 I want to add a quick outreach update and then we're going to do a short executive session to talk about personnel matters so those items will be added to the agenda we can slot I think both committees and the outreach update into the board session. I would do it after the CBCs implementation. Do we have any public comment? None from here. Looks like we don't have any on Zoom. So, moving to consent agenda of a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll move to approve the consent agenda, but I'd like to pull the superintendent report and the draft October 20th agenda. And then I think we should, we're supposed to add officially the superintendent evaluation committee meeting minutes from September 24. And I have a question about the warrants because I didn't see them come through. They're in front of me. Yeah, I got this today and I just didn't send them off. I'm sorry. That's okay. Maybe you, maybe you just pass them around. Well, I guess Rhett and Kristen wouldn't get to. We should probably pull them. No, we need to approve them. Oh yeah, we do have a quorum without Kristen and Rhett. Yeah, maybe we can all with your eyeballs on them just to Unless there's any questions. Yeah, I can, I can email him right now. I can just show them on Zoom. Yeah. Okay, so they will leave them on the consent agenda. I'm not pulling those off. So that was my motion. Well, sorry. So we pulled them for two minutes because we have not seen them. But then we can at least see them. I don't want to prove something. I'll accept that as a friendly amendment. Pass the ground. So it just looks like you've got it up on your computer. Let me just email them. Okay, cool. I am going hard. Yes. That is so retro. That was my aim. There's a second one. Yes. So did the motion include these or no, it did not. Okay. So let's put on the first motion to prove everything except four items. The two warrants and superintendent's report and draft agenda. You want to pull this report. Yes. Yes. That's what he said. Okay. Did we have a second. Okay. Any opposed. So discussion on, well. Any discussion on the warrants. First. Do we have any questions? No. No. So superintendent's report or draft agenda. Yeah. So I just wanted to ask you Libby. You know, given the understaffing that is still happening and the survey, the need for people, people power on surveillance testing, if volunteers would help at all, or if it would actually cause more work because you'd have to train at the volunteers and if. If possibly those positions aren't allowed to be filled by volunteers because of contractual reasons, or if there's, I guess I'm just asking if it would be helpful to have a couple of other things coming in. So we're going to go ahead and fill in to keep things moving. Yeah. Thanks, Mia. We're going to actually talk about stopping and executive session a little bit more. Actually the, the surveillance testing, we now have two substitute nurses coming in. One was sick this past Monday, which is why I still did it on Monday. But we do have two substitute nurses that we've hired to do the surveillance testing. I think we can get that covered. So the second one is we have, we have two of the most suitable people that the challenge with volunteers is just what you said. It's somebody has to organize it. And that somebody's me. Right now I don't have the capacity to organize volunteer core. Okay. So, so it's still, we're going to, we're going to talk about it in executive session. Okay. And then for the October 20th agenda, I just had noted that. get them like on a rotating basis to get those back on the addendas. Yeah. Thanks for the reminder on that. I just had come, I completely spaced on that. So thanks for the reminder. No problem. As did I, but that is, that is a great reminder. So we'll add, um, does any committee want to volunteer to be up on the 20th? Okay. Let's do it. Unless there's somebody else that has the best time. Yeah. For the equity, equity, do you think we'll be ready by then with a thing? Yeah. Wow. Because we're sending it to policy first, aren't we? Are we? I think we are. Okay. We'll be ready in a little bit, but not by the time. You can have it. Any other committees? Make sure it's set for an update. Well, I mean, finance committee is going to need like an hour before the next meeting. So we could give it an update. Okay. Why don't we do a finance committee? I don't know if we have a good pre-cursor to the budget season too. Yeah. All right. Excellent. So we will include that on the 20th. So now I need a motion to approve as well. Any further discussion on those two edits? And are we also approving now the superintendent committee, the voting committee minutes? That was in the first motion. Okay. We added it in the first motion. Okay. So now I need a motion to approve superintendent's report and the draft agenda. And the two warrants. And the two warrants. Yes. Thank you. I'm going to get to approve the superintendent's report and the draft agenda for October 20th and the two warrants. And second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? I just wanted to make sure that that threat and testimony are helpful. I'm watching them. Yes. I am. I am eyeing. Yes. You're eyeing? Yes. And you're also not opposing. So if they're on Zoom, do you have to roll call them for the approval? I don't believe so. I think the roll call was just for an all zoom. Yeah. But you guys do have your audio on, right? Yes. Yeah. And we can hear you. So learning focus and board discussion. So, Jill and Jill, thank you for being the board representative on this. And Jody, who's the central Vermont crew center director. And Jody, you're welcome to take that seat. It has a microphone. It might be a little easier for the folks who are watching or participating in Zoom to hear you. Yeah. So go ahead. Do you want me to sit with you? Sure. Thank you for having me. Yes, thank you for coming. So I am from Central Vermont Queer Center and I've been blessed to work with Jill over the summer from since my start on July 1st. I moved from 32 to the career center. And we wanted a chance to update you on our governance work so that you could know a little bit of what's coming up for us, what we've been working on and where we might be going next. And Libby, if you could move it forward. So in case you don't know, the Central Vermont Queer Center is currently located at the back side of Spalding High School and we serve here, Cabot, Harwood, Spalding, Twinfield and U32 students in our center. We have lots of great programs from automotive to culinary, emergency services, natural resources, wonderful things that kids have been doing just this week. Our building trades built six tables for picnic tables for outside at Spalding and at Berry Town Elementary to give kids more space outside to eat lunches and not have to be inside. Our natural resources have been working with Bear Roots Farm. And so if you've been at the market, you've probably got purchased something that they've pitched and they gleaned tomatoes this week for the food shelf. So lots of great things that our students are doing. Together from all of those sending schools at CVCC. Go ahead. The committee that's been working on governance and basically we belong to Berry Unified Union School District. We always have when we were the vocational school at Berry and Berry Tech Center and now Central Vermont Career Center. And this committee of great folks, including Jill, has been working together for at least a half a year. I don't know, it's a longer. I think your first meeting was April. Okay. So for half a year, a little bit before I came on board working to decide should we separate from the Berry School District and move forward in a way that allows all of our sending regions to give us support and to also vote on our budget and contribute to what happens. Right now we have a regional advisory board. And so there's a member of each sending school on that regional advisory board and the superintendents and principals often are part of that work as well. And they help approve and push the budget forward that Berry ultimately, the Berry School Board ultimately decides on right now. And so we hope that in the future all school boards will have those representatives on our board. So one appointed member from each of the sending school boards and some at large members to make up a 10 member group together who make that budget and all of the voters from all of our 18 towns who contribute. Go ahead, Libby. I'm getting ahead of myself so. So we're working on what would be the Central Vermont Career Center School District. We've been working on the Articles of Agreement, which is very similar to what you would have done when you came together with Roxbury and what many of our sending school districts have done recently and our bylaws for the new district. Go ahead. So as I was starting to say, we would have 10 members on our board for at large from our largest district, which means Montpelier would have one. And the other six would be appointed from the sending school district similar to what sits on our regional advisory board now. Votes for the new governance if to be selected would happen at town meeting across all 18 towns and so would the voting for those four at large members. The current plan for our teachers, it should we separate should we get that support would be to retain the current contract that they have under the Berry Education Association until that runs out and then they would negotiate with us. Go ahead. You'll notice also that every slide has a photo from one of our programs. Those are from this year. So wanted to just be able to share what we're doing as well. So our next step, we've basically finished drafting our bylaws and Articles of Agreement. And once they've been perused by PA for Lynn, whom you all probably heard of and brought back to our committee on our next meeting, which is October 19. If we approve them, it then gets submitted in this report to the agency of education in the state board to make a decision of yes, can we move forward looking for this vote or no. So we may not move forward. It may get stuck there. However, should they decide to move us forward, we will then be putting together a ballot for every town across all of our sending schools to vote for us to create this new district or not and to vote for those four at large members. So I've been reaching out to town clerks, all 18 town clerks across the districts. I've gotten a few questions and thankfully Carol Dawes in Berry City who will be the place where they bring all the ballots on that town meeting night to be counted really knows what needs to happen and has sent me great questions and followed up with great ideas to share with those town clerks. So they're starting to get an idea of what it is. First they were a couple of them that sent back and said, this isn't us, this is Berry, or shouldn't you be talking to Harwood or Montpelier? And so then I would respond and call and talk to them and we all are on the same page now. So I think that's a good step. If approved by all the 18 towns, then our transition board would be the appointed and elected