Today is Thursday, February 23rd, so those watching our work, we have on the board that then probably by the end of next week we'll have a cool school construction fill out. I think hopefully we'll push that school safety bill out by the before crossover. And then Ms. Laney said maybe toward the end of next week or when we get back. And I did put two things at the bottom of our board. I just don't want to do sight of something. We could do these things through the budget process and we'll pick them up after crossover. Higher education could be when I need something with teacher debt relief around workforce. And then also higher ed marketing is another topic we talked about. And then if people have other ideas, which remember I need to check with Peter Conlon that I believe they are sending us from Ms. Laney's bed bill also. Do you know if there's anything you would have been in there? Does that sound familiar? No, but I might not have all the information. They usually do and that's things that we can always add to if we need to. So thanks for joining us Sue. We have a very rough draft of the Ms. Laney's education bill that we're going to have a committee discussion about this afternoon with Ledge Council after we hear from you and Jay, but just thought we could go through and together with you and just get your overall impressions of the direction we're going in. You have a copy? Yes. Okay, seven extra. So the way we've structured this so far is we've started out looking at state board of education staffing and compensation. We have heard from a lot of people. And Jay, good to see you. Maybe we could kind of do this together with Sue. And so we've heard from folks from the state board of education trying to understand the amount of work they do, which I don't have anecdotal information and whether or not they're being compensated adequately. And so we thought we would, we've heard from people that have been 20 hours a week. It's almost like a hard time job. And they get six bucks an hour. So something that we thought would be worth considering and wondering if you guys have any comments on that first section. Yeah. The VSBA legislative committee met on this miscellaneous education bill. So I do have feedback from that committee because we really didn't have necessarily resolutions that covered all the various aspects of this. Sure. And we're still, when I say miscellaneous, I mean broad. Yes. Yeah. And I would say, and this was not meant to be like glib or disrespectful or anything. But when they, the first thing they asked me when they looked at it was, and they had it ahead of time, and they also listened to your Ledge Council's introduction for your committee, was what problem was it trying to solve? Like they just didn't necessarily understand that. I love that question. Yeah. So, but they did give some feedback on this state board. Let me start with the first part. The problem that at least it's looking to solve is maybe identify, we're hearing that people are working six bucks an hour, some 20, 30 hours a week for this job. Is this similar to what other, what we ask other agency boards to do? So that was, I would say, if you want to, and I appreciate you framing it like that, what is the problem trying to solve is should we really increase their support? Should we give them some real money for what seems to be a lot of work? So what they ended up with is asking me to advocate for including the Commission for Public School Employee Health Benefits in this study. That is a commission that bargains for the statewide school employee health benefits. And they would like that commission to be considered as well. And there was also some feedback from. So just so I'm, because I don't think, is Ledge Council watching? She's watching both. So, and she may notice, so you're wondering, so in addition, separate from the state board, would we consider looking at the Commission for School Employees? So this is another group that does all the work bargaining? Yes. And what do they get right now? Do they get any kind of funding or anything? They have in the past gotten, I think it was the state rate of $55 a day for 10 meetings. Okay. But they, it's a lot of work. Yeah. Especially during certain periods of time. Yeah. And I want to be respectful of that. As you know, the legislature right now is also looking at its own compensation package. And asking the questions, is this adequate? Is this respectful? Does this get people to, you know, run for all those kinds of things? I'm sure we all have our own opinions on that. And, but I also want to, you know, share that broadly. This is the time we're going to start reviewing things. We also have to start looking at the individuals that all intents and purposes are doing all the volunteer work. And we don't want to lose people from these conversations. And as we heard from, we talked about equity a lot last year, there are people that cannot do this without getting some kind of financial support. And I absolutely respect that. We want people of color. We want, they're not usually on these kinds of boards. We've been part of this financial reasons. Yes. And I would just add that one of the members of our legislative committee is also our representative to VPIC, the Vermont Pension Investment Commission. And he mentioned that they used an outside expert to conduct staffing and compensation study. So that was the way that they approached it, which would require allocating some money. Yeah. I don't