 to the August 19th, 2020 meeting of the Mount Bay-Roxbury Board of School Directors. Let's take attendance. Anaget? Here. Jill? Here. Andrew? Here. Emma? Here. Mara? Here. Jerry? Here. Ryan? Here. And Bridget? Here. Did I miss anyone? No, great. First, I wanna add one quick thing to the agenda before we go to public comment. Couple of people have asked for a discussion about the possibility of meeting in person, so I just wanna add that to, we can do that after the consent agenda. Before board discussion. With that public comment, I see some members of the public, if anyone wants to speak, could you use the hand raise function and zoom? And if that doesn't work for you, just wave your hand in front of the screen and so I notice you. Hand wave function. Or you can just speak out loud if you see neither. And yeah, if you go to participants, there's a little button that says raise hand. Got it, thank you. Okay, so it looks like Julia and Rhett. So Julia, since you were quicker with the hand raise function, you get to go first. So I actually have, they're both of us wanna say something and I actually have two statements to read, neither of which are my own. So maybe I'll go and then you can go ahead and go, okay. So my name is Julia Shea, but I'm a parent of a rising first grader. The first statement I'll read is from Andy Doorwork Crane. My name is Andy Doorwork Crane and I'm a white mother of a white child at UES and a healthcare provider to mostly white patients. I grow increasingly concerned about how our educational and healthcare institutions address systemic racism, especially in light of continued tragic historical events, such as the murder of George Floyd. This is a topic that is vast, complex, uncomfortable and will not go away anytime soon. When one encounters a problem such as this, it is impossible to come up with a single resolution, sorry, a single solution. So instead we tip away at it. We uncover routines, traditions, old ideas, and we change people the good of everyone in our communities. I support removing the school resource officer from our school district. I submit my statement tonight with more questions for this board and the superintendent than answers. I have become aware that the SRO position holds no job description. Its history is vague and it demands school and city monetary resources. We do know from multiple sources, advocacy institutions and BIPOC student testimonies that a police officer's presence is traumatic to students of color. We know that training of police officers lacks in addressing systemic racism or their part in it. We know that there is a racial divide when it comes to associating a police officer with a culture of safety. We also know that we do not have enough resources to meet the social and mental wellness of students. Students in this district are denied opportunities to have their very own behavioral needs met due to a lack of appropriately trained staff. I know this happened to a friend of mine's son last year and now his parents are considering whether they can keep him in the MRPS district if there is no one available to meet his needs. So my question to you is, why maintain an SRO position in our school that has no identified job description, roles or deweys and the presence of said person suggests students of color to trauma? Why maintain a position without known evidence of benefit and that contradicts the foundations of F22 policy on diversity, equity and inclusion? Why sacrifice part of our budget to this position when we could be using that money towards an evidence-based intervention to enrich the social and mental well-being of all students? If our goal is safety and well-being of our entire student community, why wouldn't we use these very funds toward a position that benefits all, harms none and continues to move our district towards dismantling systemic racism? I look forward to hearing your answers to these questions. Thank you. Thanks, Julia. You wanna read another? Thank you, go ahead. Okay, okay. Hello, my name is Will Roberts and thanks a lot for hearing my statement tonight. I speak to you as a white parent of a white child that's in this district and I also live and work in Montpelier. I'd like to add my voice and support of the national call led by black and brown people throughout Vermont to remove the school resource officer from all of our schools. As a white parent of a white child, I'm only moderately aware of the perspective of many folks of color on this issue, including the issue of the SRO. But I've come to see my spotty but growing level awareness of racial injustice as an outgrowth of my white privilege. What I have learned in listening to a racially diverse perspective is that any police presence in schools potentially harmful to the learning experience of students of color. You know that racial inequity has long occurred in the US and that it's been maintained by systemic racism and violence often legally sanctioned. That violence is still very present today as evidenced by the most recent round of police killings of people of color this spring and summer. Let's not have symbols of that violence, however well-meaning in our schools. We know too that while intention is important and that individuals can be well-meaning, this thinking about intention and individuality is a fruit of privilege. The impact on the school population is what truly matters. And systems of oppression are not rendered and are not rendered equitable because of well-intentioned individuals. People of color have been and continue to be disproportionately mistreated by law enforcement. Between individual implicit bias and systemic racism, people of color suffer much more greatly in interactions with law enforcement than do white people. This trend applies to young people and adults alike. If we want to work toward greater racial equity in our schools, I believe it is wise to listen to the Black Lives Matter suggestion and remove the SROs from the schools. Thank you. Great, thank you. And Rhett, do you still wanna go and see your hand has gone away, but happy to hear from you if you still wanna speak. I do, thank you. Late breaking news from Roxbury is our daughter, Grief-Ree, is going to be retiring and I wasn't aware, but they're only, I think, five or so preschoolers signed up. And so I'm just curious about what preschool in Roxbury might look like if there is preschool at all, whether the Jenny Allen's Kangaroo Care, Kangaroo Kids Care program, which runs from 11 to almost five, riding a full day of childcare, the two of them together. Whether that, there's a possibility that that, whether there is a possibility that that could continue to exist. My questions are a little bit more pragmatic than Julia and which I am interested in the answers to their questions as well, but just not knowing what's going on with Pre-K and Roxbury and the significant changes in the last hour, just looking for some sort of guidelines so that I could make plans moving forward for me and my family, but not to diminish anyone else's questions in any way. Thanks everyone for speaking and thanks, Rhett. If you look at the agendas, as soon as we get past the Consent Agenda and a quick discussion about median person, the