 I was going to the executive board and it's going to be there. I probably will. It's actually like I get some Mondays off for a lot of people. Mondays won't say it's a Friday, so I get that more clearly to take in those three days. So that's why it's always worked out that we meet on Tuesdays to Thursdays. That's awesome. Yeah, I'm going to go to that one. We will pretty quickly, I think. It'll still be a few minutes, but you want me to leave? You want me to stay? No, you're welcome to stay. So I'd like to call the meeting to order at 7.38. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? Yes. You go first. I just have some amendments to the minutes for March 6th, so is that where I would mention that? Or when we get to the consent agenda? Okay. Anything else? There was something, so was it? We'll see if we can change the name to wavering mentality. Just want to discuss that. We want to put that under discussion items. 5.4 White River Valley Union District. And then 5.5. Shannon? Two things I'd like to add. One is consideration of a resolution on gun violence that's being considered by a number of school boards in Vermont. And I actually I thought it might be printed out, but since we didn't get it printed out, we'll have it once if you have a device you can access that. And then also a discussion of of snow days and the significant impact they have on families in the area and are there some creative solutions we might be able to use for that. Who's the flower? Well, it won't work. All right. Anything else? Any other additions to the agenda? Okay. All right. That brings us to public comment. There is no public. All right. Consent agenda. The minutes of February 20th 2018. They're in the packet. These aren't the ones or did people have This isn't the one that I wanted to. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All in favor. Okay. Opposed? Okay. Lisa, the amendments. Yeah. Amendments to the meeting on March 6th. Pam Brown Tammy Benoit sent me notes that I reviewed and edited and then submitted and then Pam Brown for the Bethel Town Clerk had also taken notes and I found a couple of bits in her notes that would improve the notes from March 6th that I would like to add. One would be the name of somebody who seconded and the second one was a little paragraph to certain part of the presentation that I thought would be worthy. So I have those pieces highlighted in my computer bag in the other room. So I could go get them if people want to see what it is that I was actually wanting to add to the notes. But Can you email us the edited copy and we'll move this to our next meeting? Yeah. On the I guess the second full paragraph my last name spoke wrong. Was this on the March 6th? Yeah. Because Lisa Floyd and Chris Riley provided those things on pre-pro. R-E-I-L-O-Y? Yeah. I just want to make sure I'm getting it right. Oh yeah. R-E-I The E is before the I. R-E-I-L-O-Y R-E-I-L-O-Y That was everything I've ever known. This is the Irish. Okay. All right. That was it for that. Okay. Because you're going to provide us with the copy. All right. So special education budget. This got on the agenda because after after the annual meeting we ended up getting a lot of community questions and having questions ourselves about it. So I think Rodney, you suggested that it should be something that we discussed a little bit more. So I thought it was valuable for us to have Bruce here in order to explain sort of. I mean we can't really do anything about the budget but there is a lot of people who are not. I guess we just won't kind of call it wherever we can. And you know with everybody's gotten budgets and it is a big company. Well, the funding comes from the Ed fund. You know, I mean that's basically where a larger percentage of it comes from and they have some pretty strict guidelines of what they will pay for so some of you have never been in a situation where some of the special ed employees have been used to do things that aren't special ed duties and at the end of the year if that happens you get built back for the bus duty and study hall coverage and things that aren't that way. So I guess I need to know I think there was some questions from the four regarding the salary lines for that. I think they believe that the special ed director was making a couple hundred thousand dollars but really what was going on there is that there were several people that were covered under that number and I guess I need specifics on what you want to know. So the specific question that I was asked that I felt was in the case of alternative placements if a student is not yet on an IEP and goes to an alternative placement they're not reimbursed and those can sometimes be extremely costly. So we were asked what number of students are in alternative placements without a special education plan. I can't answer you. I have to do some research. So you're saying that if we send a student out that doesn't have a special IEP special education plan then the school is going to be paying for that 100% of that, correct? Well, I mean they're the district. Yeah they get money from the ed fund. How would the decision to send them out be made without an IEP? I mean there can be a variety of factors. Are there success the way that they impact other students' education? They are. Safety. You know safety issues. Is that more behavioral? Well I mean it doesn't always have to be that way but kids that are on 504 sometimes. 