 Be informal, prior to COVID, I actually used to run these once a month. There are kind of an opportunity to connect with the community. There are always things that we're working on. There are things that come up that we're having problems with as well. And it's just, it's a good form to just have some conversations, to generate some ideas, to get from the community what they need depending upon what's going on in and around the school district. There will be times, as I run these open forums, there will be monthly, typically around budget season, that there will be presentations and what not to try to educate people on, you know, this is the budget for next year. This is what people's taxes can expect to be. If we're changing things, these are the reasons why and what we're attempting to accomplish with it tonight. So a couple of focuses for tonight. The first one has to do with some of the curriculum work that is happening this year. And we've got a group that is trying to define what life skills are for students. And life skills are the things that everybody needs to be able to do, just to be able to conduct the basic activities of life when they're outside of school. And so, you know, we do a pretty good job. We teach the ELA, we teach the math, and we teach the science. But there's a lot of basic life skills that we don't touch on. There are a lot that a lot of cases should be happening in the home, sometimes don't. And if we want to make sure that our students are really prepared when they walk out into the world, we want to identify what they are so we can create a program here to make sure that they're getting what they might have been missing for the past couple of years. So that'll be the first topic of conversation. The second topic is talk a little bit about door security and the idea of the one door system and what's good and bad about it in frozen cons, to get some feedback from the folks that are here tonight on yes, it's a good idea, no, we think it's a little bit too restrictive, so that I can take that information back to the cabinet, and we can use that in kind of our deliberations as we're really trying to make sure the schools are as safe as they can be while not being too much for people to bear. And there are a couple other things that we should also touch on. We've had some discussion about the safety of this little side road here by the side of the school. In addition, I had a couple others. We had a discussion way back when I started my tenure about the possibility of a resource officer. I wanted to throw that out there, get a feel for what people's initial kind of gut reactions were to that, and then maybe a bigger discussion about the possibility of replacing this building in the RTCC complex. There are some things that are happening in Vermont broadly that are coming together in a good way that might make it possible with the state contributing a significant amount of funding towards that endeavor, and so we can talk a little bit about the possibilities tonight, but again it's a first conversation, it's okay, people check your guts, tell me do you think this is something that we want to take on or not to help remove that guidance? I will also hang out, it is an open forum after we get through the more guided discussions, and then it's just open to anything anybody wants to talk about. So we've got a lot of people, I'm wondering if it's easier if we should go around and introduce each other or if it's easier just to introduce yourself when you talk, what do you think? Introduce when they talk, as we talk. Okay, so the big thing is just to Hey, I'm Lane Millington, I'm superintendent for the district. So let's start off with this idea of life skills. We've had a focus group that met on one of the professional development days about two weeks ago that generated a pretty good list. This is a focus group, you're going to give me some ideas. Some of those ideas may be exactly the same as they came up with and that's actually good because I'm also going to run a focus group with the students. We did have teachers at the original focus group so we've got some input there and then we can start to take a look at what's common to what came up from those three groups because those are probably the things that we should prioritize. And so there is a plan here. So I'm looking at David and Tori, Jason, so when we were in school here we had a class called On Your Own. That name has come up a bunch of times. So if I don't know, I mean you guys, Mrs. Miley used to teach it. So it was a class that every student had to take before they graduated and it literally was a checkbook. You guys can come to remember. Actually this is good because I want to know the skills. It was cooking, checkbook. We even had to sew something. That's what it was. It literally was, we even had the baby. I remember I had to carry my flower sack around. I know I think that's in health now but like Mr. Fia was talking about it. But there was something called and I don't know when we, when that stopped. I mean I'm dating. We talked about it. It sounded, when did you graduate? It sounded like it was a while ago. I graduated in 98. Yeah so it sounded like when we were checking on it was about 12 years ago that it stopped. I don't know why. I've been here five. But that exact class that the name of that has come up in a bunch of the world. Yeah there was also, I mean we still have them but we wrote a letter to yourself in that class that was sent back to you like 10 or 15 years. We still, my husband and I still have ours. Like it was really neat. Like they just did some really creative things but a lot of it was just some basic skills on what to do on everyday things. And so are the the plans we're reaching out to Deb Larry who is here who we believe may have some sort of document that kind of outlines what the course was. So it's a good one. So it's good stuff. Other thoughts and ideas, life skills. Things that the kids will need when they get out of school that's not specifically taught in school or specifically taught at home. That they need just to be able to get through their lives. I think some of it's conflict. Knowing how to deal with conflict and even just how to navigate that. Like if someone says something to you right how do you respond back and how do you respond back without anger? How do you respond back with a little evidence-based or how do you respond back in a positive manner of saying I'm really mad at you right now but I don't know how to say something but how can we touch base with this later or you know just because I'm mad at you doesn't mean I hate you right like so how do we how do we have those conversing because I think a lot of us even as adults don't know how to do it still right or it's a constant work in progress. Yeah that's good. Other ideas? Well a question. So my name is Ben Broekfield. I have a daughter who graduated from RHS and has a son currently attending. The life skills would be a requirement for everybody who goes to RUHS too. Okay. Yeah the four how how we deliver it will decide later. It may be standalone classes. It may be embedded in current classes. It'll probably be a combination of the two and some of the things that people bring it up are already embedded and happening. So it's just making sure that people can see it being beneficial. This is my opinion that it definitely should be applicable to all and but that it's not a static thing that it could morph you know over a period of time you know however things you know could be one or two years behind the eight ball but still a good thing to have you know if you're learning how to fix a carburetor on a gasoline powered vehicle yeah maybe that's five years out of date but you know maybe you know what I mean like it needs to be able to have some element to have change made changes as the world changes around it right which is good I guess yep how to handle a credit card don't give one well I know it's true we can say that but but then also what is a credit card? What is a credit card? They give them out at colleges they want them not only to give them out at colleges they want them out at colleges that was how well I have my own opinions about credit so the idea of how to handle a credit card and what is credit you know credit score things that you have to maintain to be able to navigate your way through that? Well also maybe what's not so just just introducing having a credit card as a life skill I wouldn't want to see that without Tom Benastrix underneath it that's saying well maybe working for the bank for the rest of your life might not be your your your your goal and if you don't have really strong ideas of what you want and how you want to get it you might be in the I don't know 60 70 percent of people who have a lot of debt and so they're working for the bank and that's great if you want to be a banker so financial planning how to save how to plan yes something all right it's not just sort of how to use it and what happens when you go into debt like what you know actually actually not just teaching them how to use a k-brand setter by the way yeah exactly how do you how do you budget what does debt look like what can it you know that sort of thing no reason being cries because I'm keeping up on the good ideas I have another one too yeah cooking nutrition like for for nutritional value not just cooking because I think when we had on your own it was like cookies and you know you learned how to use the stove but it wasn't there was no nutritional value in it so being able to cook a balanced meal I think the cooking part of nutrition should include the grocery shopping surprised here's your budget here's what you need how to care for produce or maybe even how the grocery stores will lay out products that are very convenient and you want to dig a little deeper if you want to save money and find that nutrition