members and they would prepare to open our new district on July 1st of next year. Separate from this there's been a revisioning committee also working to consider whether our current space is appropriate. If you've read any of the articles in the Times Argus in the last couple of months, you'll know that we had over 350 applicants for the career center. We had 231 slots to fill and we started the year with 207. Part of that is because you might have a program that has 16 seats like automotive and 60 applicants. So we're not going to meet that need right now with that 16 seats. The other pieces we just don't have enough space to make our programs bigger. In some cases the programming that we would like to offer like welding, we don't have the capacity to do it in the building given the current structure of the building and the air systems and just height of ceilings and all sorts of stuff like that. So we're looking into whether or not we can use that space and some other buildings around the city or could we look into a new building, state of the art career center, try to get rid of the stigma that's still attached to technical and career education and centrally located so that it now that if we're not with Barry for example, and we're not in their district anymore, we may be able to move to another place without it feeling awkward. So perhaps there's a place in Berlin or Montpellier that would be a good site for a new center and that that would be part of our next step for there. Should the governance happen, either way we're still looking at what do we need to do to support the students of central Vermont. So we are working with, we've sent out an RFP for marketing firms to meet with us so that we can start getting the word out about all that we're doing and all that we could offer if we had more and hopefully they will help us to seek the potential funding for a renovation or a new building, whichever we need. I don't want it to update you on both on governance and revisioning. Did I leave anything out, Joe? Are there questions? I was wondering what kind of outreach you are doing for voters to give out information via site or via any other place that people can go and look at and get their questions answered. Yeah, we right now we have our website has a lot of the information and I've been working with the Times Argus to get the word out through them but I'm looking at what other venues might I share information. And part of this tour of boards this month is to ask for your help in getting the word out and sharing with your constituents that this vote may be coming up. Certainly once we get an approval, if we get that approval from the State Board of Ed, then we're going to fire up the outreach a lot more but right now it's just a potential when it becomes more of a reality then we're going to be reaching out a lot more and I'll be using Front Forge Forum and some other venues as well. And do you have any idea about financial impact positive or negative for the school districts that are participating? The tuition rate I don't believe is going to change a whole lot with the governance structure we're going to for this first year we have to have our budget approved by Barry and voted by Barry only regardless of what happens on time meeting day it's a it's a very budget. And so what I've worked to do is to try to figure out that that bottom line I need it to work no matter what happens whether we're in a district or not. The so the biggest impact is likely to be on Barry because we will then take on some of this the I would have superintendent duties the human resources might be something that we take on so that what we currently pay the very central office will change. We are working on a lease for the space that we currently reside in and that right now is a three year lease the draft and then beyond that that's when we would start wondering what the changes might be other changes that could happen we're investigating some new programs for potential next year and extending so the grant museum for example has interest in building a stone arts program back which hasn't been in Barry for probably 20 years so different things like that can impact our funding but there's also a lot of grants out there. The tuition is based on a six semester average of your students so because we have the most amount of students this year then we have more than any of the last 10 years the tuition is going to go up a little bit because it's based on that amount I also know that the legislator legislature is working on basically doing a funding formula where the money just follows the kids and we stop asking for tuition so then it's the number of kids that we take from each school that that's where the impact would be so if we if we were far out beyond our five year plan and actually had a new building with lots more space and we could take the 350 kids that's when you're going to see the biggest impact here because that money is likely going to follow those kids instead of being here in Montpelier it would go to the center where that is located. Doesn't it already go anyway we just pay the tuition it's a budget line? Yes but it depends so the tuition that you get the money you get for those kids from the state and from your taxes may not be the same as what our tuition costs so you might there might be a savings whereas if the legislature changed that we would just get that directly from the state and we would be dropping like we wouldn't be able to count that child as a one in our per people calculations. I see we're hoping that the benefits are that we fill those positions and jobs that we're all seeking with students who graduate from our programs. Absolutely and so you I know a lot of schools have one or no electrician for example and so getting electricians out into the trades around us the carpenters the plumbers all of those things so hopefully there are other benefits to the community nurses. Is there another model like this like it sounds like a very unique structure in terms of calling it like a school district and then we're not sure what town it will be in it wouldn't be like a student if you if you base it in berlin let's say it's not or if it stays in berry it wouldn't be like the city of berry pays taxes it would be all the sending towns pay taxes right but all the sending towns pay tuition now right all the sending towns would would support the budget that ultimately goes onto your lines. So there are two examples existing currently but they've been in I think there's three okay and but there hasn't been one created for multiple years since 2004 maybe so there so we actually on the committee we had Jody's counterpart in the springfield area technical center so he was great at sort of helping us talk through the logistics so it this this model does exist in Vermont and it's allowed under state law and there's sounds like three other ones in Vermont all technical schools yeah yes okay yeah there just hasn't been one created in a long time so it's not in our recent memory and how do students get to the school now and how would they get there in the future good question so the sending schools provide that transportation and it's part of the legal requirements under the law and that would remain the same so should we create a new center berry would now need to transport their kids there and just so I'm clear on how the governance structure would work the so the budget be like a 201 would the budget be a line item on each of the sending schools towns and then you just add up the total from those 18 towns and would the board be elected in a similar manner I think the budget one is a really hard depending on what formula we end up using but I believe to start it would be a line item similar just the same as it is now okay it wouldn't change from that unless the legislature makes that change and then I'm not sure I don't think I have the answer for you yeah and then what was the other question how did board get elected so the board would come appointed members from each of these so you wouldn't point jails coming I'm just taking jail you would appoint jail and she would be the member of our board and the other four that are not on the sending school boards would be elected on time any day okay so they're going to be elected if we move forward with this governance vote regardless of whether they get a seat or not there might not be a district to have a seat in so maybe to elaborate a little bit my understanding is that it's a separate it's a line item so theoretically I think it can happen even under the current structure where the very unified union school district budget might not pass but the tech center budget would for example um and so that's we spend a lot of time at these meetings going through the bylaws and sort of the co-mingling of votes and the you know up or down by town or by total number of votes I mean those are the things that are getting like worked out because there's different ways to approach that um I hope obviously being that I'm going to be a yes but I have a question around thinking of disparities for the future so if for example transportation right now needs to be given by a district you become your independent district you're saying that that will still be charged to the district that basically what's happening is you become your own district my kid said I want to go to the tech center uh in five years and then you this you know you have the open application and then I'm a single mom I have no transportation so this district have to provide it yes so and that's the same as what happens right now so right now every sending school except Barry because we're attached sends a bus to our programs kids get off they attend the programs and then they the bus comes back and they get on the bus and they go back to they come back here to Montpelier um they go back to all the other schools right now we're in 8 30 a.m 8 20 a.m to 12 30 p.m program then we have lunch offered to them at Spalding and at one o'clock they get back on the bus and they come to their sending school and have an academic course or two depending on the schedule that the sending school has I see yeah and so that that will obviously change and they will be there all day I am hopeful that will change that's not part of the governance work and it's not it's not necessarily tied with that I'm hopeful that'll change anyways that we can provide all of that programming yeah I'm I'm wondering all those possible scenarios how they will be written in the plan so that's worked out I mean like I just like think that becoming independent and then it could be cost prohibitive for some of the schools maybe like if you have to put them on the budget number one number two just thinking about these priorities and so it's going to make status for families that are able to maybe do transportation or not and how all that will be included in the plan to for districts to be able to make that decision family yeah I invite you to check out the cbcc website and look at the governance information because all the the notes are there in the packets from our meetings and so you can you can