 your attention. The meeting is called to order. Guests, welcome, and thank you. I understand that some of you are actually going to be taking this summer tour. That's terrific. And I would invite any of the, any of those guests who are here who did not know that we were going on a tour for the first, sort of, probably could take up to a half an hour. I would invite you to join us and you would be able to, to see what we see and talk with us and or talk with the students and experience what we experience. So in any event, we have under agenda revisions, we've got a pretty action packed agenda as it is. Are there any revisions that anybody has to propose? No? Good. All right. Then we'll stick with what we've got and if something crops up then we'll deal with it. Now, public comments. Are there any general public comments? Vera, welcome. Any general public comments that anyone would like to share before we head off to explore? On the agenda items, there will be opportunity for, for the public to comment as we go along. I have heard from some members of the public and in particular, the issue of lunch and the cost of lunch has been raised. And I mean, I could probably say that to add to our ever lengthening list of future agenda items. You mean the cost is too high? There's a perception, it seems, that we're heading kind of to that point. What is the cost of lunch? $4. For kids at all the schools? Yes. A few board members had asked us to investigate the possibility or what fees would be for the district additional cost would be required to subsidize the entire program. And I've already spoken with Laurie about that and we intended to discuss it with our finance committee. So we can bring it back to the board next time. That sounds like a good way to proceed. How much were they last year? It was different across all the schools and we normalized it to level it out. Okay, in that case, let's set out and embark on our tour. We need three groups and so I know the easiest system is to count off one, two, three. And then we will have our groups back soon so it will be a pair of students that are going to take us on a tour of the middle school. Fantastic. We're in your hands, Stephen, if you want to have us count off. Vera, can you start us off? One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. Just be kind of one, though. Okay, great. Alright, so you guys go home and do your homework. Yeah, we were just talking about how this was the high point in the meeting. It's hard to... No. Yeah, I guess, Feeny, do you have anything further, Stephen, under agenda item 2.1? I did want to just share the quick updates on some of the things that are having here at U32, since you're here at U32. But also a big shout out to the students worldwide by Amy Molina to do the tours and so that was a big shout out for her to get those kids. That was a terrific idea. Well, they say it's so much better than we do. I just wanted to let the Board and the public know that this summer we had our first summer school in a very long time. I know that some of you were able to come and see the presentations. It was really designed to help a few students meet some proficiencies that they may not otherwise have been able to meet or had schedules that made it difficult for them to meet those proficiencies. And we really saw our bulk of students were in science, math, financial literacy, and then one student in health as well. And we really feel like we learned a lot about summer school and how we might want to organize it more in the future. It was a small number of kids. There were only 14 students that were a part of it. And it was really a part of some professional development that our teachers did in project-based learning as well. And so it was a nice tie-in for that. I appreciate those of you who were able to make it and see the presentation from the kids. But as you saw, the project was built around our greenhouse and hopefully got a little information to the Board. I think it's something that our horticulture class is really going to look at now as to how can they take some of those ideas and expand upon them and maybe do some more, as well as our accounting class actually might be doing some work as well on that. So some nice segues from the summer to the work that they're doing now in the class. And then I also wanted to just report. We had three major capital projects here this summer. We did the hood in the kitchen, had to be replaced because it was not up to code and we couldn't have used the kitchen this year without it being replaced. We had extensive renovations to the elevator that was in our, that's from the atrium to the both middle school and up to the second floor. That elevator had to be renovated. And then as you can probably still see, the track is still under construction, although it is only awaiting its final surface. And so there's a cure time that has to happen on asphalt before you can adhere a track to it. And that company should be here Monday. They're saying that they'll be here to start putting down the final surface on the track, and that will take us through to the first part of October to get all of that completed line-striping and have the track released to us at that point in time. So that was the big project of the summer that's still kind of lingering over us. And so those were some of the big things that were here at U-30s. Thank you. Stephen, can anyone be on the track? No, do not get on the track right now. So they quite literally washed it last week with Dawn, the dishwasher soap, in the pressure sprayer because it removes oils really well, apparently. And that's what they're trying to get off of the track, and that's the cure time. So please do not go on it. We're stepping across the big fence with signs that say do not cross. We've had to throw a few people. Yeah. How's that working with students? No, it's more adult students. Yes. Any questions for Stephen? Are you going to do summer school again next year? It remains to be seen. It's a funding issue at this point just to see how we want to fund it and what we want to do. I'm sure that we would have a higher interest in kids, and we would probably have... We have a better understanding of what we need to do to organize it so that we get more kids and more teachers involved. Were the students self-selected? Yes. There was certainly some nudging. I think that's a great word of some students. But I would say that financial literacy is a really good example of a group of students who are primarily at our tech center, the career center. Their schedule doesn't necessarily allow to get that class, and that's a requirement that's unique to U32. Other schools don't necessarily have a financial literacy graduation requirement, so that additional class sometimes creates problems in their limited schedule. For those students, it meant that they were able to do more at the career center next year as a result of being able to take classes summer. So that was a really positive thing. Thank you. Anyone else? So were these mostly high school? All high school. Are you growing the herbs? We've got a few growing, and we did a big harvest of basil for pesto, so that was a good move for us. And garlic, actually. Wasn't there one of the students who discovered that locally sourced herbs of some sort, I forget which herb it was, could be procured much more cheaply than from wherever it was coming from. So I think even broader than that was that we identified that all the herbs in our kitchen were coming from California. And so from a sustainability standpoint, that's not necessarily the best thing for us, and herbs are probably one of the easier things for us to grow in the garden for the needs that we had. And so their first recommendation is that we probably look at how we can provide just the herbs for our cafeteria through our greenhouse. All year long. Yeah, one of the things we're worried about is not being able to grow basil all year round, which we all know you can't do in Vermont. And then they found out from Brian Food Service that all he does is make pesto out of it. So they're like, oh, well then we can grow a lot of basil at once and process it all up. And so that was by far the number one herb. We apparently procure about 80 pounds of basil a year. So it was great. Yeah, it's really good. It was nice to see. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Hi. I just wanted to give you a few highlights from my report. Welcome everyone. That was a very, very worthwhile tour. Please thank Amy for us, Stephen, for organizing that. We had a very good week of in-service sessions, including three days in the schools and one day at the district-wide celebration. For the entire week, our theme was unification. And we were also focusing on reintroduction and self-assessment on our Washington Central implementation plan. From that, as I think you may recall from our last meeting, when you saw some evidence of that at Calis, next week our administrative team is going to be coming together to review the results of that self-assessment. And we'll make some decisions about how we wish to proceed in terms of setting goals and plans to improve the work that's happening at this point in time. If you recall, that is a five-year plan, which is going to be continuing through 2021. So we're just about midway through the process of implementation right now. I want to make a few comments and also thanks to both Floor and Scott for having the time and being able to attend the in-service session on the 22nd. That day we honored many people and it was really quite exciting and engaging for the staff. In particular, I wanted to publicly comment about our two teachers of the year who are going to be honored next month. Ben Weiss from Rowland Memorial School and Christina Martin from U32 Social Studies teacher here. And additionally, as you can see in my notes, we had hundreds, literally hundreds of staff members involved in the summer and in the prior year in various teacher-led or teacher-involved activities, which is again a testament to the wonderful culture of collaboration that we have built here over many years. So we wanted to thank all of our staff for their hard work. The first week of school went extremely well and following that strong start, as I mentioned in my report, I was able to personally visit every classroom in the district, even if it was just for a few moments. But I wanted to greet each teacher and the students and I could see already that we were off to a very strong start. Our schools were extremely clean and well maintained and ready to go for our students. Also, we were able to calculate our enrollment, so as of just after the start of the school year, our enrollment is 1602, which is 11 more than last year in October of this year. So that is helpful information. You can see how it breaks down. There were mostly gains in our schools and that's a wonderful thing to see when we're in an era of declining enrollment. There's a quick board committee update and our finance committee is meeting monthly and they'll be meeting next week. The initial meeting, our negotiations committee, we are yet to finalize the schedule that we intend to bring together for one meeting, including the board members and our external members. To just review our processes and get prepared for the start of the school year. And finally, in follow-up to our last meeting, we were able to secure front porch form access for all of our board members. So I hope I know that that's something that you have the opportunity to access to be able to look at the form in all towns. And then where you live, of course, you can participate, that's how they get set up. Anyone have a chance to try it out yet to see if your access works? Not yet. If there are any problems, let us know and we'll be sure to resolve that for you. So a great start to the school year. Very, very good. Thank you. Any questions for Debra? I'm pretty impressed you got in every classroom. For the first day of school. Was that on the first day? That was the first day. First day, every classroom. And then I visited weekly. I think that's really important. Absolutely. I appreciate it. Well, we're here because of our students. That's where I need to be. Great. Any other questions for Debra? Wonderful. