 And Megan will join soon. We will start the meeting called the meeting of the Rochester Stockbridge Unified District Board of School Directors regular meeting, Tuesday, April 6th, 2021 at 6.30 p.m. of Vile Google Meet. And the call to order adjustments to the agenda. Are there any adjustments? I have heard of none before this. Megan is here. Excellent. There being no adjustments to the agenda. Amy, would you be willing to be our timekeeper? Sure. And we do have a lot on the agenda. So I will be very conscious of the time. And I will try to interrupt and let people know where we are at. Be rude. OK, I'm just going to give you that warning up front because I have a hard time doing that, but I'm going to. You can also be polite, polite and firm. How about that? Consent agenda, let's say five minutes. Board comment, let's say five minutes. Reports to the board, let's say 20. Let me look on mine here. Celebration of learning with 10. Social, emotional. Jamie, what do we say? I don't know if we gave that. 15, I think. What was that, 15? Thank you. Next steps to address. We had 20, 7, 3, it would be 20. This is a presentation. Status of liquidation in Rochester Elementary Building Assets. This has to do with the 8-1, liquidation of library materials. 10 minutes, do you think on that? Yeah, OK. Thank you. 75, update status of sale, high school building. Well, yeah, we'll get to that. Let's say five, that's mostly just informational, right? Is that? I agree. Yep, I'm going with that. Planning and process review, annual budget meeting, informational meeting, let's give that 10. Optimistic on that. And then we've got public comment. We do have new hires we have in resignation. Five minutes for that. Five minutes for that. Public comment will be what it will be. And then our executive sessions will be what they will be. So our goal is maybe two hours for the body. Two hours for the body. Then for the time of public comment, what is the allotted time per public? Maximum is five minutes per person. Max, OK. And one round of questions. One round of comments. Comments, yes. I agree. As reasonable. Thank you. Sure. All right, let's get to it. We have three in the consent agenda, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3. Approved the minutes of Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021. Approved the minutes of Monday, March 8, 2021. Approved the minutes of Friday, March 26, 2021. Special, are we good to move those as a slate? I move them as a slate. Do we have a second on that? Anybody able to second that? I second. Megan, second at that. OK, all in favor. Accepting as a slate. Conceive, say aye. Aye. Aye. Megan and Jenny. Aye. Good, thank you. Good, moving on. Do we have any board comments? I do, Megan does. OK, go ahead, Megan. Well, I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge my gratitude for Carl and Jenny's service to our two communities. I'm thankful for both of you as people and also your incredible contributions you've brought to the board. I'd also like to thank your families for loaning you to us through these very difficult years and navigating the repercussions of the 26th. So I just want to say I really have truly appreciated spending time with you guys and learning from you and your resources. I assumed I would do prepared comments on our last meeting before you left. But is that now? That's not this meeting, is it? We've got one more before. But that's the annual meeting, correct? Yes. I'll do another round then. I'll do another round then. No, that's fine. You can never appreciate people enough as far as I'm concerned. I just was worried because I'd been working on little speeches. That's all. But I think this is like the rehearsal dinner meeting. Exactly. Well, absolutely. Much, much, much good things to say about you both. Thank you. Jenny, would you like to just mention the details of how ballots can be picked up for voting on the school budget? Well, I don't really know the timeline. I was hoping that Jamie might be able to go through the process for what the timeline is for people that are interested in being on the ballot. Ballots are available 20 days. They have to be readily available 20 days prior to the vote. We just passed the 30-day window. We had to wait to the 30-day window before we could print ballots and create them. So Tara's working with Dina to do that. Those will go to the town clerks. And then from 20 days prior to the vote, folks need to request an absentee ballot from their town clerk. Which the process is, call and then stop by and get it, or they can have it mailed to them. Either. Yep. Either. So you can either stop by and pick it up or ask them to mail it to you. But you need to tell them. And this is. Yeah, we're not mailing ballots to everyone. They need to request an absentee ballot. And this is different than what Stockbridge is doing when they do schedule. Select Board is doing for when they do reschedule the reconsideration vote. They are sending every ballot out. So just to make sure that there's two different systems going here that people don't get confused. For this vote, for the R-SUD budget vote, you need to request the ballot. Good. Any other board comment? And so just to add, we did get a candidate consent form in Stockbridge. And so the other position, and that candidate consent form was for the two-year position, the two years remaining that Carl's leaving. And so the three-year position, there will not be a name on the ballot. And so therefore, it's going to be a write-in. Candidate C, if there is one. If there's a write-in candidacy, 30 votes is what's going to be required, a minimum of 30 votes. Good. Thank you. That's how that works by statute. And so we just navigated one of those in the White River Unified District. And Bethel did have a successful write-in candidate that joined the board. If no candidate emerges, then we will request folks to submit letters to the board. And then the board could appoint someone for the following school year, or the following year, until next year's annual meeting. Good. Thank you, Jamie. Oh, yes. Amy? I just wanted to comment on the ballots. You can get absentee ballots, mail in. You can also vote in person and vote, correct? Right, absolutely. Those are the three ways. Yes, OK. You request it and pick it up. You request it, and it's sent to you, or you show up on the day and vote. Thank you. I don't think we can say that enough times in our meeting, just to make sure that it's very clear. Good. Any other board comment? Justine, any comment? No, thanks. Just Jenny, any comment? Nope, I'm all set. Good. Carl, any comment? No, I'm good. Thank you. Megan, any comment? Aside from your earlier comment. No, I'm good. Thank you. Thank you. Let's moving on to reports to the board. Six-one superintendent, please. So you have my reported hand. I just wanted to add that Ethan and I did join the Stockbridge Select Board Thursday evening upon their request. They just had some questions regards to the reconsideration vote. At that time, they had not decided when they were going to warn that vote. We do know based on their draft timeline it'll be after our annual vote. And so, again, they haven't laid it out. But we vote on May 4th. It'll happen sometime after that, is my understanding, based on their meeting. The other thing I wanted you to know is they did request and I sent you tax and budget implications to add the small schools grant back in as revenue. We had that prepared and I sent that to them on Friday. That can be found on the Stockbridge Select Board's web page as well. And they also requested that we pull apart the 18-19 budget, much like we did this current 2021 budget. And so that is on the list to get done this week. And I will get that off to them either on Friday or next Monday. And so that will all be out there too prior to them holding an informational meeting. And they do intend to hold another informational meeting prior to the vote. No question about that, Jamie. They're requesting the 18-19 budget be split out between two campuses. Just like I have the 2021. That will be what was actually spent, what audited expenses and revenues, or will this be? That would be a ton of manpower, I believe. Tara can jump in if I'm incorrect. I was going to do what was budgeted. It would all still be coded, though, in the same way, I would think. Do you think it'd be worth asking, Tara, if it is? It will be easier to do what is budgeted versus what was audited. OK. Is it? Because what is audited is not the same breakdown as how it was budgeted. Because the audit groups expenditures differently than we do in the financials. So it would be hard to match that up based on what your final audit was in 18-19. So doing what was budgeted would make more sense. I also think it's apples to apples with what we've done. Good. So I understand what those numbers represent. Yeah. Jamie, any other questions for Jamie? Justine? Megan? No. Carl? Yeah, I know you've had all of probably about four hours to think about it. But I was curious, Jamie, what your thoughts were about Governor Scott's comments on changes to the COVID thinking and the three-foot spacing and all of that and how it's going to affect our end of year. So we're still awaiting the guidance from the AOE. And Secretary Finch has been clear all along until you get the handwritten guidance sent. Don't just go by what happens in the press conference. So we knew the three-foot spacing was coming forward. We've been able to navigate the high school and middle schools at six foot, so we'll stay in place with that. And we had planned to launch five days a week return after April break prior to this. So I don't think it'll have a direct impact other than it will change our screening form some. And so I'm going to navigate that with the COVID team and we'll give updates to folks on Friday. Once that healthy school's guidance comes out. But we won't take any action until that guidance comes out. Thank you. Jamie, if I may, just piggyback two things that really should have been in board comment, but I'd love to put them on at the end here if I may. One is just that we have now three of the Ryan trust structures up at our two campuses. And they look gorgeous. They're being actively used. They're very solid. And I'm just very, very proud. Lindy's saying there's four up. Oh, they're all four up. They're two up at Stockbridge, too. I didn't know that. Great. That's just wonderful news. Excellent. So just a lot of people were involved in that process, a PTO, people at Stockbridge, fundraisers in Rochester, a really great shout out to everybody to make that happen. And to Greg Ryan and his sons for designing really some incredible structures. And for Cricket McCusker for engineering support in that. So great a shout out to that. And the other one that when I talked about appreciation, it suddenly hit me. We've had a board member who's been working extremely hard for the last few weeks that we need to give deep appreciation to. Jenny has put together a really wonderful bulletin for us. And I know probably better than anybody else like her what it how much work it is from doing it with her last year. So just please