actually read through the bylaws that we've created in the articles but the transportation one is in there as each sending school will send transportation so that that is taken care of so a family if you can get if your kid can get to their sending school they can get to this the career center okay thanks yeah I wondered what thank you I'm jody angel I wondered what current enrollment looks like from mrps from both them uh mont kewler and rocksbury in ccb ccc the programs currently that's a good question and I can get my cell phone and pull it up but I'm thinking it's like 47 students okay um oh go ahead there's 70 something from spaulding right now 50 exactly from u32 and I think it's like 47 somewhere between 43 and 47 from up there okay thanks and I'm curious what outreach looks like to our students um in terms of like center reps coming to um mhs to recruit students and to what extent um you know staff at mhs helps to place students you know once they get a sense of them and their interests and how they you know kind of refer or recommend students to go to the center good question so I can only speak from my experience at u32 on this one but what I know happened there while I was there was that um the the career center would visit when it was appropriate and we didn't have covid and they had a presentation that students could opt into so they're in advisory they were told about the opportunity to go they could sign up then they could go to the auditorium and watch the presentation meet some of the teachers meet some students that were part of their programs and then they would follow up with their counselors for that information about how to apply and what to do next the applications are now online I think the presentations over the last two years were probably virtual as well and that we're not sure yet what that's going to look like we also have a person who's working on um she's our internet and technology person and she's working on outreach to middle schools to try to get the information out sooner about what options there are yeah chris then that's pretty similar to mhs what jody just described for u32 and it works through our flexible pathways program so matt mclean is is highly involved with um conversations with kiddo it's about opportunities at the tech center as our as our guidance counselors yep okay great um jody do you know what the timing is looking like in terms of getting approved by aoe so that you can start moving ahead and i'm curious how what's the best way for us to kind of stay informed about um you know any decisions that get made one thing is that also is coming to mind is that you know we'll be we're two towns in the same district right so we'll have constituents from both towns voting so i'm thinking about what you know we can do to get out to our constituents to send kind of a unified message about you know why this shift is really beneficial and so down the line if you get to that point i'll definitely be interested to hear um about that and if you want to speak to just how you know any um just how these um this is obviously a big move for you all um and just you know how these changes or what changes to like to function and programming um is going to result from from this shift that could get students and families excited and and voting and voters excited i think the first big excitement piece is the fact that people will will really have a voice across all sending schools instead of feeling like they had a small contribution in the advisory board that that recommends a budget to the berry board they'll actually have a voice in that budget and that's that's missing now it really is um things to watch out for october 19th is our next governance meeting i anticipate that we'll be we will finalize the articles and by law hopefully we'll have a finalized lease agreement and if that's true it'll go from there straight to the state board and the aoe uh mic our consultant has said it's going to take about a month for them to review it and get back to us so i anticipate that by the beginning of december we should know if we're moving forward or not okay did i answer all your questions i think so yeah and by the lease do you mean a lease agreement for the building with very unified correct at least for our current space yeah okay thank you mm-hmm so what else and what a direct mature resource for us that's that's totally cool as well what else will the sending schools be responsible for under this model i the sending schools are responsible for the things that we've already mentioned so tuition busing they are responsible for pointing a board member i believe that's it i'm wondering about an iep i feel like i remember us talking about the lea that the sending school would still be responsible for meeting the students iep so the students still have their case manager manager at their school we have a director or coordinator um who coordinates with them to make sure that the plans are followed while in our building so they're still case manager assigned so based on what i'm hearing just so i'm clear because there there are like there are budget impacts and also mm-hmm our our number of pupils under this model if we have those 47 students at in Montpelier schools they're now not going to be in our schools for the purpose of like equalize people they aren't now what they're not in your school now oh they're not there now so that's not a change right they're they're in the tech center correct okay that's what i wasn't clear no so even if they're coming back for part of the day even though they're coming back for part of the day they're my students huh yeah so that you're not going to see a big change in that unless we are able to open a new facility that's the larger and accept more students or open a new program and accept a few more students then you'll see that whatever the number shift and again it's a six semester average so it slowly increases it's not going to jump up or down quickly so students there now they don't count as part of our equalized people count right and right now they're i don't know what we what what does what does it cost to send us to that's a really good question okay i will send that to you we can talk yeah it's unfortunate because that does create a disincentive i'm not sure if that's anecdotal or if that's actually no or now but it is a disincentive for schools to send their kids to the technical centers because they don't get to count on this but that that won't change that's how it is right now right the only thing that would change is in the future if it's a larger technical center and and but it does sound like the way that the money would be sent changes and there would be more money sent to the to the tech center under this eventually i think initially there's not going to be that much of a change because we're we're still in the same constraints that we have this year but i mentioned academic classes so if we if the sending schools pay a tuition will you be discounting that tuition to send kids back to for academic classes or how does that work that's a really good question because because i don't quite understand the formula yet i'm still learning a lot but my understanding is that we we have a tuition that's set for our students that attend our school and that doesn't change because we've sent them back at the end of the day for our class my hope would be that we would be able to keep them for the full day i don't based on if there's a funding formula from the state so my hope is that i can find a way to work within that to keep them for the full day eventually but that's a separate piece from governance it's not part of those bylaws or articles but then what so one question around the IEP so if a student has an IEP or a 504 plan then they are sent to you the district this has a responsibility for that special ed for that student even though basically the money that this student is all given to the tech center now the district is still the lea for the students yes and that's true when you exchange students as well or if you send them off to like say you pay for stone path or another alternative program and the district still gets the IEP money the individual education plan money is special education funding so it's a different funding structure it doesn't travel to the tech center the tech center doesn't yet that additional money for that special education provision so the lea receives the funding for that student's IEP and provides the IEP okay how how does it work right now without going to any if you're able to give us like a high level overview how does it work now with a student who's on an IEP who's going to who's going to the tech center how how are we providing for that or if that's too big of a question or I don't know if you can answer that it was I'm sorry did you send that to me yeah I missed the first part so I missed the Libby part the general question is yeah I got I got the general question it wears Jody is right on with what she said earlier it's it's the same thing as we do with exchanges because the money stays with the district for an IEP we're still the lea which makes sense because you know if Jody were making IEP decisions Jody and her team were making IEP decisions and we had to pay for them what if we disagreed about the decision so both districts become part of the IEP team as with the family of course and when kids are old enough with the kids as well um and decisions are made as a team right so we're all at the table together to decide what what happens um and what are the needs for the the IEP but Jody's team would be responsible for carrying it out any differentiation or any modifications that needed to happen um and we would be in agreement that the services are are the correct services for the kid that makes sense yeah and do you envision any changes in that relationship partnership as a part of this no because it's the way IDEA is written and that that IEP decisions have to be made by the team that surrounds the kid and so regardless of what uh school the kid is at right the kid was at we we make those decisions together thank you that's helpful for us can you say that again amanda I'm sorry do you see any uh any financial implications for us that you see us like for the different or the for the different governance structures yes um not yet I think the the bigger question that the board will have to I think the governance structure change makes sense quite honestly I think the the bigger question that the board will have to grapple with with the community is a potential change or renovation in the building which is a which will be a significant financial cost so that that's the bigger question the bigger financial burden um I've been to the tech center I can say they're doing marvelous things with kids um and our kids who go there are have nothing but praise for the staff at the tech center um and I think that the the facility needs an upgrade right so but that's that is a heavy duty money cost as well so I think that's the larger financial question that the board will have to grapple with it a later time and I think that's really important to know