504 is a federal mandate for work that we have to do with kids who let's say don't meet special ed criteria but we still have to work with them. We have to provide accommodations for them and that's what the federal law says. The law is kind of an unfunded mandate. There's no budget for it but we have to do it anyway and there are strict guidelines of how we have to decide who gets that help and who doesn't. So I guess you know that I would have Deb Matthews come and address you with all these things. We do have some kids that are in our own programming like this restorative class I believe that aren't necessarily covered by IEPs and they're there because they need to be there and you know we started that program because there were significant kids that were really disrupting everyone and they needed to get some to tell me at some point about that group that I meet with in Hartford with negotiations it's just a good time to do that. Negotiations are next on our agenda do you want me to pop in? So I asked Deb to come and address you on that. She would be able to be very specific with you about funding and the need for placement and probably the numbers of kids. I know you were looking to expand the restorative classroom program here in the SU if we were able to do that would we be able to bring all of those students back with them to have such severe difficulties that they can't come back from placement Brownburn? No, one size doesn't fit all I mean and we may be able to make some significant impact and probably some significant savings but there's some obstacles space making sure that we have the right people. Dr. Ketter has been very good to us he likes this SU he's been working with kids in the restorative program which is a model program it's really hard to find placements for kids that are third grade down usually they get aids and people put them with aids and that's what they do but the therapeutic value of that the proactive approach to that, the therapy part is always being handled when you do that it's just more or less somebody there to stop them from doing what they're going to do but we don't get into the aids aren't really trained to do that they may be able to stop them from kicking somebody but it's not maybe like an intervention or something like that but it costs more so Dr. Ketter's kind of their world a little bit and try to get the kids to maybe relearn some things and it's a pretty controlled environment and it's done that way deliberately to try to be able to do that we've had some luck with sending some kids back out once they've been in there for a little while in the restorative yes and in some cases it hasn't worked and we've brought them back and we've started with them we also know that one of the mistakes that we've made is that some of the staff that they go back to integrate with in those classrooms need to be trained more than they are it's not only the kids, it's the staff to understand where the triggers are and try to make sure that they know not to and that the teachers know how to not set them off I guess so I'm very proud of that program but I think it would be very helpful if we had an opportunity to maybe take it up a couple grades and maybe go up the eighth grade but maybe only up to sixth grade we originally created the program which was one through three grades we've expanded it to fourth grade because some of the kids just weren't ready to leave and but there needs to be an assessment of our space and I know that Deb asked the principals to please take a look at what they may have in the way of space as we rearrange our classes and everything and now Rundsen has his housing program but they don't have any kids in the program which it's other SSU schools that send them there it's just the way it is right now it doesn't mean they won't have one next week and they have had them in the past but right now they don't and it's a great space they're down in that basement section the old music room and it's when I was in New Hampshire I had two of these programs going on one for the little guys and and it was through third through eighth and then one for the high school kids and they were always full always full so and being in central Vermont if we expanded is there there may be revenues from other SSUs people knocking on the door asking to put kids in now but we haven't gotten to the point we want to take care of our own kids first and we haven't gotten to the point where we open the doors but they're asking because you can't find programs for this young a student and hopefully it actually gets them off there well that's the point is to just save money but it is to make things better that's to try to get them turned around and back in their classrooms as soon as possible I think I would like and I'm not going to ask you now but I think one of the things that we have been interested in is maybe not putting them back necessarily in the school that they came from these restorative kids I'm talking about that maybe a fresh start somewhere else might help them but that takes them more of an S.U. discussion about them and it's also kind of a case by case basis why do they merge so many districts is it possible to put them back in the same district let's say they came from Chelsea but you put them back in the coverage school system perhaps or if they came from Royalty and give them a fresh start in Bethel if they needed that well the parents have something to say about this they can't just unilaterally decide that's what they're going to do it would be nice if that was an option it would be really nice if that was an option but I'm thinking a little more radical than that if they're from Chelsea maybe they come back to Royalty or vice versa you know I don't know we are going to have seven special needs buses that are going to be buzzing around the S.U. as a part of our new