 So, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order at 535. Is there any adjustments to the agenda? Okay. Approve the minutes of Monday, February 6. Well moving. I apologize. Those were in your packets. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't have any questions. Okay. Great. So we have a motion of second all in favor. Opposed. Great. Public comments. Hopefully we have any public on. All right. Moving on to board comment. Okay. There being no board comment. To the celebration of learning. Sorry. Right. So before February vacation, we had John Danmore come and do an artist in residency with all our students. Pre school through sixth grade. And that process is it starts like on a Monday and it comes in and they just write us on together. Just the words or the lyrics. Then the next day they put it to music. They get to pick with him. He gives them a bunch of example. And then they were. No, it could be. Okay. And it literally was everything and anything from sports to. Unicorns. Okay. A town song. There were quite a few. So we each had performances at both campuses. And so this is just one snapshot of. One two from. Rochester. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was just personally, it was kind of cool to see. So we will have another residency with the white river valley players in the spring. That's a great way to put on. To, you know, be interested in reading and writing. Yes. They want it. And then he also does a bunch of his own songs with them. And so they had a great time with it. That's it. Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you very much. That's great. Any comments? Clarence had some. Bears. It's about bears. Yeah. Yeah. She's been home and just like, where did you get this song? There's a Rochester one. Yes. Yeah. I think it's fantastic. And I had an idea for a future celebration of learning. Featuring our, our side coach of the year basketball. And I'm wondering whether Patrick, my, with coordination with, with Lindy to have an exhibit of, you know, three point shooting and shooting and, and seeing the kids bounce a basketball. Anything to me would be fun to see the use of the gym and kids. Yeah. Having fun however you're organized. I just think I had it. Where I moved in 2001. When I was a kid, I was a basketball coach. And the prior owner was basketball coach. Was he? Yeah. And, uh, yeah. So I thought, my gosh, isn't a great tradition that Vulture Mountain continues. On the court. So anyway, that's, that's excellent. Thank you. Thank you for the suggestion. Okay. Uh, reports to the board superintendent's report. Good evening. Sorry. I'm joining you virtually tonight. I'm the director. And the president is going to be returning and they miss their connector flight. So I'm actually going to end up having to pick them up from a rental place, but they're driving up from New York City. So anyways, I apologize that I'm not there in person. One of the things I wanted to start with it in just highlight. We had four successful budget, um, approvals. And so hopefully that is a preview of what we'll be able to accomplish in ARSA here in May, in Granville Hancock. You have my report in hand, but one of the things I wanted to do is just dig in a little bit into S56 slash H208, which is a pre-K slash child care bill. I provided you some updates on that yesterday to the full board. So you all should receive that information to summarize that. I think that there's some momentum within committee to possibly have a study committee take place further on childcare and pre-K. And it would be no gathering more information to then reintroduce a new bill next year. And so we'll continue to follow that closely just to remind folks that bill what it would have done is required school districts that operate elementary schools to provide pre-K five days a week full day pre-K programming for four year olds and three year olds who qualify for services via triple E or IEP. It would result in us getting 1.0 FTE for students where right now we get 0.46 for a pre-K student. We are offering full day four year old programming in our pre-K at Stockbridge right now. We would need to be doing a little bit of adjustment in Rochester, which I think Lindy is working on doing some adjustments in Rochester for next year in regards to pre-K anyways to try to increase the length of our student day. But know that the big change for our families is that they become accustomed for us to provide three year old programming for all three year olds. And what this bill would do was would place the responsibility of three year old programming back on child care providers, private or nonprofit centers. And there would not be any funding that would follow that directly from the school district that funding would come through subsidy. And they were going to increase the threshold for subsidy so that more families would be able to qualify for subsidy to assist with child care. So that's that's the premise of that bill is that by having all four year old serve via public schools, it would create more opportunity for three year olds and under birth to three to have access at private or nonprofit care centers. And that four year olds will receive receive five days a week public pre-K Amy. What does that do for the pre-K choice that families currently have for four year olds with that. That would go away. So Act 166 as proposed would come off the books and be replaced by this bill. Got it. Thank you. But again, there's some discussion with it. There was a new revision that I had sent you yesterday in regards to committee that was essentially scrapping the bill in favor of a study committee to then look in and take further action next year. Um, so talking about three year olds, potentially now being required to go to private daycare. Um, does the state see that as a potential issue of not having enough because I know that that is an issue. So I'm just curious what their thoughts are on that or if they if they're not really prepared to think about that depending on location where we are in the state. Well, that's that's what I was trying to allude to right is that I think that they're recognizing there's problems with the bill Patrick. And so I think that that's why they may look to do some further studying on it. I had said before that I thought that this bill was going to, I didn't see as much momentum for something to happen with this bill, because I do think that there's been concerns raised about does it actually increase capacity. Mm hmm. Yeah. It feels like it's a forward step in some aspects in a backward step and others. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And then so the other big one is s 66 which also has just had a redrafting happen in the House Education Committee. And so the s 66 as constructed would have had significant implications for the Rochester Stockbrook District and any district that has school choice. And so it was going to do two things fundamentally. One, it was going to cap the the number of districts that a district could designate for students to attend at three, which currently is in statute that's where that number came from so currently in statute school districts can decide to designate up to three. Receiving schools. That's where that number three came from within s 66 so it's going to require districts to designate. No more than three. And then what it was also going to do is only allow public funds to go to public schools, or the four historical academies. And this of course was all in response to Carson v making and for this, the state to try to counteract Carson v making with a bill that didn't allow public funds to then go to a religiously affiliated schools. The if you look into the current bill that's drafted in the House Egg Committee, it requires some assurances from schools, but it does not provide any method for schools to then say if you don't meet these assurances, we will provide tuition. So it doesn't really, it does not actually deal with Carson v making around public funds going to religiously affiliated schools what it does do is try to provide some parameters around what independent school should be doing. But it does not give any ability for the sending district to not provide funding. So it does outline some things and you can read it around if schools are not meeting assurances that then it would go to the State Board of Education, and then the State Board would take it up. So it's really a 180 to s 66 in regards to responding to Carson v making. I'm not certain where that's going to end up. It seems like one we have a pretty new body in regards to representatives. There's 50 new representatives in Montpelier. And so, and it also what I'm hearing is that House and Senate leadership is not necessarily ready to wrestle with s 66 that they're getting a lot of feedback and not necessarily ready to take it up so we'll continue to follow that closely. Again, both of these bills which carried a lot of pressing coverage early seem like maybe they're going to end up not happening and maybe be some study committees that will come back next year but I will continue to update you. And those are the updates I have currently right now. Yeah, for our district to have to designate three schools is pretty dramatic. Yeah. So, and it doesn't seem like that has anything to do with the, you know, with the Carson versus. No, I actually think that that I think there's other things that got slipped into this bill. And I think one of them was really changing the landscape of school choice within the state of Vermont. And that I do think it was intentional or why that was put in there. And I do think it was, it was, it was probably in regards to that. But you are feeling that there's, it's, it's not getting a lot of traction right now. I mean, is there something we should be doing as a board. You should continue to reach out to your legislators. Yeah, I mean, that's the best thing you can do. And Granville Hancock has reached out to their representatives. And so, you know, I think if you have a strong opinion as a as a board member and I also say this to the community and I've said it at each annual school district meeting. Those are the folks that we should be connecting with the, you know, my sense of the number three, even early on was that that number was going to change. I think that they've heard a lot of testimony on that and recognize that that number really had a lot to do with what was previously on the books around boards being the designate up to three schools. And the other piece I wanted to mention real quick is there does seem to be really good momentum. And I, and I had put this in my email to the full board yesterday so you all received it around universal meals. And I'm feeling very optimistic in regards to a bill coming to fruition there. I, the only thing that I have a question about with that bill is that I wish they would diversify the revenue stream to cover the cost of universal meals right now the proposal is putting it just on the Ed fund, which would which would result in a 3 cent tax increase for everyone. I wish that they would diversify that and look at what other funding streams they might be able to use to help offset the cost and not just have it sit in the fun. Um, yeah, no, um, for, you know, pertaining to that 66, you know, talking about reaching out to representatives. Do you think it would be more useful if we had a few of us that wanted to sit down together like a subcommittee, write something together. You said something more, you know, I feel like that might be a little more much stand out a little bit more. And I believe that's what Hancock and Granville did as a board. They wrote a letter and with the support of the select board behind them as well. They all signed it. I certainly feel a little more passionate about it just because of the situation I had, because I was in Stockbridge has full choice. I went to Bethel through my sophomore year and then I had the opportunity to go to a sports Academy and like classic. And so I had a scholarship that paid a portion of my tuition. And I had a full ride to a school in New York and was able to stay there for two years and do what I love to do. So, and that was a huge part of my life. So I just feel like we're limiting. Opportunities, potentially an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely could decide to put a panel letter together as a board. Or you could all frame a similar letter and then send it in individually. I think there's power in both. I think we've seen that in regards to how we handle the state board in regards to Lincoln. I think we've both approaches have been successful. Okay. Well, do you guys want to just individually. Yeah, I'm ready Leonard. Yeah, okay. Why don't we. And it's okay to, to share those around, right? Yeah. How about I, I'll write one as draft. Yes. She writes good. Easy now. Well, it's, it's, it's an important. It's an extremely important. My situation. Yeah, so. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Thank you. I just suggest just review what I sent you and just find some key components in regards to what you would want changed like the number three. Just, you know, I think if you can give them some really clear articulate information about what parts of the bill that you that you find or oppose I find that I think in general that can sometimes go further. That just opposing the whole bill. That anyways, that's my suggestion. If you oppose the whole bill, that's, that's fine too. I'm just saying if there, if there are fine points, I do think that that can really help with the drafting process. Yeah. Great. Is that it for your report? Yeah, let's folks have any other questions. I just wanted to highlight that tomorrow night we do have our WRVSU community school conversation happening in the Stockbridge school. In regards to mathematics and I had, I had put that in my report, but I just wanted to highlight that and dinner is going to be provided, as well as childcare and we're looking forward to hopefully a really good turnout. Excellent. I had a question on that or to lend me in your description. Tomorrow night's get together which I think it's fantastic and I hope I can make it. You talked about getting the input from parents about what are they looking for what would they like to see to do with mathematics and it seems to me it also be an opportunity for for us to explain to parents. I think it's kind of the philosophy of learning or the, the approach that we're taking and why it's so important and then also how the parents role here can be so important and I know I'm kind of allergic to, you know, I did quite a lot of math and mathematics but you know what parents can do or what you can take home for the parents to do and I think I didn't get that sense of that Jamie in your description so my question is, is it two way on this. It is two way but I asked Bonnie to put a description out that let families know they're going to have a voice and not just be lectured at I think a lot of times when schools host things. It tends to be a one way like you just receive information, and we really want to be have it be interactive. So that's why we try to emphasize that. But yes, we will certainly be front loading some information as well. Thank you. Any other questions for superintendent and move on to our principal report. So you have my principal's report in front of you I think the bigger thing is probably around some building updates in that the fire alarm project there's just one more alarm light that they have to put in, but other than that that is officially replaced. And then also a company will be coming in between the mildew and mobile from the high school at the end of this week. So that those two projects will finally be wrapped up. We haven't been in school and then we haven't been in school and now we're out of school for a day. It's been, it was pretty busy right before vacation because we have the John Gilmore residency but we're also starting to gear up for our state testing will happen in grades three through six in May and that just sneaks up on us quickly. So we're already starting to plan. Testing schedules and prep for that. Is there any questions for Linda regarding her report. Sounds like some great stuff happening. It's great. Okay, we'll move on to the business managers report them. Good evening everyone. We have my report which outlines what's happening in the business office for the month, the month of March. Sorry, I'm a little tongue tied tonight. So if there's any questions on that, otherwise I will move on to the fiscal year 23 budget projections. On the side. We have a projected area of savings down in salaries which is budgeted versus what we issued for contracts of $89,747. We have budgeted versus insurance budget versus enrollment projected savings there of $39,493. And then the tuition we have budget versus invoice to date of $91,743. So current projected potential savings is $220,983. On the revenue side. Based on what was invoiced for tuition, we are off about $98,732 versus what was budgeted. We haven't received all of the miscellaneous revenue that we budgeted for, nor the rental income. We have gotten $602 more in donations. And interest we've already exceeded what was budgeted. We've got about $3,400 extra there. And then the transportation aid when we got the determination from the agency of education on what it would be. It looks like we're going to get about $4,700 more there as well. We have a projected deficit on the revenue side $91,777 offset that by the potential area of savings on the expenditure total projected surplus could be $129,206. As of the close of second quarter. And there's any questions on that. Yeah. Same question I asked at the SUV, your estimated surplus. You think going forward to the end of this fiscal year that that number looks, you're feeling pretty good about that or is there's just things coming out of thin air and My only area of concern bill would be tuition in this situation. If there is any children and students that we haven't been billed for yet, if that comes through, that will obviously reduce that projected surplus and the tuition. Okay. So if you have contracted budget versus contracted salaries, if there's any areas where we have any need for additional substitutes, anything like that, that could potentially offset that number. But otherwise I'm pretty confident in those numbers as far as the salaries and the health insurance. And if anyone has a life event, you know, they have children between now. The fiscal year a family plan is $25,000. So that could potentially reduce that. So those are just some of the things that could change those prevent those potential surpluses. The other question has to do with the tuition revenue reduction and one of the goals we said at the our side was that we wanted to try to keep increasing the attractiveness of our. Our system schools to encourage parents to send their that their choice towns to send their kids to our school. And because every kid that comes here that's a revenue versus not so I wanted to get some explanation for this down this this $100,000 swing. Are we, what's happening there. Is there just one group that had a lot of choice students like last year's sixth grade. Yeah, class over here had multiple grand ball handcraft students and it didn't quite offset but on the flip side we, there are several kids field residents that came to stop right just some of it has to do with. You know, we can't have kids that don't live in. But last year's particular group, each in each campus had school choice students that had tuition and so they just the numbers are like the classes on as high as large. That's like our student population. Who's our major competition here. Okay, through six. In Stockbridge in with Pittsfield, it would be killing him. And with here, I kind of like, I, Jamie and Tara, what would you say it's Warren in ripped in. Yeah. Okay. Question this has an as of date of the end of last year's that correct, or is that. Yeah, that's the end of December 31. So this is the end of the, would you say the second quarter. Okay. And I asked Linda the other day, we had a repair to a the bus power pedestal out here Rochester and on Linda said that the, we will get a reimbursement is from the transportation company. Is that something that's going to come through on one of these revenue sides here or how, how do we see that. When you get a reimbursement for an expense, it's actually the revenues credited to the expense line to reduce the expense. That's kind of what my question was. Thank you. Yeah. Great. Any questions for Tara on this. Okay, there's no further questions we will move on to full board updates. Do you want to update my memories. And that's the disadvantage of having a notebook is sort of absorb it up here rather than it was a good thing. They'll be out and maybe I can. I was there. One thing I can remember is that. The real initiative to and Justine's on the committee to develop a mentoring. Notebook manual for new board members. And also for current board members. And the idea is that it shouldn't take a kind of search and hunt and all over to figure out the lay of the land and ability of new board members to contribute to. To their boards. And so that's coming along really well. The new member committee asked for feedback and they're going to do another, I could think another round and that will be, I think, ready at early April, if I'm not mistaken. So I was pleased with that. Negotiations there. We just were not meeting right now with special educators and that's because they're still working on doing certain things they need to do to respond to our request for information. So we're hoping that will will move along more quickly in the coming weeks. Patrick you have some other things you want to add to that. We did, we spent some time talking about as 66 and yeah, that's all. Yeah, there was MTSS data report and director services gave her report. So it was a good meeting. Yeah. Okay. So board civility will be going back based on feedback we received at the full board to committee to try to try to better define in regards to the policy, what it means to conduct official board business and adequate that adequate that we would expect. Board members to be conducting themselves in in regards to if school district business comes up and you're out in the public. I think that the committee wants to make certain that this policy is clear that it's not just when you're in a meeting like you are tonight as a board that as board members if you're being asked questions about the workings of the school and that you're discussing it as a board member with your