 All right, let's open the meeting. So just for people wondering about quorum, we can have a meeting without quorum. We just cannot vote and have a binding vote with, I think, the practical exception of adjourning. So, yeah, so we have probably a worn meeting. We just can't have a binding vote. But since we, other than the consent agenda, since we do not have any actions, that require a vote, that should not be a problem. So we will proceed as needed. Open up to public comment. Public comment is a very important part of our deliberation. It's to provide the board with constructive feedback from the community members about either items that we are currently considering on the agenda or either other items of concern that the community members may have. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to, well, our protocols do not have us respond in real time. That says we take these very seriously and we try to respond with follow-up meetings and oftentimes the questions require us to ask the administration and do some research. I do want to say just a couple things about the track proposal, which may be on several of your mind. We're going to hear from Andrew LaRosa later. I just want to clarify that the track has not been subsequently taken up by the board since the flooding of July 11th. We have not considered the track in any substantive way. I think Kristen asked a question at the last meeting about the damage to the current track of Andrew LaRosa, which as I recall, he answered that as with most of our grounds, there was some minor damage that will require some repair. But that was not a question about the proposal that we approved quite a while ago now, last fall, to renovate the track with a $1.8 million proposal that we have been updated on since then that bids came at high. So as of the last substantive discussion we had, we asked that a rebidding occur this year and it would be later in this year. I do want to say and the board has not formally acted, but really consistent with discussions that I've been having with Libby. We understand the implications of the flood. We understand what it means. And we also understand the climate change models that show that we are likely to have more of these events in the future. And we need to be very mindful of that. As such, I think it is almost certain that we will delay the track project and probably any other major investments on the ground other than what's needed to get kids safely into school and allow them to have the education and the opportunities that they are expecting for this fall. And we will, I think, have a very broad and detailed discussion, as is the whole community, because unfortunately it is not just the high school and the track that is in the flood blind, as is our entire downtown, about what that means and what sort of investments we need to make. And I think everything is on the table and there's been a lot of ideas constructively put forth in the community. And we look forward to that discussion, but I don't think anyone on the board is thinking about or intent on pushing through any major infrastructure expenditure, including the track, without a thorough vetting of what the flooding means and whether we need to rethink that investment. Other investments, frankly, the location of the high school and the future of that facility. And that's a broad discussion with a lot of difficult questions and answers. And it requires a thoughtful conversation and it also requires immense community participation and a lot of expertise and a lot of thought. So we are not, again, committed to pushing through the track as we had approved prior to July 11th. So I just want to get out ahead of that because I'm sure there's a lot of questions around that. Since we have Jill on the phone, I am going to switch up the agenda and just do the consent agenda quickly so Jill can rejoin her family on vacation. And so let's do that and then we'll go to public comment. Policy monitoring as well, Jim. Okay. For approval. Sorry, Jill. Yes. And thank you, Jill. We appreciate you hopping on. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move we approve the consent agenda. Great. Do I have a second? I second. Thank you, Emma. All those in favor? Oh, any discussion? Great. All those in favor, please say aye. Well, actually we have to do the roll call. We're back on Zoom. Lynn, yay or nay. You can give a thumbs up if you can't find your mute button or thumbs down. Thumbs up? Okay. Okay. Jill? Aye. Kristen? Aye. And Emma? I will also vote aye because of our short numbers. Do I have a motion to approve the policy monitoring report A1, board conflict of interest, and A20, board meetings, agendas, and preparation? Do I have a motion to approve those policy to policy monitoring reports? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Great. Two seconds. Any discussion? Lynn, yay or nay? Yes. Okay. Jill? Aye. Kristen? Aye. And Emma? And I will also vote aye. Thank you, Jill. Enjoy your vacation. You can stick around if you want to, but you look like you're in a beautiful spot, so I know what I'd do if I were in your shoes. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. No, thank you so much for calling in. Taking the time. Great. Thank you. Bye. Bye. So public comment, we're all on Zoom now, so what I'd like you to do is, if you wish to speak, is to raise your hand in the Zoom function, which is under, if you go to reactions, there's a button that says raise hand. If you can't find that, you can just take yourself off camera and raise your hand physically. So anyone who would like to speak, please do. Bridget, please introduce yourself, and you've got the floor. And great to see you, by the way. It's great to see all of you. My name is Bridget Acie. I was until recently the parent of a high school student, but not anymore. And I just wanted to call in tonight because I wanted to express just so much appreciation for Libby and Andrew and the clean team and everybody at the high school who have been, and I know there are people whose names I don't know, have done so much work to get that school open again. I