because if we don't make a shift in governance then Barry has that decision to make and it's and all of the sending schools have to pay for it but if we do shift the governance and we're talking about a new space or renovation every town has a say in that and if the board doesn't want it then that doesn't happen to to and where you could go I mean correct seems like you could go anywhere and this governance structure at least within the 18-down structure rather than stuck in there yes it gives us way more flexibility and and we can be more centrally okay it's the southernmost town and so some schools are getting there later than others because it's so much further to have to send their pets so during the process I'm sure you kind of developed a list of pros and cons or discussed all pros and cons I'm just wondering if that document is available on the website like sort of a list of considered pros and cons there's a couple ways that the information is presented and what I brought tonight for myself is is probably the best place to look for that it's sort of the three main decision points we made at each meeting yeah and that's right on the um the ct the cvtcc.org webpage because that's kind of what we went through because we did we we literally are going through all the articles and talking through those different pieces and then we make a point of summarizing them in the three and four main points and posting it on that webpage so you can look at each meeting's main decision points um I mean there's it would be going through um a meeting minutes it's actually even more sort of narrative than that it's more concise like three main points from each meeting okay you could go through the minutes but this is just like the talking points so is that one document like list the meeting date the three main points okay yeah um yeah and that's available on homepage like it's a click yeah if you go to cvtcc.org there's a there's a resources and there's governance or if you scroll down there's governance there's two ways to reach it and then click on that and then you can open up any of the documents that we have I mean I just want to say it's a really fantastic and interesting group of folks from all the different boards and I definitely they're they're it would be kind of neat to go back through the minutes because there's definitely pros and cons or different um considerations depending on the size of your town and how many kids might go and what this might mean or not mean um and I'm I'm really honored and excited to have been a part of it I I definitely didn't have any preconceived notions but um it's clear that there is a huge demand for this resource for our kids and right now we really don't we as Montpelier Rocksbury for example along with the other 18 towns don't have that direct say um and clearly you know over 100 kids weren't able to participate who wanted to and meanwhile the demand in the in the market and in careers and we want kids to stay and thrive and succeed um is clearly there um I really like the idea of our boards having more ownership over the decision making um I think the transition of life feels a little scary so I know we watched the day of 2022 which is coming right up so it's definitely not at all or nothing like I think if in the next as Jody pointed out the next couple months are really sort of where time will tell so depending on how long the state board and the agency event take to consider this then we'll do a full court press of information and there are there's sort of ripple effects of the longer that decision is put off but I'm hopeful if it doesn't happen for 2022 it certainly would happen for 2023 um but we actually are working pretty well in earnest and and I think we're in pretty good shape right now um so I just I definitely would like to be providing more regular updates to you folks um it is a major time commitment I spend as much time with these meetings as I do it these meetings and um and I'm just really excited about the possibilities for our students and I'm really grateful for all the work that you guys have all done it's a lot but it's really exciting the possibilities are really exciting well thank you huge I appreciate the update and look forward to seeing the process move forward it's been super informative and thanks for things about to be for all your hard work so thank you thank you thank you thank you well you've got an executive system over here um great so uh let's move on to the two added items one committee appointments uh so Rhett I will let you confirm this but my understanding is that at least until we reorganize in March you um just want to swap out seats where Jerry used to set which is the superintendent evaluation finance and negotiations committee negotiations is on the quiet side between now and then so um well I guess is that sounds doable is that still makes sense yeah it does I just don't know enough to make a more knowledgeable selection I'll learn no matter where I am and if that's where the spaces are I'm happy to do that that's where we like you Rhett when you don't when you don't know enough to say no so Rhett I would like to invite you though to come to the equity and policy committees and we can that give you an update of what we do I think that would be important to kind of just know what each of the committee does and get familiar through this process yeah I think next week it wouldn't hurt when we talk like finance committee and policy committee to kind of provide that overview as well yeah yeah no definitely um yeah and stopping to meet yet works too but we will we will we will put committee updates on more regularly so Rhett I'd be happy to to to pop in I would like to sit in on the meet the committees that I'm gonna be on first and get an idea of how that goes and then schedule time to like sort of you know sit in on other committee meetings to get an idea of where everybody is and you know if there is sort of a realignment you know I want to be as knowledgeable as I can and and fit all these pieces together as best as we all can thank you once upon a time I think I once upon a time I think Emma suggested that we post kind of like you know the like the function of the committees and give a description um I wonder if that's something that each committee could do and whether it's posted online you know next to our committees both for the purpose of the public knowing what we do and then also you know as new board members come in it's a spot where they can just um you know get a good sense of what committees functions are I think it would be great if we had a board member do that considering how short staff are that's not yeah that's that's what I'm suggesting is that if each committee could even work together to you know hammer out some language yeah that's a great idea um why don't yeah why don't boards just do that like a couple lines to put because we have we all other committees listed but we do not have a description I mean other than the other than the names which are somewhat descriptive but don't fully cover it yeah we should do all of that yes I think eventually it will be really great if we could start compiling this in documents so we have like our own board member welcoming packet we're like it's actually our welcoming packet this is who we are this is what we do here are the committees here are the ways that you can plug in here are the ways that you we make decisions like eventually so like this could be the beginning of that little packet so an important comment we give them here's how we function um rather than good idea yeah yeah really good idea part of our improvement plan for onboarding new members yes we discussed other developments as well yes no definitely I mean on that note I'm wondering Rhett is there anything that you feel like you need right now from any of us that we can follow up with you after this meeting um I just need everybody to be honest when I'm doing something wrong that's all I need I I don't um I don't know what to ask for I just don't know um but um you know I want to know when you know what what questions are appropriate when and to you know get suggestions or even a thumbs up here or there I don't know we'll go a long way consider me to be like a six year old at this point you know yeah well definitely feel free to ask ask questions of any of us and um I believe thanks Jill for reaching out and and mentoring I know you guys have been a touch and we've talked but I think anyone would be welcome to you know spend an hour an hour with you either on the phone or zoom or meeting downtown to to talk things through yeah I was um I was considering potentially trying to appear in some of these public facing efforts maybe with some of the Montpelier board members I don't know how that works if there's any that only one person is attending because I think if there are three then that changes the dynamic as I understand it so I don't know if that's a possibility or not and I you know I'm definitely getting a lot of support from Kristen um and we're you know we've had some some we've made some effort to connect with some people in Roxbury and I think we've had some success I think that it'll you know that'll that effort will grow but what has come out of that is just talking about the board and talking about kind of how things work and Kristen's been a you know Jill is offered to be a mentor I also consider Kristen to be a mentor as well in a sense just how do we represent Roxbury what how do we do that in a way that that works for everyone in the the sort of different perspectives that are coming out of Roxbury the caveat right is that I am not seasoned but I'm trying I'm trying to be accurate and correct but um yeah I think we could all use some support yeah no and and we have a very very new board kind of across across the spectrum um so we need nominations for to appoint and rent to these three committees superintendent evaluation finance negotiation I think we're gonna probably all is one motion um do you have a motion for that appointment I don't second further discussion all those in favor hi hi Brett you can appoint yourself hi thank you I've had something right before we move on Brett just so you know I I think you got an email about this today we're going to have a finance committee meeting before our next board meeting so we have a superintendent evaluation committee there's no meeting yet no meeting yet we're talking about it right balls in my court to write up notes and stuff from our last meeting to share with the the whole board actually excellent and and Brett just so you know you'll get in advance of that meeting and everybody on the board gets this you'll get a quarterly report that is quite detailed about where we're spending from where we're getting money from various fund balances um long-term debt and our progress paying that up that type of information so you'll want to read that in advance of that finance committee meeting because we generally go over that together and ask questions excellent when I would not also suggest getting in touch with the chairs of all three committees and they're listed on the the website