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Now 2.3 leadership team reports. How do you want to have this go? Well, let's see. We have put together a collaborative report. Which I must say I like very much. And it's very comprehensive and easy to process. I think we could, would you like the individuals to make a few comments? Or do you want to take a moment to review and ask questions? Either way would work fine for us. I think we also want to create a feedback for you all about if we hit the right elements. Or you felt like you got highlighted in the school. Yeah. I can tell you certainly my sense is that you hit the right elements. And as I was reading through it, I was trying to think, what else would I like to know that they're not telling me? And last, I couldn't think of anything. I will, maybe, at some point. I guess just in, if I may, just in general, your sense of how things are starting out this year. I feel a bit. Is that a question? That's a question that I have just logged in this morning. Things that you do. Yeah, exactly. But maybe I can start with you, Kat. I feel like this year is really exciting. I've been really excited by the fact that we've got, what feels like for Cal is our little small school, like an influx of students. But some are coming with some challenges that you don't get to anticipate if you don't get a lot of notice in advance. So there's a bit of scramble to think about how to meet all those students' needs. What I just adore about my staff and my colleagues that I get to reach out to is the sense that the students and their needs and getting that met in a way that meets them where they're at, that we're all on that same path. And we're very much in alignment with that sense of priority. So that feels great. Yeah, I think that, as Deborah mentioned, the in-service days really started us off on the right foot. One of the activities that you read about that we did is around the self-care and the adults taking care of themselves and trying to continue that practice as we move into this school year. I think this is going to be really important. If we don't take care of ourselves, we can't take care of the students. And I think the feedback we got around that was really positive. Stephen, I don't mind hearing from you again if you have something. Well, I would say that the opening of school this year, we made an effort last year to change some of the way we structured the beginning of school. We had a group of teachers and some students who came together to say, we felt really rushed in the way that we used to open school because we were trying to get every class in the first day. And we really scaled that back. And it has made such a difference. It feels like instead of trying to hit the ground and run as fast as we can, it's like jumping off of a moving train almost, right? But it really, it's much smoother now. We have some time built in for some reflection to make sure that everything gets taken care of at the beginning of the year. We do picture day, and I've always done picture day, right? At the beginning of the school year, which is unusual for schools. In most schools, you know, there's that whole piece. It works so wonderfully at U32 in the way that we structure our opening day so that we get that taken care of. And I would say that self-care in reducing the stress at the beginning of the school year, it really helps with that. And so I really commend that group for kind of sticking themselves out there and trying something new with the way that we start school. And this year really showed that it's working in it. We just made a few modifications, so it was nice. Excellent. Great. Doty is off to a swimmingly good start. Recognizing that there's lots of stuff that I don't know. My staff has been very patient with reminding me that no gillian you have to take was Andrew Walkidockia, a recess student. So I get out there and do it. So really good energy people really liked starting. I said I really liked starting in service days at Doty. They were able to say it felt like coming home and sort of reconnecting with family before going and doing the U32 thing. So I'm like stepping into it really nicely. We're focusing on two major, I guess I'll call them initiatives this year, of sort of doing a reboot and recommitment to our discipline process, teaching students pathways to self-control. And we're looking at tightening up and streamlining our MTSS process. And I honestly could not be happier that I have joined the Doty family. I'm enraptured. Very nice. I just have to follow. I would say things in Romney are going really, really well. We had a great week with faculty and staff during the service, which seems like so long ago now, but we really set a tone of focusing on creating a climate culture that's supportive and inclusive and that's definitely carried into our first week and a half with students. Feedback has been positive from kids, from faculty and staff, from families as well. So I think there's a pretty good feeling walking through the hallways and hearing good things about that. We're not focusing really on any new initiatives. It's on doing what we've been doing, doing it well and tightening bit by bit. And I think that's been helpful for faculty and staff that we don't have new additional things that we're taking on. That's great. Thanks, Casey. How about you? How do you like it? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I did know about opening the school. It was very smooth or super lens. Everyone energized and just feeling like they can get back into the flow pretty naturally. We had two new teacher staff that settled in very nicely. I felt very supported. But definitely I'll echo the feedback about the insert this week and just having some time in the building, the work that we did together at our SU day. So just really good positive feedback about that. We're just feeling like everybody was ready to go on their first day. So really good opening. Our big focus this year is the unique into the math program and ensuring that we're implementing math. We have had, I don't know if it would be lowest, but in terms of our math scores, we have done very well. So that's a focus for us that we need forward. And I'll comment too about our monthly admin reports. We have templates for each month and we tried to highlight different things each month. So this month hiring and summer work, so next month might be something else that might be more for the season. Yeah, and do you all sort of figure it out amongst yourselves? Erin set up the template. We generated these topics at the retreat this summer. Next month you're thinking about pushing a good talk about it. Maybe you'll see next month. Great, great. So Lori, I kind of jumped over you just so that I could get to the schools first. I have all kinds of stuff to add. So I wanted to let you know that we met the board's goal of having the report in with the email. Penny Sandbell, who does Account Spable, should get recognition for that. If you saw the actual backup, it is clearly this thick, just for this check room. And then the second piece is I promised that everyone would get paid this week and they are thanks to Carla Mosier and Virginia Breer. It was a long journey, but everything's up and running and the paycheck is in direct deposit right here right now. So I just wanted to recognize all of that. I know, take that off. Wow, wonderful. Thank you very much. Bill, Kelly? I feel like I've just been supporting all that you've just heard about. I think that busy in schools, helping folks problem solve new kids that were surprises that have some high level of need. Staffing issues that are coming up, right, with new kids sometimes comes staffing. So I've been working with principals and trying to figure that stuff out. And gearing up to start SERSLAND. Yeah, right. I would echo that. I think Kelly and I keep an eye on our more vulnerable population. And for me at U32, that definitely means looking at that transition from elementary school to seventh grade and keeping a VIP list, so to speak, making sure that we're wrapping around some of those kids. And also I would suggest from the eighth to ninth grade here is critical and understanding that that transition to a transcript that will follow a kid is super important and wrapping around them as well. Do you feel like you're able to stay on top of it? Yeah, I feel in a much better place. As you know, I came to this position kind of a circuitous route. But I really feel like I'm hitting my stride. Pete? Sure. And I guess I'll echo what Kelly said. A lot of my work is supporting the work that everybody else is doing. We had a pretty good start to the school year. We've been down two staff members since late July, and we are close to hiring for both of those positions, I hope. But Craig and Mike deserve a lot of credit for helping us get everything off the ground, being so short staffed. They put a lot of hours to make sure everything was smooth. Are you guys being included in the self-care thing? No, we should do some self-care. Next month. Yeah. So one of the things that we did was we changed the way that Chromebooks were distributed at high school, which made a big difference because we didn't have to do, so we were saying it wasn't this big crazy thing where we were at the cafeteria for half an A handing out Chromebooks. We were all in the rooms, they were ready to go. We had a chance to work on the room in the summer and roll it out. And then we had this whole big crazy thing happening in our first week of school. So we're trying to do more of that sort of work this year and try to be more strategic. Try to find places where we can be more efficient and more effective. I just said it all. I got to on the first two days of school because we start 10, 11 and 12 on Monday here and then 7, 8 and 9 on Tuesday here. On the opposite days, I trained some students for started practice panels. So I got to see some of our high school students on the first day, now the second day. And I got to see our middle school students and got to train 10 students to join our panel. So we now have a 7-student middle school panel and a 7-student high school panel. Wow, great. So that's exciting. Excellent. Do any colleagues have questions for leadership team? I was going to comment. I loved our report. I really liked the upcoming events. I did too. I liked the games too. Yeah. I'm glad that you said it. I'm hoping to see you at the next meeting more about your support. You know, either professional development or sort of get a better idea of what you have at the large schools. I have a couple of questions that I think will be evergreen. I'll probably ask them every time I get a chance to see all of you. The first one would be in your contacts and conversations with parents in the community. Is there anything that you've heard, any concerns, anything that sort of rises to the board to the district level of things that we should be thinking about that we're not already? Even if we are already. Even if we are? Yeah. So I guess the second question would be as we're moving forward here as one board. Yes, Laura, this is mostly for you, but how are things different? How has the process of getting the years started been different in this, you know, governance structure? Any additional challenges? Anything smooth or anything streamlined? Short question, but a long answer. Yeah. So I think just in summary, things are different is if a substitute works in multiple schools, they'll get one paycheck. What else is different is having only one treasurer is streamlining a lot of the communications. Could, after more thought, probably respond a little bit more coherently. And then after a month or two, it'll be clear what, you know, startup always takes time. Yeah, yeah. But once you get this system going, you know, how does that go? Right, but for the principals and the leadership team, people in the classrooms and the schools? Well, I think for Dirty Remnant Calus and Berlin, one thing, I got the notice like, oh, Gillian, what are we doing about soccer? And I went, I don't know. So, but I think with the, you know, with the really unified mentality, what we were able to do, at least not failure, it's not that they don't want to play, it's that their rec committee handles it for them, as we were able to come together and problem solve, and are working to hire an athletic director for the elementary schools who takes care of all the coordination for us so that we don't have five schools making five schedules doing five different things. So I think that we're really, I think this is a really great example of how this is really freeing us up to think as we're not just, we're one elementary school that just happens to be in five places, I think, what I would say. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for soccer. You'll have your form tomorrow. That was great. And I would say an answer to your first question, Jonas. One of the things that we consistently hear, and I think this is universal, is the communication, you know, that just people want to hear more and know more and learn more. I mean, we just, that's, I don't know that there's any amount of communication that will be enough, but it's always one of those issues that we try to strive to improve that and increase that. And I know that for some of our events, hearing from parents, they're like, oh, I felt like I knew what was going on. I knew where to be and all of that. That's always a good feeling, but for every one of those, we have two or three that are like, well, I didn't know enough. I wish I'd gotten more information that's just trying to figure out what medium works best for people. Thank you guys. Anyone else? We're good? All right. Let's move on then to the consent agenda. Approve the minutes of August 21st. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes of August 21st? I will move to approve the minutes of August 21st. Thank you, Jonas. Second? A second. Shall I add a second? Very good. Any changes? Anything that needs to be altered? They're fine to me. They're fine to me. Thank you, Lisa. You're welcome. Everybody's okay? All right. In that case, all in favor of approving the minutes of August 21st, 2019, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed? Okay, very good. So, moving on to board, organization, and finally, go on. Oh, sorry. Is there someone on page N? Yes. I think so. It looks like it says 80, almost 13. Yeah, I'm just trying to read that. Oh. So, even though it wasn't there, I moved to an N. So, that's August 21st. Yes, this is a typographical error. So, that can be corrected without any particular board action. Okay, yes. What does it say, then? It says 813 versus 821. Absolutely fine. Okay, good. So, we're on 4.1, the annual meeting date. So, the documentation is on page 15 of the agenda package. And so, this is a continuation of a discussion that we started in Calis a couple weeks ago when we weren't sure as to, or at least, I felt I had this nagging suspicion that we had done something with that, but I couldn't remember what. And it turned out that. That's correct. Amazingly to knowing more than myself. So, then, now what? So, in your organizational meeting on April 8th, you did vote to have your annual town meeting to be held on Town Meeting Day. And that means that I will need to coordinate with the town clerks as to how that meeting will be held. Because, of course, as you know, that is the date that Towns also held their individual meetings. I did reach out to, I spoke with the three board members who were there, and I also reached out to the board's attorney just to say, well, if the board wanted to change that date, how would they go about it? And, first of all, there was some general recollection that the intention might have been to hold this meeting sometime during the four days that are permitted to have town meetings. But that's not exactly how the motion was boarded, specifically stated on Town Meeting Day. Our attorney advised that, in order to change it, we would actually have to do so on a warrant article, which could be done at town meeting on the coming one. So there's a couple of options when we could vote early to try to change it, which