 Everybody we just were the ones that are on the phone. We have Jerome recording and we have David Reporting here, but other than that. It's just Steven, Lindy Darcy bill Alicia is walking back and myself so So we're starting at 12 12 And we we're gonna start right in discussion agenda 2.1 need for advice regarding next steps on budget and teacher contracts So I will let you Ruben or Bill lead on this Ruben you want to start off you want me to do Sure, I can start out really quickly. So obviously we all know what happened on Tuesday night We now find ourselves in Sort of an unknown spot and I was approached by will Worcester, and I know that bill was approached by a couple other folks wondering about sharing Some legal counsel about how to move forward so We need to decide Contracts and agreements and With this meeting we don't need to discuss any of that but what we do need to do is select a leading counsel who we can use who works on a hour behalf To Give us legal About how Yeah, one of the things to kind of give you Ideas I sent out. I've created a possible timeline for two different scenarios here And I emailed it to Ruben and Lindy you might want to look at it Okay, I don't know if you need a copy. I'll be glad to give you one of Because of the way the meeting was adjourned That in the tightest timeline it could take anywhere from 90 to 120 days to get to a budget vote for a merged budget If it was a local school district budget And I have an error on this piece of paper because I counted something on one column I didn't count the other on local school district budget You would need 30 days to warn it and then run the budget vote Where the error is at the bottom where I say a total of 60 to 70 days on that side I I Included the six the 30 day challenge period there is for any election. I didn't on the other on the merge side So I just cross that out and say it's a total of 30 to 40 days The critical date here is that in the no-go associated agreements you have with the teachers Association and the ESP That employees need to be notified by April 15th as to whether we're going to offer them a contract Or if there'll be a reduction in force of their position You as a board will need to make that decision to direct me which way you need to go and I believe that you should have legal counsel To advise you on how you want to go and what the possible ramifications are Not only of negotiations and negotiated contracts You need to know someone that knows about negotiated agreements But someone that also knows about act 46 and the fiduciary responsibilities that you have as a board I have four possible attorneys that you could talk to you could pick someone else off that that's not on that list But I would like you to direct me into which attorney you would like to advise you Who of them currently Used by the SU the four that brought we've used all four Okay, one is currently being used by the supervisory union board that was agreed upon by the Articles of Agreement Committee That would be Chris Leopold so You and I talked about this a long time ago about if we could have some Counsel yeah, because the guys involved in the suit had had a council could we just use Collin Or or Leopold that's your choice as a board No, I'm just I'm just it because we they were present of what happened and they know the history The or is there's something that we need to wait in more lawyers. I'm just asking a question of clarity to yeah I'm looking I am at the point That I would like boards to direct me on to who they choose as legal counsel. That's what I'm asking you for I'm not going to select legal counsel for boards anymore Are there any other boards that have selected legal counsel? You are the first to have this discussion you 32 has a warned meeting for next Monday night at 6 p.m. to have this discussion middle sex and Doty are trying to come to an agreement by the end of today of wanting to warn a meeting to have this discussion as Ruben said will Baker from Doty reached out to board chairs to say Hey, should we share this together or not and that was the question will had You could talk about that and what you want to do and you know, but I'm asking each board individually Where you guys stand what you want to do what direction what supports do you need and getting you the supports? and if we said we wanted to share and Say one of the other schools didn't like our choice and One of them did we'd be able to share with just that one. I think any of those possibilities, but you I would I would You decide how you want to have that discussion In the past in Washington Central the way we've worked is that's always just been a discussion at the chair level You may or may not feel comfortable with that happening with the current environment which we're in So would it be easier to say, you know, this is our topic, you know We're not all having the meeting at the same time so that we can all discuss could we say, you know Crystal bullets our first choice is our second and it starts there but our priorities to share it across and then Take our chances. I would say we hire a legal counsel and say this is who we've hired We were first we're more than comfortable sharing this legal counsel with anyone else. It would like to join in Because if we don't do that