 Starting the October 19th meeting of the Rocksbury Board of School Directors meeting at 6.34. First call to order is public comment. I definitely see we have some members of the public. I definitely see some of them look like track folks. So please, we have some folks on the line as well. So if you do want to make public comment, please go ahead and line up in order and announce your name quickly. And also just, we don't want to cut anyone short, but we have heard a lot about this. So you can keep your statements brief if you want to. We're pretty aware of the issues and definitely know that it has a lot of support. So Tim, go for it. I taped it out so it's real short this week. Perfect. Announce your name please. I'm Tim Neumar. So I wrote them here as a show of support for moving the track project forward. My concern is that if we continue to linger on the realm of all possibilities, we'll inevitably have the choices made for us by circumstance. I work in facilities. I know how this works. I feel like if we continue to contemplate the possibilities, that we're going to end up having a circumstance where this is no longer going to be possible. And I feel like that's going to be a huge loss and a huge opportunity for the children and for the community. So I'm here to support moving this thing forward. Thanks. Great. Thanks Tim. Go ahead. So I'm Ann Hilar. I'm in grade and I've been on the track team for three years. And we're like one of the only schools that has a dirt track. And it gets muddy. Like we have to paint the lines. And if it rains, then we have to redo the next day. And it takes a lot of effort. And it would be really helpful if we just had the track that was already done. And we would be faster. Like the first in sixth grade, we were undefeated. And we had a dirt track. So if we had a better track, then we could maintain our undefeated score through the next year. And it just helps people connect. And it's a fun program. So I'm in favor of it. Great. Thanks Emma. Hey folks, Jim, I'll try to be brief as well. And you all have seen my email. Obviously you also supported the track project moving it forward. Kind of echoing what Tim said. I worry a little bit about analysis paralysis. That if we keep thinking about other things that we also need to consider at a certain point, we might always have to spend another year thinking about it. And then spend another year thinking about it. And then there will be cost increases. And then at a certain point, we move on to other things that have never happened. So I hope that while I love for you all to say, hey, let's go for it. But I understand too that that might not happen this evening. So what I really love to understand and have clarified if we can't move forward and make great things happen is knowing from you all, either individually or collectively, what that good enough information is that you need in order to then make a decision. Because we're never going to have perfect information. There's always going to be a thousand other reasons to never build the track and spend those funds on something else for the school. That's just reality. So what good enough information do you need? And then when you have it, maybe it's tonight, maybe it's in a week, maybe it's in a year, then you can say, now I'm ready to vote. And not, oh, but now we need to know this. And now we need to know this. So I think criteria that clarifies process and decision making. And it's also going to be important because we, as parents, are going to then try to explain to our kids if it's happening great and what it might entail or if it's not happening yet, when the board might know enough in order to make a decision to decide if it is ever going to happen or not. So I would really appreciate that clarity. And I'll leave it at that. And thanks again for ever just being here and caring. Thanks. Thanks, Jim. Hi, my name is Ezra Meryl Triplett. I'm one of the team captains for one player cross country and track and field. We've been running on this nice track since middle school. And I've been getting for a new track, I guess it's the second year now. Yeah, it's where the capital, it feels like we should have a better facility than this. I mean, we can host the state meet if we did. And it just seems kind of like a waste having just this track. I mean, we have such a big middle school, our high school is expanding to just team members and cross country and track and field and really feels like we should have a bigger facility and just higher quality in general. Thank you. Thanks, Ezra. Beth? Thanks again for all of your service for being here for the other week. I'm Beth Merrill. I'm here as a parent of both a middle school and high school student of kids who have participated in track and cross country. For each of my kids, running has meant something different. I think it's the diversity of what this sport offers is really amazing. For one, it's a calling that shaped his middle school and high school teenage existence. And for another, it's finding grit and learning how to do hard things in a way that I wasn't able to teach. And beyond my own kids, I now teach Spanish at the middle school and I also supervise sixth grade lunch and recess. And I see the kids at the middle school with their track jackets and just their level of pride at being part of something, being part of the team. And I think that track and running sports offer that individual for kids who, being on a team or paying for club sports is not an option. This is a place where they can find a place in throwing and a jumping and a running. And they can hop in in middle school or hop in high school and still have success. So as a teacher, with the issues that I see there, I feel like the greatest need of these kids right now is to learn, again, how to be together in a supervised recreational environment for a common good, toward a common goal. And Track and Field provides that opportunity for so many kids. And I think, I just feel that our kids now merit a facility that's safe and new where that community can happen. So thank you again for considering it. Thanks, by the way. Hey there. Hello, sir. You're in a lot. I'm Nate Nussuter. I'm a parent of a high school student and a middle school student. I'm obviously a resident and also the middle school track and field coach. And as always, I want to thank you all for the work you do and the uncountable hours you put in. I took some time this afternoon to read through the facilities report that I think Andrew LaRosa and staff must have prepared in advance of this meeting tonight. And I was struck once again by the maturity with which our district goes about so many pieces of what you do. You know, the capital fund that is now part of our practice every year and the approach to, hey, we know that roofs cost a lot of money. So let's plan ahead for when we're going to need a new roof. And looking back at recent improvements on heat pumps or redoing the softball field. And it just strikes me that this is a district that behaves responsibly to its facilities and to its community by thinking ahead and planning ahead and then making things happen. And I look at the track out there and I think about when was the last time that had any TLC or attention. And we now have tons and tons and tons of kids performing in these programs using that facility. And I think if we put that, you know, you have already committed a significant amount of funds for it. If we move on that now, then that's resolved. And you can look ahead to the next thing and the next thing which is evident in Andrew's report and is evident in all of your thinking. And so I just, I hope we can get to yes on the track project, move forward with that and then look ahead with pride knowing that you take this very deliberate approach to everything you do. So thank you. I hope you can get to yes. Okay. Thanks, Evan. Anyone else in the in-person audience? Great. Thank you. Thank you. We have Tracy on Zoom. Tracy. Again, restate your hand for us. I'm going to read your questions. So. So. Oh, Lisa too. Okay. And Mary. Okay. So we'll do Tracy, Lisa, and then Mary. Thank you. Residents. Residents. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So this is your appointment. We need to do more clean, clean air and they've had the variation of priority. Right now the school's only half murder times. And that's not going to be sufficient to give the size of the sars to fill the virus. Certainly as of today we have 66 current hospitals, age with six people who fixed current hospital as age with six people. There's an 18% positive seven day average and not too long ago at 5% they said that would be uncontrolled spread and it's a severe undercount by at least four to five times. We had 112 cases today. 85 of them are confirmed by PCR which is very difficult to get. 27 are probable. That's the antigen tests. People are not reporting their antigen test. I know people myself are not reporting them. We need to actually avoid infections and to do that we need to clean the air. Kids do get sick and there are long term consequences to that. It's not the acute infections that people are worried about, especially with the vaccine vaccinations. It's the silent quiet longer term damage that's being done. The endothelial damage, the vascular damage, the neurological damage, the immune system damage. There are hundreds if not thousands of journal articles out there that's done by the scientific community and a quick search on PubMed or anything like that will bring you that information. This is actually a very severe thing just because the kids are being affected but you might not see it right away but it's going to affect them in the long term for the rest of their lives as well as the adults who work in the system. And if anybody wants any of the articles that I have, please contact me. And that's all I have to say right now. Thank you. Elizabeth, you can go ahead. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I lost connection for a moment. I'm going to swim upstream and say that I want to first thank the school board for representing all of our district students, their families and taxpayers as you consider the particulars of spending. Your votes will reflect your prioritization of the elements of public education. We're now in the midst of the greatest educational losses in the history of American public education. Correction of these losses will cost us in the Montpelier Roxbury School District millions of dollars over the next several years. Two of our four buildings are dilapidated. The high school will require a new roof in the next five years. We're scheduled for PCB testing and all buildings that will likely increase our walls. And the school board has publicly committed to making our facilities green. These projects combined with many others will cost our school district many, many, many millions of dollars in the next several years. So getting to the two to five million dollar track proposal, I make the following observations. Athletics are rightly highly valued in our society. And the importance of team sports to be able in our school district should not be underestimated. However, only approximately 20% of our entire school population participates in school athletics in any given year. So I asked the school board if you can publicly justify spending two to five million dollars for a track for the few when we have existential issues with our buildings and with our academics that affect 100% of our students. And if you can justify that spending, how much other funding will be left to future taxpayer bonds? Thank you. All right. Thank you, Lisa. Looks like we have married. Would you mind the phone? Yeah, there's nothing going on at home. Can you mute the MHS mic? There's something going on for people at home. Yeah. Oh, is it near the fan? No, I think there's a feedback. I think it's getting me talking back to Jillian. Is that going we can hear you clearly? I can't hear you anymore, but give me a thumbs up if you can hear me. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you for your patience. Hi, everybody. My name is Marie Harris. I'm a Montpelier resident, former middle school teacher, current assistant coach for both middle school track and cross country here in Montpelier. And I just wanted to add on to already what's been said by some of our athletes today, and also other coaches and parents of the team. I don't have any kids myself. But helping out with coaching the team, I can just see how incredibly dedicated the coaches and all the athletes are to this program and seeing how much it has grown in the past few years and how much how much community support there is behind the program. It would be really fantastic to get these folks a proper facility. I did cross country and track growing up as an uncoordinated teenager and for someone who ball sports were not really an option. I've always really appreciated how track and cross country balls are welcoming to all different types of students. Something that is super important when we're looking at sort of the scope and the breadth of offerings in the school community that it really is a place for everybody and students can be there taking the athletic component of it as seriously as they want to. They're getting the socialization, they're getting fresh air, they're getting exercise, all these things in a semi semi structured environment that is substantively different from the rest of their school day and the type of interactions they're having with their peers during the school day. And that kind of slight slightly less structured environment that still has adults monitoring and managing young people, especially adolescents is so important for their kind of well rounded growth outside of just academics. So just adding my two cents that I would really love to see us be able to host some more substantive meets maybe even states here in their capital city, and also for our practices to have had students both middle school and high school be able to really have facilities that allow them to train and be ready for competition and see their growth over time. So I hope thank you all for listening very much for considering it and I know you're weighing a lot, but wanted to throw in my additional support for moving forward with the track with the track proposal. Thank you. Thank you. And I think I don't see anyone else. No, okay, great. Thank you everyone for the thoughtful comments. And we will be getting to that discussion in just a moment after we go through the consent agenda and then hear from from Eric and Zach. So consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'm pulling up we had language that we have to add the warrants so I'm just pulling that language up. Thank you. So that we include that in the motion. Okay, I move we approve the consent agenda with the inclusion of the 10 14 22 and 9 30 22. Actuals warrants for approval. No second. Any discussion? One sort of thing that I wanted to highlight in the superintendent report about the data meetings that are very exciting. And just wondering if there is going to be any sort of like high level. I know that individual student data cannot be shared with the board or the public, but will there be any sort of high level reporting out of those? I believe if you look on the yearly thing, it's next board meeting. Great. Yeah, I have a follow question to that. Is that going to when you went with that presentation have that data connected to the continuous improvement plan? Yes. Awesome. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the consent agenda? Hi. Hi. Any opposed? Consent agenda passes. American Zach. Got a presentation. It's like I share the presentation with them. Yeah, it's like Libby is pulling it up right now. Oh, you know what, Anna, you're going to have to pull it up because my zoom on this computer isn't working to share my screen for some reason. You're not co host right now. No, it's something I switched computers and it's something with the actual computer that's not letting me do it. You see it? See it? Oh yeah, it's weird. Yeah. Is Anna able to do it? Can Anna hear you? She shouldn't be able to hear me. Are my son now? Are my son back on? Yes. Well, we're not muted anyway. Yeah, I can see it. Amanda, can you share the student presentation from your end? My computer is not letting me do it. We can also just read through it. There's not a lot of Go for it. Go for it and start it and then when Anna will catch up. Awesome. Thank you back. So this is student representative board address for over 19. Alrighty, so good evening, everyone. Me and Zach just have a short update tonight. As always, we'll start off with some current events in the schools, and then we're going to outline our tentative plan for the for new student representatives or future student representatives and clarifying the process that we thought about around that. And in tandem with that, we're going to share our thoughts for the formation of a student school board subcommittee. So I'll let Zach take it away with current events. So some current events at MHS is Harvest Fest is this Thursday. And then show choir will be performing there, but also November 3rd, 7pm on the MHS stage. There will be a performance. Would you guys mind telling us what the harvest so essentially it's a celebration of a fall like a fall celebration and on Harvest Fest, the day itself, there's all these activities that various staff and teachers and other community individuals put on. And then all these students get to engage in these really cool events and teachers too. So I don't know. There's like singing. Yeah, it's a huge meal together. Food. Yeah, it's like a full day event here at the high school tomorrow. Super fun. Alrighty, so moving on to the our plan for future student representatives and first some context over the past month or so me, Zach, Emma, and Matt McLean here at the high school have all been corresponding and thinking about how we can, you know, clarify the process for future representatives on this on this board, student representatives. That is tentatively a rough outline of what we've decided on is full year terms, staggering appointments into two periods so that there's always a member who can help guide another incoming student representative. And along with that, we're planning to stick with appointments for now, but we are interested in moving toward elections in some capacity and we're still figuring out what that would be, but that's something to note. And we also thought that offering a small financial incentive to these student representatives might help encourage a greater diversity of applicants. And as we talk about in the subcommittee section of our presentation, we think that the creation of a student led subcommittee of the school board would be a great way to engage both students in the school in school board affairs, as well as help student representatives expand their, you know, research and reach in regards to, you know, their capacity to do research and so forth. So we also came to a bit of an agreement on making the next appointment for a new rep this spring. That way, that rep will get a little experience over the summer and then can help guide the rep in the fall accordingly. This is all just a bit of a tentative plan we have, but it was what we all came up with together. And then more about the student school board sort of subcommittee that Mary mentioned is we want to begin the process of forming a student representative led school board committee, like a group of students who are interested in how the board works and helping out. We had a lot of different people apply and we talked, we just talked about including everyone into that and that would serve as a point for getting feedback from everyone, reaching more people, having more like different connections within the community. It could definitely help with research and presentations and getting a view of the whole picture and it helps students engage in the school board process and prepare to be future representatives, if that's something they're interested in and it doesn't setting up the committee itself doesn't seem too difficult. So it's something we're definitely thinking about and we're excited about. Yeah, and that's that's pretty much it actually for tonight, but we're welcome. If you guys have any questions or what you guys think about some of the ideas we came up with. Questions for Morgan, Zach? Yeah, I think this is awesome. I thank you for putting in the work and I missed our meeting with Matt. But I appreciated the minutes and stuff. So what I think the next steps are the sub committee is like the right. And when you say sorry, when you say spring, are you talking about January for a new appointment? We were thinking actually May was the date we were thinking that way over the summer. Yeah, somebody is both like the process would start more in April, but then the actual appointment would happen in May. Okay. And that in May of 2023, we would appoint two people in May. There'd only be one person appointed and then that way that person can get some experience over the summer and through the end of the year and then can help guide the appointee in the fall. So that's how we that's how we'd stagger them. I see. Okay. To be like a spring appointment that will fall? Yeah. But then moving forward, it would just be in fall. And I mean, these dates aren't like official. It could be it could be even earlier than May, it could be March or anything, the sorts. Okay. And so the idea would be that we'd have like kind of a senior bringing out a junior and that junior would become a senior and bring out another junior or something more or such a thing. Like, you know, that kind of experience I would difference. I mean, I don't I don't know if with staggered starts I think it would have to be like a upperclassmen and a lower classmen. Otherwise, two seniors were doing it. I don't think that would work. Yeah. So to have the overlap ongoing with a one year term, you would need to have an appointment in May and appointment in fall. Yes. Right. Not just one in May. So every year there'd be two appointments staggered. Yeah, like two processes. Yeah. Oh, I thought it was like get one member this May because we have two that are outgoing, get a new member in May, then get another second member in fall and then the following fall, it would just be one person. But then that if it's a one year appointment, if it was a two year appointment, I can see that. But I thought I heard one year point. So if it's a one year appointment to have that staggered, you'd need to have two one in fall. But I mean, that is another idea. Like we could point the two in the spring or the fall event and then not have that person start their term officially until the following season. OK. Or there could be. How it falls with the school board committee, like the student committee that you want to create, like I got that relationship. What does it look like? Well, so hopefully it would be a way to potentially repair future people who are interested in being student representatives. It would be led by the current student representatives and it would be a way for those individuals to expand their outreach into the community and expand their capacity for research and so forth and just helping those individuals preparing things and so forth, I would say. But it would still be school board related work. Does that make sense? Yeah. Thank you. If you don't have an answer for this right now, that's totally fine. But I'm curious how you might envision the election part of it working. Yeah, you do. We talk about this a lot. Yeah. Yeah, we definitely want to like work on making the process so we don't have anything set. But we just thought it would be fun to and just useful to engage all the community with like the school community with the election process. So it's like representatives of of the of MHS and just having people be more aware of it. So it would be just like. I remember we talked about it was I mean, it'd be kind of a tactic almost for like promoting engagement in the school board among students as well as like the subcommittee. Like there's all this happening and then the people who don't win could potentially transfer over to the subcommittee. Yeah. And still be engaged. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, for specifically the election itself, we're not really sure on what that might look like. We talked about having a valid and so forth and then having the top four. So people then come to the board for the actual appointments, like a nomination of some kind. We also have direct elections or yeah, I don't know. It's something to consider further. Cool. I'm really glad you're thinking about it. Yeah. No lessons in democracy are definitely not bad things. So what are the next steps? Is there anything that we have to vote on? Is there like really? Well, when we said that setting up the subcommittee wouldn't be too difficult, I don't think that it would require a board action actually. I think it would be kind of set up just like any other school extracurricular. So I think I mean, I can talk more with Malmuclain about the official process for that. But I don't think it's too complicated. So that'd be the next step, setting up the subcommittee officially. Yeah, no, I don't think we need to take action for that either. We just need to take action for the appointment. So that process plays out is we're happy to support and give what we can to make it happen. And also, I just would encourage you to think of the subcommittee as being representative of multiple schools. So not like a Montpelier High School Club, but like or whatever, that it would be like a district wide thing that even elementary school kids could partake in. Totally agree. I think that's like that'd be so ideal if we could get more diversity of voices besides as high schoolers and school board work. That'd be like a great way to establish the mentorships between high schoolers and middle schoolers and middle schoolers in the elementary. Definitely. Yeah. So yeah, I'm happy to meet with you about sort of moving forward. But I mean, you guys are so good at being independent, but we can meet and talk about moving forward with the subcommittee. Great. Yeah. And what I can do to help. Oh, yes. Sorry. I just barely raised my hand here. OK. I like the idea of nomination, like the election and the nominations, because we didn't know you folks. Folks don't know us until we're elected. And it's really important that folks understand the level of commitment and you were both able to articulate like why you would make excellent candidates. You were able to articulate your communication and your outreach with your peers and you were able to articulate the understanding of the commitment. Right. So I think that is a really important part of the process at some point. You know, we want to make sure folks know what they're getting themselves into. Right. And also that they they are able to sort of demonstrate the skills that you folks have had to to talk to everybody. So. Especially if it is like a year long. Just a clarifying question. So if this is getting coordinated through Matt, does that mean that this is being presented as like an opportunity for a flexible pathway and that you can kind of link proficiencies to the experience and kind of accomplish some of that work through your participation in either the subcommittee or as student board members? I possibly I mean, I know like in in debate specifically, they just started doing that for that club. And I'm pretty sure like the process for proficiencies and so forth and translating translating it into credit is pretty independent. It's like, you know, you write, these are the skills I'm going to work on and these are the action steps that I'm going to take with that. So maybe not I'm not totally sure. It was discussed with Matt originally when we were talking about this role. And at that time it was there was it was complicated and it was also like, let's think of this as sort of like a separate volunteer effort and not like a school credit thing that if there was a conversation, I can't remember all the details of the conversation, but it was a conversation about like separating it from credit so that it was I don't know, like not not tied to your transcript and stuff that it was like a separate volunteer activity and I'm not sure what where he would stand on that if we repost the question now. But we could. Yeah, it's definitely a good idea. Other comments? So what what are the next steps are you guys just going to continue to work with Matt? I mean, I think I think it sounds like the four things is a great idea. Do you work with that? I think that's the next step. Setting up with Matt, like explicitly, how do we create a subcommittee or so forth? There's a group of people. Yeah, you can go from there. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. Appreciate the thought you guys have given on this. You know, again, your contribution to the board have been fantastic and it's really been great to have you evolve. So. And continuing involvement and finding a way to make that more robust is is really important. Thank you. Yes. Andrew. Your early facilities overview. So I wanted to. This is going to be relatively straightforward. Fortunately, you guys saw this back in like March. So we're kind of on the schedule that we should be doing this and presenting this in the fall. So I'm not going to go for too much ground that we had to cover a while ago, but it's more of an update where we've been since the last time we've met and some things and also give an update on some of the larger projects that we already got in the works. So one of the things that we really wanted to do this summer was give everybody some time off, so much deserved and earned time off. So really, we didn't get cracking in the schools until after July 5th, which was OK. Everybody needs a time off. So some of the big projects that we tackled here within the district was down in Roxbury. We put in heat pumps in five of the three classrooms and the administrative spaces. That is working well. We actually are going to be integrating them into the new DC control system that we also installed down there this this year. So we can go from basically people turning their stats on their walls to 72 degrees October 15th and turning them off. Well, probably never. Just one gets to 72 degrees all year long, all winter long, all breaks along. So now and not knowing there's a problem until Tina shows up in the morning. Now Tom can at his home at four o'clock in the morning when he does check the temperatures in the buildings. He can do that from his home. So it's been that piece has been great. Again, we're in the process of integrating those systems in the DC control system. That's probably the biggest project we had down at Roxbury. At Union, it was a time for Tara, who's done an amazing job over there to get her feet under over there and learn the building. And that's not to say that we didn't. We actually renovated two classrooms, the two that are adjacent to the main office, put a new flooring and lights and paint and all that, which was which was great, as well as some other projects. And what Tara and Nikki, who Nikki is doing equally as well at Main Street Middle, have been doing is there a fresh set of eyes in those buildings. So things that people just accept it as that's just the way it is. They don't have that mentality that it's when we did Tom as Tom and I encourage them and expect them to say, Hey, this is broken and needs to be fixed. And we do our time just to have to do that in a timely manner. And just to interrupt you for a second for our audience at home, Tara and Mickey are head custodians. Tara is the head custodian at UES and Mickey's the head custodian at MSMS. And Tom is our custodial supervisor in charge of everybody whose office is here, but he's all around the district. At Main Street, we the big projects that took place, the big project that took place there was the Shine Space, which was actually an SR three funded project. And now let Libby kind of explain a little bit more what that space is used for if people need it. But it's a support. It's a student support space dedicated. Do you have that high quality so people know what the investments are about? I don't want to use the long terminology as much as I do. It's for kids who need a space to to regulate their bodies and systems and learn social skills in a more intensive way than other kids do. Right. And we also created a again, people will not use the correct term, but a smaller for lack of a better term, a sensory type space for someone where we can swing things like that and put appropriate padded flooring down and bought the proper equipment for that space as well over there. Mickey also is a stickler thing one sees in Washington's car twice a week or knows that he likes things just so. So things like exposed pipes that people just took for granted at Main Street Middle School for however many years that they built a chase almost to the ceiling. We fixed that. We got them all the way to the ceiling pipes that were kind of here. We moved to here. Those types of things. So Main Street is looking great. He also redid the some gym storage area and school storage areas. So taking off a lot of that kind of stuff. And again, really letting them get to know their buildings. Here at the high school, the biggest projects that we took care of this summer was a new DC control system that now replaced all the valves and all the sensors and will have all new thermostats. Those are still in the way that actually have CO detection. So when a room gets stuffy, they automatically open up. All the other buildings already have that. This was the last building that didn't have that. So now we have that in place. The other, we did a few cosmetic things here at the high school. But again, this summer was really kind of catching up and letting the new folks get acclimated to their spaces. With regards to some of the bigger projects that we've talked about over the last couple of years and I apologize. I don't have my proper glasses. The heat pumps, we've got a couple of classrooms that we still have to do down there. The money that was allocated to do that work, there's still money in there. So we should be able to finish that those other rooms. We didn't want to overextend ourselves. Not knowing where we are. So I'm going to go through this list and I'm going to, I'll just tell you the funding source and where we are with it. So it's the Essar 3 project for the Special Ed space at Union Elementary. We have Katie and Peggy Sue and Jessica have met and talked over those spaces. We've also looked at the spaces with the architects back a year or so ago. Katie, myself and the architects have a meeting in the next week to go through their notes and look at that. The same process with the multi-purpose room over at Union, going through. Katie is really kind of the lead on that right now, gathering information from her staff on what is needed up there. Again, all the spaces have been, we have all the existing drawings done for these spaces and we're really just, we're really now starting to get into the design work. The auditorium renovations, that one we were pretty far along. That's a capital fund project. We were pretty far along with that one last year. But we decided to hold on that just because we didn't want to, we didn't want to throw that on Tara. But that one we've, we're going to be, the biggest questions there that we're going to have is whether we restore the seats or replace the seats. And we're also working with Kiana on integrating the back of the house stuff with the in it, with the front of house stuff. She has great confidence and we, equipment that we took from the high school and what they've got over there that there really probably isn't going to be a big need for a lot of new lighting into that nature over there. We're just going to make sure that we integrate what we have wisely. As sort of three, little jam over at Union. Again, we've met with MJ and Mr. Williams and we're going to go back to them next week with preliminary designs to get their feedback on those projects. Window replacement. I have a meeting with the Montpelier Court Historic Preservation Commission on November 8th. We're going to send them, I'm going to send them for their review. The study that I've done that the building and energies committee has seen looking at the beta test that we did for the windows. This is, their sign off is not required. But it's a good, it's good to have their input and make sure that they're on board with it. Also, when we go to do Main Street Middle School windows, those are within Design Review District. So it kind of gives them a sense of what we're looking at. So that's moving along. The kitchen and cafeteria renovations, we've met with the architect and Jim Birmingham and the pre-existing condition drawings have been done. That we're working with kitchen consultants on making that work. Main Street Middle School, SR3, the playground. That project, we have done some soil testing over there. We don't expect to find anything but we should do it now so we can plan for anything. One of the big things that came out of our, walked around with Julie over there was we've set up outdoor seating outside the cafeteria at the middle school and it's been a real hit. Blimey. It alleviates some of the pressures on the cafeteria. Right now they're doing four seatings over there. So there's a little more elbow room than there used to be within the actual cafeteria. But they like that outdoor seating area so we want to make that so it's not a mud pit in the, well after the second of the school and all the grass is gone. Retaining walls. Maybe working with the gazebo to make it more of a teaching space. Some proper seating and really finding some spaces that are appropriate for the youngest fifth grader and the oldest eighth grader. Sustainability Lab. That is a capital fund project and that one, we've talked to Julie a little bit about that one and I think that she's, we're thinking that one's probably not going to take place this summer. Most of the projects that we've talked about so far, I anticipate could take place this coming summer. We have to talk the principles and as a group need to talk about how much we're tearing apart. Do we stagger it? Do we care for the apart and get you done with it? Or do we leave the school untouched until next year? After three funds need to be spent by next September, by September of 2024. 24, I think. Okay, sorry, sorry. Two summers on. But well, that's a logistics thing that we'll figure out. But I think Julie also wants to think about that more about that as well as there's a new sort of maker space down there and the wood shop is now in a transition. So we had kind of an opportunity to rethink that whole program down there and what we can make sure that we don't build things twice. So there's some thought on that. Windows at Main Street, again, same as this union. We will get going on union windows first just because that's an easier building to get rolling on. So we'll do that and once we get our feed numbers on that one, we'll decide whether we finish off union, then move to Main Street or bring both up together. Three acres of storm water at the high school. So the state requires now any property over three acres, any business or entity over three acres. And if there's anybody that works in this, forgive me for using the wrong terms. But basically you have to bring your water quality, storm water quality stands up to I think 50% of what the new storm water regulations are. So that's across the board. We're doing it. Everybody's doing it. We are in great position on that one. We have basically a 95% set of drawings and we're just waiting for somebody to hand us a check. And we've heard rumors that the state will be paying that. There will be money for that. There is going to be money for that. We just don't know when it's gonna wrap. But we're gonna be ready for this one with our hands out on that one. One of the interesting things about that project is that there is a 90, 110 rule on that one. What the state will say, what they've said is that they will pay 90% of the project and you pay 10% of the project. Or they'll pay 100% of the project if you pay 10% of that 100 towards an educational component. So the project when we last had it, we, thanks to Michelle Brown, years ago, that's why we're in such good position. Michelle and friends of the Newsby helped us get rolling on this four years ago. Yeah, a while, a long time ago. Four years ago. So that piece is out there. Oh, so when we estimated it back then, it was like $250,000. So it'd be $25,000 or $35,000. Who knows where that's gonna come. But that piece, so, and I think that, though the stormwater was in the meeting with some consultants of the state that said last March, said if anybody wants to start working on it this summer, go ahead. There's a lot of people saying, well, we don't generally have $400,000 just sitting waiting to spend on stormwater stuff. But I do think we want to be the first to do it, take advantage of it while the money's there because I think it's, who knows how long it's gonna go. Those are the big esser and capital fund projects that you've heard about over the last, the last couple of years. Any questions? Some of these other things that you've seen in here, you know, the roof summary, that's just something that we've been playing defense with COVID for so long. This is just a piece of