just and that's time management skill there too I think navigating special media would be a very good starting early because you know it's parent choice when your child has access to these things right and so but then I don't think children really understand or parents understand what it means what it really means to post things and like so just be a really good idea to under having under a global understanding of what it means that we've got a the librarians are pulling together to create a full digital literacy k-12 program oh that's so that's a piece that's in there but it's an important one I think technology literacy is really important and there's a difference between like information literacy around how do I assess and know the information I'm looking at and there's a difference between say social media content and what's happening to you when you're looking at that and understanding the technology that you're not living with today but we're living with tomorrow so what does it mean when we talk about things like virtual reality what does it really mean I mean what is that going to look like and what kind of conversations our students having and our faculty having around how does this change the way we show up with each other we're already seeing what social media does to us so what happens when we're in a where we're all sitting in this room virtually while we're sitting in our beds with our goggles on having this conversation with our avatars what's that going to look like how's that going to affect you know the way we live so how does technology impact our society and who we are and what we care about and how's that going to influence the way we show up and the skill sets that we're going to need in two years or five years right that's big stuff adaptability resiliency decision-making all of those things are tied into it as well accountability accountability responsibility as well this is uh this first topic i want to i want to exhaust with folks because it's an important one well i never don't lose your thought keep your hand down i'm assuming based on the conversation that people feel this is important for us to be working on as a district so i'd like to say something i'm making this cave in out and i'm a teacher oh is there somebody nope go for it she had me yeah go ahead um some of these students aren't currently taught is how to email appropriately be a little more um i think the language or email and text are the same and i think it's an effective skill to learn how to email and when to email like etiquette so you're looking at the email etiquette yeah like you need a subject and like address the person yeah as a teacher i got a lot of emails which is great please communicate with me this is like modern communication but like this is not how we do this well i love understanding what a correspondence copy is and what a yes oh no that's not my way yeah yeah so i'm a teacher at the elementary school across the street and i'm a parent of an eighth grader and a tenth grader who's transferred out um my tenth grader did a lot of homeschool with us with covid and just homeschooling before that so i think these are great ideas i absolutely think it's something the district needs to think about it's great conversation i just think um on a case-by-case basis perhaps having some kids be have an option to opt out i feel like i'm a really proactive parent and all these things i'm kind of like check check check which i'm not trying to like say you know wow but we have a lot of conversations about these things all the time thinking about my tenth grader wanting um where he is now filling his schedule with with classes that are really college preparatory um so just maybe an opt out option on a case-by-case that was looked at really carefully i agree i think a lot of people would want what we're talking about we are doing some of the same things right yeah there are parents who a lot of this stuff is covered at home there there are there are a lot that are not and we just want to if we can fill in the gap well if if you did tell it i'll respectfully disagree because i believe if you allow an opt out you'll see the evaporation of the program of this purely did in 2007 whereas if you just say this is mandatory those kids who are in college bound or more i don't know um experienced at home knowing how to email things like that maybe there's some advanced things that they could learn like take a different level where did bcc come from you know why are we doing that in an email let me you know maybe they learned more about i don't know the transition from typewriters and letters to you know i appreciate that auto correction you don't think yeah an elevated thing but within the same thing because if you do that my kids aren't going to want to take those classes not just that simple and yet i feel that they should have those life skills they might not realize they need those life skills because they're college bound so what i can do is i've got i've got both ideas down um and that's kind of a future sort of discussion to say yeah should we should we not which is a rich one i think it's important to have but we're we're kind of just an idea generating moment should get as much on the table good bad ugly as we can to kind of sort through so add one thing um in terms of financial literacy i think insurance is really important um you know whether it's renters insurance or like dorm insurance when you go to college how to access insurance for your car health insurance how to navigate those systems it's just really important i want a second to health piece it's like how do you talk to your doctor when because like this magic thing happens when a child hits 18 and suddenly the doctor won't talk to the parent anymore and you have to go through the process like and it's like a switch and so helping our young people get ready to advocate for their own health needs but i think that'd be powerful so dana so healthcare i was a really good just basic car care like changing a tire right i was gonna i was gonna offer like mock interviews you know providing scripts cold calls um and i think like interviews for like a job process yeah job or school or whatever um and i think also like we talk a lot about time management when we talk a lot about that as it applies to like homework and like you know balancing like if you're doing co-curriculars plus homework but i don't think we talk a lot about it in like a post secondary setting so like time management if you're balancing courses plus work plus you know fitness like how do you manage your time when you really design it what that looks like talking to adults how to talk to adults in a in a non-family setting for the ones who are college found so that they're not afraid to go talk to their professors and not asking not afraid to ask for help from you know how to advocate for yourself in those situations and talk with adults but then even in the job interview process or um any other situation where you would need to talk to someone who's older than you and have the build the confidence skills to know that you know what you say matters and you can do it and it's the one-on-one since not the group things i think it's like that literal one-on-one stranger thing let's make sure i got the details i think interacting with law enforcement a lot of children i mean i graduated 2009 probably the youngest one here i was still raised whether right or wrong and have a certain level of respect and tone whether i was in the right or even the wrong whatever but i mean i've seen young people have some really bad interaction just right off the right out the start like you can get pulled over for your your state inspector and you are automatically on the fight with the guy it's like he's just at that point he's probably just doing his job so you could escalate a situation that's just hey your stickers expired can you take care of that to probably get to take it if you're in a fight with the guy so i i just don't think you know if the parents aren't doing it or whatever at least we could like same thing with like interviews and dealing with with adults you're dealing with you know law enforcement i can i can put in if it's okay along with that it's just de-escalation in general oh absolutely which would go into the conflict management perhaps even the listening and your ability to interact one-on-one with a quote-unquote adult where i'm going with that is sometimes you're you know you know as a child that you know how do you how do you how do you how do you are respectful are you listening are you trying to understand what that person is saying and that can also de-escalate in my experience i do just throw it down a little bit but we also i'm not going to use this this is sort of the water i've been swimming in for a number of years so jason finley last nine years at randolph technical career center and career services an opportunity came up this year to work here at the middle school and high school in the innovation center co-teaching in there but also working hopefully to try to integrate career education across seven to twelve in different ways shapes and forms from how do you write professional email and how do you pick up a phone make a phone call the guest speaker comes in how do you walk up actually my classes that i talk over there you gotta practice shaking hands which like oh my gosh look me in the eye introduce yourself um so when a guest speaker comes in how are you properly prepared to address them and ask do your research and ask good questions and have a conversation with people that you might not know and be engaged and not just try to look at your phone underneath the tabletop while they're trying to you know send their ideas about this college that they're you know trying to share opportunities that or um so these are a lot of things that i do it's sort of the water i