today, that means we need to convene another special meeting After the other boards have met Right, but I was comfortable with this because this is so timely in my mind We select legal counsel tonight and we let all the other board chairs and boards know this is who we've selected We selected one because we were first. We didn't want to have to wait We're more than comfortable Coming to some kind of agreement to share counsel with anybody that's interested. I Have one reservation There are boards that are working on this lawsuit and I'm concerned that there will be overlap Questions I'm not sure how inextricably linked those things are so I'm not a hundred percent comfortable with sharing legal counsel given the tone and timbre of where we are at this point. I Would be a hundred percent comfortable with sharing legal counsel with the 32 board for example Not a party to the lawsuit Because we aren't are the only Elementary school not party to the lawsuit. I kind of in the back of my mind was a little concerned about that as well For clarity For clarity, are we the only elementary school not on the you 30 to yeah, but elementary. Yes. We're the only one so Doty did decide to join it. Yeah Late it's okay So that said, I think the legal questions that we're going to be encountering and Adrian Contacted bill as well. I think the legal questions that we're going to be considering are quite similar to what 32 is going to be looking at So I am comfortable with sharing legal counsel with you 32 But Ruben Ruben, I would say The legal questions are the same for all the schools whether you want to merge or not Yeah, I don't feel I Well ultimately we all have the same goals I don't know. I don't feel the same way. I think if we're gonna lead we we have to lead in some way Including others we we get the chance to pick whoever we want since we're going first, but we We have the same Educational outcomes we have the same responsibilities like Stephen was just saying so I don't see what I'd be perfectly Comfortable sharing especially knowing that if each school has a different lawyer then it's like well so and so is saying this and so and so is saying that and You know going back to our meeting on Mondays like this lawyer has this opinion this lawyer has that opinion It's just like ultimately we all want what is best for us as a whole. This is I don't know That's just me. I wouldn't be comfortable sharing with I agree in principle, but in practice Unfortunately other towns that Are not demonstrating that very well, so I I can be moved on this. I'm just I'm But they already have another lawyer They already have legal counsel is strictly about what it means to get a budget Under the act 46 it's going to apply to all of us and there shouldn't be a bias toward a school Lawsuit or doesn't have a lot exactly in that case for sharing make sense and the cost of this is also Yeah So if that's what the legal counsel is about and not well, we're still fighting the lawsuit so you don't need to worry about it I don't have a problem with sharing legal counsel if they're looking at the law and how we have to get a budget in the Time frame or we don't because the law says we don't that should be shared Bill you have a recommendation for exactly what the engagement with the attorney would look like for us Pass that a little differently because that engagements are pretty I guess I look at it sort of from project management. What what would the scope of this work for the attorney? I believe the attorney should advise you on what your requirements are via vis your teacher master agreement What your requirements are by statute for producing a budget what your authority is to present a budget to the voters of East Montpelier if you chose to do it locally or if you to advise you to what the authority is for emerged budget Because you need to make a decision third one those feel pretty hard horizontal to me right across And the third one may be more horizontal than I think Biosyns that other boards might bring to those Yeah, I don't where I was going with that is that if we pretty strictly scope this Put narrow parameters on the stoke of work that we are asking the attorney to do for us as a group My discomfort with sharing legal counsel is probably outweighed by my Desire to be efficient and cost effective and I agree with your assessment Ruben that We set narrow parameters for legal counsel We want them for these but you know I'm going to generalize but we want advice on how to proceed budget-wise in the current environment and Potential impacts on the teacher master agreement where we find ourselves currently and it's not about The merits of act 46 or is merger good or bad. It's specifically in my mind It's specific operation. It's specific to our schools and we need legal advice to keep our schools operational Besides contracts and budgets is what we had the next steps to you know, what are Well, I don't think legal counsel is going to tell us next steps. No, they will give you advice on where You need to be counseled and I want it in a way that you choose who it is That you get to hear the advice you as a board get to make the decisions You're not asking for anyone to do any interpretation. No, you do the interpretation. Yeah, yeah, all right So who can we find