl said it's just an opportunity to Massage some of these articles and make them a little a little more palatable rather than the default article, but You know, of course, there's nothing we've been told over and over again Nothing we can do on the on the shared debt piece of it to to change that in any way So that's frustrating, but it is what it is um, we had a lot of interest real good discussions difficult discussions about certain articles There were a number of them where we thought the default worked As best as as we could do it So we went with the default articles, but you'll see those recommendations coming out to the transition board and I agree That's a place for to try to get a lot of community input participation On those draft articles before they go out for a vote something our actually berlin mall presentation made you think about potential articles to suggest that Any revenue from Land sale by the consolidated consolidated board will be given back to the Town where the land is located in the future I think that's one of the things I think it's a concern virah has and although for berlin specifically I don't think it matters as much because we are an island We are isolated from the rest of the district Short of building a centralized elementary school at the u32 campus and closing the other five Which won't happen. I won't happen Berlin will remain a school, but I know there was some concern about the property value of berlin elementary school and If that were to ever be sold for any reason that the land was donated to the town of berlin for the purpose of using as an educational institution and By a family from what I understand too, so I think that would be a hedge against Against you know taking that Will of that family from the town and also in the case of the berlin mall if we happen to sell a portion of that land that would offset some of the costs That berlin Will occur From the force consolidation I think your point about the Land for this school having been donated is is is important. I mean that At the time that The berlin board Leased the land to the fire department There was an offer to Build the town of berlin a new school on a separate piece of property and hand us the key in in exchange for This piece of property in this building so the reality is that that You might still be a possibility and It's not a it's not a reality that I would recommend or be very comfortable with But as part of my charge, I have been checking trying to determine the value Of this facility We've got some feedback from the Board of Listers over the weekend and have inquired and requested that they Uh attempt to give us a more current value because the existing value is uh 2008 Has been re-appraised since 2008 And it won't help us if we are talking about a piece of an edge of the property from the berlin mall or anything like that And that's all different conversation But I think it's important to recognize that that the property is Very valuable Regardless, I mean it's valuable as it is too The the fact of the matter is that the bike family gave the town the land for the old school across the road And the old fire department that was across the road and this facility so They Done a lot. Thank you pike family. Yes. Yes Again So bill do you um have some information for us under 3.3.2? um, I I did a couple months ago and I haven't looked at it since you and I talked chris um I looked I talked with john pandell phone berry when they went to trant to have the The berry wreck fields Transferred from the school to the town and it's something that took them about three years to do They just didn't do it this year. They had been working on it for a while to transfer all that land to berry to the berry town Municipality from the school So he said once working he works with the same attorneys we do And that getting through all the surveying and all the deed searching and all that I don't think it would take three years That seems a little long But and he said that was some of that was due to actions that the select board needed to take for Berry town that took a while to get done. And so When you have two municipalities school district and Municipality working together sometimes things get a little delayed I just don't think we could do it between now and June 30th Is no if it involves a subdivision we'd have to subdivision hearings I don't know what the actual acreage is for hearings Where there's different acreages for different things you have to do and we'd have to get Surveying done and all that is it is The process under act 46 for the transfer to happen on july 1st Yeah, I mean that's a legal process That's on my to-do that for this week is to call scott cameron and he has a partner as a real estate attorney and say Tell me what we get what we got to get done between now probably different than it's definitely not a subdivision No, it's a transfer of ownership a difference It's a transfer of ownership between this this school district to the new school district and doesn't involve the town I believe it doesn't belong the town because The school district owns from looking at the deeds ever someone we did this evaluation I asked the deeds to be sent the school district owns all the land here So you're saying it would not require a subdivision No, it would if we were going to like have the playing fields and have those owned by the town of