applause and thumbs up. And thank you, Jenny, so much for doing this. And thank you for, even as you retire, suggesting, you know what? I might be able to be talked into doing this next year. Because we would love that. Because obviously you've got us talented for it. So thank you so much, Jenny. And thank you, Jamie, for allowing me that time. If there's no further questions for the superintendent, we'll move on to principal reports. Yes, so you got our April update. And it seems like a lot of different things are going on right now from aspect testing to we've got to have some sort of band and instrumental lessons beginning again with some new guidance. So that's been great as well as we had kiddos from both campuses participate in the works of the growing works of art competition through art class. So that's great. So yeah, I just didn't know if you had any questions. And then if not, I have something else to read into public comment from our teaching staff and support staff. A question. If I could just add one piece even before questions on the back of the or on the last item of the report, the estimate we received from the plumbers for draining the systems at the high school. Basically, we wanted to look into what it would cost to not have to have utilities in that building, basically shutting it down completely. The estimate we got for that is $11,711. Which is significantly less than we budgeted. We budgeted, I believe, 25, correct? Yeah. So that's a good savings. Thank you for having that hard boiled information. You're welcome. Good questions, questions for the principals. Justine? No, Megan? No, just want to say thank you for all the hard work to you guys and the staff. You guys have just been incredible. Excellent. Thank you. Amy? No, I'm good. Thank you. Good. Carl? I wanted to get some sort of piggybacking on what you said, but I was going to say that driving by those trust structures look really, really awesome. That's really, really cool. I'm so glad you guys were able to do that. And I think that even past COVID, the ability to have ways to get the kids outside more often and be able to do more types of instruction outside is, I think, really pretty cool. So the more we can integrate our environment into our education, I think, the better. So kudos, you guys. Good. I'll just add to that that when they're really going to prove their worth is once the snow starts to when the snow leaves, because that's when we couldn't use the tents anymore, basically December, January, February into March. So I'm very excited for that. Jenny, do you have any questions for our principals? I do not. Thank you. Thank you, Jenny. Business manager, please, Tara? Ethan, could I read the letter? Oh, sorry, Taps. Yeah, sorry, Taps. I forgot. No, no, no, I forgot. Go ahead, Lindy. Ray, did you see that that maybe you could present it? I think I shared it with you. And yes, please, if you wouldn't mind. I'm going to read off my tab. So as you can imagine, we've answered quite a few questions from our staffs about what the potential impact is of unmerging and the results of the vote. And one thing the staff both support staff and professional staff or teachers decided to do is they just wanted to share some of the benefits they've experienced as part of the merger. They feel like that voice was not really well heard. So they've, I believe, shared this with the Herald. I'm not positive, but I believe that's their intention. But they also wanted this read into public comment because they felt into public session because they felt like it was really important for all to hear in a variety of different ways. So the Rochester Stocks-Reds Unified District faculty and staff would like to shed a light on the great work and collaboration that is happening across our two campuses. We continue to align our educational practices and systems which enhances the support we can provide for students. Even in our virtual learning environment, there's collaborative coordination. Classroom teachers have been able to work together with their counterparts, sharing resources, professional development and aligning curriculum. For those of us who work in both buildings, the transition from one to another is seamless. This is a testament to how well we work together and the hard work we have done with our principals to come together as one school district. Although COVID-19 has restricted some collaboration, in previous years, we have been able to provide our students with shared educational experiences like field trips, band and course opportunities and celebration. Some of these activities include statistics graders learning about macroinvertebrates and snorkeling in the White River, fourth graders building teamwork skills at Holbert, kindergarten and first graders putting it on a farm to table festival, second and third graders traveling to the planetarium and preschoolers coming together to enjoy cultural events like going to the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph to see the Rainbow Fish performing. We recognize that our students' social and emotional health are critical components to learning. Both schools have implemented PBIS, which is a proactive approach that will be used to promote safety and positive behavior. There is a commitment to outdoor education, spending time in the beautiful environment we live in. Together, we have provided a winter wellness program where students on both campuses downhill ski, snowboard or cross country ski together. This year with the help of community members, we are investing in outdoor structures to further our outdoor education activities. Over the last three years, we have strived to provide our students with frequent opportunities to connect and learn with their peers 10 miles down the road. This year has been especially difficult for schools due to the pandemic. We have worked together to make this year a positive and enriching experience for students. We're looking forward to joint staff meetings, gatherings and professional development opportunities when it is safe to do so. As a staff, we hear deeply about our students and community. We enjoy working together to serve our students and hope to continue our unified work in the years to come. Respectfully, and then like I said, this is every teacher support staff member on both campuses who have signed up. Wow. Thank you very much, Lindy. And please bear appreciation to the staff and professional staff. Absolutely. Very good. Tara, please, would business managers report? You all have my report. The only update I have to provide is to let you know that our ESSER grant for ESSER-1 was approved last night by the Agency of Education. So we're moving forward on that. But otherwise, I'll happily take any questions you may have. Questions for the business manager, Justine? No, thank you. Carl? Well, let me get back to the session. No, do you think that, I mean, so right now we're about a $7,500 deficit for the year. You've been steadily able to, you've been steadily able to chip away at that. Is, do you think we're going to squeak out into level funds or the black? Or do you think we're still have a small deficit? If we continue to proceed the way we are, Carl, I think we may be able to break even. Thank you. Megan? Question for business manager? No, I'm okay, thank you. Good, Amy? Question for the business manager? No, thank you very much. Jenny, question for the business manager? No, I'm all set, thank you, Jared. Great, thank you all. Let's move on to 7.1. Celebration of learning. So I'd like to introduce two people to the audience. We have Maureen Roe, who is a 456 math and science teacher on our Stockbridge campus. And she also has been teaching sixth grade in our virtual learning academy, sixth grade math studies. And then we have Ms. Emma Austin, who is a Stockbridge student, but is also attending via the virtual academy. And she, with the guidance that Ms. Roe chose, this extra activity to participate in, and I'll let Ms. Roe speak about a math fail. And I'll turn it over to the two of you. Thank you, Ms. Setzen, and props to Emma for coming to a school board meeting. I was in her shoes when I was in high school. I was a student school board rep, so great job, Emma. But so yes, I teach at Stockbridge and I'm doing VLA this year. And there was opportunity that came up through the Vermont teachers, DCT and Brot Council of Teachers of Mathematics, that they have an annual math fair. And I put it out to the students as an extra, as an independent study project with some work on it. And Emma jumped at the opportunity and she chose, I said anything that you were interested in, and how it's related to math. And so she chose to do a project and then she had to present in front of a judge last night and answer questions. And so she not only represented us at Stockbridge, but the whole VLA, and she was one of three students to present in front of the judges and she knocked it out of the park, obviously. And she's still stuck with me because she was at Stockbridge and there's VLA, but. But she knocked it out of the park, obviously. So Emma, whenever you're ready, and I think Rae has the slides. Okay, this is my slideshow. It's called, Designing a House Using Measurements in Sketchup. And I am by Emma Austin, now from Stockbridge Central School in Briskway. Designing a House Using Measurements in Sketchup. From a math fair project I made in Designing a House in Sketchup for Schools. This project uses math by measuring the dimensions of the house and each room. In Sketchup I use math by using the tape measure tool, tape measure and other tools to create measurements for where I was going to put stuff. I also calculated the areas of each room. This project leads to real world because people in real life build and sign houses. Architects and the owners come up with the dimensions for a building. Sometimes the dimensions change because walls or something else might get in the way. This is my house layout on graph paper. First I drew my house on graph paper dimensions. Each graph on the paper equals one foot. These are the tools I used in Sketchup. You select eraser, materials and paint, line, rectangle and circle, push pull and offset, tape measure and dimensions, orbit and pan. This is my house layout in Sketchup. After I drew the house on paper I used the same dimensions to draw it in Sketchup. I created a file for each floor. To make the walls I had to use the push pull tool to push the walls up nine feet. Still where I wanted the doors I had to make rectangles at the top of the walls. The math classes are making a window. First use the tape measure tool and line tool for your dimensions to make the shape of the window. Then use the push pull tool to push the square out. Second make a square over the hole. Third make a line at the midpoint. Fourth use the offset tool on both sides to make the frame. Fifth add color and glass. Accuracy. To make sure the door was accurate I measured my door in my house. Make the window accurate. I measured one of the windows in my house. This is my first floor of my house. And the total of the whole first floor is 967.84 square feet. In math I use... Whoops. Back