just know from my own son's experience that these are kids at the school now whose education has been interrupted once in a pretty dramatic way and to not have them be able to go back to school this year would have been just another interruption for those students. And it's just really amazing. I cannot actually believe that the place is going to be managed to recover so quickly. Also, I wanted to express appreciation for the superintendent's letter to the most recent letter to the community, which I think is just a great example of providing lots and lots of information so that people know what's going on and setting a really good tone for the discussions that are coming. And Jim, the same thing about your remarks just now setting just a great tone for, unfortunately, the discussions that have to come over the next months and years as Montpelier figures out where to go from here. And lastly, I just want to thank everyone who's on the board who's taking this on because that's yet another crisis to steer through and I know that's a huge responsibility. So thanks. Great job. I'm much appreciated. Great. Thank you, Bridget. I appreciate it. Anyone else would like to speak? Paul, I see we came off cameras. Is that, do you want to speak or? Ah, great. Sure, yes. I just wanted to, well, first I appreciate your comments, Jim, that everything's on the table. And I wanted to sort of put it in the board, bugging the board's ear that now is probably a good time to start thinking about forming a committee to investigate the possible merger of the high school with U32. I know it's been on and off the table many times, but we've never really had the motivation to follow through. And now, obviously, we do have that motivation. As you're probably aware, there have been a lot of comments on front porch forum, a lot of questions. And there's going to need to be some time spent answering those questions and figuring out if it works for our community and the U32 schools. It won't be a quick process, but I would suggest that the committee that you and I, Jim, served on for the Roxbury Montpelier merger might be a model for you to follow. For those of you who aren't familiar with it included representative members of the school board as well as citizens received very strong support from the administration as far as gathering facts and information that the committee then could try to digest. So it was a real group effort by several communities and several sectors of the community. So I hope you will put the topic on the agenda at the appropriate time. You know, certainly now it's not the time, but probably sooner rather than later is better because as you said, we don't want to invest a lot of capital into this building if we're going to be changing direction. Obviously, we want to keep it keep the building functioning and supporting the students that are there as you said. But at some point, we'll have to make a decision about what direction we're going to go in. So thank you. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. And James. Hello. I'm going to lower my hand so don't forget. Thank you. I just first want to start off by echoing Bridget's thank you to Libby, the board, all the efforts on behalf of the leadership to get the school ready to support the school, the clean team. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of work they've done. And I would add also thanks Libby's note that was so pitch perfect as well as Jason's. Jason's letter from the principal I thought was really fantastic. So thank you to all of the involved. I just wanted to weigh in on a couple of those things. I've made some notes so I hopefully can do this quickly. While I know that there are changes in consideration and coming my I just want to put on put some flags in the ground, I guess going forward. First and foremost, a support for Montpelier to have its own high school. I think I and I would I guess beg honestly beg all voices involved. The in the wake of the flood, the argument has very naturally been about physical logistics and dollars. I mean, while those are of course incredibly important and powerful considerations, when it comes to educating the children of Montpelier and an identity for them as a high school and the size of the high school and the quality of education, etc. There are factors that aren't physical location and aren't dollars that I would say in some cases are more important than the latter two. Um, that that I hope members of the community will keep on, you know, that we can keep in mind and continue to elevate as as those discussions go forward. Um, next, uh, um, sorry, I'm just that the the facilities for the students in the meantime, any change I'm assuming is going to be a relatively, relatively speaking, a long term change, which means we've got I'm not even sure what is it four or 500 kids at MHS, um, seeking an education about 400 kids. Um, I, uh, I with respect to what Paul just said, um, I would hope that we can, um, and I'm not suggesting Paul that you set it this way, but I think it could some might have been suggesting it, I think in this way, which is kind of a bare minimum of functioning while we figure things out. And I think our kids deserve more than that. And I fully I'd recognize that this might mean throwing some money at a school where, you know, we're changes down the road have to be made. But I think our kids deserve more than than a bare minimum keep it functioning. Um, and again, I hope the community and including when it comes to the track, um, I forget the numbers. But my understanding is that when you add up the numbers of kids in the high school and the numbers of kids in the middle school that we're dealing, we're talking about a pretty significant percentage of the students. And I think those, the opportunities of those students to express their athletic selves deserves more consideration than recent con discussions have been allowing for in the public forum. And then finally, and then I'll stop. I really, really, really hope that we as adults and I'm talking about the board or Libby, I'm talking about the rest of us, the