swim in um because these ways that i'll not only give you the skills to navigate to college or career but just with other individuals as well right i think that's really important really i think my job i share it's how to help students make good decisions about college and career pathways once they leave here um that is to me a life skill because i see often here students come back saying oh i should listen to you mr friend i went off into this or that and um had i spent a little bit more time just being more aware of the options that were out there um i would have gotten to where i wanted to be sooner or not end up with permanent debt and no way to pay for it because i dropped out of this program and now i'm going back to going back to the seven-year plan for college so i think part of those are life skills which also ties into personal finance because you're not taking out all necessary student loans if you don't have to if you're trying to get done four years because you know exactly why you're there um and you've had some work experiences and talk to people about those opportunities in that specific degree program or apprenticeship or certificate program that might relate to what your future aspirations are so i think the life skills too is sort of figuring out like who you are as an individual um and kind of thinking about the lifestyle you want once you leave school and look on career pathways fit into that lifestyle so yeah that's that's the water I swim in actually there are kind of two pieces i didn't know a while which is what which was an excellent let's try let's try to get to more fully my name is marcia mathis and i'm the parent of 01 um i would add appropriate dress for some kids that like wouldn't be appropriate this is appropriate and it could be depending on where you are but i would certainly not assume that all households and all kids know what what that means the other thing i don't know what you call this but there's you know having some knowledge of current events i don't know how whether you agree with it or not but just having some knowledge of current events and i don't know what the current events would be well that would fit in nicely with the digital literacy wherever you brought that up right no one where you know we're going from whom and where you're choosing to garner your information that is a huge part of what we're developing or not because you're you're also making a choice not to not to pay attention to certain things reliable resources yeah right i'm sorry one more let's see if we can squeeze one more out well i hate to say it i mean lane by the way i never introduced myself um and this is just an issue that we brought into at the college level hygiene hmm i i i you know i feel that's a a home thing and that should not be a school thing but the amount of young people who come into first year college who like oh my god you need you actually have to ask ask them to leave your class there's way too many and and so i i hate to put that out there but i'll throw that out there for you to think about i guess i could i i'm losing sleep hygiene yeah i'm assuming that or let me ask it this way will we tailor life skills for the the student by that i mean if the student is on a spectrum um then a lot of all that stuff needs to be tailored you know i guess maybe if you just make that note john it's actually it's a good point it's a little further down the process okay maybe a differentiation but if you tailor uh try to make it feel as unsegregated as possible this um you know whether whether there's a good reason for you to be there or not if you perceive it as you know a certain isolated and you don't identify with that you're you're not going to go maybe send a questionnaire home you know have parents and child sit down and say hey what's the thing that you think you want to work on and what's the things that maybe mom and dad think that you could work on and provide that to the school and in that course we look and see if we hit those marks or we you know maybe spend less time in automotive because he's mechanically inclined but maybe a little bit more on the whole next side because he has no idea how to start the laundry machine so he's you know he still is involved with the kids who are doing automotive stuff but he's getting special attention with you know it's more the whole next side but the family kind of think oh yeah you know what that's a good idea maybe you do need that maybe you do need to learn that we're pairing up with a peer right so someone who is better at one of those things they can someone who knows how to change a tire can help the other one who knows that there's nothing how to cook right then you're establishing relationships right here so yeah and that was um that actually came up in the last focus group two is is is that a life skill we weren't sure if it was but it seemed like an important piece becoming part of it I don't know where how you undo what from birth to 18 has done I don't even know but there's got to be some way to reprogram if that has been really not helpful I think as we're kind of been reading going back and kind of looking at the idea of good student citizens and discipline and what's good discipline a lot of it rests on the fact that the students just haven't really been trained in the proper ways to behave you know sometimes sometimes I think it's a rarer occurrence that they were chained purposely the wrong way is that they just weren't trained at all and so that's why these discussions are so important right kid kid walks into the classroom you know bops the front on the back of the head sits down makes a noise the retraining of that's really easy hey after school you're coming in five times you're going to walk in the class quietly you're going to sit down get your books books ready and be ready to go and it's just that simple retraining sometimes but it's a very good point um all right how we feeling we exhausted this or yeah does the basically have a dress code they just have we do you do they had one before it's a little bit more strict just thinking about preparing the kids yeah dress properly so when they go out to go interview for a job yeah they're not their pj's yep they're not they don't want pj's now do they oh not generally you know um so we're a lot of changes you can talk about the changes we aligned our dress code with the tech center dress code so it's really focused on being prepared for either college or career and so the conversations that we've been having with students this school year about dress and attire because it is a reset for many of them and we tried to send home in the middle of the summer a newsletter and explain what the dress code would be because we had a conversation with a freshman last week and she was like I worked all summer and I bought these clothes and it was you know frustrating for her that they're just not really professional attire um and so I understand that frustration but at the same time if we're preparing kids for life beyond high school I think um another skill that's built into a lot of our classes that's a life skill is like collaboration how do you work with people and also dress for the the role that you're in uh we were very specific about making sure that that like provision of the policy was like context matters so you might wear your pj's to bed but you don't hear your pj's to school this evening where are you wearing any it's underwear you wear it under things unfortunately it's a correct day at school if there is a pj day at school enjoy it yes yes for spirit week enjoy the pj's so let's um good good good stuff I appreciate the sense of humor it always makes it fun um we'll switch switch gears a little bit talk about kind of the one door policy um because there's like I said there's when you're creating a safety plan you want to make things as safe as you can but you also want to make things tolerable and one of the things about where when you're hardening a building when you're increasing safety in a building the thing um that pays the price is usually convenience and so a part of this discussion with the community is okay where is that balance point you know what are what are we able and willing to give up a little bit in terms of safety for what are exceedingly rare events um in order to have a little bit more inconvenience or are we not willing to give anything so the current standard protocols that have been in place across the nation across districts for quite a while now is the idea that when school is in session so in other words right if the first class starts at 7 30 that's when school is in session if the last class ends at 2 30 that's when school ends during that time you're in what's called a soft lockdown all entrances around the building are locked except for usually the main entrance of the school where people have to buzz in so that there is somebody physically monitoring and seeing who is at the door before they let them in and that's kind of a standard protocol but again there's this inconvenience factor that comes with it and some of those inconveniences can be pretty significant if we've got over at the elementary school if we've got the preschoolers out who don't have good bladder and bowel control um and may not be able to wait the five minutes to walk around the building to get buzzed in the front door if they're out at recess or they're out doing a class activity that can lead to problems in the case of pe you know do they need to lose you know 10 minutes of class time walking around from the front of the building all the way back out to the athletic fields and another you know 10 minutes to walk back around to the front of the building in the class so they're again it's this idea that there's there's trade-offs here the other piece that's an expectation is that the classroom doors are locked enclosed during the day we have some