information that I'm gonna collect over the year so we have it. We need to make sure that we're going. Green building activities, kind of separated this out a little bit. Again, RDS, we've got the heat pumps between the heat pumps and the DDC control down there. I think we're gonna see, not the small building, but we're gonna see significant energy savings down there. It's just remarkable. Again, the DDC control, it's all in that meter down there. Union, we're on district heat. We actually are meeting with our engineers next week and the city. There is, I won't confuse you with the way that we get charged for district heat, but sort of there's a capacity charge and then there's a usage charge. And there's a trick that if instead of just turning the valve 100% in the morning versus turning the valve there slowly over the course of an hour, we actually can save a significant portion of money doing that. Don't even. How in the world do you figure that out? We'll take your word for it. Don't even. Because I think it's what it is, is if everybody turns the valves at the same time, they have to build a plant this big to take that big slug. But if everybody turns it slowly, they could build, essentially, they don't need that capacity right on board because they can keep up with it as it generates up. Sure. Okay. I trust you. Well, maybe the analogy is if you were at home and you take a shower and wash the dishes and do something else all at once, your hot water tank gets cold. Whereas if you turn this, take a shower and then do your dishes and then do something, it can keep up with it. Yep. Sure. Let's go with that. Let's go with that. David assured me that if we can do that, we can save some money over there. Sorry, just to hang out in the basement for an hour in the morning. So that we're working on. Main Street, really, the big piece that we had, again, unions and net meters, all the buildings, I'm going to stop saying, all the meters are, 85% of our power is generated in a solar field somewhere. It's only 25% because that's all they are allowed to sell us because they can't guarantee 100%. So the powers that they don't sell us 100% because it's probably going to do it. So that's why that sort of happened about 85%. Main Street, the biggest thing over at Main Street has been the good work that Mickey and Tom and our controls and our HVAC people have been doing over there of just going through the system and, again, that sort of, well, this room has always been hot, doesn't exist anymore. And this room has always been cold, doesn't exist anymore. Or it won't be cold for much longer because we're fixing it. High school, again, lighting, anytime we do lighting, that's kind of the big thing here. So as a district, we recycled 800 fluorescent bulbs this year. That wasn't just from this year, but we were tired of tripping over them and garbage cans full of them. So we boxed them all up and got rid of them. There was 800 of them. So gives you a sense of how many LED strips we've put in this building, just taking out the bulbs. DDC control package, again, is going to be huge. The Grundfos pumps, Tom went down there and those new pumps that we put in that are super efficient, unbelievable. Things that used to take an hour or a month are now taking 20 minutes. And the pumps are drying, you know, like it's a light bulb, it's amazing how good those pumps are. And again, they're so good that we don't even get, efficiency Vermont doesn't need to give you a rebate on them. They're gonna pay for themselves in three years so we don't need to give you a rebate on that. As a thinking of efficiency Vermont, we have a weekly or a monthly meeting with them on projects that we're doing, just to keep them in the loop, we also, just as anybody might wanna know that fluorescent bulbs are gonna be illegal here another year or two, so rebates on LED fixtures are gonna go away. So if you're thinking about doing that sort of thing, you might wanna do it sooner rather than later. The district wide, we've got the facilities and building in facilities and energy, I apologize for not using the right term for what we are, but facilities and energy committee. We've been meeting once a month, talking about different projects, the track and energy things. We're heading towards really getting some closure, not closure, but really starting to define what, starting with the process of defining what we wanna be with regards to being green. Is it just a label? Is it a philosophy? Is it a, what it is? So that's the big thing that's happening there. District wise, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, driver's end car is fully electric, there's a special event that's a hybrid and I don't see any reason why we would not continue that trend with regards to as we move forward with vehicles. That's the quick update. If there's any specific questions that anyone has, I'd be happy to do it. I do, I said it last year and it was a hunch, no it wasn't a hunch. I knew how good Tara and Mickey would be with their positions and they have absolutely proven it. And Tom has absolutely proven that making the hard decisions and waiting for the right people absolutely pays off. We have got an amazing crew right now, all the way through, absolutely amazing. And I don't say that just to make people feel good. We're still down ahead custodian here at the high school and we're still down at custodian, a float custodian. And those are positions we really need to fill. We've got a lot of people who've worked here a long time and they've accrued a lot of hours and we want them to take them. But at this point, we could easily say hi or somebody just to cover vacations and time off. The crew, the other thing that's happened with regards to what Tom's master plan was when he got here was that it used to be very isolated and people wouldn't go from building to building. And now that they've all worked together and they now are, everyone is happy to go help out somebody else because they know it's gonna be reciprocated and they know they're gonna go to a building that they can find the supplies that are exactly the same as the building they came from and it's gonna be set up exactly how. So going to another building and helping out is not an issue. And they absolutely do a fabulous job supporting each other. And I couldn't be happier with the way that's worked out. And if we ever fill those other two positions, it'll be. When? It'll be great. When we fill them. When? Yes. Are you asking me a specific question? No, no. We do have those positions, right? It's just that we haven't filled them. Pardon? They are already allocated positions. Oh yeah. They're just open. Making sure. I just didn't know earlier during public comment, Tracy had asked about air quality and I didn't know if you could tell us or maybe what, if anything, the district has a place in buildings that wasn't there in 2019. Sure. We have continued to have air filters available. And that's really, at this point, it's sort of occupant determinant. People want them, we have them. And we go through and change all the filters and spraying them. It's really their choice. You're talking about the standalone HEPA filters. Yeah. We have continued with the maintenance and operations piece of it. When there's something that's not working properly, we fix it immediately. There was a question or a comment about the Merv 13 filters. Yeah. Those are, we talked back in COVID days about getting those. Unfortunately, the systems aren't designed to accommodate those. They're just, it's trying, the systems are designed to push through a certain filter that wasn't, a Merv 13 is what maybe we designed for it now or you put in a hospital, but it's not something that in 1980 when we were doing some of these buildings, it wasn't set up. So we would basically, it's putting something that was too restricted in our systems. But we've also, again, we've had the box fans. We've gotten out the new control systems. We've also, one of the biggest things is the CO detection that was typically in a school setting was like 1,200 per million. We've now lowered, during COVID we lowered them as low as 600. Now that sounds great until we get our heating bill because we're basically taking the air and pumping it outside. We are now in the process of unifying everything to 800 PPM. So that'll be, the air will be fresher than it, not quite as fresh as we had during COVID, but that was, that's over, that was overkill to a degree, especially when it's negative 40 outside, but going that out. So the 800 seems to be a sort of universal, yeah, that sounds, you know, more than we would have a few years ago but not just opening the windows in the middle of winter. So that's probably the biggest change that we've got going here for that. How about? I have a question about the roof here at the high school. So, I just want you to clarify, the report says that the costs were too high to use the original bond money to replace those parts of the roof and that you put, we put a membrane on it, right? We put a membrane coating on it. Okay. To sort of like, as a stop gap measure until we had the money to replace the roof? I don't think I'd refer to it as a stop gap. What it was was these membrane coatings, if you go out to St. John'sbury Academy, their roof on their gym has these coatings and they've become quite prevalent. And the one thing about them is they're as good as what's underneath them and this roof was relatively old. So, most of the time it's not an issue. Last year we had a little bit of problem in the cafeteria. We actually had the roofers coming over next week, this Sunday, to come and put some relief slits in it, open it up so it can kind of move a little more freely and put it over. And we occasionally, we'll get a leak a little, we'll get a little leak. It's not like it's leaking all over the place. We go up, we silicone it, we're in good shape and we've got a great contractor who put that on and is very responsive to our needs. It is different than a new roof. So, to expect this silicone coating to last 25, 30 years isn't realistic. 10, 15, I think for a roof like moving forward, so if you've got an EPDM dip roof, a rubber roof that has a expected life of about 25 years, 30 years now, if you take that roof, like we have at Union and Main Street and put that coating on at year 15, then you can really, then it pushes, again, it's all as good as what the substrate is. So it's not, I wouldn't say that it's a looming, oh my gosh, it's all kind of come crashing in on us by any stretch of the imagination. But it is something that we need to be thinking about further down the road. The same thing with Main Street, 40 years old, that one's a ballasted roof, so it doesn't get the UV, so it's really good, but again, it's 40 years old. So we gotta put it on our radar. And in the capital plan that's in the budget presentation, it says that we, yeah, it says last year's budget presentation said that we put the fiscal year 23. Says that in fiscal year 19, we put $250,000 towards the roof replacement of the main roof. So can you just clarify it? So the part that has the coating on it is the cafeteria and the auditorium? In this roof as well. No, it's everything at the high school except the gym and locker rooms. Above this is a little bit different because we put the coating on, but it also was a ballasted roof, so we pulled all the stones out, put the coating on, put down a layer of insulation and put the stones back on. So that one's probably gonna, it's gonna be even longer lasting because it's newer and it doesn't get the UV rating. It doesn't get the UV, beating of the UV. So the $250,000 that was spent in 2019 was for this process of the- That was FY 2019. Yeah, I believe Grant might have done that. We're not gonna blame a Grant, but that might have been a carryover from the bond. But the bond wouldn't be here in this capital plan, right? The difference might have been. Like if it wasn't enough to do that, we just made up that gap with the bond money. Okay, in my interpretation of the report, it was that we didn't have enough money to do the full replacement of the roof, so we did this coating instead that I would have assumed would be cheaper than replacing the actual roof. So then I would think that whatever money was earmarked for the replacement of the roof in the bond would have been sufficient to pay for the coating, but maybe not. It may not, that 250 might have been a gap. I'd have to look back at that. That was the year Andrew and I came in. Like they were doing the roof when Andrew and I started working here, so we just have to work. That's the year Andrew and I both came in. Like they were actually doing the roof on our day one of work, so we'd have to look back. I'd have to get that. I'd have to go back and look at my records on that one. Well, and one of my questions about that, that I would be interested in knowing doesn't have to be now is just if we don't, as a school board, spend or a district, spend the money that was pointed for a project in a bond, what happens if there is a difference in that spending? No, we would have spent what was asked for to the public for a bond. We would have spent it on that. That doesn't mean that the public voted on a roofing project. The original scope wasn't able, we weren't able to do the exact scope that we thought we were going to do, but we did do a roof project and again, it's a quality piece. It's just not a 40 year solution. I think I'm all set with that. In the report, it says that both the roof at the high school and at the middle school, those costs are TBD. Is there any sense of how much it'll be? Four years ago, I would have told you exactly what to budget for an EPD, which is basically rubber, it's petroleum, and how much insulation, which is petroleum. How much you could budget square foot. I think those numbers right now, forget, you could, I think