who are the recommendations that you brought with you so in Colin Chris Chris Leopold? Pietro Lynn Scott Cameron and Paul Giuliani can do the fiscal and I'm not sure he could do the contractual because he's a fiscal expert I mean this is all in school law, but I'm not sure I have to ask him about his contractual teacher contract And I I mean he could read a contract pretty well So I have a question for the rest of the board does anybody have any discomfort with using Chris Leopold No, no, no so my God He's the logical choice Well, he seems to be familiar with our system and people So Makes sense. Yeah, I agree like you were saying we were going to be efficient He doesn't have to restudy and figure out where we are at so I'll make a motion that we select Chris Leopold So we do it in the action agenda or you want to do it now? But I'll be quiet. Yeah, there's more discussion. So I was gonna is there any more discussion My only statement is Is when we make the motion is the motion going to include the scope my my motion would include a scope Thank you So then there's moving to the action agenda and select the council So I would make a motion that we select Chris Leopold to provide legal counsel on So I'm just going to put this out and I'll accept friendly amendments on that because I'm doing this off the top of my head on legal advice on how to proceed on Presenting a budget to our community and Impacts on the teacher. What is it called teacher teacher master agreement teacher master agreement? and I could include more with with With our purpose being we want to we want to make sure we take correct action to keep our schools operational Can I have a friendly amendment now? Yeah With a purpose being taking correct action to keep Taking action to ensure that our schools remain operational. I would my For our school, I was going to say Specifically state EMS in the motion. That's all we have authority to do So that it would be to keep our east one failure elementary school operational It has a person and it has what I think is pretty narrow scope. So can we read that motion again? um Yeah, made a motion to select Chris Leopold as leads a legal counsel for how to proceed on Presenting a budget to our community and impacts on the teacher master agreement with the purpose of being Taking correct action to ensure that Eastmont player elementary school remain operational There's in there's a bit fewer words. Oh someone can I just I started typing it Seek legal counsel for advice regarding next steps on budgets and teacher contracts, and I could put a comma with the purpose It's just fewer words my Might without getting too far in the wordsmithing. Maybe we put the objective first advice on how to Legally operate the school district given where we are including the teacher master agreement and An operational budget for f-line 1920 We're all in agreement. We're just trying to get the language right, so I'm completely flexible Elise should type down what Ruben said so she's not getting it all those Ruben. Can you say that again seek? seek press the appellate put my objective first right so the objective is to Maintain the operation of the school So I guess you could just flip what Steven said with that first part and I like that weekly Right with the purpose of we're looking for legal advice on how to On ensuring Eastmont player elementary school remain operational Regarding next steps on the budget and teacher contracts And I would say We're looking for right, so that's the broad-based advice. How do we keep the school operational? Including the civic agreement about the teacher master. Sorry including advice on the teacher master agreement and Presenting the budget for a point I came from right those are the two and I think I for what Ruben just said I think that's good. Yeah That way if we find ourselves Meeting advice some are outside of one of those two bullets It's likely be captured by the overarching objective, but it's still pretty specifically laid out Do you want me to read it back to you? Yeah So the motion was made to select Chris Leopold as legal counsel for advice on ensuring Eastmont player elementary school remain Operational including advice on the teacher master agreement in presenting a budget for the FY 1920 school year Yeah, that's perfect. I would second that motion. Who is making it? Okay, so Ruben and Steven, so do you have to withdraw your I withdraw my earlier motion. I Was just letting them draft the motion together All those in favor of proving the motion as Present it, please say aye. Hi You need to state your name on the phone and your vote, please Thank you One question that I would have it's where do we say that we are willing to share It's just part of the discussion or No, it wasn't part of I think it's just I My feeling is I would trust Ruben on the cheer level if a cheer outreach to Ruben Yeah, and said we would be interested in sharing counsel. I would be comfortable with Ruben as the cheer So should we just we just say, you know, yeah That will be in the minutes. We all will like to share If possible and you're saying sharing with any With anything a lot of your discussion Well, that's not an action agenda item, but it could show in our discussion And Ruben is that that is that the feeling you have from the