 It's nice to have you since you have more meeting here and the last time we did it was in the music room and it looked very different from this. So it's nice to have you. If there's anything you need, let me know. But the bathrooms are right outside here. There's candy and chocolates that can also be shared with the audience if you feel you need a little sweet treat as the night goes on. Welcome. Thank you. So with that, we're going to get started in our meeting tonight because we have a lot to cover this evening. But first, I just wanted to remind everybody that tonight might be a little bit hard, but we've gone hard things together and that you're all looking forward to this conversation. We still appreciate the staff being here with us, the community members here with us and we have about 33 people online too. So I'm sorry for the little bit of delay. We were trying to make sure that everybody that was online could be with us tonight. And we'll talk a little bit more with the board before the discussion. I was thinking that we would move again the presentation first and then move the public comments a second after the presentation. Okay, I'm not going to get volume on here. Oh, this is looking. And Mark is going to be going back and forth. He's trying to distract you guys, but we need that to figure out that presentation. Alicia, yes. Sorry, there are some that are used here and here to do very well. Can I just try to use my teacher's voice. I don't have that in mind. And then correction is in the minutes. In our consent agenda, the minutes of 12, 21, 22 have been approved. We've put them out of the meeting. So stretch that. The minutes from 1, 11, 23 were included because we didn't have them ready yet. So we'll approve them at the next meeting, but that's why you're approving 112. I know that we're missing 21, but maybe it will happen the next time. Everybody okay with that? So then we're going to get started with the budget presentation and then we'll have a little bit more conversation. Well, I'm not getting a response. Okay, no break, but there's coffee and cookies back there. And fruit if you must. Okay. Much better now. Okay. Yeah, I'm feeling better. Sorry, I really apologize for the people in remote and here. So for the people remotely, we just make two adjustments to the agenda. We're going to start with the presentation first and then move into public comments in public comments again the same please be kind to everybody. We're going to limit our public comments to one and a half minutes. Even if you're in public, I know we can't mute you if you're in public, but please try to help us out. If you had had a chance to send us an email already, or had a chance to give a, you know, to speak at a previous meeting, please let others speak first. It doesn't mean that you can't speak just let others go first and then you can go. So are we in agreement on that and just, you know, be kind. This is hard. Everybody's working really hard to do our best for all our kits so let's do this Megan. Thank you and share my screen. I'm also going to see if I can do this so I don't have to hold Mike. Am I close enough to it for you to hear but no not really. Hey, I'll hold it. It's okay. Thank you though. Okay. Again, thank you to everyone. Thank you to the board. Thanks for everyone who's on the screen and here. It's, there's a lot of engagement and we're really glad to have that just a couple logistical pieces. This is a shorter presentation than it's been the past several meetings because largely what we've what we are sharing here. You've seen most of the detail of it. There's more information in the board packet and the memo there are some packets up there that can be passed around to the audience. There's also copies of the slides if you like to hold them. And there are some extras for the audience. Mark will put a link in the chat because you can access the packet online so those of you on the screen you can access it that way and we will post the slides to the website afterwards. I think that I think that's all the logistics that I wanted to cover. So again, we've shared this before, but this is where we are in the process tonight is the meeting that the board will where the board will approve our final budget and talk about the warning that will go to the voters. And again, we're going to do a little bit of recap but not a lot because we don't want to spend that much time kind of repeating but we'll do enough so that you know where we've been. And we're here to view draft for and draft for as a reminder is the board asked us to come back with there are a lot of numbers here so I'm going to apologize. The 3b budget that we looked at last week, without the combined services reductions that's one thing the board asked us to do. And the second is the board asked us to look at a level service budget. What the next net increases are and tax impact so we will look at that for both versions of the budget. And then the board will discuss. Again, a reminder, and for anyone who who is newer to the process these were the parameters that the budget that the board gave us the administrative team to continue to offer and further develop our multi layered system of supports. This budget includes an initiative to achieve improvement for our historically underserved students remain under the spending threshold, as it was calculated previously even though that is suspended in the law right now there is still a mechanism to calculate it. The board has asked for a net impact at, and this has changed over time, but at the percentages that we just talked about what contingency plans might be for further expense reductions and then proposals for combined services those were the original board parameters. And as a recap. December is when that 9.7% budget was shown that was a level service budget. You'll see tonight that level service budget is higher than it was estimated to be in November and that's just because things evolve over time. In addition to those parameters was a budget at 6% in December the second draft budget that administration presented was at 7.59% because that was as far as we could reduce the budget without making structural changes and without impacting education quality standards. That's where that 7.59% came from. The board asked us to show a budget at 9.7 again, and that's because the level service costs had increased by that time, and they asked for a budget at 7% knowing that that would require a proposal for combined services or restructuring that was December. We had an additional meeting in January just last week, and we were asked to bring in a, or the, the ask for today was to bring in that 3B budget without the combined services reductions and a level service budget. That's the part I shared just a second ago. And we just want to continue to remind the board as you jump into your discussion that these realities have not changed in this in our conversations we have enrollment realities in the system. We have a significant amount of funding that will sunset next year. We're going to talk a fair amount today about tax implications of the various versions, and even with all of this that we know there are still things we don't know. We don't know what the legislature will officially do with the additional funding in the education fund. We don't know what will be done if anything to continue to fund universal school meals, which again that there is no state funding for that at the moment. So, still a lot of unknowns. Okay. So before we, before I talk about the two different versions of the budget. There's a couple of points that I think are really important for the board as you deliberate and some of this you've heard before, some of it we haven't emphasized a lot though. We think it's important for you to sort of have it fresh in your minds as you, as you discuss. In this presentation, we will not be talking about the combined services proposal just because the board did not ask us to come with additional information about that but we do want to reiterate. Kind of a talking point we shared last week which is, there is a lot of opportunity in this system to think very creatively about what we want for our students and what we could provide if we have scale. And that is where these conversations, at least for the leadership team become exciting because it's about what can we do for kids, as opposed to what are we reducing for for kids. And a lot or all of what we've been talking about is reductions and that's hard to much easier conversation to talk about what we can do. There's a really important talking point that we want to share and we'll probably it will come up during the discussion about the impact of a failed budget. So we know there were some commentary and there has been about the kind of this idea of bringing the budget to the voters and letting them decide. It's really critical that the board understand the impacts of a failed budget. Some of you have been through it and some of you have not. Functionally, it'll dictate the work of your administration and your central office for the immediate future, and however many months it takes to get through that process because in order to meet and back up to warning and voting timelines. So there's a significant amount of logistical impact. We're in a pretty significant situation of uncertainty related to our staff, we may have to issue notices for reduction in force that we don't ever intend to act on, because with an with an unknown as to whether or not the budget would pass in time. We would have to meet our contractual obligations. That is a really significant just people impact on our system. To be honest, neither of those are the impacts of a failed budget that are of the most concern of the administration. A failed budget when it's can foster mistrust in the community and it can kind of set us on a path of. Are we really recommending what we think is the right thing or or are we, are we waiting and deciding and then it starts to cause people to say well do I trust the first recommendation. The impact is more far more than just the logistical piece. And again, word members that have been through this before they know that and I'm not trying to be kind of condescending but it's a pretty significant impact. Part of our job is to bring forward a budget that'll deliver what we want for kids at a price the community can afford. And I think that talking point about what our communities can afford is something we really have to think about we've heard a lot of, you know, yes, I support education and I am okay with tax increases and there are many people in our communities who also support education and may have a different experience related to tax impacts. And, and that's something we think, and maybe that doesn't need to be saying need to be repeated to the board but it's important to the leadership team to kind of reiterate reiterate that. Whoops slide reorder. Hold on just a second, because I'm missing a slide. Well, I'm just going to keep it on. The slide that I was going to show is the slide that talks about the three lenses of our budget. So, kind of want to remind the board and those of us listening that there's a lot of thoughtful planning that's gone into this budget. And long before we had the parameters from the board about what percentage to bring in. We knew we had to approach this in a way that is not just okay each building decide what it is you would reduce if you got asked to reduce. And those three things are education quality standards, which are the metrics in Vermont for what delivers a quality education. We wanted to look at equitable distribution of resources. So, are we serving our students in our buildings with the same proportion of resources that of the students they serve. And student need are we taking student need into account because that can differ per buildings. Our team began those conversations long, very early on in the process. And it's important, you know, we hear a lot of commentary about you know how come you haven't considered cuts in this other area or in these other buildings or in these for these things. And part of it is if we allow the conversation to be building by building we miss the opportunity to make a system decision about what works for students. It doesn't use it may not use the same set of data. So these lenses really are important. And, and we think it's important for the board to understand that. And I'm looking at Suzanne's quizzical. We are hold on a second. We are missing but there's a way to do this with Google. I'm going to stop my share for just a second. I'm going to go to a different version of the slides. I wonder how that happened. I'm going to revert to a different version here it is. I'm going to go back. Nope, we're all good. Share again. Sorry for those folks on the screen. This is the visual that I was talking about. So now you see it, but you've seen it before this is not new and it is in the packet so those are the three lenses, kind of circling around what it is we need to do for kids. And that's pretty important. So I don't mean to belabor that with the board you've heard me talk about it before. But there is a lot of thought into these recommendations. And this is a slide that you have also seen before. It is probably representative of one of the most significant realities that we face as a system and that is our enrollment. And that's hard to let me minimize this. Over time. This is three years behind us and three years ahead of us. And over the entire span of that time that's about a 23% enrollment decline. So just a reminder of that piece. Okay, now we will talk about numbers. So this first version we're now calling this for a, and again apologies for the multiple numbers and letters. This is the version of the budget that preserves the reductions that were actually originally proposed at our December meeting the 21st. These are the reductions that are proposed without restructuring. It keeps all schools within our education quality standards, which allows us to move forward our identified priorities and provide services effective services for students. It moves us towards more consistent staffing across our buildings. And it minimizes cross building program changes and anticipation of strategic planning. So without trying to confuse it this is also budget that you saw last week, except it is not you it's not including the reductions that came from combined services. I'll do the slide and then I'll pass it to Suzanne. This is a summary slide of those reductions. The reason it's a summary is because you have seen it before. Those of you that have not it is in the packet so either hard copy or through the link. There's more detailed information about what that is per school and rationale, you've seen that before. And now Suzanne will share what the numbers are passing. Okay, I'm Suzanne can the business administrator. On page 11 in the packet is the comparative budget summary that provides a breakdown of the changes in the budget by category. In this version the district would spend 38,273,246 dollars offsetting projected revenues would be 7,224,092 dollars. The net education spending that needs to be raised by property taxes is 31,049,154 dollars. And as you can see, this is a 7.73% increase in local education spending. The tax rate is calculated based on the local education spending per equalized pupil, which divides the local education spending by the number of equalized pupils. Equalized