the school The question I'd asked the bill was you know, if there if we were to consider Maybe transferring any piece of this property to the town before it becomes property of the larger district What does that process involve and you know, what timeline are we looking at and we're it's complicated because you're involving a probably a vote of this board and then a vote of the select board and a vote of the town and in the subdivision and Surveying and all that But I just wanted to have that information to understand what what that looks like. I know other Other towns are looking at that and considering that right now. I still have a hard time believing that No local authority has to sign Or or no So when acts 60 was when acts 60 was ruled and the acts 60 came from the supreme court says that the state has the Legal authority over all of education in the state of vermont Education education. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's Education no property to yeah, that's education. That's probably the education. I think that'll be part of the lawsuit I'm sure Yeah, I think that's the minimal part Now we're talking right now about subdivision subdividing potential subdividing portions of this property the one reason or another One of the options Put on the table by the but the deck committee was for the town to for the school to Turn over ownership to the town. Yeah. Now. I heard you say carl that none of those those options are Possible is that without current without legislation they all require legislation change and they have varying degrees of Promise yes, I think so or yeah, I think that's what it was thought but they would all any Alternative to the default would require Something to be sign sealed and delivered by till I burst I don't know I really don't know because of My mind struck between practical Be able to get things done and actually When is it you know one I think the legislature can do can enact new laws right up until they end the session Or recess the session in this case because of biennium so I mean, I think from a practical standpoint any subdivision Is is problematic before till I first I mean I think it would be amazing to have Anything other than the simplest subdivision maybe as maybe a strip to the mall Maybe under 10 acres, which I think would be the threshold. I think you're right and That would be as simple as any of the other possibilities I guess so, you know that Could happen I guess At our last meeting I asked this board if we should explore it if it's a possibility that we ought to we ought to look at I'm I have a hard time thinking of what pieces you would carve out for the town or what we Tend to would stand to gain from it. It's pretty clear, you know in the barry town Elementary school with a lot of really very public use all the fields and The bike rack the bike path up there and all that I think that made sense for them I don't know That it necessarily makes sense here and then when we you know hearing what the mall developers are looking at I think the only I don't think there's a There's not a lot of value to that frontage back to the wetlands. So You know that would just be a probably a like like trade and Maybe they need us another little piece of property or something like that and that's just going to go to the benefit of the school regardless of whether that's a berlin Board decision or a district decision. Yeah the intent of that option of Town selling school districts selling Land and buildings to the town I'm not sure if selling is even the right word but transferring Um was to Ensure that the assets of each town stayed within the town The assets that were being paid for by the voters of each town So everything would belong to the town as opposed to the school district elementary school district and there would be some partly god-gifted equation to Figure an annual payment lease a lease payment To to I guess from from the state the taxes is a combination of taxes. Well, no The money from the state but part of it would go to the town for the for the Bricks and mortar and I'm not sure that I think that's probably one of the less viable of the Five options They're all pretty complicated Do you want to transition into that since we're Well, I guess we're sort of doing that. Yeah 3.3.4 the debt committee recommendation I could summarize to say that That the debt committee had no consensus No consensus of agreement on Of any one of those articles any one of those proposals to recommend and I think it's fair to say that they were all Attempts to If not equalized and minimize the impacts on on Towns that did not have high debt and As we know now all of them would require legislation to To to allow them to go forward and even at that and then there would be a lot of work to come up with a an equation to make them to make them Accomplish what what the wording is looking for And I I would At this stage I would be I think we would be looking for guidance from the articles committee Would we not to whether or not to pursue any of those and and and if so how? Well, the articles committee talked on friday and said, you know, we're with as written until something changes In the statute right as written by the the draft articles of we consolidate all assets and liabilities There was some discussion of Trying to write in an alternative alternative path In the article if the law changes Which