 It looks as if everybody is here. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for waiting. Those of you who had to wait, well, we had ours at this point. Six million to sevens. Guests, welcome. Administrators, leadership team, welcome. Guests against the wall. There are chairs here if it's more comfortable, but just be wherever you want to be. And especially a welcome to our new student representative, sort of all of you, in one case, Mia Smith and Towns to Grote. We're very happy to be here. And if everybody could think of any way that this could be a better and more valuable experience for you, we want to hear about it. Okay, thanks so much for having us. Of course, it's a pleasure. All right, so 1.2 agenda revisions. We've already knocked off 5.1 Superintendent Surgeon Consultant. So that is done. Are there any other agenda revisions? I would like to address public comment we've gotten by email and I've had in person about the BSBA from our last meeting. I think that should be discussed during our meeting. Okay. Can you speak up, we can't hear. I'd like to discuss the BSBA from last time because I've had people talk to me personally and we've had emails that only went to the board. And I think the public needs to be aware of what that was and that our vote last time was 4.4 and 1 abstention. Could be the way. So I think that needs to be added to our agenda. It sounds as though it comes under the comments, yes. I don't know that that's why they're here. As a board member, I feel it should be something we as a board are discussing because it was 4.4 and now I've had feedback from the article in the paper and it's been pretty strong feedback. And as a board member before this was the unified board, I rarely had anyone contact me. So I think it should be something we readdress. So you want this as a discussion item on BSBA after this or something? Yeah, dues payment by our super budget. Okay, discussion. I just want to be clear what it is that. I would like a revoke. Oh, okay, that's a different thing. And that could not actually be on this agenda because it's not in order to. We're still. Well, I looked at Robert's rules and said it could. So. You just need to have two thirds of the members to reconsider the motion. Laura, we can't hear what you're saying. We need two thirds of the board to reconsider the motion to discuss. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm so dense. I have to ask you to bear with me. There's reconsidering emotion or reconsidering. Yeah, reconsidering emotion. But my understanding that would defer to others who have better knowledge of parliamentary procedure than I. Reconsidering emotion can only be done in the same session that the vote of the U.S. That in a different session, what you would do is to renew the motion. Renew the motion. So what you're proposing is to renew the motion. Yes. Okay. That's what I have to say in order for it to be far lintering than that's the language I use. Renew the motion. That's my understanding. And once again, I'm ready to be corrected by anyone who knows better. Okay. Lindy has moved to renew the motion. And the motion in question is to VSB to do is for the 2019-2020 square yard. Okay. Lindy has moved this. Now, I as chair am going to make the ruling that this motion is out of order because it's finished business. That a vote took place and the motion failed to carry. So at this point, what you would do, and again, if you want to challenge that ruling, what you would do is move to appeal the ruling. And once again, Michael, you're a town moderator. So if you have any comments or advice or advice, if any of this sounds wrong to you, please, I would invite you to let me know. Sure. If it's going to be binding, then I think it has to be warned. Right. At this point, we'll get to that. We'll get to that part. Yeah. I don't think you could take a binding vote tonight without putting on a warning for a future agenda item so that people would know that that's coming up for a binding vote. Did you say binding or non-binding? Binding. In order for it to be binding, it has to be warned. In the motion that was initiated, the postponement of the payment of the dues indicated that the article had to be on a warned item on the agenda. So based upon that, along, I believe it would have to be warned at a future meeting for a vote. Right. Okay. So it would have to be warned. If it comes to pass, it would have to be warned on a future agenda for a vote. Okay. So I have ruled the motion of power of order. And we're just talking about what recourse if you don't like that ruling. I don't. Okay. It's either out of order for this meeting or out of order for the future. At all. Out of order for this meeting. Well, there's no, I'm sorry. Out of order at all. It's finished. That's, thank you. Okay. Does that mean that? Pardon me. So anyway. Is it true then, a two-year expulsion? That's true. I think it's a minute. Is that two minutes? Okay. For an appeal, I thought it was a majority vote can overrule an appeal. So I think that the motion can be raised as something on the space without having to push it forward. Is the motion valid? It can be renewed at a, not renewed, just represented at the subsequent meeting. And I think it's a good idea. That's what I read when I looked it up. And I'm just being a stick with the processor. Because I think, I did read that they communicated through the product rules and that's what I thought. I read that you were right about three considerations different than what you're talking about. Right about the meeting. I guess the question I have is that we had for setting our agenda. And at the meeting that we had for setting up the agenda was not allowed to be on the top of the chair to add the meeting, not let it go through. But because it was business that we wanted to have, we didn't need to work it. So we had the ability, so you're doing a double negative. So I'm a little confused. And I'm a part of the agenda. Let me walk you through what I have in mind. And you tell me if it doesn't work. My understanding is that you may appeal my decision, my ruling, this motion out of order. That appeal can overturn my ruling by a majority vote if I'm not mistaken. That is correct. Okay. Thank you. I'm looking at Robert Schultz. What number? I can't really tell you because I'm looking at Robert Schultz for dimes. I think this word is drug-based. Scott? Michael. Yeah, chair or moderator on the floor makes a ruling on the floor and there's a motion and a second to override the chair. That motion can carry by a majority vote. Okay, thank you. So we're good. All right, we're clear on that. So if you were overwhelming, then there would be a second vote on Linda's motion. And then if that passes, it will go on to the agenda more for our next meeting. Right. Okay, does that make sense certainly? That's my understanding. Well, I think there's to be vote on Linda's motion. I mean, she just asked it to be on the agenda for the next time and then we vote that. I don't think. But she needs group permission. I mean, if you need to vote to overrule your decision as a first step, I don't think we need a second vote today now that you can make your motion. Right, because it would just be on the agenda. Yeah. For the next meeting. Okay, so would that be acceptable to everybody? I don't agree. I don't agree. You don't agree? I think if he is overruled, there still needs to be, well, I guess, perhaps not, perhaps. My guess would be that Linda makes a motion to put it on that agenda. And we can vote on that. But just, what I don't understand is things that are on the next agenda, we don't make motions at this meeting. There's a little committee that makes an agenda so I've shared my pleasure that I would like it on the next agenda, basically, I guess. But it does seem to me to imply that if you vote to overrule my, to overturn my ruling, then basically the same people would vote the same way. So it would just be redundant. That's for George. Yes, well, but whatever way he votes. We'll stay the same. And we don't, yeah, he would stay the same in a second. There is no harm in taking a second vote out of the overabundance of caution from the process. Okay, we'll go with the overabundance of caution. Let's do that. Okay. What is it, we're doing? Two votes? I think we should do two votes. Just be sure that we're doing the right thing. Okay, great. Can you go final and just say what the vote is? Why do I make a motion to overrule all the Scots? My ruling. Right. Today I appeal my ruling. Right. Okay, it needs a second. I will second that. Okay, very good. Now, again, as I understand it, because I also read Robert's rules for the time being, the chair in a case, in an instance like this, gets to speak first and gets to speak last. So I will take advantage of that privilege. And just to say, are you sure you want to do this? Whatever happened to all that stuff about setting this back, about re-illigating old issues, about having more important things to do than continually go around and circle some of these things? From my perspective, once a motion is laid to rest, it doesn't matter, even if it's a motion that I would have liked to see passed, a motion laid to rest should stay at rest. Unless, you know, there is some material change and the basis for this. For example, there's some new information that puts everything in a different light, or the situation changes and renders the decision, you know, not in some way. In that case, that makes complete sense to me. Because we have this procedural route to, you know, bring a motion back for the dead, I think, you know, I honor that, and I think it's important, and we may have reason to return to that procedural future. But I think we just have to be very careful about what we wish for in this case. So, who else wants to go? Nandini, you made the motion, which would it work? Well, I think what you just said is a little bit funny, thinking of the last five years. But, and how many things were revisited, this is one instance where I have had several contacts from not just people in East Montpelio, we represent all five towns saying, what were you thinking, there's $7,000, you're throwing out an awful lot of resources that have been valuable to the schools and to us for very little part of our budget over one issue. And I want to respect the people who reach out to me, and the way I'm respecting them is for us to discuss it again. I also think that last time the 4-4 vote, quite often a chairperson is to break a tie. That's not exactly how it was used. But, so I wanted to revisit it. I did not feel comfortable when I left, and then when people contacted me, I did not feel comfortable that I wasn't representing them. And my job is to represent people. I'm disappointed that I had a heads up that this was coming from the community. I was contacted to not reopen this motion. I voted to support the BSBA, but I don't think we made the right decision. But I don't know what opening it again is going to accomplish. I do agree with you and appreciate the round circle for five years. I hear what you're saying, and I agree with you. But at some point, you just need to afford it. And when I asked at our last meeting, is this forever? Is this this year? I just got to be very clear that this is for this year. I don't think we made the right decision, but I feel like in my heart, I just, I wanted to forward it. I want what I've missed, you're right. Just move forward. So I am personally, think that the chairs and both whenever they want to vote, I don't think they should be deprived of a vote, of a vote on any motion, and that just in the top. Is that, that's just saying, like thinking on the burden of being a chair, you're deprived of a vote, and that shouldn't be. I do think the process should be followed. That there's going to be another vote who can end the rules a lot more if we do it. Provided that we have momentum for it. I would also, I think that she don't like hearing this community member or that community member say this or that without seeing the substance. I would hope that we would share. We have emails. And things like that that any of us get or any politicking that's going on behind the scenes