but um Mia I'll email you right Andrew for finance we don't actually have a chair on the finance committee but you can you can feel free to email me your address well and just do a two-fer with Andrew and talk to a lot of negotiations too or advocate I think would be willing to talk about that sure yeah phone call would be great if that's if that's a reasonable thing with I'll just you know I guess Andrew for finance Emma for policy I don't know um Mia and Amanda either I mean Kristen but I would like to talk to each of you if I can yeah okay okay that's what I did when I first joined the board rat and I found it to be really helpful great all right I mean I'm I'm close by so coffee is good and lunch is whatever I can I can I can arrange things a lot of the time um for the next few weeks I'm going to be uh kind of attached to my house in some ways so that might make it a little tricky but we'll see we'll get your ad excellent um next thing is removing Andrew from the policy committee I don't I think we need an action for to reduce I think Andrew can step off if he wants to but um just removing or moving the number from four to three and removing Andrew we should have forward action for that I move to believe Andrew of his duties on the policy and reduce the number and reduce the number of four members of the policy committee from four to three so second I second that any discussion I feel relieved we all feel really so I have another reluctant point of business is that um when we're talking about appointments because I have sweat under no radar since getting off of the school safety case with issues committee with only one committee assignment so does that require a number I've had three three yeah I know and said that it's red has great so I would really like to serve on the facilities committee and I don't know if that's if there's somebody that is currently serving on three committees are doing a lot that might want to step down and I'll replace them can I interject I mean you can do a lot but I mean we should think about like do we need to be in multiple committees or can we just do a lot of work in the communities that we're in because there's a lot of work that needs to happen in the policy committee yeah I would love for you to just like do more there because we all need that and right and instead of adding more to your plate it's like I have this committee and I'm gonna do all the things that we need to do so I'm just being a voice of caution if already the other committees are fine but if you really want to serve that's great but there's a lot of work that needs to be done yeah I would second that that's a busy committee and and as chair I I'm okay we can reassess maybe a few months but okay how often does the facilities committee it's only quarterly and Emma has been expressed interest but I mean Emma if you want to join that committee my general thought is it's we meet um generally a quarterly basis we might it might be we've we've met I feel like we've met like in between a quarterly meeting so far I mean it was just formed right um so I'd say we had two meetings in the past quarter but it's a good question like we need the last meeting last meeting was when August yeah early September I think it was August before the school year started and the end of August yeah it was right before um Andrew did the big presentation Andrew LaRosa did that yeah that's right it should be more specific that's right yeah we met with it was like the day before the board meeting that so it doesn't sound like there's any rush and I'm in need but I am interested and I think quarterly is completely manageable that can still step up to the place of health policy all right it is great and I and I'm wondering my question is basically if there's somebody on the facilities committee that's feeling strapped for time and why well it's only a three-member committee if you just if we can just add you yeah that might be good as a member of the facilities committee even though it has been very low demand because I am feeling very cold in the I had Jill in mind seeing my um and that is that has been a very huge lift and it's not ending anytime soon right do you want to swap no she wanted to swap and she'd be stepping down that's what I mean and I would be willing to swap I thought we're just adding you and I could be less I think that's fine I do still want to be on it okay so that's yeah that's just add Emma yeah okay I just realized I was on four committees until just a minute ago yeah which was why I definitely felt stressed do I have a motion to add Emma to the facilities committee and I get a four-member committee so move second discussion all's in favor hi thanks Emma hi awesome very any opposed it's great all right um policy monitoring we have two policies of per monitoring may ask a question oh sure um if there are are there clearly committees that are just more work than others and has it ever been discovered to have a or discussed to have a rotation if there's if there's if there's if there's a committee that's like pretty clearly a lot of work has it ever been discussed that there be a a a sort of predictable rotation on it I could add just in my time it's more that the committee work themselves can be cyclical I can't speak for all the committees but for example negotiations was like very labor intensive not to play a fun for a window of time it was a lot of evening lunchtime meetings a lot of time was spent in the labor relations committee and now it's it's not so that I think that's true for some of them right and that's why I sort of thought it'd be good to have em on facilities because if something does start to ramp up to have another body on it I do think the policy committee and the equity committee I mean there's other committees that are newer and seem to be very active ongoing so it depends on the committee but a lot of them are cyclical like superintendent um evaluation committee I feel like it's a quite a bit of work though it was a three month period yeah that's very cyclical and and as far as um the rotation goes right every march after town meeting day we revisit committees so that's a I mean obviously as you can see in this board meeting it can happen at any point but that's the moment that we kind of take stock and everybody either says yeah I'm good where I am or um or no I think I should shift or step down from something in a pretty holistic way so it happens once a year okay thank you before moving on to policy monitoring we have the community engagement right oh that's right oh sorry thanks for reminding me yes um updates so I don't know uh can we have the week do you have it can you put it on the zoom does everybody have it uh I don't know who's up who's up to the zoom and can do a screen share um I can share what do you need screen what do you need shared the community engagement document I'll email it to you quickly Libby so you have it but I just had I had a couple of questions I can't see um regarding updates I know that Kristen you had some updates um Annika we were supposed to the Brasic and three system but it got canceled I reached out to the farmers market they said anytime you just we just have to let them know we're coming because there's a lot of space and so you signed up whoever signed up so then we just need to tell them when Emma already uh did a it's scheduled well you can tell for yourself I scheduled a listening session with the mainstream middle school caregivers alliance or community alliance and that's scheduled for october 12th from 7 to 8 p.m and they're doing the outreach for that I did email all board members to invite you if you want to join um Jill I think you're the only other board member that has a student at mainstream middle school right now so I don't know if you have time availability that night feel free um if we end up having a quorum we'll just be very clear to not interact very much and sort of the model is to just receive feedback anywhere um however you're going to have a quorum you do need to warn it so I thought that if it was a listening session the whole board could be there just to listen for something right I thought that was discussed at the last because it's not a meeting we're not going to be making any decisions we're just listening to them so if people want to join um hit me up via email and I'll send you the link so um I think for the so I have three groups uh one is BIPOC group um that I'm going to do a listening session with and they're trying to organize the date right now I have a group with families of kids with IEP that are going to be organizing telling me the date and then there's a group that's going to start to meet around literacy staff that I'm going to ask them also to set up a date for us to have a listening session so those are kind of the focus groups that have been created but if you have I think if you if you have ideas I mean I send out the whole pocket with the flyers so you can just let us know when and I think that we have to kind of like move that forward in the next as much as we can and uh Kristen do you have any updates or there it is sure yeah uh Rat and I have been a two-person street team uh out here in Roxbury we uh did a kind of listening session on the front porch of the Roxbury country store last week um Rat attended a community potluck and was able to um just hear from some folks and then we also were at Roxbury Village School just this past Monday for three hours catching parents pick up both at the end of the school day and from after school pick up and just invited the community at large to come in and see us then um so yeah we've been hearing a mix of different things um a lot of positives and you know constructive feedback and yeah it's just been great to get out and see folks I think people have been just really delighted to see us and kind of see the effort and I think our hope is is that you know like we were talking about the last meeting if it just really comes part of like what we do and um you know show face that folks you know should something come up um we'll feel you know a sense of who we just know who we are and um you know in a sense of trust and um yeah so that's been really great and then I think we have one more we're going to be at the Roxbury Free Library on Saturday the 16th um so my question was too I know this was all kind of at least this initial push was to try to gather information from folks to get to you Libby by the 20th was that the date and is that just fine in like an email I don't know if you want it in any particular way? Kristen I did send out a form like the idea is to put all of this in one document together okay that I plan to put in as themes okay great so I did create a form that has like all the questions and like if you wanted to add anything else in there that would be helpful to have that build yeah happy to do that um so first of all I missed the meeting last time but first of all I just want to say thank you so much and I know this looks awesome it's really well organized and the form it's a great idea it's a great way to pull all this information together I love the look of the flyers as well um