is kind of in other words if there's legislative there's legislation Well, that's that's what I was going to say then it basically If and when there is any legislative action that might determine If Well, if there's anything can be done and if so what I've had some contact with Our legislative representatives and That's the the place their Action doesn't seem to Have a good a good plan or any method of attack to fix that problem the debt issue There are other issues that they might be looking at Trying to rectify but I don't think they have a solution for that especially since some communities have already been struck with with the burden of higher spending districts or Other districts debt, so I suspect that's a big roadblock. Yeah So there were there were five recommendations here And did you have any comment on? I mean they all require legislative change. I really don't I mean they're uh, they're the Worst and the worst and the most worst there again, uh five options. They they Are an attempt by representatives from the five towns to come up with some kind of means to to equity and and And they're all very convoluted and they're all require legislative action, which we know Is A slim possibility You know, it's what's a solution it it wouldn't really require Anything to do with education law Is that we will clearly see what? each former district saved or paid and An agreement to make a ballot measure for say let's say middle sex he said saves four cents on their tax rate the following year to say does the town of middle sex approve redistributing The redistributed debt from 2018 to to the other communities I wonder how many people would vote. Yes, I mean in a community that was uh Saving a lot because of act 46 debt or Spending redistribution Anything else on the on the debt committee? We skipped over 3.3.3 transition board membership. We may have covered this a little bit already bill Is the chair and the clerk automatically you may elect someone else if you the board so choose They did change that at the last minute on the draft articles Okay, sorry. I'm just Where that came from I'm confused by a lot of this but because we were told we were told at first it was chair and clerk and It did but then some some folks went back in between to the state board So they were first presented to the state board back in october And then in the november second of the three meetings in november They the state boards said, you know, they're and I know donna had received some of this information That there's some people who were saying we're just not going to do it Or there's some people who said the the clerk has resigned from the board altogether not because of act 46 So how do we and we were one of the ones that sent that in and so what's the process because they at first It said you had to be the clerk of the chair as of july 1st 2018 And was that the draft article was that was the draft that was the draft article And then what they they reappointed that the boards could elect to have someone else there And that came in literally on november 28th. Okay, so under our action agenda. It's a point members to the transition That's right. That's what we asked to do that That was a recommendation that we thought was good to get to everybody So we were just clear if anyone was switching roles. Okay Anything else from act 46 we're missing here I think you're you're honest to what today we know today And did you hear in your debt committee discussions? Peter any You get any indication as to what board maybe boards are not discussing this in that setting, but what boards are doing with their capital funds No, although that was discussed and That was also addressed in a couple of the articles proposals As a way of Tempering the inequity But I don't think there's anything that I could quote. It was conversation about Well, we should spend it or we should Get rid of it before the end of the school year And I will tell you that at your different fellow boards. There have been some conversation about spending or not You know, I'm going to suggest you when we get to the 3.4 that you do a transfer I'm hoping that the I'm going to be recommending to the transition board and to the new board that the monies that come in under capital plans Be allocated to those schools To be used for repair with capital expenses at those schools They stay at those schools basically, you know, we need a new driveway out here and putting that That what we're over the 4% right now Could really help us get to the place where we might be able to get a new driveway pretty soon with where we're landing So let's move to 3.4 then in capital fund So if I have you can I have you go to page 24 And you've all known this for a while that You know with our 4% estimate for where the fund the current year fund balance to target should be that's 140,000 That with 248,000 almost 249,000 In in reserved right now That I would recommend that a hundred Somewhere between a hundred and five and a hundred and ten thousand dollars of that you move to your capital fund And I am really thinking about that driveway out there You know chris when you and I looked at it two years ago. We were looking at a 200,000 dollar price tag for that And it would be something nice to I think all our car suspensions would like it if we Wouldn't that money go into just a big pot though and then it becomes the new the new