board member had on that that you're going to be held to be respectful. And I think that that was really the request of the full board when they asked for this policy to be drafted so we're going to we're going to be working on that. And I appreciate the feedback we've received on that and certainly think Patrick and I are open to more feedback if folks have other thoughts on that policy. And then the other policy is required policy by state statute when special education law changed last year. Language actually was provided directly from the agency, invented by the VSBA, my hope would be that we will get this ready for approval. Next month we will want it for action at the full board meeting with the edit to come with relevant regulations and applicable laws come after the semi colon. So the goal would be to get this implemented next month and worn for action. And just to add to or make sure that part of the new member manual is going to be vocabular educational vocabulary so you read the initials whatever you want to call them you understand, or you flip so you know and we have a couple here that are brand versus fact FAPE which is free appropriate public education so those of us that missed that and are learning how to be a good board member might have that and even SCA, which used to be a consulting firm where I came from a state education agency so this would be. I think a dictionary that continue to expand. Okay. Yes. Yes, go ahead. I guess my only comment would just be, you know, talking about the civility. I know I mentioned something about how we know, I think, justine I think in contest about Facebook, having some issues with community members on there and kind of calling out board members and it's just, you know, can be a little inappropriate that puts us in a difficult position. One of the issues was that was brought up was that we're not using the Facebook page. And I think that we need to have a discussion around that whether that's something that we are to continue to use and if so who's going to do that, or my personal opinion would be that we don't use that and that we direct people to our website now and it has all the information that's needed. And Facebook tends to be a place for people to complain. And, you know, so if we want them to complain, we invite them to our meetings. Jamie. Yeah, I looked back in the notes and I will afford them along I believe when we updated the new websites to Rochester Stockbridge and launch the Rochester Stockbridge Facebook page as a board you had had you had a discussion about leveraging the school Facebook page to communicate and not to continue to use a separate board page. So I will dig those notes up and then send them along to all of you because I'm pretty certain you already had that discussion back when we rolled out the new school Facebook page, along with the website. Well, what could it just be as simple as having a link each month after our meeting, directing on Facebook directing them to the website for minutes agendas, you know, discussion items. We can just post the link to the agenda. That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, or is that even necessary it's like get off of Facebook and go check out another website. We have other districts that post the warnings in the minutes, monthly on their school page, their school Facebook page. I don't go to the weather or the news on Facebook. You can turn comments off just games. I am the thing about the cop. I had a conversation with folks on, you know, on Facebook regarding this and the prop part of the problem with the being directed to the website was that you're attached to Google and attached to Google Drive and Google Docs and someone was like, I don't really have Google I don't really know how to use Google. You know, we used to just post the image of the agenda and image of the minute on the Facebook page before the website was launched so it just depends on how much we want to engage on Facebook and cater to that because it's a I think it's a choice and I think we should decide as a board and then do it going forward or, you know, or not do it. It does open up, you know, a forum. No, you know, just even posting an agenda or minutes. It is an open forum there. So you understand and hear you about the fact that our agenda and our minutes are part of a Google Drive. And that is hard that you have to have a Google account, you know, or when you get on there, it asks you what Google account do you want to use to look at this. Yeah. And that kind of feels like, well, what am I putting out there then, you know, why don't why isn't it just a PDF. Right. Anybody can look at it you don't necessarily need an account but it does put open up you are going into Google land and if you don't understand it or whatever I don't know. That was the complaints like you have to figure out Google to get into the doc or whatever. Anyway. Yeah, if you could look up those notes Jamie and I think, you know, we can share that around so that we can maybe talk about this next meeting and make a clear decision on it. Great. Thank you. Yes, Bill. Yeah, I like what Patrick's points are and it goes back to civility. We're not only talking about my thing was bump into somebody at picking up some donuts at Shaw's and they are very unhappy with what we're doing here here here and I'm a member of the school board so I cannot explode and tell them that they're all no matter what happens but it seems to me that Patrick talked about Facebook or any social medium that our obligation to be civil and to show an example for our children. It goes to all mediums of whether it's in person or email one more long time ago, never say anything negative and email you want to talk complain about somebody. Give them the courtesy of talking face to face but I think we have an opportunity through the civility policy to make sure we need to be civil and all the mediums that we do to communicate with with each other in the educational community. Thank you for the comments on this. Yeah, as far as talking in public I think it's also easy to like be in this gray area where you're talking about opinions and things like that and whereas we are, you know representative of the board I think it's just just better in general to direct them to instead of even getting into that. The response like that they should ask the board, the question, not you individually, in my opinion, so I mentioned that the full board that I thought like, if you feel like you're in a position like that in public and you feel like it's, you know, he's getting a little tense that's when you just stop and say, you know what, I think, I think that you should come to the next next month meeting and you should voice your opinion there to the whole board. Yeah, I can't, I can't speak for the board. Yeah, exactly. It's okay to not have the answer. Exactly. Okay, great. We'll move on to the final draft of the 2324 school budget. Yeah, we'll be an optimistic that it's the final draft. So we heard the board's direction last month. And so it resulted in Lindy and I meeting Lindy and I met twice, Lindy, Tara and I met and actually Tara and I met once as well. In regards to working on both the expenditure and revenue sides of the budget. And so I'll try to hit some highlights here and then Lindy and Tara, feel free to jump in with what I missed. So the biggest area in change in regards to the expenditure side was that we had budgeted for two regular red FTE paraprofessionals. We were unable to contract services through the SU for behavioral interventionists at one of the campuses, which is going to be able to meet our needs and going to be able to be funded via the special services department and budget through special education. So we're not going to need that second regular red paraprofessional. So there were some definite savings observed there. And also in regards to changes, there were some adjustments made in expenditure lines. One was in regards to Lindy looking at some actuals in regards to substitutes. So we're able to make some adjustments there. I was able to make some adjustments in legal services. We haven't been. And these are based off of actuals from the prior two years. So we made some adjustments there. We were able to keep intact the transfer to the reserve fund, which is what we had heard the board at real desire to keep that in place. So we're able to make an adjustment there we adjusted the fuel for the high school as discussed at the last meeting to a third. So there was definitely some savings seen there since the last draft that you saw. And Tara and Lindy, any other, those to me were the largest areas, but I could have missed something, Lindy and Tara. No, those were the largest areas other things were based on actual supply. Just a little bit here a little bit there, not anything major. It adds up all together. But those were the big. No, keep going, Lindy. A word language. I believe we cut down to 0.2 in this budget. I don't. Did we do the last one that I can't. It was this budget. You're correct. Right. Which is what we had. We tried to increase it to 0.4 on the prior draft. Now right now it's remains the same at 0.2. So that was the other big change personality. I noticed Tara that there was also a lot of movement in the workman's comp. Categories and the notes from previous budgets said increased due to projected rate change. And so I was wondering on what had changed there for us to be able to to decrease those lines. I went through and made some adjustments based on some of the salary projections that we had in there, but also brought it down on couple of the areas like for education and just reduce the projections on that one. So the workers workman's comp. That's our workman's comp. Or. Yes, that's what you pay for workers compensation insurance. And you said because say it again, I don't understand how we provide so much medical rates are going up almost 13%. So that also impacts workers compensation rate and what we pay to workers compensation claims. So we have had a substantial increase in workers compensation claims throughout the supervisory union this year, which is going to increase my loss ratio with the carrier, which then also increases my rate. Right. So, how did we were we able to reduce the amounts on this latest budget by so much. I reduced what we were charging per $100 of payroll for teachers. I brought that down some. I also brought down what we were charged for support staff and kept the custodial because that's our highest workers compensation rate is custodial that's over $2 per $100 of payroll. So I just reduced those down to a lower increase for those individual rates. Yes. Yeah. Tara, where's the light what's the line item for fuel for heating. Keeping our high school building intact. Over the later time for fuel. Oil is rolled up under 2610 function code six or object code 624. So it's all. Yeah. So that's, that's all. It's the two elementary schools and. Remember, Bill, we weren't, we won't be using heating fuel for the Rochester elementary next year. Hi, that's right. Got it. That's under wood pellets. Would explain. Okay. So, I mean, at the end. The budget that's before you before Tara goes into revenue and the tax sheet is up 5.02%. Or 222,578. What was that number last one? It was eight. It was eight. That's what I thought. That's great. I mean, you guys did really good. And do you feel that on this budget still is offering our kids what they need? Absolutely. And our teachers. Yes. Because on, you know, that is the most important. Absolutely. Okay. I think that's pretty good considering the inflation that we're dealing with right now. Right. Right. Yeah. The price of everything just keeps going up. Yeah. It's not going to go down. Right. Cost more for everything. Does anybody have questions on the expenditure budget for Tara? Okay. Well, then. We move on to the tax rate or do we move on to next? So my thing's a little out of order. Yeah, sorry. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I made two changes on the revenue. Jamie had me increase the balance carryover from prior year surplus to 175,000. And then we found out that the trustees of public funds and Stockbridge is going to be providing an additional $5,000. So you'll see those are the two changes on the revenue side. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So just for clarification, that's how much would be requesting of the trustees, the trustees have not approved that. And I think there's sound reasons why they should. I don't know. But again, it's, it's, they have not seen this or voted this at this time. Okay. Okay. Okay. The projected fund balance is 169. So where are we going to get? I didn't update that. I apologize. That's totally my fault. Last projection was 217,000. Okay. Totally my fault. Sorry. I was like, where was going to find that? And when do, when is that number finalized that for the, is that when the audit is finalized? Yes. So it's when all the audits are fine. If you audit is finalized. So if there's any additional assessment that we have to make out to the member district that obviously has an impact on your general fund balance. And then once the auditors have corrected in your audit, the child nutrition program, that's what I'm waiting for in our said last draft. So I will say it's no longer projected once I have a final audit. That's okay. And do, where are we with, with that? Is that so on? I'm waiting. Yeah. I'm waiting for them to correct the child nutrition side of things. And so. I would tell you that we're 98% certain that that's, that's going to be your balance. I mean, that's not going to be your balance. Okay. You'll definitely have the one 75. Okay. And then logistically, the balance of that, we go to the voters and ask them to put it into a, into a reserve fund. That's what we have to do with the rest of it. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. And then was to tap the endowment funds that are under the control of the, of the, of this organization. So the budget that we're looking at this evening, does that build in that expectation? You can't budget for those funds. You can't put that in your revenue. I understand that, but I'm saying my question is that. Is that revenue coming in or is it anticipated already reflecting here and it's just going to. That revenue. What's the impact. And to the general fund. They all say, and their respective funds. So it doesn't actually come into your general fund. So funds of that nature are permanent funds. Your investment funds are considered permanent funds. And they live out of it. General fund and then the school board would need to request or Lindy, sorry, we'll need to request of the school board. The utilization of any of those fund balances that are available. For you to do specific programs, just like she needs to do when she comes to ask you for building reserve funds or capital reserve funds. The utilization of that. Is that the direction of the board? You have to have a specific purpose to use those funds as Amy explained. What each one of those funds are available to be used for. Okay. Can I ask that. That there's a line item. Like we have for reserve funds that we have something for a targeted. For our endowment that that are going to be available. At the request of our son. And voting that sometime in the future. For specific uses. I need to write it all of that. Yep. I'm totally giving her all the credit here. I mean, she provided that report. To the board, which has what the fund balances are. And what the fund balances are. Are you kind of asking bill that we say this year we're going to allocate $5,000 and when Lindy. Has decided there's something she wants to use that for. She comes in, but she knows that we're okay with using like $5,000 of it this year. Is that kind of what you're. Well, I think it's that. It would be helpful for Lindy and her team if, if she needs to do that. I mean, I think it's that it would be helpful for Lindy and her team if, if she knew that if needed, we would have X number of dollars that she could tap with the approval of this board. So it's a different is 5,000 or 50,000. So it isn't like she's just throwing money to the wind, but there are opportunities out there or special needs that would be helpful to for her to know that. And so it seems like it'd be useful for us as a board to verify how much. Each year would be available this coming year. Even when those needs occur. Then we have an understanding there. I kind of agree with that. It's hard. No, that you can put it in as a line. No, I'm not saying a line out. I'm just saying it's just, it could be a separate page, but it's just, it's there. Right. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is, but it's, that's our intention to have it available. If and when it's needed. Yeah. Just to be really clear, though, it can't be part of the budget. Right. As a board, you could provide a memo. To administration. Declaring which funds are available. Right. But when it can't be, those are separate from the general fund. So we can't show those expenses as an expense in this budget. Or as a corresponding revenue in this budget. We need to do the same thing. For capital improvements to. That's different though, because the capital improvement funds have been voted on by your boat voters and they, those have been designated. For the board in regards to being able to put revenue in. Right. And then they're audited by our auditors. And then you see them in your audit every year. No. And again, like Linda said, it's because it was originally tax dollars that were given the update that were. To for the school to use to run the school. And then we asked the tax payers and said, thanks for giving us all this money. We have this leftover. Is it okay if we put it into a reserve fund instead of. No, and I understand that. I guess what I'm saying is, is before we get to a budget. We need to know the improvements that we want to tackle. For that upcoming year. So we know what we need, even if we're going to use it from our reserve fund. Right. We want to know, like, okay, we need to replace the windows here. It's that list that we're talking about. Right. So, so Patrick, I'm, I'm sorry. A bunch of those items were spelled out in the strategic plan. So I'm going to request that the board looks back at the strategic plan. There are, there are dates. There are dates and items that are big ticketed items. That E I provided us that, that we speak to. And the administration did come forward to you with over almost a. Well, you know, a 1.7 million dollar project for this coming summer. And we said, you were going to need to use your reserve funds. You just drained a bunch of your reserve funds. So my advice to the board would be to look at that strategic plan and see. We're going to need to put some significant money away. Over the upcoming years to even be able to tackle. Some of these phase two and phase three projects. Yeah. And that's to remember when at the end of the year, there's a surplus. We decide what we want to do with that. That's kind of, yeah. Well, I'm going to put it for capital layaway. So if you look why we picked these ones were, were based off of. Needs based on what we got, but based on draining your reserve funds and just projecting where we're going to be in regards to fiscal budgeting. It's not going to get easier this year was hard. I will tell you, it's going to get more difficult as federal funds dry up in the state. So, you know, what you're looking at right there is well over $400,000 that we're hoping to put away by no later than 28. So that's why that's 65,000 is really important. Because the goal would be that your capital improvement funds will be able to pay for these large projects. You know, and the roof is a big one and certainly be on the tackle the ceiling tile. That is something we had talked about last year. With the EI, it just didn't play out that we had the funds to do so right now without putting more money away. And I know, I know there were, we were having a discussion with them about, you know, replacing windows, you know, insulation values, maybe not being the best, but in their opinion that that's not something they wanted to tackle first just because of payback, which is understandable. We're not getting really necessarily a large payback in that, but there is also just needing upkeep. And yeah, you might not necessarily get payback out of upkeep, but you don't need a window falling out of the building or, you know, you want to open up. Well, you certainly have an operations budget to do a window, right? Yeah. But if we don't want to go to bond, that's why we have to put money away and prioritize projects over the next 10 years. Yeah. I think you're just trying to figure out what is the list. And that's what I'm saying. It's like, I know it's not all going to happen overnight, but we really need to do a walk around and say, okay, you know, this is immediate. This is, this can wait three years. This, you know, like where, where, what is the life expectancy of different parts of the building and how can we prioritize and allocate a list of what we want to do each year for the next 10 years and know, know what we're doing in five years. You know, that's, we'll replace that. Maybe the facilities committee needs to meet again. These were the big projects. I had designated for us. Yeah. No, I'd be happy to walk through with the facilities team again. I just think what we have to get realistic about is what we can afford over the next 10 years. And it, again, if you look, we have over 400,000 just in three items. Right. So I agree with the windows may be the next thing. But again, we, that, that may be in looking out in like. 2032. And so based on what. I felt like we were putting away and knowing that we were going to use up a lot. I mean, if you look, we've done a ton of work here in phase one. But we need to now build up our reserves again to continue that progress. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Okay. Right, Tara. So the last piece is the tax sheet. So with those changes that we made to the budget expenditure and the revenues. It. Changes your education for people spending to 20,000, 345, 952. Equalized tax rate would be 1.3144. A reduction of 13.68 cents over the current preliminary tax rate. In Rochester after the CLA, it would be a savings on the tax rate of 0.0068. And on Stockbridge after the CLA, it would be an increase of 11.93 cents. 13 cents. That's incredible. That's an incredible amount to. To reduce them to find 13 cents. And of course, because of the calculations with the CLA, that's the only thing that. So we don't see that 13 cents savings. I think you guys did a great job. Coming down from the 20. 