pupils are a two year average of the district's average daily enrollment, adjusted by several factors for pre K secondary students students in poverty and limited English proficiency. Equalized pupils have decreased from 1412.82 to 1376.82 over the current year. This combined with the increase in net education spending results in local spending per equalized pupil of $22,551, which is an increase of $2,151. After deducting $754 per equalized pupil for allowable reductions, the per equalized pupil amount is $406 under the excess spending threshold of $22,204. The local spending per equalized pupil is what determines the equalized tax rate. Just a reminder that a 9.2 change in equalized pupils equates to approximately one cent on the tax rate, which means the tax rate has increased $5.08 just based on the change in equalized pupils. Comparing the local education spending per equalized pupil of $22,551 to the $15,479 property yield gives us an equalized tax rate of 1.4569. As discussed at last week's meeting, the property yield is set annually by the legislature and may change depending on the amount of unreserved or unallocated funds from FY23 that are applied towards lowering the FY24 property tax rate. $15,479 assumes that nearly all $64 million in the Ed fund is used to offset the tax rate. $15,479 is an increase over last year's property yield, which was $13,314. So it's an increase of $2,165. This was based around a forecasted year-over-year growth in education spending at the time this was set in December of 8.52% estimated statewide. A $104 change in the property yield would change the tax rate by a penny. The common level of appraisal for each town is then applied to the equalized homestead tax rate to get the individual tax rates for each town. A CLA drop of .673% is about one cent on the tax rate. The CLA's for all five towns decreased significantly. The changes ranged between a drop of 8.95% in Berlin to 5.19% in Worcester. And I know I keep giving you lots of information. This table applies the individual town tax rate to a house valued at $100,000, $200,000 and $300,000 just to give you a picture of what it might mean to an individual household. So I'll just let you take a minute to allow time to review the table. Next slide. So we'll head into draft 4B just as an overview. It's a 9.98% increase. This is 3A with the library media and the food service and the Spanish all included in it. So there are no program level cuts to this budget. The cuts that are are included are para educator cuts to special education services that we know that are not required for next year. So we have draft 4B, which is a 7.61% increase in expenses combined with a 1.69% decrease in revenues for a 9.98% increase in local education spending. The decrease in equalized pupils combined with the increase in net education spending in this version results in local spending per equalized pupil of $23,022, which is an increase of $2,622. After deducting the $754 per equalized pupil for allowable reductions, the per equalized pupil amount is $64 over the excess spending threshold of $22,204. Again, the local spending per equalized pupil is what determines the equalized tax rate and must be printed in the warning along with the total expenditure, request and percentage increase in spending per equalized pupil. The local education spending per equalized pupil equates to $23,022 for draft 4B, comparing this amount to the $15,479 property yield gives us an equalized tax rate of 1.4873. And this table exhibits the tax rates calculated across the district for draft 4B. The tax rates still increase in each town, but the increases range from $0.11.6 in Berlin to $0.05 in Worcester. And here are the town tax rates for a house valued at $100,000, $200,000, and $300,000 using 4B. You can see that the increases on $100,000 house range from $115.83 in Berlin to $50.16 in Worcester. And we'll just pause again for a minute to allow you to consider the table. And the next slide is a side by side tax impact that shows the two different versions and it's a little bit small on the screen. But it's intended to show you side by side the tax rates for each town, as well as the impact on $100,000 house on each town. And the last slide that we've included is information about the budget warning language. We wanted to end with a slide demonstrating for the board what the budget warning language will be in our ballots. This is what our communities will see. And those of our public who have not engaged with this process or who do not review our annual report will see a double digit percentage increase in spending. And even the most conservative proposal here. Currently, the article for the budget warning must include the total expenditure request. The local spending per equalized people and the percentage increase in spending per equalized people. This is legislative language that were required to put it in. However, the legislature is currently considering article 42, which would remove the requirement to include the percentage increase in spending per equalized people. And we've received information that this bill is on a fast track for approval and maybe to the governor as soon as next week. So we may not have to include that percentage increase. But at this point in time, we don't have a certain answer on that. Okay. Thank you Megan and thank you Suzanne for the clear presentation we're going to move into. There's more people coming in. We're going to move into public comments right now. And like I mentioned before, in, if you are joining us remotely please raise your hand. And just here, we're going to put this mic there so that you can come from the front, identify yourself and then share your comments if you have already sent us a letter, or if you had had the opportunity to comment and before please. Let's let others that haven't had a chance go first. And for those remotely please raise your hands. And if there's anybody in the public that is just to get an idea of who's hoping to make a comment so that we can organize ourselves raise your hands there's no need to be stressed everybody that wants to speak should be able to speak. One, two, three, four, five, maybe six, seven. Okay. And don't worry if somebody else feels like they have to speak. Don't, we'll figure it out. And for those of you remotely I don't see any hands up yet. Do you mind raising your hand if you're hoping to comment. Yeah. And if possible, I John and Emily there in middle say if possible raise your actual virtual hand because I can't really see everybody because there's several screens. I just see one hand. Oh, and David to. Okay. So I'm going to let you john and Emily is what shows on my screen. Go first, and then we're going to move to David and then we'll move to the public here. And mark, how can people listen with right through the L the people here. Okay. Can you hear me. Yeah. Great. Thank you for the opportunity to talk and thanks to everyone for all the work that's put in so far to this challenging process. I'm going to be very brief just because I have only the kernels of some ideas that I haven't been able to fit out but I'm hoping to do a little more homework on them going forward. My perspective is I'm definitely sensitive. First of all, I'm on just to be totally upfront. I'm in the position of funding the schools general generously because I'm very in favor of having the best possible education for our kids. You know I said that before I had kids when I was you know single. I'm in favor of that regardless of the status that I do have a student in the pre K and run me right now. I certainly have deep empathy for folks who are challenged financially and unable to or feel unable to meet the increases of what could be a couple hundred dollars a year over what's already you know pretty high education tax. The question and thing I want to you know kind of dive into myself is as a fairly middle income person, you know I receive generous property tax assistance I have a you know very modest house and you know I don't make a ton of money, and still receive generous from the state. So I'm really curious as to the dynamic of folks that are, you know not able to, you know, feel like they're going to be really burdened by a couple hundred dollars more per year, and running some calculations on, you know how much property tax assistance is coming from the state when you have say a house site value of you know 150 or $200,000 and an income level where that hundred. Got some weird things going on with mute and unmute. Am I done. Yeah, so go ahead. Yeah, go ahead and we don't have as many people there's just three people online so go ahead and finish your sentence. But that's my curiosity of what's the population and the real need of people that are really truly affected by this incremental increase of a level service or the 9.93%. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to David. I don't see your hand up. Well, yeah, I thought you were just asked us to kind of raise it temporarily to indicate who might be interested in speaking I was actually going to wait to, to the end just to make sure that you all were thanked for your service. One of the things that I am really proud about our board for is that it is a thankless job which you have all done very very well in, you know, trying to represent all of the interests of the community in a very civil way in a period in our community when we don't see much stability many times. And so I just wanted to make sure that you were thanked for this thankless job and that you've been doing. You've been doing a tough tough job and I for one really appreciate all the effort you put into it. Thank you so much David, we all appreciate it. We have one more online land is Mary now. Hi everyone I want to echo what David was saying I really appreciate having come to three board meetings in a row now I. It is a huge time commitment and we're experiencing that a little more as a community and thank you so much for doing this all the time. So my vote level service is really what the schools need. And I just want to touch on the idea of what the superintendent was saying about a failed budget and how that would affect trust. I think there needs to be an increase in transparency. The board meeting. One of the board members talked about continuing these conversations throughout the year, rather than a crunch at budget and I'd really love to see that happen and continue this involvement of the community. I'm still reeling from the very first budget meeting when one day ahead of time staff members community members and the board members that I spoke to didn't know about all the proposed reductions. I just want to reiterate that I really appreciate this community involvement, and I'd really love to see it continue sort of regardless of what happens tonight. I know it's a hard decision. I appreciate everyone's efforts and please, especially with these conversations of creative whole system collaborations, which to me kind of sounds like potential shifting or closing programs. That needs to be a big picture involved with conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's Sonya and then we'll move to the public here. Hi, I begin to know. My name is Sonya Rhodes. I'm from Dodie. As you can tell from my hand raised up and my hand raised down that I have mixed feelings. I have been at Dodie 25 years and it seems like the proposed budget first off I want to thank you again for taking away the combined services and I do want to offer my services on being on the committee just like the previous speaker said, I do have these conversations and these innovative conversations and I'd love to be part of that. I really want us to think that what remains it seems like is to look at, you know, getting equitable services through all of our schools, and unfortunately we haven't had time to do that. We've combined our district, and then the pandemic hit, and we haven't been able to figure out what it looks like to be one district. But I've been at Dodie 25 years, and I really want us to think, especially if we're thinking this outside the box idea to really. I think think about what the point nine nurses that are went with us or funds is because I remember a time when Dodie had a nurse one day a week. And we had more students than we currently have. And, you know, that was untenable. Also the staff and everything we're put in positions to be nursing, and I do not have nursing training. And so I can tell you, you know, a story of some of the things that I did that would be against union policy for those things. So I really wonder as we're thinking how to really be equitable with our resources all throughout. And I said I want to volunteer my own services in helping in any way, but really look at, do we want to take the nursing out now, or do we want to wait while we have a cogent plan, so that everyone can benefit and all our kids can benefit from health education and nursing and all the richness that comes with that because I don't want to go backwards to where we were before. I really don't. Thank you. Thank you, Sonia. Okay, with that, we'll move to the public here. So if you wish to speak. Let me bring the one mic that works. Please, we want to hear from you, especially if you haven't commented before. Please go ahead. Oh, You want to go first. No, no. You'll go last. You need to. Mr. Ruben, I prefer to follow somebody else, but fine. My name is ribbon bed and I live in East Montpelier. I would like to echo the thanks that have already been said, but I really feel like it's super important to acknowledge the incredible work that goes into this budget process. school board chair here for 10 years. I remember these painful processes very very well. It's hard on an easy year and it's impossible in a hard year. So I just I'm really hats off to all of you for grinding through what is clearly an extra arduous process this year. First a question, is the CLA still on a three-year rolling average? So it's going to clobber us again next year. Because we're only in year two of the spike of madness. Yeah re-appraisal has to happen at 85% so any of those times that are below 85% will be seeing a re-appraisal which just means that your home values will show their actual value. This might be worth it. The home values will show their actual value on your tax bill and the CLA will be closer to 100%. However the real estate spike that's going on is not done. So we're going to continue to feel property tax pain from that. And I only say that because in my mind I'm looking at this from a multi-year perspective and I can't get away from the enrollment numbers that I'm seeing and the trends. There is a tax tsunami coming our way which is going to make this year look easy. So I am the last person that will not speak in favor of student spending and education expenses. But this process is not going to get easier. So as painful as it is I think we have to be really mindful of those longer term things that are coming our way. So I'm going to make my two points and then I'm going to hand the mic off. If the budget goes down and we've experienced this here when we did the bond we have no idea why. You get no information. All you get is a failed budget and then you have really painful cuts to deal with. So my plea to this board is do this work go through this process and then once you've settled on a budget you have to be active advocates for the budget that you have adopted because if it