consolidated boards It could that's why I'm saying that's why I was delivered about so what I just said carl is I'm recommending all of it does And recommending that the board say Hey, can we take what was in the capital fund plans and say that that's for Berlin elementary school came in with that amount of money in their capital plan Let's use it for berlin elementary school capital projects So that's an act of faith I trust that that would probably happen Is there a way for us to be a little more sure about that and maybe commit some of the funds? If you committed them now, we couldn't pull it off And one of the things I'm trying to look into right now is I was in this discussion because u32 is putting a new track in place And rummy is going to put is going out with an rfp for a boiler so If we do this today, if we've got committals for today, can this board make commitments past june 30th There is a part in the law that talks about honoring all existing contracts Whether it be a personnel contract like my contract or a contract you have with a provider or someone to do something So I I have that on a list for scott cameron Our attorney to talk to about and say hey scott But I think for me everyone's coming in with some pretty good capital budgets And I think And I think it's pretty proportional the one that's outside the proportion is east montpellier They've been putting away for every year since they've done that and they've grown a pretty sizable capital fund balance But they know that the way anything does after renovation you build up that capital fund Because your life cycles for things in the building tend to be 15 20 years And then they start failing so Um We also know we didn't get everything done in this renovation that we wanted to get done We got more than we thought because we were able to get that roof in So I I have nothing more than your faith to come down to the bottom line, but I think people are going to be Like hey, we did this for our building East montpellier has Over half a million dollars. Oh, it's close to you. It's between 7 and 800 thousand dollars If I'm remembering correctly, I could be wrong. I should always not quote numbers without them in front of me Well, that certainly was a silver point with them thinking that that would be Folded into or thrown in the pod. Yeah That's the old one But uh, I think a recommendation from you When that discussion comes up that Funds raising the town for purposes in the in each school remain there. I think that would be I think that would be palatable to a lot of people including the voters So, you know paid the taxes to put that fund together. Yeah I'm not sure that is going to be really interesting discussions when you know east when Callas or Worcester need an improvement and they're saying that they're shouldering our debt That they shouldn't be able to take some of our capital fund to do their Absolutely Very fair argument. They're concerned about that and they're concerned about losing their schools Which is One of the reasons why I want a capital committee I'm being really open and honest. I want those discussions with board members This is this is not encouraging good behavior on our part I'm feeling like we should spend it So you're not dealing with every other board just felt that way and I said guys if you spent everything that was in Not on your capital funds, but in your because some people started to do about doing that with fund balance and I said Hold on We don't know the reason we have the fund balances is because we have to have cash in the bank account and Yeah, no, I hear you. I hear you, but I also don't want to drink do projects quickly and not have them done right I understand that too because I mean, you know Chris as well as anyone if we're going to do a driveway We'd better start getting some drawings going Yeah, what I heard Chris say was it doesn't encourage good behavior. I understand that. He's right. I understand that I encourage you to have good behavior Right and and I guess what we what we rely on bill is you to have that discussion with everyone So that we don't have some outlier that I've tried to have it with everyone. I'm trying Yeah, and then you know when the consolidation happens and Worcester needs a new roof. Hopefully the new board would recognize that and and out of the Paper a new room just like I hope they would Understand that we need support for math Yeah, and and and early yet Yeah pre-k And say, yeah, that's legitimate But we're not going to know that for Yeah, yeah So that's my capital, okay And I if it is so I would put it on your next agenda to move it over if you'd like me to for an action agenda I don't I thought I'd bring it to you as a discussion. So what exactly are the options? I mean we can You can leave it in the general fund balance. You can put it over to the capital fund I'm encouraging you to put it in the capital fund because that's had a meeting that the voters approved that fund created in 2010 for capital work here And that helps there is a piece in act 46 about approved funds and keeping those uses as merging I want to I don't have the exact language. So I'm not going to say that I know it exactly how that works But I frankly haven't gotten to that part of my checklist yet of things to do But it more clearly defines what those funds that's right Which makes a subsequent discussion a little bit easier. Maybe