citizens in the town can figure out a productive and, you know, useful way to continue these conversations that is not front porch forum and that is not social media. Our kids are on those things as Libby noted in her note and speaking, you know, from my to in high school. And it's not that these kids don't deserve to be in the know on this stuff. But the temperature of the debate makes it all feel like right now. And oh my God, and it's, you know, it's there's there's an urgency to it and a temperature to it that I don't think is good for our kids. And I don't think is fair to them. As will be suggested, I think in your note, these kids deserve to go to school for however long it takes the community to make the decisions in a setting that is settled. And that is firm. And that says from the community saying to these kids, we've got your back, whatever's coming down the road, you go about your business, we've got you and we're going to case you in a settled and firm situation. And I think housing this debate in a continued manner, as it's been going, doesn't do that. It alerts our kids to too many firecrackers, I think is as best I can say it. So I hope we as a community can figure out a more subtle and structured way to have a very legitimate and open debate that doesn't expose the kids of the school to this ongoing pot of boiling water, I guess is how I'd put it. And with that, thank you very much. And I apologize if I went on too long. No, thank you, James. We appreciate it. Anyone else? Otherwise, we can turn to the rest of our agenda. Great. Thank you everyone for spoke, who spoke. Now talking about being part of this discussion, we unfortunately, Seiji Ohashi, fortunately for him, has started a new business, which is a pool hall in Barry. And apparently, pools and Barry often require the owners to be there on Wednesday nights. So he is no longer able to be on the board. So he resigned a couple of weeks ago. We wish Seiji well in his new endeavor. He was a great board member. We will miss him. We do have an open seat that we need to fill. And I should forget the timeline on it now. I know the announcement went out a bit. I think we might even be trying to fill it by our next meeting. We have gotten some community members who are extremely qualified who are interested. But if that is something that interests you, please get a letter of interest and a little bit about your background to the board. And we will be moving forward with that expeditiously because we really want this person to be part of the very important discussion that many of you touched on and I touched on earlier, as well as we are in our cyclical budget season, pretty much starting at the year off. And it's really helpful to have a full board to do that. So I can't say it's a thrill a minute, but it certainly is great service. And it's a wonderful way to serve the community and our kids. So with that, I'll turn it over to Andrew La Rosa for a update on Montpelier High School. And I also just want to echo the sentiments of some of the community members who spoke and then we echoed last time. It is really, really been amazing and inspiring to see this, you know, the staff and Libby and Andrew and Tom and his custodial team, and I know I'm leaving a few names out, really pulled together. And they've been working pretty tirelessly. They have been, you know, in constant communication with the community, in constant communication with the board to get what was pretty significant flooding event at our high school cleaned up and under control. So that way our students on August 30, which is right around the corner, will hopefully be able to return safely to a school that is going to be, my understanding is more or less fully functioning. So Andrew, I will turn it over to you and Libby to give an update on that. DMI, I just have a quick question. Is there a deadline for, is there a deadline for letters of interest? Libby, do you remember I don't have the... You put it in for the next board meeting that the board would make the choice. Yeah, so I think, I think as long as you get in before the next board meeting and there's the opportunity to circle around and also for people who are interested, we will give some time at that board meeting for you to introduce yourselves and tell us a little about your candidacy. I know at least one person who's on this call right now has already expressed interest. So, you know, please feel free to come next time and we'll hear from you in addition to your letter. And if you can't make it, we will equally consider you as well to be on that meeting. It's not a, not a prerequisite to be chosen. Okay, and Jim, just for, for details sake, at the next meeting that we'll consider this, is the September 6th meeting. Yeah. So, folks have a clear on that line. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. And I'll be sending out details of the one who would do that because our September 6th meeting is also going to be part two of our retreat. So, we'll have to give some thought to when it makes the most sense to do that and, you know, not structure it. So, anyone has to be there for all four hours of that because that's, that's a lot. So, at the high school, we're transitioning from sort of the event to occupancy. We met with the contractors we've been working with who have been drying the basement and monitoring the air and all those kind of good things. And we're moving, we're just starting now. We started today. They're basically slowly ramping down their systems to, so we turn on our systems as well as put on the basement fans. So, what we're going to do is at both ends of the building, we're going to have fans that are going to be sucking out 1200 CFM of air that's going to be scrubbed through HEPA filters and dumping it out into the atmosphere, basically keeping the basement at negative pressure. And that's how we're going to, that's how we're going to be for probably about six months. We'll continue week to week doing air tests within the building to make sure the air is safe. But we're going to be, I can tell you, as having stood down there this morning