goes down it's going to be ugly. Please explore combined services. We have the opportunity to do this as a district. It is a huge opportunity and it will alleviate some of the pain that's coming our way. We can do these services. We saw it through COVID. We had combined classes online with teachers that this couldn't have happened. It could not have happened before we were a combined district. That's all I've got. Thank you so much. Thank you, Reuben. Thank you everybody for all of your work and time. I echo that. My name is Kristen Freeman. I'm a middle sex resident and a parent of a Rumney student. I understand the really difficult financial situation this school is in and I want to voice my strong support for taking more time to consider that combined services idea consolidation. To me speaking specifically for Rumney and for other students who might benefit cutting Spanish feels like a race to the bottom. This is exactly the type of sorry didn't mean to make feedback. This is exactly the type of education I feel our schools, our students deserve and that should be provided providing a more global view teaching students language at a time when their minds are developmentally more ready to learn a second language opening up connections in their brain that will help them learn other areas. I'm sorry I'm not being very eloquent. I feel so strongly about the real benefits of learning a foreign language at a young age and I personally would like to see Spanish expanded to other schools and other students in the district to have that opportunity. Also worth mentioning our Spanish teacher is incredibly talented. It's been mentioned in past meetings how difficult recruitment retention can be. It's a really hard time for a lot of employers including schools and it is just heartbreaking for me to think about us cutting some of the most talented dedicated caring long-serving educators. This it's never the time to do that and right now in this hiring market it is absolutely not the time. I also feel really strongly about food service at Rumney. We cannot afford to feed our students less or worse quality food. I'm frankly appalled to see that cut and would just encourage us all to take more time. I understand cuts are needed. Consolidation is needing but I would really ask for more time and more consideration and bigger picture. Last to say is I don't think these cuts are going to solve it long term. They're not big enough. We need a bigger solution. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I'm Julie Moore from Middlesex. I've experienced very parallel to Rubens in that I served as the chair of the Rumney board for about eight years about eight years ago and also went through a failed school bond at Rumney school and echo what Ruben said that a failed bond tells you nothing other than that you didn't enjoy the support of the majority of the community and you're left grasping at straws to try to make a more informed second run at it. I was also struck by the fact that our student enrollment numbers do not look to be a blip but a clear trend and delaying making hard choices, choices that may even really feel impossible isn't going to be made easier by waiting. That's a really hard thing to say as somebody who spent hundreds and hundreds of hours investing in our schools and I love Rumney. My children had great experience there equally great experiences and continue to have at U32 but I think we have to be thoughtful about how we approach this and am really concerned that failing to make hard choices this year will result in an absolute cliff in a year or two to come. Thank you Julie. Anybody? Hi, I'm Beth Parker. I did not intend to speak so I have nothing prepared. I've had the opportunity to work at Berlin, Calis and East Montpellier for 20 years. So just a few things. The first thing is to say the staff at Washington Central is amazing and I and all of these people here are my colleagues and friends and I hate to see any cuts being made but I'm also a community member and a taxpayer and I just I worry very much about the impact of a failed budget. I worry very much about what this you know the gentleman on the screen earlier was talking about $200. Well it $200 is one piece of the puzzle right now, right? COVID has done a lot. There's a lot of things happening for a lot of people that may not have had these challenges previously so I really think we need to think about the whole community and really be careful with this budget. Anybody else? Hi everyone, still Becca, still a mom of two kids at Remney, still hoping that you'll do a level service budget this year and have a larger conversation about structural changes next year. I have a couple of questions and I also want to recognize all the hard work as a honorary member of the board now I guess maybe. No just kidding you guys are doing a ton of work and as is the administration. But a real question for Megan and the team is it seems that you're pretty sure the level services budget will get voted down and I'm really curious where your data on that comes from and would love to hear an answer to that in the rest of the presentation and why you think that for a would not get voted down but for B would they are actually per $100,000 there between $35 and $38 more per taxpayer so it is a difference it's a real difference but it is it's not huge right so I'm curious why you think one will pass and one will fail when the difference is about $35 or $38 per $100,000 and then I and a lot of other folks have been emailing and I know Floor you mentioned the emails and I just I haven't gotten a response and I assume that's because you're getting them and don't have time to respond to everyone but just want to make sure that if you email the the general board email that those do get read. Okay cool. And then you don't need to respond to them I just just wanted to make sure and then my third question is when is the process that we've been talking about of actually thinking about structural changes and really building on the strengths of our schools when is that process going to start and how will folks know about it and how can we make sure that we get signed up to be involved. I think that was it. Thank you Becca. Anybody else? I'm Jen Campbell. I teach art at Romney and also at East Montpelier Elementary School. I've been teaching for 22 years. I just want to reiterate that the schools need robust robust well-rounded programs and and it includes world language. We have a strong world language program at Romney and I think too that it should be included in all the elementary schools and hope that that will happen someday. But I just I just want to say that the world language program provides the opportunity for students to become proficient in the district student learning outcomes and transferable skills that include global and engaged citizenship, effective and expressive communication, informed, integrated and critical thinking, artistic expression and self-awareness and self-direction feels like that's a really important part of the proficiency here and I would hate to see the program be cut. Thank you. Hello. I'm Honeybeen Barrett. I'm currently making a lot of noise honeybeen. I'll try again. Okay. I currently am the fifth and sixth grade teacher at Doty and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak again. And I also want to say that I've been really proud to be part of this district for as long as I have been both as a parent and as a staff member. There's some remaining questions that I have and I'm hoping to hear answers. Is one of the goals of the budgets to make our elementary schools equitable or have equal programming? Is the board fully informed of all the offerings at the five elementary schools? Specifically, I'm thinking of world language, health and technology. They're not equal or equitable enrichment opportunities in these areas. Maybe we should look at a creative model where these three things are taught to all elementary schools on a rotating basis. Side question, if the level service budget fails, do we go to 3B-4A? It's just a question. And lastly, I'm currently struggling with the lack of job security and the unknowns about seniority in our district. I am one of many in this district who wonder what options we will have for next year and beyond with the proposed cuts. While there are not many formal rifts mentioned by that name, there are surely going to be many staff changes and moves, all of which have a ripple effect in buildings with staff, with morale, with trust, and for children and for families. Please remember what incredibly valuable staff members you have right now and please do all you can to keep them. Thank you. I don't see any. Okay. Your last chance, we're going to start, not last chance. We'll have all the comments at the end too, but we'll get started. Thank you, everybody. Okay. So we're going to move now into our budget operations and we're going to obviously start our budget discussion and I'm going to see how I can multitask with marker and not getting stuck in my shirt. Hold on one minute. So I wanted to move into the budget discussion and I had a couple of ideas for the board in how to move into that. And I wanted to start by saying that I will always be honest to you guys about our challenges. Our staff has been really honest to us about the challenges that we're facing. The road ahead is pretty steep, as we heard. Some numbers were shared with me today by hearing what the economists presented to the state. The year-to-year decline in general fund revenue from fiscal year 2023 to 2024 is as significant as the largest year-to-year decline during the Great Depression years. So I don't want to start like being a downer, but I want to just like, you know, those are the realities. So putting that sort of cloud of our enrollment, I do think that if the pandemic taught us anything is that we can do hard things and that we can do hard things together. And if we trust each other, trust our leadership team, trust our staff, we can hear all this very telling data that they've been giving us. And it's going to be, I'm going to say it again, it's going to be hard, but we are able to lead and take this opportunity to work together if we don't do it now, when, right? We will continue. We've hearing a lot of questions from community members about how do we get involved. We're going to shortly, in the next month, open RFP proposals for community engagement. We are going to have a robust, we can't tell you when because we haven't started, but it's going to be started in February. The idea would be to build this process together as a board to really engage in that goal that we have a community engagement and use that community engagement to build a strategic planning, to build what we've been trying to do and we're not able to do because the pandemic hit us. So who we are together, what we value together. So the telling data that they've been telling us about also keeps telling us that we are going to maintain strong programming in all our schools that meet the quality standards. So that is just very telling for all of us. So I thought that we could use some simple criteria or what is another word for criteria but some simple criteria. I'm not trying to grade our rubric, but I'm very visual. So I was going to try to write it down there. There's a lot of post-its in there, so don't drop them, not just kidding. So number one, I know it's small but this is, I want the public to understand also that it's also board work. Please feel free to come here. I'm going to try to read it out loud. I just want the board to remember. So Dekaray Chile to me that we could use this in three parts and it's our commitment and don't look at my spelling, but our commitment to our three guiding principles, right? And you guys all remember those or do you want me to repeat them? We've been talking about them over and over, but it's our academic excellence, safe and healthy schools, and our humanity and justice, right? Do we all agree on that? So I'm just going to say three guiding principles. Is that sounds good? Okay, sorry, Mark. I just like, I'm like, I can't see. I didn't bring glasses and I came neglecting that I need glasses. Okay. And and two is our commitment to equity. So we're using an equity lens where we've been looking at all these different budgets, right? We're all the way to four being now. And three is our fiscal responsibility at a time when so many families are struggling financially following three years of the pandemic, inflation and the ever-increasing cost, right? So with all of that, I wanted us to answer this question. We'll go around and everybody will say, you know, whatever budget they support, but please, why do you think this budget is a good reflection of this criteria, right? Because we all agree on this. I'm not going to bring over the parameters again, because those are sort of, you know, floating there. But I think that we can all agree that this is a lens that is responsible as a board. So if we will go around and just give us two, you know, basically say why and why do you think the budget that you're proposing goes within that criteria, gets in within that criteria? Is that okay? So I'm not saying that's the way we need to do it, but I'm looking, I'm just trying to figure out a way that it will feel fair. Are you okay with that? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. But I just want to make sure that we keep that in mind and that you say why. All right. Yeah. Okay. Oh, and then I don't know what would be the best. I'm sure I'm forgetting something else that is okay. Chris, let's start with you since you're not going to be bound by the criteria. Wasn't a volunteer floor, but I'm happy to go first. And I was joking. I'm going to first enter and 15. It's just to bring it around. So there's a process question. Yeah, you're ready. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So these were the questions that I had written down. And the answer is I don't know that any of some of them may not be able to. So one question was why do we think it would get voted down? I don't think I said it would get voted down. I think what I am trying to make sure the board understands is the impact if it is voted down. And it came from a notion that that a vote is a barometer. And of course it is a barometer, but it should be a barometer that we defend. The budget we bring to it should be a little more defensible. So that's my answer to that question. I did not. I don't think I ever said that it will be voted down. I think it's important for the board to understand what happens if it does get voted down. The strategic planning timeline, I think Floor talked about it. There is a request for proposals that went out for consultants to facilitate the process because in order to get the deep community engagement that we want, that's really important. We have some proposals to review that will come back before the board after we've had a chance to do an initial review. There are a couple comments slash questions. And I would just sort of say there's questions around exactly what that .9 nursing would look like and whether or not there's time to create a plan. I think there is time to create a plan about exactly what those reductions would look like and that is what we would move forward into after this budget process. I did want to remind the board that the reduction in food service is not going to result in a decrease in quality or quantity of food in Rumney. It brings staffing in alignment with the rest of the district. It doesn't mean that there is an impact. There is always an impact when we start to do something differently than the way we've done in the past. We're not naive to that and it's hard, but that reduction will not impact the ability of our students to eat and eat quality food. There were a couple of questions that we really won't dig into. It kind of had to do with what's the impact on people who pay taxes based on income sensitivity. There are ways to dig really deeply into the numbers to produce that, not off the cuff. That's what I had written down. Thank you, Megan. As always, no, no, no, no, halfway, halfway. Thank you. So Megan, I have a couple of questions before I start. When you talk about the meets educational and quality standards, is that the template that we've seen in terms of certain number of staff or certain number of students? I can use it. Yeah, okay. You just have to remember to press so you get the green light. Okay, sorry. Yes. Vermont has Vermont's regulation on how schools should be resourced, are the education quality standards. They talk about ratios of staff to students, administrators to teachers, and that is what those, that is the lens that we use. So it doesn't really go to quality as opposed to quantity? Well, the staff ratios. It was developed to say what is, what is sufficient to be able to deliver quality? So I would say they are connected because that's how Vermont created them into the law. But it's a number as opposed to the person who's actually delivering the service. I just want to be clear that it's a number that we're talking about, number of staff to certain number of students. And the assumption is that if you have that ratio, then you'll be meeting the student needs. The assumption based on good hard work about best practices and what is needed. Yes. The, the other, you were talking about the impact on the, the, from the food service. And I'm not sure how I understand that going from one point, I think 86 in terms of food service employees to point to one, isn't going to affect the, you know, may not take the food that soon is available. It certainly would seem to me it would have to have an impact on how that food is prepared, how it's cooked, and things like that. Because you're losing almost a full person. And it's just that was, I'm not sure how that happens. In looking through the board packet and the pre and post pandemic staffing, it looked to me that it said from the gain to nurse, but then still had a, I just had one before gained a nurse and then still had one after. So it's just, I wonder if that was just, it should have been zero or a line in that really didn't gain in. So they didn't get a nurse. Okay. Thank you for catching that. So I am in support of a level service budget. Because I have been all along. But I hear the concerns about the money, you know, we're just talking about money and how people can afford the budget. And so the second poll here is a 7.7 7% increase. But with the system, it can assist when the total budget amount was up there, was like 38 million 270 something thousand for one, and it was 38 million 900 and something thousand for the second. I didn't notice why there would be that. Or at least that was on the the, what was being shown up there. And it was remarkable unless I misread it, it seemed unusual that there would only be a $700,000 difference between the two. Maybe that's what it is. Is that what it is? Okay. But I hear the concerns about, well, let me just say anecdotally, has the administration gotten any emails or comments from community members saying that they're really opposed to the level service budget because they didn't think they could afford it? I would say administration, I think is not getting emails. I get the emails you get. And there have been a couple that have spoken about impact. Failed budget. But I think the work that there has been done would address responding to a failed budget. I do support a level service budget. As an alternative, though, I would support the 7.73 provided. There were no cuts in direct services to students. And what I mean by direct services is like staff directly serving students in terms of a teaching capacity, or providing coaching support to teachers, which I understand is a crucial and important aspect of professional development. So it would certainly, I would support that if that criteria was included so that students, because my understanding is that students are best served when they're getting direct services and taking away direct services has to have an impact, I think, on student learning and development. So that's those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Eric. Thank you. And thank you everybody for coming tonight and all your comments. I'll start by saying that I do support the level services budget. There's been this topic of budget failure. And Megan, I really appreciate your response to do you think it's going to go one way or another, because it really is the board believing in what we're passing tonight. Because you could look either way. We have had a majority of the public that has spoken to us either through letters or public comments at the more on the side of not cutting classes, not cutting services, not combining services. And if we looked at that, if we passed the budget that does cut services, that would fail. If we look on the financial side of things where we're going to where we say, well, there may be some that aren't going to vote because of a tax increase, then that budget would fail. So depending on how you look at it, either budget could very easily fail. So it really is a matter of how do we present the budget that we do agree upon tonight and make sure that the public knows that we really do stand behind it. We really do feel this is what's best for our children in the district and best for their education. We talk about equality among the schools. And there was a comment made by the public. And I agree with it. And my thought is, is like equality comes by bringing services, adding services. Equality does not come from taking services away. So I'm a strong believer in having services across all the schools. And it is right that some schools have some services that other schools don't. And I want to see language in all the schools. I would want to see band and orchestra in all the schools, because some schools have that and some schools don't. What I would like to see is looking at combining services thoughtfully in a longer term process that we can combine services to the benefit of the students to the benefit of the education that they receive. So if it's combining certain classes and certain schools, means that we're now going to be able to offer something to all the schools that's only offered in one school. So I look forward to that conversation and that process in giving a very thoughtful, deep look into that. And as far as, and then this goes to Chris's point, looking at the services that we provide and the numbers and the ratios. Yes, I understand equalization, student numbers versus the staffing. However, there is a difference between what the boots on the ground tell us the reality is versus what numbers and ratios and everything else tell us as well. And we have had a lot of public comments from the, from folks who have the boots on the ground who are providing the food services, providing all the other services that we are looking into coming. And I really put my faith in those. So I think those are all the points I have. Thank you very much. Thank you, Eric. Jonas, if you would allow me, I should have been more specific when I was talking about equity. I just want to make sure that we're not talking about quality, right? Because I just want to be fair to the staff too, that when we talk about equity, it means that every one of our schools would endeavor to provide every student with access to high quality in my mind, culturally responsive curriculum too on programs, including teachers, administrators as their curriculum activities and support services because equity and equality are very different, right? So I want to make sure that I don't want to send the wrong message to our community. And it involves acknowledging that changing inequitable practices and acknowledging biases. So sometimes we, not sometimes, but a lot of the time might seem that equity is like taking resources from Peter and giving them to Paul. And that's not why we're talking. We're talking about equity for all our students. Every student will receive the same services. So a student in East Montpelier would have the same education pre-K to 6, right? A student in Doty. I don't want anybody leaving this meeting right now thinking that our administrators were thinking about just making all our schools the same because that's not what we are trying to do. And then the last thing is that I want us when we're putting that equity lens on our as a hat, is that we also think about the community members that are not here, the community members that are not attending meetings, the community members that are not sending us emails, the community members that might not be able to afford this budget. So in my idea of having those three lenses is like, please speak to those two, right? Speak your mind. I just want to make sure that when we leave here, we don't put words in our administrators that it's not equity. What they were, it's equity what they were looking for. We're not talking about equality, right? Thanks. How's that? It's going to feedback eventually. So I think both budgets are defensible. I think both budgets are responsible in different ways. If I'm going to go by Floor's chart here, I think that I think that both budgets reflect all of that in different ways. These are proposals that were put together by people of good faith. There are no Trojan horses in here. There are no hidden agendas here, right? Nobody, I've heard and I don't want to call anyone out specifically, but we've heard the phrase, race to the bottom a few times. It's not, I don't want to point fingers, but that is not what we're doing here, right? The changes that came out of the first budget draft, first level service budget draft, was a responsible board asking its administration to take a look at a budget that represented about twice what our usual percentage increase was. That was responsible to do. It was a hard task and they came back with what they could suggest given what we, given the situation and given the time that they had. In good faith, no one wants to cut Spanish at Romney to make things equal across the district. We gave Megan and her team a really, really hard charge to reduce the budget down to that. And those, and what was pointed out were some really, really difficult things that might get us there. And we couldn't even get to that 6%. I don't think that budget 4A is a silver bullet. If the situation is as dire as Reuben and Floor say it is or intimate that it could be, then we should be slashing costs. The delta between 4A and 4B is not, it's $700,000, $35, $38 per $100,000 of property value. I understand that there are people who are not here. I understand that there are people whose voices that we are not hearing. And regardless of whether there were two or three times as many people here as there are, we always need to be doing a better job of outreach. We've heard some communication just today from someone who I respect a great deal who talked about the impact on those folks, and it really gave me pause. But I think 4B is responsible in, I mean, there are FTE cuts. There are cuts to staff to meet the needs. This is a budget. 4B is matching the resources to the needs without reducing services. I think that is appropriate. And in terms of the trust of the community and what a failed budget would represent, I don't think it's a good reason to support 4B, but if we supported 4B, it would certainly be clear what the community wanted. I don't think anyone wants us to spend more than 10% more. But in terms of what the damage that that would do, I think that there is also damage that would be done if we cut services. And I don't think that the cuts that are included in 4A are irresponsible. I'm old enough to remember when there was Spanish at Doty. It was not that long ago. And dozens of people did not come out to a school board meeting for that, right? So when we go through the process to talk about the structural changes, which should happen as soon as possible, I hope everyone comes out for that. I hope we hear as much then as we have for the last two months. I hope that everyone understands that we are going to have to balance resources across the district. And that might include that loss of identity, that a school has in its community, if it's reduced or it's combined, all the options need to be on the table. And I hope everyone understands that we are working in good faith. We all understand the importance of arts. We all support what foreign languages do. I hope no one listening has any doubt that this board understands that. And these proposals are not, well, we just don't need foreign language to say that's not what it's about. We gave them an impossible task and that's what they came back with. Absolutely impossible. I support 4B. I don't want to cut services. We're going to face a significant financial challenge over the next few years. I am really uncomfortable doing this. I'm really uncomfortable making service cuts on such short notice. I think that Megan and her team have done the best they can in the timeframe and with the resources that they have. But it needs to be part of a much longer conversation. And the people who are going to be, the people who are really, really opposed to cutting these positions are the most vocal members of our community. And they are going to be the most vocal members of this process that we're going to go through. I would rather have them on our side than not. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to try to keep this kind of short because I agree with everything that's already been said. I support a level service budget. I appreciate all the hard work that went into this process. And it must have been very frustrating at times. So thank you to the team to put it together. But I don't think the financial difference is large enough to warrant cuts to service at this time. I agree that there need to be big conversations going forward. And I'm excited to have those conversations. And I hope we have a lot of community engagement in those. There are a lot of very exciting possibilities. But I think for this year, when in doubt, given that they're not extremely different in their financial impact, I support the level service budget. Just in case that's not the way it goes, I just want to add in that I'm particularly concerned, not concerned, but if the other budget were to pass, I would be very much in favor of figuring out a way to keep a nurse every day at every school. If we just cut back the ones that were financed by the ARPESR funds, then Dodie and Callis get the short end of the stick. So I think it would be important to work for an equitable solution if this whatever one that is for a passes. But again, I'm for the level service budget. I also echo everything that's been said. Looking at that criteria, I think that if we don't pass a level service budget, then we're not committing to those three guiding principles because the services that we're cutting impact every single one of those areas. I worked at a school where we had a nurse one day a week, and I had to have one of my students sent away in an ambulance because they happen to have an extreme, as my attack on a date nurse wasn't there. They were eight, and I had to watch them be all the way in an ambulance, one of the scariest moments of my life as a teacher. When I think of food service workers, and I think about the schools I've taught in and the relationships that they have with students in a way that sometimes classroom teachers don't have with students, I would hate to have any of our kids lose their ability to have those connections with people that they might not have with other people. I feel so strongly that making any of these kids right now is in direct opposition to our three guiding principles. In terms of equity, I have said repeatedly that the reason I'm on this board is because of my belief so strongly in equity, and I think that with the changes that are coming to EQS through Act 1, if we make cuts, we're not going to be able to fulfill some of the things that those new changes to EQS are asking us to do. So I am in support of the level service funding. I also just, there was one other, I also understand that there are going to be some changes that we're going to have to make in the future. As an educator, I'm actually really excited about the idea of thinking about what could happen with our district. And I've been saying since COVID hit, this was our chance to think outside of the box and do all the things that we've wanted to do with public education. And I'm saying this very broadly, I think that we squandered that chance to do it when we had all the extra money and all those things. But I think that taking the time to reach out to the people in our community, reach out to our educators, reach out to our administrators, reach out to all of our stakeholders, and really think about where can we take our district and maybe even be pioneers in the state of Vermont of what public education could become. Let's take the time to do that. But don't do that on the backs of the cuts that are being proposed now. Let's fund what we have and take the time to really think about where we could take our district and the opportunities that we can provide our students and engage our stakeholders in that because I think that that could be some of the most impactful and meaningful work that we can do that will directly impact these three guiding principles that we say that we stand for. So some of the discussion has already been said. I also agree. I support for B. I worry about the equity of the voices that are in our process. And I really worry that the lack of level services at this time will even further impact our ability to do our guiding principles and have that equity. I have heard and continue to hear that we don't have all the voices. I absolutely agree. I can't assume, though, why I'm not hearing those voices. Instead, I have to go into action where I need to be the one going out to hear the voices. There could be any number of reasons it could be because people can't afford it or it could be because people's lives are so busy. I can't make the assumption behind why I'm not hearing them. And the care about my community doesn't stop at budget time. It doesn't come from budget time. I should be active in my community at all times, making sure that families are able to access their services that they need that we can help them navigate to what tax abatement is available and what resources are out there. And that doesn't just stop at budget time. That should be our call for all of our community support. Physical responsibility, to me, also means supporting opportunities and access to learning for all. And our schools are that opportunity. At this time, I do not feel that I would be being fiscal responsible. And these are some additional reasons. It's extremely frustrating to me that our select boards get to put forward their budgets. We don't have these discussions as much. I could have gone to the select board meeting. They have good reasons for their increases, and I think they match up with what we're looking for. Its capacity, its support, it's the needs of our areas. There are other principles guiding me as well, and they're not that, you know, I get concerned about the statement of not being fiscally responsible. I don't have my head buried in the sand. I don't deny that we need to have some hard conversations, and this district is going to look very different and has to look very different. I know that we need to have those hard conversations, and I think we need to look at starting those now and continuing them. I'm also not meaning to be disrespectful to the work that has been done by the leadership team. I'm just cognizant of the fact that you all have had to balance our parameters we've put on you, our different requests that we've put on you, while you're trying to manage the behaviors and the stresses on your families, as well as the capacity of who has shown up that day. That has has to be incredibly stressful, and so I worry that that has also created this flurry of the work that's been needed. The principles for me that are guiding me are that we have an incredible opportunity to be creative together. We can start now with meeting and talking so that we can get to the fall. There will be a collective understanding. We will all understand how we got here. It is, you know, someone had said this in the last one, this is our opportunity to rise up and to rise up in a way that is fiscally responsible and also meets the needs of our communities. This is, you know, engaging this conversation, not everyone is going to be happy or is going to agree with what it is, but everyone will have had the opportunity to engage in that conversation. You know, the message we need to be out there before the vote, we don't wait for the vote to go down, we need to be out there before the vote explaining about it. We know what our communities can afford and cannot afford, but we also know that our children cannot afford some of the, and again, it's not disrespectful that you haven't thought about the quality, I just worry about the timing behind it. So we need to balance our challenges that are on our school, but also make sure that we're including as many people as we can in the conversation. I know what it feels like to be rift as a potential. I was seven months pregnant when I was rift and it was because a budget went down and then it ended up I didn't, I wasn't rift. So I don't take it lightly. I also don't want it portrayed that those who may support the level of funding are not aware of the hard work that needs to happen and the cliff that's coming. We are very aware of it. All I'm asking is for more time to engage us all in that conversation. That's good. Thank you all first for coming and for everybody that's online as well for participating. I'll just say I'll keep my comments brief because I think everybody that has spoken before me is stating things that I agree with. I do support a level service budget as well. And I'm thinking just reflecting back in the last two years and all the work that all of us, not only all of us but more importantly what the staff at all the schools have done and the conversations I've had with different teachers, different administrators and it's remarkable to me how well the district did come through this pandemic. It completely turned the schools upside down in many ways. And I can't be more thankful and proud of what really the teachers primarily that they are the where the rubber meets the road, essentially the para educators, the bus drivers, the people that work in the kitchens that all all of you have done remarkable work. And so but we also know that kids, you know, that the students have suffered over time everything I've read about. But but not because of your effort but because of the pandemic because of remote learning because of disruptions in their families and work schedules, all of those things presented challenges that none of us could really foresee because we have never lived through 100 year pandemic before at least I haven't. So so you know so I just want to recognize that but also to say that if I had my way we would have more nurses, we would have more counselors, we would have more art, we would have more theater, we would have more so so the ones that we have now we need to keep. That's how I see it we need to keep those people because they're critically important kids again from everything I've read yes most of it is national news largely but but also statewide is that kids have suffered academically and again it's not because of the efforts of the teachers and the staff it's because of the pandemic. So they need they are going to need more support today tomorrow six months from now a year from now trauma runs deep in people and so and there are kids that have suffered and people that have suffered staff that have anyway so that's why I'm saying a level service budget for me it's really about you know the safe and healthy schools and our children and about them being able to bounce back after these extremely difficult years so thank you very much. Can you hear me now? Okay. Hello, nice to see you all. So I'm just going to say right off the bat I support option A. I just for reasons that Jonas pointed out I think these are both both options fulfill the parameters up here I do not think that option B can pass just frankly I think you combine that with the other tax increases that are coming it might be on paper 9.98% that's going to be 10% for a lot of people that go to LBJs and Dudley's and that's how I think conversation is going to spread. I think the conversation is siloed like we've pointed out and should we go with 4B which it looks like we're going to do I will support it and I will do my job to help get it passed because I think that it's because I don't want the vote to fail yeah so I am also looking to visionary conversations in the future I yeah so I support for a basically thank you. Thanks. I think that I just wanted to say a couple things hard to follow many eloquent acts before me but I guess one thing is I'm thinking a lot about the strategic planning and I guess typically I'm skeptical of strategic planning processes as very nebulous and hard to put meat on quickly I think this is going to be an exception to that rule I think we're going to have to really dive pretty deep pretty fast with this I hope everyone's ready I'm ready I have some speaking of skepticism I also have some skepticism about education quality standards and what they mean for the Washington Central context I think we really need to interrogate them and to think about you know what does one counselor to 300 students mean in our specific schools and in this modern context are those pre-pandemic assumptions that are driving those ratios and I think yes probably yes they are the harm to students feels pretty pretty real time right now to me and I I don't feel like I can turn my back on that I'm leaning towards 4b I also think thinking again about the strategic plan I'm excited a lot of signs are pointing to this community and everyone who's showing up at these meetings and this board really leaning into the fact that we want a superior district we want we want to be a role model for excellence in education and I think you know to Jonathan's point this this is sort of a preamble to that strategic plan and and it seems to be setting the wrong message sending the wrong message to be you know cutting what I'm hearing from directly from people affected are really critical positions so that's where I'm landing and and I'm doing it with my eyes open just like Natasha and Diane I remember saying very specifically this is this is us going in with our eyes open we realize that big structural changes have to come and have to come soon thanks Daniel hi everybody Kari Bradley at the risk of maybe oversimplifying the three criteria one way to think about this and my mind is optimizing the educational effectiveness we can have for the money that our taxpayers will spend so how do we get the most learning for the buck that that our taxpayers can afford so I just want to add a couple points that maybe add to the conversation one is I just really urge us to think about this in terms of the long-term trajectory that we're in and if I remember I'm definitely going to remember at least one thing about this budgeting process for a long time and that's the feeling I had when I saw that table with the enrollment projections per school the 20% and 23% is in the aggregate is powerful but looking at what's actually going to happen we're going to have three schools with 90 kids or less we're going from very small to micro schools and change is coming it's inevitable it's here it's here and so make that point and think about this budget in that context the other thing is about strategic planning I'm all for it I think it's very important I'm excited to get started on the process given the headwinds that we're facing I don't think there are any scenarios where more reductions are not coming in the future and I think even the best strategic plan that we come up with won't make these decisions and any easier down the road so I'll just say I favor 4a and I really urge us to think about not putting off reductions that our leadership team is telling us are educationally appropriate and that will make a difference to the people in our community that are paying taxes in a year where everything is is increasing so much thank you so I practiced what I was going to say like all week and then floor put this up on the board which I was not prepared for so thanks it's doing great for my anxiety I'm going to start by talking about the work that our leadership team put into this and now I'm going to get emotional but I'm going to recognize that a lot of our leadership team live in our communities and some of them are raising kids have raised kids in our communities and they know what our small schools are like and they work with all of these people and they know them and I can't even imagine how hard their conversations have been in this entire process and they are still coming to us saying that the cuts that we're telling you about in 4a are still going to give our students the education that they need and so I support 4a I think that is the fiscally responsible thing to do for our taxpayers within our district there are a lot of cost increases that everybody has seen and we do not know the impact that they have on being able to afford this increase in the education spending to their taxes and just because they're not here doesn't mean that they don't matter and I'm not saying any of you said that but there are people who did not come possibly because they can't they don't have the time they don't have the emotional bandwidth to speak or they don't feel comfortable doing so and what we've heard from many people who spoke out very loudly again like for our level service it's not the majority of the people in our community they were loud they were here we heard them we saw their emails but it's not everybody and I think that's what I'm going to say I think that we have we talked about it last year when we got to make some easy budget decisions last year we all talked about the fact that this was coming so it's not brand new and this cliff isn't going to get any smaller