would be a special meeting or a special election, perhaps in November, or wait until March, and just accommodate our town's meeting schedules and hold it perhaps early in the morning for that one day. So that is the general information that you see summarized here, and if you have time to think about it, if you wish to try to make a change, if there's a strong desire to move to another date, we have to give 30 dates of this to the voters about an article that they will vote on and the first week in November when our elections are for other offices that are coming up. So that might be one option. But I do have a meeting coming up with our town clerks, as you noticed, in my report. So I'll be more than happy to work with them about all my schedules, and I could report back to the board about the feasibility of running our annual meeting on the same day as town meeting. So it's up to you all how you'd like to proceed. Okay, thank you. Question? How long do I anticipate this annual meeting being? There's very little business to conduct. You essentially have four reports. We elect officers for the board, which are the clerk and the treasurer and the moderator, and that's something else if you wish to change to Australian ballot, you could ask the voters to give permission to change and give report about the budget. But because of the day that people are voting, I would imagine that maybe some people may have voted or they're on their way to vote. So we hope that we'll be able to run informational sessions in advance of town meeting day to accommodate that request. So it could be anywhere from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. It could be very brief. It depends on interactions and questions that make a lot for both of you. So the annual meeting is not... Sorry. We had asked the question about... Did we find out that we both... I had the vague regulation that in our towns we voted for at least the clerk already so that Mary was already not... I did ask the question. In your reorganization meeting, you talked about questions and board of school directors, but you didn't address officers as being by Australian ballot. That's what our attorney advised us. We would just have to ask the voters if they'd agree to move those positions to Australian ballot if the board chose to do that. And the budget will be on Australian ballot on town these days. So there's the added complication of having to have the informational meeting within 10 days of the annual meeting and the complication is that February break is right there. Some parts use the night before town meeting for informational and annual meeting for the week prior, which is a little more complicated for us because that's a school break week and many families might not be available or in town. But that would be a future date. We'd have to look at changing it. Before we go to the public, any other board members? Candidates for board positions would still be... Australian ballot. Tell me this comment. Based on a couple weeks we've been talking about this issue in 10 days even a public few at that point who's in consequential everything budgets are posted. You basically can't change anything. I hope this board is having a serious meeting before in the fall we've decided to do that because it's almost pointless to have the meetings at all under this... that can be done on town meeting day or informational maybe we've got very few people by certainly by town meeting day within 10 days. We've already lost the battle of... The crucial period of is budget formation time and we intend to conduct the finance committee the prep work but we intend to just have the actual development of the different drafts of the budget done in open meeting well publicized public forums about the budget as we proceed and try to make it as give people as much of a chance as they can to consult with us on it. I hope that it goes more than the budget it's directional to where the school is being taken that's actually happening before you develop the budget, correct? That's what drives how you spend your money so I think that's the place that people would probably be interested All of that should be happening in open session and with identify very clearly on the agenda so that people know what's up Anybody else on this? I would like you know I have a thought about this that we don't have it yet although perhaps we will in another few stops on our agenda but maybe refer it to the policy committee to sort out because of the various legal ramifications and have the policy committee offer the board some viable options from my perspective whatever we do ideally should reinforce and not subtract or distract from this would be a priority for me but if we could have maybe the policy committee that would be one of its I mean one of the items that it would have on this agenda Just as a reminder a 30 day warning will require action by the board at the next meeting because if you were looking at and that would avoid us having to schedule a special meeting or election in every town so I would just I'm happy to involve anyone in the conversation but I think we would need if we were to make a change in advance of the town meeting probably the best to do it by that date by September 18 by the next meeting what is the driving question or issue with leaving it on town meeting day as we voted on your town clerks or their designators will need to come to the annual meeting and with their registered voter lists and check in all of the participants and that will distract or detract from their town meeting preparations that day so we would have to ensure that this meeting did not overlap with the town meetings because they will be required to do the same at their local towns that's the primary hang up really if we didn't have that element the voting element included then I think you're right it would just be a conflict with other meetings that people might wish to attend that day so if the clerk, treasurer and moderator were by Australian ballot we wouldn't have to have the clerks there to check people in because they wouldn't be voting so that would be an option for November but that is due to Australian ballot yes I think that might be what makes the most sense maybe give direction to Deborah to talk to she's going to meet with the clerks and come up with a proposal with a ballot proposal to change it to be Australian ballot to vote for those officers so it doesn't conflict and there's a couple of options that they before the town meetings to have a meeting to have a meeting to have a meeting that I couldn't just be information at that point and I do worry about having a meeting during the day for our board when while town meeting is a day in some cases it's a holiday for workers but not at all so if we were to schedule a meeting at 8am it may conflict for many people on this board who might not be able to even have a quorum on that date as well so just to take a quick temperature how would you feel about an article on the November ballot that would have election of the district officers the moderator treasurer and clerk take place by Australian ballot on town meeting day to aviate the whole problem of conflict there isn't a November ballot there isn't there would be a special ballot there would be a special ballot there would be a special ballot well so much for that thank you Karen I think Vera's point is well taken that that was a decision made by a number of hundred people here in April and just sort of countermanding that because of scheduling I think we should really think carefully about that okay it was a recommendation so yeah go Dorothy because you made the motion I just think we ought to play out some ideas I mean suppose if we had the district meeting on town meeting day at 8 o'clock all those town clerks and everybody have to get here and set up and then we would start our town meetings not maybe not till 10 and they have to pick up all their stuff and move to the towns which is a lot to do and I think I remember that meeting when we set the date for town meeting day and at that point most of us when we would have the meeting didn't stop to think that if we had the meeting of the district town meeting day it wouldn't happen at all it had to happen in one separate place so it would be a lot of work for some people and I don't think we'd be going against the public to change the date and I don't know whether we can do it after town meeting I don't remember what the parameters are when we're allowed to have it but I really would recommend having it at a later date and making it a separate thing I don't care when you have the you would have the Australian ballot for the board members but I think it's just going to make a lot of confusion to have this meeting on town meeting day and then everybody it's not everybody people you and I who are on the board have to come here and then go back to our own towns I think it's asking way too much of the public as well as our town clerks I think we should consider having the annual meeting in the evening when more people could be there better than more but they can think about the money but we are running into a conflict of people being away so I'm trying to figure out and it can't be earlier than it could be before break well you have to have an educational meeting within 10 days the annual meeting can be held any prime after February 1st so I don't I agree I don't think that a lot of thought was put into how it was going to look on town meeting day and I'm all for figuring out a better way to have a meeting within the 10 day restrictions guidelines all I'm saying is I think we need to have a conversation with the town clerks to get their input and hear back that guidance from them and their opinions to make a decision on whether or not to have it voted on on a special ballot in November or waiting until March I would prefer to get their feedback and have that conversation happen sooner I agree the informational meeting needs to be held within 10 days of the budget vote not the annual meeting within 10 days of those articles are voted upon it relates to the articles on Australian ballot that's what the informational meeting is for which at this point is which at this point is on town meeting day so it would qualify which is the budget so even if we move the annual meeting budget would still be voted on by Australian ballot not changing any of the votes for board members or for budget it would still be Australian ballot are there any challenges to moving the annual meeting before or after town meeting day does it matter if we hold that before or after I don't know of any districts that hold annual meetings after town meeting day because your primary purpose is to present information about your budget and to vote on officers which have to be prepared to take on the role after town meeting day so I don't think that would work logistically is it informational meeting separate and apart from the annual meeting but can it be it's only informational meeting that has to be within 10 days of the actual vote on the budget so we can actually have an annual meeting in October no February 1st actually in 30 days no after the statute says between February 1st and June 1st there are some towns that vote their school budgets later in the spring not on town meeting day and that accommodates them Berlin always had a pre-town meeting did every town have a pre-town meeting usually in January or no no it's Saturday Saturday before the 1932's was the night before and Berlin was the night before last year was the night before Saturday morning I think Wooster was the whole the same day and Middlesex was the meeting we would have informational meetings like the night before and then also the preceding Saturday but that was the information meeting for the budget so anyway since there is no November there is right the town clerks need to be spoken to but not only are pre-town meetings at different times the way they run town meeting and the hours that they are open for voting vary in all of the towns so you really can't come up with anything that works without talking with all five of the town clerks the discussion is clearly in order and it doesn't appear that we're under any sort of time pressure the same kind of time pressure would be if there were to have been in November I can report back with the information I received from our health work discussion next time and the board would like to make a decision as to kind of proceed for this year if we don't have a November vote anywhere then obviously that's not an option but you can always call a special meeting I think it should be an action item in case we have the information if it's on the agenda because if we did have a special election having it on what's a typical first Tuesday of November voters are used to that if we had to have a special election it makes sense to have it on a normal cycle then we have to do that 30 or 40 days ahead of time that don't warrant it which is why we'd have to vote next time and we would also be incurring a cost yes so do we know what that cost is no that's what that girl learned I will find that we are municipalities so when you tell me what an election we incur the cost yep so do you feel like we can wrap this one and move on I appreciate my head until state I think just to clarify because when we were getting advice it was an oversight we were electing the clerk at that time at that meeting on the floor that day and when we were setting it for town meeting it was like we were assuming that we were voting Australian ballot and we didn't want to have a separate election so we just had conflicting you know good alright so we will have the pleasure of revisiting this issue later now 4.2 community mapping I think this is what you can so we sent a little in your package but we're hoping because we don't have a lot of time and just what Rick was speaking just a little while ago we want to make sure that we reach as much people as we want and mapping the community is not necessarily we're going to get it this is the only one time that we do it we'll keep doing it but just finding basically people that get together so there's gotten places like I can speak to, it's not good there's places where you post and there's