contract they're going to be vans that should be available some part of the day and I was thinking why we were making those presentations about the forest and moving kids around to be involved in that transportation is always an issue if you don't have it you always wanted it so thank you I'm sorry I didn't ask more specific questions that's okay is that executive session personnel no as long as we don't get into a lot of detail it's fine if we talk about the individual candidates then that's a different story alright so negotiations negotiations and representation I think a couple of people have attended negotiations meetings we will need to have our own negotiations representation and Rodney and I probably can't represent us Rodney because Jamie teaches here his wife and me because it was mentioned that because of how fact finding works they look at the area contracts so because I teach in a public school one district over people there was concern expressed that it could be conflict of interest so by getting teachers a really good deal here if I did that then I would in some ways potentially if I were calculating enough impact my own contract and livelihood thereby I know so I would rather not have anyone think that about me and I think that choosing from among the four of you would be the best way to go Geo has some things to say about stuff we should think about when we do this so I'll go grab him for that I'm sure if you want to think it's probably less likely that you'll trifle for the words I don't know I just wanted to say too I read out a little bit basically you can talk about negotiation I can't talk about negotiations I can listen to it if you guys have information about what I go teachers raise as well it's okay to talk I can't the only thing I can't do is try to influence your vote I can't say do you guys think teachers need to raise that would be you know so that's why there's a discussion discussing it right but I can't discuss it I can listen but I can't I just can't engage or try to persuade anybody to vote a certain way and all of the negotiations have been happening in open meetings right speaking of which how common is it around the state that these happen during the day I would love to do this but negotiations during the day especially on short notice I can't take the whole day well you didn't see this but all the original early meetings were at night but we've gotten into mediation and getting a federal mediator to come at night from New York is just not going to work so and we had Ira Obel who was a mediator that did the first round of these in Albany so in New York as well so yeah we're down to a point where it's true you know I feel guilty in asking board members to give up work for a day they've always been pretty generous with their time but I know that they're just as busy as anybody else so for me it's just I have to reschedule all these patients and move them to do it I'm not going to ask them to do that I think normally in the normal part of negotiations there at night all of them have been but we're now into a pretty pretty specialized place where we need help well I've only been here four years and my second contract negotiations I think we settled last time before we had to go to mediation but it took a while and it took some kind of a full court press to get there and but I don't think we went to mediation for fact finding last time this is mediation, fact finding and now another mediation is what it is the federal mediator to do a new new round of that I'm very hopeful we had a very productive meeting the other night we tried to hash out some of the disagreements around the table and get pretty much on the same page but you know you're meeting a group that have other interests and value things other than us so I mean everybody wants the best for kids you know how do we get to that place so I don't know what's going to happen next I mean after this one I don't know so depending as it can be as many or as few even none from any board there's some of the boards that don't send folks and there's some board members that frankly don't show up because they've got to do but we need to have a quorum that means five different board members from different boards and we have had quorums where I think we had eight or nine there was good representation and one of the interesting things about this is that you will just finish this gets settled on Thursday and then when do negotiations begin again you're asking a question you know the answer to it well in the case of support staff yeah in the case of support staff we settled for two years so that next round probably won't begin until early winter so we have a little bit of a reprieve what's going to happen with these guys and that's one of the points of negotiations whether it's going to be a one year which means this year that we're currently in or it's going to be two year or something else so depending on the group that's negotiating negotiating for one year contracts or two year contracts if it's one year then as soon as you wrap one up you're getting ready to start with this well it could be a three year contract but at least I think they're pretty rare these days because nobody knows what health insurance is doing and all that kind of thing so we've had a real we've had a real you know that I don't see any long term contracts although I did hear one of them three or four years how often do these groups meet well that's been a point of contention too we've wanted to meet a couple times a month and wanted to meet once a month they didn't want to meet over the summer I makes it sound like I'm whining but you want