before then we'll have open and honest discussion in the service of transparency, including whether the BSPA or representatives have contacted any of us to bring up this motion because that would be, you know, I'd rather hear that on a forward discussion. Just often I'm not saying that that has happened. I don't know that it has happened, but in terms of transparency. So I'm actually just going to start to say that I don't need to vote to overrule your ruling and welcome to more of another robust discussion. If it is moved again, just for the process, because we will be sending a precedent that vote is not a vote because we can vote over and over and over again as long as you get a second and get another vote. Yes, yes, you are. We are establishing that because if it's done here, why not do it in other situations? I mean, that's just, you know, it's kind of like push versus forward for only this decision. We may create this one principle, but that principle is actually taking around a lot of its own. So if we will be sending precedent and just let's open that open eye and not quibble about it and then we can start again in the future. That's the only mission we can do now because we are in the middle of this. Chris, do I remember correctly that you have active litigation against the SBA? That you do. And that this board, or at least that I learned of it during the discussion at the last meeting? Yeah. So I would ask that in the, also in the interest of transparency, that actions like that are shared before the end. I actually did mention it during the discussion. I did it as an individual, certainly not a representative board, and it did to obtain information, which the BSBA has refused to provide. And hopefully it will, just litigation will establish that the BSBA is a quasi-public entity that needs to comply with the public documents law. And that's the goal. And I'm happy, anyone here? I could share copies of the complaint and the documents that went with the complaint and I received a motion of summary judgment from the BSBA tonight. And I'm happy to share that. That's great. And what are the terms? A motion of summary judgment. That's great. So if that's sufficient for transparency of talking about these things and announcing it in the meeting, I think Lindy's, you know, delivery of the information that she's received, you know, emails from the public should be sufficient enough to, you know, serve anyone's interests of transparency. And in the interest of transparency, I'd like to say to Gael and I have received an email from a community member here in Worcester today asking that we revisit this question as well from Paul Gannon. So in the interest of transparency. Thank you. I think, I missed a lot of what you said Chris, but one of the things that I did get from it that if we were constantly revisiting issues that seemed to be finalized, we're not going to get very far. And I feel as Scott did, that we're just going on and on about basically Act 46, which both Hathor and Lindy have complained that we are still fighting Act 46. We are not. We are here together. I've done several inquiries trying to figure out how to get the schools for working together. I wanted to, I did not. I realized when I was thinking about going to the Calis, get back to school, barbecue, whatever they had. And all of a sudden it dawned on me as like, well I shouldn't limit myself to Calis, I should be going to all the schools. And I didn't get to any of them because I have commitments at home I have to deal with. And I can't always just jump in the car and take off. But I have been working very hard personally in getting my own mind together that we are bored taking care of five elementary schools and high school. And we want all those kids to excel. We want our teachers to be comfortable. We want our leadership people to be comfortable. And to constantly revisit a problem is not helping us get calmed down and straight ahead and move forward with the things we really need. Excuse me, we really need to do. And I really would frown on revisiting this at another time and I would not, I would not vote to just answer what the motion is about repealing Scott's decision. I agree with Dorothy a hundred percent. Being a two month old, new entity, is there any harm in just walking away from the BSBA for one year and then coming back and revisiting and pushing all of this behind us because we know that there are so many things we need to do. And we now have 10 instead of 30 people to do those things. So I would rather not revisit this rather moving forward. You know, I gotta say that the key responsibility for our new board, like one of the two new board members that is to, you know, the responsibility of the new board is to adopt new policies for governance and operations, all of which must be very careful written. We're going to stairs with the attorneys and the prime minister, hello and hello. We have our policies from the prior year. The policies have been revisited because they were three years old. All new policies that we have in now, we won't have. So all of the policies that would align with their role, we would have to, not fair of our own state law, we would have to hire ourselves. So if the decision, I just want to question if they did not revisit it this time to have a back for the six, because the decision was made on behalf of the six. That was the last, the garage that we had. It's not because we don't believe that we should be part of an organization that their mission, mission for public education. It's not because we don't believe that this organization has helped us with policies. It's not because we don't believe that this organization gave us training this summer. So we voted because of back for the six. So, and then, just from there, and then lastly, we are gonna embark in finding a future superintendent where I would do this, in finding a superintendent for our district. And it does say, along from ourselves, the decision that was made. So I think we got enough information and I know everybody that had a pandemic, I'm like seven, because it doesn't matter. I'm part of the organization. Doesn't matter what I say. Please make sure that you're reaching out to everybody. So I think it's that, at a time where we're gonna need more health rather than less health, at a time where we wanna be more involved in policy and in the state, it would be a mistake for us not to visit a failed motion. So, for those that didn't vote against it, what is the plan to back our policies? How do we think for that? We have, I believe, during the course of the Board of Organization and Planning, the opportunity to hear from the policy committee that we formed last time. They won't be meeting until then, but we were able to find a suitable date for them. May we put this question to them in somewhere in our, is there a place to put that in? To, we're not in the next meeting, but even just as part of some of our discussion. Like, we're a little monitoring schedule, maybe? Okay. So how long do we have to develop policy in a year? A year? Well, I don't know. What? Got it. If you go around our policies? Yeah. So we adopted policies for the sunset, and we adopted policies that the previous filming. Correct. And we had a sunset for a year, and then to re-dial. Well, that's how the policy committee anticipated to go through the policies, and make recommendations to the Board of Governors to have that modified. And it was good. We don't have- We don't have- We don't have all the policies. Right. And I did act, so I was the policy chair before we unified with people from each board. I'm sorry to cut you off, but remember that we're talking about the appeal and we're not actually- That's why I'm appealing. Because I'm concerned about policy. Okay, okay. Not about Act 46. That's why people didn't want to be in the SBA. I'm concerned about our representation, model policies. We got them from the SBA when we were doing the new ones. We had to have all this done in a year, and they have them vetted. Their language is such that a principle is not going to get sued because a policy was loosey-goosey. That's my concern. That's why I voted to be with the SBA. So to say I voted because of Act 46 or no, it's because mainly for me, that's what I know they're really good at. They also are very good at board training. And I appreciated the board training. I learned a lot from both the original one and the refresher one. I feel it's a very good organization to help us in a way that is vetted, and we're not spending legal fees to have somebody else vat policy. I voted against joining. Mainly because I didn't have institutional knowledge of the situation, but I found it very disturbing that they weren't willing to share information with Chris. I believe wholeheartedly in transportation and trans... Sorry. Thank you, transparency. And if this organization is going to be advising us on policies, I believe that they need to have fundamentally a practice of transparency. And I know you mentioned there are other organizations that could help us. And my hope is to see that the BSBA behaves differently over the year, and then I would wholeheartedly support them if I feel like they will be more transparent and give us, you know, for Chris. You know, I wanted to also see what was going to take place between Chris and the BSBA before I even vote his vote. Have you noticed or sort of drifting into an discussion on motion here, is it a bit of an appeal? But Jordan? Lost my train of thought, and you interrupted there. I may not be on the appeal saying what, it'll come back. I just kept it over there. I'm starting to find information. Yes. The BSBA, I think sells its services. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. You have to be a member. We can buy those services. Get the services in there, right? Yeah, yeah. Just pay extra. The policies that are in office. It's about double for services that they charge or that there are also free services. We do get our policies reviewed for free as a member, but if we want them to develop a policy course and there's a fee associated with that, it's my understanding. Okay, so the model of policies that they've already developed are available for sale? No, they're available for members. I'm talking about other thing, members. If you create a policy and you'd like them to do that, that would be something for you. I apologize. No, no, no, no, I'm sorry. Once again, we're drifting into the motion and sending the appeal. I'd like to concentrate on the appeal. Is there anything more than anybody has to say about the appeal? Thank you, I just want to make a point of order that it is not fair that we just get that one explanation from Chris on what is going on with the transparency or the communication with the VA because there's more communication and some emails went through, but that should be clarified a little bit. And I know that it's not to this point, so I'll respect what you're saying, but it is not complete information. Because I would vote to put a stop to ruling and vote again after more information is presented. I didn't feel comfortable in supporting the organization because of the lack of information. So in the future, I think. So, does everybody feel they've had a chance to speak about the appeal, in which case, I get to wrap it up and just say, and it's very interesting that there's such a misconception that the vote was because of Act 46. And maybe that's an argument in favor of having the debate again as much as, I think, it's not a great idea, but that's up to you to decide. And if you're ready for a vote, okay. In this particular case, Rick, I'm sorry, what we're gonna do, this is a procedural vote. So, and because it's right before public comments, I'm gonna take the procedural vote and then, if there are no more gender revisions, we'll go straight to public comment. Is that okay? Thanks. So, the motion is to appeal my ruling that renewing the motion to vote on the SBA dues. Got that? So, what vote we can take in here? You're voting to overturn my ruling that renewing this motion is out of order. Very clear? I hope. Okay. All in favor of overturning my ruling, in other words, all in favor of the