know if this is necessarily a question for Stu, but when do we get a chance to sort of discuss and chime in on these issues now? Should we do this now or should we let Stu go through the whole? If you have something, I mean, we can do, I mean, at any point that anybody thinks they want an editor ad, just jump right in. Okay. Yeah. So my question about the board is those are appointments, correct? The folks on that board, they're not necessarily running for office. That's right. Yeah. So they're appointed. And then just also, as I'm thinking about this, because I'm on a school board and we don't get paid a penny and I'm just wondering if we were to set this precedent, if there might be some trickle down throughout the state, good or bad. I'm not making a judgment call on it, but just thinking about the implications of what I could look like. Those are just a few questions slash thoughts. Yeah, I know those are good. And I would say, so there are, as you'll find, in fact, this committee will likely approve up to 50 people this year to serve on different commissions and boards related to education. Natural resources will have theirs, transportation. What we've heard, a lot of them are volunteer, but members of low income backgrounds cannot afford to literally take half a day or whatever. There does need to be some support there. And so what this is basically at is just kind of an assessment. Is this something we should do? And it also, as I recall, that this energy is watching compares it to other similar boards and commissions. Some boards and commissions don't have that big of a heavy lift, I think we would say. So I think some fishing wildlife boards, there's a heavy, heavy lift. This is a heavy lift. I think I'm assuming that the commission first for employee health benefits is a heavy lift. Yeah. So these are really, there's a level of expertise we're asking and a level of time. And I don't want somebody to say, I'd love to do it. I'd love to do it. But I just can't afford it. Yeah. I guess my other thought is if we want to increase diversity going forward, which I'm obviously 100% for, we, when it comes to an appointment, yeah, we don't really have, even if we have a pay element to it or an insurance element, it's still an appointment. So yeah, you don't really have control over that again, that's another thought. Well, we do. Remember, we approve these. We approve. So we could say, and this has happened, we have said that the state board is not diverse enough. And so that is in the authority of the Senate, just like we approve justices, we approve boards, all those kinds of things. So this issue of diversity did come up. And the governor, as I recall, I don't remember if we sent names back, you'd have to go back and look, but there was that issue. But the other thing is, you can ask people, but they still won't say no, because they just can't work. And what the process is, we'll start to get letters, appointees that the governor will give to us, and we'll make phone calls and check in on both. So we usually divide it up by districts. So if there's somebody in a particular district that wants to be on a particular board, I'm sure Health and Welfare will do this to them. Yeah, we're doing that. We're doing that. Yeah. Would you like me to go on to this statewide course offerings? Well, so commission for school employees would help benefits. So you want us to look at that as well? Yes. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that sounds logical to me. And again, we would not move this for this bill for a while. We'll see another draft maybe in the middle of next week. But it would be great. Okay. Report on statewide course offerings in grade K through 12. The feedback consensus from the committee was they're not opposed to requiring this report. They had a question of whether AOE has capacity to do it, but that's they thought that was up to all of you to determine. And so feedback on that is very generally. Yeah. Yeah. Propitiency based learning study committee. The feedback on that. Yeah. Was this they didn't think schools have been doing it long enough to necessarily be able to study it. So they were unsure of the need for this committee. But if it remains in the bill appreciative of the SBA being listed as a member of the committee. And you're not out there now. I think we are. Okay. Yeah. Just if you can refresh our mind and memories. When did the shift happen? Was it 10 years ago? I was thinking it was less than that. But I thought it was with flexible athletes in 2012. It may have been that. But you could be absolutely right. By the time it got implemented, I think. Yeah. Go back. Yeah. I can find out some more information. Remote teacher grant program. This one. It didn't necessarily feel like they had enough information to respond now. And would like the opportunity to come back later after there's been some testimony from subject matter experts. Yeah. So in this might not, it may feel as though we don't need this. We heard last week from a couple of teachers, what I was trying to, what came up early this year in testimony was, or maybe I was just raising it in my own brain, was are there districts that need to have certain classes taught, but because of the teacher shortage, they're not able to find people. They're not getting, as you know, a lot of these are external factors. You can't afford a house in the area, you can find a house in the area, all that kind of thing. And so was there anything there that