to the question is how often do they meet negotiations one of the tactics of the NEA is to lengthen your process and it wears us down so it works we get wore down we're volunteers they don't get paid for their time at the table but they get paid because they make money there's a regional the VSBA is working with Joe Blanchett Joe Blanchett used to be a negotiator for the NEA since left the NEA and now he's had his own practice and he's been working with boards educating us on how to be better negotiators and we're woefully inadequate so what he's done is he has a series of regional meetings that he does around the state and superintendents and a board member go to these it's not an official position it's not a committee of the board it has no ability to make any kind of decisions so because it doesn't it doesn't have to comply with open meeting laws since we're not making any decisions there so right now it's Hartford, we meet at Hartford they send a rep I've been going for us, White River we've seen folks from Born Geese Washington Central Woodstock area Windsor comes Welts so we just sit around the table and we just say what's going on and then Joe says okay, you might think this a matter somebody else at the table might say in my experience you might try this we make no share of decisions we don't because that's illegal there's no like okay we're all going to come out and advocate for the same thing but we do share our experiences so I've been a short timer on the board would love to slough this off on somebody else, you'll learn a ton it's a great group I actually enjoy going so it's like a negotiator support group that's a good way to word it it's just one person from the SU or one person from each board I was going to the one that meets in the Roundabout Piliary where I was going down there but I couldn't keep up I just had too many meetings I couldn't go in I didn't want him to come because he had too many meetings and he needs to knock something on this plate so I think in the future if things got lighter for him this might be something he would come back to so one or two of us presumably could go well, they only want one Joe would like just one and he wants the same person coming consistently I haven't always been able to make it because sometimes there was dates so there's a and it's probably bi-monthly it's been meeting I don't think we've met now in probably three months because everybody's settled but us now so they're all getting ready for their next round of negotiations and we're still at it so it's extremely valuable so this is the kind of insight that I take back to the team and say this is what I'm hearing from other boards and where would you bring it back to the team this is where you could just share in an email what you've gotten from I just come back and say verbally what's going on I don't put together a report or anything before you came in and asked the question I don't have a long enough history back to you probably do but I don't about previous negotiations is this going the longest the farthest so last time we didn't get to mediation or fact-finding we were able to settle before there do you know the history of this well it's changed it's a pretty tough history to explain comparing apples to oranges so in Bethel they've always had they've had a history for a while of fairly contentious negotiations and it's not I think they've gone to fact-finding and mediation in recent years or anything in Royalton or Bethel Bethel Royalton was quite different we actually did a collaborative negotiations for the first I'm going to say two contracts I did with teachers John has talked to me about that we just sat around and just said what do you think and reached quick settlements the nature of the association has changed they don't play that way anymore and so we don't play that way anymore not last time we were so a couple of years ago we brought that all five towns in the old Orange Windsor had separate contracts and we brought all five into sort of one contract it's only sort of one we didn't quite verify it in that contract we got close and that took us two and a half years and really the only way now we started collaboratively but the association members in the room weren't being collaborative behind the scenes they were being coached and trained instead everybody was supposed to come in the room and just say what they thought kind of reached a nice let's do this process what was going on and at that point it was kind of interesting Bruce Don Shaw and I unrehearsed walk out on the like the next to the last meeting that was the last meeting scheduled and we because I knew if I said this is pointless that they would have said we'll keep talking and this still would have gotten nowhere we need to let them know so we got up and left and they called us back up basically and said let's meet again and then they basically gave us what our last offer was they said fine we agree with it so it's getting more contentious and so the last time around we didn't even go in this is the first time we went in and hired a lawyer we don't even negotiate for us because it's reached the point where that seems to be the best well and you can make the point that it costs a lot for a lawyer but there's also a lot at stake you know the health insurance and all the other things that go into a contract is big money she is quite helpful she coaches us a lot it's the last meeting I said in on the one that we were talking to Dina you're not just negotiating with the teachers that you know anymore it's SUY it's not just SUY it's NEA, it's statewide there's a statewide strategy boards can still have a