RVS Pre-K is on the agenda. So if you stick with us a little while, hopefully Olivia will give you information that should answer most of your questions. And if she doesn't, feel free to email her and she'll be happy to answer any further questions you have. I do want to say on the SRO, I just want to reiterate, we are taking this up in September. And I also, Olivia, currently if I'm wrong, my understanding is that we already have a booth. The SRO would not be physically located in the district, in a district building for the start of the school year, which is a change. I know it doesn't address all your concerns, but it certainly removes permanent SRO presence. And then we will discuss further that is by no means the end of the conversation on this, but I just wanted to let people know that as of the school year, the SRO will not be physically housed in the building, which is a departure from past years. Jim, hold on a second. Julia, did you have another statement you wanted to read? I did, but I can hold it for next time. Okay, sorry. Okay. I appreciate the time you all have given and I know you've got a lot to do. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, I love you. Thanks for noticing that, Libby. On to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Jim, we put in a resignation in there just last minute. And a new hire too, just to make sure everybody has those up there. And I sent those around just a bit ago. I think that we approve the consent agenda, including the resignation and new hires distributed after the original meeting materials were distributed. Great, thanks, Bridget. Do I have a second? Do I have a motion? Thanks, Mara. Any discussion? Great. On to the vote. Anakit? Hi. Jill? Hi. Andrew? Hi. Emma? Hi. Mara? Hi. Ryan? Hi. Bridget? Hi. Jerry? Hi. Great, consent agenda passes. We had some discussion. I think this is gonna be pretty quick about meeting in person that it was a suggestion that Emma brought up and a couple of people waited on by email. As you know, we've been meeting virtually since March, since COVID with one exception. We had a longer kind of planning meeting that we met in person, socially distancing at the library, which I think worked relatively well. I'll let Emma speak, but I'll just kind of lay out through the pros and cons as I see them quickly. In terms of pros, I think it's... I actually liked it. It's good to meet in person. I like seeing folks. As Emma stated, it shows some solidarity with others who have to return to the building for educational purposes to teach our kids and to keep the buildings clean and safe. On the con side, I think there's a couple major ones. One is kind of on the non-safety side, which is that, well, it's safety and non-safety combined, but with the building restrictions, public comment would have to occur virtually. It's a little more awkward when we're all together and the public is on Zoom. And I think some people have liked the public format. And to be honest with you, we've gotten higher participation on Zoom than we usually do in person, which I think has to do with some of the pressing issues before us. But I also think quite honestly, it has to do with the convenience of just being able to dial up Zoom and still keep an eye on your kiddos or not have to get in your car and physically go somewhere and sit for a while. So I think we could figure that out, but it's a challenge. The other is a safety consideration, which kind of plays in my mind, although why I prefer in person. I feel that our task overall is risk mitigation. And I think that if we keep numbers low in Vermont, we can have successful school openings. And I think part of keeping numbers low in Vermont involves restricting any unnecessary contact between people. And I think we're kind of at a point where probably the smartest health thing to do is to have every meeting virtually that we can have virtually. And I think this is a meeting that we can have virtually and successfully have been having virtually. That said, there is a lot of symbolic and other reasons to hold it in person and to show solidarity. And I think to get a sense of what it's like to participate in a group with masks and social distancing, which is what our educators are gonna have to do day in and day out. And the other con is it creates some extra work for our cleaning crews. It's another meeting in the school. It's another reason they have to come in and make sure things are clean. So I'll let others speak on it. I know Emma, you proposed it, so maybe you ought to speak, but I'm happy to hear from everyone. And then it'd be great to get kind of consensus going forward about how we do it. I think if we did do it in person, I would strongly favor giving any board member who has any concerns about meeting in person, the option to participate virtually if that's feel safer to him or her. Sure. I mean, I think you summarized pretty well any discussion that I heard around it. My basic gut feeling is that if we, if we as a board are standing behind our superintendent and the decision that we're making as a district for students and educators to go back in person, that we should follow suit with those guidelines and do six feet apart, you know, social distance masks on meetings as well. So that's where my gut lies. I think it's the right thing to do. Others? Yeah, Bridget. I, you know, I think it's a really hard decision, Jim. And I think you summed up well, the pros and cons. And I do very much want the board to show support for teachers. But I just, to me, the public participation part just cuts very heavily in favor of keeping them remote because the idea of us having to hold a meeting in person six feet apart and masked means that while the public is on Zoom, is going to make us interacting with the public and the public being able to hear us through that connection. I just think we're going to lose this, what we have now, which is a really robust platform for the public to participate, to comment on and be in these meetings. And it's so hard to mix virtual participation within socially, appropriately safe, socially distanced in person setting. So, you know, the nine of us will be able to have our meetings but I feel like we're going to lose this ability for the public. So that's one concern. And my other concern is that I feel like as we're opening, not only are we going to, you know, are the public going to want to be able to see these board meetings and provide comment as they're experiencing the school's opening. But we're probably going to want to be hearing from our administrators. And there are a really stretch to the limit. And having hearing from them meaning that they have to also come in person to yet another evening meeting that is going to keep them late. I also am concerned about that after they've been in the building all day. So I just, I feel like those practical concerns weigh in favor of staying remote for the next, release for the next couple of months. Thanks for giving us the chance to talk about it. Yeah. Jim, I'd like to add to that too because I sent you and Libby an email and Emma an email on this. And instinct, I've read that and I had a gut reaction, which was yes, you know, if we're putting our