appeal, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Nay. Okay, I'm gonna have to go take nays. Or show of hands. All in favor, please say aye. Okay, lower, Chris, Janice, Nene. All opposed, say nay. Scott, and then George, Jayle, Dorothy. So, the appeal fails. Okay, thank you very much, everyone. And we'll find some way to accommodate concerns that emerge over the course of this in case that becomes necessary. Very good, all right. Any other agenda revisions? All right, public comment, 1.3. Any other comments, Rick? I just want to say, Richard next moment, he did a lot of good things in his presidency and he only did maybe one really bad thing. My God, I tell you, he should have been hung for what he did. And this issue goes way beyond Act 46. This was a betrayal of town interest. And to not take that with some serious, I mean, I would be really disappointed with this board. They're accountable. They are an association that's supposed to represent us as towns. And they arguably did damage to us. At least, you know, a few of the towns in this district, all of them in the long term. But by stepping out, you are making a statement and you're holding them accountable. And I would stay out until they proved that they are worthy of our membership and that they can be trusted. You change in leadership, whatever that is. And frankly, all these things, the policies, and particularly even the trainings, I would be worried. If they're doing things like this behind your back, I would be worried about trainings becoming a doctor nation rather than training. Bias creeps in there and if they get away with it, that bias will be pervasive and get worse and worse. We've got to hold them accountable. I'm sorry, that sounds harsh. This goes way beyond that 46 because it does go way beyond that 46. This is our interest that they're supposed to be represented. These are professionals and they are hired to do jobs. And yet, and we've got to remember who their taskmasters are, who they work for. That I think is important for this board is to think about beyond procedural. And I know you're a young board, you're setting precedent in decision making here, but set some precedent in ethic. You know, this is kind of ridiculous, I think, looking at what's been done and to shove that under the rug because they offer a few policies which we can get elsewhere. I mean, everybody's in this frenzy about being sued. Well, you know, I'm sorry, there's a lot of good information out there that we can not have that. We've got good lawyers if we make a mistake. I have a little bit more confidence in the system being a little bit more forgiving than that. This is a fear tactic. Now, let's hold them accountable. Anyone else from the public who would like to speak? Scott. Groups. I don't really have a dog in spite of BSBA but I would ask that you guys revisit this precedent that you just said in terms of a chair having a veto on the agenda additions that you should have a policy in place. And I think what just happened probably wasn't fully crooked. Shonda. I want to thank you for the hard work that you've been doing. I especially want to thank you for all of the work that you've done this summer to build relationships with each other and to focus on the future and the positive and the possible. I didn't experience the last meeting but my sense is that this debate has been really destructive to relationships and trust. That troubles me deeply. I see all of you as my representatives. As your constituent, my wish would be that you would really throw all of your heart and passion behind a vision that you love enough to fight for. This is such a distraction from that and there's no time to waste. There's just no time to waste. So I've just felt really sad and disappointed by how I've seen this unfold. But I also want to just say that I feel inspired by the efforts that you've made to come together around a vision for our kids and I really have a lot of faith that you'll be able to come back to that and orient around that and that would be my ask. Stay focused on that. Thank you, Shonda. Also, if I may, on behalf of the board, thank you for being willing to work on the negotiations with board members in Susanna and Deborah. It's an extremely important task and I really think that you are the perfect person for us as you've just demonstrated. Ellen. I wanted to thank Dorothy for putting information on her front porch forum about what's going on in the district and upcoming meetings and I really wish that all the towns would do it. I know front porch forum isn't the end all and be all, people read it. And if you don't have information, you can't stay informed and you don't know what's going on. So thank you Dorothy for doing that and I really wish these, Montpelier reps would do it. I'm not really sure why they don't. I don't live in Calis but I go to the Calis front porch forum and I think it's a real necessary thing to do. You can't talk about community engagement if you really don't put forth an effort to engage the community. Thank you. Any other public comments? Could I ask a question about the front porch forum? Because my understanding is somehow we can put it in all five or is it just that we can read all five? I'm not understanding it right now. You can read all five. You personally can do it in the community which you live but if there's something that you would like to put on that relates to the activities of the board or meetings, we can post that. We have one subscription in the central office to post that for all five. For all five. But otherwise you have to be a resident and we're gonna post it. So it seems to me as a board we should have something that goes out that's the same for the community with the agenda. I mean Dorothy's kind of gave the highlights and the agenda. And I do think it's a good policy or procedure, it's not a policy, it's a procedure to have that on all the front porch forums. I'm not sure. I think you can link on those forums. Link people to the website where agendas and materials are always so much. That's what I did. Yeah, you did that for Calis. But you also had it right there. You could read exactly. You wrote. It was a summary. Yeah. Before a past months or whatever last year when we get posted the front porch forum which was basically the same as we get on this piece of paper it was so long involved that I think a lot of people just, oh yeah, I had a meeting and went on about their business. So I tried to make it as short as possible. And so that they wouldn't read some of it. Pretty nice. Well, this is correct. Mary Lynn does a really nice summary for the middle section and I think it's a good response. And she does that to every meeting. Basically what happened in a post? Well he bets it to make sure he agrees with it. And then we post it and I posted on our middle sex family's page. So it's been good and it's been good to collaborate. It does take some time but I have gotten really positive feedback from community members that I was shocked that they gave it because as Chris can contest I tend to go on and on. But we are doing it now. Thank you. I'm sorry, David. I just wanted to follow because Mary Lynn mentioned our middle sex family's page and she specifically means on Facebook. I don't know if other towns have something similar but for people that aren't reading Front Forge Forum I think it's really good that it appears in bold places for people to see. And I'm really grateful that she plays in there. Excuse me. Scott, I would just offer the U32 board used to have a process by which it disseminated the same information across all five towns. And so we might want to consider adopting that process again. It sounds like you've already had, it was always difficult to find the people to write it but it sounds like you have two writers already but I wouldn't volunteer them. But. But. Oh yes. That's Chris. Does that seem to work well for us at the U32 board? Is that sharing of that one document? And we should have one voice. Yes. Are they? I think it's okay to have different voices. The problem is about our meeting, I think. Yeah. I think if it's consistent, it's fine. Rick? Yeah, I think you should actually have a board discussion on things like forward, forward, forward. But I do think that each of the board, the individual town boards should also present their entries. I mean they're, you say we're unified all the time and we are, we're trying to be, but always they're going to be kind of complex with towns. They're going to have things that will be of particular interest to a callous or a wister or a middle sex when they might not be to the others and it for a lot of reasons. So, and I think that will be lost if it is just the generic or decision which overrules that, that small voice. Important to have, you know, the local reps, you know, reach out to their towns and talk to those local, not about local impacts. Thank you. Johnny? Sorry, I didn't say this before. I'm Johnny Waterhouse, the wister at Health and Grief. Gia and Jonas are my neighbors, but I voted for all of you. Every one of you represents me. Gia and Jonas don't represent me and Chris and Mary Lynn represent middle sex. You all represent me. I'm your constituent. And I think it's really, again, destructive to be thinking about some of you representing callous, some of you representing wister. You all represent all of us. And they managed to what Stephen was talking about in 232, there was a core spiel after each meeting that because every board member posting to their town could have the possibility to, you know, emphasize one thing or throw something else in that might be of interest if there was, for example, I know some singer from the town who's in a musical that's showing or whatever it might be. But it was all basically coordinated. And what Johnny said is true, there are individual town board members. Right, I mean, that's- They're all everybody's. I'm happy to send you guys what I've been doing if you wanna look at it and you feel like I am capturing the essence of what we're talking about. I'm fine to do it. If there's not a cover in that, then that's fine too. I think it's been fair. I don't think it's as biased, but I really want you guys to take a look at it. I'm happy to do that. Thank you. Yes, Deborah, who's a good angel sitting on my right shoulder, and he is counseling me to advise you that we have to be careful about electronic meetings. It may be shared what we do, what we produce, but you can't just, yeah, you can't defeat that. Right, right, I'm not outside of the board. So that's fine too. It's just a point, at the end of the speech, even if we take turns, but or we could just that point, Marilyn, let's say we have a board taking, no, she worked for the first six, sorry. Three months for the first six. One person for the quarter, I don't know for the month of September to November, or what did it season, is it you or somebody else? Yeah, so yeah. So, okay, that's fine. And then, or at the end of the meeting, we decided that month might not be working for you, but just have one this evening. I think if we, why don't we do this one? We should do this one? Sure. And then we'll revisit it next time, and thank you for that. And that's a good idea. Okay. That way it goes to all five towns. Yes. This is a very valuable discussion. What I'd like to do before we move on, is just mention two other public comments that I've heard, just to register them. One request for easier access to board of info on the site, on the website. That seems to be a perennial concern. And the second has to do with the district string education, or any district string instrument education program. And that I think can be forwarded into a discussion, a more general discussion of music and the arts and other sort of broad gauge approaches. And that's it for public comments. I hope. Right? Good. I have one more from a Gina Page in front of you guys and I have a letter about the school lunch that we had addressed that frigate lunch, but she just said something about the price for the school lunch. Thanks. Thank you very much. Okay. The tour and update that was supposed to be happening at seven p.m. is now Saturday late. But we're looking