or this afternoon with all the other sort of outside equipment turned off and just the exhaust fans on, they're drawing a pretty good breeze out of the building. So that's, that process has started. It should be wrapped up by the end of the week that will allow Pure Clean to pull their generators and desiccant machines and air conditioning machines and all that and out by the end of this week. So are they're going to set up that equipment in the basement for the long haul, for like I say six months probably. We're going to, basically the areas where we're going to be exhausting air is on the backside of the stage through the bulkhead. Nobody ever goes back there. We say everything's going through HEPA filters. So there's no concerns there. But basically we're exhausting from the bulkhead behind the stage and then out by the cafeteria courtyard area. So we're going to, we're going to be blocking that area off so it can just sit and run and just let it do its thing over the next six months. Just so that we're perfectly comfortable with the environment down there. We have a contractor coming in in September to look, we had at one point, up until a couple of weeks ago, we had put a poly barrier. The basement is basically dirt. It's actually sand and stone, but it's a dirt basement, the floor. There's no concrete floor. So we had in the past a poly barrier under the gym and under the auditorium. That worked really well. We'll probably do that again. The rest of the basement, we will talk with our industrial hygienists and talk about the pros and cons of putting another barrier down in the basement. But that'll come in the future. But we are on track for the start of school and equipment is slowly starting to leave the campus. The site itself, Kyle Bale-Avance and his crew have done a great job out front, sort of shoveling off the silt and integrating what's left and aerating and they're going to start seeding. They still have the practice field to do out front, basically half of the practice field. As you enter the school, the field on your left, we refer to that as the practice field. About half of that's going to need to be scraped off and, but we'll be able to use half of it for middle school field hockey. Matt Link has secured his work with Union River Soccer to work with Vermont College Fine Arts to use that field for soccer, for middle school soccer. But our game field is looking great at the high school and the field hockey field is looking great. Tom and Kim have done a great job of aerating and rolling and aerating and rolling and all that. So it's actually, that's in pretty good shape. Our baseball field, well, Chip Stevens who is with Diamond Tech, Kyle Tech, he works with the Mountaineers on their field and U32 on their field. He's working with Kyle with regards to getting some grass down this fall. He will be basically prepping the baseball infield in the spring, so we can get a good season in on that. But next summer, we'll end up having to dig that out, dig that down another five inches and put in new soil, new sand in the infield, which had happened this spring. No, last spring, last year. So, but that'll wait until the spring. Same thing with the softball field. We're basically bringing the grade up there to about five inches or so and then in the spring, we'll be able to bring that clay in for the softball season. They can bring that in and they can play right on that. So we're in good shape. We're expecting that the students are going to come into the building and never know that anything happened and we were very fortunate that the water never reached the first floor and stayed in the basement. So with regards to what the students' perception is and the staff, it'll be as if it never happened there. And we're all on track. The airtesting is happening weekly as well. We'll continue that throughout the year. I named the airtester Bucky today, so it's got a name and everything, but he'll come in every week during this fall and then probably more sporadically as things are good and positive. Great. Thank you, Andrew. Any questions for Andrew or Libby about the high school update and again, fantastic, fantastic work and yet another unexpected and difficult crisis? Well, one of the advantages of working in a school is contractors like working in schools. They see a real value and the ones that we've been working with, you know, Brett at Benoint and Scott and Tanner at Johnson and Kyle Bellavance and all those, they see the value and appreciation of working in schools and they've definitely stepped up. Everybody involved has really stepped up and Tom and his crew especially. Fantastic. The other schools just so people know this because they're going to be of interest. At the elementary school, the rise space, bathrooms been framed out. The plumbers were in days run together. It was either yesterday or today, I don't know. They were in roughing in the new bathroom up there. The little gym, the walls are sheet rocked. The ceiling is in process. The framing is up, the sheet rock hasn't, but the electrical is getting roughed in today. Fire alarms are going to get roughed in tomorrow. The auditorium, unfortunately, is taking a little longer than we hoped, but I think the end results, Libby's seen a couple of snapshots. I think the end results are going to be well worth it. I think people are going to be very pleased with that. Tara's doing a great job. It's amazing what she's been doing over there in her crew. Floors have shined like they haven't shined in a long time. The cafeteria over there, if anybody's got kids that are in the elementary school, we took out the old clunker drop down tables that were chained to the wall. We got rid of that. It's all been painted. Unfortunately, the new floor is not, there was manufacturing delays in that. The floor isn't down, but it's been revamped and repainted, and it looks really nice. We're putting in new lunch tables in that space, so it's going to look great. Over at the middle school, the guidance suite is cranking along. Our contractor has agreed that our expectation is that on the 28th, they're going to