we needed to do to really be able to help some of those districts, some of those schools be able to get that third year map or that language arts class kind of thing. So that was sort of the thought behind, I don't know if that's helpful to you, or if you want to play in knowing that. And I guess the question for you would be, gosh, you know, Brian, I don't know if there's really that much of a need or yes, I can see there's kind of a need for that. I think it would be helpful to have some data on whether there is a need, right? Yeah, because they didn't. And then maybe some funding if we'd be. I mean, the other thing is I think Senator Gullit raises less and a lot of the stuff would just be part of their annual budgets voted on if you need an extra teacher. I was thinking more also any particular, is there is there any need to supplement funds for technology or sustain a certain kind of technology. But that was just sort of the thought around it. Yeah, Senator Gullit. And this is sort of above and beyond the BTBLCs and the Vermont learning, virtual learning, all those virtual learning platforms. And so this would be above and beyond that. Well, you raised a really good point. And when I left it last time when we had these teachers come zoom in, I wasn't feeling as much of a need for this, honestly. But maybe we just kind of keep the conversation going and see if anybody comes in and says we really do need more of this. But if schools are already able to do it through their budgets and are able to access the technology, I think the big block is still broadband in certain areas, which you know, in my area of broadband is being built out really quickly. But I know that in other areas. Oh, and I see. Great. Thanks. So we'll just keep it there for now. We'll marinate on it. We'll see if it goes anywhere. Okay, Vermont Post Secondary School Marketing, they did not have comment on that section. Sure. The and this I should mention, we've had people in, you know, around higher ed stuff. Can we start to market ourselves, you know, market all of our institutions of higher education in a way that says, hey, soup to nuts here. Come check things out. We know, you know, the other way we could think about it honestly is committee could also say, maybe just to the state office, you know, maybe that's where the funding goes. Ask me. That's where maybe the funding needs to be focused. I know this isn't necessarily, you know, something that your members might not be as fluent in, but we are hearing that places like University of Southern New Hampshire, they're marketing. And it's huge, huge.  So one way to think about it, and I guess I'm talking aloud as we start to think about this is do we focus on colleges? You know, something to think about in our weeks. Oh, no, I would submit that we need to focus on the state as a system of post-secondary education and market the entire group. Certainly focus on state schools, but what we're really trying to do is recognize one of the economic engines at the state. I think this is a good signal. I think that we could send a very strong signal with a strong infusion of tourism, marketing, budget. Yeah, I want to second what Senator Weeks is saying. I mean, like I said, when we were first talking about this, when I just came up for a visit and hung out at the entrance for a weekend, and that is what drew me to move here after checking up Burlington and the different parts of the state. So I think it's definitely a good investment to look at the marketing aspect of, you know, not just the state colleges, but, you know, the state as a whole and, you know, everything that we have to offer. Okay, that's good. I'll talk to Senator Ron Mansell about it and the chair of probes and see if, you know, it's either in the state year, maybe go into another bill, but it sounds like we have some consensus. Pre-kindergarten. Yeah, so yeah, this, as I understand it, the current law language was put in with some highlighting to show the areas that might need to be changed if you were to allow public funding to go to programs in bordering states, and it really hinged on the standards. Yeah. And so as it recalls to you, you may notice this is Senator Kitchell's constituent. Yeah. Yes, I did explain that. Great. Yeah. And so the feedback on that one is that Vermont standards should not be lowered in order to allow out-of-state pre-k attendance. And the question was, is there another way to address the problem this language is trying to solve? I don't know. There is, but okay. Okay. And then lastly, the report of the working group on status of libraries in Vermont. Yes. And I gave, there you go, 17. So for this one, and I should just mention on the appropriation side, as we'll all find out in those last couple weeks, all those bills we really want that have any money in the middle, end up, Senator Kitchell, Senator Starr, Senator Sears, Senator Westman. So I usually try to accommodate anything that any of those four or five people asked for. Yeah. Well, at least four, whatever, four out of the seven. Yes. Oh, no. Okay. So for the last section, report of work even on status of libraries in Vermont, there wasn't feedback on that as it, they didn't see that it pertained directly to education. It was language regarding libraries that are not in schools. Right. Right. Yeah. If I could go back on the stuff to pre-k. Yeah. So we were dealing with pre-k issue in the Health and Welfare Committee in depth for quite some time now since the