forward to it. This is always the highlight of our meetings. Good. All right, well, welcome to Doty. We're the smallest jewel in the crowd, but we like to think we shine brightest. Because we have a wood gym floor. Honestly, this is one of our pride and joy. So I was gonna start with us going outside because as you folks know, very excited about Capitol Project. We're working on here with getting new siding and windows. And I was hoping to be able to show you just how needed it really is. Doty's a little bit of a diamond in the rough right now, but I was able to meet with Bill Ford and Lynn Sojana from Black River last week. And we're looking at some alternative materials. The custodian and I peeled, it was super fun, I'm not gonna lie. We peeled the siding off parts of the building and found a shocking lack of insulation on this end. So anyway, it's a very timely project. And what I'm really excited about is first off, as we look at what are some of the new materials that we can use that are both less expensive to install, less expensive to maintain, and also more energy efficient, really hoping to bring some of the costs of running this building down. And then as I tax around the playground, excited. So, but we're not gonna be able to see the playground because it's a bit dark out there, but any of you guys who are my age might recognize some of the equipment that's out there because we played on it when we were young. So the whole playground idea is really exciting. Otherwise in terms of the facility, this week I should have a locksmith coming who's going to re-key all of our exterior doors. One of the things that happens, I think in a very small school, it's very, you know, we have very porous walls with the community, but we need to be mindful of our students' privacy and our students' security. And to be perfectly honest, what I discovered is we sort of lost track of who has keys to the building and who doesn't. So we're gonna re-key the building and then, you know, reassign everything and start from scratch. And also as we walk around, you're gonna put it on a doorknob kick. It's a very concrete problem. You're gonna notice we still have some of the old-fashioned round doorknobs, which are not accessible, not good. So, and in terms of security, all of our doors lock on the outside with a key. So in the event of an actual emergency, a teacher would have to go outside into the hallway, lock the door with a key, and then come back inside, which is exposing them to unnecessary risk. So after the outside doorknobs, after I've played with all of those, we're going to replace all of the interior doorknobs so that they're all levered doorknobs and that they have the button on the inside so that they can lock. I think that when you're new to a building, sometimes when there's so many things to figure out and learn, you look at the really obvious things and you say, well, I'm not really sure about a whole lot of things, but I can see that all my doorknobs are different. So that's where that started. So this is our cafeteria. We're gonna, you know, I have multiple purpose rooms, so it's the cafeteria, it's the gymnasium, it's also the bleachers, it's become our stage. So it's where we're able to get a lot of things done. So if you'd join me, you can go out this way. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. No, it's fun to share. So we are now at Superintendent's Report. Good evening again, everyone. And thank you for your packets. You will see my report. I won't review it because I'm sure you'll get a chance to do so. But just a few things I wanted to highlight that I think were quite exciting. Open summer, when our administrative team met at our retreat, we decided to work for ways to improve teacher voice and our leadership work. We're going to have a selection here called the WCLT+. We're going to be having two of our regular committees where we join our chemistry group every other month so that we can reinforce the importance of expanding the information and also the leadership opportunities across the district. So we're excited about that. Anyone have any other questions or happy to answer or anything in particular about the work that's been happening? In the interest of time, we'll be great friends. So I really appreciate this. Any questions for Jennifer on her report? So you go over the creation of the social-emotional learning committee and keep wondering if there's been any other movement if that has been developed in any other way or is that not true? You mean, can you expand on what you mean about the committee itself? Yeah, I want to know. You said you're still looking for representation. Have you found significant representation? I know we have just recently reached out within the last few days so I can't answer that but we'll keep you informed on future meetings. We are hoping for broad representation from classroom teachers as well. I'm interested too. That's great. Thanks. Any other questions? Okay, then let's move to the consensus agenda which is to approve the minutes of September 4. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes of September 4? Floor moves second. Marilyn seconds. Very good. Any changes to the minutes? It looks good to everybody? Yep. Okay. So, ready for a vote then. All in favor of approving the minutes of September 4? Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed? Good. 4.0, finance, discussion and action. Within the package you have some materials that I trust you would have had a chance to look at. We have Lori here to answer any questions about anything that might be mysterious and Deborah is reminding me once again, thankfully the angel of stone speaks to me. And the other one on the other side, the other, I'm surrounded by angels and I guess I would have to be able to put my role so much forward. So, in the interest of time we were going to have Lori go through the numbers but as a review of what she said we had our first finance meeting to try to start working on budget for next year but at this point we just weren't done. Is this the format that we want to start seeing? Is this the format that we had before? We changed the type and it's a little bigger, a little easier to read where some of our very little that we gave because Lori was completely on top of it. There were a couple of things that I don't know you guys were able to read in the minutes on page 13. There's a step by step of what we did at that meeting and all I want to share is that Vera and Scott and myself were at the meeting and Vera and I are going to take turns reporting back through this particular meeting to tell us the best of Lori. As we started to get familiar with the numbers to be best if Lori reported on their numbers as they are. At the end we're going to have future things that we want to include in the talks about budget and also set our public forum dates for communicating with the community and try to leave those things to Lori. Just a quick highlight. The format that you're seeing in this report is the format that the full WCSU board with all its members agreed to have as the format. It was decided at meeting at Calis a couple of years ago. So we've continued with the same format. We call it a living breathing document that we can edit at any time. And one of the things that we're trying to come up with is how frequently would this report be updated and the decision that the finance committee was quarterly. So we'll do another complete projection update in December. But for right now what I wanted to touch on was what this report is. It's on page 11. And it's a fund balance report. And what a fund balance report is if you're in business it's what you might call capital or retained earnings. It's the amount of money you would have if you closed your business today. It's not inventory infrastructure or capital items. So this is kind of like a savings account. So the voters in this community has in the past given this board permission to utilize the fund balance and it has been a little more than the item at town meeting every year. And we would expect that that would be a request you would continue with. So the first page on 11 is the operating budget fund balance. And the top part talks about a transfer from reserve accounts those are the numbers that you saw at the last meeting in great detail in that report. And that's what we're going to call your beginning balance at this time. The auditors are finishing up the report. I should have it in a few weeks as a draft. After that we've taken a look at the budget and done a very brief update with regard to special ed staffing. And when you increase special ed staffing currently you receive reimbursements. So because we've increased our pair of educators this year we also have additional revenues of about 146,000. That's what we're projecting. Based on the fact that we borrowed less money and we borrowed it in a different time frame we're projecting less interest income and less expense. So this key on this report is a positive is good news. Increase the fund balance. The negative is not bad news but it's a decrease in fund balance. That talks about the revenues. So the budget was $33,854,769. The projected increase is $108,906. For total projection of $33,963,675. Does everyone, are you guys with me? Okay. Then the next section is on expenses. Go through every detail on the committee provided feedback on how to work things so that it was clear. So those are all the changes we're currently projecting for the first quarter of the year. We're projecting to be spending beyond the voter approved budget by $76,203. And because of the offset and revenues we're actually projecting fund balance would increase by $32,703 this year. There's still reserves. The technology and fiscal software are reserve. It was at the beginning balance but it's still restricted for that based on prior board actions. There's also a reserve for retirement expense that was built into a school budget for this year. Tonight you'll see a couple items on here that are pending board action. I'm sure Dorothy will review those later. Deborah, excuse me, I called you Dorothy. Deborah will review those later. We might, but Deborah will really review them. So one of them is a staffing pending board action and the other is a transfer to U32 Capital Fund which do you want me to discuss it now? Or do you want me to wait? I think we could discuss it now in our finance. Okay. So basically at the end of the year we had provided each board with a recommendation to reserve 2% fund balance and have the remaining fund balance when we closed the books to transfer to capital. U32 Board deferred that decision and did not complete that action so they had left it up to this board to make that decision. So what the Finance Committee had me do was to calculate the exact amount that would have been transferred to U30 had that 2% action happened. So we're recommending a transfer of $437,490 and if the board agrees with that the projected fund balance would be $1,042,530. It's still above the 2% target which we can talk about in a future Finance Committee meeting. That was the operating budget and the next page I'm going to go through really briefly which is on page 12. The talk section speaks to our grant funds. We have almost $1.7 million coming in this year for grants that are restricted for particular purposes. If we don't spend the money sometimes we give it back and sometimes we are able to defer it for a future year. That's why it has a beginning balance of zero and an ending projected of zero. The second section is on capital funds and again you'll see here where we noted the beginning balances that you saw at your last meeting by entity and you'll see under the area of revenues something called Interfund Transfers that's the sum of money that each school budget had earmarked for their capital fund this year and you will see Worcester had zero and it was because at the time they had expected they might be in what we call the penalty formula for taxation so that was an area they had cut out of their budget this year it previously had been in the DOE budget. And then you'll see the pending transfer that we're recommending of 437.490 to go into