for some roofing project, four months ago, if somebody said I want to do a roof, they'd say we can't get the materials, so I can't give you a price. So that's what I wanted to do. I just want to go through all those, take some core samples, really understand what we've got there so we can understand the project moving forward, any potential projects moving forward. So yeah, I'll be working on that this year. That was one of my questions though, it's sort of like ballpark figure, and I know it's really hard in this climate to give a ballpark figure, but we obviously got an estimate for that roof in 2019, or somewhere in there. Like what was it then? Well, the problem was the estimate that we got then, I'm not getting too deep into Louis's problem, the estimate we got there was a solution that wouldn't work here. So it was the whole concept of peeling back the membrane and putting a new membrane on, that was not gonna work here. To actually do the roof here, we're gonna have to peel the roof and take the insulation, and then we can't mechanically adhere it, and then we have to glue it down basically. So I wouldn't, at this point, I wouldn't be comfortable giving you that number because there's too many variables, that's why I need to really dig into it. First of all, I wanna appreciate you Andrew for just like, sometimes I, self-internal is like, I'm too busy, and then I see this and I'm like, dear God, how does he keep track of all this? And so, and not only that, but then like succinctly and clearly delivering it to us so that we constantly have something to reference, I just really appreciate. And I also just wanna echo that, when the Facilities and Energy Committee did take tours of the buildings, the visits with Mickey and Tara were in fact, I would say memorable for me, like just so bright, so energized, which is not something you always see. And so I just really do wanna appreciate them because I just felt really enthusiastic and energized and it was really notable. And yeah, I wonder just kind of looking at like the future major projects upcoming, if there's any of them that, kind of thinking about them from like an urgency perspective, if any of them feel like more urgent than others and just if that puts things into kind of like a timing perspective and then, that there are a number of them that have kind of the TBD funding source and I wonder if there's any things that we look at that have like a safety implication or an energy improvement implication if we can ever source like grants and incentives to kind of offset because kind of, I did a little bit of totaling of like, the potential like TBD, like funding source items and it's quite a bit of money. So just wondering where we have opportunities to like offset that and source other funding sources. There's nothing in this that, I mean the ones that I had a pretty good sense, I put the numbers down. If there was a project that I thought that had to be done today, it would be presented to you as it has to be done today. These I wanted to pull out things that were not usually fall within the normal budget, the normal sort of course of events of what we do. So I just wanted to put them out there so that we were thinking about it. But no, if there was something that was a health safety and welfare issue it would be forefront and other projects would be bounced for it. Things like the fire alarm panel at Main Street. It works, it works fine. It's doing its job. It's old, it's starting parts are becoming difficult to source. So let's not forget about it and work it into a budget at some point. And I think- One of Andrew's goals with this facilities report that I know he said a few times too is that when he wins the power wall because he's not retiring or leaving me anytime soon but when he wins the power wall that the person who steps into his role knows what the plans are and what the needs are. And I think that's a little bit of what you see there too. He had to do a lot of figuring things out when he took over. And so the next person who comes in Andrew's role won't have to do that. Amanda? Well, I don't appreciate this for it. I think it's great. I think he gave me a lot to look at. I do have a question around that timeline. Like we not do this right now when is the roof gonna start leaking more? When is the alarm, you know, like, is it five years, is it 10 years, is it three years? If I knew the, it's not gonna stop over but if I knew those I wouldn't be sitting here. You know, it's, again, the fire panel works. Find it at Main Street Middle. But when they come to service it or replace out ahead they go, you know, you really, parts are getting scarce for these things and you should put this on your radar. And that's all we're doing here is putting that on your radar. Again, the roofs, that roof at Main Street Middle could go another 15 years, could go another 20 years. But let's go through, let's do some core samples. Let's get some professionals up there and document it somewhere. So again, so when whoever takes my position can come in there and go, okay, now I know what the roof assembly is and if we go to replace it, I know I've gotta do X, Y, and Z. If it was imminent, I would, if it was, if I knew it was imminent, it would be in front of you as imminent. Thank you. And Roxbury, you were mentioning something about the, what was it? The flooring comp, the, which drone it is, sorry. The one that you have to go around if you are in a wheelchair, you have to go around. The town hall, the entrance to the town hall, yeah. And then there's, what is the other issue in Roxbury around mud? Oh, it's just, it's the, it's the low spot. It's the flat spot in town. And apparently, in talking with, who's the gentleman that shows around? Is that who it was? Yeah. At one point, if I remember correctly, they used to drain it across the road to the river. And he said when they redid the railroad or they redid something, they got rid of that. So at one point, there used to be, I don't know whether it was better or not, but it was different. There was houses down there before the playground got put in. So that's always gonna be a challenge down there. It's just the low spot. Luckily, it does pretty well. So there's usually a couple of weeks in the spring that it's, there's a little lake down there, but it eventually goes away and it dries out fine for the summer. And the stuff in front of the door, Beth and the principals as well, have also, now that they've been working with Tara, Mickey and Tom for so long, they know and the teachers know that when there's a problem, it gets resolved. Now it kind of created a wave there for a little while. Well, we're getting stuff done. People get thrown things on, but Beth has done a great job. Tara has a great relationship with the kids down there. So the teachers are doing an amazing job as well in helping the custodial crew go back through. They kind of collected, and there's some faces in this room that were over at Union last winter. And Tara came into a meeting and said, this is kind of the stuff we picked up off the floor. And Tom and I looked at it and said, that would be one day. Forget three weeks. The first three weeks, you know, a year ago, that was one day's worth of stuff. So they're doing great on that. And Beth and Julie and Katie really are on board with that. And we've also, another thing that we've done in the buildings is, and I think anyone who's been in them, we luckily, now that code is sort of quieted down, we've been able to take tables out of this hallways. We've taken all, again, that sort of clutter that just became kind of what it was. Katie and Julie have been working with the show, and it's a totally different vibe. It's a total, and if anybody has been over in Main Street Metal or hasn't been in a while, it is just like you walk into it. And it's just, it's a calming place. But compared to what it was five years ago, it absolutely, I mean, it has a different vibe. And same thing with Main, same thing with Union. So. So resuming the issue of the track, I know last time we discussed it, it was mixed up with a discussion about the turf field. I think we've gotten a lot of feedback on the turf field, and it looks like it's a complex issue that may take some time. And I also know that, you know, many people spoke eloquently about, why didn't it get a track project moving? Again, could you remind us of the timeline of who were to do that, kind of the budget process? When would you need, kind of zoom in on the board? I know there's some more to it. We're at a, we're at it in talking with our engineers, and it's really permitting in that process that's our biggest, is probably gonna be the slowest down as much as anything. We're at that. If we had any hope of starting a breaking ground next summer, we're at that, we gotta make a decision. We're at a go, no go. That still doesn't guarantee that we would actually be able to break down next year, but if we wait much longer, it's almost a guarantee we wouldn't be able to break down next summer. And just to have an understanding of the numbers, my understanding is kind of two numbers out there. One is 1.8 million should be doing kind of the track alone minus the facilities building, which would give us about a 300,000 delta from what we committed. And then there's the bigger project, which has the facilities building, which would be about 2.4 million dollars, which would be more like a $900,000 delta, which sounds like a bigger deal. In times of like, we've committed 1.5 million. You've not gonna get a signal from the board about the other 300,000 to 900,000. In terms of board action to make you feel comfortable moving at the timeline you need, my feeling is you'd probably need some sort of signal from the board that if you put that $300,000 in the budget, we would support it in January. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. We would, with regards to the facilities, we would still need to build a storage area for the mats. I think that this is actually the timing of this works out well in that we've got so many Assertor projects already going that it's not like we would, if we took the sort of local funding that we would usually spread around the schools and created that extra facility for Tom or Matt, however it works out. Now it definitely would not be the facility that was proposed, but it would certainly be as good as what we have now. And it would be closer to the building, so it actually could function pretty well. It would function well for what we have and be better than what we have now. And again, as a time when actually just letting those big projects happen, we'd have great improvements in those other buildings, if we took it out of those. Does the board understand what Andrew said and the normal spreading around for the buildings? Do you know what I mean? No, that was gonna be a clear point. Yes. So we usually spend as just a way to think about it. We usually spend about $125,000 a year in each building. And that is obviously when it comes to Roxbury, it shifts a little bit, but think of it that way. And that money is allocated towards projects that we do, renovating classrooms, putting a new carpet in here, redoing the lights, and... General upkeep. And general upkeep that the pipe breaks at the Union Elementary School that we need to go. So that number is usually around $500,000. It was less last year, but that was okay because we knew we were gonna do a little less because of the new head custodians. So again, at Main Street, if we're doing the cafeteria and the kitchen and the playground and at Union, we're doing all those other projects, it's not as if... Using Esser funds. Using Esser funds. If we, instead of putting that, spreading that more equally around the district, we actually took a bigger chunk and said, let's build that garage at the high school that would support the needs of the track. We wouldn't, it's not as if we'd walk in next September and go, we didn't do any here thingy this summer, we'd actually walk into Union and go, we did the auditorium, we did the little gym, we did all these other products. So the timing actually works pretty well with regards to sort of overloading one building then sort of more evenly spreading things out, which we typically do in a given year. And I'm gonna tip my hand here and then ask a question. Yeah, my sense is that what we're hearing is we don't have any urgent other pressing needs that are gonna demand a large amount of money. We're in a situation that I think we're kind of constantly at where we have, with old buildings, things that potentially could go wrong, things that we're keeping an eye on, et cetera. That situation is probably unlikely going to be much different in a year or two years or three years. We've already had, this is the 18th time the board has talked about the track. We've had, I think, unprecedented public comment. We've looked at the minutes, 18th time. It has come up in medians. We've had unprecedented public comment almost universally in support. And we have a great program out there on the track that Nathan, as a coach, would you agree that it is marginally safe and can only be prepared for competition with an extensive effort by volunteers the day before? Do you think there is wisdom in waiting to move forward, assuming that $200,000 to $300,000 delta can be responsibly closed? I would say that that is, that's a big question to ask me. I think if that's what the school of work wants to do, I think that's what we're looking for. Does it give you heartburn or make you feel that? No, you say no. No, if I thought that needed to be there, I would let you know that there is something. Again, let me sit here. It's nine months from now, I'll get it in my face, but what we know today, no. I wanted to just quickly throw in, as a member of the facilities and energy committee, I think that's what we are. I kind of