very beginning. I'm just curious if the intent here is to kind of pick up the language from Health and Welfare or let, no. No. So what's the intent? So as I recall, and I know Beth is somewhere in the World Wide Web right now, I just shirt my age. Senator Mitchell has a conflict with that. He wants to be able to just go over the border for pre-k, instead of driving the kid, as I recall the person came and said, maybe it's a 40-minute drive. And so that's what we were trying to figure out. Is there something that we need to do for that to happen or can that just sort of happen all day? And I think your point's a very good one, too. We don't want to lower standards so people can go over the border. We want to make sure they're getting that same quality. Yes. Senator Gullick, do you think you want to add anything to financial literacy or civics? Is there anything that you might be thinking about or anything that, it's no pressure kind of thing. We've got plenty of time, but I know you've raised them both. We've talked about civics. We have time. So it's not just you, but it's anybody who's thinking, do we need information back on either of those? Do we want to move forward with some financial literacy kinds of things? Civics I feel pretty good about, just judging by what we've heard from the Secretary of State and some other folks, but I would like to explore the financial literacy that might be hearing from the V's and some other folks who are working in districts to hear what they have to say about that. I don't want to add more work to their page in a time that's already quite stressful, but I have spoken to some educators who think it's a great idea and we had some pretty compelling testimony a while back. So yeah, good, explore it. Yeah. So do you happen to know, and maybe this is a Jay or Jeff question, a teacher or two who could talk to us about anything they're doing right now around financial literacy might be a way to sort of kick off the conversation, just something to think about. Yeah, I think that might be a Jay or Jeff Fanon question. Yeah, I do know as a teacher and I know it seems to be perfect. Let's go with that first. All right, so you've got somebody. Okay. Anything else that's supposed to be? No. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Yeah, feel free to stick around. Okay. We have refreshments at the end. Is it Sue? I have a Friday. Senator Williams happened yesterday. Oh, wow. Wonderful. Yeah, right. All right. We could offer you some trial mix too, but that's all I see. All right. Mr. Nichols. Good afternoon. For the record, Jay Nichols, Executive Director of the Vermont Principles Association. I'd like to say, Chair, that one of the reasons I like to testify in person is so that I can grab you ahead of time. My plan was to testify first and announce Sue's birthday and have you guys take your time. What you called on her first, so I wasn't able to do it.  Add it to the list, Jay. We're thinking of her and I'm glad we had a chance to wish her a happy birthday. When is your birthday, Jay? That's a no comment, sir. Okay, so let's go. Section one, Jay. State Board, you've been around for a while too. Any thoughts on this, on the commission piece that Sue mentioned? Anything else you think we need to be thinking about as we look at how we treat our monitors who are doing this kind of work? Yeah, so the VPA fully support what's in the bill. We do think there should be a look at the State Board in terms of composition. I've got written testimony in there. We think that the State Board for the last almost decade has been really heavily private school oriented. We think it should be more public school since most of our kids are public schools. So we think that's something that should be looked at. In terms of compensation for boards, I had no idea that some of these people were making $6 an hour. That's awful. They work so hard, some of these folks, Senator. I think people like me and Sue and stuff like that, when you stick us on committees, we shouldn't get anything we're getting paid to kind of advocate for that work. But volunteers are really volunteers. I think we should really do a much better job of supporting them because it's really easy for them to say no. And we, as you mentioned, we want representation from different sections of society. So anything you could do in that area, we would fully support. Yeah. And I'm more than happy to rework and consider that recomposition of the State Board, independent, public, whatever, mixed. How do we prioritize diversity? If you have, we can certainly put that into this. I don't think anybody would disagree. I don't know if there's anything we can talk to Beth about it, what the guidelines are now versus what they should be. Right. And I think that would be true. You know, in fish and wildlife, for example, I know there's always conversation around, you know, how many trappers, how many hunters, how many conservationists, even though actually I would argue hunters are some of our best conservationists, but people who don't, you know, all that kind of conversation happens also. So good. I'm going to drag down the woods many, many times as a point. Yes. Okay. Please go ahead. So the statewide course offerings, Eklund Sue, a little bit. My only concern is making sure the AOE has the resources necessary to accomplish everything federal law already requires them to do and anything additionally required by Vermont. I continually worried, I've been saying this