 Welcome to ongoing Town Meeting Day election coverage by Town Meeting Television. This is one of a series of forums we are bringing you in advance of Town Meeting Day on March 7, 2023. Town Meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and covers all ballot items you will see on your ballot. Town Meeting Television election forums introduce you to community decision makers and connect you to issues that shape your local community. If you are tuning in live, we welcome your questions at 802-862-3966. You can watch Town Meeting TV on Comcast Channel 1087, Burlington Telecom Channel 17 and 217, as well as online at youtube.com. My name is Elaine Haney and this forum this evening is for candidates for the Burlington School Board. They are Gene Walts for the Central District, Jeff Wick for South and we are joined online by Gary Golden for the East District and Kendra Sowers from the North District is unable to be here this evening and all of the candidates for these seats are uncontested. So we're going to get started and what I'd like to do is have each of you provide an opening statement. Tell me why you're running and what will be different for Burlington if you are elected and why you think you are running on a post? Why don't we start with you Gene? I am this will be the third term that I'm serving and I did start a little early because somebody left the board early but why am I running again? Mostly because I really want to see certain things through. There's so much information and systems and procedures and everything you just basically feel like you're getting your feet wet after two years then knowing how you can be a part of making change happens after that so now there are all these things in the works that I feel like I don't want to leave until there you know I want to see them go where they're going to go but why am I running on a post? I think that it's a lot of work and I don't think it's very appealing to folks. It's a huge commitment and also it's not, there's no compensation. Okay, thank you. Jeff. Oh thanks. Yeah, I'm running for South District School Commissioner. I am just wrapping up my sixth year on the school board. Five of those years including presently I'm the vice chair of the board and it is a lot of work. That could be a reason why there aren't a lot of candidates. Also I may note that I think we've got a pretty good handle on things and I think folks in general are fairly satisfied with how we're running the board. There's always a lot of room for improvement. We've been running modest budget surpluses for the last eight years. Life contains a lot of change and it's sometimes good to have some continuity and good management and I think this particular board has provided that and continues to provide it. We've hired the superintendent, Tom Flanagan, who has done an excellent job, etc. So I think my time is up. Thank you. Thank you for being understanding of the timing that we're working on. No problem. And Gary, would you be able to answer that? I'm a co-founder of East Dick's District spot, a special educator and I spent eight years in the district in a couple of different roles in a variety of schools. So I spent the last 12 years working in a variety of central Vermont schools including some of our sort of similar districts such as Montpelier and U32. And as the new building was being proposed and the bond being voted on, I realized there were some things that these other schools were doing at the high school that 21st century schools. And there were things that we have sort of started working. There were some issues that I really wanted to. Thank you. And that's why I decided to run. Thank you, Gary. Thanks. Sure. Thank you. All right, I have a series of questions for all of you. You will each have two minutes to answer them. And if any of you wish to offer a rebuttal of any kind, just let me know when you'll have 30 seconds to do a rebuttal. So our second question is going to be about the budget. Do you support this year's school budget of $106 million, which is an increase of $8 million from last year's budget? And can you explain your understanding of the budget and the impact on schools and voters? And Gary, let's start with you. Your understanding of the budget is reasonable based on what is being absorbed this year. This year there's going to be an increase due to health care costs. There will be this year there'll be an increase as we begin to absorb the cost of the bond. I think the current board has done a great job of trying to finesse competing demands for funding, the use of rise funding to give different principles, different buildings. The ability to adjust funding based on their needs is inspired as something I wish the state would help us with. So I think overall it's a reasonable increase. I think there's a net decrease in the number of positions, which I think is a response to your question as well. And I think it really shows a good faith effort on the school board's part to keep faithful to voters about the budget that they present. Thank you. How about you, Jeff? Thanks, Lane. I also support the school budget. And Gary clearly has a good grasp over this budget and its pros and cons. It is true. There is some headcount cutting. We do hope that through attrition and being able to move folks around however, that it is our hope that no one will actually lose a job who wants to continue working in the Burlington Schools. We