white strategy it's against the law NEA has no there's no qualm about developing and they are currently developing their new statewide strategy and they're getting ready to vote again so it's a when I started I think Vermont was 28th and pay 29th and pay in the US I think we're up in 20 and rising like a meteor because the NEA in the state NEA in the state is really good they're very good they're not into union the whole stuff that happened in West Virginia teachers no pay raise in 3 or 4 years just asking for a 5% starting salaries are coming in I think at the high 20s I mean they're it's ridiculous they needed to go on strike and I'm not into union there's a point where we need to enough's enough our pay scales the way we do the grid system it just goes out of sight and we're going to get if we keep on our course so we need to put the brakes somewhere so that's in a nutshell so if you guys want to send somebody I'm happy what I told Joe is I'd like to bring a new person down, introduce them to the group and then I'm done and then they can go so like I said it's fun Joe's entertaining he's got all kinds of knowledge he's actually fun to listen to so it's not like it's a drawn on session so the meetings usually last? 2 hours, very strict started at 6, we have a little sandwich goes to 8, done does not go beyond 8 o'clock ever and how is this covered, how is this time paid for? he VSBA? no, VSBA doesn't actually pay him I'm not quite sure certain of how he gets paid he doesn't get paid by the VSBA I want to say he probably somehow gets paid by Fiat but I don't don't quote me on that but not paid by? not paid by us we hired him as a district to help us with negotiations because that's the kind of stuff he would do for us if he wanted to hire he would definitely be hired so if you don't pay somebody let me know when's the next meeting? in location always in Hartford, always at the superintendent's office in Hartford in White River Junction next to the school there so anybody interested in either having an appointed person and that person can't make it to one can we have a backup? is that acceptable? they just want to see the same things each time they, yeah Joe doesn't like backups he's never sent a backup so what date do you give it? I can't find the date for the next one so you'll send an email when I find out I'll let you do it Shannon anyone else? Lisa were you interested? don't vote on this do not vote on this this is not an official board position it's just one of you just so it says I'll go but don't vote on it and in fact when we communicate this group communicates to each other we use our personal emails this is completely legal we're not a decision making body we can't make a decision as long as we keep those emails in our circle we don't have a quorum of any board or body so you just need to do it like a nod ahead and ask somebody else if any of you want to join in with us on Thursday yeah well no I understand you got to work if we have not noticed let's hope this is over there's a lot of there's all kinds of just sitting around just sitting around waiting and the mediator jumps around all over the place I got some hope that we'll bust through that would be optimistic so you wish in then with the nod of the heads here I'll get a hold if you wanted to find out thanks guys I'm here for three years too there's continuity we're going to be going into the next negotiations or I'll be around we're going to do the next three we're not going to so should we hold off on selecting negotiators in good faith that things are going to be settled Thursday or should we select a couple just to ward off I don't know I don't have any idea what's going to happen is anybody interested in negotiating Thursday what's the time it starts at 9 o'clock and it'll probably end at 5 I'm not sure if we're really close it could go a little longer than that or maybe if we don't get anywhere it could be a lot shorter I'm slaughtering ducks on Thursday alright maybe we should hold off and wait for the next round just spend your morning doing that and then you come in with it covered come like that that'll set the mood that's not a mood for the day alright is that all for negotiations I'm grateful that G.O. did that yeah alright so we have this document next on the agenda it's our Steve Dale agreement so it basically says that he will help to make our transition as smooth as possible and give us feedback on perhaps what the next steps should be and then also um so those are the sorts of things that will help for example um seeing the potential for some restructuring of the full board those sorts of things he can look at the big picture and then say perhaps you guys should be looking in this direction to sort of help us protect our interest and this would be an opportunity for us to meet with him outside of our regularly appointed board meetings or he could come to our board meetings um either way so this is just here for us to look at um I think it's a pretty good idea absolutely and I think it's reasonable um in terms of price this is part of the $10,000 that you've got in the budget this is out that money's not available until July 1st okay this money's not available until July 1st and that is no this money would come out of your budgets but the money I'm talking about will be available to the whole SU so we have to look at it as all the board members wouldn't the other board need to approve money this year we can well you know basically I've been asked by them is the money coming to pay committees I said well the new board doesn't have any money that was a couple of the world's board members asked me that and I