procedures and protocols that you know people have gotten a little lax on that we're trying to trying to crack down on but we have some other systems in in place to kind of help out which i'm not going to go into much detail here but general feelings and it's good we've got got a couple of teachers here as well you know in terms of this balance between safety and convenience where do we want to land and i'll open it up this might be kind of controversial so it'll be good for us to practice our de-escalations so what do we think so you are talking about one door in so what you are proposing is one door and that's pretty much what's been in place with some exceptions yeah okay thing and we we bought all the hardware probably about four years ago we did a whole revamp of of everything and really kind of heard the districts up created the door hardware updated the cameras made sure that we had the buzzers to bust people in those front doors now at brookville elementary school several occasions that diverted some genuine problems the one door policy yeah or at least having a yeah having having doors that could easily go going towards that one door policy so um so that's anecdotal what's personal experience and that's to me recent history does that mean that you know what happens once in your recent history meaning it's going to continue happening and to what degree is that because it isn't inconvenient so i hadn't thought about ladder control although the older i get the more i do appreciate that it goes full circle right yeah you know so um i guess i remember brookville um always had one door well this is like the side and then there's something back to well back to my kid and i just remember to always you look through the front door of us well we've got one of the one of the pieces here to try to add some context as i'm listening to people talking is this this idea of the teachers being able to go in and out those doors and not having to go around it's convenient right because sometimes they can go directly out to where the activity is or where the where the playground is but there are problems with it we have an electronic system where it's kind of like you know hotel doors right you flash the car the door opens up if i've got teachers that have those cards turned on so they can come in and out during that school day with kids are here and i get a shooter who has done their planning and most of them do they had now have access to grab somebody's key card off the the playground or wherever the teacher is and use it to get access to and so there's a there's a con to it we do have a an emergency system there are a couple of buttons in and around the building that people compress uh when that happens everybody's key card is shut off and can't be used but if you don't know that somebody's gotten a key card and gotten to the building until they're already in there the damage is done so again talk about the cons and the program. Will there be a way of trial this? I'll say you want to try a really hard one door policy. You try there for six months. We've been doing it we've made a couple of the exceptions with some caveats right now like for the teachers for your PE teachers and for the preschool and the kindergarten teachers it's okay we're going to give you access to come in and out those doors because of the the issues that are associated with what you're teaching but you are signing this form that says you understand that there's a process in place when you go out that door you are the last one that goes out the door you pull it tight and you actually tug on it to make sure that it's locked and if you fail in that that duty we're going to take it pretty seriously. So how would it work with sports so like sports teams you know multiple practices multiple times? So in the so after the regular school day that 2.30 we are a public building again we're wide open. So it's usually it's usually the the model is it's usually when just when kids are in session when they're in classes. Okay so I will say that I am very much for having doors locked I think that that that just makes the most sense to me and as a teacher and the struggle with pre-k and everything like I know that but just for safety's sake I get that. The problem is that some of the classrooms are really really really hot and that is becoming a dangerous part of this problem. The other thing that this is like my personal brain tree playground faces the parking lot and there's no fence so for me it's like really stressful to be putting all of this into play in the school while we're sweating while literally you could just drive to the playground and there's no sort of barrier and I know that that's money and I know all these things but it's just. Oh no it's not money is not an issue it's that's why we talk about this stuff is it that's not even on my radar until you said it. Yeah it's just I can put an offense for 800 bucks. I will help you Lane I will bring my camera. No but is this one is this one of those things it's just like the balance and the severity it has to sort of be across the board. Yeah. Lane does the do you or our trustees or whoever the board members are? So to what extent are we looking at statistics? Like if I was going to mandate wearing seat belts I might look how many people are getting killed and then do I not want those people to get killed and then go from that and then I might say look what happens when you don't wear a seat belt and and publicize that in order to get people to wear seat belts. I'm wondering when we see these terrible news stories and hear these terrible things going on and I'm just wondering do you have any nuts and bolts? Yes and I'm transparent and I can be blunt but the before I do that recognize that the things that I may talk about happen and then be distributed across the across the state probably more frequently than here. In typically what happens a lot of it's in middle school high school level is that whatever there is a shooting out in the world and the kids are hearing about it they start to chat and they start to think about it. Some students get nervous and they get worried. Other students are do stupid things and and talk about it in ways maybe maybe I should do that. You'll have those comments they're not really serious but when you hear them you take them extremely seriously. It is not unusual for us after school shooting to have anywhere from three to five students that make comments that make people nervous enough that we go in and we do a full threat assessment. We've never had one that we've been worried about once the threat assessment is done but we don't joke around. We had a situation last year where students were here trying to sell an assault rifle on school grounds. We had a situation this year where a student forgot that it was there and this is Vermont hunting season and whatnot. I forgot that the air rifle was in the back of the car. So we do respond to them. It happens. I would say a great frequency that tends to come in clusters. But you know there are those things happening and we are in Vermont. We are in one of the counties that has the highest per capita number of firearms per person in the country. A lot of the stuff in general that we deal with is it's the first cold day of fall. The kid grabs the warm jacket for the first time of the year to come to school in. Forgot that he used it for turkey season and the cartridges are still in the pocket. Legitimate reasons that kids are not a threat. But again we still have to deal with it when we talk about it. So statistically if you look at it like that how many of those do we deal with in a year? I've seen years where 10 to 12. Last year it was actually fairly quiet. Probably two to three. But yeah we do deal with those. Do you have a personal opinion on whether it's more of a inconvenience and an expense than a genuine benefit? Having said that I actually like the idea of it because I'm a little anxious in our current political situation. Things like that. That's one of the reasons we're talking about it especially because you know we fed some some politics close to home at some board meetings that made people a little bit nervous. I don't have if my personal rating scale having worked in other districts if it went from one to ten with ten being most concerned I'm probably right now sitting around the three to four in terms of concern. And so if that helps kind of answer the question. So it's fairly on the low. It's low but cautious. I guess is the best way to describe it. Is it an inconvenience that affects academics? Like you were talking about the the last class time. Right if they get this is a large as the the principles are pointed out this is a large building. It takes time if you go out the front door to walk around to the back and get on the back backfield and you could just walk out the back door and out the back. I got to introduce myself but so I came from a what? Good to have you. Thank you. So I came from a high school with a student body of 39 hundred. We had two entrances. We had two resource officers six or seven security staff that were multi-purpose roles within the school. No inconvenience. And I think the word inconvenience and student safety should not be in the same sentence. There should never be like we're looking at okay our our children's safety. Like I got to send her off and trusting that like nothing's gonna happen. I don't care what inconvenience is in place. She needs to go there. She needs to learn. She can get on the bus. Get back to me. So I think that the policy kind of coincides with the resource officer and that's a very important role. You know I had a middle school. We had a resource officer. At high school we had two. They were not threats. They weren't intimidating. They bonded with the community and it also gave students an idea of how to interact with them and they also