the U32 capital fund. I'm not going to go through all the subtotals but at the end U32s had quite a few expensive projects this year and they really do need this transfer in order to sustain a capital fund. If you do approve our recommendation at the end of the year it's currently projecting 497.707 but there is a list of over $200,000 of items that are requested to be done this year. And the bottom section speaks to the food programs and just the highlights are in the minutes so I guess I'll pause at this point and take questions. Is the other in the English language learner position is also a case approval by the board? True, it's in this projected spending plan based on student needs a .3 additional position. May I just ask board members when you look at the needs do you understand what's, do you feel comfortable that you understand what's going on or is a lot of this just sort of numbers swimming before your eyes? It's definitely numbers to me Scott. Yeah, I wonder if it might be possible that some quits for us to at least think about. Gloria if you, I know budget season is going to be a horror show but if there's a possibility to have other tutorials including for student members I would like for really every one of us to feel comfortable and confident working with these numbers. Sure, I don't know how much experience well I know we have some new board members and certainly our student members perhaps should give us a little direction or we could focus on a certain aspect of the report at each time so as not to take too much of the end of time. Yeah, I think we sort of this is probably the future agenda. Maybe in our time we could just do that. Gloria has done trainings in the past so we can go through the grab quotes of that. We used to do it with the people we were training but this time we focused on budgets this year because it was such a new thing. We were going to try to do it this year but because we were budgeting differently we couldn't use it. A lot of these terms, I mean some of these terms I don't know I used different terms but just like my thoughts so I don't know like what you're talking about with Gobi and the penalty staff we've done. Oh, okay. You just said that very quickly. Okay, so when we go to do the budget this year when we come to revenues there are formulas that the state has that when a school might fall over these formulas they would have to raise two dollars in taxes for every dollar that they spent and so Gobi was projected to be in that scenario had there been a separate budget in a separate tax calculation? We'll be going through it again in December because we'll look at it as an entire entity as well. So on page 15 of your packet there is some explanation of the transfer debt referred to previously and an outline of the motion that we might look for one of our more numbers to make essentially to transfer $437,490 from the general fund to the capital fund earmarked for U-32 this is substance of the motion. The vote. Second. Okay, discussion. Chris, so we are based with the motion of transferring $437,490 and I'm going to propose that we amend that motion to go over it to $300,000 and allocate $137,490 into a separate fund to address the apparently employees in student performance that we've been hearing about for years. We've heard from U-32 for years that students from different schools come to the address that with different levels of skill levels and we have not really talked about how really to address that this year budgets already established by the individual schools and those budgets are apparently allocated for the individual schools so I think using part of these funds to address what those inequities are and taking a step toward it before we develop in our future budget steps to deal with those I think using this money to get a move on would be very helpful and fulfilling what our pledge was in terms of creating equity across the district. So, was that an emotion to amend? Yeah. Yeah. I move to amend that we allocate $137,490 to publish or transfer into a special fund a separate fund to address skill level in equity across the district this year as opposed to waiting for next year. That motion will need a second. I second that. George seconds. Okay. So, to discuss the amendment do you want to start? Yeah, so this is a capital so we've been trying to be good about building our capital this is that this was something that actually the user in two board was an action that they were going to take before but they felt that they didn't have the authority because we were going to be forming a new board. So, this would be in essence doing the same thing that we did our local boards and transfer to 2%. So, because they, as you can see the balance of where we are in capital with the photo centers and so it's not like you said I was dedicated to capital. I'm all for what you're saying but we're going to address that in other ways in our budget but this is a capital need to be able to sort of bring the books to not right now with all of the different those funds. Yes. And maybe because we were in the finance committee we got a little more information but what I remember from your discussion too Scott should speak to this because they were both at the U32 and Steven is right here so he could give us the same but this should this is not one of those that we can split up. That's my personal. I agree. U32 is actually in pretty serious need of keeping up its capital fund. This may not I'm not sure it may not take us to where precisely we might be we may need to go deeper so what is the amount that we typically like to have in the U32 capital fund in order to at this time? The annual appropriation had been half a million dollars it was changed to 437 the year we put computers and technology it's on fund so that was the annual amount I'm not saying it's the right amount it was previously what the budget did for it. Thanks. I would just respectfully ask that we able to move over that capital fund balance that $437,000 so that we can complete our capital projects that we need to do this this year one of the things that I would just offer is that one of the reasons why the board at U32 chose not to move those funds over is because it was more than $437,000 I'm sorry I can't remember the exact number but it was the total amount of money that U32 had in its fund balance was more than $437,000 the board felt like they should bring all of that money to this board because it was already the five towns money but I think what we're asking now so that we can finish our capital projects for the year we do need some of that fund balance allocated to us the remainder of that fund balance though that we brought is going to remain as part of that larger one point or one million dollars in fund balance that you are then as a board able to do with as you please and here was the $677,000 as a contingency fund is there but there's an additional $365,000 that would be available to this board for any of those other issues that you might want to address I just hope that we can use the $437,000 for our capital fund complete those and that the board look at the $365,000 above that threshold for projects such as what you're talking about I agree with the board the inspiration with our next meeting having to make a motion that would do the same thing and charge the administration coming back and telling us where the need is this year because it doesn't seem right for kids the way to hear one of our directors plays out sounds good we still have a motion and a motion to amend it so we need to are we ready to vote on the amendment okay all in favor of amending the motion in order to take out that portion of the capital fund transfer for the purposes that Chris described please say aye all opposed nay so did I get enough well there was no ayes okay I think Chris I love the idea behind it and I think it's very important and it should definitely be worked in and soon okay okay so we're back to the main motion which is to transfer this money to the U32 capital fund are we ready for a vote all in favor please say aye aye any opposed none opposed okay great next decision to go to quarterly reports does that mean that we won't get pages like this in December so my understanding we're still trying to figure this out we're a very young committee that's in finance committee right now is at our next we have a different things on our agenda so things like what you were talking about so staffing for practices, outsizes, programming student needs and capital needs are all in our future budget make sure that our budget is built with equity around that so it's not they quarterly finance this we won't see it until December but we are in essence starting our budgeting process now so this is just like a bigger picture so you're right you won't see that unless somebody needs to see it I think what we need to get involved right now is more of a hands on budgeting that will inform that in December so is there much in terms of producing these reports just because seems like a long time from September to December then from December till but March or April and do not see these reports by the board what we had done previously was we inserted some of the reports unchanged every month so it was the same report you were seeing it just hadn't had any different numbers the projections were done this has changed compared to the last because it would be unfortunate I think to get a report in March that is towards December so this is this report reflects every employee's salary and benefits rolled up and unless they have a life circumstance they can't change their health insurance so the next time that people can change their health insurance is January so the reports are due to our office by December so their contracts are in here unless something significant happens this is the projection for the year all positions are pretty much filled except for one term subs so I'm not seeing a lot of variation the only caveat to that is next month we submit a special education spending report that may result in some change and if so we would obviously need to update the report thank you so we are because the English language learning position is also dealt with in this report we will pull 6.2 up to now if someone would like to make a motion we currently employ a .5 PLL teacher who serves students across our district due to some increase in student needs we are recommending that this be increased by .3 bringing our position to .8 there is a nomination form in the back of your packet on age 1900 so that you can see the literal cost the individual is Michelle Jochen Murray and working with Kelly and also personally met with Michelle to talk about her case load the students are new students who do not have any English and they require due support and that's more than we have available based on our FTE in the current position she has additional time and before this is necessary for the students nomination form has an increase of $21,300 but the form says $30,000 is that a health benefit or something that's different between those two? well it actually is $30,000 was an actual maximum that it could be these are really estimates until if the individual chooses to go on our health insurance the $21,000 was an increase of $30,000 she is at a .5 $30,000 includes benefits like FICA, unemployment workers and the $21,000 is the salary thank you sorry for the confusion so all together will be $30,000 I think I will move to I'll make a motion for an English language learner position for Michelle to increase .3 from her original .5 to .8 and a total increase for $30,000 oh yeah there is $2,232 $30,232 second okay floor moves Maryland seconds any further discussion of this? it's good? alright all in favor to expand our English language I think I need this our English language learning position from .5 to .8 for $30,232 and Michelle Tovall Murray doing this please say aye any opposed? none opposed great thank you approval board members I know where they are they're right here so I have a question about them I know we got an email about the Calis invoice and it's included in these so I wanted clarity and discussion about that there was an invoice from