for years, about the capacity of the AOE to successfully function at the level necessary to be truly successful in providing oversight, which I think they do reasonably well in public schools and providing appropriate levels of support for the field, which I think is an area that's lacking. We've heard that this year. We definitely heard that this year. They've got great people there too. I don't want to imply that they don't. I just think sometimes it's just too much. But I would also say, you know, last year we talked about, you know, is there some way to just sort of do a general audit? I also respect that Secretary Frenchman, he comes in and says, listen, we're nimble. We need to change. We need to add people, you know, shift things around. But we've also, yeah, we've heard that that agency has some staffing issues for sure. And not that we'd be able to find those people right now in this job market. But we increased, we did increase last year, I think, positions by adding the literacy person. And maybe they may have had one or they're hired, but their points will take them. Okay. Proficiency based learning. So the agency of education has recently had renewed leadership in this area with a portrait of graduate work. And practitioners around the state are continuing to, you know, revise and improve their systems and approaches related to this. We do not think that it's necessary, nor a good use of time without appropriations for continued development implementation at this time. I think the law is 10 years old. I think Act 77 is 10 years old. But I think the actual implementation and putting in schools actually coming to bear, I think this senior class or maybe last year's senior class might have been the first one or two that really were kind of underneath this system. So I do agree with Sue, even though I don't have that in my written testimony, that I don't think we're in a rush to do that. And I think if we get to the point where we're ever going to look at this, maybe the study's more on Act 177 in its entirety and looking at what's working in terms of do enrollment, what's working in terms of PLPs, what's working in terms of PBL, what should be changed, maybe it's more of that conversation. And I would love to put that off for a couple of years given everything that we're contending with right now. So I would tend to agree with you that we hadn't heard from teachers that are saying it's maybe, again, this is not, we're going to get rid of it. This is sort of a, let's just kind of a touch base to see how things are going kind of thing. Yeah, I don't have a major problem with that. I just think if you talk to 100 different teachers and 100 different schools, you're probably going to get 100 different answers. And a lot of it depends on how it was implemented at the local level in that school. Yeah, that's an argument. I was just wondering if instead of sort of speculating on who likes it, who doesn't, which I agree with, those variables that probably get a wide array of opinions, is there a way that we can look at some data to suggest that it's working or not working, test scores, graduation rates, I don't know anything that might help us form a decision or not form a decision in this area. And that's what we would have that group do. The question is to your point is what do we have them look at? All right, we'll keep working on it and see if we can get, you know, ask this group to look at, like you said, certain things to just sort of touch base, sort of like a 10-year anniversary, here's where we're at. You know, again, I'm not looking to get rid of it, doesn't need to be touched. But the other thing is, I think it was Jeff Bennett, you know, there might be some things that need to change now 10 years into it to make it better. So I mean, I'm trying to read you, Jay. I used to get, you know, if you're sitting right here, I'd be able to read you better.  Yeah, if it was the worst idea ever, I think I'd be pretty straight with you. Senator, this is the worst idea ever. Thank you, Senator DeWitt. I'm wondering just to take Mr. Nichols' lead, if we should just, at some point in the future, dive on Act 77 instead of just focusing on proficiency-based learning, because I mean, we could probably all stand to learn about that act, and then maybe take a look at how it's going. Yeah, I think it's a great idea. I think maybe what we do is, if we could do it a couple of different ways, we could let this go with just looking at the proficiency-based. The other thing we could do is we could, if we don't have time to act at the Act 77, we could ask the House to act at the Act 77, if we looked at it, and we could sort of, you know, do some testing right that way. It might be good, Senator, Senators, to have Jess DeCarlo's come in and just give an overview of it, especially with a pretty new committee. Pretty new. Jess is back. She's been away. Yeah, let's have Jess come in. Thanks. Good idea. Thanks, Jay. Remote teacher? Yeah, so you can probably hear we're sort of, you know, is this really necessary? Is it not kind of thing? What are you thinking? Well, I'm thinking that, you know, in general, we support this as an option when there's no other viable option available. And, you know, we'd want to see what the program was and how it be implemented, and we'd like to encourage the use of the Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative as an option and to make sure that we have limited costs to any schools that are trying to