understood the students and how to interact with them. So I think that kind of goes hand in hand. Dumb question. Yep. What is a resource officer? So there's there's two pieces. Let me let me write them down so I don't forget. We'll talk on the resource. Is that another topic though? The resource. That's one something that we want to touch on. I'll retract. I'd just like to piggyback on you. I don't know really how to say my feelings about how strong I feel about safety and why would you ever compromise your students or your kids' safety. At the elementary school, the PE teacher, I can maybe count a few times that she took the kids, even the previous teacher. I mean go back 10 years. I've seen them take out the kids. I can count them on my hand. They don't take the kids out for PE. So maybe it's different here, but there's gyms and they typically use their gym. Well the expectation was you're out in and out as much as you can. Sure. And that's not really the case anymore. So and I did first grade today and we did. We had to walk all the way up the hall and all the way across the school and all the way down the stairs. And we were out there for almost 15 minutes. I pushed it because it was beautiful weather and not one bathroom break. I mean I think it can be done. I think these things, at least in some situation, there might be some specific caveats that I'm not thinking of. So are you clear on, are you on the side of the one door? Yeah. And I really in the first week, it was like oh I've always used that door. And after school it was like 530, goodness I didn't break any rules. It was like open policy. But I went out a side door that I had gone out for, it was my classroom for five, six years I went out that door. And I went out the door and I walked about here to the shelf and I went, you know, all those years that door always shut. It slammed. It's a big heavy metal door. And I thought no, I'll lose sleep tonight. And I went back and the door did not shut. So I don't know if you want to bring that in, but if you want to know the ins and outs of what's working and not working over there, come talk to me because it's this is where I get shaky. It's infuriating how things are not functioning over there. And I've tried to talk to people who I think are the appropriate people to talk to. And some of it's just supply chain and some of it's, you know, I get that, but this was before COVID. There are doors that are supposed to lock that don't. There are key cards that are supposed to unlock that don't. There's buttons, the kids push that lock the teacher out of the room. My key card doesn't work. Every teacher has their own little code. Well, if you, you scan it, then you go up twice, then down once, and then it's like a secret handshake. There is nobody, the admin doesn't, nobody knows how to unlock the doors. So I mean, I think there's a reset and then there's like a 10 minute reset. So then we're okay. So that's the latest I've heard is that there's a 10 minute reset. But we need to understand our, we have a security system that I don't think we can understand. I don't think it's functioning as properly as it should. And then we're talking about opening up other doors for convenience. So safety first and last. Yeah. So, so a couple of good points. The, the, the principles in conjunction with the facilities director or we talked about it today, they're supposed to be keeping the log a monthly check of going around and pulling and making sure that the hardware is up to date. And that the doors are closing properly because if the weather changes, doors can warp and things can happen. And so you want to keep an eye on that. And there's a reporting protocol that should be happening. The buttons that are there was an extra safety feature that at the time the staff had requested. And what those buttons do is they're on the inside of the door. So your door is locked and the door is shut. But the problem is, is that people who have key cards that may give them access to your room can still get in. Pressing that button, what it does is it keeps anybody who has a key card that would have given them access and it shuts their cards off so they can't get in. The question then becomes is it might be a talk with the staff is in terms of behavior management is why are the kids pushing the buttons? Yeah it's possible. The kids love to push the button. And then the kids that know that it locks even love to push the button even more. But those are topics that did come up as part of the conversation. So happy to kind of pursue that as we're going along. And I don't want to point fingers because I know people here work as hard as they absolutely do. And it's not a fault of any particular person or it's like a number of things but I'd love to see the systems tighten up. And the doors are supposed to be, when the interior doors are supposed to close automatically, if they're open they're supposed to shut so that if a switch needed to be, you know, if you needed a whole building locked down, all those doors are just all locked down. And it's sort of a false sense of security because a lot of those doors don't. It was nice that Bob in the recent meeting said one of the first things you do is you go over and pull that door to make sure. Yeah definitely it's in the conversation and making a couple of notes down there. Other thoughts in terms of peace and the balance? I'm a teacher here at the high school and I agree like one door safety over convenience. I'm just not convinced that that's always putting safety over convenience. And like a good example of that is yesterday there was a block in the high school schedule for about an hour and a half that everyone middle and high had advisory time right? It's 80 degrees out and it's sunny and like I went outside with my group of seventh graders so it's me alone 12 seventh graders. It's the end of the school day and we're walking through the high school parking lot, through the RTCC parking lot and outside only to get outside for there had to be more than 50 students. And so especially on the way back in where it's pickup time and there's buses and RTCC students who are driving their own cars and high school students who are driving like high schoolers do and parents. And I don't think that the central doors the main doors were any more safe than Katie or Lisa standing at the closest entrance to the back soccer fields where all of those students were to let students in through that door right? I don't think that that's the case the majority of the time but when so many of the students there had to be more than 50 kids out there are walking through the parking lot in those circumstances just to arrive at the front doors to have like the same security right? So I'm trying to narrow in on the security security piece it could be a little bit clearer for me. So is it the kids walking through the parking lot and the danger of the cars? Yes, yeah right only to just like be greeted at the front door to like yeah right like they would do the same thing at the back door but we would like avoid 50 kids running through the parking lot and security when it's 80 degrees and we've been playing the car. The back door is set up like the front door like a buzzing kind of thing. We talked about it especially up at Brookfield. Brookfield is in a weird situation where you know at least there's sidewalks around the building that the kids wouldn't have to necessarily walk through the parking lot here. Brookfield they have their main door and if that's the central door of that there's no sidewalks they enter right out in the parking lot and so we've been talking about potentially setting up the far door by the playground as as one of the monitor doors so yeah there are other possibilities. Lane I just I have to leave and one of the things I came to the meeting is I want to hear more about closing off the yeah and and I just want to say as a parent who drops off picks up a kid who will now be driving very slowly coming from the Brookfield direction limited options super congested in the morning and in the afternoon in my mind danger to kids and to buses and everybody I mean there's so to shut that off completely to traffic I'll throw this out there if there's a genuine safety concern that couldn't be addressed by putting that mirror back up and I say genuine consider making it one way because we don't have enough um with that uh that horrible road out there that you have to jackknife to try to get you know if you're a good driver you can't you know there's just there's too few options that's the other one said before I have to leave I'm sorry no problem let's um let's do two things my my and this is where you correct me if I'm reading the room wrong my general take on the discussion on the door policy is is air on the side of safety yeah I have one thing to say about our policy or two I guess one the Brookfield school so where the kids walk in from the playground to the main door yeah in the wintertime that's going to be like snow and ice falling down it's that just don't that out there does it slide off the roof yes oh it airies that that's a great point it airies that area yeah that's something yeah we we've got that problem at central office they're actually looking at a solution so I'm glad you bring it up this the solution they come up when you can put it out there as well yes then I'm a student at the tech center I'm in the first fight egg and we have to walk around the front office to go outside so the other day we were playing at the shop and we had to bring some gas cans and some other things up to the shed like the pressure washer so we had to carry all that stuff to the main office and then walk around the outside of the building with it just the edge of the shed was just like 100 yards from our doors yeah the entrance yeah yeah and then is there any way that we can avoid doing that and