teachers and our students and other staff are going back into the building even with all the precautions in place, we should be willing to do that too. We should be standing on the same ground as the rest of our schools. We shouldn't be holding ourselves to a different standard. But as I've considered it more, I've talked with a number of administrators and teachers about this and nobody really seems to be on exactly the same page. And I think it would be helpful to hear from Libby because one of my biggest concerns is that this will add burden to a district that's already stretched extremely thin. And that is a serious concern of mine. I've heard from some folks, you know, you could potentially be adding risk. And I think if 10 people can't meet in a library, 10 feet apart, that raises some significant questions about returning to school in a physical space as much as we all wanted. But I've also heard the argument and definitely considered the argument of risk versus reward. And I don't think that we do gain that much by meeting in person for board meetings, whereas there are a lot of kids who really will gain from attending class in person. And as Bridget mentioned, I do see a lot of gain from meeting on Zoom in this environment, the access to public meetings, although it might not be as equitable as it would like, it's still vastly improved from where it was even before the pandemic. And I think there are some lessons to be learned from this moving forward even after this. So I just wanted to share that with everyone because I hadn't really circle back with Libby or Emma. I did speak with Jim, so. Any other thoughts? And I'd love to hear from him. So, Jim, this is Jerry. The only thing is when we did try it once, it was pretty horrible to make it work with virtual and physical. So we would definitely have to come up with some kind of technology plan or something. And I was thinking about this too. And then it's like, well, that's one more thing that people who are already stretched have to focus on. But it definitely didn't work very well when it was a hybrid model. Yeah, other thoughts? I mean, that's kind of where I think I'm leaning to, I think with the difficulty of hybrid. I think if we had an easy hybrid solution that worked and wouldn't take up Libby and Mike's time to figure out some sort of technological solution easily, it would be nice to have an in-person option with a robust virtual option. I think absent that, it's probably better to stay online. But if others feel strongly, I'm definitely happy to go in a different direction. But I think my recommendation would be to keep this format, maybe check in in a few weeks as we see how school goes. And also maybe when things calm down a little, and we get into a routine, we can think a little more about a virtual solution, but that people feel strongly about in-person. I'm certainly open to that as well. Just take a little informal poll. Just so I know. Atticate, are you okay keeping this format for a while or do you want to try to move to in-person? No, I'm okay keeping this format. I just wanted to voice my same feelings. I basically thought of the same thing like, hey, that's a great idea, we should do it. And as I'm thinking and I'm listening to you guys talk about the different challenges in that and the advantages and especially the ROI. What are we getting in return by doing this and what are we losing that to me? I kind of started leaning towards, yeah, keeping the virtual option or sticking with that makes more sense. One thing I do, I'm sorry I'm taking that. You wanted to take a informal survey and I started talking. But is there any benefit of, I know, let me ask this, is there a benefit of doing this, introducing this and then more online but maybe once in two months or whatever, something like that as an in-person option. I know the setup would basically take as much time anyways if you're setting it once, you can use it for cleaning and all that stuff or setting the hybrid option. But just, if you wanted to show us on the reality with the teachers, is that something that we could try? I think we could definitely try it. And again, after school starts, Libby and I can bring Mike in, think a little more about how to pull in a virtual option. From a practical standpoint, I can see something like some of our early budget meetings where we're really talking about ideas being a little more productive for us in person. And if we can figure out a way, but that'll be October, early November, which is not very far away at all. But obviously we wanna make sure that that information gets conveyed to the public too. But that might be a time when we're past the start of school, hopefully a little bit of a routine where maybe that would be a good meeting to try to bring us in person and see how it goes. Jill? Yeah, I would just say, I'm just, thank you, Anna, for raising it. And I completely agree with and support that sentiment. I sort of had the same kind of circular logic that I heard Andrew and Anna can't mention. I'm perfectly comfortable to go, whichever way the rest of the board feels is appropriate. I'm happy to go in person. I feel confident that that can be done safely. But I do think, frankly, from a convenience and accessibility standpoint, I actually find that this has worked really well. You can see folks popping in and out of the meetings. You can see staff can pop in and out. The public can participate. There are nights when I've had my daughter here and I would have had to leave her alone to go in person. And I know we've seen lots of kids in the background and other reasons why, I think just from an accessibility and a convenience standpoint that I'm finding this working really well. But I'm happy to go with whatever the majority of the board prefers. Thank you. Andrew? Sorry, I am curious though, because I'm assuming this and I think this is the right assumption. Libby, if we were to meet in person based on some of the cleaning protocols we've been told about, would this be just one more thing that the district really has to deal with right now at the outset? Because that's one of my biggest concerns. Yes. So I spent six hours of my day moving boxes today because we're short custodians. So that's where we are right now. That's our reality. I move boxes all day with Andrew the Rosa. Tomorrow I will spend the day tearing down boxes and taking out air purifiers and delivering them to classrooms. So yes, that will put our custodian staff out. Yeah. So as somebody who was extremely fired up by what you wrote, Emma, and I still am fired up about that sentiment, and I am extremely thankful for our public educators and all of our staff and our students who are gonna try and really make this happen. And it really is contingent upon our entire community to make it happen. We all need to be responsible because one person could really ruin this for everybody, although I want to stand there with teachers in person. I don't want to add to the burden of the district right now. And so yeah, Jim, I support your proposal to not begin meeting in person just yet. Thanks, Andrew, Emma. I understand all the logic. And I read the School Board Association recommendation as well and their