like Kari said we're going to still with all of the creative ideas that we can come up with to service our students we're still going to be looking at cuts that have to be made in these small communities which is really hard and so that's why I support for a I'm glad I'm at the end or near the end it's like yes she started on the other side because clearly the numbers are already leaning for B here I want to agree with Jonas that I see both budget A for A and for B as defensible and responsible looking at these three criteria that Flora asked us to quickly although we were at the end so we had more time to think about it thank you again what stands out from here that the reductions in nursing and counseling in my view having worked in one of our small schools at a time when we had limited nursing and also currently working in a school and in an elementary school and recognizing the social emotional challenges facing our students that the nursing and counseling reductions in particular would negatively impact the safety and health of our schools I just don't think even with the beautiful concept of a principal teacher providing those counseling services or the weight that is already on the classroom teachers and everyone else in the school as we were talking about the the cafeteria staff or the janitorial staff or the bus drivers who are our students safe people that they can go to and if you know you work in school so you know what I'm talking about when I say that you know a lot of these kids need to have somebody that they can go to that they can feel safe with there's no way a classroom teacher can be that person for all the kids all of the time so I I don't want to exclude the other reductions that were proposed nursing and counseling stand out to me from a social emotional standpoint the distribution of resources remains a concern I I'm excited about the prospect of bringing things like world languages back to the schools that have lost it in in my time as a community member and I'm in awe of the appreciation and success of Romney's program and I hope that that can be a model so that all kids in our communities can arrive at U-32 with some basic second language and maybe we can even bring French in given our proximity to Quebec um from a fiscal responsibility standpoint I you know recently read Washington electric co-ops newsletter update we're in a 14 percent increase we didn't have a say in that inflation impacting food and goods costs those things stand out for me as concerning and I am married to a town clerk so I know that while people have access to adjustments to their property taxes for many reasons people do not necessarily access it and the consequences of that is great and you know that's something our select boards perhaps and other community volunteers could do a better job of educating people about that it's not something to be so prideful about that you don't pursue it but that you know there there are a multitude of reasons people don't access it sometimes it's just forgetting to file it and perhaps some of you like myself have done that before and the consequences are great if you don't have that money um so you know the financial piece I get very emotional about um I also think that the underrepresented voices here are you know most likely people who do not have direct involvement in the schools right now they're not using social media where the majority of our communication is occurring and I think there's a lot of attention on neighboring school districts that have already selected severe budget reductions in comparison to what we're looking at so while I support for B I also feel that for A is defensible and responsible I think there's still somebody online so I'm not last am I right floor do we well floor but nobody's online I thought we had one I counted wrong um okay so in listening to a lot of the comments some of the things and the mail email we've gotten when people were wondering if we get your emails we don't respond individually because we don't speak for the board as an individual so we read them but we aren't allowed to discuss them on email and for us to respond would be my voice and I might respond to say I got it but I really can't reply so no we get them and we read them and floor usually responds in a general way um but that's part of being on the board as a voice uh there was a concern about people employees learning the day of a board meeting about cuts we didn't learn of them either because we had asked the administration to put together a presentation they have their board meetings on Wednesdays out of kindness to people who worked in the schools information was shared so it wasn't anything hidden or gotcha it was really we had asked for this to come forward this is what they were presenting it didn't mean we had accepted it or anything else and I think that's important to understand that the administration was doing what they were asked to do the employees were informed so that they could come to the board meeting they could ask what are you thinking not because of a last minute kind of thing we asked for these then when I go back to the drawing board um another thing that came through was don't go the way of Barry where they closed their neighborhood schools that was over 25 years ago um that they built their consolidated school our schools were consolidated in the 60s and 70s we all had neighborhood schools which are now people's houses that they renovated and turned into cute little houses um and it probably wasn't easy at that time either if my father-in-law was alive he'd tell me because he was the superintendent and his superintendency went all the way to Woodbury and Callis and Cabot and everywhere but it was what was needed for kids to get a better education um so consolidating services doesn't mean we're shutting schools I wasn't in favor of some of those services that were brought forward and they pretty much aren't happening um not because I wasn't in favor but it didn't really make sense it needs to be a more thought out option we have done that before when Callis and Eastmont Piliar had our pre-k together because of numbers and the way it was working and our construction so we've done it we've lived through it and I think as a board we have to be open to listening and looking but it has to be a little bit longer thought out and if we're changing programs so 4a and 4b to me the dollar amounts when I really looked at it aren't big enough to concern me even though I'm the reason I got on the Eastmont Piliar board was I thought they were spending too much per student it was really bothering me that they were getting to the threshold I was coming to the meetings and I was saying I used to teach here why are we spending so much per student and yes like Diane I got one of those rift notices about a week after school got out and the school board heard from me and I got put back in but um it's just one of those things that we go up and down and our numbers have gone down dramatically and that's what we have to look at as a board as communities and how can we ensure that our kids are getting their best education but at something the community can afford I'm going with 4b because I don't see the change in dollars equalling the effect without a better look at our strategic planning and I'm not one of those people who gets excited about strategic planning I just want to let's just do it but um so I will say I'll go 4b thank you everybody I think the you know it's it's clear the votes are you know we can we can have a vote I don't think there's anything else that I could say to you know that you haven't heard from from me I clearly you know I'm not even gonna vote because I think you guys know where I stand I'm excited about the opportunities I do want to use some time to thank our leadership team and the principles to having the courage to put yourselves all the way out there to be creative to follow what we ask you to do and and especially Megan you know like we're so lucky to have you right now we are all excited and you know the team works really well so I don't please please don't feel like this is a reflection on anything that you have done if anything this is one of the most transparent budget process you know we set the tone last year this is one of the most transparent budget processes everybody has had to say the conversations are happening here they're not happening in the parking lot we have a lot of opportunities together like all of you I'm extremely excited about the strategic planning you know I know it's a lot of work but it's super excited about what that would mean to our communities what it would mean for us to really do the work acknowledging that you know I want us all to remember today right like we said today that we're ready to make those hard decisions next year it's going to be really tough that cliff that we keep talking about it's going to be huge and and we're going to be looking at our surrounding communities and I want to say something that Maggie said that I that there's a lot of people and there might be people sitting here in this room today with you that do not always file for incomes and study it is like free and reduced lunch people have pride and they don't do it because they feel that they is their responsibility to be able to pay their taxes and they're not here so I'm going to leave you with that and I'm going to pass that to Megan for a minute so I I guess I I realized that the recommendation or you know what came forward from leadership team and from you was for a and then but we as a board are moving forward with 4b to me though that's not something to be sad about we are saying that we fully support our buildings that we fully we have heard those voices that have risen up and that we are committing to making to pushing this forward and it and being a part in our communities to say this is the reason why and that so that I I hope that it wouldn't feel insulting to those because we've heard it all we've felt it we've reflected and we have so appreciated all of that work but we are also saying we need our schools so desperately that we feel we need to move forward with this level services and with helping our communities meet that demand. Thanks Diane and I apologize I didn't mean to say that we're ending in a sad note I mean like I'm excited about opportunities we heard all of you I just want to take a minute to thank the leadership team in behalf of all of us so I'm not thanking them for me I'm thanking him in behind in behalf of all of us acknowledging that you know we have a lot of potential together and like we're so I'm emotional so I'm sorry if I feel sad but you know so now let's say let's have them I'm going to let you speak and then let's have the vote just while I organize my thoughts here. No not a problem thank you floor and thank you board members I I mean I think this is a tough conversation and I appreciate the really thoughtful I appreciate the commitment to the conversation and I would just reiterate the leadership team is very excited about strategic planning many people would say who gets excited about strategic planning and I think that it's because it's not about strategic planning for us it's about talking about what we want for kids and then how do we structure ourselves to get there that's a different way of looking at it than starting with what is and then trying to get to a place and so I appreciate that and I'm really excited to hear about the desire to be engaged in that process because that is one of the things that will make that a meaningful process so we are excited I wonder do you want me to put on the screen the budget warning language because you don't have it in your packet because we didn't know what warning language you were acting on so I'll put it on just to be so others can see and obviously it is this second line the numbers in the second line to let you read it thank you and I think I'm looking for a motion from one of our board members to to approve to move to approve the warning with those numbers plugged in I move that we approve the Washington Central Unified Union School District warning as printed on page 27 and 28 page 27 28 of the packet with article 6 to read shall the voters of the Washington Central Unified Union School District approve the school board to expend 38,921,331 dollars which is the amount the school board is determined to be necessary for the ensuing fiscal years estimated this proposed budget if approved will result in education spending of 23,022 dollars per equalized pupil this projected spending per equalized pupil is 12.86 percent higher than spending for the current year thank you Jonas a second okay you guys decide tell me okay my camera takes it okay and then a clarifying question that was just asked to me you know vote members a board members can vote however they want to vote it's the you know it's the majority vote so we will all stand behind whatever happens so all those in favor of the motion as read by Jonas please signify by saying aye aye although suppose please signify by saying nay the eyes have it lisa do you have well it doesn't matter does the board want to yeah do you want a roll call for who voted yes and who voted now or yeah yeah okay so I just it well I can do it from my table here and you guys can tell me if I'm if I'm wrong so for your minutes lisa we as far as I know we have four no's if that's Joshua Kari Ursula and myself and then everybody else is an I right yeah to 10 so before we move on I'd like to make comment about the strategic planning that we are planning and and because you know and Megan I really appreciate your candor and in terms of your comments about in order to serve more students we're going to be collapsing I think schools ought to be blunt I mean I think you were clear pretty clear on that and appreciate that that if that's the direction that we think we're headed you want to involve the community on the front end not after a plan is to develop but a front end participatory process of strategic planning so we can hear what our communities are telling us because ultimately at least according to the articles of agreement the community that may be having the school clothes votes and I think incorporating and including communities all of our communities during the entire process would be helpful in making a very what would be very difficult and tough decision as Jonas identified about it's a lot of it is identity community center and it's just huge but you know that's the way you get to build programs I think because you're real cost-saver that would be reallocated so that would be my plea and hope that we are incorporating and including our communities from the outset not at the end that that is the plan yeah but at what I'd add to reinforce that point is it's part of why I kept using air quotes when I said strategic planning because this is not just strategic planning in the traditional way and when we sought proposals it was with a highlight of deep community engagement all parts of our community so just sort of acknowledging that absolutely we have to hear from the community about what it is we want for kids so hopefully pretty quickly so that we can start the process this year and and have it in in time to to be able to impact so yes we we have proposals to review which we are doing this week and then would be able to bring back to the board those proposals and hopefully turn that around pretty quickly so great