there, there you go. Second floor is all the second floor equals 955.75 square feet. And these are my references. This video is about how to use SketchUp for schools because this is the first time I used it. Are we watching the video? Awesome job, Emma. Oh, yes. How long did it take you? Emma, great job. And I've kept that link for the whole wide math fair. You can comment on hers and other RVSU comments. So I can also send that to Ray and to Jamie and then to get that out. But you can definitely go on the projects but I wanted to say that before I forgot. But Emma, so how long did it take you? That's Ms. Setzen's question. Do you remember what the judges asked you about the difference in square footage of the second floor and the first floor? They asked what the difference was and I said, because there's more walls on the second floor. Good job. I also noticed you had a pool on there, you swimmer. You. I saw that in your drawing if you snuck that in, huh? Emma, can I just say this is Ethan. I designed and built my own house. And so I did it with pencil and paper and drew out all the designs with all the walls and put all the windows in there. So this touches my heart deeply to see you designing a house and I hope you'll design a house that you will build someday because I think it's a great experience for anybody to do and I'm so proud of what you've done here. And the Ryan trust better look out. Emma can design some. Yeah. So you're impressed too. Absolutely. They'll do custom designs. They said already they would. So. It would be the Emma trust. The Emma trust. Oh, the gauntlet has been thrown down. The challenge is there, Emma. What can you do? Maureen, that might be really interesting to bring Greg in to talk to Emma about those and so that they could take a look at them because the design is really extraordinary. Yes. And then Emma's with us next year too. So she's not going anywhere yet. So we can get some projects going if we don't get them to this year. Emma, next year. Good. Pat, sorry. You wanted to comment? I'm a realtor. So I sell houses for people and I often do have to measure the rooms and draw the layout. So there's a whole nother profession there that uses this. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you very much Emma and Maureen for coming on tonight. It was great to have you. Much appreciated. Sorry, Lindy, do you have something else? I was just saying thank you. And you did a great job, Emma. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. O. I'd love that you bring this kind of stuff to the board meeting. It is so important for us to have this kind of presentations. Thank you so much. It fills my heart. So thank you. Thank you very much. And if anyone's interested, the award ceremony for the whole math fair is on Thursday night. So I can get that link to you folks too about any stakeholders that want to come and support our students. That's Thursday night. Thank you very much, Maureen. Thank you. Okay. I'm gonna go now. Thank you, Emma. Thank you, Emma. Good night, Emma. Thanks, Emma. Thanks, Maureen. Well, it's appropriate in some ways to go to the social emotional data report. I'd say it must be very high. I think it is. It's been very cool to see and I should share that under Maureen and Sam's encouragement, we started including all the virtual kiddos to come to our all school meetings and they all came. And Emma was actually a student of the month, the other, just a week ago. So it's been cool to pull those kiddos back in the fold a little bit more every time. Great. So social emotional report, you have kind of a multi-page document in front of you. And it is broken down by campus. And it does look slightly different, obviously because different things pop up in different places, but also Stockbridge campus has been using this program, this Swiss for years longer. So there's some back data to be able to compare it to. So that's why it's slightly different. You don't see year-to-year comparisons in some of the different categories. But what this really speaks to is some problem behaviors we've seen as well as when they're occurring, comparing gender. We did not break it down into smaller cohorts like K through three or four through six because it does become a little identifiable because of our numbers. So some people could probably figure out. And this is data on both campuses that we do visit monthly. So each month it's something that we review and talk about maybe areas that seem to be larger or smaller than others and what was the difference and what are strategies that we can do. And some data that we will be hopeful to share next year with you is also the celebration. And you can see a lot of growth, which is great. But we've definitely identified some areas that are very similar on both campuses specifically, speaking to, sorry, I gotta go to my notes here. Just how well we're doing with fidelity of implementing our expectations and how kids are meeting those or not meeting them. And some of the reflections that we kind of thought about is are we seeing a decrease in the number of our referrals because they're spending more time with teachers, their classroom teachers specifically and those relationships seem to be stronger. Also one thing we'd like to start to kind of pull down a little bit in a safe way as we can figure out how to process it is there's a lot of independent work right now. So truly most social interactions for kiddos are happening out at recess or maybe within their special or essential. So just how do we start to re-engage kids and like some partner work in a safe way. And sometimes that's when you see some different social needs pop up as well as just kiddos not always being able to meet the learning expectations because they're being kids. Nothing more, nothing less. But when you work with a buddy, sometimes it's a little social more so than academic but it is an area that we need to continue to figure out how to implement safely and bring back tickets because it's something that's kind of pulled away since COVID because we're trying to keep all these distancing rules and other things. We also are just working on the fidelity of how teachers report situations as well as needing to re-teach expectations. And it's a goal of something we're gonna work on this summer with staff together as well as multiple times throughout the year just like kids, we can't just teach it once and go through the training once we need to keep hitting it time after time. And I think that's kind of a nutshell everything in a nutshell but Ethan it looks like you have questions or you're muted. Yep, I always just like, if you could give a definition of social emotional to people who maybe have never heard that term before what exactly what part of the school day that is or what part of a child's education that is. So that's the entire day. There's no one moment that happened. I meant sort of what and what the definition of it is, you know, sort of. Oh, yep. So social emotional we're talking kids we're talking about how we teach kids to do school, for example. What are learning expectations? Both campuses call it be respectful, be responsible and be ready to learn. And within each environment they're in whether it's the classroom, whether it's recess, whether it's lunch, whether it's PE, there's about three learning expectations within each of those or social emotional and it's how we help students learn how to navigate and become adults. And really learn those personal and interpersonal interaction scope. So yeah, does that help? Yes, I just always think it's good just in case because I know the first couple of times I heard it and I was like, I didn't hear it before. Yeah. Justine, you have a question. Yes, piggybacking on your question, Ethan. I was wondering if Lindy could explain the concept of referral just for the meeting. So two things that we need to like re-teach in our brains about a referral. Some of us probably remember it as like a detention slip or something of that nature when we were kids. It is not that anymore. It's really just documenting behavior that doesn't meet those expectations. And has already had several redirections or different strategies tried to help that kiddo meet those expectations. And it's more from the standpoint of not a discipline thing, but an idea that we can pinpoint, as you can see, there's like some times of days that really are, there's more referrals than others. It really helps us pinpoint like, oh, right before lunch, for example, we seem to see a spike where we're struggling to follow those expectations or meet those expectations. So we're really gonna target that time and focus on that time. We may need to re-teach expectations, model, give examples. We may need to get an extra set of eyes in there to help teachers navigate what's going on. And just a wide variety, we have like a front and back checklist that we help try and really put some different things in perspective and just the second set of eyes. Good. Other questions about the report? Carl? I'm good. Megan? Yes, please. I really appreciate this type of data. I feel like it really gives a good glimpse into the school day and it kind of gives us some things to think about about how we could help maybe with any kind of discipline problems. Something that I was going through the data that I kind of thought about was engaging, especially like the fourth or sixth graders in like a leadership program, maybe a student council between both campuses where we have the students kind of help work out some of these problems as well. And they have like a role in, you know, the responsibility of our school. I think that that could be something that's good for kids, good for the school. And something I'd love to see happen because I think students engaging in the school gives them more ownership in the school. Absolutely. Thank you. Jenny, questions? I have no questions, but I think that's a great idea, Megan. Who did I, Amy, any questions? This is wonderful information. Thank you. I have to say, I did notice, I think it's this one, December and January, just that though I noticed there's no correlation in 2021, I don't know if there was more candy around in the Christmas party, but just going into Christmas vacation and coming out of Christmas vacation are very, very interesting to note that. Very good. Jenny, go ahead. I just wanted to say, I mean, the effort that you've all done around your social emotional system is pretty significant and you can feel it in the building. It's clear to me students know the expectations. They're regulated and they've got tools. So it's kudos to the staff and the principals for all their hard work and Sam. So I'm really proud of you. That data is great. Thank you. And if I must, and Megan, just to follow up in your comment, if I may make a plug, Wilder has wanted a student council since he was in kindergarten. So he's talked about it for a long time. He would really love to see it. So I would love to encourage that happening too. Very good. Thank you so much. We're going to move on to seven three, the presentation on next steps to address delayed maintenance of Rochester Elementary Building