said no we've set aside some money we're going to split it it's the same kind of business right if money is being paid to Steve prior to the 1st of July it's coming out of current budgets so is it up to you should probably ask them since it's going to come out of their budget but there are board budget lines that would cover this correct okay so what exactly do we need to make sure that we're not missing any deadlines that we're attending to all the details that we need to attempt to I just think it's pretty important and what will happen to the board funds in those budgets at the end of the year the surplus right or deficits we're going to inherit that from July 1st something you'll have to repay or enjoy by surplus I think this is a really nice way personally for us to be proactive and to be on top of who we are as board members and how we function as a team and making sure that we're aware of all the moving parts as opposed to having a lot of oopsies that happen along the way and then trying to recover and I think with Steve on board we can be asking those questions and he might even preempt it or prompt us with suggestions that we wouldn't have even thought about but having had that information will be more informed and more together I guess I'd just like to hear more specifically what those types of things really that's about $2,000 well that's a trouble we don't know he has to tell us right but like well just learning about the negotiations support group and then going to those negotiations you know to listen to the negotiations that are happening he would explain all that those are things that we could ask him about systems about different processes that happen as school board members am I right? he was the executive director of the school board association so he trained boards basically is what he did and he was out with boards and trying to look at the work that you guys have to do and make it efficient I'd like him to work with us all on policy governance I'm not sure whether all the boards will be receptive to that some of them micromanage a little more than others but I'd like to try for that he's got a wealth of experience in working with boards I can say that I think the fact that we were able to pull this merger off has a lot to do with him I would imagine if we've got four opportunities for meetings with him the first one would be us asking him questions and planning out what we could cover in the next three meetings I think Lisa's intent was to try to get make sure we don't drop anything that we do the things we need to do between now and the end of the year great contracts yeah he helped us set up policies and things like that right I hope we get a better scope and with the policy so that everybody's working on the same thing my sense was that there are certain legal things that have to happen in terms of wrapping up the old boards and launching us as cleanly as possible and that's what I really wanted his advice for because he's seen this process play out in other places and knows the things that have to be done and have to be tended to I think that Bruce has a good grasp on that as well but also with so many districts going through the same process I think that it seems like it can be an overwhelming task and so so that's why I just thought that this was a reasonable step well I've been on a number of boards and I'm actually on one right now that's having some major issues and I just feel like it is so good to be working together and understanding policy governance just how we're going to work together and making sure we are aware of all the moving parts because when you get into a train wreck it's just hard to manage it after that and it takes a lot of extra time so this will be a time saver and a money saver I think it's an insurance policy so I'm bored so I'm going to stop talking we need to vote on this we we could vote on it and then we could decide to get the blessing from the current board if you get time Bruce we have some questions so we'd like to ask them yeah it's a contract so you probably it's illegal documents but it's between us and Steve you just don't know where your resources are coming from but you're telling us that I believe they are okay yeah I believe they are I don't know where what I'm going to get into but it sounds like we would have to at least let the old board know what we're wanting to do well I know that Dave knows what we want to do I've been communicating with him throughout and I believe that Christine and also because I asked I mean I don't the boards haven't voted I don't mean to represent that in any way I think that all three of us we had a meeting Eunice was there at the office and Steve Dale came down so they wanted to get us together as chairs so we could look at the scope of what each board should be doing so that we're not stepping on each other's toes duplicating work etc so this was one of the things that we thought was a reasonable idea at that point there wasn't a contract but they agreed with the idea that bringing somebody on board to make it so that it's smooth and so that balls don't get dropped there have been some times when things have not gone as smoothly as possible and I've received a message in the middle of the day I'm floundering to catch up for the rest of the day and to the degree possible I'd like for that to not happen because what starts to scare me is what have I missed that I don't even know is an issue or what are we missing that we don't even know is an issue and I just think the scope of all of the transitions in the whole district so all 11 communities makes it daunting for our SU and so that's my fear