logic behind recommending that school boards do not meet in person. And I definitely think there's a lot to be said for people being able to participate via Zoom, the public being able to participate via Zoom, and also administrators and teachers. So I mean, all of these arguments make a lot of sense to me. And I'm kind of like where Jill is standing and Andrew where, you know, if the logic outweighs the desire to sort of do what in my gut feels right, then I'm fine to go in that direction. And I wouldn't want to do something just for the sake of optics, you know, if it's working better and it makes more sense than I'm fine with that. But I'm also convinced that we can do it safely and meet in person. And I think we can work around the hybrid, make a hybrid model that works to invite the public in using Zoom. So I'd be interested in working towards that. And I'm totally fine with tabling it for now and moving forward on Zoom, because everybody has so much on their plate right now at the beginning of the school year and we're still sort of ironing out the details and opening up boxes and distributing filters and those types of things. So I definitely am happy to put it sort of in the order of priority wherever it belongs. Thanks Emma. Mara? I just want to raise up that I personally, this is just Mara personally, I'm an extreme extrovert, like all the way out of the box extrovert. And so, you know, even Zoom meetings feel a little bit like I can't get my brain completely running. So I was really excited about the idea of in-person meetings because for my learning style and for my talking style and for my thinking style that works great. But all of the other, like it makes more sense, resource-wise it makes more sense, risk-wise not to be in-person. I mean, I'm in favor of doing the thing that makes the most sense. And I just wanted to, you know, just kind of stay out loud that like, that's one of the reasons that I think we're going back to school is because learning and thinking and being in personal community really does matter. And so I wouldn't want it to get lost that somehow the board's like, well, yes, the kids and the teachers can go back but we won't. Where I'm thinking that I'm actually personally experiencing a little bit of a loss to do it this way but that the overall will be better if we continue distance and continue public access and continue risk reduction and resource reduction. Good, thanks Mara. Ryan? Sure, well, even though I'm an extrovert like Mara, more of an introverts, I'm going to echo her same story essentially. You know, I actually find it a bit sad. I've only sat at the table with the majority of our board. I've never sat at the table with Emma as a board member, maybe one or two meetings with Annika and Jill before we had to shut everything down. Me personally, I would much rather be in the building with everybody working on a board meetings or a board work. But my gut reaction when I first saw the proposal a few days ago was we're just going to isolate the public. We're not going to be able to get the public engagement the way we are right now. And as much as I would like to come together, be in the building, do good work, I just don't see that benefit outweighing not necessarily we'd be isolating the public, but when's the last time we've had 20 plus people at board meetings, very, very regularly. So yes, I think that the opportunity for people to engage, to follow, to participate, the way we have things set up right now is our best bet moving forward for a little while. Obviously willing to change if the situation changes, but I would continue with our current approach for a while. Thanks, Ryan, Bridget. I support staying with the Zoom for a while. The others have addressed it, so I'll leave it at that. Thanks, and Jared? Yeah, I support staying with Zoom as well. I just don't think we would get, I know for us personally, we're really stretched because of what's going on. Our work schedules have changed. Everything has changed. We can't get the same kind of support that we usually would. So even for the public to get a babysitter would be almost impossible, that kind of thing. So I would stay with this for a while. Good, thanks, Jared. So we'll do that. We'll stay with this for a while. Yeah, Libby and I will kind of think in particular as we move into budget season about how we might be able to start doing at least some meetings with a hybrid model, but I think for the start of the year until we see how it goes for the resource and public participation concerns, I think it makes sense to stick with this model. Okay, sorry for that agenda detour, Libby, but I think it was a discussion we needed to have. Now on to COVID-19 planning, which I'm sure there's not much going on there. I've handed it all over to our amazing principals now since we're in in-service. They're rocking it out now. So I've split this up. Buildings and grounds update, RBS update in-service and just reminders of new guidance on safety. So buildings and grounds update, the ventilation work is occurring daily. Actually meant our main guy today, who's doing the ventilation work, Andrew's working really closely with him. Our air purifiers are in, each building has them. I'll spend tomorrow taking them out of boxes and they'll get into classrooms just as soon as we can get them into classrooms. Every single classroom will have one and we have extras for other spaces as well. Window work is occurring. So every classroom will have at least two open windows that have a screen on them. I know UES has many of the screens because I saw them today and we have lots of extra ones as well. So that work is happening at the moment. So our ventilation should look as good as it's gonna look starting in the beginning of the year. I'm really pleased with how fast that's going and a big thank you to Andrew LaRosa, who just jumped on. He wasn't going to jump on, but he just jumped on. I saw the meeting. So he's been doing awesome and he probably hates that I'm putting him out there like that, but he's just an awesome guy and has really worked his rear off to get this part of the plan in place for kids and faculty. RVS, so we have found a one-two teacher who's in your packet today. Yay! Beth has been working very hard on that. Good job, Beth. We have part of a nurse. We have a nurse who didn't want the full job but she's doing part of it and are we still working, Beth? I'm getting the other part filled. You're still in conversations around that, correct? Yes, she's waiting to see what her grandchild's schedule is and then hopefully she'll get back to us for the other days. Okay, so fingers crossed that that works out but we will have a nurse at RVS on Monday, Wednesdays and sometimes Fridays going forward. That should be in your board packet next week or next time. We still have an open 0.5 FTE in special education but Bill has been working with Beth to think about how else we could do that piece for case management. I think Mike's being pulled into that too with the virtual academy piece and so we're working on how we can cover that because we just don't think we're gonna be able to hire that 0.5 special educator at RVS. We don't have any candidates. Our pre-K teacher is