well it depends on how you define off what what what it is that you are doing might differ yeah h42 is going to let us continue to meet it's remotely without so yeah plan on never resting not just kidding but yeah and like Megan said this process you know once we have the the consultant you know the team will rally and it would be an open for everybody and I apologize for that it's my dad trying to go okay moving on it's a budget communications this is like the most important part of what we just did so we just had a vote and like you guys were mentioning right now it's going to take all of us to really make sure that our budget passes this year yes oh yes good point yeah and it should be every half an hour according to them it's so yes it's 20 it's 825 we will come back in 10 minutes okay so we were going to start by the communications and I read Joshua through that not just kidding thank you for reminding us of a break Joshua and it was really appreciated and really needed so we were talking about communications and we're going to need more than just an update from our communication so I think we're going to have to be doing either a weekly that was my thought but I'm going to let Kyra speak to that so we're now in campaign mode right we're not it's not taking feedback it's we're presenting this we're advocating for it and we'll have to be really thoughtful because it won't be easy I don't think but so I think next by the next time we meet we should have some more information about the channels that we have available to us how we're going to proceed and and then maybe we can work a little bit on what are the key messages that we want to communicate but and a lot of that's going to involve written things you know that we put out there I'm sure we'll have some community forum type presentation some things online but there's no reason that each of us shouldn't start the individual outreach right away in a lot of ways it comes down to making the individual case so don't don't delay so to to that yes we're going to have a community forum that is scheduled for informational forum we in the past for those of you that are new to the board we we share the slides we don't have everybody speak because it makes it really long but at least have one from each town help present we will try to record it and have that online for for our communities to to see the steering committee meets not next week but the following week if I have that right and and we'll be working on the communication and commission plan and we'll give you more information at the next meeting but if you have any thoughts like I said please start talking with your group if you have any thoughts now is the time or please email me and myself yeah go ahead in the interest of reaching more people it'd be really great to see you as our representative as our board chair get on dev and speak with a morning show I think that would reach a significant portion we need to be in the world we need to be in more than just relying on the you know benefit of the Times Argus coverage or which people may be getting print but I think we really need to if we want to reach a larger percentage of people who aren't getting the message it needs to be through print media and radio yes go ahead Diane could we also learn from our leadership team how families access information so what is the best like is it a display board in the lobby is it what what are the ways to really reach out to the families if they could share that information with us as we make our plan so what I was thinking Diane is to using the mapping information that we did our community mapping and from the community mapping and the survey that we got and Megan you can correct me if I'm wrong a people really is they they're the newsletter or the direct communication email they rather not get as many emails from us they rather have it in the newsletter was non you know that that was the thing but right yeah absolutely and I I think almost a message from your board that we then share in my newsletter and local newsletters and we still will ask the question Diane as well we can leadership team can talk a little bit about what are the other ways but Jonas it just one thing we don't really do a lot of the signage I would if there's a way to get a QR code right that would link people to the web page we're going to FAQ and the budget numbers and just sort of paper the district with them every store every bullet board and all over Montpelier thank you yep okay okay okay I got it I got it but it so then the budget warning language is on page 27 it went around everybody signed it I don't think we need an action item on that everybody was okay with what's what it said we approved it at our last meeting has the number change it didn't know Susie the warning we just did oh we just did the tuition you're right you're right okay so I will be looking for a motion it's page 27 we already did that so is everybody passed it and we approved it and is being mailed I just think that we I think we did the budget warning language essentially as our vote for the budget because that's true that's true yeah I think I think we're okay okay that makes sense right and everybody signed it so then we can move to the reports our students online Steven I haven't seen them I did email with them but I don't see them Steven do you know if students were joining us today no they were what okay yeah it's that time of the year yeah yeah yeah okay we missed you students because really seeing your smiley faces here and hearing your report is a highlight for us but let's move into the principal report which I just love the format and I know Alicia already welcomed us to East Montpelier how many of you had never been to East Montpelier one two three okay yeah it's a nice building that's great well yeah what yeah we yeah we'll yeah in the past we have done tours but today we had a lot of work but it's right at the entrance of the of the school on your left so you can see it there any questions from the principal's report any highlights that any of you guys wanna okay just appreciation for you know I again we we love the format do you have a no I was just gonna say that I really really appreciate the format it comes it comes in a predictable format every week or every meeting in the same order it it's really easy to read it's really easy to see what everybody is saying and how it's represented so I really appreciate the format Diane I love it it helped because it highlighted also the storms impact across as well and so I really appreciated that it also goes to show that consistency that is occurring because of the format and so I yes I find it very readable and very easy that you even just glance through and get a sense of things anything else I I had a question yeah oh Lindy go ahead now it's great is it working um I also the newsletters we get from the principals on another note they're very different where this is very predictable I like the voice and the tone of how they're kind of different thank you yeah go ahead I really appreciate how each of the principal reports really reflects your diversity and leadership because no two schools like for each of those talking points is taking the same approach and it's really neat to see that as well go ahead yeah thank you mckaylin I had a question because we're at EME as I so excited about the increasing overall student performance I don't really know what my path is because I'm not an educator I don't know if you guys know what my path is so I was wondering if you or or a little bit of what it is I'm happy because it's universal so much so actually just making sure that yeah okay all of our elementary schools use my path and it is the when we use our local assessment I ready in both areas it tells the student where they are and then if that student is in need of support it gives direct um lesson plans informations it gives them a path for what that information um can do in order to respond and intervene and intervene it's sort of it's a really helpful resource for um responding to kids uh based on based on where they are that's great thank you just wanted is that the shower curtain data wall now better improved okay it's all electric yeah there used to be a shower curtain in the office here that was a data wall it's like okay thank you and central berman career center report a we uh approved our budget um that's all I have to to share right now our enrollment numbers which I don't have right in front of me we don't know how we're gonna do to accept so many kids that want to come in which is super exciting our envisioning a project for what we do in the future to make sure that we can either expand in our facilities will take place after the vote and start talking about what does it mean to be able to serve more kids and provide those you know multiple paths to graduation and I'm sure I'm forgetting one more thing well Steven shared the last meeting that there's a you know there's being data collected to how we can serve our kids better and what needs to be improved for funding etc and what was the other thing the full day that was it and the and the full day program is been saved and it's going is going to happen which best serves the kids at school in both the sending school and at the at the career center so super excited about the full day the full day program and what that's going to mean for for our kids and if you guys have any questions I'm happy to answer them after the meeting on that one so that we can move into our finance committee discussion and we have one bid to a word and I'm looking for a motion doing them separately or the other going to do it as one more than our two second yeah we're still at get set I had the microphone done as most that we're still at second all those in favor please signify by saying aye any oppose any abstain hearing none the motion carries I move that the board approve awarding the 2023 mechanical projects contract to Thomas mechanical Inc in the amount not to exceed one million one hundred and eighty one thousand seven hundred and twelve dollars this includes the five percent contingency seconded by Jonas no just kidding Eric just kidding thank you Eric you have that listen okay yes Eric second Eric second yeah there's a lot of competition here for the second okay any discussion sorry I forgot to ask in the other one the memo was pretty clear but yeah okay all those oh oh you have a question here Chris I don't know he's not but we can the difference between Thomas mechanical and the other two is significant I believe it's in like the 23% range versus like one something did our engineers or Chris or anybody notice any reason of concern okay that was very exciting okay all those in favor of the motion as read by Ursula please signify by saying aye any oppose any abstain hearing none the motion carries thank you Paul is the committee mr Chris oh I'm sorry sorry sorry thank you three policies up for consideration the first is c13 our home student policy there's no been no change to it and we're offering for a set second reading and adoption any questions on the policies okay okay so we're looking for a motion for C C 13 are you making a motion Chris I want you move that we don't see 13 a second second okay move by Chris second by Jonas any questions okay all those in favor please signify by saying hi hi any oppose hearing none the motion carries second policy for the board's consideration is C five in our last meeting we made some clarifications to definition of dangerous weapon and in the significant change in currency five as opposed to this is for violations of dangerous of the dangerous weapon definition it gives much more discretion to the administration on whether to seek an expulsion hearing and that is a night and day difference between what was because we used to get hearing expulsion hearings for you know carrying a pocket knife and here the definition of a dangerous weapon would not include a knife that has a blade less than two and a half inches unless it was being used in what what the administration thought was a dangerous way or threatening way but if it's not and it fits that definition for pocket knife it would not be considered a dangerous weapon under this policy so that's a pretty significant difference from what we had had had before and the second significant difference is the coming to hearing for the board really the administration needs to refer any violation of the dangerous weapon definition to the board for consideration for discipline consideration otherwise discipline will happen at the administrative level so those are two significant changes in our current policy because previously the way the policy is now everything gets referred for expulsion hearing Chris could I have a motion to have discussion I move that we adopt c5 thank you a questions so my question is while the the change should allow for a blade that is less than two and a half inches if it wasn't intended to be used as a weapon does that impact the school's position or the schools the six schools position on the possession of a knife at school because is still not allowed that's my and that's my question yes and that's the what I'm seeking a clarification about that we're not changing to yeah so to answer that it is still against our policy to possess any weapon what this is allowing administration to do is decide if it really for example was in the back bottom the backpack because they didn't realize it we can take into consideration intent and if there was no intent we don't have to bring it to the board it doesn't mean that discipline they are still disciplined according to our policy we just don't have to bring it to you for an expulsion hearing that's the clarification so the way I'm reading it is we have a definition of the term for dangerous weapons and it excludes knives that are in somebody's backpack where the blade is less than two and a half inches and we only have sanctions for dangerous weapons so anybody can carry a knife under two and a half inches to school and it is not considered a weapon correct yeah and it even says dangerous weapon means any folding knife with a blade less than and the difference is that when it is small intent matters as to whether or not it's a it's a violation it would not be considered a dangerous weapon if it's less than two and a half inches unless it was used in a threatening way then it would fall into the category definition of dangerous weapon but if it would not use in the threatening way someone just had it it would not be defined at least under this policy as a dangerous weapon that would be my reading but I will let the people that enforce it if it's okay to I don't need to put you on the spot too but I'm happy if you want to share otherwise I can take a stab at I think we are not saying that everything over two and a half inches would come to the board that what it says no student shall knowingly possessor use a dangerous weapon at school however with the prior written consent of the superintendent or their designee a student may possess a device that may be considered a dangerous weapon for a predetermined educational purpose and then under the sanction it is the principal and or his designee shall respond shall be responsible for carrying out discipline procedures conforming with the guidelines established in policy c 20 which I read and it does not talk specifically about knives and bringing it to the board so and I'm only offering this