places where people gather and there's T members of the community like you mentioned we have a template by any means it doesn't have to be exactly like this but we would like to collect that information to make sure that when we as a board are reaching out we are trying to really try to everybody and know where people are getting together so we can't always expect them to come to us so those board members can go to them just trying to create a system to keep us organized and try to reach more people especially if we're headed to budgeting so I don't know if there were any questions or concerns this would be non-school non-school events but community events correct like the historical society like you know everybody talked about how they got together in in a booster at the transfer station in the recycling part or if there's any groups this could help us in many ways like there's for example from on farms it's good for kids going there too but it's also good to reach to whether it's volunteering to them so the purpose is like one of our goals was to improve communication engagement with the community so just to get us started while we formalize as we go through formalize our committees too but this will get us started in knowing where people are and how to reach them when was this to live I was thinking at central office we would all have a copy four members would have a copy but that's a good question in the past we used this when we did it or not when we did it at 46 with E we were not always successful but we got information from people and that's where we posted or that's who we try to reach for our bulletin we post them on those places we already do that when we do our warnings but we just so it sort of depends this information we can decide to use it however we want to use it for now it's just collecting the information we can put it on the website do you need members of course and it could be helpful even for our administrators if they can reach out for our organization and they might also have better contacts what does Keystone Keystone community members is that template so Keystone community members for example Corinne and Rick Rick or there's people in the community when I talk about Keystone there's people in the community that seem to be able to have endless amount of volunteer it's fun for them to reach out to Edie and Marty for example I know that they will know know people or be able to pass information of how a public group or Edie runs the cycles so I know that she can reach out more of the community and that's just a term that is used in different places so when I think of CalAS I would say you don't have reach out to Scott or Carol Gassage or Scott or I don't know before we go to the public anybody else if we're putting people's names and numbers do we want to get their permission to do so certainly if you're going to put it on the website given that you put it in some type of internal something that one thought is if you could give us the information we could reach out and confirm that they'd be agreeable to having it so that we were hoping we could use your local expertise to identify that people at least initially we would be happy to follow up and be sure if they were all right with the location if you would like if we could also concentrate just on organizations first we could also concentrate just in groups first so evaluations yeah and they'd be like one valence two medicines and they're yeah there's any number of examples I'm not worried about we just want to make sure that we're reaching and a group is better than an individual yeah Chris yes yes well if you think about our what's next we all have chairs of those committees so that would be an example of the contact and they're already going to be the contact because I get yeah any other word members before we go to the public right during the consolidation process of the public outreach we had most of the people in attendance meetings were organized by people outside the Keystone members and the community who talked to people and got them in there I think that's somehow really important it's important to do that in an unbiased way but I think there's something that is really important in this too and it's come up and certainly in the past year or two we've seen I think you need to spend much more time engaging the select boards in this process because they are much tighter more effectively linked into the community in general than the most of the school boards are too and they bring a whole different perspective and they bring people that do and don't have kids and you know I think you've got to use a lot of tentacles in this it's not good enough to post it on the maple corner store door and it's not, I mean I think you have to use Keystone members, I think you have to use select boards I mean it's really important that people come out and participate in these meetings at critical times and it's on you to figure out you know what you and I kind of know what those times are when decision making is being made and when it's actually important to have feedback from the people you're representing and it isn't on the day they vote it's prior so you know I think this is if you want this to be successful again you know you have to get the people in here and that means they have to know about it and it's got to be from somebody who gives a way that will inspire them to be there so Thank you so do we have do we have action on this or is this we're just basically saying go do it yeah read the memo yeah, Chris asked about it so just kind of off of what Rick said, like commissioners town commissioners committees whatever comes to mind is a likely prospect certainly have all of our select board members and other individuals in town government already identified so we wouldn't have to duplicate that we're just like the lab field committee and other conservation commissions I don't know you can sort of figure it out sense which is good and much might not be as super or as a match yeah yeah, so floor you said September 30th is the deadline it doesn't have to like that's something that we came up with it gives us a point to get it started it's not an it's going to evolve okay, good so 4.3 is the book what are you thinking about it's already a little after 8 we've already postponed it once it's important yeah as much as I care about the other issue I think this is the work that we need to be doing is it doable quickly Joey we have a schedule for 30 minutes 30 minutes it could be quick 30 minutes it might be a nice change of pace okay small group discussion alright this is the book club segment of the board that proposed that at 8.30 we can move on to the next that's 25 minutes yeah we'll see we'll try if everyone in your groups can be concise we can shorten the time alright alright so really quickly I've put over here the modification of a school reform initiative protocol that we're going to use we use some of these protocols from them in the retreat so you might remember different protocols that we use as soon as I'm making a meeting protocol and I'll get out of the way you'll have two to three minutes to get in groups the groups are listed in green there and review the text for quotes or phrases so if you already did that you came prepared, you did your reading and you have some pieces that you can pull out that'll help us spend the time a little bit and I'll move all of these down to four minutes each so I'll do that while you're getting ready round one you'll share a quote something that you noticed or something that resonated with you from the two chapters that you read round two you'll ask questions what questions did the text raise for you so you'll bring out questions to the group so if each person does this because you're going to have groups of four even a group of five is still a group of four if you have one minute or less we can get it done sooner and then the round three making meaning or significance what is significant about what you read the whole of it round four what are the implications for your work and then we'll come back to a whole group and just kind of share out a debrief of how we feel about the protocol that we use and anything that really stood out from your small group discussions questions about the process for the group's stable overtime this is just for tonight so the groups will change overtime I think so but that could be up to you if you feel like this group worked and you'd like to stay with that group for some reason I think you can certainly recommend it so go ahead and find your groups and you can we can do group one, group two, group three, group four and group five, find yourself in another space I'm just kidding maybe you can give it back with your grandma or us one, two, three, four five, six, seven, eight awesome good conversations happening Dave and I were able to eavesdrop a little bit and hear what was being said in different groups this is your moment to share out something that you thought was really pertinent implications for your work that you discussed in your small group that you think the whole group needs to hear and or thoughts about the protocol itself in using this process for a discussion Chad, would you like to say anything about our group? I guess I would brain fry is always a good excuse I use it myself as often as I can it was a great discussion we had I felt your comments about about building democracy I thought were oh yeah just ensuring that the democratic process is part of our structure and our work and going forward in the way that we organize the board and that's not lost because it feels like we just with the consolidation we could lose that a little bit and making sure that that remains thank you and also figuring out what we're actually doing having goals and being able to incorporate those in group 2 to read our so I'll be great I guess I think two of the important things like here I came up no one of us is more important than the rest of us we spend that's been an important post that we all really like and it came back over and I think it sets the tone for collaboration we talked a little bit about culture you know how to behave in the library and just creating that culture with something that we were interested on and then and then once we started to talk a little bit more they asked us what is collaboration and said it's a style more than a verb so what does it mean and it brought us back to not one because it's more important than the other one we're all not going to have the same opinions but setting this more clever circle could help us with that and then on challenges we spoke about everybody's really willing to be learning a group together and what are the challenges and what are the opportunities on that and I don't know if anybody else wants to I think you captured the discussion really good I just want to say I think this is important part of what we need to do as a board and it is going to take time and it's going to take some time at our meetings but I do think it's an important part of getting to know each other and what culture we want to have for our education environment on group 3 do you have a spokesperson we didn't elect one we didn't follow the democratic process we talk about the difference between climate and culture that climate is what happens in culture is what you decide to be we talked about the intentionality of the process we talked about how the structure, the PLO structure is intended to make sure that the different organizations, the different learning groups know what their roles are and avoiding the micromanaging in a board that it also acts as a guardrail to prevent a board from spinning out of control in micromanaging or from becoming passive and reactive and it's also encouraged here from Steve and Gillian that our culture is healthy the culture of the school system is healthy and I think that what we do here will augment that can I jump in just because group 4 we jumped off that too, is that okay so I was struck by sort of the definition in the way in which PLOs operate and it's fully aligned with the trauma informed system and that has been an effort we've been making here in Washington Central over the last few years and it aligns nicely to the principles that we are trying to create across our system that the leadership team has been working on and so I think it just makes sense if we really want to be trauma informed from the board or to have equity from the boardroom to the classroom and we're expecting our teachers to create these cultures of learning it would be great that our board would be more on that as well was that the group 5? yes so group 4 okay, yeah thank you Chris I was waiting for that you're at the best pool oh I'm sure how well it's going to play there's the Ronald Reagan quote but he so what jumped out of this you found yourself with the best people you can with the best people you can find delegate authority and don't interfere as long as the policy you decided upon is being carried out so I've appreciated being a part of the leadership team it appears to be it's pretty flat in nature and there's a lot of trust that we are all sort of singing from the same sheet of music if there is an issue we don't have a problem speaking to each other in confidence to make sure that we get back on key so to speak so it's very nice to be empowered and trusted but that does not it does not go without you know inspection so inspect what you expect powerful in that way so that's why that particular quote jumped out of me and we talked about we do start with an advantage point with very powerful and good culture here in our school system so it kind of echoes what Kelly was saying before so we're very hopeful and who made a good point about how reluctantly we may have been to do this particular segment of our agenda it was very helpful and important that we do it great wonderful so does that conclude this portion of our and I guess to be continued in the future yeah, thank you very much you're a good whipcracker okay so 4.4 committees we have policy committee to stand up would anybody like to make a motion to stand up the policy committee stand up, stand up establish it thank you so Chris moves any second Mary Lynn seconds so the charge this is on page 