in terms of some of these different listening sessions all of them are full already if I see some that I want to jump in on should I just email board members directly all right great I also have a meeting with Matt McLean next week to discuss um ways to get student involvement both input on the budget cycle and also potential of recruiting one or two student board members so I have a thought meeting is on the calendar for next week awesome and can you ask me or can you ask me about the student groups because I know that last year when I was doing the community advising for RJA we wanted just kind of like the whole budget process but that we didn't spend what so yeah and then COVID happened but so that that could be something like they just wanted to know the budget and then a regular meeting of the student various student groups and then I had a question about money like the budget like so I wanted to make some of these flyers multi-lingual for some of the families um and I want to be able to and I want wanted to ask for mission to speak with the yellow department to see if they could help me organize a um a meeting with the multi-lingual families and for us to pay for the translation if needed so I can set up the Zoom with the multiple languages and then have the session so I wanted to ask if we have money for translation which I know and then if we had money to get some of the flyers so I can post them around time in the co-op and library and all of that um so that's what I had I can bring them up after coffee so we need to vote on that if we're taking them out of the fund balance to provide whether we have budget money the board has its own line in the budget yeah I so is that something we need to vote on do we need but very do we need an amount to think if that's the amount um I'm on a the budget would the money would be spent on translation services and printing you know what you're saying so I want to do an estimate that so the translation services for so right now because I just did that with the alias so I know that for the elementary school we have three languages that are requested to be translated there's seven or eight families that are not requested but that you might need it so like I just translated these little flyers for the meeting that we had um and I use it service but the the ones that we use for translation are like 45 dollars an hour for two then we did and these are local folks um but the translation of documents versus the the interpretation of the meeting is different rates yeah so I so first I need permission to talk to the ELL department just to come up with like okay what are the languages how much we're going to get and to see if we can get up a date so that they can request the languages so that I know to find the translators and to make sure that we can pay them that's one and so that's one thing and the other money it's like you know I don't know 40 bucks for printing uh capital copy yeah color copy so that our pictures can be seen no but um amanda we can do printing we can do color copies in our in our office okay not a problem for me for that I can send you though yeah yeah okay not a problem just tell me how many you need and then uh if you just write down the questions you have for the ELL team I can get those answered for you okay I so I wanted to work with them to come up with the focus group you're are you asking for their help in recruiting the families to because yeah they have the channel so I can understand the best way to do that is not yeah I can ask them what the best way they think they to do that is if you just write down some of those questions for me and send in an email I'd be happy to get that to them and they can they can give us some feedback on it okay great and then it sounds like the the question is just probably it's it's one it's translation of the flyer so it sounds like it if it's a flyer it's not going to take them an hour to do so we're probably talking about a hundred bucks at the most depending on the number of so I use I use and not I use just like this the fiber which is like this website that has independent contractors over the world for the US caregiver line and it was like five bucks for one little paragraph for language so like it was like 50 bucks but I'm not sure if it's district money if you have any if you are able to use like we cannot use it at this state for example so I don't know if you have any things that you cannot oh requirements yeah because these are people from the from the country so they you know so um so it's international but it's a US based website you know what I'm saying it's a network of independent contractors from all over the world that are in this website that is but it's paid through the US so it's a question we can use school district dollars to pay this website service exactly or is there some sort of restriction on or if not then the budget changes because then it's 45 the website and if it came in going to the contractor directly from the website to the website yeah that's the other as long as we're not using grant money that's not a problem okay so should we vote like approve up to $200 and then we'll see how it goes do you vote for $200? I don't think we need to vote for $200, let's do it and maybe can I get reimbursed or do I go through do I give you the whole thing you give us the easiest way to go about doing it and the cleanest with the auditors is for us to contract directly with them so we would we would do that work for you if you could just get it to us that would be great okay yeah I think it's about a money on things out of it okay I think that's a great idea and I appreciate you taking the initiative to set that up and I think it's something that we could potentially use in the future for other things too yeah absolutely great all right thank you on to policy monitoring I think the first up is E03 budget policy is that policy monitoring or is that well we've got we've got E01 and E02 on the first reading okay and E03 is the budget policy do I have a motion to approve the budget policy monitoring report? I move to approve the E03 budget policy monitoring report. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? No. All is in favor? All in favor. Any opposed? Second policy monitoring report is AL4 superintendent expectations. Do I have a motion to approve AL4 superintendent expectations? So we'll have a second. Second. Any discussion? I have a discussion I have a question. Yes. So maybe this is for Libby but in so in the section on the interpretation of employment compensation and treatment of staff the bullet point number three your interpretation is to hire the best possible people for our district but when reading the policy bullet point number three is quite lengthy and includes the superintendent will take meaningful steps to promote to promote diversity equity and inclusion in the hiring process so I'm just wondering if you could give us some input you know I think I read pretty thoroughly and just wasn't seeing anything on that in particular what the district has been doing to ensure you know best practices around recruitment for diversity equity inclusion. I think we're still learning on that and that's a that's a hard piece for everybody across Vermont and in school districts especially the agency of education has put together a task force and had a higher more diverse work staff which I was a part of last year along with floor from U32 the U32 board chair so I took a part in that and provided feedback and done some trainings on it we're also looking into a variety of different websites web based things that will help us that are specifically for BIPOC individuals to see jobs so we're posting specifically on those websites now wonderful um that's new that's very new um and we've also hooked up with a service from Keen State um most recently that they they now have a service and I apologize actually Heather Michaud is in the room so she might give us more information than what I do this is in her wheelhouse um but uh Heather found out through Keen State that they have a service that sends job postings out to colleges and universities across the U.S. to try to to try to target more uh more people and and get more interest in coming to Vermont. Heather do I have that right about Keen State? Yeah that's great so basically you can just pick every college some colleges have responded to say sorry you haven't been accepted to post here because we don't have an education degree so they they deny you to be the ability to post at that college. So that's really really great information to have and I mean this is such an intense policy and it's and like it just outlines how um in depth and extensive your job title is and how much is under your umbrella and seeing the four to five page monitoring report here you know I I hate to um ask for more but I just feel like because we have a great diversity equity and inclusion policy um and that's outlined here I I almost would like for your monitoring report to be reflective of everything that you you know at least touch on that piece of it um before it becomes part of public record because I think that it would benefit everyone to know what efforts are being made. Sure I mean I can I can tell you honestly the um I'm just purely be honest from this yeah probably just over I just overlooked that piece of the policy without meaning to just and just to get the monitor. Well that's what I'm saying like you are so busy that I do not blame you for overlooking a little piece of this and there's so much there's so much language in the policy too um there was one other question it says that the fault the hiring process basically will follow a process that allows for substantive input from parents and community members and I've just noticed when we're um approving like the hiring recommendations that typically those spots are left empty like where if there was parents on the committee or community members or students and so it's been sort of a lingering thought in the back of my mind like I'm not I've been on a couple of hiring committees with this district where there weren't any um students usually there's parents but I'm just not sure if they if if they're not listed because of like privacy reasons or something or if it's because of COVID that we haven't really been doing that piece. Yeah we haven't been inviting people in through COVID and we had a lot of hiring to do this past hiring season so uh and strapped for other reasons so it may have just not happened um past season uh students are often on teacher hiring committees especially at the high school so um they may just be left off just the principals think not to put them on the hiring sheet um because that's a that's a pretty common practice unless we're like moving very quickly you know and don't have a lot of time um so you know so for instance our health teacher who we went through the hiring process with like in the winter last year there was a middle school student and a high school student on that committee and I'm not sure if that went through um with parents it's probably COVID related for the past couple you couple years but