22 cents. Yeah, 22 cents. That was the original. Yeah, that was our last. Last. Does anybody have any questions, comments? Well, I want to come in. Tara, Lindy and Jamie for. Really trying to. Work the budget even further. That's not easy to do. All the drafts and every one of those drafts. Were real. I mean, they reflected real needs and real desires. For our kids. And to be moving it down. We're now talking about. 7.4% increase. And that's, that's. But I, you know, I'm one of three. The Stockbridge has got a bigger hit. This year than Rochester. So I think. Justine should. Should weigh in at your comfort level with this. And same with Patrick. Like, you know, I think that the message that we need to get across to the voters. Is that. This is a reflection of the CLA and not. Not necessarily our. Our budget or the high school. You know, I think there's a lot of residents out there that look at that and they go, that's the high school. You know, that number is the high school. It's not at all. By any means. So it's. How was the easiest, quickest. Way of communicating that. You know. Well, I thought, and I don't know if I can find, put my finger on it right now. But I thought that the pie chart in our. That really shows exactly the percentage of. And it shows the buildings. Like there's little sliver. And, you know, tuition. Really being a big one. Right. Where the increases are with the numbers. The big numbers lie. Right. I would recommend and Jamie and shared. Tara had done this for other districts, but in. Where I live. What we got was what it actually meant per year. A hundred thousand. Taxes. Yeah. Your taxes were actually going to go up. I think that's the bottom line. People. Yeah. And I can the bill. Bill provided a chart that it shows. Which would you say two thirds. Of our residents. Pay. Their property tax. Off of their income. Right. And so. In between the two. Yeah. Instead. Yeah. My projection is that's actually going to go down. Yeah. Thanks to the state. And what they're giving in one hand, which is the income sensitivity, which is just so. Progressive and importantly allowing us to have. A quality education and affordable. In our rural communities. The one third, however, the dozen gets whacked by the common level of appraisal. Which in stock bridge. All of a sudden is. Is a good thing. I mean, it's like a gold town. And so. Or it was a reasonable budget increase makes this thing with. After CLA even tougher. So. Yeah. And we needed to tell that story. As best we can. Yeah. This is the. Chart. That is. Last year. Yeah. On that. It gives a bit visual. Yeah. Let's do that again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just a reminder. Right. Shows the tuition and. And. I think that's the medical stuff. We have no control. Yeah. Sorry. Without having the kids suffer. Right. Just. Ian, do you have. Any specific comments on this? No, I think what Patrick said is exactly in line with what I am concerned about. I think it's easy to, you know, I think it's easy for folks to just look at numbers and. I don't know. I don't know how we can hit them in the face with the pie chart, but. Whatever. Make them actually look at it. As opposed to not pay attention. That's all. Yep. You feel that it's 11 cents increase. Um, Is, uh, Peltable. I do. I. Perfect sense to me. Yeah. I think. I think that's such a good job with reducing expenses. I would be very concerned that we're going to really start cutting into. Programming and. Oh, yeah. Start counting into our kids education. Yep. So maybe we have a little whipped cream with that pie chart. Did we discuss a, like a sort of a summary of what the CLA means. And maybe, um, you know, like out of maybe sort of a note into the report on what it means for each time, what this number represents. No idea why it's different. Right. Well, that's definitely we'll need that education. I think, um, as. As a talking point in our, you know, annual meeting and also clearly to talk about it in the, um, Yeah. In this book for those that get it. Right. Well, it is a floor vote this year. It's not Australian ballot. Oh, so they have to come. Yes. They have to. To vote. Yeah. Oh, and we decided that. Further down. You got to. Finish the budget. Okay. Well. Does anybody want to take action on this? Yeah. All right. Well, does anybody want to take action on this? Tonight. All right. Well, I. You want somebody to move it for a motion. Also moved. Um, um, Linda. Give me the number we're plugging in. I'm going to type it in the chat. Okay. Make a motion. To approve the 2023 2024 budget. In the amount of 4,652,963. Second. Motions have made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? With no discussion. I'll call roll probably the best. Yeah. Justine. I'm going to type it in the chat. Okay. Make a motion to approve the 2023 2024 budget. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Justine. Aye. Robert. Aye. Jessica. Hi. Bill. Hi. Amy. Hi Patrick. Hi. So moved. Great. Uh, moving on. I need to. On it. I already giving you that update in our last discussion. I'm just waiting for a revised draft that corrects the motion. Great. Okay. So final preparation for the annual school district morning. Yeah. So I think what bill just. Discussed is the biggest thing. Now. All of our other current member districts have gone back to their traditional floor votes. The legislature did. Provide authorization for districts due to COVID-19. So that is one of the things we'll need direction from to prepare your. Warning. I would say that that's, that's the biggest thing. Tara. You agree. Okay. Open for discussion. Have the warning done by. When do we need the warning posted by. Well. We would probably look Tara. I'm thinking the same week where that we're trying to do a G. Hunter the week prior. I mean, ideally it's a special meeting. Next week because we want to get it posted by. Tara, what is it? Within 30 days. Between 45 and 30. Yeah. And we want to get it in the mailer. So it has to be posted in your town. 30 to 45 days prior to the vote. So. And then we also, like I said, we want to put the signed warning in your mailer. And that has to be in the hands of the voters. 10 days prior to the annual meeting. And based on our experience that we had with these last four mailers. There's definitely a delay in the United States. Social service. So we want to be able to give ample time for that to get delivered. So the target would be to have the mailer done into the printers because you guys go the. First Tuesday. Tuesday in May. So ideally we would want it to the printers that first Friday in April. So three weeks, basically. I think if I look at the calendar. Yeah, definitely will require a special meeting. I think we need to figure out when that would work as well. Once you discuss. Our next regular meeting. Special meeting for what I'm saying. To approve the warning. Okay. Thank you. It won't take much. It'll be quick, but we'll want to get it approved and signed. So. I think if I look at the calendar. Definitely will require a special meeting. I think we need to figure out when that would work as well. Once you discuss. Our next regular meeting. Special meeting for what I'm saying. To approve the warning. And then we'll get it approved and signed. Okay. Okay. So discussion on. Returning to. In person. Meeting and. Voting. Or take advantage of the. COVID situation and do a. Informational meeting and Australian ballot. Which we have done the past couple of years. We've done the past couple of years. We've done the past couple of years. We've done the past couple of years. Or are we ready to go back to. Our standard. Just in. I think if personally, I think that more people will get to vote. If, if we're not in person and we do Australian ballot. I just think people work. People don't have time to go to the meeting. And so that's my personal opinion. I think that we have more participation in that way. I think. Last year, Ethan and I were on the same side on. Kind of. It would be great to get back together again. As a, as a school community. And there's something about in person that's. That is attractive. And I always go back to all the time meetings I've gone to. And inevitably there's an issue or a vote that I walked in the door. I walked in and they were thinking one way, but after the debate or discussion, they learned enough. So they go, oh. And that's the, that's the power of a town meeting in person. I don't disagree with justine and all of them, the number of people that are voting, but what the town meeting allows is that there can be some education. Dialogue conversation. And I think that leads to maybe a, maybe a little bit of a, a little bit of a, a little bit of a, a little bit of a, a little bit of a vote at the end of the day. Given that we have a responsibility of making sure that. Our communities come out. But value public education. And the, and the importance of what we do to educate our children. They attend the meeting and, and listen in and to vote. So I can swing either way. I just wanted to give you an articulation about. How do we, how do we, how do we do that in person? We would still have an informational meeting, even if they were voting on paper, right? Correct. Okay. Meeting was well attended. And I think there was a lot of. I mean, for one thing bills, bills charts. I think they really, I think a lot of people attended and paid attention and understood from that meeting and then voted. Accordingly, they did not vote on paper. So I think that was a lot of people voted compared to other years, but. I do know certain people are like, I've never been able to go. Right. Where would it be held? Well, it either be in Rochester or in Stockbridge. Thanks Amy. Yeah. Yeah. Do you vote back in person in Stockbridge? Is that correct? Lindy and Tara? The last vote was. I have was that the first annual meeting was in 2018 was held in Rochester. The second annual meeting was held in Stockbridge. The third was in virtual information. Well, meeting the fourth was a virtual information meeting. The fifth last year was a. In person informational meeting in Rochester. It was not an annual meeting. Then I would say it should be back in Rochester then. Cause it was right. So. So Rochester then. And remind me again. I'm embarrassed, but I'll just say it again. I know with the candidates. We changed recently or a few years ago. So the candidates for the. The R said school board. From Stockbridge. We voted by Stockbridge voters and. And the same thing with Rochester. But the whole budget. Is just. It's cold. It's the majority. Of both communities. It isn't a separate vote. Exactly. Okay. That's my memory, but I. Yeah. Sorry. The. The. The. The. To vote for board members. That is by Australian ballot. Go ahead, Jim. No, you're right. I just want to remind the board of that, especially those preparing to run. Remember, you have to have your candidate consent form in. 30 days prior to have your name on the ballot. And. Those. Right now, what your articles of agreements say is. Cause they were advised is that you would vote. Only for your elected officials via Australian ballot. And every other piece of business, including the budget would be voted on by the, from the floor. That's what your articles are now. And what are the. So one of the. The. Candidate. Candidate petition forms due then. Back 30 days from May 2nd. And. Is that going to be on our warning though? What would be on our warning. The, the, uh, the board members. I don't know what's on our warning, but you don't put the names or anything. Okay. Okay. That would be like early. I think March, it's March 19th. I think it's. I thought it was 40. I am. I thought it was 45 days. Yeah, maybe now that you say it, maybe the six, six Mondays prior to the vote. I think, yeah. I think it is. Julie. Six Mondays. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would definitely recommend talking to your. To the town clerk in Stockbridge. And getting the paperwork for her. And specifically asking her specifically what day she needs it back by because of what day she works, et cetera. So logistically, if we are voting. On the floor for our. Budget is the. Australian ballot for the board members happening at that. In person meeting or is that happened. Earlier in the day or at the polls in our respective. At the polls throughout the day. Yes. Hmm. Be a hybrid. As far as. No, I don't think we could. Have, we couldn't have a virtual with people voting. Correct. Right. For the budget. So I have enjoyed having the Australian ballot. It is traditionally the way. That it. Rochester had. Done their school meetings. They'd have the informational meeting or two and. Yeah. And then they would have. You know, Australian ballot on voting day. I also hear what Bill's saying about, you know, people getting involved, maybe. Changing some minds of the informational meeting does. Fill that void. But. You know, I could see value in each. So. I think, but I think too, like having the informational meeting. You know, you know, you know, you know, you want to get that information to. Aren't going to go to it. And they've already decided their vote. We're going to go and vote where as opposed to. They'll go there. We can persuade them because they're going there to vote. You know, I. I see the value of both. That's. And it is tough to get people out to vote too. I mean, yeah, and we've done Australian. Our numbers are fairly low. So, yeah, that's one thing to consider. People are busy. Right. So even getting out to the polls to, to vote. It's tough, but, you know, right, by capturing them in the, the, the only way this is going to be moved anywhere is if you attend the meeting to vote at the meeting. You know that there's your voice. If it's important, if it's important to make the time. If it's important to make the time to vote. Jamie. Yes, thanks. The one air, the one big piece that concerns me in general about folks not. I think education funding in this state is unbelievably complex. And having had the privilege over the last 24 hours to be able to especially in another merged district where one's town CLA dropped significantly and another didn't and it resulted in one town having a tax decrease and another one going up eight cents. I think the ability for us to be able to explain that, answer questions about that prior to folks voting I do think made a significant impact for that district in regards to folks being able to support the budget fully informed where before I think a lot of our voters still do not understand how the tax rate ends up the way it is and all the different factors that play into that and I and I just feel like last night the district that I was in front of we had well over a hundred people in attendance and I think that they felt much more informed about how the tax rate ended up being the way it was just based on the questions and some of the comments we were able to address during the meeting and so I just offer that to say you know it's really fresh on my mind as I just was doing it last night at this time and I do feel like it really helped folks especially in the unified district that's fairly new understand how can one town have a different tax rate from another. Right rather than just flipping to that tax page and going oh well I'm not going to vote for that and then walk away and then go and do your Australian ballot it forces forces people to get informed who want to make to vote so I guess I guess I would I would say we should do in person as as our charter states. Can we do a information meeting prior to that so that could be sort of not voting but maybe we're having an evening where it could be hybrid and people can attend virtually just to get some information out there before the meeting just kind of like a pre-meeting meeting. Yeah no you know what I mean that might that might get people that wouldn't potentially go to the in-person on virtually and then might draw them to actually go to the meeting. That's an interesting idea because right like you get some of them talking about oh I just I went to the pre-meeting and this was happening in there hey we you should make sure you go to the with the ball. The town did that they did a zoom a hybrid meeting the Monday before town meeting for Rochester just an informational thing I don't know how well attended it was I didn't go. Was it zoom only or was it? It was both it was yeah okay. I think that's something we could talk about some more. The regular meeting is the Monday before the vote on Tuesday. So we just took to make that. Our regular vote is right because the vote will be May 2nd and that's a Tuesday. But May 1st falls on a Monday. The day before. Is that too soon? It's almost like it should be. The other thing to factor in this week before family is to have vacation. Right. So that's for our son. I can't speak about students. Well this is not something we have to decide on. It is unless it factors into your decision as to whether to do on Australian ballot or to do on the floor vote. Robert do you have any comments on? I think that we have an opportunity for a captive audience and we shouldn't waste it. That we should go ahead and have a floor vote. But I definitely believe we in the value of having a pre town meeting. In addition. Excellent. Thank you. And maybe one could be in Stockbridge. Right. We could be in Rochester. Right. We could do the virtual. It could be a hybrid in Stockbridge and then we can have the actual school meeting and vote here. Right. Okay. I can see if Stockbridge people might be more apt to get information by going to that meeting in Stockbridge than an informational meeting in Rochester and then the annual meeting in Rochester back to back. Okay. Yeah. Or we all do we need to vote on on that? No, there's everybody in a grants to go on and when we bring you your warning, we just at least need a consensus to draft your warning. Okay. Okay, so we're talking a pre informational meeting maybe a week before and then the annual meeting with a vote in person. Yeah. Okay. Which the annual meeting is is in your it'll be that that's the first Tuesday in May. So it'll be that May 2nd. Okay. In Rochester. Okay. Okay, is there other preparations when you for the warning or stop. Moving on. Okay. We got everything else that we need. Really the next thing would be just and we can talk about that the next meeting is traditionally you all have done your mailer and I've just provided the budgetary documents that go into it if that's still your plan or how you want to handle the mailer this year. Well, Lindy and Kate did it last year. I don't think the board did do it last year. Right. Okay. What are your feelings? The shares that you want to take on again or something like more help from us or from the SC along. I guess. Happy to do it again I would tap into Erica, because this is definitely, I was explaining to Jamie prior that she was coffee editor for a newspaper. She definitely knows her stuff like that. I definitely want to make sure that we. Right. She can do but. I mean, again, are we my question if we're doing it again, are we using tears template or using that template. Meaning there's a lot more right to me that we send out then the template provided. I think we should take a look at this. And maybe see if there's something we can pair down there is a lot of really good information in it though and. We really kept the same template. You know, and it's a couple years as a couple years and it gives it seems to go over well I think with our communities. And bill I have heard your request for pictures in titles. There was some concern about it just going to be to being so. Yeah, it's not a high priority but I just it helps to put names with pictures. And so, I'll leave that up to the document editors. Definitely, you know, it's about the kids so that's what I really want you know, I want to see. Robert. I just want to remind those who have to get it's besides because that's consent form, you need to have a certain number of you have to petition. With and get a certain number of signatures. In my case in Rochester's, it's about 50 signatures, a little less than 50 signatures. I don't know what it'd be in Stockbridge. It's a little less. Okay. Thank you. Okay. The 8.4 sale of the Rochester high school building update from. I'm not the superintendent can already. Yeah, and Robert feel free to jump into. If you'd like, I know that you are still in touch with the Rochester high school repurposing committee, I've been meeting with them regularly. And so one of the things that the as requested by the board, the adjustment to the high school lot boundary line has been completed. Waste water permitting is being is taking place. In addition to that, right now, our attorney is finishing up some details that was requested by the committee to complete the Brella application that we talked about last month. All those things are moving ahead. There was discussion at the prior meeting about the concern around the where the auditorium sits in the floodplain in addition to the floodway. There was a tour that happened, Robert. Were you going to make that walk through or no. Yes, I did. I did make that. I thought so the good news is, is that that group was provided with some possible remedies to address. On the issue with the floodplain that at least through my meeting with Vic. And Catherine they felt like there could be some reliable options there to be able to address it. Robert what else do you want to add in addition to that. I don't want to have anything. In addition, the person person we met with is basically in charge of implementing the floodplain. Regulations, so he was very positive. I have three major roots that can be addressed. I didn't see them as, as, you know, some are more expensive than the others, but I don't see that they're that they're project killers. I've got another meeting coming up with them soon. With viking Catherine, like I said, I'm standing in regular contact with them. I do know that the high school repurposing committee is warning their meetings publicly as, as a committee. And so I just wanted to let all folks know that they're welcome to join those meetings. And, you know, like I said, I continue to get regular communication from that group who like I said is moving on finishing up the Brella application, which we had talked about needed to happen. And so I have the end of Friday to get their information to them is what I've been told that we'll be able to turn that around after that latest request. And so I feel like that application should be ready to go in here within the next week. Hopefully. I would add. I think Pat attended that meeting as well. Do you, did you have any observations about the same as what you had some of the options were were a little expensive might be hard to find funding for some maybe not so much. The Brella application has been signed by the select board and has been handed back to Catherine and fix. So I think because it was originally done in last November. They're just plugging in some updates and it will be ready to upload probably this week. Thank you. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions. I also thought the committee did a nice job of providing an update in the Harold last week. I don't know if board members were able to see that but there was a nice update done there. And I did see that their update prior to the town books being completed was included in both Stockbridge and Rochester as well. That's wonderful. There was one thing that was a misprint in that letter that was in in our books. It related to I believe it was on page two halfway down. It talked about the tax increase. And erroneous. It was saying $16 was the increase for every thousand dollars worth of value to your property. And it wasn't $16 it's $160 per thousand dollars worth of value to your house. So if you had a $200,000 house it'd be $320 that that should always be noted that there is one misprint in that letter. And you're talking about if the town acquired it. Yes, I, yes, I believe that had to do with Rochester's tax rates and nothing to do with our suds. Right, but it is embedded in that in that notice that's in both books. Yeah, no, I appreciate that I'm just saying in case people are listening. I wanted to clarify the folks that we are not talking about my high school, having that type of impact on tax rates. I just want that's why I wanted to emphasize Pat that's on if Rochester. Yeah. Thank you for the clarification. Excellent. Any further questions, comments, move on to Stockbridge town plan education chapter. I did for this document to you so hopefully you have it. Yeah, we have it in the packet. And we have it. There you go. Great. And I'll pick it off and then just in can help. This is all about the town of Stockbridge under state law needs to look at their town plan every eight years, not more frequently. And the Stockbridge planning commission has a effort underway to to revise and update and expand upon the town plan that was voted by the select board in 2015. One of the chapters is the town's education plan. And so that's about a 1315 page thing that's within this document. And I'm instilling the process of kind of editing it and checking numbers and that sort of thing, but the end of the education chapter is goals, policies and recommendations and you should have that. I have it. You have it at home. Yeah. Okay, because I've got extra copy of you want to look at this right here. And at the last meeting, the board appointed Justine and I to take a look at this and report back to you on our recommendations. And so we're really focusing under goals policies and recommendations and the language or the wording that is not underlined is current. I haven't heard any feedback that the planning commission is planning to change it though they haven't had really a public hearing process so we don't know. Justine and I felt that it needed to be strengthened and so we've added a number two under a goal and number three under the goal. And because goals. What are we all about so number two just just say and this is our wording and it can be changed. And I don't think we have absolutely have to decide tonight but I think it'd be nice because I think the planning commission wants to have some sort of public review process in April. And number two, we say it's the goal of the town to strengthen our students educational achievement and social emotional wellness. Foster Stockbridge's sense of community attract young families and maintain homeowners property values. And what we think is important is public education does all these things. First and foremost we have to educate our kids make sure that they're well. But also to have a viable outstanding public education opportunity attracts young families and we need young families of our communities are going to continue to grow into prosper. They maintain homeowners property values now right now we've got the coven kickback and all of a sudden. I don't know people start thinking Stockbridge's homes are whatever but our CLA just is doing a job on us but especially people my age that having a viable school. Not only protects but it enhances ones property that is so if you're at my age and say oh I'm going to go south to Florida or something like that I'm worried about selling my home having a viable school enhances the value of your property. So we all have a stake in this not only and just the future of our kids in our country in our community but financially for. So that's number two. And and Justin you want to speak to number three because I think that's so important. I think that in being able to respond to the question posed to us by the town I was thinking originally towards some of the conversations we had at our retreat and some of the ways that the goals committee has worked. I'm on the goals committee as well to to create a vision for the school based on our uniqueness and and then thinking about a vision for a town. I just began thinking about the strengths that our school has and some of the things that our school doesn't have and seeing if we can add some language into this town vision that connects with some of the goals we were looking into like integrating the arts into into the curriculum more outdoor education utilizing different resources in the community and other community members that could be able to use those resources that we could tap into educationally and creatively and thinking about why how we could compete with these other schools that that people might move to other towns to go to certainly they they may move to Woodstock because they want their kids to go to be able to play football someday. Why would they want to move to Stockbridge or you know obviously Stockbridge would Stockbridge and Rochester. That could be part of the school make the area a special place to bring kids to raise kids in so I guess that you know it's not as flushed out as the I think Bill shared the blurb that I wrote the memorandum he calls it. This is kind of boiled down into a very small sentence about how to how to integrate our unique our uniqueness into the school vision. Sounds great. I'm just going to go through here and then you can pick it apart whatever under the second section which is town policy the first one was goals town policy. I want to point out number and there's no changes this is the current policy that was adopted by the town in 2015 no changes here but I wanted to point out number two and number three. We thought it was important then we certainly think continues to be important number two that the town supports the continuance of Stockbridge central school. And that just makes sense from all the goals above. And we think that as chair of the planning commission back in 2015 I felt was important as a member of the our said board I totally agree but I just wanted to point that out and when we did our survey. Almost 70% surveyed and then we had a great turnout so the validity of the survey results are very, very valid. We had a 41% or 40% felt strongly about having a local school strengthens a community strongly and supporting that were 69%. We've got support and we want to continue to build on that number three. Tom supports a policy allowing parents to choose where to send their children to middle and high school and that's directly to goes from a survey that we took in the same survey in 2015 where. You combine strongly support the statement and support the statement 75% of those responders is just huge. And the reason I wanted to bring that up is because these proposed legislation at at the State House. And we've been monitoring that act or H a 258 on the House side and and S 66, and we've been monitoring that thanks to Jamie's being all over those issues and that kind of if those were passed that really do a job on school choice. Most recently the planning Commission did another survey 2022 and that second statement about school choice is I haven't seen the exact numbers but they're pretty much the same so overwhelmingly, even people that didn't have a direct connection with the schools didn't go there they didn't go there. A strong majority supported the school choice thing so I wanted to bring to our attention because it's. I think it's important stock bridge that we continue to have that support, but it had implications with S 66 and that sort of thing in it and I don't know whether there's a downside of that as far as Rochester's point of view so. But I wanted to see that I wanted to make sure that you're aware what we're thinking of doing there. And then there's one small edit a number four about childcare facilities. So, and number recommendation. We really push capital planning and we want the town to continue to push capital planning that's. We've got to have safe sound secure building so. So the underlying in the school board should continue and stuff you've. Yeah, and then what is in the brackets taking that out you're taking that out just as basically continue to make capital planning maintenance and funding a priority. And that's going to be important when we at some time we're going to have a bond issue. Well this puts if the town goes along with this, then we basically saying we think this is the most important thing to do they don't necessarily have to agree with the size of the bond issue. This can have an influence on public policy. Excellent. Thank you. Just do you have anything else you wanted to add on this. No, I don't think so. I feel like I worked enough to edit the things that I was interested in and I just wanted to make sure to bring it to the, to the school board to see if anybody had anything else to say. It felt like we were just kind of doing it on our own, which we were but. I don't know we're on a board so. Any comments. My only comment I guess would just be as far as the layout on here. Number two and number three where you made the changes under goals. Three. It's different than number two but it seems repetitive. So, like, like, almost like it should be a sub bullet under number two. Yeah, I see what you mean and then Stockard sense of community attract young families. We say it in number two. Yeah, the only difference between the two are that you're you're integrating our areas unique educational resources into our school system. Right. I do like that part of the phrase. Just be a sub bullet. The point should be a continuation number two. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I agree. I think it's kind of like what why answer the question to why yeah right and three is giving you an example of how. Yeah, so they could almost be combined into one of this is what and and and continuing on how. Let me see if I can. You know what I mean. Yeah. I'd love to get a consensus to be able to just to keep this movie and and then just see and I can work on on that. Yeah, I think it's great though. I have a quick question deep does it need to mention it all about combining with other districts to to keep these goals. I mean there's no mention of, you know, Stockbridge is, you know, a shared school board and district with Rochester. You know, does that need to be said or is that pretty much well known throughout Stockbridge and I think it's in the section before isn't it. It talks about our educational makeup. I see. And that was right. So this corner is this that leads into right chapter. Okay. I like I like this stuff on here. I mean this is it definitely echoes, you know, how I believe we feel in Rochester, you know, maintaining our small school community taking advantage of our resources. You know, allowing people to have choice and putting money into the building and, you know, these are all things I think that as a small town, we want to hold on to and support. Thank you. Great. Excellent. Thank you. Good work guys. All right. Solar project for Stockbridge Central School. Patrick, did you have any updates? I don't have to know that that didn't didn't do anything yet. He's been super busy. So I think he was going to look into the existing system for us. I think one of the questions was whether the group was capable of holding the panels, which I'm pretty sure it is. I also had spoken cricket. And she, I think she had already done that lead work or something else. And so there aren't any issues as far as putting it on the roof. So really it's just a matter of whether we want to move in that direction. I think last month he was going to work on some more of the details around the financial aspects of it. I'm not wrong. I felt like he was going to have a more formal proposal around how it was going to, like the credits were going to. Yeah, I think we need an electrician cost on the installation didn't we? No, something I'm with Jamie there was something that he needed. We have a nearby system that we were looking into. We weren't sure who was using it. We have the system. So the random, the only extra costs are the setup from GMP right between $250 and $400. Yeah. So master electrician, all he's going to do is just, he's just going to come in and approve Matt's work. Okay. So it's not like he's coming and doing a bunch of work. It's not, in my opinion, he's going to come in and spend a couple hours. He's not the one that like does paradise. No, no, Matt would handle the whole installation. Basically, it's just having a master electrician look at it, approve it, say it's okay. Which I may even be able to provide that as well. And then the permitting. The permitting is just applying. Yes, for a permit to put it on the road. Yeah, I don't even know. State. State. Oh yeah, so state. Yeah, which is like 150 bucks. No, it's gonna be state. Yeah. And what, what's the timeframe of this project? I can talk with Matt about it, but I think it could, I mean, obviously I'd wait till the spring at this point. So I would say it could be done. I'll talk with either April break or it could be done after school. Right. Yeah. Okay. And the, so the associated costs, you're saying the engineer fees for weight distribution on the roof that has already been done by cricket. Yeah, and I did speak with her and even if she needed to help us out with that or whatever I don't think she's not going to charge for it. I don't think nothing really is happening. She's more than willing to tell us that it's fine. There really isn't any, nothing as far as added costs is nothing. Right. Okay. This is, it's about $6,000 for this, this to get done on the one question I had before was about the inverter how it says there's four years of life expectancy left how much are the inverters, if we would need to replace them. It can range, but I would say on average a couple, like two and $3,000. Not to say it won't last longer. Okay. And it was, I was kind of confused if this was just the warranty. Like, like these are just the warranties are up in 15 years or four years or who's really the life expectancy life expectancy. Yeah. So, based off of, you know, manufacturers specifications. Okay. Okay. Does anybody have any further questions or in the 15 years is really I mean they're only, I think when we pulled them off there were four years old. Okay. Right. Comes with the transferable warranty. Right. So the inverters. So right, this is where I was confused because the inverters warrantied till 2027 and the optimizers are warrantied till 2040. Then maybe he was referring to a warranty but it's Life expectancy. Yeah, that's I'll check with that because I, I can't imagine That that inverter is only going to last another four years. I mean, I live awkward. So I know, I know enough about it that that doesn't seem right to me. Yep. And if that's what if we want to wait for that information to Well, What do you guys think about this project? I like it. My gosh. Thank you for everything you're doing to make this thing happen. Yeah, I have. Deborah will be static. Yeah, well it's a nice thing because she's the leader of the stock bridge community meals and the school and Lindy so much. Thank you for allowing to use that little Session stand for the freezers for and here she's contributing and that was kind of safe. Deborah's thought was that, you know, her hopes are that that would help offset the cost of the freezers, you know, by I'm guessing. Okay, so on at this point, are we ready to take action on this or we're looking for a little bit more information. I'm comfortable with it. I think my only request would be that maybe we connect with EI because they're going to put that then up on the roof and does that change any of that. There's some there's something happening on the right with the EI work just before we put all the things. Yeah, that had sent me a do lower photo of the roof and where he proposed so if I pull that up, you could tell me, do you know where the, you know, I think we're excited about the project. Do we want to just get a little more of some of these question unanswered questions for next month. And take action then that same reasonable or I mean whatever was comfortable with. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, let's just finalize all these little details I think it is something that we are all going to go up next month. You know, I think Calvin the summer would, you know, make the most sense and there's not like this. Oh, got a rush has the kids again coming back in the building and stuff. Okay. Great. Well, then we move on to the study our book club book. I love that. You know, I thought it was great that, you know, this chapter, you know, is about new members coming on, which, you know, we're getting will be having a vote. And see what the makeup of the board is after our vote on also that we are doing a, I don't know like a manual for new board members. And I thought that was great. The policy that we were just talking about, about civility. I underlined something in this book that said, you trust you is realizing that you can never take off your board hat as long as you're on the court. We're always part of this board. We think of the policy we were just talking about early. Yes. Like we just read about. Exactly. Now I thought it was a good chapter. I have to, you know, sort of commend the way our district in SU is handling new board members because when I first came on to a board years ago, I did not get a nice personal greeting and meeting with the superintendent with the chair of the board. I was not given a bunch of documents and handbooks to look over. It was literally just kind of sitting there like a deer with the headlights and eyes at each meeting just it took a long time to get to me. It took a long time. And so I really commend on the process here even though I had a little bit of board experience I was still treated at, you know, as a new board member because everything is new when you come upon any group that's already involved and immersed in work. And, you know, I got to do some meetings. I got all sorts of materials to look over and I felt like it was handled really well. That's great feedback. Excellent. It was a short chapter. And so our next chapter is we're chapter five so we are off by one one month, but that kind of confused me at first. So we'll read chapter five for our April. Great. Yeah, a couple things. I love this chapter. They start off by saying it's not possible to overemphasize the importance of welcoming and onboarding a new team member to the governance team and I just think I think we represent this I think we someday we can continually have to to work on just strengthen and not take anything for granted. And the second one was every time a new trustees joins the board it's a new board. So it isn't like oh you're joining you're going to do exactly what we're doing we're just going to show you the rules. No, there's an expectation that every new member brings something to the board and this is if we do it right. We need to speak up and to get engaged in is as one of the top tips was be a leader on your board. Well, you don't have to take the US Senate you had to wait a year before you could give a speech. Well, not in this. So you can be a leader from almost the get go based on your skill set interest passion. So I think we've got a lot going and I, but every time I read this book it's just something that we just have to keep reminding ourselves. Thank you. All right, is there any further comments or questions on that. Okay. Do you have any new hired or resignation notes just at this point or coding for positions that have been filled and looking for those for next year already. Great. Is running public comment. I don't see any public. I don't see you there. Okay. You came for the high school. Yes, whatever. Jamie. I think you're getting ready to go up to next meeting dates. And I was hoping that we could secure that special meeting to approve the morning. Okay. I was going to suggest. Mondays, I think typically are good for this board if I remember right. I've been saying yes. So I was going to suggest and I get it. This could be very quick meeting. Monday the 20th. Does it need to be, can people join virtually. Yeah, that will give us enough time to get signatures. But we'll want to get those wrapped up within a few days, but yes, we could definitely have people join virtually then take action and start having people sign. And then what I think we've done in the past for your warning is had it at the school. And then Lindy will finish getting signatures and then we'll get it off and get it posted. Okay. Great. Monday the 20th works for me. It looks like, yeah. I think we'll have a special meeting at 530 work. Yeah. And it'll just be that, like I said, it. It should not take long. Right. Okay, so we'll have a special meeting. Monday, March 20th at 530 and our next. Regular scheduled meeting will be Monday April 3rd at 530 in Stockbridge and the Google mates. Okay. Future agenda items. I have use of our Facebook page as a topic for future meeting. And of the solar projects. Yeah, I think it's got the time meeting for school. And school meeting crap. Yeah. Yes. And discussion on pre. I think you have a social. I'd have to look, I feel like there's one of our data reports or do, but I could be wrong. If it is, we'll show that I got to look at the calendar. Of course. Okay. And our community meeting tomorrow night is when 530 to 530 and the food's great. All right. Perfect. Okay. Well, if there's no further business, we will. Motion to adjourn. All right. Excellent.