avail themselves with the opportunity. So I'm thinking of a place like maybe Canaan may not be able to get a teacher for a certain thing. It might want to have this kind of option. We want to make sure it wasn't cost prohibitive, if at all possible. Fair enough. Yeah. Okay. And post-secondary school marketing, it's hard for me to see who said it. I think it was Senator Williams that talked about Vermont and the Vermont schools or maybe Senator Hashim. Whoever said it, I agree. That's my testimony on post-secondary school marketing. Let's try to get people to come to Vermont, see Vermont, and let's try to get them to stay here. Jay, might I ask, if you feel free to punt this, if it's not if you don't want to ask, did you, were you from the state? Did you come to the state for college in the state? I was from here. I was a poor Vermont kid, first generation, go to college and all that stuff. Yeah. And I went to Johnson State College. You went to Johnson. Yeah. And then say your mics for my masters. Yeah. Great. Okay. Pre-kindergarten? So you all know how I feel about Pre-kindergarten. And my testimony in writing says that I went back to the four-year-old thing again. In terms of kids out of stay and the concern that was brought forth, I agree with Sue. And I think you all agree that if we're going to do that to some early childhood provider that's in a bordering state, then they need to have rules that are at least as rigorous as what we have in Vermont. Yeah. Yeah. And I have to understand also a little bit more to open up a huge can of worms by doing that. But it's okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then any thoughts on status of libraries? No, I had no comment on that section. I just don't know enough about it to really feel like I could weigh in on it. Okay. Anything for Mr. Nichols? That was helpful. Good. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Please make sure you help Mrs. Zalski out of the room at her age. She might need some help. Thank you, everybody. I won't even ask. What we'll probably do is once we get a clean version, you know, we're always welcome to come back in and weigh in on it again. Or if you just want to say by email, thumbs up, no thumbs up. This is what I'd like to change. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Hey, Beth. How are you doing? I'm well. How are you? I'm doing pretty well. And Mr. Zalski, do you mind speaking around for just one minute while we ask? Sorry, Beth, to address your question. Even though it's your birthday. Even though it's your birthday, I apologize. In this first section of the miscellaneous ed build that we have, Mrs. Zalski mentioned, in addition to examining the staffing and compensation for the skateboard, we would consider also examining the Commission for School Employee Health Benefit Group. Do you have a sense, and this might be something Mrs. Zalski can answer, how many people are on that board right now? I don't. I can easily look it up. I have the binary boards and commission page, but it soon knows the answer. So each side has five commissioners and two alternates. So that would be 14. Okay. Just tell us how it works, if you don't mind. Because you've got seven on both sides. Yes. Yeah. And so they, this law went into effect, I believe it was in 2018. And so there have been two rounds of bargaining. The commissioners are appointed by the law states who appoints the commissioners. Okay. And they do the bargaining for the statewide school employees health benefits. Yeah. So the next year they'll be entering into the third round of bargaining. Okay. So they need like a lot of people at a table to bargain 10. Seems to be working. I mean, I guess I can read just that. Yeah. Can you tell me? I could, I'd be happy to have the chair, each side has a chair. So I'd be happy to have the chair. And I'm sure you'd want to hear from, you know, both sides. And this is not really, you know, I'm not asking for one side. I'm talking about the entire just looking at the entire, you know, commission just like you're looking at the state board. Yeah. Anybody have any concerns with looking at this? I don't understand the two sides. Do you want to explain to us how it works? Yeah. So they, it's, it is collective bargaining at the state level. So that's for health care. Yes. And so on one side, you're going to have the five people, seven people appointed by home by the Vermont school board association. And then the other side, the other side, they're appointed by the Vermont NEA. And then there's also I think one person that is appointed by another community. Okay. Any issues with adding this kind of study? Okay. Okay. Great. Mr. Seglowski, would you put that in our next graph? I'm sorry. Sure. Feel free to leave it in. This St. James, if you're still at council, would you mind, thankfully, not that we would have your birthday later? Would you mind putting that in the second draft and the next draft? Yes. But I have a couple of points I'd like to make about this section if you'll indulge me. Absolutely. Please go ahead. Thank you. Beth St. James office of legislative council couple of days. JFO is probably not the right organization to conduct this type of study, especially if you're asking for policy recommendations. Yes, I just did the text from Catherine and I'm saying just that. Yes. So, Sue mentioned that the VPIC, which is the Vermont Pension Investment Committee, newly became an independent or I'm sorry commission. It went from a committee