21 of the packet the charge would be to review all existing policies make changes if necessary and secure board approval by the end of June 2020 draft new policies that's necessary anybody want to be part of this I'll give you provided you come through the coffee cart yeah you have to provide that to the other committees yes redhand or capital grant would be fine okay are you leaving at redhand how can we leave these at the redhand one of the places they work yeah we can leave go over to the coastal cafe yeah this is clearly the redhand patronage committee anybody else interested it would be nice to have three members from the board and policy committee even though obviously its primary function is to look at policies I would imagine that there may be occasions when it would extend its purview to include if there were changes we needed to the articles of agreement for example or any other kinds of textual governance type questions that those would fall within the bailiwick of the policy committee so it would be great to have a third is there a second already no yes who's trail did you say yes great I thought you were going for coffee of course yes one of the things that went round and round was school choice and I think we made a specific pledge to deal with school choice and so I think we either could establish a separate committee to head down to this just so we because it is something that you agreed to look at it should begin with policy because you have to establish the guidelines as to how you wish to implement that just expand the charge somewhat too so is the charge for existing and proposed and proposed so we don't everybody no we're not we should be really no the question is no I'd rather not I understand that's great so any further discussion of this so are we ready to vote then alright so we have a motion to establish the WCUUSD policy committee with the charge to review all existing policies make changes if necessary and secure board approval by end June 2020 to draft also that would be a period after 2020 draft new policies as necessary period the membership would be Chris McVeigh do we need to do we need to come up with a chair if you can figure it out yourself okay Chris McVeigh Jial of Postcard and Marilyn Stracken so ready to vote for both an amendment to the drawing you could just say make policy and that would be we could go crazy make a policy about proposed policy as opposed to make policy as proposed changes I mean I think right okay there's an amendment everybody okay with that amendment consensus alright proposed changes ready for a vote then okay all in favor please say aye aye any opposed? none great Scott, I would just also ask that while we heard, Joey and Aaron both had a pivotal part in helping get the policies to where they are right now. And so, I'm not necessarily volunteering them from this seat, but they certainly would be able to ask and admit at leadership team for support. Thank you, Steven. Thank you very much. Yeah. OK, great. Next up is administrator attendance at meetings. This is a discussion. And the question is monthly, bi-weekly ad hoc, what should it be? And I don't know what the, I think what I would propose, if we have to take an action, I would propose moving that the superintendent set the norms for administrator attendance at the meetings, depending on whatever it says. So I would, you know, we're reading this book now that talks about direct access to staff, stakeholders. I think I would rather have at least a monthly, if not every two weeks. And that don't mean to impose on you folks, but I think it would fulfill at least some of the criteria of this book in terms of creating a more fluid dynamic interaction between the board and stakeholders that attendance should be a regularity rather than a ad hoc. Ad hoc. If it was monthly, perhaps we'd do the book discussions monthly versus every, you know, I don't know. Because I agree with having the stakeholders. Yeah, I'm just on that in terms of interacting, not necessarily for a book group, but just having information sessions from our needs-based staff. Yeah, sorry? I think we've talked a little bit about that in our group too. And I don't mean to impose, but I feel it's through budgeting season it's being really important that we both stay together as we are right now, at least until January, that's might be asking a big bunch of, that's just, and I'm not saying that the way it has to be, but I think it's right now, but it would be crucial, that whatever is good for an administrator's needs. Tara. Can I, I want to hear what you guys have to say. I kind of want to know, like in the short term is two months, two times a month too much. How are you guys doing? Real quick. We're not taking names. And I can tell you guys that this, I feel like, you know, if we're talking about collaboration or we're trying to align to come together, I do not want more meetings at all, I have plenty, but I do think this is a time for us to start to figure out how to collaborate with each other and maybe not forever. I like the idea of setting some timeline or feeling like we've got some measurement for how to decide when we've got to that, that prime piece of like, we're in alignment and now what is the most useful but not of our time? Wait, it's not our time. That's just me. Don't, anyone get mad. So is it every meeting, is it central month? I, for me, I feel like it's important that we're establishing a relationship that crosses five towns and six buildings and, or seven buildings, that we meet every two weeks if you're gonna meet every two weeks. We should participate in that. Again, that's just for me. I don't wanna do it forever, but I want to wait until we start to feel like we have some sense of trust and relationship that has been built and then start talking about how to sort of divide the labor. And I should say that there have been, if there's an occasion where there's a absolute appropriate reason why an administrator can't attend a meeting, that it's absolutely fine. So, some of this is too much. I don't know. Well, I'll just say, could we look at, I mean, you know how to feel that, like your wantness to come to go because it makes us make me feel valued that you wanted to hear yourself. Think about it a little bit that way. I completely agree that we are building this together. At least the feeling is that. And the value are input and thoughts and participation and part of that is beautiful. I think it's also helpful for us to be here, to hear the conversations, to be able to bring them back to our schools because if we weren't here, we would be out of this loop as well and that makes a lot of people out of the loop. I would just offer that you, those Venn diagrams that we saw on that page, we're one small, we're one of the Venn diagrams. We really don't have a tremendous amount of representation from around those. So as those grow, I think our roles will probably shift in focus and our attendance will as well. Dorothy, did you ask? Well, my suggestion was just to have the book talks early on the agenda so that if any of you have some special thing, we could at least be involved in that and then they could leave if they had something they had to leave for. That was just a sick question. Yeah, thank you. Any other board comments? It's just extremely encouraging to hear you guys say that, really. It's so valuable having you here. Yeah, it is and I agree and please don't get me wrong. Even though I have a great aversion to forcing people to be in a place where they don't necessarily have to be in order to get something done, even more, my concern is more technical. I mean, we as a board supervise the superintendent. We should not be involved in telling the principals who report to the superintendent principles and leadership team where they should be. This is why I would put that responsibility in addition to every other responsibility on Deborah's shoulders and trust her judgment that I think you haven't heard her talk about this issue before in the agenda-setting meetings but I think she is completely on the same web length as you with regard, especially to the early stages of putting this off together. But I would prefer as a matter of, just board professionalism, even though we're on amateurs, to limit our control to the superintendent and not try to extend it to the leadership team by compelling attendance. So I would say it is a matter of control. I see a matter of establishing relationships and the opportunities that most of us as a board get to see administrators is pretty meager, especially if you don't have a child in the school. And even if you do, you don't get to see the administrators across the district altogether. So I don't think it's a control issue. I think it's establishing a communication and getting to know you and hearing concerns because it's good to hear what works, what doesn't work. And that is the information to inform us as we move forward. And we are establishing a new entity. I think by not having administrators here even for the next month or two or however long that takes, we're just sliding back into the old entity and the old way of doing things. And I don't think that's a good start for us. I don't disagree with anything that you're saying. All I'm saying is that instead of our doing it, Deborah can do it. She can. So may I comment about that? Yeah. So in our July retreat, we spent a lot of time talking about how our administrative team, our leadership team could collectively work in concert with and in partnership with the board. And we actually scheduled our meetings, our administrative leadership team meetings to occur in opposition to or in opposing weeks of board meetings. And we spoke about our administration attending the board meetings and we had consensus about it. So we were, I know that this really arose because the board member in our last meeting had suggested that we might be, it might be too much of an ask to have folks with us every time. But I think in the, as long as we're continuing to develop the governance structure, the input and the information that our administrators can provide firsthand is very valuable. And of course, while I appreciate you're deferring to my oversight, I don't have the history that a longer term superintendent would have. So you are able to gain more ready access to information and response to questions and your time is valuable as well. So we were discussing this summer. Thank you. Okay. Well, you've heard it. Is there anything more to it? Great. Oh, Rick, sorry. It means someone who gets to deal with meeting on meeting on meeting on meeting with multiple groups, by the way, you know what you're doing is really generous to get every two weeks if everybody gets this kind of time late at night. And I would be really disciplined about, as a board, about thinking what those principles and what these sports staff, how are you going to build that relationship? What are the things that you really wanna talk about? And maybe, you know, something for every meeting or some perhaps, and they should have some vehicle to be able to really convey that ideas or concerns that they've got, some days for discussion. You know, so you actually have a micro agenda to give you some outlines of discussion because otherwise you can turn it away from time. As a board, you're dealing with a lot of things in this room. Some things are relevant to them, some things are not. So I like that idea of kind of striking them off early for that because early in the meeting you're actually fresh. These relationships are gonna be really, really important. You know, there's communication up and down. Yeah, that's actually a really good idea. And after that, I mean, it might be possible to, to liberate them. There's a part of the meeting that is administrator-intensive, and then. I think it's already adjusted to that also. Yeah, yeah. Great. Thank you for the video. Thank you. Yeah. Go ahead. There's one more thing that I was gonna give you. Things like, you know, this committee, it's like, ah, that's me. And obviously, these guys here, so they're just, right in, probably, you know, it's, you know, you can put on them, so I hope you get the idea Of course. Yeah. You know, I'm using them. The leadership team needs twice the money to use it. Yes. So, anyway, good. So, if we're gonna take action, we need a motion. I was sort of, I don't think we need a motion. No action. I think there's a consensus here. This is a consensus. That was a discussion. That was a discussion, yeah. All right? Yeah. Because that would be compelled. I think that would be compelled. Okay. If we took action. Okay, I was. This is saying we welcome it and we want the interaction. Okay, very good. I was, I was taking the agenda literally. Which is always risky. No? Okay. Very good. All right. So, okay, with the administrator attendance. All right. 