yeah every town has an approved capital fund Yeah by the voters and that um the but the proposed budget that we saw assumes that Transfer stays in the $50,000 transfer that we had this year stays in Like it's one choice we could have we have is to use it to offset The pre case teacher or the interventionist, but that's a one-year and that's the double hole the bill is talking about is you know putting money into the capital fund Which I would maybe perhaps recklessly consider Since it's all going into one part don't blame me blame the author of act 46 Anybody wants to take responsibility for that No, we don't need to blame each other. We certainly don't need to blame I mean we need to try not to blame other schools in our district The balance discussion based on the act that we're all stuck with I mean Over the last few years you got to really know the issues of the other towns and the other districts and In the policies that they followed fiscal responsibility the choices the tough choices they made and I can appreciate looking at towns like callas who were You know very careful and had a long-term capital plan and and You know they they did a great job and they did they're now Potentially being penalized for that and east moppular. I appreciate the fact that their community values education And doesn't mind spending a lot more That was their decision. That was their decision. So I you know, that's their community decision I respect that I find it tough that Injustice maybe that callas is really being penalized and east moppiliar is perhaps even being rewarded for that the choices their community made but If callas wants to take some of their capital fund, I would not think less of them if We're spending some right now a new septic system Yeah Yeah, I have to because I can't keep it running So I just ask you I think to Bill, I guess put put on the capital fund the transfer on action for next reaction I'm for next meeting but to ask him in the meantime for us to think long and hard about What we want to do with our capital fund balance And I by then I even if I'm not here I can pass along the information I get from scott on About entering into contracts and all that I will ask the contract question And that would be the one the biggest capital improvement that we have on our list Yeah, and the money I mean you're going to be at 300,000 and if we can do it for under two So we keep it somewhat we're not empty, you know using I think going less than two-thirds of it It's not a smart idea, but I think we're in that We're at that point where we might be able to say and that was some of our conversation And you'll be putting another 50 into it. So I think it would be a tough sell and I could be wrong but Romney Doty and Callis Have mud parking lots. I think I don't think they have paving at all. So I could could be wrong I don't think I am there's some pavement a little bit At no those are all walkways. Sorry so That might be a tough sell to the communities that don't have any paving to make ours better Everything's a tough year I think your your board members are going to be salespeople that we want to elect for the consolidated True silver tongues salespeople politicians. I think Boy the importance of that I was thinking I bet the The consolidated board could meet weekly and still not have time to do all they need to do properly There's been talk about having consultants You know people who are willing to help out people who used to be board members who Could be called upon to Do homework, I guess basically Which would be one way to address all that work that's got to be done by so many fewer people All right, we covered 3.5 already mall property update 4.0 reports to the board Bill any of those you want to I there's I would take any questions. There's my report. There's the director's report in there I don't think there's a report from Aaron I do not believe I fleece throw it And I think you know There was a great bingo session here for Eric and his family for his daughter It's great great success. He wasn't able to come but I heard it was really Yeah, and Aaron was here and he told me it was fabulous There's a lot of people that weren't necessarily that he didn't recognize from being school parents or school community And you know we're in that transition right now between Thanksgiving and Christmas and time period and I haven't been in this building this week I was in last week and the kids were doing great when I walked around so And I just kind of gave you the finance report unless there's any questions, but I don't really have much from the executive committee. There's the minutes are on page 27 Can you think of anything from there bill with this? We talked we talked a lot about it last week at the At the supervisory union Meeting on december so that covered most of it policy committee There was no quorum at the last I was school quality kind of reported at the su Is the school quality? It's the school quality committee that reported at the su that those are the The educational goals that we're looking at under our action agenda. That's correct And their minutes are on page 34 and 35 And is there anything from negotiations to update us on? We've met twice. We've worked on on And remember if I can tell you the topic. That's what I don't remember. I'm sorry Um, but we've been twice. We're soon to get into health care And salary we were working on I'm sorry. I'm just blanking on it Chris too many things Vera's been there. She's been very helpful All right. Are we ready to move on to the action agenda? 