that's part of the 45 minutes probably taken out of class time yeah and that's that's a part of the the discussion about you know in general it feels like people want to air on the side of the side of safety but there can be some like we're doing with the preschool and whatnot if we have to that just makes sense technically legally not only do we have to get them to the bathroom on time we also have to get them to a bathroom that has soap and water I'm writing it down just to take it into consideration as we're talking about and so I appreciate you bringing that up so the switch gears a little bit here and I do want to give some time for just open whatever people want to talk about let let us do talk about the side road here because there's been some different thinking as we've been kind of grappling with it a little bit so the big the big concern over there is there are actually two bottom line corners there's a blind corner because of where the cars are parked and you have to go around that first line of parked cars and there is a bottom line corner on the turn right by the innovation center we typically get probably about three accidents a year you guys had the kid on the bike last year the cop hit a lot of it is the blind corner a little bit too much of it as people just drive in too darn fast the other idea that we have floated out there is you know we put in some 14-foot speed bumps so that only those that are brave enough and willing enough to risk their cars are going to use it but at least it's available for the bigger vehicles if they need it you know like the fire you know the fire engines and whatnot we did talk with the police we talked with the town we had a conversation with fire as well they all seem to be on board if we want to change it but as we've been talking about this we kind of have the same concerns about what's it going to do the traffic pattern on that four corner that has the sharp turn and I get a little bit worried about you know what the impact may be and so that's kind of the issue that we're dealing with so kind of open up the floor that you know thoughts and ideas we also had the idea of hey maybe we just we put the barriers out there for a month and see what things look like and then make a decision after we've got some more data so what do people think what are they so I'm wondering so I'm in the innovation center that's why you're fall I get here between six and seven most mornings and so there's not a lot of traffic in the back parking lot yet but there's I often see people cutting through I think as a shortcut which I don't necessarily know is ideal so I'm wondering if there could just be a gate that we open up when parents and family members need to bring their kids through and then outside of those hours that they be through we shut we can shut that gate that gives us control over that space but I don't know if it's still stop accidents or not but I just don't see it being used as a shortcut I think for people cutting across well they I think there's there's legitimate there's there's people within the district I use it all the time if I'm driving over to Randolph Elementary because it is hard to make that jack knife turn and so I think we're getting a lot of street traffic that have nothing to do with the schools that use it for the same reason and so technically it implies that the real solution is to fix the jack knife turn but that's not about our control but I I've got the idea of the gate down as a possible I just noticed people driving together don't seem to be parking anywhere in the school in the morning yeah no I think they're using their morning that turn and I can't point them out I like the idea of doing putting up a temporary barrier just seeing what happens first or a period of time because then you can collect some more data on what actually is happening and make a decision yeah and the other thought is nobody likes change and this is a fairly big one but if we put up the temporary barrier for a month and a half and then see what people's attitude is afterwards it might be extremely angry and violent at the end which that gives us a pretty good indication of things or they might kind of understand it and you might stop some of that flow right it was people just cutting through if they that's there and I go I can't do that anymore and you see a decrease yeah and I also worry about whether the number of accidents in that four-quarter will go up but a temporary barrier other other thoughts in terms of trying to make a difficult decision on this I think putting your backup in a speed belt is a reasonable approach I think if you close it or close a temporary you should give the town a heads up to monitor the window warehouse that intersection can already get free backed up and if you're going to cut off one more avenue for everybody coming from that side of town that you might actually have that light be operating red green yellow or something because people are going to get stuck there yeah at also be interested on accident data at the end of the window for a road typically that can be an area where there have been some significant accidents and if there will be increased traffic there that I'm a warrior by nature but that is no I would not want to increase any any risk out of place data and that's a good point other good thoughts night as you guys have been full of good ones tonight I appreciate that I think what's tough about collecting data now is it's it's not the winter yet and I think that data can change once it gets snowy and icy and there's more likelihood for accidents yeah and I think people do come through that parking lot and as a way of getting around that hill that goes up to the three corners because they come through and then go out that's so rotted and grooved so kind of to be honest where where my personal leaning is right now is I think I think I'd like to do the temporary barrier for a little while just to see what happens but I think my gut is telling me probably the potential best balance act here is the mirror and the speed bumps what about the traffic pattern like he said having a one-way sort of deterrence to you know at least it's an organized traffic pattern yeah yeah we've actually talked about that in the past it's not a bad thing we've actually also talked about especially at the end of the day when the kids are leaving from the tech center and the in here you've got the parent pickup going on the same time that the buses are trying to get in and out and even through those patterns there can get a little sketchy at times was potentially buying one of the houses off on the front here to be able to use it to change the traffic pattern so that's discussion has been there as well but yeah the changing the traffic patterns is something that's been on the books but we're going to follow through if it were one way which which way should it go based upon that corner up there because it's equally hard I would imagine to turn it's probably easier to turn left than it is to turn right so they probably want the one way to go this way People can use that in the morning to get there on time and have more time to ignite the traffic pattern See if there's any other really critical ones before we just move on to kind of open discussion oh yeah the fun one the resource officer had a great touch on that yeah resource officer I want to bring bring it up just because we we've touched on the door security piece I had brought it up five years ago when I started because every district I've been in has always had a resource officer and they've always been an exceptional individual to have it in the buildings at the time five years ago that was probably one of the most vehemently rejected items I've ever discussed without you know people just did not want to have an armed individual in their day and time and so I'm wondering if that attitude has changed at this point in time so when you say armed what form of arms do they are they are a police officer if they're here usually a lot of the work is connecting with kids getting a feel for kind of what's going on you know are they getting into stuff they shouldn't what are ways that we can mentor them to keep them out of that trouble they typically work with us if a student comes in and does something within the building it breaks the law the job is not to get the kids you know into the court system so that they get a permanent record it's to get them through a diversion so that they've got some logical consequences and hopefully kind of learning and growing from the experience they typically carry a sidearm they typically what's the nice thing and again this is stuff you probably shouldn't know but we keep a full shooter response get in the back of their car that way that way if if if something happens they can put the vest on they can be here immediately to try to deal with the situation as fast as possible because time is key in those situations but they also they usually run the the a dare program or the equivalent so they'll teach out of the health class with the health teacher um those sorts of things is there any way they could carry like a like a taser versus a firearm or like is there a degree to which they can have a firearm lock somewhere but where they probably could but I think it would and so I'm not saying I'm not saying it's a bad idea I don't know what the training is in Vermont with them or what the accessibility is the school could actually buy one the the concern becomes if one of the reasons for having them here is to potentially respond to a school shooter they're going to need some fair fire power to handle the assault rifles that seem to be the weapon of choice and they don't have time to unlock their weapon at an entry door you grab somebody grab it yeah ran their truck into the tree or the car or the gate gets out of the vehicle is walking out of pace toward that