retiring. We're going to post it but pre-K teachers, licensed pre-K teachers are not easy to find. They're kind of like health teachers, not easy to find in any way, shape or form. You like that, Mara? You understand that analogy? So we are not going to be able to run the pre-K section part of our pre-K at Roxbury until we get a licensed teacher in that classroom. We do have five kids signed up at this moment, Beth. They were five as of today and I did be chance to family just to let them know that they should be prepared to flex if needed. Yeah, we've been working closely with the people, folks over at UES and Ryan, I don't know if you have those numbers on you but probably not. But we've been talking to Diana pretty closely about the pre-K numbers at UES to see if there's any openings there. I know they're less than they usually are but I'm not sure. You go ahead, Ryan. Yeah, we have 20 students enrolled right now. Typically we have 32 students enrolled in the program. So there are openings at UES? Yeah. So we could, people who are interested in that option, we could fit them into our UES and so, Beth, when you're reaching out to families, that's definitely an option. I've tried to reach Northfield, they won't call me back. The superintendent's had some illness so she's not, I don't want to burden her with that I've called the principal, I've called the registrar. They don't have any answers for me over at Northfield in terms of spaces at Northfield but my hunch would be that if UES has spaces, Northfield probably does as well. And that, of course, we would pay for through the Act 166. UES, parents would just come and bring them to our UES program. So that is an option for our parents at Roxbury who have pre-K children. The dinosaur daycare, that was done, the after-school. That's the third time I've done that. The kangaroo care at Roxbury in the afternoon is still planning on going. We're still scheduled to go that. They still have kids registered for that so we have no plans on turning that down. That usually starts around 11, I believe, in the day. So that is set to go. It just doesn't have the pre-K piece before that. So there's not the full daycare but there is care starting at 11. Again, we'll post that pre-K position and if we can find a pre-K teacher, then we'll run a pre-K at Roxbury. It's just, we have to find the teacher first. But as software, any board questions around that piece? No? Okay, I'll keep going. The Roxbury bus is another concern. Again, we have seven kids who are signed up for that bus. The bus is $57,000 for seven kids to ride it. I have spoken with Stacey Emerson around other options for RBS families for busing. There are no other smaller options. They have no suburban that are available. They have no smaller buses that are available. They're all being used. While she has a driver for that bus, she's a little concerned about drivers for that bus as well. So I put it towards the board that I would recommend that we cancel that bus for the year. It doesn't save on the entire $57,000. It saves on the mileage and the driver, which we did see significant savings in the spring because that's what the bus company worked out with us in the spring when we weren't running buses, but we do have a contract with them that we've signed. So we do have to pay for the bus still, but that would be up for board discussion in regards to what we want to do with that piece. It would be a significant savings for the district. However, these are seven families who are counting on the bus to take their kids. And Ryan is one of those families. So I'm sure he has an opinion on that, but I let the board discuss what we want to do with the RBS bus. We want to continue running it or not. And when we need to make a good, do you need to make that decision on that tonight? Well, we want to let the bus company know relatively soon. So our next board meeting is, September. Is the second of September, which gives a little bit of time still. So we could discuss it next time. Emma, it looked like you wanted to say something. I guess I just wanted clarification. So you're saying that the $57,000, we've already contracted with the bus company for that. So we've already contracted for the bus. So what they would do with us is the same thing they did in the spring, which is we don't pay for the driver and we don't pay for the gas, essentially. Is this, can I just wanted some clarity? Is this the bus that goes around Roxbury to bring kids to the elementary school, not the bus that goes- Yeah, we're not talking about the bus from Roxbury to Montpelier. We're talking about the bus that goes around for Roxbury Village School. Okay. Is there a possibility that we could offer parents the financial stipend in lieu of the bus? So that's been suggested, I believe by Julia. That was suggested to me. Our auditors do not like that because we can't prove that that is what people spend the money on. So we've been, districts have been slapped in the hand before around that. I can check with grants around that piece. I just know that it has not been smiled upon by our auditors in the past to do that kind of piece, like mileage reimbursement or mileage cards or gas cards or things like that, have not been allowed for other purposes. So we do something creative, like buy gas cards, therefore we know where the money went and give those? Yeah, that's what I was just referring to. Oh, sorry, I- Because all gas cards would be to like a mobile station, right? And so the mobile station has left. That's just, I'm just reiterating what auditors have told me in the past for other pieces. Jill? I was just wondering since it's such a small number of parents, if Libby, you or Beth have spoken to them at all, because I really love to take that away, even if it's just for seven families. I just feel like if we're not at the point we need to make that kind of a change, I'd hate to do that when we are all grasping for any sort of stability and things we can depend on. I'd hate to make that change because those families were counting on it. I have not talked to any of the families. I don't know if that has. I've had families reach out to me and I've been quite honest thing that we're not quite sure what's going to happen. And I did mention to some that it was going to be the trustee tonight. I did mention how we have such a low number. So I'm not really certain how it was going to shake out that it was a board decision. So I do know that it'll impact some families. Yeah, and I am concerned about the bus driver as well situation. So we do have one lined up right now. Like I said, Stacey, it's not confident that that will last for the entire year either. So it seems like I second Jill's sentiment and just so folks know, we have a finance committee meeting for this and we're in about as good of condition as you can be in considering the economic climate that we're in heading into it seems. So that being said, although it would be nice to have savings there, if families really, really need this, that's something that I think should maybe take precedent there. But I think it would be helpful if we talked with, if it's only six, seven families, if we could engage with them and see if we might be able