Calis about charges for voting costs which all towns had voting costs so we also got an email from Rosie concerning this as a taxpayer not as a town clerk and I wanted to question that so I'm not saying that because I saw that it was in this board order and I'm uncomfortable with that yesterday I met with our town clerks who actually our original purpose was to plan ahead for future elections and discuss a possible special election which is coming up on the board agenda later to amend for their art and we had an in-depth discussion about responsibility and amount of funds that a district may be responsible for as compared to the town now there are one thing I learned that there are some variations in the way our town clerks are employed and I'm sure you can listen to that better than I some are hourly employees and part time others are salary employees so that has an effect but most importantly it was noted that last year with the four to five additional elections that were held over the course of the spring primarily that quite a bit of additional time was devoted to members there was a a mixture of initially opinion as to how to proceed moving forward but in the end we did reach consensus for future special elections we will only be billed for the time of the individuals that call BCA employees who say act on election day to do voter checklists and so on and so we developed minimum wage if we run a special election only for ourselves in any postage they would track for absentee ballots that were sent out now I know this isn't something that you've done past but the statute does actually put the school district as a municipality as a responsible party looking for additional costs for elections by the norm this one is different because it does include time and other than the fact that the individuals in this town have hit an hourly basis I'm not 100% certain if they would have been paying for these days or not that's not something I was able to get clarity about yesterday so I'd be happy to discuss it further but I can tell you that this amount of money and the number of hours that have been incorporated is beyond toward the other towns would be supported about or would be agreeable to in the future the other information that we shared was the fact that this board and the policy committee can develop a policy for the future which would outline the parameters of exactly what expenses will pay but as of now we don't have guidelines so through the board to determine how you were to address this particular invoice and also if you're agreeable to the plan that the town clerk made with me to really narrow those expenses and those that are above me on and in particular at special would you know the other no well but there's expenditures so we should invite all the other towns to submit their expenses as well I'm not comfortable with that I think that the I realize that last year was unusual you say you've made an agreement with the town clerk going forward was that going forward to deliver payments for this year for future special elections no this is a decision you should make of course I'm also a BCA person so if I thought I'm not going to go there but to me I'm volunteering my time like you said it's kind of mental avoidance there's this little check because I'm there that day but you see folks people those are okay okay I looked at this and I kind of felt like the amount of work that went into documenting all this time was was also ours that were hourly work of the person who was creating the document and I just was very uncomfortable with this and to do it for five towns when it's never been done before and the town clerk that's just part of the town responsibility so it just made me uncomfortable because the other towns did not feel the other towns have not brought it up as yes it was out of the norm to have as many elections as we had but I wasn't comfortable with that it also indicated that over years of time there had been no other special elections so it really wasn't unusual it was very unusual I think I might feel more comfortable in order to establish a process that we're admirable so first have the plus committee talk about what future currency is and then if we have 4,000 voters we equitably distribute around the town clerks just recognize that there was a cost and then some people built and some people didn't build we don't want to start pressing that we would create some kind of a democracy between the town clerks and I think the policy going forward makes sense if for some reason we have another year where we're having all these special elections that there is something to help the town so would it be helpful if we were to pull this particular item from the board orders on this occasion and maybe in the finance committee we could policy be something yeah so maybe take a look at this in committees and come back to the board so how at that point is the total on this board order amended with that amount subtracted? yes and how would we propose that? I'll make a motion that you instruct our office to avoid that check and you would change the total in motion to be without that check I would like it to be two motions please just for the auditor otherwise I can't think of it because so does anybody want to make the first motion to avoid the check? how much is it? it is 37.39 and I'll move to avoid the check because it's $739 and 90 cents to be able to the town of talents if you're able to the town of talents okay Chris makes the motion there are then seconds any further discussion for now? ready for a vote? all in favor? please say aye any opposed? okay so we're basically putting this on hold for discussion by the committee now we need a motion to approve the board orders for I'm doing the math real fast right here I did it okay so I'll make the motion that we approve the board orders for the amount the total amount of $263,925 and 75 cents four seconds Scott moves four seconds any further discussion? all in favor? please say aye any opposed? okay at this juncture and I'm wondering if the board would agree that our student representatives don't have to be tortured any longer than they already have to I'm sure you're welcome to stay you're always welcome to stay but you are certainly free to meet before you go yeah okay, I was afraid of that no please I don't want to sit here we're here yeah but this would be a great time just to share would you like the student report? yeah, Sweden all these goings on going on it was the start of fall sports and homecoming is this weekend game at home today which we met tomorrow is white out stage 32 is starting avenue Q for their fall play it's going to be a show with puppets there's a little bit of tension with it that's been the talk around the school and today there were a few colleges around the atrium college fair for juniors and seniors and anyone else who wanted to stop and talk there are the usual you know sort of your activities a lot of clubs are organizing today there was training for peer mentors high schoolers are going to mentor middle schoolers and lots of other organizations are getting going and this Friday we have the climate strike and hopefully a lot of students are going to attend this Friday and YATS I'm studying it right YATS is a new group or a new old group so it existed before I got to high school and then in my freshman year it turned into bridging the gap but now it's back to being YATS and it's there to help bridge the gap between students and teachers and trying to find their ways to communicate and overall the student advocacy in the school does it stand for something? yes I think I was right it's you and adults transforming schools together yes you and adults transforming schools together YATST I have a question I don't know if there's not one way to say this it doesn't matter it doesn't matter this is an interesting question I'm just wondering what would happen if I got arrested on the climate? yes I'm just wondering thanks a lot your parents would bail you out they would I was speaking personally even if they're your kids' grandparents so are you asking if during your time at the march if you were arrested for civil disobedience yes nothing would happen to you there's no school action that would be taken unless the only time we take action on any issue that happens off of school grounds if it is a substantial disruption to the school for some reason I cannot foresee why that would be a substantial disruption to the school we'll be watching goodbye and it would also not preclude your involvement in this board if it weren't a criminal act good to know I have a question what if he was on a sports team would it preclude anything there so involvement in the strike means that they are missing school and according to our handbook policies students are not able to participate in any co-curricular activities on the day in which they're absent or on a Saturday if they're absent on a Friday that's any co-curricular activity and yes that has been a discussion at the school and they're eerily awaiting my final decision for one of our groups I needed to hear some good anything else town so I'd like to so I met with town and be super briefly today but one of the things that we discussed very quickly is that they represent more than U32 as students on this board and so one of our quick discussions was we probably need to have some method of them gathering information from the elementary schools as part of their report which we'll sit and work on what that looks like or what we could do and help support that because in the past the students represented the students on the U32 board but now they have many other students and so we're going to try to figure out how we can get some of that information here as well that's great good very good so let's see we are now on 5.2 if I'm not mistaken the annual meeting date, election of district officers and commingling of budget labs I'm sorry so page 16 is the printed material page 16 and 17 and so as we discussed in our last meeting we discovered that our annual meeting was scheduled on town meeting day and we all agreed our town clerks as well that will not work because of the fact that they are otherwise engaged in voting and having our Australian ballot votes across all of our 5 towns so in response to the interest of the board and looking at ways to make a change we discovered a couple of things first of all a special meeting will have to be called so the voters can act on this question of the annual meeting date and as we discussed in the past as well there was an interest possibly in changing the way that the district officers are voted on right now they are voted on at your annual meeting which means that you would have your everyone who attended would need to be certified as a resident and a voting member or to vote at your annual meeting to vote on those 3 officers in the past my understanding is that the 32 officers are chosen to have those officers voted on through Australian ballot on town meeting date if you want to make that change and utilize the practice you had in the past you will have to get approval to do that which is what's listed here under article 2 and the third area is the question of how the ballots are going to be counted if your current articles of agreement are doing a balance for your school board positions but not for budget so to follow the process we have in place now technically we would have to vote or excuse me, count our ballots for the budget by town report them individually and compile them and then bring all of the ballots together call me and determine what the outcome for the election of officers was for the election of officers yourselves and that will be added so that obviously would be a cumbersome process and I'm sure it wasn't just oversight most likely when you were organizing last spring in history you have commingled your ballots for the 32 budget so you have taken all of them together what commingling means is collect all of the ballots from the towns counting them and essentially mix them up and then run them through the ballot and you have your result for the entire district so if you choose to make that change it will also require a load of