4.6 now, the SBN membership. I would like a motion, please, to approve payment of the SBA dues for FY20. If someone would like to move that. I'll make that motion. Lindy, a second? I'll second that. Jonas, a second. Okay. So, discussion. Before we open it up, I just want to lay out the format. It's already five minutes before nine. Good God. Jaya's brain is fried, that's his mind. But nonetheless, here's what the plan is. First of all, do the administrators need to be here for this? You're welcome to be here. But you don't need to be. Yeah. You're welcome to be excused. If you are interested in remaining, you're of course a welcome to remain. But. I will, that's not happening. Okay, very good. Okay. Good. Great, okay. So, the way I intend to do this is to have 20 minutes of board, no more than 20 minutes of board exclusive discretion, and then have up to 10 minutes for anyone among the public who wishes to have anything to say. And then one last round of board statements, if you will, and then unless there are compelling reasons not to, I'd like to have a vote so that we get this out of the way. Okay, so basically we have the motion. The motion is to approve payment of BSBA dues for FY19 to FY20. What this boils down to is the timeless dilemma, should we stay or should we go? And in this particular case, it's a little bit complicated because of history, because of strikingly different personal contacts with the BSBA and experiences. Some quite positive, others perhaps not. So, what we'll try to do is just go through and I'll try to moderate it in such a way that it maintain as much balance as I can. Thanks. Flores, give me a note from Dan MacArthur and Christina Naylor from, who are Wyndham County original reps on the BSBA. So, I don't mind. Would anybody like to start? I'll start this and I will vote not to run the BSBA this year. I think over time the BSBA has taken positions, particularly in regard to Act 46, that has been detrimental to school boards as a whole. Our numbers are now decimated because of Act 46 and the argument could be that the BSBA did not promulgate Act 46, the legislature did, but I think the BSBA helped shepherd it through and gave the legislature at least some cover by supporting Act 46 as it was enacted with the law in. More recently, when there was a legislation maybe delaying for another year, implementation of the BSBA arguing against that delay and being calling school board members who were favoring obstructionists was problematic for me just because the BSBA should be a big umbrella organization taking into account the entirety of its membership and I understand that governance procedures that people vote in positions are established. And when we took up this matter, I think in June, there's a discussion about democracy and how sometimes you win, sometimes you lose on certain votes, but democracy is also a freedom of association and deciding how you want to, what organizations you want to be associated with. So I would urge us not to fund for this year the BSBA with the hope that we would see improvement in how it as an organization relates to school board members. I, after our last meeting, I made a request that we know about whether or not the BSBA would produce information. I made specific requests of them and they refused saying that they were private organizations and they did not have to respond to my request for, it was basically a public record request. So I am pursuing that request through the court. And I tend to think that the BSBA would be down to be a quasi-public agency for the purposes of the public records law. So I would urge that we not support the BSBA this year. Hey, thanks, you're welcome. Any, you may also ask questions if you like. I've been in support of the BSBA just as a person who feels when I was the policy committee chair, their model policies were very helpful. They had already been vetted through attorneys. I felt that what they were providing for us was very helpful. And I look at them as bigger than Act 46. Part of that could be also my background of not being as against Act 46 as many people were. I'm feeling there were way too many board members to support the number of students in many of our school districts or the schools or whatever. So I came from a different angle in that respect. I believe they have information that is useful and helpful. I was thinking of it kind of like towns having VLCT when they're too small to have in-house support and knowledge on all the laws and policies that go into running an organization and being a member of the BSBA provides us that. So that's where I come from as looking at it bigger than Act 46. It seems like the bigger issue with supporting BSBA is that the trust has been broken and being able to kind of adequately speak for members of the school boards. And so I'm wondering outside of Act 46, have there been other instances that BSBA has not spoken in alignment with what the majority of the school boards have felt that they needed representation that specific graduate state has? You say you were gonna let it, can I answer a couple of questions? Sort of in the chat board, would you like to answer from the little pencil from the video to answer that question specifically? And welcome. But I think my preference is to have to confine the discussion to the board and to residents and any... So to particularly to that question, I just want to go back a little bit. So to say that the BSBA spoke against the majority of the school boards in Act 46, we were not majority. So the position that it took, for example, in the delay was the majority of the board voted to make a statement and say, please do not delay. And the reason we have said neutral during that part of the vote. And we decided that because they billed that the Senate was putting forward and the rules was gonna put it on the boards to make the decision for themselves that we needed to speak. And we had a two and a half hour or three hour meeting that night to get to consensus. And most of the majority of the people of the board and that's how that position came out. I agree with you that our choice of words, I was probably not, and I've been criticized about the civil disobedience or obstructionist. And I think what the board was trying to say, we were not trying to silent any dissent, but we were trying to not have any more kind of unethical behavior. And that's what a lot of our different boards were experiencing. And that's where that comment came from. But so in response to that, and now in what you were expressing about, I passed around two things. One is the Wyndham because they are also, so both Dan and Christina voted no, they didn't want us to have a statement on that. And there were two other, one other board member voted no at that meeting. And they send a letter to us today why they also choose to stay because the SDI is more than just one issue. And in the comment that you were making about, how do we, let's see how they do, and then for a year and then we decide to join again or not join again, then we won't be part of the conversation, right? So the way to, so if you're not satisfied, so I am your representative, right? But I represent besides the E32, I represent several other boards, right? It's Washington and Orange, and the majority of Washington and Orange did not accept for, they were not encouraged in parts of Orange, and we're two members, so the majority of them did not want to delay. They didn't want to delay. And that's what I voted no in delay because the majority of the people didn't want to delay. So I actually meant to start this conversation by stepping even way back because a member of the class community at the last meeting asked if I had a conflict of interest in having an opinion in how we all make this. So I read a policy, the policy is the first policy in our website with conflict of interest. So first I should have said that, it's up to you ultimately to decide, but after reading the policy, so now I can't get it to open several times. You know, I'm not, when I participate in this meetings and on the PSBAs that labor law, there's no financial gain. There is, I get thinner and $5 for mileage. And when I was nominated to be your representative, I was actually nominated by Jack Hoffman, who was part of the entity 46. So it's not just, I would have never nominated myself because I thought to be part of the PSBA and you had to have all this required knowledge and have been in this for many, many years. So Jack nominated me. And then the year after I stayed on the, I run for the office and last year I became part of the executive committee, which we have been trying to reach out to tomorrow. So I would suggest that instead of getting moving away from the PSBA, we tried to do more if I restored justice kind of thing. So mend our relationship, like we wanna hear from you. We wanna know, we wanna make sure that we represent, we wanna make sure that you are being heard, right? And if you're not satisfied with that, I'm not up for re-election right now but there's another opening, but I'm not for re-election next year. So let's be part of that conversation. I think it would be a mistake for us to move away from the PSBA right now when we're starting a new governance, we're gonna have more responsibilities. We, they provide, just for example, the book that we're discussing right now now that I'm a power executive committee, I would say to Philadelphia, and I know that I'm talking a lot, but we are the direct beneficiaries of this knowledge and the PSBA just the other that came and gave us training. So the PSBA is mostly, our mission is to support school members and in the performance of the role to serve as a collective voice for the public, for the public policy environment in public education. The people, there's a lot of things that are gonna be out of the state in the legislative session in the next session and we wanna be part of that conversation. Do we have opportunities to explore comments and ask questions about comments? Yes, and I would also believe they're not like to say something too, but Dorothy. Well, I also do not support paying this fee. Our two of our towns are already facing higher taxes this year. It's been a year delay. We would not be facing that this year. And I went to a lot of Senate hearings, Education Committee hearings and House Education Committee hearings and it always bothered me that I was a citizen who could come to the state house back and forth now and then. Whereas the people from the VSBA and the coal maze I recognize and some others on a regular basis who were there not only for those hearings, but in the cafeteria and talking to the other reps and the other senators and really having a lot more face time to get their impressions across. And I have to say, I was very, very hurt during a House Education Committee hearing regarding H39 when we were asking for the years to lay and the coal maze advised them that they should not give that decision to the locals. And I just felt like, you know, there was no respect for our small school boys when you use that kind of a term. And I could not advocate paying taxpayer dollars for that amount of money. I know they provide training. We can get training other places. I know they provide policy. You can look at other school district policies and get some good ideas and good wording from them. There are ways to make it without them. There is another young organization called the Association, I'm not the association, I forgot the word, Alliance of Vermont School Board members that has gotten together and it's made up of many people who are part of the 30 plus district suit with the Supreme Court. But they are wanting to support the local school boards and get more into that. So I, if we're going to use the money for an organization, I would support that, but I would not support in any way sending any of my personal tax numbers to pay those bills. Yeah, thanks. And if I may just very briefly, as soon as anybody says very briefly, you're not going to be. But looking at the question, should we stay or should we go? The criterion I'm thinking should be what best serves our people, young and old. And although VSBA has done good things, and one of the best things is the opportunities that it's offered for youth. And I'm grateful to it for that, for nothing else. But it has, as Chris pointed out, also done a lot of damage either by commission and just, it hasn't supported us. We've been members and just last year in, for the 2018 resolution, Wister, the DOD school board, submitted a resolution on debt, which was the mildest manner that you can imagine. And the VSBA board recommendation was do not pass. And you can check that on the October 18, 2018 report, business meeting on page, bottom of page 39. In other areas, to answer your question, Marilyn, VSBA has pushed an approach to labor relations to teacher negotiations that has been very, very different and inimical even to ours. They have a kind of, tend to have a scorched earth policy, very hardline bargaining, which came out most recently in the health insurance discussions when unfair labor practice was filed against the teachers union. That's not how we operate. And finally, I'm just concerned that, you know, in the bit that I put into the packet about the money, VSBA just, I have no problem with their, with their being a pass through for state money to consultants, that's done all the time. What I do have a problem with is VSBA advocating strenuously for the program that is essentially funding them during that time. And the Orange North Supervisory Union, which is friendly to merger, which merge successfully, raised that in itself. They were concerned enough about it to make that specific proposal that VSBA not advocate, speak for all school boards in its advocacy. So my concern about VSBA is that being members, we haven't really gotten anything out of it. However, because their money does seem to magnetize their moral compass to some extent, we might have more leverage actually by being out and having the leverage of the potential of their getting us back in if they're willing to start really to take us seriously and to protect our interests, to have our backs instead of stabbing us there. So the resolutions that we passed didn't mean, so the resolutions, we worked on resolutions. We, you know, they would recommend that to pass. You know, one in that and one in, in. This year, this year, now that it's. So that is, so that's, do we leave in the past or do we want to be part of the change? Do we want to participate in that change? We will completely lose our voice in being able to be part of that change. I think we'll have more of a voice if we're not a member actually. We'll have more influence if we're not a member. So who's going to ratify our negotiations? We won't have a, right now we have a board member that's going to help. They haven't been listening to us. Excuse me, I have to interrupt. For fear. Yeah. So, pardon me. For fear. Oh, I'm so sorry for that. Yes. Um, just during the BSBA meetings, does the membership of the BSBA for it, do they understand when they took aside that relationships and trust have been broken to the point of, do they take any ownership of where we are right now? Yeah. Yeah. Because I haven't even heard any of them say, you know, we take ownership of what has happened, but, you know, apologize, move on, like something. And all I see in some of these back and forth documents that have been hinted around, is just more animosity building that they believe they were right and they did no wrong. You've been working on that. And, you know, if it was able to speak right now, she