again it also depends on the timing and how quickly we need to move in the hiring class. And I'm going to slow this on the course teacher. Right yeah I mean so so I don't know what the next step is but personally I would like to see potentially a different interpretation of that bullet point and then some more evidence to speak to those things is what I would be asking for and I don't know if that means that we need to pull it in both for at a different meeting or if other people disagree that is totally fine. So I had a question regarding the evidence on the employment compensation and treatment of staff and the here's uh in the first paragraph that that descent in direction of understanding of the contract has been ruled to the attention of the superintendent multiple occasions it just doesn't give me enough information to and then it says there's no discrimination like two different things and I don't know how that paragraph is related to yeah I just I don't understand it. So can you ask a specific question? Yeah so like what does it mean when it's descent in direction or understand that contract has been brought to the attention of the superintendent of multiple occasions? Yeah so I have a monthly union meeting with union leadership from our instructional assistants and our teachers and when there's problems with contractual problems or climate or culture problems then we have a very open conversation about that and try to problem solve together around what we can do differently and do better so and I meet with Carolyn Canari quite honestly who's the president of the teachers union nearly daily. She's she's always in my office talking with me and we're working together so that's what that means is that we have a very open communication when there's any kind of problems. Our principals also have either bi-monthly or monthly meetings with union leadership as well in the individual schools. Okay okay and then the last point is I know that in the last we had this conversation before this is the evidence around sorry my eyes don't work I have a doctor's appointment so so I can see with the mask and that's one. The communication and support of the board is that last paragraph around the superintendent board chair have conversations when the board may be out of compliance. I just feel like we've had this conversation and we let it go from the last policy and I would like to see a little more transparency about how conflict gets deal with before it gets into the public record and I think that's a conversation that you know I've brought up before about you know just like how do we deal with conflict and how do we deal with this disagreement before just like being put into a document like this so that I feel like we haven't really had a conversation we kind of left that conflict in there and then moved on and I was back in here in this document so there's a thing about people being in groups and so I don't really understand what that means regarding the proper procedures for email and participation in groups and just like I just want to have some clarity around that. So as part of this policy it says it's the superintendent's responsibility to bring items that could be construed as breaking board member protocols and what we've done in the past and Jim you can step in is that I would bring that to Jim and we discuss it and Jim would decide whether or not to bring that to a larger to the larger board or to individual board members to speak to being the chair of the board. What I'm going to say is that this is this could be a moment to revisit what we an effort we started underway I think early summer as a board to figure out how we work through disagreements and conflict. Yeah we are still in coordination with Carol about putting together a training on that she's just been slow. Where's Carol from? She's uh yes. Oh okay. Yeah. So she's putting together a proposal that she's been slow. Okay. So I think it's yeah I'm sure it's good to talk. Yeah I will second sort of just the concern about you know when earlier when Rhett said you know all I'm asking is if people see that I'm doing something wrong to please be honest with me and come to me and talk to me and that definitely rings true to me. I know that I did something in an email I wrote an email that I felt was coming from my position as a parent and as a member of the graduation committee at the mainstream middle school and I wrote an email to the principal and that that action was then brought to my attention many weeks later in a policy monitoring report and I never heard about it prior to that. So I think that that's just poor communication it's breakdown in communication. I will second the sentiment of Rhett that I just want to hear from people. I don't want to be blindsided in a public document that will be part of public record about something that I did that was interpreted to be in non-compliance of a policy. So I just and I think that the breakdown in communication to be fair was that Jim never spoke to me about it after Libby spoke to Jim about it. So that's where I've landed is that you know it's part of the chair's duty. Libby was following her communication protocols and communicating her interpretation of my actions to our board chair and then the board chair did not communicate that to me so prior to me reading about it in the policy monitoring report. So I mean I think we just need to look inward and improve our practices you know as a board and I think definitely meeting with somebody from the community justice center around conflict resolution would be a great first step. Yeah and I totally know that mistake and that was a miscommunication failure on my part. And this does not this sentence does not say the same thing that was in the other policy monitoring report. So now we're talking about participation in groups on social media which is not anything that I have heard of and it may not be about me or my actions this time. But I mean I mean that is the point is like what I see in a policy monitoring report should reflect like the bigger picture right like these to me is like these little things that were conflict that they didn't put around like we're not writing about conflicts with the union the same way or we're not writing for conflicts with students you know like that's not that should not be the practice for the policy monitoring reports unless like there was something like really big feel like these are like communication issues that are not so I I mean I just want to throw that out there I know that we have a process coming from you know with the proposal with the community justice center about like how we can be together so I just want to solve it and put it out there and you know I don't you know want to share more things about it but I wanted to be honest about the way that I felt about that and how it was inconclusive that's a question. Yeah no absolutely. I feel like I need to just balance out that I also don't think the superintendent expectations fully capture the huge responsibility that Libby and our administration has had to take on during the current crisis which is now in its third school year and that the above and beyond and being sort of the voice of calm and and rational thought in dealing with this ongoing and changing pandemic even when it's lacking other places has been very much appreciated and I I can't imagine that everything you do is ever captured in an expectation for a position like yours I don't know when you sleep or eat but I just feel really compelled to acknowledge as we continue this and it has not gotten any easier as we go month by month that that also was not probably in the job description to the level that you have taken on on the state level and I really appreciate it. Absolutely. And in these policy monitoring reports are something that this is not required by law this is something that Libby's doing to keep us informed and honestly this type of conversation I feel like is is is part of the value of this exercise as well. I have a couple other questions about the monitor. Libby does. Let's do try to stay on track so I know Libby it's a long day. The under treatment and communication with parents one of the interpretations you have is to ensure the culture and climate of the district responds to the concerns brought forward to us. Could you just say a little bit more about what you mean by that? I think that we're when parents are very angry about something often it's you're treating you're treating me or you're treating my child in a way that the district doesn't map doesn't value. They may not say it in those words but often that's that's what we hear right or that's that's how we should be interpreting it and one piece that I've certainly learned in my four years going on four years here is to truly nobody nobody in my administration or my staff wants kids to not feel good about themselves when they enter the building and so when that happens it's our job to apologize right and to try to figure out how to fix it and I think that's what I was trying to get at that's not an incredibly articulate way of saying it but in any communication with a parent that we have particularly from the administrative lens we want to really be thinking beyond what the words might be on the page what is this parent feeling or what is their child feeling and how can we make that different how can we make that better we're not always successful but that that certainly school should be the most welcoming place for the children in our communities and and our communication matters with that right so that's what I think I'm trying to get at there maybe not the most articulately but yeah thank you and then just one other question which is and that makes a lot of sense so thanks for expanding on that and then one other was I forget which category it went under but one piece of evidence is that you that you noted was that you meet with faculty throughout the year and we hear a lot about you meeting with union reps and etc but what I interpreted that was like like the the the faculty you would that aren't necessarily you interact with as a you know part of the job description of course now I'm not being articulate I guess my question is what are some examples of outside of you know meeting with union reps what are some examples of what that looks like when you meet with faculty throughout the year so we have actually one gift I was given when I took this job on was that there was already district days built into our calendar like district staff meeting days they actually used to be when I when I took over once a month and and we didn't continue that practice for many for a variety reasons mainly because we wanted the school work to be so focused and needed more time there but about four to five times a year we still have those district days we largely focus in on equity work in the last two years around it but it also it was a gift for me to be able to be in front of them and they could hear me often right and more than just emails and and that kind of thing and here what I had to say and you know there was one one time mid-year of my first year where I realized