Energy Efficiencies. And Jamie, you want to... Yeah, if I could just kick it off and provide a little context. So we've had some delayed maintenance really in almost every building across the SU. And we've had significant delayed maintenance in the Tumbridge Central School, the Beffle School, in the Rochester Elementary School. And so one of the things that Tara and I were looking to do was to create a plan with Lyle Smith and Lyle, you want to wave? Folks have heard Lyle about Lyle. Now you get to see him if you haven't met him yet. Lyle, I was able to bring on board this year to help with strategic planning and really to help man and facilitate larger plans around maintenance as we move forward across the SU. And we were able to budget for his position accordingly and then use monies to fund that position. So we're really excited to have Lyle on board. He's done a ton of work for us already. And one of the things that we were looking to do is is how could we try to address these delayed maintenance issues without having to add to the tax burden of our constituents? Because we know already that taxes are high, our per pupil spending is high and that we need to address this without having to add additional burden. And so Mike's gonna present to you tonight a method that the other two districts have provided us an opportunity to engage in their request for proposal process, both First Branch and White River Unified District. It does not commit the board to anything other than for us to take bids and then look to award it to a group. And it could be possibly Mike's group to do audit and to come back to the board with a proposal. Then they can make decisions around next steps. And Mike will talk to you about how that all works. The other thing that it's important for the board to know is that as we look at S or two and S or three funds, it's becoming clearer that we will be able to use those to address our delayed maintenance. And specifically our heating systems, air systems, things of that nature. So really the time is ripe for us to look to pounce on this and just strategically implement it. As compared to I think if we weren't able to launch now, these are things that we would continue to kick down the road like we have for decades. And so we really cannot do that. You've heard me talk about in the past, we need safe, effective places for our students to come to school and our teachers to teach and they need to be professional. And I think that that's important because I think it communicates high expectations. And so as you see this tonight though, do know that we will look at efficiencies across both campuses, even though we know the Rochester elementary is the campus that we need to focus on. If there's efficiencies and improvements that we can make at Stockbridge, we would look to lump that into the proposal as well. It just makes sense to do so. Well, these funds are available and we're looking to launch into this work. And so I introduce you to Mike Davy and Lyle Smith and Mike has a presentation. This is the third time I've heard it, actually fourth because I got the original and I said all this makes sense to me to look to launch into. So I'll let them present and then you'll get to ask some questions. So Mike Davy with energy efficient investments and I'm sorry for Jamie having to hear this four times. It's not that interesting the first time. So multiplying it by four is a little painful but just to give you a quick background, our company, EEI, we've been in business since 2007 and we work with school districts and municipalities and businesses in New Hampshire and Vermont on ways to be energy efficient and sustainable. Our primary business is performance contracting which it started in Montpelier when their school district really wanted to do energy efficiency projects including some wood heating and stuff but they were always up against, you know the bond votes and the tax rates and other needs in the budget. And so they had a hard time getting it done. So the mayor at the time looked for alternative solutions and one of them was to do a performance contract. What a performance contract basically is is a project in which the energy savings pay for the improvements over time. And it's a way to reduce the tax impacts for needed projects and energy efficiency projects. Next slide. Our approach is it's a turnkey delivery system. So it's a little bit unique in that it starts with an RFP to select where the districts can look at what other firms do this work and there are several other companies that do this work in Vermont. The companies will put in their qualifications and their pricing to do an audit. And then if the board likes the projects from the audit usually there's multiple options. So we might look at a school and say, you know does it make sense to do a gas boiler or an oil boiler or a wood chip boiler or maybe no boiler at all. Maybe we put in a heat pump system. So there are some schools around that that actually don't even have a boiler that use heat pumps and geothermal. So there's all different types of systems and they all have pros and cons and we do an analysis to figure out which ones may fit into the district. Oftentimes if the board likes the project it may have a warrant article vote but the tax impact can be anywhere between nothing and fairly low because there's a lot of energy savings usually. With the amount of federal funds we've actually been working with I think 12 school districts in Vermont working on utilizing a combination of energy efficiency and federal funds to help get projects done. Next slide. Some of those projects include Addison Northwest which is Virginia's and Virginia's and the surrounding communities. Bennington school district, Mill River which is Clarendon and the surrounding towns. The Hanover Norwich school districts and then a bunch of large districts in New Hampshire including Manchester. Next slide. In 2020 we actually worked on getting substantial amount of efficiency Vermont funding toward COVID ventilation for a lot of those districts you saw and some other ones including Two Rivers Supervisory Union, Chittenden East, Burlington and a Catholic school in Rutland. So when we looked at Virgin's was in a little bit of a similar situation they were sort of a newly consolidated school district and they knew they had a lot of needs at the high school and when we met with their board they really didn't wanna go to the voters twice. So in addition to energy savings they also looked for some really needed upgrades like adding a fire sprinkler to the elementary school adding a new fire alarm to another elementary school ventilation upgrade. So they were a little, we did this project in 2017 so it was pre COVID but we actually updated all their ventilation systems prior to COVID so they were in pretty good shape when the outbreak happened. We put in high efficiency condensing boilers, LED lights. We got building from steam off of steam to hot water. We put in a solar PV system and new roof. In Bennington because there was a lot of life safety things that weren't, I mean sorry in Virginia's because there was a lot of life safety things mixed in with this project. When we went to the voters we essentially said the energy savings would pay 60% of the bond vote and they also had a retiring bond so they sort of mixed that into the tax impact and we were able to get that project approved overwhelmingly. Next slide. When we, another newly consolidated school district was Mill River. When we met with their board, they were different in their philosophy. They only wanted a project which would be tax neutral. So they would only let us look at projects in which the energy savings completely paid for whatever we put in. And so when we did that project we put in a wood chip plant at the high school LED lights, building controls and then analytics. And now we're actually meeting with them. It's been maybe three years since we did that project and they now want to use the federal fund to chip away at some of the things that we couldn't do by staying in a tax neutral box. So the tax neutral is great because it's generally easy to get support of the voters with a tax neutral project and it doesn't hurt your budget. The only downside is sometimes there's not enough money and energy savings to justify something like replacing the old gym air handler. It might cost a couple hundred grand to replace it and there's not a lot of savings. So in Mill River we couldn't do some of that stuff initially but now we're actually going back to try and deal with it now. Next slide. The largest school district in New England is Manchester School District. These are their actual energy expenditures since we've been working with them. So there's 22 schools in that district. They used to spend 3.5 million on energy and pre-pandemic we were down to 1.9 million. So just in that district we're down 2.5 million in energy expenditure from doing projects like these. Next slide. A lot of times the Vermont boards have tended to like our approach because we're a local independent company. We don't rep any one product. So if you like a certain brand and it works for you guys for controls or boilers or solar panels, that's fine with us. We don't rep anything else. And we are project managers and engineers. Our Vermont based, our engineer is in Middlebury and one of our project managers in Burlington. And we have a turnkey delivery. So the team that starts out the audit process is the same team that manages the work and then actually reports to the board on the savings. So if one of the things that we would need to do if a project was approved by the voters is we guarantee the energy savings and we have to come back to the board on a regular basis and report on the updates. Next slide. This is a kind of simple way to look at to do or not to do a performance contract. This is the budget from Belmont High School and Belmont, New Hampshire. And one of the things to kind of simplify all these different options. We said, listen, you're spending 120 grand to heat and light and ventilate your buildings. You can just stay, keep paying 120,000 and not do any projects and that might be fine. Another thing we could do is we did a lights and controls project where it could pay for itself in seven years. We kept it budget neutral, meaning the energy bill went down by about 25,000 but it was financed with a seven year lease. And so it was budget neutral for the first six years. And then in year seven, when it was paid off the district starts to reap the savings but they get the new equipment obviously in day one. Next slide. So some of the reasons again that boards have decided to use us in the past is we're local and independent. We've done a ton of Vermont schools and we do analytics means we don't just put something in and then hope it runs right. We actually monitor the efficiencies remotely and give the maintenance staff we monthly updates on the performance and we don't charge for the energy audit. So typically we only get paid if we come up with a good project and the voters approve it. We, if we do an audit, you don't like what we find or the voters don't like