5.1 a point board member. We don't have one So we'll move on to 5.2 Except the audit report anything you want to tell us about this bill. We got it by email You sent it to you by email. So we just got them and I really wanted to get them done here and In December for the town report and There weren't any findings or recommendations I think that was true across the board. There were a couple items on note For changing a few of our little procedures in the house Which we're doing already or have done You should say no, you all know the effectiveness of Laurie Bebo. So And so we need a motion to accept the audit report So moved second Any discussion Those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye Those opposed We have accepted the audit report 5.3 is recommend approving the school quality committee recommendations for suy goal Related to student learning To the transition board Can you give us a little bit more background on that on that bill? There was a lot discussed at the su board Right. Matthew thought it and it was adopted by the su and someone recommended. Would it be better? Would it be just as good to have the local boards adopt this goals and so this was the This was this was bowing. This was agreeing with that saying let's put it on I saw you just put it had it put on all the agenda Saying you know the goal that we had that uh, we would go from 70 45 to 71 percent of our students Proficient has measured by star 360 and mathematics by the end of the school year And I forget exactly what it was for berlin without plan for my laptop We were all there at the su board made it presentation And those were left very broad. Yeah And asking it was asking, you know, some of the recommendations were asked for us to come back with a literacy goal here in January And to come back After reflect and to ask for reflection of all the instructors of math and literacy At the end of the year how to go working with the goals And then how does that inform where we would look for a three-year goal? The goal three years out I want to say I shouldn't bring up a problem without a solution but uh One of the issues that I always have with that is looking at uh the A school as a collective so you have We're at 40 percent of proficiency and rather than Looking at the kids as individuals and reaching their maximum potential and I've said that a lot but You know if you took e-smot pillars 40 percent proficient berlin's 40 percent proficient and you put those 40 percent together regardless of the Educational quality you would still probably have You know 60 to 85 percent proficiency there So I feel like it's very difficult to put on the schools all the responsibility for those who have not reached proficiency Just as it's difficult to say that the schools are responsible for all proficiency But that's what we do and I can't I mean I here's where I don't have a solution I mean How do you measure the quality? By the collective By a proficiency rating because In reality, there are a lot of factors besides the educational quality that Lead kids to proficiency You've talked about This is where you and I've said before we're in different places carl. You think everybody can get to proficiency I've seen it. I've seen it get almost going to almost there If that's I mean if that's the case then if we are at 40 percent then everybody should be fired Because if it if it can be attained and it's and we're only at 40 percent you said it not me So anyway, I just I guess my problem is the the collective evaluation and not treating kids as individual looking at that step I don't have a solution. So I want you in all seriousness what I want you to understand We do look at kids individually. We can't say that in a public meeting We can't tell you what we're doing individually for chris and for peter and for you We do have to talk and that's our at this level for the school or for the su to look at it as a collective And we do do that work that is happening. I've observed I've been in Three faculty means in the past nine days where I've observed teachers doing that with that data What's it take for peter What do we need to do for peter to help him be more fresh? You know And it's different and that should be That's that's my seriousness of the whole conversation That's that carl. Are you comfortable approving these goals broadly? Yeah, because I don't think there's a solution So I entertain a motion to that So moved if you ask for a motion or do you have the motion? Thank you for wording from 5.3 wording from 5.3 I second. Okay. Is there any further discussion on that? Those in favor say aye As opposed no and the ayes have it Uh 5.4 is to appoint a represent as a representative. Yep to the articles of agreement committee Which is you currently Or has been you up to the su board so there hasn't been an official there was what I mean I didn't have to go to those meetings So matthew feels and That that board should rief that there was an ending of date of December 3rd And then the local boards should reappoint the representative to that and Reappoint recommend a membership Person for the act 49 you see that down to five six. They're almost the same thing But one is going to sunset probably here In december