to find some other kind of community solution. Because what I'm hearing from you, Libby, is even if we went with the bus, it's not a guarantee that we'd be able to have a driver for that bus throughout the entire year. It seems like a pretty uncertain situation. It is an uncertain one, yes, because of the driver situation. Do we have any options? Sorry. Right, and then I'll get. Libby, I'm curious if you might have some staffing options to be able to remedy this. We don't. Maybe to echo. But we have one bus circulating, picking a middle school and high school students. Is there any opportunity to pick up the elementary school students as well and deposit them at the village school early? That currently is scheduled to pick up the middle school and high school students at Roxbury Village School, not door-to-door service because of the health check. I was going to ask the, excuse me, the bus company provides that driver? Is that how it works? Yeah, two questions. So what is the expense that we're saving if we decide not to run the bus for the, you said for the driver and for the gas? And then my second question is if the bus company can't provide a driver, are they in breach of their contract would we be released from the $57,000 if they can't provide them? I don't know. I don't know the second answer to that. And I actually don't know the first I ask Grant to get me the numbers for that, for your first question. I'm not, because I anticipated it. And he, I'm realizing right now that he didn't get back to me on that. So I don't know exactly what that savings is. But it'd be significant considering the surplus that we have from fourth quarter with busing. So I think it's pretty significant in there. And I don't know about the breach of contract piece because of where we are right now with our current reality with COVID. They may be in a position to say, I know that we were in the position to say in other circumstances that have nothing to do with the bus in the spring that because of the circumstances with COVID because of the closure that we couldn't possibly pull off the contract and legally when there's an impossible situation, then you can be out of a contract and you can get out of a contract. And that might be a similar argument for the bus company here. So they would send charges to the bus even though they wouldn't be able to provide the driver? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a bad situation. Maybe we could, I mean, I would be willing to support the bus if we had some kind of a guarantee, but could we maybe table that decision until we find out the answer to those two questions? Yeah, I apologize for not knowing the number that we would save, because I did reach out around that. Grant just messed up for us. It might be, I know we've got one of the family members present now. It might be good to survey the families too and see what the particular situations are. Yeah, we certainly can. Beth, you can reach out to the families on the, who said they needed bus. Yeah, I'd be happy to. I indicated that I would reach out after the meeting anyway, but it would be a follow-up. We could always schedule an emergency meeting if we just needed to resolve the bus issue later. I would just echo what others have said that I'm reluctant to pull the bus from people that need it, but if there is a community solution in light of uncertainty, that seems worth exploring. Yeah, right now, Stacy has a driver for it. She has one driver, one driver for that route. So in this era, one driver provides inconsistency. Go ahead, Mara, sorry, I've cut you off there. No, that's okay. I just, I also am loath to pull the bus from people who are depending on it. And since we do have a driver right now, of course, you know, the question of substitute drivers and how long that'll last and everything is another question. But since we have the resource, budgeted for and staffed at the moment, and we are T minus, I don't know, 15 seconds to the beginning of the school year. It seems like if we could possibly go with the bus for now, we can at least buy ourselves more time to come up with alternative solutions. I just don't know if it's sort of an all or nothing deal where we either start with it or we don't. So do you have an answer on that, Libby? Yeah, no, we could start with it. The other thing to keep in mind is that we weren't able to find, I advertised for a bus monitor for that bus because I knew we'd need one in May and we've gotten no hits on that. So we don't have a bus monitor for it. Now, the new safety guidance says we don't technically have to do the health checks on the bus. Our bus company would very much like us to do the health checks before kids get on the bus, which is understandable to protect their employees. However, we don't have a bus monitor to do that. So the kids would be picked at Roxbury Village School, they'd be picked up at their doors, but then they'd be taken to the school and the health check would be done at the school. And the Montpelier buses all have a bus monitor on them. So they will be doing the health check prior to boarding the bus. So it's just another consideration. I do think though, right now, while we're thinking about this, if we were able to find a more resilient, more flexible community solution while we have the time, it's gonna be a crazy year no matter what. And I wonder if we find that type of solution now could pay off dividends later on down the road. Just a thought. Yeah, are there other thoughts or discussion? So it sounds like we're gonna find further information. Let me see if he has that. As quickly we can find emergency meeting. Otherwise, we'll bring it up in a second. Okay. Okay, so our in-service highlights, I just wanna give the board some highlights of what we're doing. We have a woman named Jennifer Abrams coming tomorrow, actually, on how to have hard conversations with each other, which is really exciting. Jen's a good friend of mine. She's out in California, Mara, do you know Jen? Have you heard of her? I heard the name. Yeah, she's great. She tells her like it is. She's a woman after my own heart. So she's coming. And that was a suggestion by our union leaders, which I thought was a great suggestion. So she's coming. We have Tina Bogren coming again, who is also a friend of mine. She's doing a self-care and building personal resilience for our teachers. And she's also doing a full day of training with the MHS faculty around high impact instructional moves to help them plan that two and a half hour of lack of time, which is a new thing for our MHS teachers. So Tina's coming to help. Tina is a international trainer with Marzano Research. If you know Robert Marzano's name, it's pretty big in the educational world. So Tina is a international trainer with Robert Marzano and Solution Tree. She knows herself about high impact instructional moves. So she's gonna be great for the MHS staff. The principals and district leaders are all doing modules around virtual learning using the book, the Distance Learning Playbook. That was Ryan's suggestion to the leadership team. So we're all doing different modules across the next couple of weeks. So that if we all go virtual, then we all have a common