electors those are two fairly easy and clear I think understandable technical corrections but the question of when you hold your annual meeting is described in the two versions of article one on page 16 and if you were to choose one of these it's recommended that you choose one that will require that you don't have to vote on that twice so the second version allows you to make a decision that will be forever you are forever the date of your annual meeting so it will include both this year and future years so those years are some options oh and one other thing when I was speaking with our organization from U32 our central office staff and our town works I learned that sometime ago U32 chose not to hold your annual meeting in the official sense but rather hold an informational meeting and they accomplished that because all of the items that were that were actually done by on the ballot so some of the problems like that is that it's often difficult to attract a large number of citizens to your annual meeting and it does sometimes feel as though it's a recorded event but perhaps not an interactive event however on the positive side as a new board and a new district having a large opportunity to speak about accomplishments and plans as well as your budget student activities and exciting successes that we can point to in a formal way at an annual basis is also I think has a lot of classes and a lot of opportunities for us to once again continue to focus on the collective and our coordinated efforts so some decisions before you tonight to have an annual meeting and if so when and if you are in favor of the articles 2 and 3 which were proposed or discussed in the previous meeting not much to think about fairly simple but first let me ask a few questions about the guidance and the article that's been written I did by the way have an aesthetic by the board's attorney who has been advising you on articles of improvement over the last 8 years can I have a good question just a clarifying question so if we decide I think we talked about this before if we decide to not have an annual meeting that doesn't mean we'll have an information no it does not include that so if there's no voting at all it's just an informational meeting but you would have to have approval of the voters to use Australian ballot to elect the moderator so if you have the moderator as an Australian ballot item they wouldn't be able to have a meeting until the next year no but I believe that the board had a moderator elected your last meeting would it have been a moderator within the moderators or would it have been a moderator this year who presided over the meeting and your thinking related if you're doing a moderate ballot right and I understand that as an annual meeting you're appointed until such time as the re-vote occurs so if that re-vote is in March that person who was a moderator you might decide to call several special meetings and that moderator could be called upon to oversee that but if but upon a re-vote or an individual was selected through our Australian ballot from that point forward in March they would be your moderator for future year it's a one year position as is the pressure of the other two we're changing the annual meeting the day you went to spinning it would it be a four time meeting? yes so that it can so that you can provide information about the budget and the school activities that voted last year the ballot would still be on on article one version two the third line after Saturday is there a month missing like the last Wednesday or Saturday of March or of February or of March so tell me today is this year the 2020 is March 3 it's the first Tuesday in March so this would be March 3 so this would be March 1 if you're saying this is going to be a decision that applies annually you have to say 10 days the last Monday or could you say the Saturday preceding town meeting because it could be a March day or a February day so I think you'd have to say either the Monday preceding or the Monday preceding whatever day it is let's keep in mind that the week before town meeting is also a vacation you are required to vote informationally and that doesn't take the vacation if it's an informational if we're not voting on anything the town clerk's don't have to be there correct because I know on Monday night before town meeting and you couldn't be asking the town clerk to be somewhere on Monday night before you're setting up a whole vote for the next day some of them have informational meetings a few towns I think the night before also so that would be I know each one of your heads had Saturday meetings Saturday meetings don't count don't count we'll probably go away now to a different day it was joint but we were assuming that we would still report on town meeting but we should talk about that about how we want to do it or I'm sorry to report that the school board might report on town meeting in the individual towns but it could not be at all but it would be our representative my idea would be that because that's an important part we're going to be contacting because it is in play right now so another piece of information to share is that the town clerks feel that while there's no election on the first Tuesday in November this year that would be a good day for this meeting to be held or election to be held because we were accustomed to voting on election day rather than selecting another arbitrary day in the fall but to do so you would have to act on these articles tonight so that we could have time to have the ballots prepared and everything more into 30 days prior by the 30th of September I believe will be the deadline and for the review of the FAS&D balance because you can do early voting the big difference is that version two is permanent so we voted differently in version one different but it could be during a normal white town meeting or during a normal voting cycle it could be a regular ballot presidential so what do you want to do that's what it did last Monday better I think that's it we like people on vacation it has to be 10 days because that vacation is held at some time about the Monday proceeding that would be what I think most people are mad by that but it will miss if they're going to be back they'd be back more than Saturday and could we hold an informational meeting before vacation starts that's good because that's getting awfully close and again with early voting beginning of February people will be voting on the budget so we should be informing people what's the earliest day we can have a hearing I mean, what's 10 days before Tom made a thing it's that during that vacation it's Saturday the 20th which is the first day of the vacation but 10 days before the Monday before Tom it's Friday but that's the 20 hours of voting part which is amazing and there's going to be on the plane that night most of it I think the 10th day prior will be the Saturday that's going to be a part of the vacation for people if they travel wouldn't be part of anything the Monday preceding Tom meeting is that sort of a vague consensus and I think it's going to be great we know that Friday night is tough Friday night but that's just to be clear, that would mean that we would have to have a court hold an informational meeting during vacation during our life not if we're not making any action I don't think so it's just informational not making any action we never had a court we never had any people what do you think we're going to figure out so, okay, I'm going to make a motion to Tom's version two of article one the Monday before Tom meeting Monday okay, Chris's move that we adopt version two of article one inserting the deleting last and within the bracket insert so that it will be thereafter to the Monday before Tom meeting and then delete everything else within the bracket to transact etc did I get that right? would I suggest that we say the Monday before Tom meeting day would I suggest that we say the Monday before the first Tuesday in March? yeah, because some towns have different Tom meetings okay, okay, I like it excellent still sharp but I'm 30 okay so Belay what I just said to the Monday Monday before the first Tuesday in March Monday before the first Tuesday in March thank you Monday before the first Tuesday in March to the transact any business etc is that good? yeah okay, do we have a second? I'll second let me second do you want to hear them all together? thank you if we move them all together there's just one question I don't have a lot sorry okay, very good any further discussion? article 1, version 2 Bruce one problem I have in all of this is if your other two articles are approved you'll have no purpose in your annual meeting and you're setting yourself up for always having to oddly warn it and oddly warn your informational meeting and I think you it would be better you can focus on getting the two oopses corrected and at most do this shift for one year and test it and test it and yeah, just see how it plays through because all of this is happening so quickly we saw the errors that crept into the articles of agreement because things were going too quickly this same sort of thing is happening now and I think you'd be better off doing it as a one year deal because I think you're going to want your annual meeting to be on town meeting day and just not hold it is how it's going to play out just like U32 will be the end result and I think our community members are going to be attending meetings in their town to the raw people we could also do maybe this experiment and decide that it really doesn't work and we should have listened to you in the first place you could always change it we could always change it because you'll have a November normal election next year that will be very well attended I would say so if it was on that ballot there would be a lot of people voting that's what we're going to do but that's an excellent point thank you very much the only other thing I was going to bring this up when you were having the discussion on the callous bill is please follow through with that policy and get there because that's callous shouldn't be billing that isn't the protocol that we had developed none of us want to bill but we want something in writing so that we're following the same protocol the committees have heard yes thank you very much okay we do have a motion on the table should we go with it? any further discussion? having heard Bruce's alternative we can go with it and we can always change it listen are you ready? I know everybody's tired but shall we? okay all in favor of article 1 version 2 as proposed by Jonas with the modification the Monday before the first Tuesday in March please say hi any opposed? none opposed great so article 2 clear enough any discussion? are you ready for a I'm going to have to move on to the moderator and then the moderator to be elected by what we're doing we don't have a forum we've been going back and forth we need to work on this and my people voting I don't know it's my preference but that doesn't mean it's not what everybody can do so after this first year because we just voted in that version 2 we may not need a moderator if we go to an informational meeting is that true? yeah that's why I'm saying it for other stuff for other stuff so it would be good to have a moderator for the following November yeah yeah I'm okay with having the moderator elected by a straight down did anybody else want to weigh in? I think it allows more people from all five towns to weigh in on the moderator other views? should we vote anything? okay I'll make a motion for article 2 that's the second do you need me to read it? so Flora moves a second I'll second any further discussions? on the favor please say aye aye any opposed? one opposed okay so article 3 my question about this is really for you Chris does this conflict with our articles that we recommended on closing schools? I think it does I remember one well I think yes it would just because the town which school is located has to be a majority in that town of course so we would have to segregate in that role and segregate the town those by town so I thought that when we were looking at the article it would be at both of that town it says it