estimate presently that the tax impact will be roughly 4%, which is within, I think, an acceptable range from my perspective. It's difficult, because as you know, we've just come out of a year to two years of a rather alarming inflationary environment. I guess we haven't come out of it yet, but as you know, inflation does seem to be ticking back down. That has resulted in some increased people costs so that they can keep up their standard of living. So I do support it. We've tried to be very responsive to the needs of the community and the taxpayers. All right, thank you. And Jean, what are your thoughts on the budget? Well, I'm mostly going to point out the rise. I want to focus on the rise allocation. And mostly about the process in the past when I first got on the board, which would be over four years ago, it was sort of decided. It felt very haphazard how things were decided. And there wasn't a lot of discussion, especially with the community, about how things could move forward. And essentially, every step of the way, things have been presented. And as time went on, it became more granular. And logistics were proposed, money-wise, and talking about, oh, there might be a cut, or there might be a position, whatever, dissolved. There were community discussions. And people had meetings. They had emergency PTO meetings and stuff. And I took part of those. And I feel like the district responded so appropriately. There was nothing impulsive. Everything about the financial impact was mindfully conceived of, explained well. And I think people were willing to compromise, because after those discussions were really invested, in like, these are all of our children. These are all of our schools. The kid might be in this elementary school, but it's not going to be long before they're in that middle school. It just made me feel really good about the decision to support it. Great. Thank you. OK. So what do you see as the next steps in the building of a new high school for Burlington? What are the key elements you think are needed in a 21st century school? Let's start with Jeff on that one. Oh, great. Well, despite the high cost of building a high school or building anything right now, and despite the fact that it's come to us through some unfortunate circumstances, the PCBs having closed our schools, I'm very optimistic and excited for the future of Burlington and its students and families, because we get to build a school based on today's beliefs and standards. And that includes more flexible spaces. It includes some smaller rooms, some larger rooms. Clearly, it includes the best technology that we can muster in terms of climate change efficiency. It includes the idea that a lot of natural light is healthy for people. So we're incorporating a lot of natural light, a lot of flexible spaces. The old high school wasn't built when everyone had a laptop, so there weren't simple things like enough places to plug your laptop in and recharge things. So I'm very excited about all of that. And we get to rethink from the ground up or with our architects, our professionals, those who've done this before. So we're not making this up. But we've hired, I think, some of the best folks who we could find, regionally and nationally, who have built 21st century high schools. So I think it's going to work out really well. Thank you. And Gary, what are your thoughts on the new high school? Can't hear him. Gary, we can't hear you. Hold on a second. I'm mute. So the meeting with Tom Flanagan and Claire was a school week or so ago and saw the design of the old, even the lobby, and I was going, that's exactly what U32 looks like. It really is an open, wonderful space. I think what I'm after is sort of the next step beyond what Jeff was talking about with the technology. Yes, there are many technologies. We're going to be a wired school. But we shouldn't just be wired internally. We do have, like at the high school, the students are able to take online courses that are provided by other high schools. But in the past, we've had hardwired live classes that were available. Why aren't we doing that? We have Chinese. I don't think there's another Chinese program in a high school in the state that has survived COVID. Essex Junction, the tech center there, has Japanese. Why aren't we offering Japanese here? So I would build for a lot more cooperation between schools where we could actually lower some of our funding needs by being aggressively cooperative and using technology to share classes. I would also say, again, U32, I just had a phone meeting with them last week with some colleagues that I worked with before. And they are very invested in community-based learning, where we, I think, have a co-op program in the tech center. We, at one point, had someone at the high school who was coordinating that. I'm not sure that survived COVID. We should be much more aggressive about putting students out in the community with their interests, building skills, building careers. And then I think those are two main things I would point out. Thank you. And Jean, your thoughts? I took this question much more literal as in, what are the next steps? That's fine. I know that the architects are having conversations with the people who are going to occupy that building and use it. And I just love seeing the notes saying, this sink isn't needed in the nurse's office in this place, or a larger conversation about where should gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms be available, just being really considerate about people, not assuming what they think are people's needs, responding in ways that I think are appropriate, and doing it within the budget. And then what was the second half part? What are the key elements? Key elements are the 21st. I actually agree with Gary about the duplication of services. I hope you join in on some of the conversations with the regional tech center group. They're talking about, why aren't we pooling our resources better? I mean, they are talking about it. They are talking about, let's pool our resources and not duplicate services, but also find ways to concentrate the effort into one and bolster that one rather than have something that is kind of an afterthought. But essential stuff is making sure that these spaces that are established have the infrastructure that's going to be able, what would be the, I'm not sure what it's like, adapted for the future needs, of which we don't necessarily know, but we know a certain amount of electricity needs to go into a certain space, right? OK, thank you. So let's change topics and go in a different direction. What is your current understanding of the work around racial justice in schools, and how would you support leadership efforts and initiatives to meet the challenges of creating an equitable and thriving environment for all students? Let's start with Eugene. I'd love to start. Thanks for asking. I've actually been co-chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board Committee. And just on last Monday, we got an update about personal development opportunities for all six through 12th grade teachers, or I should say educators, power educators as well. And one of the things that struck me the most after hearing about the work that everybody's doing and what's available is five different workshops over the course of the school year. It's mandatory to sign up for one. They're calling them strands. The strands were actually developed in response, or like built around what educators requested. And the idea that there's, I forget how many there are. There's at least a dozen. So there's a lot of variety. So people have a lot of choice out there, which I think of course feels good, right? There's ownership when you get to choose. But the thing that feels really different is what is referred to as buy-in. I don't think that people are being dragged to trainings, kicking and screaming anymore. I think they've been asking like, I want this. I need this. It used to be that the district relied on educators to attend trainings or workshops of this caliber on their, you know, the district relied on folks to go out there and find the stuff that they needed for their classroom. So this is the first time it's really a serious intentional training offering or personal development offerings. Okay, thank you. Gary, what's, switch over to you for that question. Sort of had a front row seat to the, probably the last big waves of new Americans coming into our district. I was at Barnes Now Sustainability Academy when the first Somali Bantu students showed up. So many that we created a brand new classroom for them. And it was all, you know, there's minimal English exposure from the time in the camps because the students were so young. The camps really had a priority teaching English to the older students. So we had new hires, I see some veterans teachers who came back to teach and they were starting from ground zero. The difference between then and now is just, it's unimaginable how far the district has come, how far the teachers have come. Have there been struggles along the way? Yes. My ELL teacher friends in their workshops when I was in the district talked a lot about, you know, just language difference of, in this case Somali Bantu, Nepalese was the other group that came in. Their social language was three to five years ahead of their academic language. And so teachers are always in this bind of thinking that they were communicating well in the classroom when actually the student was struggling. We've closed that gap of awareness at least. And I think Genie's committees work on the equity issues around what we're offering students, making sure all students have access to the education they deserve is commendable. And I'm looking forward to, if not being actively involved, being an ally to those efforts. Thank you. Jeff. Yeah, sure. Agree with everything my colleagues here have said today. I suppose over the last decade, the equity work of the school district has become baked into the DNA as there are a ton of room for improvement. There always is. We're not unique in that regard. An example regarding how it's part of what we believe in is the school district just went through a re-upping of its five year strategic plan. And I would suggest that each of our five key points are really equity infused. Number one, we really believe in creating a sense of belonging and well-being for every student from every background. Very important, deeper learning, they call it for every student. Reimagining education for every student, giving them more variety of options. You're familiar with the Burlington City and Lake Project where, as was discussed a little earlier tonight, students actually get to go out into the community and do their learning, community-based learning. It is a goal of the school district to have more educators who look like our student