discussion that we're willing to share legal counsel I read of the consensus is that everybody is comfortable with sharing legal counsel within the scope of what we just talked about And is everyone on the board comfortable? Yeah, as long as that's enough direction for you and bill I know that bill has been asking for more specific. So I'm just trying to be more specific Okay, I feel more comfortable with it. Okay, good And I feel like Ruben has a good sense of how we feel what our what our feeling is on it Ruben you said as long as it's within the scope and what if the other boards have a different scope Then at that point I would feel pretty strongly that I need to come back to the board for advice Yeah, no, I wouldn't feel strongly at that point. I would come back to the Generally speaking I tend to Ask for advice more than not because I don't want them to sort of represent the position of the board ever So do we have a sorry Do we have a sense of how long it would take Chris to kind of give us or is he gonna need The hardest part is gonna be coordinating calendars. Okay, Chris is I've talked to all four Yeah, I've talked to Paul, but I talked to the other three They're like Let us know when you can get everything put together They know the harder part is what we're trying to do here to all these board means put together And I guess I would like to have it I'd like to have it sometime next week So do we meet with him Like as a group as a group. Okay. So you're gonna let us know Well, I Think it would be in our best interest as well as everyone else that's trying to hire them for advice If at all possible if we could have that advice prior to town meeting Because it lets us I think talk more informed Well, even if it's not by this Saturday Yeah, so I am out of town Wednesday afternoon through Friday We're just gonna have to if we can get it quorum, we're just gonna have to do it Okay, I Know that we're you know ready to adjourn, but I'm wondering if we could like share correspondence and just get Just make sure everybody received that email that I sent yesterday and I feel pretty strongly about not Getting it back and forth even though it's Inaccurate the information that was supposed to in front porch forum one option that steal what I would say This would be my recommendation to go forward. There there wasn't When you call the meeting to order there wasn't a discussion of if there needs to be An adjustment to the agenda, yeah, I would be more comfortable with us agreeing to To add a discussion agenda item to the next on whatever that is and then if the board agrees to add that And I feel like it's more Formal Or Next steps, it's just we didn't have that Information on front porch forum. Yeah, so you're saying not for today. I guess I know I'm saying that we would amend our current agenda For today. Oh for today. Okay. Oh, you want it in a future? No, I didn't know what you were saying I want to talk about it today So we would have to amend our agenda for today. Yeah to add a discussion item about front porch forum communication Is that what it is? Yes So do do I need a motion for that or can you just since I didn't call it at the beginning because I didn't Meeting hasn't been adjourned. Yeah, I don't know why you can't there's no reason you can't go Back so I've never had to I've never overseen a meeting where agenda items were voted on have you Reuben? No No, it's more of a courtesy. Yeah Okay, 2.2 So I just want to quickly point out that we Have a presentation that we're preparing for town forum I find it likely that Much of the information that people might be seeking will be in that presentation I agree Especially if it involves a New whatever people want to call it district budget versus an east Montpelier budget discussion so The presentation that you're working on Right now it was basically just our budget right Reuben Sorry, I didn't hear you the presentation that you're working on right now the last time we spoke It was it was mainly just showing, you know, we're The pie that we stay basically an instructional and you know, just how we budget it So are you saying that you're free? Okay But not a budget of what is not till your voters are used to No, correct, but there's going to be questions about what I My question was not as much about that but as much as the information posted in front porch forum Yesterday We may want to decide Whether we want to include a summary of where we are right now In that same presentation that so that's what I was saying. We we should include something on act 46 Just where are we at? Especially by then we have some advice from a deli council. We should have a little slight I'm happy to help with that together, but just where we are If there's any questions My recommendation is what what I was saying was that I think this Town forum and the presentation therein is the appropriate Vehicle for delivering that information Yeah, Ruben, are you sharing rather than engaging in a point by point back and forth? I think as a board we would be Wise to Summarize where we are how we've gotten here and And be very factual about The process that we're following at this point To the degree that we can Okay, and and Ruben what I was going to suggest And this is just my feeling We we do a very short