be able to move in, but that's looking great. That's the old wood shop that's now been created into two offices and a reception area for guidance that's going to be really nice. We have, in the cafeteria, we changed the flow. We added a set of stairs to keep to improve the flow in that space. That's all coming together, and it'll be ready for the start of school. Those other little projects are clicking along as well. Great questions for Andrew, and I have a quick one. I'll start to cover it. The electrical in the high school, I understand it's a temporary but safe fix right now, and it might take a while for the permanent fix to come in. Is there an update on that? What has happened is, the way it happened in the original is Todd Benoit basically was working with the state inspectors, and they were basically said to him, if it's safe, if you think it's safe, it's safe with us. They came in during the event. We killed the power to the building for a week. They've gone through. They've made their inventory of parts and pieces. We're still, Barry and Montpelier has a new code with regards to electrical equipment that it needs to be out of the flood plain when you build new. We've reached out. Our assumptions, we were going to move it up to create a new electrical closet. They actually told us that that wasn't necessary. I still have to go over and talk with Andrea and get a little clarity on what that all means. Whether it's by code or not, if it's a good idea, we're very fortunate that the area that we would need to put the electrical, we actually have space above where the existing electrical panels are. We're fortunate that we can basically go straight up with the stuff. Where I get some clarity on that one, we've got the boilers themselves. We were very fortunate in that, I think a school somewhere over in Addison had be commissioned a couple of their boilers. Our contractors were given these burners, and so they had them in their warehouse. We have one set up. We were able to retrofit that. We actually have the hot water has been turned back on. We're ready to go there while we wait for our new equipment, but that should be here well before the heating season. DDC control systems, they were down there this morning or this afternoon, replacing their old boards and putting in new boards. Like I say, my expectation is that anybody who's not in the basement getting their hands dirty, everything's up and going and operational in it will be. Excellent. Thank you. Any board questions for Andrew? Excellent. Thanks again. We appreciate the update. We really appreciate the hard work. And yeah, now it's been quite an effort and echoing the comments of Bridget. Yeah, it's really great that we are able to avoid having this crop of play schoolers have another disruptive event in their school line. So we appreciate the fantastic work that you and Libby and the custodial crew and Tom and everyone and all the contractors and everyone has done. I don't generally like to do this, but I think when it's all said and done, I'm going to make a proper list of all the people and give it to Libby so she can actually in some form really truly acknowledge the people that were in here doing this stuff. Because there's a lot of people being pulled in a lot of directions and for some reason our pull gets a little extra tug over and over in our way. And I credit that to Tom because they know when they come in to do a project, he's going to be standing elbow to elbow with them all the way through. He's not in that sort of sets the tone. They know that when they're coming over, it's appreciated and we're going to help them as hard as they're helping us. You might have something to do with that too, Andrew, just a little bit. Tom was here before me. You set the tone before I got here. We certainly continued it and we usually appreciate it. It was like it's just Lynn and I left. We were going to cover a little time for you know as part of our meeting on September 6th, we were going to we are going to have part two of our retreat kind of building off the work that we've been doing for a while in terms of putting indicators of success for our board priorities. Well, Lynn, if you have any questions about that that you want to air now, please do so. Otherwise, I think we're, Kristen is back. Otherwise, I think we are kind of at the bottom of our agenda, but Lynn, go ahead if you if you want to comment on those because I know unfortunately you are, I believe, not feeling well, not able to make the retreat so. Yeah, I don't have anything at this point. I read the minutes from the retreat and I think I'm good. Excellent. Thank you. Kristen, any comments on the indicator of success or anything you want to kind of give thought to before we convene to dig into this project again on the 6th? Yeah, other than just that I felt like really good positive forward motion occurred at our last meeting and this definitely feels like just solid ground to start the goals work in earnest. So yeah, no changes or edits. Great. Thank you. And we've done the policy monies. So motion to adjourn and have a motion to adjourn. Do we need a motion to adjourn? Why do I do it anyways? We have a core. Marilyn, you want to make the motion and I'll. Sure. I move we adjourn the meeting. And Kristen, do you want a second because you're the only one left? Second. All those in favor? I. I. I. Great. Thank you all. I know it was a brief meeting. I look forward to a long meeting on the 6th and obviously, you know, as we discussed earlier, we have quite, quite a bit to dig into this fall. And, you know, they'll be, they'll be difficult discussions, but really important ones. So, you know, I was looking forward to those that I can't be, I wish, I wish we, we had different circumstances, but we have circumstances we have. And again, anyone who's in the board, please send me a letter of interest. Including your, your background and why you want to serve by the next meeting. And we will, we will fill that seat. And for those who've already done so, a huge thank you for being willing to step up and serve. So, thanks. See you on the 6th.