what we're proposing then you don't have to pay anything. Next slide. So here's some of the Regents Addison Northwest School District prior to working with us. They were spending 470,000 on energy. After we did the project in 17 the next fiscal year their energy budget went down to 226. So it was a $250,000 savings in year one. We had projected a savings of 189,000. So we actually saved them 65,000 more than we were projecting. Next slide. Okay, that is it. So that's a quick version of how performance contracting works. Any questions? Let's work our way around. I'd like to start, if I may, Michael. Obviously, and then I think Jamie mentioned this that the SR2, the COVID relief funds would be mixed into this project or any of these projects currently. Are you familiar with the grant grant process and have you done some of those mixes already and know how that works or how to balance it best, what should be paid over a period of time and what should be paid upfront? Yes and no. So SR2 funds, it was only very recently that the board, that it was decided that in Vermont that money could be spent on ventilation. So that guidance, in fact, I hadn't even heard that until Jamie mentioned it prior to the meeting with the SR1 funded. So there was kind of three different rounds of stimulus. There was the first COVID stimulus, which was SR1. That money went to efficiency Vermont and then efficiency Vermont doled it out to the different districts based on equity. The legislature put the word equity in the bill a lot. And then also timeliness of who got their applications and when we were able to secure 180,000 for virgins and 400,000 for Springfield through those programs. SR2, they have decided to give 15 million to efficiency Vermont to do a process like that, but that hasn't even really been set up yet. And then additionally, they directly sent some SR2 funds to the districts, which I believe can be used on many things, including ventilation. And then SR3 is gonna be even, that's the Biden stimulus, although the previous one were Trump's stimulus is, the Biden one is, I think, double SR2. So there's even more funds available. And then there's also talk of more federal, another stimulus bill that would be, potentially have some play in this that hasn't even passed Congress yet. So there's so much federal money moving around and it's coming from different pots. In the ideal world, in my perfect world, it would be nice to figure out exactly how much we're gonna get, how much you need for other things. And then combine that with energy savings and do a blended project to maximize doing everything at once, getting the savings at once. That was not possible with extra one because it came out so quickly with such a, it basically was awarded to the districts in October and had to be completed by December. It was crazy. So it didn't allow for that type of planning. We are hopeful that the guidance will be clear and quicker from the state this time around. Good, let's go around. Justine, questions? No, I had a question kind of similar to what you asked but now it's answered. Good, thank you. Carl? I have a couple of questions. Some of the, sometimes projects get done at these schools with USDA funds. Is that something that you guys are equipped to access? Department of Ag, building funds? Yes, yes. And those are generally earmarked for rural districts with that are considering renewable heating sources. Like that's where I've seen those grants come in if you wanted to do, for example, a wood pellet boiler or something like that. Okay, good. That actually leads really nicely to the second part of my question, which is, it seems like a lot of what you're looking at is which are the systems that really could produce the most energy savings to look at, to update. And I'm wondering how much of a consideration. I know you said that the board gets to, you know, bless or direct you. But how much are you also looking at the, not just the systems that would save us the most budget dollars, but also the systems that would improve the quality of life in the building and, you know, the stuff that may not be, you know, the things that will give us the biggest return, but the things that might also just better improve the quality of the building and the ability to deliver education. So one thing, I think that's a great question. And one thing that is important is, you know, I'm going to come to your building maybe three or four times and, you know, meet with you as a group, maybe three or four, you know, maybe 10 times, but in general, getting a group that will provide as many of those options as we can. But at the end of the day, one of the things that we look for the board to do is to guide us as to what's important to your community. Because it does differ. So for example, Mill River, they really only wanted to hear about things that were budget neutral. If I came and said, hey, I can do air conditioning and the best lighting in the world and the best controls, the board in Mill River would have said, we only care if it pays for itself. We don't, if it has one dime of tax impact, don't tell me about it. We got involved with the Norwich Energy Committee and they said, don't you dare bring us any projects that have any emissions whatsoever. So if you put a propane boiler in, don't even talk to us about it. So there's a couple of things and I don't need, so A, I think you guys need some numbers. It's great in the abstract to say, we want to be super energy efficient and renewable, but I want to put some numbers to help guide you and say, what would a payback look like on solar? What would it look like on wood? Are we using these buildings more? Should we put in air conditioning and heat pumps? And those are all questions. Some, like I just met with the superintendent of Manchester Schools in New Hampshire and told him, hey, did you know seven of your buildings don't have a fire sprinkler system? And he goes, we're not starting school in September with any buildings without a fire sprinkler system. So that was something that has no return on investment, but the superintendent was absolutely, he was new, he just came in from Utah and he had never even heard of a school that lacked a sprinkler system. I said, it's pretty common in New Hampshire and Vermont because we don't have great municipal water sources everywhere. So we will look at all those things, but knowing what the board is important, what the values are from the board, is good to just think about. The numbers will tell the story. So we just worked with Springfield School District and their middle school is in real tough shape, the Riverside School. And everybody said, you know, well, should we put money in to put a new boiler in or should we knock it down and move to the high school? And those were all good theoretical questions, but they needed the real numbers to see what that meant. So they had us through the process of the audit, we came up with an estimate of what it would cost to knock down the middle school and move it up to the high school. And then the board was able to make an informed decision that no, it's a much better investment to keep the middle school going. So those are all the types of big picture questions. What we typically say is this process is only worth looking at for buildings that are likely to stay in use for 10 years. So we don't wanna do a deep audit of a school that may or may not, you know, you may wanna do like South Burlington and build a new school for $200 million. Well, then it doesn't really make sense to start this energy audit process. So those are the things we look at. And then if the board already has some strong feelings about we really want a renewable, we really don't, we're really only cared about bottom line. Those are the good things to know, to, you know, talk so much yourself about what, because at the end of the day, it's why you feel comfortable putting in your budget and going to your voters with as your representatives of the community. If I just may make a quick comment. I was out behind our school, behind the elementary school where the furnace is watching where two feet of snow was turning into a waterfall down the drainage all because all the heat was going right to the roof. So there's enormous savings of clearly evident right there in one spot. So I'm a fan of this. Obviously, you know, I don't know if Jamie's told you, but we've had a very tight budget this season. I'm extremely tight. And so that's gonna be a major concern for us is what we can really afford. We've also had a building report that got back to us with a lot of extra ideas of things that should be done. And that was not helpful to us actually because it became confusing actually what we intended as a board and what this building report had shown sometimes we're at odds. So I just would want us to be very careful in terms of how we discussed what we're looking for and what you present us. And one, yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. So one of the things that our company doesn't like to do is present, is do reports that sit on shelves and look beautiful but aren't actionable documents. So our reports are, you might get sick of me, but our reports are very collaborative. So before I put anything into a report, I'll usually have multiple meetings with a board or a subcommittee where we go through options. And so that before a final report ever reaches anybody, a lot of the option and this, because the silly options that you don't want to consider, we don't really need to spend a lot of time on. But the ones that make a lot of sense, we really want to fine tune and get very, very accurate on. So what I typically do is kind of like a couple of choices for each major decision point. And I call it an A, B, and C. And then we try and whittle away. We're doing this right now with, with Ms. Siskoe. There's a school in Swanton, which is, it's an interesting school where there's a K through two, which is on a separate building. And then there's a three through six, and that's 300 feet away. And so I quickly, just to give you an aversion of the A, B, and C, the option A was to knock down the 1960s K through two building and do a 40,000 square foot addition to connect the building. It would cost, you know, $10 million. It may be ruled out right away, but it's worth talking about. Another option was to connect the two buildings with a $3 million connector building. And that, and then do the code upgrades in the old building. Or the third option was to leave the two buildings separate and just do the, do a two to $3 million code upgrade and energy project. And so that board in Swanton is, they have any, you're gonna, you're getting this information for there, but they're gonna have like a Cadillac option, something that's sort of better than they have, and then sort of a bare minimum. And then I won't put all three of those things into report. I'll say, what makes sense for your community? What could we sell? Is it A, B, C, or D, which is just pont and don't do anything. So those are all the types of discussions we have. Hey, May. All right. One, I want to say we are five minutes over on this agenda item. I