and then the trend there'll be an act 49 Like board to put together the rest of the articles. Okay. Yeah, there's only a little I think right a little bit more work left right. I think you I think you're almost done to do So you were the member and I suggested in the su meeting that you keep the composition the same as six because it says Like a 706 b committee not exactly Okay, and I think from what I've observed having six people at the table We get things done So I am willing to continue serving On that basis I moved that we Reappoint chris second You can't back out any discussion wait a minute They're being done Those in favor say aye. All right. All right So chris winters is appointed as the representative for the articles of agreement committee. Thank you. Oh, sure I think you're very welcome Appoint members to the transition board. So So that's not automatically the chair and the clerk So I look I this is the way I look at it If no one is appointed by the board the clear and the The chair and the clerk the chair and the clerk would be it I think it allows people if they want to Switch around so we've put this on all the local board agendas. There's three or four items here We've put on all the local board agendas for this one again I was and willing to serve last I spoke to vira. She was willing to serve I think that would be really appropriate. I mean if there's any way both of you can see your way to doing that and And on that basis I would move that chris and vira be Appointed that what we're doing as members to the transition board All right, is there a second one members to the transition board? Okay, it was made and seconded any further discussion Those in favor say aye. Aye As opposed. No You guys have it. We've appointed members to the transition board And 5.6 is to recommend membership for an act 49 committee. So this is the continuation of work on the articles Yep After the Transition board. No, it's really it's really it's gonna be that week of january. We have the hearing and Because we have to have a 1 4th back 49 So here's where I am willing to serve, but I'm also willing to step aside if anyone else has a real interest In being a part of that committee And that's when this articles committee steps aside and a new committee is formed to work on articles on behalf Of the transition board. So you're Up to speed. I am willing to continue that. I'm willing to continue work. Sure I would move that we Recommend recommend of course wonders as For one's representative to the transition board to the act 49 committee. Excuse me act 49 committee Second Any further discussion Those in favor say aye. Aye. All right Chris, I know we're getting late, but I get a chance to talk to you about town report and you finished your actions I don't know if I can just take two minutes. Let's do that I just wanted to inform you. Um, I've been in this again conversations with the Town clerks. We're getting ready. We usually do our town report Uh, you know for the it goes into the town report I am coming with a recommendation to you as a board and I'd like some feedback That what goes in the town report is what reports about this current school year Or the year before as in the audit And that because it'll need to be a new town report for the budget For fy 20 that would come with the merged from the merged board Because they're the ones that will be recommending to the electorate the new merged budget So therefore things that are in the town report that would continue are like the board The chairs report my report the principals report the list of school salaries The u32 salaries the Independent audit report and the audit itself And there's usually a special ed child fine notice or something like that But the rest are all things that have to do with the budget as in what's the budget? What's the tax rate has u32 come into that? All that as I look down this is the list I only brought one copy but you can see where I circled and where I haven't circled Of all the items that we usually get into the report So you're saying with absolute certainty that there will not be a berlin elementary school budget on town meeting day That that's what i'm saying i'm saying in the town report. We wouldn't do that I'm not saying that yet What i'm saying is in the town report We would not have a berlin elementary school budget because we won't have one available in time We have one available. You just told me what the budget is Well, essentially, you know, but you know, we were going into a merge budget The merge budget will get presented So should there be any contingency planning that's what i was asking maybe Maybe There's a berlin budget to vote on town. What if there is a berlin budget to be which would mean There was a stay Or very early legislative action And These are all So so we need to know by the town to get ballots done Yeah, it's january 28th So we can say that the budget that we essentially finalized tonight Would be available to be given to the town clerk By mid january But not that that might be the only thing because Here's I just got to give you a dose of reality in our office. Lord's like i'm doing this once I don't have time to do it twice because she's have to implement new fiscal software right now that's mandated through state law last year So she's having to build a whole new software system right now So literally today she's like What