is that we miss something that I don't even have on my radar right now to me this isn't coming out of I mean it's a royalty budget and a Bethel budget right now so it's spending money that you know technically we don't have yet but it's difficult because which board are we going to ask for permission well I think we need to bring it up at the end when we're all together because it does involve shutting them down it doesn't really matter what it comes from though it's all going to end up that's my final point it's all going to end up in our maps July 1st but I just think we should do it with the whole board because it does involve them because it's going to be part of their process of closing out their boards make sure there's an agenda item for them I know I think ideally we wanted to let him know but we can just say we're going to bring it up until next April 9th without him if the other boards already said they're for it we don't really need them until June if the board leadership has no we need them we need them prior to June because he's looking out for our interests and trying to help us navigate so the whole issue about the supervisory union full board wasn't an issue even on my radar until he brought it up at that meeting of the three of us and said to Christine and Dave if you guys have been looking out for them in this way at which point you know I wrote a letter and went to that meeting that night and said this is something that we should be thinking about before the board is reorganized because otherwise these very small towns will have three representatives and we as the largest school district system in the district will be on equal footing what's the incentive to reorganize for them at that point so it needs to be handled ahead of time that was something that wasn't on my radar until we had that conversation I'll make a motion that we accept this contract or enter this agreement if you fail if you just voice us in July I'll second the note any discussion after okay all in favor aye opposed okay I guess I'm not supposed to vote alright so we should still bring it to the attention of the two other boards thank you April to be fair they brought that very large field trip to the attention of the boards tonight and it's already gone out for the parents alright we'll just ask forgiveness and not permission okay up next white river valley union district I'd say river valley school district change to from the white river union district to the white river valley school district we're the right river valley school let's just be the right river valley school district so it's not for people right and so can we go to the state board and ask for that change so let's white river valley so it would be WRVSD instead of WRUD I like that better feels like we're talking about WRR feels like we're stuck in a run feels like life right so it would add consistency yeah so where do we go for that where are we going to so I'd make a motion or I'd see a motion that we motion to rename our district white river valley school district all in favor are you opposed okay so in your email if you have a device there is it's going to take quite a bit of resolution because it's created for the Essex school district so I would propose because it's starting to get late that I go ahead and edit it and table it for next meeting but I will send it out and attach it to the agenda so everyone can review it before the meeting it's also being reviewed by the software okay so you're going to edit it so that it would reflect our districts oh is it possible so prior to and present it at the next board okay so that would be for April April 1 alright resolution so we've had a number of snow days in south boroughton this year and one of the things that's been brought to my attention and I have a nine year old so I've started to get this too is that number one there's no age limit on leaving your children home in the state of Vermont I'm meaning there's no minimum there's no minimum in the state of Vermont so my concern is sort of twofold one we have a number of families in the district might be one of them where both parents work and when you have so many snow days we're putting parents in the position that you know what and the flu has been particularly gruesome this year so we have a number of parents who one parent has taken off work and another and traded back and forth but you're running out of days and you're running into being in trouble at work so there's the potential that a number of students are being left at home by themselves unsupervised in that seven, eight, nine age category that's sort of concerning also we also know that there are a number of students where the only hot meal they get is when they come to school and so one of the solutions that I've seen that I would like to just think about if it's possible doing here in the winter school system they have a drop-in center so they open the gymnasium for the day and we could do this on one campus or both campuses and they have a few staff people not necessarily everyday school staff but they have people who come in who promise to be there regardless of where so if you call a snow day maybe they can walk, maybe they have a super duper four-wheel drive but they're going to be there all day supervising so that students sort of, you know, we run pre-k so pre-k through six or pre-k through middle school, I don't know what the upper limit is but you could drop them in there would be the opportunity to get lunch, show movies, you just keep them do activities all day we have to pay some staff for minimally but it would be a safe place where you could drop your kids