just came from a meeting last night, the same thing. That's why we're working on repairing relationships, right? Right now, because myself, we're involved in hiring a new executive director, for example. We, like, we are, you know, we are working, we represent you, you are a member. So, say, we take, I'm starting speaking Spanish, we take, you know, we take this really seriously, right? So, yes, we can make mistakes, that we use some words and we understand that. But, you know, like, we also have to understand that just as when we vote here, you might have three people that are on one side and seven people that are on the other side. And at the end, we all have, so if you read Dan McPherson and Christina Naylor's email, there's, you know, that's just what happens. But we don't, at our board meetings, we don't want anybody that, you know, because he has said it's sent an opinion, can't participate. You know, that's what makes it, that's what makes it rich, right? So, by us, say, you know, I don't feel like this because I have got advantages, you know, when I participate in this meeting, this meeting is sort of disorganization, it's because I feel a responsibility for public education, not just for ourselves, but for the state. And now we're trying to bring that nationally too. We have always participated nationally. Like at this last meeting that, because Nicole was leaving, I was able to go to the leadership meeting. We, if for one hadn't gone, they wouldn't have been in a regional meeting for, so we're bigger than what we see here and it might be from my background, you know, I come from Guatemala, where you don't have the ability to have this public education, have the rule that you have. So what they do is, I don't know if I can stress enough the importance of being part of that conversation because we won't be able to be part, we'd be able still as citizens, but together, and I know there's been precise how we do things together with the Principals Association, with the Superintendent's Association, at the end of the day, is for the benefit of the kids and the advance of the public education in our state, right? So, you know, that, I could say a lot. Thank you. Let me ask a couple of questions. So this letter from Dan McCartney and Kristina Naila. Yeah, the last time. She didn't have time to stick to, we have documentation for that. There's no O's that has been signed. She had four meetings today. So, it seems to me that it's in error. Yes. Because it doesn't make any sense to say at the end. Yes, she wrote it. She must have. So, is it accurate that as a BSBA board member, you cannot speak against the board? I mean, it says, I mean, the rules of conduct, you say that the code of ethics that the board has says that a board member cannot engage in activities that harm the association's ability to pursue its mission. In another section, it says it would be considered misconduct for a member of the board of directors who failed to adhere to the duties stated above and has a bunch of duties including a duty of royalty or to engage in conduct that is otherwise injurious to the association. It seems that there's not, to me, that almost seems like if you're speaking in a way that would undermine the BSBA's mission, you're being disloyal to it. And before, in your conversation, you said that the board members were being acting unethically. And I know what you meant by that. No, we're meant by that. I ask you to explain that. So, board member. Well, I'm sorry. If Jonas and Janelle have not had a chance to weigh him, if I might. Oh, wait. You'll make? I have one question. What is the sort of activity that you're trying to deduce? 7,000 dollars, 7,232 dollars. And these fees on page 32, so did we use their services in the most frequent search? No. No, we did it ourselves. We hired somebody else. Is that good? Yeah. So was there a request for information there, Chris? You mentioned that board members were acting unethically, and I didn't know what you meant by that. And I don't think you meant here, but I think it was just a general statement. Yeah, no, it was a general demand. It was not board member. It was in general, our organizational meetings were having unethical behavior. And I don't need to explain it even at our meeting, right? People were calling names to people. And so what we wanted to avoid was that division. That continuum was a division that was not reductive for anybody and it was not healthy. And that's a good example for our kids. And that's what they live with so many things. Okay, thanks. I've gone way, way over. Shall we go to the public for very as briefly as possible and then come back for final words and then vote? Rick? You know, I've been engaged with these hearings and as a school board member at the time, you need to hear what was coming out of the mouths of these people. They were not representing us. I don't mean me. They were not representing us, our boards. I don't think you were representing our board because we were at the floor. I'm going to say, just as, okay, my point is here, we have not, this goes way beyond that 46. That 46 was just a large litmus. A lot of the things that we get with BDSBA are not issues of loyalty or representation. This was a test of who they actually represented and it was certainly not most of the school boards in the state and it was done, in my opinion, even tastelessly. At this point, I would, you know, giving them the benefit of the doubt staying in actually validates their actions. They say, wow, we can get away with this. This was pretty great. I would never do that. We go out now with the illnesses on them to prove that they are worthy of our, to represent us. You know, I think it would be a huge mistake to stay in this organization for the time being. Let them prove to us that they actually represent the school boards around this state. Okay, thanks. Corinne, I think, or Paolo. We're residents only and you are. You're John Pandolfo, yes. Okay, yes, John? Well, I think it would be short-sighted to lead BDSBA is my opinion. I think that there may not be realization of what BDSBA provides, but you know, you spent time talking about policy earlier. I have your new, what I'll call policy manual off your website. You've got 44 policies here. The vast majority are policies, essentially, that BDSBA created and they are, as Lindy said, they are vetted and a lot of work gets done to make sure they're the right policies. And I have BDSBA's model policy for comparison and I haven't gone through word for word, but I'm familiar enough with this and familiar enough with the policies of this district that I believe they're by and large, almost verbatim, many of the BDSBA policies now. If that's not worth $7,000 in itself and if you weigh the cost of one lawsuit from having a policy that's not properly made again, $7,000. I understand this is a very emotional issue, but I'm asking the board to consider being, you know, the stewards that they're obligated to be of the taxpayers of this district and the students of this district. And to me, you know, you had a big discussion about collaboration and trust among the people in this room. And I guess I would go back to say, you know, is the BDSBA an office of four in Montpelier or is the BDSBA all the school members, all the school board members around the state? I don't always agree with everything my particular political party does. Locally in Vermont, nationally or anything else, but I'm committed to being a member of the process and part of that party, so. And, you know, you have the policies in place. Could you survive a year without, you know, being members of the BDSBA and utilizing their policies? Yeah, you probably could. But the district that I work for is paying the money and the taxpayers are there paying for these policies. And honestly, I think it's, I don't believe it's fair for that. And the BDSBA could probably, by 10 o'clock tomorrow morning, make access to their policies member only and exclude anybody who doesn't wanna be members of the BDSBA. Whether they do that or not is again another piece. But to me, again, one issue like Act 46 when I'm not sure if anyone else in this room is aware of what the BDSBA did and what their stance was on Act 166, Universal Pre-K, Act 77, flexible pathways. You know, Act 173, the special education work that's going on right now. There's an awful lot of things that they do on behalf of all schools, all children, all school systems. And I understand, again, the rawness about the particular issue that's on the table right now. Thank you. Corinne. I really think we should pull out, I won't go into a lot of reasons because I think a lot of good reasons have been stated and I think we should pull out. Thanks. Anybody else? Yeah. I think we should pull out too. And I think all organizations go through ups and downs, go through ups and downs, doing what we all think they should do and then having times when they hit some rough stretches and when they do, we as the public, it's our duty to give them a little guidance. And in this case, maybe we should have them know that our guidance is that we'd like to feel like we really counted that we do count here in this district and that they're paying attention to us and paying attention to us instead of obstructing things might make us more interested in working with them. Thank you. Good, okay. So last round of final statements, Dorothy, would you like to start and we'll just go around? I feel as strong or stronger than I did when I first started, I was gonna pay my tax dollars, my one or two, the five or seven thousand, but I really think we need to make the Vermont School Board Association pay attention that they have been acting in a way that has hurt some schools, some districts, some students, taxpayers. And the only way we're gonna get their attention is by saying, we are not going to pay for this anymore. And hopefully, if they actually see that they were not exactly right, that they will do something about it. But paying dues again and hoping that they'll see our point of view, I think is pointless. I have no further comments. Okay, thank you. Shadow. I have changed my opinion. I believe that we need the support and the backing. As we are listening to you, you have at the last meeting, you had the entire Executive Committee present at your meeting for the SBA. I am listening to you, we wanna make it different. We're hiring an executive director to be, you know, we're knowing that there's some changes coming. We wanna keep representing you and just thinking about special education next year has been on our term for a year, just thinking how that would affect us and in our budget and decisions, we should think twice about leaving the SBA and just participating in the democracy that we all say that we care and it's part of the democracy. Thank you for that. And thanks to everybody. From my part, Paul, I very much appreciated your, especially the way you put it about the public and us as representatives of the public, giving guidance when an organization goes astray. And that's the spirit in which I approach this. Thanks. I don't see how leaving the SBA makes us a better district or creates a better education for our students. Over the last couple of months, I've been really encouraged by the moderation of tone and the less strident approach that seems to have been taken in the work that we're doing here and in the larger issues around education in the state. I feel like we've gone backward a little bit tonight. I understand that some of the language used, right, like obstructionists, like the locals, is hurtful, but I also don't think we need to invoke other less helpful metaphors. I did not know all of the things that the SBA worked toward, including universal pre-K. It's disappointing that we're hung up on Act 46 again. This seems punitive. I understand why it doesn't seem helpful to me. I'm not certain that we're sending a, I'm not sure we're sending a strong message by leaving. I don't think that those $7,000 are gonna make much of a dent in their budget. I don't see, I don't see the benefit except that it may help to, I don't see the benefit. Thank you, you're on. I'm very mixed emotions about this. I agree with a lot that's been said before and against staying in our membership. I guess the biggest thing for me that we don't have the opportunity to have the luxury of time is hearing from the BSBA that to learn and to grow, you have to take ownership of the negativity and the issues that they caused. And yes, they did not help us and they did cause some issues. And for them to learn and grow as an organization, they need to take ownership of that. And I agree with Jonas that pulling out is not gonna give us any better voice with them to change and to learn and grow as an organization. But at the same time, I have not heard them directly take any ownership and that's a part I had. Everybody has to take ownership and they do something wrong or when they're supporting a group and they're not supporting the voices of that group. So I don't know where I stand right now, I don't know. Well, perhaps we'll find out in just a moment. And Chris? When does family need to be made if it's going to be made? Typically it's in the month of September. Is there a deadline and actual day? Can you answer that question? Do you want me to answer that question? We're gonna ask this. Yeah, do you know the sort of the deadline for payment of dues? I believe it's stated and maybe in the bylaws, I just was reading it today. I believe it's within 60 days after the statement is received. Uh-huh, thank you. Have we received a statement? Okay, so we don't have to receive the statement. As much fun as this is, I would like to make a decision one way or the other and so what I'm right here at Bureau pretty clearly in terms of the VSBA has to acknowledge some wrongdoing. Some wrongdoing. And is there any appetite for a making payment contingent on a vote by the VSBA board acknowledging wrongdoing? Okay, very appetite, whether it's a contingent vote like that? What? I'm completely trying. I'm gonna abstain from a vote. So I don't know where that leads you. I don't even understand. Would it be helpful to have more information? To bring back, we meet on day 11? Yeah, I'm