am I doing that we're literally in checklist modes right now? She's building the six budgets right separately That's that's easy chris. It's doing all the stuff to get to town report get it to the town report To get it to the town report and build all the different tax rates and do it Six, you know do it two different ways and so Yeah But to follow up on that if if she you we are building six different budgets Have you had this question come up? This is the first you're the first board. I brought this question to i'm going to bring it to all them to say Folks to do this twice If we get a stay I think i'm going to be recommending you to find a special meeting for a budget meeting For a budget vote I don't think we're going to hit town meeting because we're stopping everything we usually do right now We're in high production Yeah Because we usually have to hit the 10th of january with everything ready to go We check it again and it goes out martha and lose her king day. Yeah Yeah, now that I think about that even if we did get a stay it probably wouldn't hit town meeting The budget vote Just because we're not prepared for it Not necessarily we're not prepared for it, but the work that lori would have yeah, I mean right now We're literally building the financial system And we have to build it In two different pieces of software because we don't know the state software is going to be up and running You know they tell us it will be we have to build in our old in our old system and the new system So I mean the financial department right now Is humming with a lot of work To the state Minutes that you use the new system But there's July 1 there's just not ready for to be used That's right Well, you can think of the senate for that that came from the senate chair of education Yeah, it just it just boggles my mind over over again So I don't know about the two of you, but I guess I'm comfortable not sending Berlin specific but budget information in for the time town report But still doing what you're suggesting. Yeah, I know And I want to I mean I think a lot of my report and I'm hoping some of yours will be too crisp about this is the changes that we're in We're in the midst of doing right now You know we it's a non voluntary merger So we've got things we've got to do but want to keep you up to date on timeline blah blah blah That's just where the multiple messages and that's when you said that I was like, oh, yeah I'm supposed to be talking about the town report too Well, when are we gonna have an opportunity to tell the voters how responsible we were here tonight to not Vote all things we thought were appropriate Well, if they're not going to see it, we probably should have Well So thank you for indulging me for five minutes. That makes sense. Thank you I just I really want to have these conversations with all of you So back down to approved board orders. Yep That's I'm going to give you the amount I had it open then I closed it it is 26,000 366 and 75 cents Got it tiffani. Yep. Thanks. I make a motion to approve the board orders in the amount of 26, 366 75 Second Any further discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye. I suppose no and the ayes have it and the board orders are approved Any future agenda items? I have a couple of reports. I need to get to you which is The item for the action item for the capital plan information about entering new contracts I think that was good. I wrote some other things that I wanted to investigate in time with you Would a bond be a Considered a new contract or because of Laura's looking into how we have to restructure things and how we do that with the bonds right now I don't have an answer for you I mean existing bonds are a new bond Our existing bonds we're we're burlin school district, right? We're going to be a new school district That's a question that That uh, but the decimating discussion Laura's investigating and you know, there are different One of those proposals addressed the different Values of existing bonds with them from school to school the different ages of the of the bonds therefore the different payoff years And you know the impacts based on the size of those Bonds To a district And part of the part of the difficulty with that's that proposal was that it Our bond actually is the oldest it's not the largest by any means, but it goes out to 2037 Which adds another dimension to any Solution equation that you can come up with At different interest rates too Right. Well, I think that's the biggest Issue probably is if uh negotiations are reopened what happens to the interest rates Those vary from bond to bond and and uh, they're higher now than they were For any of any of the bonds I think That's all very tricky Anything else to go on to the future agenda items? We will of course have an act 46 section and a Board member vacancy section. I'll I'll try to advertise for that again. See if we can and if you all can think about Who might be interested? Um, I'd also ask you to think about who might be interested in serving on the new board Because that's end of january that they have to put their petitions in Either of our U 32 reps I should probably be in that conversation too, right? I don't think Jonathan Goddard is probably the most experienced board member we Well, beer I had Jonathan Goddard, I guess Anything else? Is there a motion to adjourn? Or we can adjourn by consensus 807