as clarification so the board can so this helps the board's discussion what this is intended to address is if you have the weapon you use c 20 to implement a discipline procedure and yes that does rely on the discretion of administration but I wouldn't it does force you to use that discipline policy so I don't think it's a matter of it's now suddenly okay to have it there's discretion in how it gets implemented according to what c 20 is so again not offering that to I think I hear what you're the concern you're raising that's the that's the clarifying answer to the question whether or not the board is ultimately comfortable with that is for you to discuss it just going to add one thing that it did get better by our lawyer I guess for me if I hear people say like oh all of these knives over two and a half inches are definitely going to come to the board but we don't actually say that then I'm wondering if there's a miscommunication in the policy um say that again I'm sorry I guess I've been hearing people say that essentially blades over two and a half inches would come to the board automatically but what I'm reading through all of our policies is that's not explicitly stated and that is not your your reading is correct reading um and it involves blades over two and a half inches and it also involves um any other like weapon or device material substance animate or inanimate which is used in a manner intended to know you know capability of capable producing death or serious bodily injury those are not automatic referrals either um and I'm gonna say that that that's the I'm a little uncomfortable with that did not come to the board um for that type of thing but you know what we're trying to do is carve out the getting the pin knives and and the multiple student hearings that we had you know for someone having a knife inadvertently in their possession coming to the board or automatic expulsion hearing because that's the way the policy read before um we're trying to carve out pretty narrow I thought um definition of a knife in possession of a knife that the administration down and could deal with discipline and if they needed to um refer for an expulsion hearing they could they had that the administration has that discretion um you know because what you do is contrast that sanction as you pointed out versus the sanction for firearm and destructive destructive device those are automatic referrals or expulsion hearings um under this the dangerous weapon definition there's not an automatic referral for expulsion to the board that is the discretionary decision on the administration's part whether or not they make that referral so that to me that would be the area that the board might want to weigh in and how comfortable you are with the complete definition of what dangerous weapon means and whether you want to see things earlier than just be aware of it and so have no automatic referral you're directly correct on your reading I think based on the language because the language is important language is important because people will be looking at the policy and and say well I wanted to be clear that we all understood that the language meant that theoretically no knife would have to come it's not a requirement to bring any knife to us it's at the discretion of the administration yes all of the other things pencil etc files knitting house I think one good compromise you might want to make on c20 is that a regular report to the board on what we have disciplined for under c20 because I think I hear if I hear right or so you want to know that we are taking care of these things and are they happening so that the board can do action if you thought that this was getting out of control um and so I think under c20 a regular report to the board of the things because we have to report all of these things in our um in our system and so that could be just honestly pretty easy regular report if uh if I said just that finish I'm just gonna finish and I'll be done I promise um you know a report would be comfortable it also I really like our administration that we have I think they do a very good job but we will not always have this administration and we will have these policies in whatever form they are and not every administration is going to use discretion wisely Eric you had a question and then yeah I guess my thought was that I when we talked about this we were strictly redefining what a dangerous weapon was not redefining what the sanction was so where I see redefining a dangerous weapon to something being over two and a half inches definitely is dangerous weapon under two and a half inches is the discretion of the administration under sanctions you would still have it if it's a dangerous weapon then it's still the same sanctions but it's the process it's a step before that where if you are identifying it as a dangerous weapon or not so if you're identifying it as a two and a half inch that was not meant for bad purposes therefore it's not a dangerous weapon therefore it doesn't go under dangerous weapon sanctions but if it is deemed under two and a half inches it is a dangerous weapon then when you go to dangerous weapon sanctions it should still be the same as what it had been before with coming to the board because you are deeming it as dangerous weapon and still should come before the board so I feel that the sanction should not have been changed but the definition should have the only comment I would make to that is the intention of separating out the definition was actually specifically because of the sanctions so that would be if the looking at the definition because I hear you saying we are changing one and not the other but the intent was actually to change the sanctions that's why the policy committee was asked to review it because of the automatic hearing that was what this was meant to resolve um so that's all I understand that but what I'm saying is is that the discretion was to say if it was a dangerous weapon or not no no the discreet so sync under sanctions it used to not distinguish between firearms and dangerous weapons all required a um hearing an expulsion hearing it's the sanctions that have changed because now the sanctions for dangerous weapon say follow the discipline procedures that's and the discipline policy is where the the um discretion happens I do understand that um but I guess there's part of my mind is just thinking that if it's if it's deemed a dangerous weapon then it should still come to the board then then if you're not seeing me in a dangerous weapon then you're not going into that part yeah so that's what I'm discussing but I think that c 20 at least in my mind it does address that so a student who possesses a continued danger to the person or property or an ongoing threat you know you get they our principals can still have an expulsion you know when suspension or expulsion of students which would mean that the student will come to us it has been exposed so we would you know I think that they're still a process if they're being dangerous but Daniel you have had your hand up um yeah I I think I like the definitions as written I like the sanctions as written I sort of read it as a three tiered system of how how we approach these unwelcome items that represent real physical harm to students and and the rest of the school community um I so I'll I'll support the policy I also wanted to propose a friendly amendment that we replace the gender binary pronouns that I found at least twice with they in there as opposed to his and her I would in follow up to Steven's comment about amending c 20 I would propose that we amend c 5 and incorporate a reporting requirement here because we have it here now rather than have c 20 come and incorporate it you know at a separate time so I would move to amend and incorporate a reporting requirement that any time a student's discipline for a violation of the dangerous weapon policy that the board will be informed as to what the violation was and what the discipline was so that we are being informed just what the administration did and how they exercise the discretion in imposing a sanction and I would say that the we get quarterly reports just so that we can see patterns if there are any patterns developing yeah that's what I was going to suggest that before just doing an amendment like that go back to the committee even if it's the last thing we want to do yeah and that's the data that we have asked as the quality committee you know like we were expressing our last quality committee meeting in berlin we you know so I'm I'm not sure if it has to be prescribed in the policy that's my only question yeah and frankly I don't I'm not uncomfortable with it being in c 20 the only thing that I would say has more to do with our testing the waters on a policy review cycle which we are doing to try to just put some structure around what policies we decide so that it's not sort of random that doesn't mean we can't make a decision to look at c 20 and add that so I'm not I don't really feel strongly but the the board could also say this year I'm comfortable for that report to come through at quality next year I would like c 20 to go on the policy review cycle and we'll put it in there again functionally I don't care very much either way but from a procedure standpoint not this policy specifically but can we start getting the red line documents when we're looking when we're looking at changed policies we were getting them last year and it has stopped and I would like to see the red line policies in the report so that it's easy to go look at the changes um yes good comment thank you absolutely so we're going to revisit c 5 thank you Chris could we have a motion sorry I'm not trying to rush you but if thank you moved by Chris second by Jonas discussion and questions seeing none all those in favor of approving policy a one as presented to us please signify by saying I okay any oppose any abstain the eyes have it okay thank you policy committee okay so consent agenda approving the minutes and you guys will make the change there so please start with one four twenty three and one twelve twenty three thank you Jonas a second thank you Natasha any discussion on amendments all right seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I any oppose hearing on the motion carries okay back to you yeah no lindy are you ready okay go for it and here's the mic oh that works um I make a motion to accept the extended leave of absence request for Samantha Mishkin music teacher Romney Eastmont Piliar for an extended medical leave with a return date of five twenty two twenty three all in favor all of those if they were to signify by saying hi hi any oppose hearing none the motion carries yeah thank you I get the clarification for that second one did you want to do it before I make a motion yes the the change in fte for number five it is a change in fte it's it is also it's a leave of absence it's a requesting a point five leave of absence so it's listed as a change in fte because it is but that person is requesting a leave of absence okay I make a motion to accept the point five leave of absence for Mary Carpenter for the remainder of the school year as the callous elementary interventionist thank you lindy thank you also second let's say you get that all those in favor please signify by saying I can you oppose hearing none the motion carries the administrators both support the leaves and yes have a plan for coverage update in vacancies there I'll try to be brief um the positive part is we are slowly moving forward on filling some esp positions at the high school that's really exciting we still have persistent unfilled custodial food service um that is the special education yes that's the executive summary that hasn't changed much future agenda items oops yes hey oh actually yeah there are board orders yeah thank you lissa lindy yes sorry I moved to personnel too quickly I was got excited you got it I make a motion to accept the board order of 1222 through 118 23 in the amount of 793 896 dollars 53 cents thank you lindy a second thank you Ursula any questions any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I the board orders have been approved no we don't have a form to sign so we're going to have to do it electronically yeah I didn't think that through sorry yeah so we'll send a reminder an email and get it from from you guys at least we got the warning sign okay the board goals calendar I opened the wrong one for future uh it's it's late so I'm going to move into that we are working on planning the legislative meeting on February 2nd right first sorry first and then you guys received an email an invitation from call us which was actually February 2nd and I mistakenly thought it was the same day because I was thinking Wednesday was second so please reply to call us if you can attend on the second am I forgetting something on that no so our next meeting we're going to be trying to figure out our best tragedy to pass the budget so with that moving into board reflection if you guys we so many people corned so much energy into the budget over the last few months and we came back around to right where we started after a number of drafts and I I don't understand how that might be frustrated but I hope that it is not seen as wasted effort we learned so much from this process I think going through this has been really really hard I think it was really important and for people who support for a I don't think you're wrong I think we are all balancing all of the equities that we bring to this I don't think that there was a wrong decision and I thought the process was kind of really really well by the board this is Ann floor Karri Megan everyone's finance committee great job great job thank you Jonas I'll just speak up I agree with all of that I think if there's one thing we can learn from this process is let's think about the parameters that we said because we didn't follow two of them we just disregarded so they obviously weren't that important to us because of the numbers yeah so I think we should review that yeah before we make a statement that we didn't value two of them so why why was it that we yeah ended up going around yeah it might not have been about value but in the priority list it might have been something that waited and we learned from that so I would agree we need to reflect on that and decide how we are voting on it but it's already built into our budget that money it's not two amounts of money I don't think people understand that necessarily because it's confusing why are we voting on them separately and to get people voting on the career center budget as well as the school budget thank you Lindy and that also reminded me to remind you guys to if you are running for the board to make sure that you submit your your applications already so counting on all of you and and don't forget to do your superintendent evaluation form too okay thank you we are hoping for 100 participation as a reflection I just appreciate the conversations that we were able to have and even if we were having diverse opinions that we still were able to be respectful and this this current climate of the world that's really pretty rare so I appreciate that it's nice to work on a board that listens and supports each other thank you everybody yeah it was a hard meeting but it was a good meeting and we'll pass this budget okay thank you Jonas okay everybody seconds the adjournment and all those in favor please leave now say aye