understanding of what that means and common understanding of common expectations. We're working with colleagues at UVM around high quality collaboration because we have our teachers at K-8, especially collaborating in ways that they've never done before. Each of our classrooms will obviously be a co-teaching or team teaching situation now. So we have a lot of time built in for how to do that type of collaboration really well. We have about three days planned for parent conferences and IEP meetings that will go, those dates will go out tomorrow to parents from my communication and then teachers and principals will be in contact with parents as well as how to sign up for parent conferences and IEP meetings. And of course that is just to hear, IEP meetings is to design an IEP for the situation or now and the parent conferences is to hear how a kid's life has been over the last few months and how they handled the closure, what they're nervous, what they're looking forward to and whichever situation in person or virtual that they have coming forward. So that is coming up. We have tons of protocol trainings led by our nurses and our principals and our system principals. And we have a lot of time for reflection and team collaboration built into our in-service for our educators. So overall our union leadership we're quite pleased with our in-service schedule. So I'm thinking it's gonna be pretty good. We have a lot of teachers in the buildings today moving furniture and getting their classroom set and ready to go. So we're really encouraging our educators to get into the building who are there in person. And a lot of them were today. Any questions on our in-service schedule? I sent out last Thursday, we do have new guidance and safety regulations or they're revised. There's the major shifts that we uncovered was that for K-5 they now have, they're now allowing three to six feet between kids. Now we could do it at six feet. So we are remaining, we're holding tight to the six feet rule. We may push those a little bit to like five and a half feet at the fifth grade rooms, right Katie? To make sure that kids have extra space and can see the whiteboard. But we're holding tight to that and our district, we can do it. So we're gonna remain there. But again, the bus health checks don't have to be done on the bus or before the bus. However, we're gonna hold tight to that until the weather makes it really hard to do that. And then we might switch gears after that, but we're still pretty much sticking to our plans. Other than that, the new health and safety guidance that don't a whole lot of words would not allow substance. And principles, you can correct me if I've forgotten anything there, but it was just a lot of words. But I did link that into my communication last week to families. All sports are go, they will look very different. They can't compete against other schools until the state decides we're in stage three. So the entire state will be in the same stage and the secretary of education and department of health will be making that decision of whether we're in stage one, two or three. Just a reminder, stage one is completely closed, completely virtual, stage two is what we're opening in and stage three is all those shells turned to shoulds. They're kind of good reminders. It's kind of just the difference between it. And really the administrators, we've talked about it and our plan doesn't really change whether we're in stage two or stage three, which is part of the beauty of our plan. Of course it would change drastically if we're in stage one. Let's see. Everyone around our athletes will need to be in masks except for cross country runners. They're the only ones who got a lift on that. There's still, even though athletics are a go, there's still no access to our buildings after the school day. So athletes won't have access to the locker rooms. Spectators won't have access to our bathrooms. The buildings will be locked down and nobody will be in them really. Unless one of us is working, maybe one of our administrators are working at seven o'clock when the last custodian leaves the building. So even though small sports are a go, that type of normality, it's not gonna be like it always has been. We're limited to 150 spectators. We're talking about do we give out tickets for certain events, especially when we're playing against places like U32, which tend to get a big crowd. We're talking about where we move our athletes. But Matt, Link, Andrew, Rosa, and I are having lots of conversations around what athletics will look like in the fall. And that's still getting guidance on that. So that's pretty much the update. Our principals are working hard right now within service and getting their teachers accustomed and comfortable and giving them a whole lot of time to collaborate and reflect. But I know that they're all here with the exception of Renee, she had an emergency vet appointment for her dog. So I'm sure they're happy to take questions from the board if they do have any. Or I am too. Questions or comments? Anyone? Bridget. Libby, could you talk a little bit about the numbers split between in-person and remote in each of the four buildings? Yeah, let me pull it up for you, Bridge. Mike, do you have those up right in front of you? Oh, I got it, nevermind. So these may be slightly off because there's been some changes across the day. But in kindergarten, we have 20 students. I want students. First grade, we have 11. Second, 14. Third, 19. Fourth, 12. Fifth grade, we have 11 students. Sixth grade, 14. Seventh grade, 23. Eighth grade, 17. Ninth grade, 21. 10th grade, 22. 11th grade, 16. And 12th grade, 10. Those are the virtual academy numbers? Those are the remote learning, yeah. Numbers students who chose fully virtual. They may be off by one or two because people have buckled a little bit. Is it still like an 80-20 split? About that. It might be a little less than that now. Like, I mean, 19. I mean, it's like 18, 19%. It might be a little bit less. But for the most part, it is, yeah, the 80-20%. Split. Others? We do have, for the board's knowledge, we do have five teachers who are teaching with BTVLC. Three at the high school and two at the middle school. And that significantly impacts course placement and some specials and things like that at the middle school. So we have had to cancel some classes at the high school simply because of staffing. But we think we can still do it and kids will be able to take all the required courses and we're not jeopardizing anything for juniors and seniors who we've prioritized in class placements and things like that. Have we seen, with so many remote options right now, more of our juniors and seniors doing, is it dual enrollment? I think it's the act called the Early College Admission. Have we seen an increase in our juniors and seniors taking advantage of that this year? Not that I know of, Ryan, but I can find out specifically, I haven't talked to Matt McLean about that specifically yet, but I can find out for you. I mean, it just seems like if you're gonna be doing a remote, you might as well do a remote and get a college credit if you could. Yeah, yeah, we had a limited number of juniors and seniors who chose that option, which