off I think it would be a huge relief to a lot of families in the area and if we had the staffing we could even think about opening it up to the surrounding towns and it makes us more of a more attractive community-centered family-centered, kid-friendly you know, safety-oriented community so it's an idea that has worked in other places and I just would really like to explore it here and where did you say it's actually working? in Windsor do we need to vote on whether we think it's a good idea to explore it? well why don't we ask the administration to give us some kind of cost estimate for what it would be it's okay administration to look into this and flesh it out for us would that be the right I might want to wait to have them do it over the summer or something like that because right now we're kind of out of this land and even if it didn't happen this year it is an idea that I would like to see implemented as moving forward because it is it's a real burden on a lot of families I wouldn't have to know it's a real burden on his family because I see the texts from his wife trying to find the childcare I would imagine it could be a stipend in position as well so because it is in addition to your regular teaching duties so if there were a stipend that were offered and teachers are getting salaries so they're not necessarily losing it and I don't know that it has to be teachers or teaching staff just even um retired community members as long as they're background check it would be an extra day it would be an extra day for teachers because they make out snow days already right and they still have to make the day of the year safety concerns when you start telling people they have to travel in a two feet of snow they don't have to be set up with all those I guess it would be volunteers it would be people who are saying I am going to be there the adults are saying I'm making that commitment just like many of us have jobs where we have a commitment if it's snowing, like you said if I didn't want to drive in snow I'd live in Florida I have a job where I go every time it snows and I get that and that's something that I'm okay with but it's my kids that I'm worried about right so that's why I think we should explore offering a stipend pay something per hour per DM rate for most teachers for summer work time so if you offered your per DM summer rate to people who are willing to do that because I think it should be staff that's already been vetted by the school that's had a criminal records check with high finger friends that we can ensure is like a safe person to have there so the staffing ratio has to be maintained for something like that in terms of number of people to the number of kids I think that should be part of the exploration and I think if winter's already doing this we've got a monitor to look at and I'm also thinking the parents if they can would be particularly interested because they don't get paid on snow days and so they're waiting for that pay in June because they only get paid the hours they work we're taking their vacation days yeah so that's the challenge so we all agree that should be explored okay what are they just is it loud maybe it's just reason okay we're just going to say that they're not arguing alright great so principle search are we were not able to make an elementary higher so we know that I'm not sure I suspect we're going to reopen that because we interviewed our top candidates so I would imagine that we're going to start looking again so did you guys interview that third person after the interview there were two other candidates we interviewed five right on the day that we were doing the meeting the top two candidates there was one that came through by email for us to look at was the resume like a late entry but there was also one that you were interviewing at the school on the same day right so for various reasons we had the two that we thought were best qualified um right um so I and we've reopened the high school search just did you hear back from like the person you declined um just the money or was it I think there were some other factors that play in that are out of our control um so those are both reopened searches that's too bad I was sad me too it's not what I wanted to hear um all right and so we are now scheduled to have an executive session around public comment first public comment public comment all right and now I let me see if Bruce is available um because I did he ask you up next meeting day April 9th what time should we set our meeting for um so the attempt of moving it to 7 the agenda looked brief um that was guidance from Bruce because the I don't know how the Royalton board members have been expressing that they feel but a couple of the Bethel board members really said they wanted to be able to attend our meetings so I attempted to move our meeting to 7 so that hopefully their very short attendance would be over and then we could have our meeting I think that's good I was confused as and maybe this is just why we had the updates from the committees during that meeting and then we just get into the weeds with so many people so if that hadn't happened and that had happened in here then we would have I also think that if there's going to be um updates or presentations that are going to be longer than 5 minutes or so that they should be added to the agenda because we can't adequately plan um and I wonder if those that presented really realized that there's time constraints right probably not right I mean they're out of here when they're out of here both presentations but it's a matter of you know we we have sort of marathon meetings planned okay yep