that they didn't know like I never told my story to them so we took a faculty meeting for me to tell my story of why I am where I am and what I believe in and allowed the entire faculty to ask any question they wanted you know so there's there's times like that there's also you know because of COVID and the response we've done a ton of internal community forums where teachers asked me any question regarding what's happening in the COVID context mainly and if I don't know the answer then I get back to them really quick with whatever answer we can find so there's multiple times in multiple ways in which I do that I write the faculty email every week and sometimes it's a real big cheerleading email and sometimes it's a hey this week kind of stank the email and sometimes it's it's just a meme you know like so it so there's multiple ways that I they reach out to the faculty and and talk with them um so that they know that I'm not just a figurehead at the in the central office but that that I'm a person who cares a whole lot about them and and works with them you know great thanks um this is there's some questions about this do we want to table this and have Olivia fill in a couple more answers that would be what I would ask for but I mean it sounded like specifically you were just asking for a little bit more detail around the hiring for diversity equity and inclusion was I think and the parent development and hiring yeah that one bullet point and just to get provide I think maybe revisit your interpretation of it just for the record and and then provide more detail in the event section about that we could just go to the meeting minutes we could watch them I can help just um yeah you I think you said it tonight and that I just think that should be reflected in the breath but if other people are ready to move it forward as it's been we can discuss that I mean I'm okay tabling it um okay otherwise does anybody want to push to a vote I make a motion to say what yeah who made the original motion I think I did want to stable your motion I think you can give the power okay excellent so it's um we can include that on next week's agenda um two weeks right yeah the next meeting's agenda is what I'm going to say um which is two weeks away uh so we have three well we have two second first readings and one first first reading of policy um readings just for context the reason that we have a we are re first reading yo one and yo two is because um the the wrong document's got included in the package last time so we included the right ones with the proper uh red line language uh and then the animal that section policy is um is just up to three rules so it's the same same policies we have the same exact language and the only thing that we discussed at the policy main thing that we discussed at the policy committee was to ask for procedure which we already asked for at the last meeting ask for procedure to be typed up and included on our website next to the policy so can could I make a motion to move all three forward yes please do move to the second reading is that how this works yes okay does does anybody have a question about any of the policies yeah well it's gonna do that after we got a motion to oh what's the order here motion to approve then yeah okay I second the motion discussion any questions discussion didn't have a question both the finance fiscal management there's a line in there did you read or I know you had some back and forth of graphs so I got your question answered yeah there was a piece about I was curious about the um the language that there would be two percent on let me hold this up maintain a minimum amount of funds and yeah of two percent yeah yeah where where does that I guess I didn't identify where it goes so what that means is that it's what we call fund balance it's the balance that we keep in the funds like say you had you you calculated your annual spending for your household you'd set what this would be what would be I'm just giving you an example as it pertains to your household spending and for members of the public you'd take two percent of your annual household spending so say your household spends $50,000 annually you would take two percent of that which is $1,000 and make sure that you always had that in a savings account so that if something unexpected came up you'd have a $1,000 there to spend on that that's that's what this two percent represents for our budget and we've had a bit more than that in recent years which has been helpful for extraordinary situations related to COVID-19 like we didn't have the bad nigh about equipping all of our students with computers when kids went into a remote setting other districts were not in the same financial situation did not have that type of flexibility so that's just an example of why we have those funds it's like a it's like a rainy day yeah okay I just was not fully understanding but I I I think I made a suggestion that I retract um because it sounds like at least two percent would be I mean just it's fine the way it is you know um but it's I just I was concerned about there's a lot of mistrust and if someone were to interpret something as to be withheld from the kids and not fully understand it's a rainy day fund and there are going to be problems and and it's going to be used in those cases um it just helps me explain things to to people when my little cynical mind reads something and and it's it's not the mind I generally use but I talk to it I guess so so red for for a comparison the education fund which is what we get our largest amount of revenue from at our district a statewide education fund uh the legislature um I believe it's in statute uh has a five percent they take five percent of that fund and that amount of spending and make sure that that's available as a reserve and in the middle of COVID-19 or really kind of like once COVID-19 hit and we had a lot of businesses closed sales and use tax 100 percent of our sales and use tax goes into the education fund and those revenues dipped off and meals and rooms tax 25 percent of those revenues dipped off so the legislature took that reserve fund and used it to make sure that schools were able to to stay open pay for all their services that was drained but the economy bounced back really quickly because there was a large injection of federal funds and promoted very well in terms of weathering this economically and so that reserve fund was replenished last fiscal year so just as an example you know the legislature keeps an even larger reserve to help schools and it was used just in the past couple of years okay and um those these types of questions can just be asked in the committee meeting I can get clarifications in committee meetings once I start that that'll be a better maybe a better use of our time I don't I'm really cognizant of the time um and trying to get squared away in an efficient way so I appreciate it thank you Andrew well can I it's really really important that the questions that you have are questions that people and the public will also have so don't I think that it's really important I think that's something now this one is back to the policy committee right is this my understanding yeah uh no it just stays here yeah we can we will just schedule it for another reading for another reading okay we'll talk about it right like the process procedurally it's important for everyone to know that this is going to go back to the policy committee and then go to come back to the full board for a second reading and then back to the policy committee and then back to the board for a third reading so the way that it used to work was if we only go back to the policy doesn't go back to the policy if the board referred it back like if the board was like we need to do more work on this this board member has this concern this board member would like to see this change yeah board agrees let's send this back to the policy committee let's make these changes let's give this a little more thought okay but unless we refer back it stays here but it will still be at two more meetings yep yes in front of us to discuss and field public comment and questions so we have lots of time with these policies exactly it just gives time so it's out there so we yeah for instance yeah that's what I brought up my point about not meeting to read first read because the reason you have three readings is so you can catch mistakes like that like oh like this should have been changed or oh someone has a suggestion yeah so it you know it was fine that we did it that way but the idea is to keep it out there so people you know read it one of the three times um at least and catch any you know catch any you know errors or commit comments I wonder if we could have a make it a point to put in front porch forum um and on the front of Facebook like every time when I have a policy reading just because no it doesn't show and I think like those would be good stuff with like I mean I think it would be great for a board member to do that and any board member I already volunteered and I did the first four opposed to this week but I didn't mention policies I mentioned the the central Vermont career center and then pretty much like 30 minutes after I had said that I was like well and we should talk about that at the last meeting about just maybe posting the agendas can you link yes yeah I put a link to the agenda I just in my narrative to draw people in yeah yeah my yes exactly the marketing I was doing I said I focused on central Vermont career center next time I will okay thank you so I can't say con do you want to just send me what you're writing and I'll just put it on the Facebook friends up in the failure I can do both okay I know it's just as easy great great and in rep with this particular policy this one and we're planning to do this with different policies that fall within the jurisdiction of different committees so like our equity policy will go to our equity committee these policies both went to our finance committee we reviewed them at our last finance committee meeting we discussed them with grant then we sent them back over to the policy committee policy committee reviewed them and then they came to the board okay so I'm just a little behind I'll catch up you're doing great yeah no you're definitely doing great so did we vote on we haven't voted yet to move them to second reading we're still in discussion aren't we we have a motion and a second and we're in discussion we're in discussion yes any other discussion or question otherwise we can vote let's vote that's there all those in favor hi many opposed we will move on to a second reading I need a motion to go and do executive session person for purpose on personnel discussion and okay do we need no we don't need the magic words we just need just need okay I move that we enter into executive session for the purposes of personnel discussion um discussing the personnel matter I second all those in favor all right you have a volunteer to bring a Libby head in with us and I guess all we need is one person to bring their computer and to log in to zoom and then I can put that person a breakout session with me