is understandable if I were a senior, I'd be saying no, I want to go in person unless I medically couldn't. So we have less kids doing that. We may have to buy some seats for some kids that we need to see for specific classes, but we're still working that piece out, the schedules are bare. Are you still hiring teachers? Yeah, yep, we're hiring, well, we're trying to find that 0.5 special educator. Ryan sent me over a teacher today that got into your packet, a pre-K one-year position to cover an unpaid leave for the year. We have one social studies teacher who told us today that she's taking the retirement buyout, so we'll be posting for a social studies teacher. We have a world language teacher at MSMS who's retiring, and so we'll be posting for a world language teacher. We have a guidance counselor at the high school who's potentially retiring, so we'll be posting for that guidance counselor position. We think we can hire the social studies position pretty easily. The guidance in the world language agreed to stay on until we can find a replacement for them. So we have a plan, we have plan B in place for those two positions, but I know Renee is working on a guidance counselor soon, actually, who's worked with us before, so hopefully that works out. But because of the early retirement offer, which we expected, we have some teachers and the pre-K teacher, of course, at RVS that we already spoke of, we knew those teachers would be taking those, and actually we have less than what we thought. Some teachers who we thought we're gonna take, we thought we'd have a special educator at UES who decided to stay. We thought we had another MHS teacher who might take the offer and she decided to stay. So we have a few more people who decided to stick around when we've made other accommodations for them. Thanks. Others? Great, well, thank you, Libby. Again, we appreciate all the great and long and hard work you're putting into this. The team is putting into this. Yes, I've neglected you. Yes, the royal you, right? Yeah, no, all of you are doing a fantastic job. Um, the RS, RVS, sorry, district-wide visioning is next. I'm muted. So Ryan, Jerry, Beth and I had a conversation about this and I'll let Ryan and Jerry talk. I don't mean to put you guys on the spot, but we had a conversation about this last week, a couple of weeks ago. I don't know, it's all rolling together at this moment, but Ryan and Jerry, do you want to talk about that conversation? Ryan, go ahead. My memory is a little fuzzy right now. Sure, I think I can give a kind of a general overview. Jerry and I had reached out to Libby and Beth, essentially just inquiring with the consultant project potentially on hold, maybe indefinitely. We just wanted to reach out and see if there was anything we should possibly be doing in town to advocate, reach out, solicit feedback, et cetera. Until we did make a decision formally about whether or not we are going to be moving forward on the consultant project for our district-wide visioning process. Again, the board hasn't made any commitment one way or the other right now on that project, so it's kind of up in the air. But I think what we did decide on was it would make sense and we're going to do our best to garner a lot of public input throughout this next budget cycle to be really involved in the entire visioning process of the budget and how it might relate to Roxbury and try to get more feedback on the village school and more public involvement in our budget cycle this coming budget season. So I think that's a pretty quick synopsis of what had been discussed. And I don't know if there's questions or thoughts, but. Yeah, thanks. Anything to add, Jerry or Libby or the project? I think that was very nicely stated, Ryan. Thanks, Ryan. So Ryan and I will do some work on our end. Thank you both. Sure. Policy reading, I understand you just, Ryan, is that you're still noodling on it in the policy committee, so we'll push that to the second. Yes, I mean, we were bombarded with emails this week, everybody asking where the gender draft policy was to review it wasn't in the packet. No, we did. We have shifted our policy committee meeting schedule, so it is also a stagger now at the board meetings. We will be able to get things to the board when need be. But ultimately we did another read through this week and still felt like we kind of had some unresolved questions regarding some of the language. So we do not have an updated draft yet for the board to read. Really, really, really good when it does get to you. I was going to say it's going to be flamin' when you get it. Awesome. We have the leader in the state, Mara Iverson. I mean, if that's not going to be the best policy ever, I don't know what it is. What I can tell you is that as a person who works professionally on these sorts of things, I fully intend to use our finished policy as the model policy that I suggest to all of the other school districts around the state, so you can rest assured that we're going to look really good. I was wondering where that policy was. I took like 10 minutes searching for it because I wanted to read it before the meeting. Sorry. Great. And then I think we just have the policy monitoring reports. Any discussion there? No, I always forget. Do we have to approve those, right? Yeah, remember last year, we pulled them out so you all could approve them or ask questions around them if you needed to. Yeah, I do remember. I mean, you'd do like tack aside into my forehead or something. That's what came in for your fortune. Bridget was right, gentlemen, on that too. So no discussion. Do I have a motion to approve the policy monitoring reports? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Anakit. Mara? Aye. Bridget? Aye. Jerry? Aye. Andrew? I think that's everyone. So approved. And then we have given some time back to our administrators, particularly Libby. It looks like the motion to adjourn is next. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Was that a movement to adjourn or were you just saying motion to adjourn, Andrew? I think we're good. I think we're good. We're close enough. Anakit. Aye. Mara? Yes, all the yes. Ryan? Aye. Bridget? Aye. Jerry? Aye. Andrew? Aye. Yell? Aye. Emma? Aye. Thanks all. Have a good rest of your night and we'll see each other virtually in September. Thank you everyone. Thank you. For me, what is the name of the person who does the tech again? I'm still struggling with my email. You can send that to Lucas Johnson. Okay, that's it. Let me get Lucas's email for you. It's just lukasj at npsbt.org. Tell my son, Joe. Is that with a C or K? C. Okay, great. Thank you, Libby. No problem. Did you see Anna my text to you about the data piece? No, no, no, on the chat. Stacey Emerson needs the addresses for the bus routes that I asked for about two weeks ago and it hasn't been given her a story yet. So do you have access to that? In our school? I mean, I could look in our school. To download all she needs is a student's name, the school and the address. I haven't pulled anything like that previously, but I can look into it first thing in the morning. Yeah, will you do that for me? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, thank you. See you tomorrow.