wrote out our timeline, because I feel like the last meeting we had a lot of different ideas floating around, but we had a meeting this summer in August, where we had sort of a track kickoff, and then we've had subsequent meetings where we met with the engineer, and I think you folks saw some of those at a more recent meeting. There, the option that the facilities and energy committee and Andrew sort of recommended to move forward on what was recommended here is really the most modest possible track solution. So I want to be really clear to fellow board members and the public. It was like a game of Jenga, trying to, well, what if we put the track angled this way? Well, then we lose baseball. I mean, there really were no other options, and even I think one of the original hopes was to have eight lanes all the way around. I've learned a lot about track lately, but we were able to do the six lane with the eight lanes straight away. It's literally, this is as modest a project as it physically could be to get what the program needs. It's the least disruptive. It's the least expensive. It keeps it in the same location, but does provide that sort of eight lane straight away, which sounded like it was still worthwhile. And my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, there is the building that's sort of on that backside of the bleachers, but it won't be accessible the way that it could be now. And so, and between that and it needing to be a storage place for the other items is why it was raised to us, but it certainly doesn't preclude the isolated track itself project. So I just wanted the public to know this isn't some glamorous over the top track. This is very modest, as small a footprint as could be done. That's all. From the September 21st Finance Committee meeting, there was sort of a, it turned out that $400,000 had been budgeted to be utilized that wasn't utilized. And so that kind of covers the Delta $300,000 from, so really we were well over our 2% goal for a rainy day fund essentially. We had an unexpected $400,000 set of funds mostly related to the influx of federal dollars and sort of just a lot of stuff that didn't happen the way it normally happens. But I just wanna put that out there that that also was part of our financial situation at the moment was an extra $400,000. Essentially that we had, I'm sure we could find use for it, but it had, we thought we were gonna use it and we didn't use it. And once the audit goes through, we get to put in the fund balance. So it gets added to the fund balance. Where's the audit? Yeah, it's already complete. We're just waiting for them to write the report for us. Eva. Yeah, I mean, I just really appreciated the level of public input that we've received over the past year mostly on the track project. And I'm always especially appreciative of students. So for all of your students who came over the past year and I looked back at the original presentation that was done by Meg and Ezra and Ben. It was in April over a year ago, right? April of 2021. And that to me feels like the sort of starting point of my, of the track really being on my radar. As a board member was when they gave that student presentation. But I've really appreciated the robust public input that we've received over the past year. And even after the last meeting, I did feel like the Times-Argus article was misrepresenting what was discussed at our last meeting. But even that misrepresentation sort of like spurred another public dialogue that helped me as a board member sort of understand where my community is at on all of this. And I do feel like there's overwhelming support for the track. And it feels like there's money, but then there's some questions that I still have. So kind of to the question that Jim, you posed in the beginning in your public comment about what it would take to really feel comfortable and confident is looking at the numbers and understanding that everybody that are the people who are really more in the know, like Libby and Andrew and Kristen, feel really comfortable with that expenditure. When I look at the facilities report, it feels like there's a lot being recommended over the next five years. And then when I look at the capital plan over the next five years, it looks like really for that budget, we only have space for window replacement. Budgeted. Those are the only two lines that are filled out for fiscal year 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. So I know there's other money in the budget to help with some of those projects that were listed in the facilities report. But those are the things that I just wanna make sure that we're being responsible about that we're not spending all of our savings on this when it looks like in five years, we might need a new roof or whatever it is that the auditorium finishing the auditorium project or whatever it is. So trying to wrap my brain around, feeling really comfortable that this is like the most fiscally responsible and that the timing is right. And so that's where all of my questions are coming from. Yeah, I am so appreciative of all the public comment of all the emails of all the phone calls. I really, really, I love this community input. To answer Jim's question, I kind of echo me. I would like to see kind of like a plan of like, what are we looking at in terms of like the next five years around some of these recommendations around like how it fits into the capital plan? I just, I feel like my perception of the financial asset board member has been like year to year, but I haven't seen like a goal, like a plan of where we like know exactly and you know, things change. I get it, but to have a little better grasp on all these decisions that we're making, this report for me has been remarkable and to be able to see the big picture of all the pieces moving forward. So for me just feels like I want us to have like a plan that people understand too. So one of the things I did get from the pushback around the turf, because like everybody was very supportive about the track, but the turf was a different animal. It was that there are different pieces. What we're hearing from is from like the athletic folks, right, and what I got from the last time that this board engaged with community organizing, which was with the SRO, is that we wanted to hear from multiple perspectives, and that we created a system and a process. When we had our last retreat, we had both processes in place. One was like, this is how we made this decision and this is how we made the decision. And there was some challenges around like how we made the track decision and how fast it was. So I would love to see, for me to feel good about this, I would like to see, for us to commit to make a plan on like to be able to take your recommendations and say, let's look at and figure out where that money come is. There's the two concerns that I have that is coming down the pipeline is the unknowns around the people waiting study. We keep talking about like how this might affect all of this stuff and then the PCB testing, we know it's 2024, but that might have big implications. I'm gonna say that like I don't wanna touch the 1.5 million that we already committed. I wanna be able to gather looking at the big picture. So I think for me it's like, can we create a process that is fair that we say to the community members, hey, in three weeks, we're gonna decide on this track, we're gonna decide on this money and it's everywhere. As someone who doesn't use social media, that's not where I learn about things. So like, what are the other avenues that people kind of can see and be part of the process, which is a lot of the conversations we've had this year. It's like, how do we involve community? How do we get their point of view? So I love the organizing piece. I love all the work that was done. I love the community input. I appreciate it, I want the track too, but I also wanna be financially responsible. As a board member, I wanna feel like I'm making a decision with knowledge and with the proper practices, so. I don't wanna repeat a whole lot of what's been said to keep all of us here any later than we need to be. But I do wanna echo a deep appreciation and excitement about all of the input that we've gotten from the community and to state unequivocally that I would like to see the track improved as well. I really want it to happen. And we learned about these costs at the board meeting two weeks ago. And two weeks ago, we were like, oh yeah, sure, we think maybe it's in fund balance. And then, Jim, tonight you said, well, we probably could work it into the general ed fund, the 300,000, and then the 500,000 for the shed could maybe come from money that we usually allocate for general maintenance. These are all really good ideas. But I think we can't just say, yeah, sure, let's do it. And then kind of actually put the math together. I think we need to see the math first, and then decide. And then have the public see the math and help us decide. And to me, the math, like what it would take is some other numbers that are more real than just things we've just said verbally in board meetings. And I would also like to have a conversation about what other funding sources there could be. I recall that after we received the presentation from the students in April of 2021, one of the things that I tossed out there as part of the conversation that night was, could we see some sort of private fundraising happen to help with the cost for this? In the 18 times this has come up, I believe you, fine, in board meetings, we've never addressed that question. And it's okay if the answer is no, but if we're truly gonna say that this is a conversation that's been happening for a year and a half, then we should say, okay, we've truly vetted the idea, especially for something that is this, a considerable amount of money like this. So that, to me, is what it would take for me to be able to say either great, let's put an extra $300,000 in the Gen Ed fund and use general maintenance that for this one time expense, maybe that's the best idea out there, but maybe a better idea is use some of our funding fund balance and run a huge fundraising drive with all the enthusiasm of all the people who have emailed us and showed up at meetings. That's a massive effort. And I bet that kind of energy could be put behind a great fundraising drive. I think we need to be able to have a comprehensive conversation, not just random ad hoc conversations over the course of a long period of time for us to truly be able to say, yes, we have made the most financially responsible decision that is also an awesome decision. First, our student athletes for now and in the future. Yeah, I feel like from my point of view, the problem here is with Scope Creek, we had 1.5 set aside for the track that was approved. At the time, Grant said, finding the 300 grand isn't a problem between different funds. And then we were at that point, but then all of a sudden it's like, well, what about a new shed? What about turf? What about this? What about that? And so I don't want that to get in the way of us replacing the track in general. Like Andrew said earlier, we need to make a decision now. So I feel like we should go back, if it's feasible, approve the 1.5 slash 1.8 for the track and then address the other issues as they come. I don't know if that's a realistic way to approach it now. But that is feasible through the budgeting process, right? One of the challenges is the budgeting process. You all haven't seen a buzzer presentation yet because we're working on putting that together for you, right? Right now. So should we go ahead with the track? You would see that, right? We have the report from the auditor as referenced earlier that money, the money that wasn't used last year would be in the fund balance. So we could commit that. You'd see that in the budget, right? And then you'd also see, the board typically sees room renovation and as Mia so nicely put it as general maintenance. That's usually under Andrew's facility tab. And in the budget presentation, you would see as something different than it typically is. And what the person who is most knowledgeable about this information is telling the board tonight is that we probably don't have the capacity to do the general maintenance of the room cleanup of picking up carpets here. It's not maintenance. We would not tap into that. We would not. Oh, it's not like the daily maintenance. It's not the daily maintenance. It's the renovation of the classroom. It's the summer projects, the classroom renovations. It's not the maintenance. It's the sort of... Because of our... Grant would be proud of me. It's the 26-20 projects. It's not the 26-21 projects. Again, it's the summer improvements, not the maintenance. We would never skimp on the maintenance. Our staff would not have the capacity to do that because they'd be working with the contractors to be renovating the small gym and the auditorium and that we have planned to do this summer. So that's not a loss. That's just using those funds differently. And so you'd see that in the budgeting process. Can we do that any faster than what we're doing right now? No. We can't because it's not the budget season right now. Yeah. And let's also be kind of realistic about what we can and can't do. I mean, I think there's a... I definitely hear what Amanda and me are saying, but there's also like letting the perfect be the end and be the good. It would be great if we could organize a private fundraising drive, but who has time to do that? And who has time to even look into it in the next six to eight months? It would be... And then when we do come together to talk about it, we get ideas like let's do a turf field and that sets us back six to eight months because then we have to look at a turf field and then we come back and it's like, okay, well, what are we gonna look at next? We have a really golden