population. Obviously, it's still a long way to go on that. And we're moving, we have moved away from standard disciplinary tactics towards what we call restorative practices. Specifically, just a couple more things. The school district in regard to equity has launched what they call a virtual equity workshop series with various student staff and community partners We've finished our second summer of Racial Justice Academy. We have launched an LGBTQ plus task force made up of student staff and community members. It's essentially part of what we do as a Burlington's, as the school district. Thank you. Okay. What educational reforms are most important to you and to your constituents over the next five to 10 years? And let's start with Gary. Now, this one's challenge for us, the words is a question that I had noticed on the list faced with that it's going to be the elephant in the room for every budget conversation. It's going to be the elephant in the room when we come up to teacher contract time, the negotiation, it is a stressor for teachers for staff for administration. And it's going to be a challenge. I think COVID, the effects of COVID are still very present in our students and our families and our professional staff. I think we are not close to being through the effects of that time. I think we are, everyone involved is just fried. They are completely utterly fried. They're excited about what they do, but in the background, they are tired. I think this upcoming break is pretty vital for the teachers that I'm still in contact with to get a little refreshed attitude and take some deep breaths. But I think our next few years are going to be challenging around those issues. I think as we move into the new reading curricular program, I think there's some challenges there about closing the academic gaps that we have perceived from COVID. I'm probably up to the group that's saying, I think we just need to face reality. We might not be able to close that gap and to act accordingly, but that's the decision well beyond my role as a potential school counselor. Thank you. So I think in a nutshell, those are the things to be able to do. Thank you. And Jean. I agree. Social emotional and mental health issues, I think are going to be the hard stuff that we have to tackle. As far as reform though, when I hear that word, I think more about like a real direct initiative. I think that not just our district, I think nationally we are waking up to the fact that a four-year college is really, really not for everyone. And so much so that now we're at a loss when it comes to people working in the trades. Everything is short, I mean, everything is short-staffed, but we're just finding skilled tradespeople just sparse. And I think that's because we put such an emphasis on the four-year bachelor's degree rather than alternative pathways to, first of all, not going to debt and finding a well-paying job. And I also think unfortunately, people just weren't being paid what they should have been paid at some point in the trades. And I just think we're shifting. We're shifting from what we value in getting somebody ready to have a rewarding adult life. Thank you. Jeff. Right. I think one of the most important educational reforms over the next five to 10 years, hopefully in the next year to two years is to reinstate state aid for school construction. We're not the only school district with I'll call it aging infrastructure. Building a new school is beyond really the budget of any individual town or city. And we at the state level, at the legislative level need to figure out how to fund this, provide some assistance. There's also a federal level. I think there's some tie between federal money that goes through the state and they can get funneled to school construction. But we need the support of our federal delegation on that as well. Much of the schools were built in what, the 50s and 60s. All those schools are now 50 or 60 years old, more or less. And it's time to re-up and make sure that the students of our state have good learning environments that reflect today's, the way we live and our technology and beliefs about education today. Let's dive into that a little deeper with the three of you. What is your, and we'll stick with you, Jeff. What is your opinion of the efforts in Montpelier regarding school funding and what would you recommend? Well, the, I think our local delegation of representatives and state senators are, this is top of mind for them. So they're aware of it and they're working on it. I'm less clear on whether the rest of the state's legislators have this top of mind as well. I hope they do because all the schools throughout the state are gonna get tested for PCBs. And I hope we're an anomaly in Burlington, but not sure, and then it'll become everybody's problem, right? So I do think that there's an awareness, especially now this year. For the first time, I think it's heightened, the awareness is heightened because of the BHS PCB problem. All right, all right. Thank you. Jean, what are your thoughts on school funding? State level. Well, what I've been hearing about bills that are burbling up, they sound kind of radical, which is, of course, I like, but I wonder how they're gonna be received during crossover, if they get to crossover. I also know it was a huge battle just to get the state education funding formula updated with percentages that reflected actual costs for educating actual students based on