limited in scope presentation on where we're at right now in act 46 Because my impression is That there's going to be more questions And and keep our presentation Fairly concise fairly short completely factual and then have accumulated as much information So what's going on in some of the subcommittees? What's going on with the transition board all these different things? Let's not present it, but let's have that information available So if people ask specific questions we can respond as best we can I think if we try to anticipate what all the questions will be it'll be a three-day presentation Ruben are you in the past? I think you've shared something on front porch forums before The link or something are you doing that this year just at town meeting? I hope to and Like these things often do so I have not gotten Bill did I Was lorry going to send just those basic slides over? No, that's not the plan we had had you were going to you said you could develop it if you needed information I was just going to just take it out of last year Yeah, and you were going to ask me for to help fill in questions Which I was willing to do because I was trying to help keep lorry from doing a lot of extra So what so then Um got it. Okay, but I'm still you know, I'm around I'm willing to give you all that support Ruben Of getting the information so even if you took the power Yeah, if you went through there and just even took the PowerPoint highlighted get me this year's figures for this this and this Exactly. I can find it for you. I'm just trying not to task things to lorry right now Okay, so so what I'm what I'm The feeling that I'm getting is that you guys are okay not getting back and forth the french word forum I shared a letter with you guys the correspondence with susan clark and And if anybody has questions, they will call Any of us on that specific post? I feel like our intent has been clear for Years that as individual board members we are not going to engage in in Um social media discussions as an individual board member We can't do that. Yeah, and that's how I felt but I might not be bad to Oppose the minutes don't go ahead. I agree with that sentiment. I guess I've already been approached by two people about that I Don't want to get into a back and forth. There's nothing about it that I I tried to I want to engage in but My point of view on this whole that whole Uh post was You know from my perspective as a board member and as a public person is when somebody approaches us with A suggestion or a recommendation that we at least consider it and And I would hope that the community agrees on that And we did not make that recommendation to go forward. We made the recommendation to potentially Hey review review options. That's all I think we Yeah, we would have put it for them So I guess my point is if we do start filling 25 calls. I would like to post something A little rebuttal saying it wasn't we're not recommending to go away from Well, I talked the floor on the way in and what what what I would say would be The best way is refer them So the minutes to the meeting where this Topic was discussed or located at these places Is a board member you could say if you're unable to go I'm happy to print out a copy of them and give you those minutes and then you can see What was discussed in the context of what it was discussed in? Okay, yeah Or to links we can yeah, we can because at this point it's not even a school board Yeah, and I think that was really that it's really hard to why I was saying that way you're saying Here's the information that I have here's where it is Yeah, and the other thing I'd say So I'm sorry. I'm talking So I feel like I've had experience with lots of scenarios to me It's different if an individual community member comes up to me and asks me something Um, I'm still going to have to be you know, if it's something that's for an administrator to decide I'm going to say you need to see the administrator or you know, what the process is But a one-on-one is different than a A social media post Um So I mean In my mind, there's a big difference between my next door neighbor coming over and asking me You know what went on as compared to doing a social media post You know, it would be in my mind a social media post is if I wrote an article to the Times Argus you know To me that's different and I'm Then I'm representing a large group to a large group as compared to a one-on-one with a person But in this case I prefer them to the minutes Lindy the focus of that had to do with something in the articles of agreement which we haven't voted on or been a part of yet So nothing's been passed And there was also a meeting of the articles of agreement committee As a board have no position on right Yeah, well and and the information was inaccurate even you know, so so yes, we had put in a recommendation But she didn't even understand what Right, yeah, so Again if there was if they're referred if they're referred to the minutes of a meeting that They're referred to the the root source Of uh Minutes of a meeting. I think that's the best we can do Okay so anything else otherwise 4.0 and we can adjourn I have nothing else Okay, all those in favor of adjourning the meeting at 12 50 Please say aye. All right Okay, the meeting is adjourned Thank you all