gonna throw my idea. The, here's the thing, this is a discussion and I'm here on sort of drawing on Jonas's observations that is one that has to happen. We need to do it as much as we all hate it but it needs to get done in order for us to be able to continue. I don't, I would much rather have the vote go against me right now than have to prolong this. I would like to make a decision, is that right? Hold up, yep. Okay, we're gonna vote then. Is this, is this a conversation if we do terminate now that we addressed in a year, like this, where will we be? This is just for this year, just for this year and I expect that there will be, and particularly in the course of discussing the book and allied materials that we will come up with an approach, a board consensus approach to it. That's sort of a thought about, because I don't wanna, this is just for this year. I don't wanna go any further than that. A board consensus on what, when you said it. A board consensus on what we want out of our involvement in an organization. So, but that's not relevant to this particular discussion in this particular motion. So. So if we vote, I just wanna say that I would have to step down from the ESBA, immediately, of the executive committee. Okay, so does that be a conflict vote? For board above, I mean that you have a personal stake in staying on the board. But I don't have any money, if you read your policy, I don't have any monetary gain. It's not necessarily a monetary gain, it's a thing of value. If that's a conflict, then every VSBA board member who's also currently been on a board and has approved payments to VSBA also has a conflict of interest and so then that would sort of make the whole concept of a membership-based organization unworkable. Yes, I'm going to just make a chair determination that we're not gonna worry about. That's not a valid question, it's not. Yeah, we're just going to, let's vote. Okay. All in favor of approving payment of VSBA dues for the FY20 year, for the 2020 fiscal year, 2020 fiscal year, please say aye. Aye. Okay, can I ask you to raise your hands opposed to paying the VSBA dues for this school year? Please say nay. Nay. Nay. Nay. So four. And all, any abstentions? One abstention. So, this is just about the worst of all, the worst of the worst. Okay, in the event of the tie. Scott, can you get the, she's part of the VSBA, right? Yeah, yes. Can we actually hear from her? Can we do that? Hear. About, about, go ahead. If you ever had a question before, what was it here? Whether it was just in responsibility. Yeah. I would like to hear her words about how they're gonna move forward and grow from the experience that we know. Are you a board member? Okay, so I don't think she can speak before. Yeah. However, it's my understanding that in the event of the tie, the motion fails, is that correct? That is correct. No, I didn't. That is correct. Okay. Wow. Gosh. Well, so then the motion fails. And we go on. Finance, do I have a, do I have a motion to approve the board orders? I move to approve the board orders. The judge moves, the quiz seconds. Has everybody signed it? Did everyone sign it? How did that work? We're seeing them ahead of time. Very helpful. Yeah, I agree. Where are there any questions? You can't remember. That's okay. I'm gonna go ahead and pop right out at you. Who signed it? I didn't want to quiz you. I'm just looking at you. Do we need to set the motions? Do we need to set the board orders? Is it different now? Yes, I'm gonna have a document like that. Okay, so I'm gonna go and get out the dollar now. And if you have a dollar amount of money, I don't know if it's available. I don't know if there's any motions. So we have four capital enrollments here. Do we have to do four different ones? Oh, no. Just do it in total. Yeah, the auditor. On two of them? Yes. What happened is we were approving August and tonight's, so now we're caught up. So next time we'll just get one. Okay, I move that we approve the board orders. 76 cents. And then the second one is in 228,938 dollars and 17 cents. So questions? Diamond turf supply, I think it's purpose-side, but I'm not sure what this product was and I just wanted to know if we could find out what that was for any chance. Purpose-side? Yeah. Is that for the track? Is it for the track? Mm-hmm. Okay. That's one. Thank you. Any other questions? So, board fund balance transfers report. This is Lori's thing. Sorry. Was it a vote? Sorry. I don't think we voted. Oh, geez, thank you, Chris. Yeah. So all in favor of approving the board orders, could they say aye? Aye. Any opposed? None opposed? Great. Okay. Now, forgive me, 5.2, board fund balance transfers report. Okay. I'll make some discussion. So one of the questions you had was how did the year end and where are we going to get the balances? And so what I put together was a memo on page 33 giving you more of the definitions used by schools, not just in Vermont, but throughout the nation, what is a general fund, what is a capital project fund, and you can see that in the document. But I'm sure you're more interested in the numbers, so if you turn the page, I can kind of give you a summary from page 34. And I'll talk about totals instead of by individual schools, but what I provided here was what actually came over for what we used to call fund balance. The beginning balance entries are actually called transfer from reserve accounts. So in total under general fund, which is the operating budget, we have two categories. The first is operations and we brought over 1.4 million. You see the total on the first box for operations. We brought over for technology reserves, which also includes money for fiscal software, 480.000. And the grand total of our operating fund balance is 1.9 million. Do you see that number over to the right? So that's how we started the year. There's another category that is near and dear to everyone's heart, which are capital project funds, which are typically used to acquire and start major capital facilities as you heard about the track, et cetera, from Stephen tonight. So in total we brought over 2.8 million dollars. I'm gonna just keep going if you want me to. The next category is a permanent fund and you'll see Worcester's the only school that has one. And what that is, is a fund set up by a donor that restricts you to only use the earnings. So the interest income is all we can use and it's only used at the school of Dodie and Worcester School District is really willing. But that's what the permanent fund is. We also brought over, the next box has enterprise funds which are fund six. Those are funds that typically have fees charged for activities and the first column you'll see is the food service program. We brought 168,000 there. We brought over money for community connections, 84,000. Our dental program is self-funded. You'll hear more about that next month. We brought over 179,000. And our health reimbursement account is another self-funded program. We brought over 390,000. So again, those are funds set up that are self-sustaining and they're probably somewhat paid for from school budgets but the primary reason why there are enterprise funds in this is not just for us, it's for everyone because of the fees charged. The next category that we brought over were trust funds and what those are are private purpose funds, things like scholarships, people who've passed away for estates, we also have other restrictions. Sometimes people who are living give money and they say you can only use this for the music program. So we brought over 78,000 for trust funds. And what I did at that point was to give you a grand total because those all came over as revenues. So it's 5.69 million in revenues. And the next category is a little different but it's a custodial account and what those are are student activity funds. Students are always doing things whether it be like drama that might not be in the school budget, et cetera. And what you see here is just the summary by building of what came over 125,000. So I wanted to assure you that every penny was accounted for, you'll see pennies on this report. That's not usually my style. You will also see that we have moved over every fund that had prior restrictions to the facility and to the board restrictions, donor restrictions. We followed every category. So what came in was what left the other businesses. And the auditors are in the process of completing their work. We were on hold for a bit because the state treasurer's office just gave us a final report that they need to continue working on the audit. So far they have not found any changes but if they do, I'm going to reply to you in the future of any adjustments to these numbers. So I've talked fast. I'm familiar with having five minutes to do it. I'm excited to meet with the finance committee with Debra next week and talk more about this and talk more about this current year projection and about your timeline or whatever else are the topics for the agenda next week. And at our next meeting, we'll start talking about this year, the next, anything I missed or if you think of something, send me a note. But I wanted you to know I had so much fun. I'm done. I'm done. Yeah, somebody is, that's good. Any questions for Lori? Just one, what is your target for the general fund? We're going to talk about that next week at finance because one of the recommendations that was made to the board was to reserve a 2% to come up with a total but all few 32 and the executive committee did not transfer their excess money to the capital fund and there was some need to do that. So we'll talk more. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Other questions? No, no. All right, moving along then. Approve Runney Memorial School Playground Equipment bid. I'll make a motion that we approve Runney's Memorial School Playground Equipment bid. Thank you, Linda. You second? I'll second. Dorothy Seconds, good. We have that on the very last page, 36. Should I give that number as part of my motion or not? Do we need to give the amount? You could, yes, that would be cool. In the amount of $22,420.75. To Petite Valley and Associates. Excellent. Any discussion? Yeah, like, Evan, what does the, didn't work, did we have work? Is that not the baby? The, what we discussed at our, and Kelly, since you were on the lead on this for several weeks before I joined the group, my understanding was that the work that we were going to be doing in the landscape was going to be less than $15,000 was our participation and it doesn't require a public bid, but we are proceeding with it. Great, thank you. The next item on the agenda address is one other large item, but we'll get to that after you vote. Any other questions or comments? Should we go to a vote time? Okay, all in favor of approving the Runney Memorial School Playground Equipment bid as described by Linda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed, good. All right. Who seconded it, sorry. I don't think they did. That was Dorothy. Dorothy, of course, I didn't hear you. I don't think they did. Okay, next, authorize the Finance Committee to approve Runney Memorial School Attractor Bid. The Finance Committee is Floor and Vera as co-chairs and me as hangar on. So, can you address that issue? We need just to explain what it's about. Sure, definitely. So we needed to do some investigation before we were able to place the bid for the, make a public bid for the tractor. It's a small tractor which is designed to personal removal primarily on a grassy path that is adjacent to the preschool playground. And right now we don't have the equipment to do that. And so it's necessary part of the project. We anticipated the cost will be between 20 and 25,000. But the bid was not received. We weren't able to provide enough notice to our viewers to have that prepared for you this evening. But we're interested in trying to move the project forward. We'd like to recommend that you authorize the Finance Committee to approve the bid on that project when they meet next week. Lori or Kelly, did I miss anything? Just re-advertise it and then start due on the 11th. Yeah, the day before you meet. Okay. That will allow us, if you give that authorization to the Finance Committee, then we can proceed with moving the project forward and having that tractor available before. That's not false. And then which is it again? We don't have the, in the range of, the quotes were between 20 and 25,000. Definitely will be about 15. Okay. And there are legal issues to having the Finance Committee approved. Not if you authorize them. Okay, good. Okay, Chris moves to authorize the Finance Committee to approve the Romney Memorial School Tractor Bid. Do we have a second? I'll second. Monday seconds. Any further discussion? You up for it, Vera, for it? Yeah. Okay, good. Should we move to a vote then? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed. Great. Okay. We have approved hires, but do we have hires? Nothing this evening. We thought we might, but we do not. So we will call that topic to a future meeting. Happy to hear it. I would propose maybe just having future agenda items continued in the future. And in terms of reflection and summary of meeting, this was very hard, but I greatly appreciate the honesty and the integrity with which all of you and the public as well spoke in addressing this question. And I think there's nothing really to feel good about. We can only hope that this takes us in a good direction. So anyway. Can you explain what the motion means that the motion failed it? Yeah, the question's been knocked out as of today. Yeah, I'll bring it up, and I think we're done. Let it be, it's failed. I think you're moving to the board and decide if they wish to revisit it and a future meeting. Yeah, is that it? If there were some questions to be present, we didn't have all of them. Yeah, so as the French say, I've had to continue, but the feast continues. All right, does anybody have anything that they would like to say before we adjourn? No? I just want to remind you that chapter three is our next reading assignment. And by the end of September, if you wouldn't be so kind as to let's give us input about the community matter, that would be very helpful. And thank you for your kind attention this evening. Thank you very much.