think this is very exciting. I think that looking at our energy use and trying to be more energy efficient and more environmentally responsible, I think is incredible. And yeah, I think this is great. Thank you. Other, Justine? Comments? No, no, I think it's great too. It's all, it's a lot for me to kind of process it right this moment, but I love it. Megan. Oh, can I just go around? Yes. This is Megan. I think this is very exciting. I think we should have a special meeting to really define what we should be looking at that involves ourselves as a board, our staff, and our community. What is the turnaround time in order for us to get this going and being able to utilize these funds? Good question. So one of the biggest turnaround times is how quickly you guys can digest the option. We can generally go to a building and within a couple of months, start getting information. But I've been working with the Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury and we're on year three before we've ever brought any projects to the voters because they're just still like sifting through and figuring out what they wanna do. A typical turnaround time though is we start in April, we review the options over the summer, we start to hone in on the options in September, and then by about Halloween, you have a final draft report that would then inform what you wanted to do for budget, for warrant articles. The only thing that might change that is if the federal funds become available and there's a very quick turnaround time, like we gotta get something done this summer, we might have to shotgun part of it. But that wouldn't be my preference, my preference would be to kind of, my opinion is, and this might not be, I think a lot of the money was through that, through the first extra was kind of shotguned because there wasn't a lot of time to plan it, and there were things that were done okay, but that could have probably been a lot better with more time. Jenny, do you have a comment? Yeah, I think that's great information. I just have one question. Some of the schools you talked about are larger, the Addison Northwest, you mentioned there, they were spending $470,000 on energy, which is a pretty big number compared to ours, I think last year we had combined for Rochester and Stockbridge, the fuel was under $50,000 and electricity was under $25,000, just for example, and I was wondering if it's harder to get a more successful benefit to cost ratio with fuel or something like that, or if it doesn't matter what the size is. It's definitely harder to get the smaller the school the longer the payback usually. So generally, we save the biggest amount of energy on large regional high schools because they use the most, so there's a lot more low-hanging fruit. That being said, Vergens had a school as part of their district that was, that only had, I think, Addison Central School, I think it had like 60 kids in it, and so somebody can fact check me on the number, but it was pretty small, and we still did a comprehensive project there. And so this is one situation where the fact that you are a regional school district and if you went on it together, it does get you some economies of scale in looking at this type of project, although it would be approved separately. Well, I also think it's why we need to try to tap into some of these federal funds while they're available. Yeah. Well, and we'll see, we'll know. Amy, you know what, I'd follow up. Yeah, I'm sorry. I couldn't think of it while I was in the middle of speaking last time. I think that this would probably be one of our best times to do something like this opportunity because there are so many grant funds and this ESR money coming in. There's so much opportunity for financial support on this. So it seems like like now is the best time to go about doing this. Oh, yeah, I gotta say I talked to VIC about the timing of the grants and they think that they think, we haven't told us yet, but they think there's gonna be money and it's gonna be a longer period of time to use it with them, which is really helpful for us. I think identifying the projects that we need to do and having our ducks in a row that we can present to them is gonna be worth a lot to get in the queue and get as much funding as we possibly can out of these folks. I think we have a real opportunity here to take kids to a field trip to the boiler room and say, this was an oil boiler which was fueled by an underground oil tank that was aging and we've now filled it with water to sprinkle our building and it's no longer a hazard and we're heating with pellets. I think that how does it get any better for somebody like me to be able to do a field trip like that? So I'm very much excited for this type of a performance contract, however that may be. As Mike says, there are other companies out there. Other companies are usually big companies like Honeywell or Johnson or something like that. They're selling you their controls and they're perfectly good controls and they probably do a perfectly good job but their representation is often out of state. So when you need a service call, you're dealing with somebody out of state whereas this is a different approach which I like. Okay, we need to move on. Thank you very much, Mike and Lyle for coming in. This is very interesting to us. What's the next step? Really, all I need is, if the board was willing, I just need them to empower us to engage in the RFP process for this. I would entertain a motion. I think it's in our action. I know it's spelled out. I'll make a motion to empower the administration to engage in an RFP process for energy efficiency services. I will second that. Carol's seconded. Any discussion? They're being none. Justine, Yay-Nay. Yay. Megan, Yay-Nay. Yay. Jenny, Yay-Nay. Yay. Carl, Yay-Nay. Yay. Amy, Yay-Nay. Yes, Yay. Ethan, Yay-Nay, Yay. I don't know where I got this Yay-Nay thing, but it's near tonight. But hey, it works. I think I got everybody there. Yes, I did. Good. All right, that's a go, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you. We look forward to seeing what you got for us. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. Let's move on. Thank you, Amy, for keeping us on task. Moving on. We are now at update status of liquidation, Rochester High School Building, ASS. Is that it? Yup. Yup. So, Lyle's here. I've asked Lyle to kind of give me some thoughts on this. And so, Lyle, you can feel free to jump in too. One thing that we have done is we do have a proposal in regards to the books in the library that Lindy can talk about. And then, you know, as far as the news around some of the inventorying around the lockers and things, Lyle had less optimistic news for me than I was hoping he was going to. So, I can let him speak to that. He's chuckling. But I'll let Lindy go first and then Lyle, you can follow up and then the board can ask other questions around it. Yeah, so we've been connected with Follett Book Company, who's actually a company we use pretty frequently for purchasing books for our library. But they actually do also a buyback program. So, what they do is they look to come in and look through textbooks as well as libraries. And the person comes in and basically she does all the work for no cost to us. And she comes in and she scans any books that are lost behind. And she'd pack up ones that she can buy like on site and ones that she can sign. And then the company pays the districts for one she can buy right there. And then they pay for the consignment books when they sell. And basically I'm looking for permission to be able to bring her in and do that because she would load her vehicle up once she comes. And we would walk away with a total of how much we can get on site from there. Do people have questions about that? Yeah, any questions out there? Are we ready to move on that? Carl, go ahead. Is this kind of the, is she paying a market rate or is she paying like those houses that'll give you dimes on the dollar to clear out, you know, an estate or whatever it is? Do we have any idea about that? I don't have a good read on that. What I can say is we've let all the local libraries come through and pick through and take anything that they want. We've put it out to a bunch of different things. So now it's less there. I think if someone's willing to give us something for that, I feel like that's a great benefit and why not start there? That makes sense. If we've already let our communities cherry pick it, let's get what we can for it, right? Yeah, just let me chime in here, Carl. We actually did that the year before last. We had all the local librarians. We started with Rochester and worked our way out. And really what's left is just stuff that no one wants. So if we can do anything short of paying someone to take it away, I think it's in our best interest. Good. Other comments on this, questions before we? Yeah, you did say that our local, I did just hear that our Rochester library has come in, but it was a couple of years ago. I would almost like to give them one more chance to peruse it before we fully disposition it, if they can do it in a timely fashion, it's because it was a couple of years ago. Yeah, I can certainly offer that to Harimi. I'm pretty sure she went through pretty thoroughly and took everything she was interested in. But there's no harm in asking her if she wants to come down and do another look through. I think if she declines, that's her choice. But you would rather move, I think we'd like to move on this. I don't know, I think we're ready to entertain a motion to move on this. Justine, to accept the person to come in to look at the books and pay us what they can for them. I feel like I'm ready. If I think they went through a process already, probably nothing has changed since then. Jenny? Yeah, I think it sounds good. Good, Megan? I think it sounds good. As long as all the local librarians have had their pick in, I'm good with it. Good. Amy, I know, Carl, you had to speak up. Amy, I need a list in front of me. I can't. Amy, is there a vote on the table right now? Is that what we're trying to say here? No, I haven't been moved yet. The action item needs to be moved. I move we authorize Lindy to allow the representative from the followed book company to come in and evaluate and purchase materials from the library as she sees fit. Second. Second by Justine. On favor signify by saying aye. Ayes have it. Excellent. We're on to, sorry, I lost it for a sec. Ray, you got that agenda, sorry. It's the sale update, Ethan. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I somehow closed this on myself. Good. Jamie, what do you have on this? I know tonight actually our presentation is happening before the planning board in Rochester. Our lawyer, David Rowe is there handling this as we speak. So we'll be talking to him later in an executive session. And I do think, I can add, I did get an email that the planning commission approved the school to subdivision this evening with a couple of conditions which are not problematic. So that's pretty significant. So that's good. That is very, very good news. That's been a lot of work to get there. So thank him and thank our engineers. That's great. Anything else on this report? I don't think we have anything specific other than that. I was hoping we could update folks about that. And so that's exciting news. Justin, I'm just generating a general sense and Amy might be able to speak more to this that there is a lot of activity in the community of Rochester. Various groups are really talking dollars and cents and bringing in some serious planning moving forward. So we're hopefully, very hopefully optimistic that this will result in a solution soon and a plan going forward. Amy, is that a fair summation? Yes, there definitely is a lot of forward momentum happening. Of course, there is a process that everything has to go through, but there's a lot of forward momentum, a lot of excitement, a lot of energy, a lot, a lot of energy around this. So it's very encouraging. I hope that we're willing to, Good. Excellent. Then I think we're, let's move on. Ethan, I'm sorry to backtrack just, but did Lyle have stuff to share about the other assets of the high school building? Oh, wow. Not that he doesn't want to spend the evening. Oh, I'm so sorry, you're right. I thought it was just books. I didn't realize that was more. Thank you so much. I'm sorry. No, no, thank you for, I'll always take correction. No, I guess Jamie was talking about lockers. He was thinking that they might be something that would be salvaged. Is that, was that the question, Jamie? Yeah, just you and I had talked about what's the best approach to salvage some of these things as we look to liquidate assets. Yeah, and things like that. I mean, without taking several of them apart first and figuring out just how many man hours is involved, there are lots of little nuts and bolts. And then you surprisingly that this inside wall is also this inside wall of this one. So now this one doesn't have a wall and you end up with a lot fewer lockers you might have thought you would have. And who knows what condition they're in when you finally get them all out. So without trying to tear them apart, I don't think you'll really have a good answer on that. As far as that building was concerned, I did talk to a grant writer friend of mine, which I think Jamie had shared with you folks, which when I was investigating other options other than the performance contract angle and just looking for grants for boilers and things like that, I ran across a grant that didn't fit well for a pellet boiler, perhaps, but it was almost exactly fitting into repurposing that building for a community site. And honestly, I've had a lot of luck with Tim Cutler over the years, writing some pretty interesting grants from anything from stormwater collection systems that we won awards for that also were seconded for irrigating our fields. I mean, some really cool stuff. And he's always good at finding those grants to help move projects like that along. And he's worked for lots of colleges and things like that. So anyway, just a plug for him. Can you, have you, sorry, did you say you passed that on to Jamie? I mean, is it possible to get that us too? So we could get that to the select board so they could make sure they have access? I think I forwarded it's one point, Ethan, as many as I said, it's a community action grant. Yeah. Okay, if anybody, you know, just because sometimes second times the term, if it's possible to pass it on again, that would be lovely. Cause certainly maybe when it came, there wasn't as fertile ground in Rochester as it is right now in terms of how they're thinking about raising money. So it'd be great if we could see that again. Sure. I also do know that some people in Rochester have expressed interest in keeping the lockers and that they are an asset to the building. So I just, just so that's out there. This isn't about instant liquidation. Question, did you happen to take a look at this, at the tools in the maker space and what the potential, I've heard various reports that they really aren't in great shape and aren't necessarily usable, but I don't know if you have to take a look at that. I never, I never really got into that space. I was more concerned with the freezing up of the building, the sprinkler system, the boilers, and just the domestic water and so on. Okay, good. Thank you. Sure thing. All right. Are we ready now to move on to seven, six, planning and process review for annual budget informational meeting? So I can just jump in here. I sent out a kind of a structure we use successfully at Rudd and we use it successfully in Straford. The first part is a lot of data and overview from the principals in regards to school performance. This also aligns the policy we adopted in the fall for our budget process and presentation. And so it hits on every mark that we said we would do within policy. And so I sent that out to all of you. And so what I'm really looking for to find out from the board is we will fill it all in as administrators who is interested in presenting the financial aspects of the presentation. And then we'll work with you to just prep, prepare you and ensure that you have everything you need that evening. Of course, we're there to support you as well, but I think it's nice when it comes from a board member or two. And so I was just looking to get some guidance from the board who might want to engage in that work. And it's really more about the presenting that evening at the info meeting. So when you're talking about presenting, you would, I wouldn't mind doing some type of presentation if there is a full support to be able to answer questions and from Tara and the administration. And if there's support with helping me for a presentation. And you have all the info loaded into Amy and we can meet with you to provide you with an overview of what it all means. Amy, you were certainly the first person I thought of. I said that I would be willing to do it, provided I had sort of a script of sorts. In some sense, not maybe not literal script, but just in the sense of I want to make sure I keep, because you understand the numbers much better than I do. So, but I would love it if you would do it. That'd be great if you would step forward with full support from Tara and Jamie. And if you want, if there turns out- Yeah, I do understand. Go ahead, sorry. Yes, cause I do feel that I do have a good understanding of the numbers, but as you same, same as you have said, I would almost like a script some real clear presentation. Well, and if you would like to work together on that too, if that, cause obviously I've got the spiel stuff down, but so if you want a team partner, or if that works some way to have the two of us do it, I'm happy to do that. If you want to lay the groundwork and then bring me in at the rehearsal, the dress rehearsal, that would be great. Okay, that sounds good. Yes, I will commit. Good, anything else on that, Jamie? No, and I think you'll see as you get into the details around it, it sort of lends itself as a script. We'll just make certain though that you really understand the definition of the yield, equalized pupils and things of that nature. Yeah, that's the things that go off my bald head very quickly. All right, great. I think we're done with seven, six. We've taken care of our action items. We have new hires, resignations. This is principles. We have a few resignations for next year. They're not immediate and in a retirement, so. Yep, we have a classroom teacher in Raj Hester, who is choosing to step away to accept a different position closer to our home. That is Bridget Kim, who has been working virtually all year, but was a classroom teacher last year and was planning on coming back as well as. We need to accept each resignation as they come in. I think you can accept them as a sleep is fine. Okay, thank you. Yep. And then our PE teacher in Raj Hester has opted to take a position also closer to home. So he will be, I'm stepping away, that's Casey Grimes. And then in great gratitude, we want to express, I don't think we can express enough, Faye Devery has let us know that she's planning to retire. And she's already spoken to all the families in her class about it. So those are the three updates. That's a significant long time. Long time, a treasured teacher. Absolutely. I was hoping Wilder would get her. I was hoping she could last up that long, but I guess I understand. I would entertain a motion to accept the two resignations and one retirement as presented. I move we accept the two resignations and with great regret accept the resignation. With great regret accept the retirement. Thank you. Thank you. Seconded, please. Second. Justine seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Wendy, thank you. We'll need to pull some together with some stuff for Faye. I'm sure there's some people who want to talk on that one. Great. All right. Thank you so much. We are now at public comment at 808. I will go through the list. Please be sure to state your name and the town you're coming from. We ask that your comment be no longer than five minutes. And because we have quite a few people, I would ask that we have one comment per this meeting. And we'll start at the top and work our way down. Bill Edgerton, do you have a comment for the board? Bill, do you have a comment for the board? No, I don't. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bill. Charity Colton, do you have a comment for the board? While he was picking up sticks, he picked up all the stuff around the yard. Hi, this is Charity Colton, Stockbridge. Earlier in the evening, I think Jamie had stated there's gonna be a breakdown of the $18.19 spending, but you referred to it as you were doing it from the budgeted numbers. And can you clarify why you're doing it from budgeted numbers and not actual numbers? Or do you mean actual numbers? And it's just a language barrier. We're gonna do it based on what you actually budgeted for each building for $18.19. So why would you do an after-the-fact breakdown on budgeted numbers and not the actual numbers that show the actual spending that occurred? I don't understand the point of- Tara, this is more of a question from my business manager, frankly. That's- And can you clarify who was asking for it? The Stockbridge Select Board did. Hi, Charity, this is Tara. When the $18.19 audit was completed, the way the auditors group together expenditures is different than the way we allocate those expenditures in the budget process itself. So if for ease of comparison, because we used the 19-20, or sorry, 20-21 budget, we would make sense to use the $18.19 budget as that is what you voted on and that is what you approved and that supports the numbers based on your per-pupil spending and your equalized pupil for that fiscal year. So that would be why we would use the budgeted numbers as your comparative tool. Is there a way to recognize the overall difference since it's the breakdown of- Since there's a difference in the way they classified things in the audit versus the budget and that's sort of creating the tension in the two differences, is there a way to recognize at least the overall numbers of how different were we from budget versus actuals as well? I mean, if you're- On the website and yes, I can provide the page on the audit that shows, but the audit does not break down Rochester Stockbridge. It is a combined number. So you can look at the audit itself and see where you ended from your budget to actuals for $18.19. So that is available to them? Yeah, it's already been available. It's on the website. Okay. All the audits are. Good. Thank you, Charity. Hallie Mendele, do you have a comment for the board? What was the name of the guy that was talking about all the energy audit stuff? What was the name of the company he works for? Tammy E.I. Services. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Janet Whitaker, do you have a comment for the board? Janet? Pressure. No, okay. Jess Arseneau, do you have a comment for the board? No, I don't. Thank you. Okay, good. Thank you. Joanne Mills, do you have a comment for the board? My only comment is, well, I've got a couple, but one is it's too bad that federal money can't come to our teachers and staff for their retirement account. Some of it, obviously it's wonderful to have it for these projects, but I hear all these numbers and I think, boy, wouldn't that be nice for all you guys that work so hard. That's my first comment, and it looks really exciting to maybe get some of that money for our buildings. The other thing I wanted to ask Jamie is, I know you wanna do apples to apples with the comparison that the town selectmen are looking at, are you going to, and I haven't looked online, I didn't realize it was there and the changes were there, but are you gonna make sure that the lunch program is pulled out of there since it is apples to apples from then to now? Or am I- Joanne, I guess I'm confused, the lunch program in 1819 was there. Yes, it was, but it won't be in the number, is it in the numbers that you presented now? They are, yeah, 2021, it's there. Okay. It's only what's in the budget is the inter fund transfer that you're making as a subsidy to the food service program. Okay. It's not the actual food service budget. The food service budget is an enterprise fund, which is outside of your general fund. So that's not part of your budgets that you approve for food service. You only approve in your budget what you as a district are contributing from your general fund to the enterprise fund. Okay. So what we contribute from the general fund, that would be a different amount. I see what you're saying. I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't be a big difference of what you approved in the general fund then and to now. That's- No, it would be whatever you approved in your 1819 budgeting cycle to subsidize your food service program in each of your buildings. That would still be in your budget. That's part of your general fund budget. Okay. Well, thank you for cleaning that up. I appreciate that. Oh, that. And I guess that is it. And I'm sure we'll have time, but and I don't want to waste your time, but boy, Faye, I hate to hear that she's retiring. She is Rochester Elementary School. So anyway, I feel sad that she's going. Anyway, thank you. Bye. Thank you, Joanne. Joe Pimentel. As I said that, right, Pimentel? Sorry. Do you have a comment for the board? You did say it correctly. And no, I do not. Thank you all. Great. Thank you so much, Joe. Karen Rubin, do you have a comment for the board? Yeah. Hello and good evening. I actually have a couple of questions. A first in statements. First, I want to applaud the enrichment programming that the faculty has praised in their public letter. But I'd also like to know how those programs translate into the three R's, the reading, writing and arithmetic and improving the overall competitive level of our students in regards to their academic success. So that's just something I'm curious about. And I can actually take this offline and maybe give Lindy a call at some point and have her fill me in on that. But obviously, as you know in the past, that is one of my concerns is our reading, writing and arithmetic that is being provided for our students. The other question I have is the efficiency program that you were referring to earlier that you were discussing earlier is Stockbridge going to have an evaluation prior to that? So that is part of the plan that the SES building will also be looked at comprehensively and it will be put into play in regards to that funding. Yes, Jamie said that, yeah, that's right at the beginning. He said that absolutely, they will be part of the audit. Great, I like to see the bobbing heads. Thank you. And then finally, I would just like to know if there will be an informational meeting prior to the revoked. And if so, what is that date? Do you know that yet? Because I think, and you guys have heard me say before, both here on your meetings and publicly on other areas that information is power. If people are going to make a decision and they're going to make it, they have to know what they're voting on. They have to know why they're voting on it or they have to just not even bother to vote. So when will that informational meeting occur? That's actually up to the select board. We will certainly be part of that, that informational meeting, but they need to finalize the date. There was a possible date thrown out at the last meeting when Jamie and I were there. I don't actually remember it at the time. It is significantly after the budget vote, I think a couple of weeks at least. And there's a window, but there would definitely be an informational meeting before that vote. It would be a certain amount of time before the vote. But again, without the vote set, they don't have a hard date for that. Karen, I think that they plan on possibly taking that up and starting to firm up dates this coming Thursday was what I heard at their meeting last week. So I'm hopeful that we'll have some more details after that. And just so everybody knows, regardless of what the outcome of that revote is going to be, it will not have an impact on the budget that you're proposing for this act, this next fiscal year. So yeah, I think that's important for people to know. Very important. Well, right, because we're gonna vote prior to that too, Karen, so I can't agree more. Yeah, well, I appreciate it. Thank you all for your time. Thank you, Karen. Katherine Shankman, do you have a comment for the board? Well, I came on board because I wanted, as well as Pat Harvey, to inform you that we're about to submit the planning grant for the repurposing of the Rochester High School, Vermont Community Development Planning Grant. The submission date is the 13th of April and there's a lot of movement as Amy said. So I believe that if Pat, I mean, Pat, at what point do you want to speak to this? Or are you inviting them? We're inviting her and Vic into Executive Session. I can get you invited in too, if that's appropriate. Well, Vic and I are co-chair. I'm actually not feeling very well, which is why Vic sent it for me. So I'm probably not going to be a part of that meeting, but I've been here listening and enjoying the process. Great, thank you so much, Katherine. Cricut, McCusker, comment for the board. Just thank you all very much for all the time you always put it in. That's it. Thank you. Lori, invite me, comment for the board. I'm all set, thank you. Thank you, Lori. Pat Harvey, do you have a comment for the board? Not at the time. Thank you. Robert Gardner, do you have a comment for the board? No, thanks very much for all the hard work. Thank you. Surabhato, do you have a comment for the board? That's actually Vic. He seems to be a computer. I'm good for now, thanks. Thank you very much. Tim Pratt, do you have a comment for the board? Perfect. Great, thank you, Tim. And I have one phone number, 802-star-star-19, star-6 to unmute if you have a comment for the board. Hi, Greg Piccarello. Thank you, no comment right now. Great, thank you, Greg. Thank you. Very good, thank you all for your comments. Thank you for coming. Great to have such a good turnout to our board meeting. We are now done with public comment and I will entertain a motion to go into our first executive session, confidential attorney client communications made for the purpose of providing legal services to the body. I move we go into executive session with our attorney to receive confidential services that will provide legal assistance to the body. Second, please. Second. Who are we inviting in? We're inviting in Vic Robato and Pat Harvey. And I've sent Ray both their email addresses. And our attorney. Oh, and our attorney, David Arou. And principals. Oh, yes, are we inviting? Sorry, I forget. Thank you, thank you. Bonnie Bourne and Lindy Stetson. I should have, should we add it all that to the motion? Probably. Superintendent, and do we need Tara or can I let her go home? I think we can let her go home. There you go, Tara. Thank you, good night everyone. Good night, thank you, Tara. Ray, are we gonna do one of these? Bump outs, are we staying on? We're gonna do a bump out. Okay, so everyone look for the email. They've already called a bump out, but no, no, it's got a break up on your screen. It's a breakout. You voted in our set to go, right? Jeni's here, Justine's here, Carl's here, we have a quorum. I'll entertain a motion, proving a letter of support to the Rochester Select Board. And a letter of support and access for the Rochester Select Board for their planning grants that they are applying for. Can I get that motion please? I move that we approve a letter of agreement and an access agreement for the Rochester Select Board Planning Grant. Second it. Second. I'd like to amend it that we are making a motion to say it again, Ethan, because it said the first word, that was access and... There was, I move that we authorize a letter of support and access agreement. A letter of support and access agreement for the Rochester Select Board Planning Grant. Yes. A friendly amendment we can accept as written. Absolutely. Absolutely, good. Any discussion? There being none, I'll call the roll. Amy? Aye. Carl? Aye. Jeni? Aye. Justine? Aye. And Megan? Aye. Good, you guys have it. Also in the other news earlier tonight, it was at the Planning Commission, as we said, the Planning Commission approved the subdivision of the high school by motion. We have to wait for a written decision and the passing of the appeal period, which we estimate to take approximately 45 days. And that time we will continue to move forward in our dispersal of the property as appropriate. Good. We are now, I'll entertain a motion to enter. Thanks, everybody. Have a good night. Thank you, David. Thank you. Much appreciated. Enter a second executive session for personal issues inviting in our superintendents and our two principals. I move we enter an executive session for personnel inviting in our superintendent and our administrative staff. Second. All in favor? Aye. Great. You're muted, Ethan. Yep. You're muted. We're turning from executive session with no action taken. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. So moved by Carl. Seconded. Seconded by Megan. By Megan. Thank you. All in favor? Signified by saying aye. Aye. Thank you all. Thank you, our staff. Thank you, everybody. Good night, everybody. Good night. Good work tonight.