their needs. So, but it did happen. And I do think that Burlington commissioners will be keeping an eye on how that is rolled out. So it hasn't begun yet. And things sometimes get tweaked and changed slightly and that was such a huge amount of work that it's gonna, it requires some maintenance as far as possibly advocating and speaking and bringing to attention if anything gets changed. So that's definitely something I'm gonna keep my eyes on because part of why our infrastructure, part of why our buildings were crumbling is because we had deferred maintenance because we were not getting enough money to just give our kids an education. So yeah, and I'm sure that, I'm sure we're not alone in that, but yeah, some of the nicer schools had a great, they had state funding that was pretty much more than they needed. Okay, thank you. Gary, what are your thoughts on school funding from Montpelier? Hopefully future colleagues are saying, I think the amounts we're talking about across the state are gonna dwarf any ability of our state to finance. If you were to talk to a rep or a state senator, it's a shell game. We have pretty much zero funding or zero sum funding. Who loses if we divert money to school construction? So for me, it's much more of a federal issue. I'm old enough to remember the Nixon years of revenue sharing where the federal government gave a set amount to the states each year. I'm also old enough to remember that before going to war in the 2000s, a very stark choice was there. You can either rebuild every school in the country, rebuild your infrastructure or you can go to war or local budgets are gonna go or be in default all over the country. And that's pretty much where we are. So I support efforts on our state legislature to come up with a solution. I just don't know where the money's gonna come from. As Jeff was saying, every era of school building has a problem, an older building that I served in, the science class did a project on mold and they started collecting air samples and they were shut down because every building on the campus had a mold issue. That was the building was from the 30s and 40s. Our era is rebar and the supports had to be rebuilt and the PCBs, if you're in a multi floor structure. So I just think this is a huge issue and I don't know where the money's gonna come from. Okay, can I follow up? Yes, you can. Well, one of those radical ideas, Gary, is using some of the funding that's marked for building prisons, which is quite substantial. All right. I totally agree. I actually spent a stint locally at the Chin Devis facility. And yes, we are pretty, some degree foolish about how we incarcerate. And yes, that is a pool of money that would be well used for it. Okay, I think we have enough time for possibly two more questions, definitely one more question. So I'd like each of you to take some time to talk about what you see are the biggest challenges facing the schools in your district and how you would use your seat on the school board to address those issues and what's your vision for Burlington's education future? Let's start with Gary. You're not asking a lot. I think philosophy that the flip side of challenges is opportunity. So challenges are, you know, we are because the baby boomers, you know, that wave is receding, our enrollment's gonna go down. We do have the bond costs to absorb. But I think those issues will drive us to be more global in how we teach and global in how we do the pedagogy of teaching, the cooperation, the use of community resources, using mentors to really inspire our students to go into those careers that Jean was talking about, to really explore the beta technologies of our area, to who's doing really creative work. Challenge is going to be partially as calls for a level of flexibility on our staff parts and our community as well. I think a lot of parents, particularly ones that I dealt with have a 23 year old now who graduated in 2018. College is, you know, that's the Holy Grail. AP courses are the Holy Grail. How do we get in there and say there are other ways to graduate? There are other ways to gain a high school education that's gonna help students in the long run. I'm very much a fan of Ertic College. I'm very much a fan of the community-based learning that I mentioned. And so those are opportunities that are coming out of our challenges. But I think our mental health issues right now, you can't be flexible if you're in survival mode. So dealing with our community as a whole around coming out of COVID, the financial concerns, you know, really trying to promote community is the challenge, you know, I think immediate. Thank you, Gary. Go ahead, Jeff. Well, I'll just focus on one challenge that I believe we've noticed. And that is the increase in behavioral issues from kindergarten through eighth grade especially. And I'm not gonna put, I don't think any of us knows why that's occurring. We're trying different things, including being more restorative and punitive, of course, because you really want instructional time for even those children who are having a hard time regulating themselves in the classroom or in the hallways. And I don't think we have figured that out fully yet, you know, the causes, and certainly not yet the solutions. But I think behavioral challenges disrupt everybody's learning. And so that's one of our, I think one of our school district's biggest challenges over the next five to 10 years is to try to figure