front door with a weapon this like you can see it that that foster should have to have the time to engage that before that person ever makes it near that door or at the very least while they're struggling to get in the main door because we've been following our lockdown procedures yeah um and that's the goal so the sooner they have access to that but again the the other concern is just that is they've got to have firepower that's going to help them get through the bulletproof vest the shooters probably wearing as well as content with the assault rifle they're probably using and so yeah they usually like I said usually they carry out they carry either a nine millimeter or 45 handgun at all times and then they have quick access to more powerful weaponry like cars what was their best okay sure excuse me but uh don't forget your thought that we're going to come right back to you okay I was just wondering what the students think about our resources um this is the first time I'm bringing it up um when I have the the focus group together to talk about the life skills I'll definitely have the conversation because I think it would be pretty important to get a handle on how how students feel about it because there's there's there's a mixed space out there around it there is the the idea of isn't it you know having a cop in the school is a deterrent potentially or potentially can't help save lives potentially although we've seen stories play out where that didn't make a difference but then there's also going to be a group of students who are going to be intimidated not feel safe are going to don't trust the police do not feel that they will have their best interest at heart and and that creates a sense of again we keep talking about safety and psychological safety so so I think it'd be really really important to understand how the students feel about it and then I as an as an adult with a student in this school I'd want to know if if a resource officer came in what's their de-escalation training how have they been trained in being able to work with students who represent other identities are they really capable of dealing with that nuance because I think that's critically important if if this school decides to go in that direction they go through a pretty comprehensive training that is specific to being a school resource officer again there's there's good and bad I have only worked with exceptionally good ones one of the the biggest pieces where they are most helpful is because they know the kids pretty well they know the families if I have a kid that we have to do a threat assessment on them they know the families and the students well enough to say yeah this one you know you always take it seriously but this one you need to take extra seriously or this is one that you know you're still going to go through the process but it's it's doubtful that there's going to be a concern for so they can give us some pretty good information right up to just because of the connections that they have but no they're very very very very good salient points that I've got down to have that discussion about and again I'm not sold on doing it this is about what where's the community sitting as the mentality changed about it if it has I'm more than happy to go from the budget process and work with work with real orange County Sheriff's Department to try to find a suitable officer if not going to use it well I think I can kind of piggyback on her comments about you know the correlation between a school resource officer and student body I think it kind of goes back to what I said about the home the home economics thing is it gives the police an opportunity to connect with the community that's rapidly changing and it can give the student body and a chance to kind of understand the law enforcement side of things and I mean I never I never had a school resource officer that any other student body was like oh I hate him you know I he's a pay now at the end of the year they were you know shaking hands bumping fists giving hugs because it was like you just you went through you know four years of high school but that person or three years of middle school and it was always a valuable thing and it may if you get the right person that you may de-escalate as they get to know some of those reasonable fears that people can have so again I'm not trying to solve it just I'm really just trying to get an understanding of where people maybe not other comments on resource officer I'm not for it I think maybe possibly do a concealed carry so the firearms not visible wouldn't bother me either way let's do this just for fun resource officer up think you think it's a good idea bad idea or yeah I'm not really sure just to go get in keep them up for a second gotcha I think some things I'm a student here on the junior and I'm also part of the racial justice yeah and something we're talking about is like the implications of having a place officer in the school and then having things of color and what how they would feel about that earlier in the community forum we were talking a lot about you know inclusivity and creating a safe space and I would wonder like I think it would be very important to make sure students opinions are heard about that because that can could really contribute to not creating a safe space also um students who are on the neurodivergence spectrum or students with mental health issues there have been so many different things that have shown very disconnect between like police forces and those groups of people that can then create an environment that may not make them feel safe and so I might might if I'm reading you right it might be good to as we have kind of focus groups or if we have focus group discussions about it is is that would be a very specific like this group is called the racial justice group to have a conversation is that is that kind of what you're I think partially but then also making sure that like also students who are not part of the racial justice people because it's a pretty small group yeah um are still able to like be considered and heard even if they're not a part of a group that's willing to like work with people next week out but do the teachers think are they what is their opinion about the idea that that's another discussion to have we have a few here but not enough to I would say you're going to represent the steps to the running ground would be good but that typically what I do with especially things if we're trying to make a decision on it I rotate through different groups and then try to kind of consolidate what the the piece is and if it's something that may be real controversial I'll put the survey out as well and so I'll keep folks informed we want to know as we kind of go all right bigger issue and this one's more just I'm looking for a gut reaction on this one so there are a couple of things that are converging in in Vermont right now that might make it possible to replace this building and replace the RTC and modernize one of them is the fact that in October we will be up for the PCV testing I don't know folks are aware of that but the legislature mandated that all schools mistest the odds are is that it's a fair the fair possibility that we are going to have some hits because of the age of the two schools are going to test it will be workfield and it will be this this system here so that will put if they come back with some positive testing then we've got to do some remediation there's a ball in the bucket saying hey maybe it's just easier to replace the building the other thing that is going on was the state legislature sent out a study group last year to start taking a look at what is the what is the status of buildings across the state are they in good condition or the in poor condition we need to have some information on this so that as a state legislature we can start to put some money aside to help provide matching funds for schools that need to renovate when they did that study this building was put at the top of the list now a couple of caveats there the way that they did the study it was really primarily based upon the age of the building with this idea that buildings have a useful lifespan so our building is at the end of its useful lifespan that said you can keep the building going indefinitely if you do the right renovations and things along the way which we've kind of done but it is not a modern building by any means so we were actually cited in the paper in that so that gives us some political clout to be able to go after that that money if it's there and if it's available and our enrollment's heading on up you know Randolph is Randolph elementary is either been a little stagnant or down but all the other schools the enrollments have been going up in the district for the past five years every now and then we'll have a year what's level but so the thinking is is that if we can get a substantial chunk of money from the state to help is to rebuild this complex potentially separating the tech center building from this building we've got the athletic fields behind us we could actually build on the the fields out there while this building is still active and kids are coming in and taking their classes and then after that build those new buildings are created this building is shut down wiped off the map and we build the athletic fields out in front of the school it brings up two other possibilities that are up high in the sky but there's some good reasons to consider them we are in the process over the last five years of creating a pretty powerhouse stem program within the building we brought in robotics we brought in the coatings we've got the competitions that are going on i've invested about 450,000 in those programs over the last three years we would like to build a stem academy that itself could be a separate building so that it's k to 12 so the students across the district could