says that in the academic years 2021 and 2022 and after the new union district board shall not close any school building to provide direct construction in at least one grade pre-k through 12 unless first approved by both a majority of the union district board and the voters residing in the town in which the school is located so there would be a general vote yes the question would only go on if the majority of the board decided to do it I thought there was another article in agreement I'm too tired to go work it up now where I was really surprised where it said at the election the town clerks will talk about the ballots and then the information gets sent to wherever it gets sent to we had we did it just for voting for us because we didn't we thought we were doing it for votes but the way it reads is just for the elected members so article 11 the it's representation on the new union district board on and after the annual meeting 2020 and it only addresses school directors it says immediately following the meeting of 2020 the board of school directors shall be extended to include five members this group shall be additional members will be elected in 2020 and then it goes on to say that the votes are only referencing the board of school directors not the budget and other public questions so that's what was omitted and most other article agreement when they were initiated included that but it was omitted the report articles actually came with the voting by the hand came to us I don't think we inserted that we didn't take it out but I thought it came to us it's not at all addressed now I don't know what they may have looked like previously but there was no reference to how the vote was to be taken and your last warning in June which I could look up on online we did talk about the vote for the budgets in the individual but that would have to be determined you really need to make a decision moving forward and you have a problem in that there's two ways in which the votes have to be counted right now it's both coming and individually so you really need to correct that okay do we have a motion for article 3 I'll make a motion for article 3 as written Wendy moves second first seconds so we determined that a vote to close a school is separate is not a public question it's not a public question it is a public question but by a vote by an individual town that's involved in this it wouldn't be a district-wide vote at least according to whatever it says on the shell of orders of the district vote to require a fallacy criminal for all elections he was talking about closing a school I do think that this is only related to district I thought that a vote to close a school required both a vote of the town and a majority of the district the majority of us the majority of the board we didn't have that option we took it out we said that we as a board needed to be convinced that if that's double veto power to the town it's like we needed to convince you enough or whoever the time was that school needed to be closed and you vote because otherwise if it's a vote of everybody you know, Wooster is small we have more voters my understanding which apparently is correct is that it required a public vote of the entire district majority of the entire district and the majority of the town we have to have enough information in fact this article 3 is asking that the ballots for representatives and the clerk and the treasurer those votes be those ballots be comable budget the budget is right now the only information the only way to address that is in relation to that those should be comable I don't want to address and as I said before right now you would have two different processes the town courts agree would be very challenging and it's not historically what you have done as you looking at U32 you have always combing your ballots for the budget vote since the school was created I understand that so it's a common practice right because that was the only budget voted on by all parties so your town would vote and they would vote on the school budget, the elementary budget and then the high school budget and all of the high school budget questions would be combing across all of the communities and then one result is reported so I'm not in favor of this amendment even though it's a funkier procedure in terms of vote counting and the reason I'm not is that a lot of folks express their opinion of voting on the budget and I think having at least a certain period of time seeing where our town's voting on the budget is a reflection on how they feel things are going and even though the budget when they're finally called may not be passed I think it's good to have all some communities of how they're feeling individually as to whether they think it's working for them or not and I think that's where the budget vote will be very helpful and seeing that reflected in the individual candidates and counting by hand will keep us informed as opposed to not being informed because we won't know as well so I'm going to vote against which reduces the information that we can actually get in terms of how it's going to feel and how it's going to be combing with the ballots you combing with the end you have to have all the ballots but you have to have them separately by hand so but those with the the officers are representing the budget I think the budget is too kind of vision I think it's a safety vow because we have worked a safety vow or at least the expression of frustration was evident in this past budget vote and to ignore that I think we'll maybe do a service I disagree because I'm thinking of the U32 budget and we came out thinking if past or it was close or it didn't pass I'm even thinking of the fund vote 20 years ago and we came at it as one and what Shawnee was saying earlier is we're representing everybody and I just feel really strongly that we need to continue doing that and we get the pulse of our communities through other means whether it's from court forum or emails or whatever but I just feel that that's another oh well I just feel it's going to cause more division than if it was a close vote or it's a landslide vote or whatever it's all of us together making that close vote or that landslide I mean it trickles down to the students too because then it's like everybody's pointing fingers and it doesn't happen before so then it'll be oh you know your town voted again to not pass but you know it's our job to keep enough information so that the budget pass but not to like you know he's popular because he's voting the budget down you know I don't know it's a horrible dynamic which is what we try to get away and that's why we're not doing that so we should follow there's no way of telling which towns have voting now which is not good practice especially as we're starting to be troubling poor people we don't put that thing I'm a teacher in one of our schools I would feel pretty bad if my town didn't support it but all the other towns did and it comes out in the news or whatever I just feel like we should all be one in the support of our schools or the not support of our schools that gives us a good message if the budget doesn't pass I think historically it's important coming out that your budgets have passed both in the elementary level and in the 32 for many years sorry I don't know the exact number so I think that is positive that there's been ongoing support of our schools and we appreciate that I think there are good arguments on both sides of this question but are we ready for a vote on it? for the discussion? no? okay so in favor of article 3 as presented please say aye opposed no it carries alright board will monitor the discussion that's not necessarily an action is it? should we vote? I think from the last time we can table it consider it the next one is broker flash I wonder if we might be better to do it more fresh to extend them out some folks have maybe to drive it to and I understand that's stable this time I think the only comment I have is that we have to figure out a way and I know we have a lot in our place don't worry we'll be playing first actually that's a great idea first so we're at 5.5 board committees to establish the superintendent search on this search committee so do we have any motion to establish the superintendent search committee with the charge as written out on page 18 for moves and is that good? Chris seconds, thanks discussion it says draft the hiring of my energy criteria I assume that's by this committee so we're making a motion to make a charge charge and also what would be nice is to get people in there too and I would welcome the chance to serve on this committee but first we just have to make a motion for this charge, right? right, the motion includes the charge so the motion is going to include people that's what I'm saying let's do the board at any time so we have a motion to establish the committee with the charge on page 18 any discussion? you're good? alright, on the favor please say aye opposed? none opposed, good alright, now Chris now I would be happy to be on it anybody else? so as we formed the committee before it's pretty much been we just said we're in it or is it a motion? we're just going to make members more none what is the makeup of this committee? I think at a minimum three in four members I assume we're going to have community members teachers, administrators that's sort of a bigger formation but the steering I would suggest I'm just suggesting at least four in case, because it takes a lot of time and there will be people who can't make it I don't know if one of them is an alternate or not, but you want them all there so maybe I'm wrong but I just we'll see we'll see we'll see we'll just call it four and hope that you'll always have at least three I don't know I know things happen there will be there just because you missed things come through the interviews and things like that but in terms of formation process so that means if you're okay with me being on it I'll go into it too so we can okay we have Dorothy go ahead are you sure? so we have Dorothy, Floor, Chris and Scott proposed for the committee and you'll always be welcome you know so well it isn't an open process usually is it so as you're saying I'm just going to be back in my mind in the bigger formation with community members the steering this is the core I guess I was referring to the larger when it's a public and people know who they are but at the beginning of a surge where it's just like committee community okay so is that good first floor? are you ready to vote on that? okay all in favor of having Dorothy, Floor, Chris and myself on the superintendent this is going to happen one more until we break up I will move and Scott, Floor, Chris and Dorothy will comprise the core element of the superintendent thank you, Jonas George great so any further discussion? all in favor please say aye opposed? not great thank you we have community budget forum dates great representative proxies or V-high in this bid? we could probably post them as well but we just would like to have a motion essentially each year in November when the superintendent association and the school board association meets there's an annual meeting of V-high in this bid and normally the board would give the superintendent the ability to provide a proxy vote for action items and I'm aware of what those might be but it has to do with administration of our community care for the school districts that say they're not and I'd be pleased to be a proxy and I would be willing to do that does anybody want to make a motion to nominate Deborah as a proxy for the V-high in this bid? Chris moves for seconds any further discussion? no? okay on the favor, please say aye aye opposed? no? excellent thank you very much do we have hires? future agenda items remain future next steps for board members Marilyn, you're okay with writing up this marathon? yeah am I sending it to the public? I do thank you thank you very much anything else from anybody on the board students? thank you, I have to give you a real price for endurance oh great it's more easy than that okay administrators are with safe travels home and everywhere is this an objection or a juror by consensus? pass 10, 31