opportunity to do something for our kids here. We have most of the money accounted for. Believe me, that's really rare. I've been on this board for seven years. That was not even close to the case with the elementary playground. We had to scramble to find money. The board spent far less time on that issue than it's spent on this issue. We're a volunteer board. We have limited capacity. We have our administrators telling us that this is both an opportunity we have and it's an opportunity that doesn't give them heartburn and they're the ones that spend the most time with the money. We can do something for our kids. We can get some of those middle school kids that came tonight that have written us. We can get them a track for their junior, senior, sophomore year that they can run on. If we sit here and we keep talking about it and we sit here and we keep asking for more studies and we sit here and we keep talking about a perfect process and time to spend hours and hours on this, we will never build this track. The $1.5 million will get sucked up in another way and we will not have a track. Or it'll be three or four years. I don't agree, Jim. How much more do we need to talk about? I just gave you what I need. If you want a vote, a yes vote for me, I just told you what I need. And I don't think it is fair to say that somebody is asking for a perfect process when what we are saying is we need to see some, like how this fits into a puzzle, like a giant puzzle of the complexities of funding the education in our district with enough time for us to sit with those numbers and think about it and make sure the public has seen them and given a chance to weigh in on. Right now, what we have heard overwhelmingly, I admit, and amazingly, has been the advocacy of the track. And that has all been through the lens of people who want the track, of course. And of course, they also understand there's a lot more to this district than the track. I'm not trying to belittle that at all. And as board members, it is our job to hear all of that as a data point, a very significant one in this conversation certainly, but a data point. And to put that data point together with all the other ones. And another significant one is the fabulous facilities report that we have now seen for a year and a half. And that, and another data point, is literally how do all the numbers line up? And I just don't, I really haven't seen it, you know? And it feels very, it feels financially tenuous to me to use simply just like words that have been said verbally in board meetings over the course of, what I'm talking about right now is just these last two board meetings where last board meeting we were like, oh maybe we could pull in a little from fund balance. Oh no, maybe actually what we're talking about is going to bond. And now we're saying, oh, maybe we could add a little to Gen Fund and maybe we could use some of the classroom and building renovation money. I mean, like I just said, I think these are all really great ideas, but we have to make sure that it all adds up. And I'm not talking about a one year process. I'm not even talking about an eight month process. I'm just talking about, we gotta be able to see how it all adds up, give the public a chance to see it and weigh in on it and then decide. No, I'd like to see both Rhett and Jill. Rhett? I have concerns about the maintenance building idea and I'm hearing now it's not necessary. It's essentially not that there isn't a need for a maintenance building, but there's a possibility to meet the needs, to meet sort of the minimum needs without adding to the 1.8 that is gonna be the cost of the track surface. Also hearing from community members from Roxbury who are finding this as a way of community building and friend-making and having an opportunity to hang out after school and make friends and be in ways that they otherwise wouldn't be able to, hugely beneficial to me. I'm definitely, I'm very, two things, like analysis paralysis is a great phrase and we don't need unanimity on this board to vote this forward, we just need a majority. However that works, so I would prefer to have a vote, if not, I mean, I would prefer to have a vote tonight honestly, that's what I would like because I think that the money's there, I mean, $400,000 sort of appeared and that makes up the difference from 1.5 to 1.8. That's, I mean, I'm not a financial wizard, but I listen to people that know more about finances. I'd like to make a little bit of clarity on your phrase of the scope creep. I would say that the scope creep, the only thing that was really a scope creep, we did those full exercise so that when we sat in these meetings and we were ready to make a decision, someone didn't stand up in the back door. Did you think about a turf field? So that's why we kind of did that. So that scope creep was more just preemptive. With regards to the maintenance building, the original vision of this, and we're part of this was a building that was attached, it was heated, it was a true full maintenance building. We would not be able to build that 500, we're not gonna pull $500,000 out of the maintenance, the improvements of the building. What we now, what I've now looked at this and said, can we replace what we have out there? Maybe we throw a gas heater in it so that in the shoulder season, we can go out there and change the oil and clean up the mowering equipment, but it wouldn't be nearly the facility that was originally envisioned. So that was really the only scope creep and that was just on mine because it was, that was where I had the input of what would be, in talking with Tom, what would be a beneficial building. If we were gonna do this, what would be beneficial to our equipment and all that? Now, in looking at if there's a smaller bucket to pick from, can we replace what we've got out there now, basically the same location, move it up to next to the school, but not connect it, not make it out of brick, not make it, not a floor drains and things like that, but a facility that's, they can get in there and work and maintain their vehicles. That is a much smaller scope. That building is now, I've estimated, estimated in the last couple of days, if we had $100,000 to build that, would it be great to have the $600,000 building and heat and all that? Absolutely, but to get a facility that is as good as it does not make our track, our maintenance in worse shape than it is now with regards to storage in place for mowers and things like that, that's where that $100,000 would come from for those improvements. So that's- That also protects the actual equipment? Yeah, oh, absolutely. Yeah, it's a garage, it's not a needed garage. Not just the mowers and the tractors, but the actual track equipment? Track equipment would stay down in the existing building that we have. Because we can't access it once we build that track. Jill? Yeah, I did a little bit of preparing for tonight just to make sure, because I've sort of lost track of the timeline and I readily admit that I participated in the scope creep. It seemed like a reasonable, sort of if you're gonna dig up your foundation, why not also redo the floor in your basement, but I, and I do think we got some pretty major sticker shock about the multiple options last week that kind of threw us off track, but I just wanna remind everyone, and I hope it gives some of us a piece of mind. We had the presentation from the students in spring of 2021, that was very compelling. In October 2021, we had a meeting with our administration and the board where we discussed at length various funding streams and the concern at the time that our business manager made about if we continue to have this large fund balance that it actually puts us in a vulnerable position. So we have, you know, so then we had sort of like, we have the problem of needing the track replaced and we have the problem of we really can't continue to just carry this massive fund balance because it's at risk of being swept by the AOE and we knew that there were other education funding pieces coming into place. So it was like two problems with the same solution. So in April 2022, we as a board voted to allocate the 1.5 million to the track from the fund balance and also I think it was 50,000 for the net zero study, which the RFP is underway thanks to Kristen right now. And then in August, we had the sort of track kickoff with the vendor and then in September, we asked for the specific estimate for, you know, the sort of levels, right? So the track, the drainage, and then we did ask for what adding the turf would cost. And even at that time, the vendor said that would probably double the cost. We didn't ask or really talk about the press box concession or lighting. Those weren't pieces that came up at that meeting. And like I said, you know, we went with the, we didn't even ask them to sort of price out at length the bigger, more grandiose ideas. It was like, okay, so the least expensive, least disruptive track, we absolutely already committed to that project. And so I think we knew even at that time in April, 2022, when we voted to allocate the 1.5, that there was a good chance that it wasn't gonna quite cover it. And can I just add something? At around that time, or even before, we got about a $2 million estimate for the track and the current number is 1.8. So these are not, that is not an old number. So I feel reassured if I just sort of set aside the other possibilities because we do have, we do need more time on those, then really what we're talking about tonight is if we are comfortable asking for the administration to come back in our budget planning for the 271,000 that we didn't have fund balance. And that makes it a little bit more of a narrow conversation. And then we can definitely continue to have conversations about the pieces that we have in here and lighting. I made some comment about the lighting and the Times-Argus photographers like, no, you really actually do need to fix your lighting at some point. So we can have the time and the space to talk about those bigger projects, but for the like one immediate piece, it's actually a much smaller decision that we're under pressure to make. And we frankly already made that decision in April. That's all. With the knowledge that 1.5 million was probably gonna be a little short. Right. Somewhere probably in the $500,000 range. And it turns out that we can do it probably in the $300,000 range. So that, again, that's not a new number. Amanda. So now I'm gonna tell my perspective and my timeline when that, the reason why we have all these money is because S.R. Funding too. All that influx of money was able to allow for a lot of flexibility of things. This was, I remember talking to Beth when the S.R. Funding question was being asked, like, how do we spend? Let's get a track. Let's get a big whole field. Let's get, you know, all these other things. So I think that we just like have to, the reason why this amount is unprecedented because there was also other influx of money that came in during our COVID times. So I think for me when I made that $1.5 million decision last time was because it was the pressure to put money so that we would have it good in the audit. It wasn't because I felt that this process was great. I felt that it was rushed in terms of community input. That is what I bring to this board every time. It's like, I wanna have more conversations. Let's have it, you know, listen in session. It's only two people can see the numbers. Like, I think like that's the way that we can, like that has been a challenge for this board to like be able to get feedback, right? So I think for me, I voted on the pressure that we could have this process better now. And so for me to hear that I need to make a decision today or next week without being able to get the numbers and be able to get the feedback from the people, that's where I think it's the process. I'm not a volunteer board member. I'm an elected board member. And my responsibility I feel as an elected board member is to make decisions that are for me financially standard that I could see the whole picture. And right now I'm not seeing the whole picture. And so that's what I'm asking. I cannot vote yes if there is a vote today unless there is a process that kind of aligns with right numbers and with a little more input from the community. If people don't write back, but if we can say there will be this meeting, please come. This was not in any of the places that, you know, again, I'm not on social media. So if anybody else wrote it anywhere else, this was not a conversation that other people knew. So that was gonna happen today. And we know that half the people are not looking at the MRPS website to see what the school board members have to unless they're in the know. Jim Merrick had had this in the past. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I mean, I think I agree with Jim and Brett and Jill. I think that we've had a pretty extensive process already. Like it's been a year and a half. And even if that process hasn't been perfect, I mean, I don't think there is a perfect process. And I feel like, I just feel like we're gonna continue. Like it could just keep going on forever. I feel like I think there is a time to just go forward it with it or not. And I agree with what Jill said. We already did agree to go forward with it back when we voted for the 1.5 anyway. So I say just, I mean, forget the press box and forget the whatever else that those add-ons. Let's just go back to that original track in itself. And from what Brett said in the finance report, it sounds like the money's there and the capital reporter will be to fund the track on its own. So I think this is feasible. Emma. I wanna ask a process question about tonight. So one of the things that I have an issue with, I mean, it sounds like what you were proposing, Jim, was just sort of a discussion that would signal. Yeah, I think all we need process-wise is a comfort level that if Andrew starts making calls on November 1st to get the track process moving and Andrew and Libby work the budget, that there's support on the board that when it comes to a vote in January, it's gonna be a yes. And Andrew's not gonna have to make a bunch of calls and pull back a bunch of spent money. So that actually is not a vote of us tonight. It's kind of like a will of the board. Yeah, we do not have to, I think, formally vote. Because one thing that I struggled with last time, the track issue was on the agenda for a possible vote, which sounds like this isn't really, is just that it wasn't on the agenda for tonight. So that's like a frustrating thing that I battle with, with like if we're going to make, even if it's just, it sounds to me like this is a $300,000 decision, not a $1.8 million decision. So if it's a $300,000 decision, that feels a lot more comfortable to me. I'm getting the sort of signals from the admin team that I would want to know that it feels fiscally responsible to them. But like voting on it tonight feels wrong because it's not on the agenda. So I would, I mean, I wonder if this conversation, so the other process question is, is a signal enough, like if we're putting it, because to me it feels like there's enough money in the fund balance, which is, and not to have to put it into the budget. And I feel like that would probably feel more comfortable to voters as well. But so if we do that, or if we put it, or if the will of the board is to put it in the budget, is just the signal enough for you to like move forward and break ground in 2023? Or- Just as a point of clarity though, in the budget presentation, you would see what we use that amount of fund balance for. It would be part of the budget presentation. Oh, okay. So you weren't talking about putting it in the general fund. We were talking about it in the budget presentation. Yeah, in the budget presentation. That would be publicly discussed and we would have many months. You would always see too. You would see what we choose to use the fund balance on. It's the board's product of what we use the fund balance on. So that wouldn't be void of the budget process. Like you would see it. What I don't want to have happen is for us to say, well, they've already uncovered the 1.5 million. We need 300,000 more. So we're going to pull that from the fund balance and the first time you see that and- Yeah, okay. I see what you're saying. I thought you were talking about putting it into some other place in the budget, in the general fund budget and not putting it. I see. No, but you still see it in the budget presentation. Yeah. So, yeah. So I guess I'm just feeling like it's uncomfortable for me to like sort of make that signal or vote when it's not on the agenda for an item of discussion. And I'm wondering if we push it to the next meeting. I think we can't push it to the next meeting. If that's enough time. I think the next meeting is, my guess is the next meeting on the phone. The next meeting is probably as late as you would want us to go. Well, it is, they're not sitting at their offices waiting for our phone call. They got plenty of work going on. It's as much planning and saying, okay, this is a critical path item. So we got to get on it. Let's get this meeting set up. Let's get this in. Like I say, we've done some soil testing and all that. So again, they're not sitting there waiting for us. But if we gave them a 90%, if I could pick up the phone tomorrow and say, we got a 90% that we're gonna get the full support and a full commitment, get ready. They would start getting ready and they would be thinking about, okay, so we got to move this person to the project and we got to, you know, they're looking at their staffing as they go forward and as well as the permitting stuff. So that would probably be enough for them at least to start planning. Now, we don't also don't want to get two months into the process and yank the rug out from under them because they've planned for us and they've planned this process. But it doesn't sound like that's really not happening. Well, anytime you're working, sorry. You got it. So I think, coming back to, I think it was Jim's question, which I thought was a great one and helping us to frame this discussion about what do we need? And I think, I think where I just need some support is thinking about, you know, and I found this section of the report tonight, the major upcoming and potential projects is really, really helpful. And so I don't want you to feel like we're punishing you for giving us like this incredible like transparency and like this is what I think. And you know, it's really an act of mercy for whomever might come in after you that they have this thread that they can follow. But I think what I'm just thinking about is like, again, there's just, you know, a lot of projects that we know at some point they're going to happen and then there's a lot of TBDs. So my question is like, if we all of a sudden have to replace like a fire alarm panel like tomorrow or there's a roof that's leaking tomorrow, you know, where do we go to access funds like pretty immediately? Is that where we go to about 2% reverb? Yeah, that's why you have the policy that has a certain, you're not depleting your entire fund balance, right? You have a policy that maintains a certain level. And so that's where we go for that kind of stuff. So I think for me like hearing that that that's where that rainy day fund is. That's why it's there. That's how we could deal with like any sort of acute emergency urgent project we could go there. That gives me comfort in starting into move ahead. And yes, I agree that kicking it to the next meeting to make this kind of for this opportunity for this official signaling, you know, as it's being called, I would feel comfortable with that. But just highlighting that that's what that leftover 2% is for like the bottom drops out and we need money tomorrow. That's where it comes from is comforting for me. If I can just very quickly build off of what Kristen said for me, for me, hearing that is helpful and then actually seeing it like it, it would be helpful to have Christina here to be able to ask those kinds of questions of before making a decision like this. So before I go to my, I just, so it sounds like we'll pick this up again at the second but I'm hearing most members feeling comfortable that they can be brought to a good place to vote yes on a budget that includes from either the fund balance or another source that Delta needed to make this track happening. So Andrew can start to maybe feel a little more comfortable about asking some people to get ready to move. Is that what I'm hearing? And I, with the idea that we'd be able to ask some of those questions that me and Amanda Watt over the next two to three months. And if we get surprising answers, we can deal with those but is that largely what I'm hearing, huh? I'm strong probably. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, what, I also think like this is the nature of the beast of contractors working for school districts that are relying on voter approved funds to do their projects. It's like you're going to have to line somebody up and then everything could fall apart. Let's hope not. No. I don't, I don't want to get there. That's why I would like to make sure we have actually looked at the math. That's like, I really don't want to get there. No, I know. But I mean, but I'm just saying hypothetically, like if a budget isn't approved, it's like you have to defer projects sometimes. And I mean, that's just sort of like the nature of school districts publicly funded projects. It's like, I think we have $1.5 million committed to this already. That's almost 90% already, you know? It's a little bit different in that most, when you have a project, if you, if you, you've got me, which is a good thing and a bad thing. In most projects, an architect or an engineer, it's a lost leader. You lose money working with schools, bringing them to bond. They're doing it that they hope that you pass the bond and then they get the contract to do the big work. They're not, our engineers are not in that position. They're not, they're going to charge us, they're $150, $200 an hour to do work. If this was a different, if this was a bond vote kind of thing, absolutely, we'd get it much cheaper because they would be assuming that, okay, there's a $5 million project, a $10 million project at the end of their work. So very rarely do you go all the way up to the, to town meeting day to decide whether you actually can fund the project. And you certainly don't do that with con, with the actual construction people, because they're not going to, they're going to go with the projects they got that are funded. So it's a little bit different. Okay. I just had a question on that. In building up in what you asked, if the construction is starting in summer, or may or whenever, we're not dependent on the budget. We're, the money's already going to be allocated, right? So it's not like if the budget fails, that project can't go ahead because we would have allocated the money already. It's from the fund balance. The budget wouldn't have, would have maybe the $300,000 element to it, but it's not going to be the 1.5. I think that it will be helpful to tell them, like 5.3 feet. Here's the plan, the infrastructure plan of all the things that you can look at. We have allocated 1.5 million, 300 will be added to the general budget. 2% has been... Not added to the general budget, but likely, what I'm hearing them say is likely using money that's in fund balance. Okay. To be allocated. And then there are funds that are allocated. So a way to explain the fund balance, 2% for rainy days, which is will be all the recommended projects that you have. And then I think that, putting that in front porch forums, saying this is the conversation we're going to have in two weeks. And for those of you on Facebook, on Facebook and social media, Jim said something about not having a precedent, but I think of like sending emails to the community, but how else do we tell the community that this is the decision we're making? Like I just have that question about all the process that is about this money. And I remanded this distinctly when we went through the SRO process that there was like, we have to wait. We have to hear from all the perspectives. And I just like, wanna have that. I'm not saying, like people are gonna love this. I just wanna offer the opportunity for people to weigh in those who are not in athletics. At the end of the day, I want the track too. I just wanna make that leap into how we make decisions in this board and plan a little better. And you can just agree, Jim. No, we can put all of that on social media. I also wanna point out that front porch forum certainly found a lot of people who participate on the turf field who had nothing to do with the athletic community. When people in Montpelier wanna say something, they tend to find ways to say it pretty quickly. But yeah, I think we can certainly push this out as part of the budget process. And there was a lot of misinformation. There were a lot of polls that didn't have that were a lot of these questions like, you got all this money from us are fine. Like there was a lot of misconception about how this money is allocated, these questions. And I think that's what I'm saying is like, let's give the transparency of the conversations to the community and they're gonna be happy about it. Yeah. And we could do that. And there could still be a lot of misinformation. It doesn't always magically work that way. But yeah, throughout the budget process, you should definitely communicate what we're doing and why. Any further comments? Well, thank you, Andrew. It sounds like we will talk about it on the second, but it sounds like the board is edging in a direction. We're in the starting blocks. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I just ask one question? Yeah. So I'm gonna point it to you, Mia, just because you're asking the question most. Not to single you out. What more would you need to see besides the fourth quarter report that states where the money, like I don't know what else you would need to see. And so I wanna get what you want to see. However, at the same time, you've gotten this already. So what more would you need to see? Well, I appreciate you asking that. I think there was stuff in there that I asked questions about that it was like, has this already been paid for or not, is it actually still in the fund balance? So it was like, I can actually go look at it. If you could go look at it and send those questions to me, then that would be really helpful. So then we can get that clarified for you. Because I would like to feel confident that that bottom number there in fund balance is as real as possible. Like the, really what we have quote unquote in the bank. And right now I'm, because I felt like there was like, oh, it looks like it was spent, but it's still showing here is about to be spent. There was just some stuff that I could use some clarification on. So I can send you those items. Yeah. Take a look at that and send it to us. So Christina and I can clarify that for you. Policy monitoring report. It's approved the C12 prevention of sexual harassment as prohibited by title nine. Do I have a motion to approve the policy monitoring report on that? Make a motion, if you have questions you can have it during discussion. I move to approve the policy monitoring report for policy C12. Do I have a second? I second. Any discussion about the policy monitoring report? Seeing none. Vote for approval. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion to adjourn. Second. So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Thank you for a great discussion everyone. Thank you all for still being here. Yes.