visit it and use it it could be a year-round building that we also create into kind of a museum so that we can visitors from other schools that want to come in and you know maybe spend a week in activities with us and we can charge for that and also put in an educational conference room because we're central in the state and rent that out for people that want to come in use the space especially as it relates to stem and science because if we're doing a good job and we're a model people can learn from us the other high in the sky item has to do with athletics at the very least if those athletic fields are rebuilt on this spot it would be nice to have lights out there a higher vision is if we're going to be spending 50 to 150 million on a new building why not spend the extra 1.6 million and put in a turf field we are central in the state of robot which makes it easy for everybody within reason to get to us we could be the site for all the tournaments that happen for state sports in the state if we build the complex that we're housing and so those are kind of the ideas that are out there they're kind of discussed on and off at this point in time but now that i've said those things what's a gut reaction that people have you know no freaking way because it's going to be taxes excuse the language might be a good idea depending upon or or or this is something we really should investigate before i think it's something that deserves that's worth looking into do we have any idea how much it would cost if we did have to potentially rebuild or fix the issues in this moment i mean renovate as opposed to rebuild it's typically more expensive to renovate than it is to rebuild for a lot of reasons and then you typically end up with problems like we could we talked about some people had some good ideas about the stem academy is you know we build a second floor here um what ends up happening is you get un unbalancing issues with hvac whenever you build new on to old you can never balance the heat the air conditioning and whatnot the other thing that will allow us to do um at the same time again pie in the sky you know as we bring in the solar panels and we put air conditioning in the building so that we don't have to deal with humidity and the potential mold and everything else that we've asked and there are some grants out there to do that we're actually putting in we've applied for grants to put in full air conditioning in the two small elementary schools just to deal with more problems plus to make it comfortable for people but you know you have more problems every time so if i can haven't been at the tech center i'll speak to that first um for so long i think as the needs of the community grow and as um technology changes the auto shop is going to need major renovations as we go fully electric um same with diesel we know that health careers is a big draw in that program um as a program down there that program can be doubled if there was a size um so as a draw from we think northfield williams town rochester um white river valley chelsea all these sending towns if there were more options there i think more students would come there um but also we need to have those programs continue to be comparative and provide the education that they're going to go out need to be successful in the community right so we know that they're not going to be turning wrenches on gasoline diesel engines for much longer right so we're providing students an education that's actually going to be useful when they leave here so i think there's going to need major upgrades on that into the building um looking in the future but also i mean now i'm an innovation center i would love to see more energy going to stem um i think that would also be a draw to bring students into our district from sending regions now that we want to try to steal people but i think we look at rochester like where they're going to go right and we want to steal them because we're doing a better job right and so i think you know look at rochester like if they look at us as a more attractive option because we have better educational outcomes and opportunities and chelsea some of these school places don't have schools anymore um and then people who are moving into the region like oh i want to go there's my kids has this all these great academic opportunities and all that's built off of infrastructure we can't offer health fears of playing one room right and there's definitely the capacity so the the the semi vision that's out there on the tech center and actually started with felicia and then we added some things to it is you know get the building trades in its own building by itself um we've got to bring in a plumbing hvac program and then we've got all the building trades uh in one place and then we want to go back if possible because this will help out the community as a whole where we have money that is set aside it's been sitting in an account probably for 30 years to be able to literally go out and buy houses that are fixer uppers fix them up um and then sell them back and why that's important is one of the reasons that people don't move to this region is because the housing stock is old and the housing stock if you buy a house here you know you're you're going to turn around and put another 200 300 000 and do it to get up to up to snuff so that it's moving and so if we can get a process like that going we're not only serving the kids in the tech center but we're also providing the value of the service to the town because the increasing enrollments and growth is how school is surviving from up right now um we've had enrollment increases but if we can do some amazing things you know it would not be unlikely to be able to have a kid uh a high school of 1600 kids in something in the future if i had one more little sliver so when i was at the tech center i tried to get ccd to come in because our students we had to go to either Montpelier or down to white river junctions to take courses and so i offered them like why don't you come in and use us as a satellite campus not they go for everything but offer one or two or three courses that are in high demand um but the facilities wouldn't support what they want to do so if we had the space for them we had the stem center with the museum and the conference room right and so then you know that offers our students more post-secondary opportunities because you know transportation is a problem or if you have a young family trying to figure out child care because then make this 45 minute commute i think that would offer opportunities beyond just the tech center in high school we could offer more opportunities for the whole community and so there there's possibilities but again it's it's initial thoughts and the reason that the thoughts are coming up is because like i said we've got those those issues that are happening that are coming together to make it look like you know what you know if there's pc if there's pcb issues if there's um then we're going to have to do major renovation because of that anyway and if the state is actually going to put some money in a bucket for people to access and to put high on the list and maybe we should just go after it um yep would you all consider a running track for the track that would be a part of that the rub core track you can't even hold meats here hall meats you know yeah we don't have the cinder track which so you're you're on that yeah that that's the that's the pipe dream is is in addition to all this as we become the the central place for tournaments in bruma we have a literal astroturf field with the lights with the stadium and the stands and you know surrounded by the report track that's great thank you and i the cost of that i don't want to marble head i'm sure it's changed since it's not one point six million again if you're building a hundred and fifty million dollar school yeah at that point time what's another one point six especially if it may be bringing in money um marble head um you know you we had a fence around it you charge people access to those terminates you know it was a twelve dollar ticket we'd make fifteen thousand light um help keep and maintain uh maintain the turf so would that be the type of thing lane though that like community could have access and walk they are great you can use a rain or shine because of the drainage then it's open to everybody what's going on and the lights you keep the lights on in the evening as long as it's not upset in the neighbors you know that's the one of the things we have to consider where the lights do not shine in the neighbors you're right that would do a lot for just active yeah so let's do a couple of things here just again thumbs up thumbs down worth worth looking at or to pie in the sky let's not waste our time on all right that one's fairly so i'm not i don't have to write that down all right at this point in time i've got the info from folks that that i need it's going to be helpful to me and that the committees that i work with but i always always leave things open that if there are things that are on people's minds or things that they people just want to talk about this is the time again just be aware that i'm i'm typically pretty blunt i'm very transparent about things um you may not hear what you want to hear but it'll be honest and it'll be logical um so i don't know if there's any topics that people want to approach you guys are making life too easy plus it's like a good thing all right i i appreciate the time tonight um and again what i will do is i will piggyback on the um the third thursday of every month with rdhs um typically if if there's not a lot going on in the district actually try to come come to their meeting for most of it as well um just to purchase some things good all right awesome thank you the only scary part is what is it it's eight thirty and it's dark that wasn't the case a month ago