that out with our community. Okay, thank you. Jean, somewhat in line with that. So say the parent of a kid that's acting out, having the lines of communication and figuring out, solving that problem, getting to the bottom of things however you want to categorize it is a huge part of that kid's success, right? But we, I know from hearing the, in my neighborhood, I believe that the biggest issue is how parents don't necessarily feel like there's a way to hold the adults in our school community accountable for how they may have caused harm. So there is an initiative that's being rolled out called the Restorative Code of Conduct, just the way that if I feel like you have caused harm to me, I can request that we have basically a restorative process. Nobody's gonna get punished if we engage in this and the next steps are gonna be determined based on what we find out about each other, however you wanna categorize it. But that is not available for parents or caregivers and for our students. So believe it or not, our students are held to this certain standard, but the adults in the school communities are not. And I think that is that in itself causes this huge rift, right? And also it's denying, I don't wanna say denying, but that is a lost opportunity for the adults in the school communities to learn and grow and become better at everything that they do. And especially it's gonna foster better relationships and we all just know we function across the board better if we are having good relationships with people. Okay, thank you. I think we have enough time for one more question, a quick answer. So talking about teacher wellbeing and retention, what do you understand as the current level of morale among Burlington teachers? And is the district doing enough to retain good teaching and support staff? Jean, I'll start with you. Well, I kind of feel like my last point talked about that. There is a climate survey that goes out every year. I'm curious to see how the response, the feedback, especially from teachers. I can imagine, I mean, I'm also a classroom teacher, a small boarding school, a very different climate, but I can imagine that it is tough right now to deal with some of the behavioral stuff, but I also feel like there's a lot more understanding and support for, like nobody's gonna think like, oh, it's your fault, your classes fill in the blank. I do feel like people are being heard. But as far as logistical support, we know that we're short-staffed. So that second paraeducator that used to be in the classroom may not necessarily, there was tons of openings for paraeducators. Please apply. If you're looking for a job, go on the website. But what was the second part of that question? Oh, is the district doing enough to retain good teaching and support staff? I wanna say there's room for improvement. Okay. Gary, how about you? Since I'm getting, I'm probably more contact with recently entire teachers than current teachers, but I still would go back to emphasize everyone is just fried. And the COVID years, year and a half was just so difficult in so many ways. So I think there's recovery coming from that. The second part, I was recently a part of an IEP meeting in one of the Essex schools for a friend. And there were three former Burlington teachers or staff in the meeting. So why did they move? I'm sort of reaching out to them to figure that out, but most of it is finances. Most of it was, it's just a different population. That's less stressful. Just to call it what it is. So in some ways it feels like we're a farm club for the other districts in the county, but I think we will continue to do the best we can to support our teachers and try to build those networks where they don't wanna believe because they love it here. Thank you. And Jeff, what is your response to that question? Sure. Well, I've been the chair of the negotiations committee of the board for five years now, roughly speaking. And I think I can report that the board, the administration and the teachers union and other unions with whom we negotiate. I believe we've got a very productive and good relationship and that we're all rowing in the same direction. And a good example of that would be the three year contract we just signed with the teachers and with the para educators. I think we were very pleased to, I don't wanna say give them, but to be able to provide some of the things that they wanted and needed. And I think they were pleased as well with the bargain. And beyond just the money, I think there is a level of trust and understanding and increasing level of trust and understanding between union administration and school board. So I'm generally speaking, seeing a healthy relationship, much healthier than I saw six to 10 years back. So I'm very glad about that. Okay. Well, thank you very much, all of you. We are out of time for your comments this evening, but I would like to thank our candidates, Gary Golden, Jeff Wick and Jean Walts for being here this evening. And thank you for tuning into town meeting TV's ongoing coverage of local candidates, local budgets and valid items. You can find this and more forums at www.ch17.tv. Don't forget to vote on or before March 7th. Ballots are not mailed automatically, so please check with your town clerk to request a ballot or make sure to get to the polls on March 7th. Thank you for watching and sharing town meeting television. 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