to a commission, I believe last session, and they were required to hire their own consultant to do a study on staffing and compensation. And so for the state board piece, I would suggest either AOE or the state board hiring a consultant and to carry out that study and make those recommendations and start and replacing JFO in that context. I would recommend agency of education for now. Okay. And then I do want to say, so I am not terribly familiar with the commission on public employee health benefits. They are different in many ways from the state board of education. And I just want to, their staffing and expenses are the authority for them to have staff and the allocation of their expenses is different than the state board of education. And that is that they have permission in state law to hire staff as necessary to carry out its duties. And I believe the similar language to the state board. But current law specifically states that compensation for commission staff and administrative expenses of the commission shall be shared equally by school employers and school employees. And those costs shall equitably be equitably apportioned among their members. So it's not a completely analogous situation for a study. And I don't know much more about this organization, but I would encourage you to think about two completely separate studies. Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea. And what then I would recommend we do is if you would draft what Susa Glowski just recommended to us as a amendment, if you will, and we will hear from your testimony and then the committee can decide whether or not we would want to amend the miscellaneous education bill with Susa amendment after hearing some testimony. I'm sure. And you don't have to make any amendments at this point because there's nothing that's been introduced. So it would just be a new draft. So we don't have to be that formal. Yeah, I'm just talking about not any official way, but I'm just saying, you know, as a way to as a vehicle to sort of make the policy decision in the end. Sure. So I'm adding another study on the compensation staffing of the Vermont Commission on Public School Employee Health Benefits. Is that accurate? But you're not adding it to this draft. You're going to add it as if, you know, in a separate sort of as if we were to amend it later on, speaking not officially as an amendment, but just as a separate vehicle in which we will take testimony and maybe then eventually add it to the miscellaneous education bill. Orson language, no problem. And then just to be clear, are you thinking the same they have to hire a consultant to do the study? I think for now you can put that in as we dig into in the next couple of weeks we can decide. Okay. Okay. Great. So then I think as it relates to section two, we are going to be hearing from Secretary French about the statewide torso offerings and whether or not agency of education has enough resources to do that work. While we're on the topic, does it make sense for anyone else to do that work? I wouldn't. I mean, I guess the only thing this committee could do would be to have the agency of education hire a consultant, but I think let's talk to Dan about it and see what he thinks and then go from there, please. Okay. I think we're relatively straightforward and commission the study. Yeah. We fund the study and they figure out how to conduct the study. If they can't do it in-house, then they subcontract. That's fairly strange for me. It seemed to me. So we can ask that when Secretary French is in if that's the way that they want to go about it. One of the things Secretary French said over the years is like, I can save the $150,000 or I can save the $100,000 by kind of doing it in-house and we can get from that option. Sounds good. Section three, efficiency-based learning, study committee. We're going to continue to take some testimony on it next week. We'll also look at the possibility of doing something around Act 77, but I don't think there's anything to do there. And the remote teacher grant program, let me just give some thought to this. I just, I think J. Nichols point around, are there some rural districts that might need some additional funds to help them? Might be the way for me to think about it. Since I'm the one that's kind of maybe pushing this the most, I'll just give some thoughts and try to convince the committee one way or the other and we'll see where people land. The Vermont Post-Secondary School Marketing. I will talk to Senator Ron Hinsdale today and Senator Kitchell about budget items and see what we can or cannot do around this. And I don't know if we've heard a number from, I think the one number we've heard from the chamber and others was right now the state's marketing is 3.5 million. Okay, so I'll talk to Senator Ron Hinsdale and others and see if they can also get behind what I think this committee would support is some additional funds to the agents to the agency and or the agency of tourism to come up with something to help market higher education. And then I'm the pre-kindergarten. Beth, are we opening up? And I'm sorry I missed this because it's the first time. Would this be the first time somebody would be going over the border for pre-K? Are we opening this up? And so a couple of things. One, just to be clear, section six in your miscellaneous bill makes zero amendments to current law. There's no changes in the bill. It's just a pre-holder. I can't comment on whether or not you're opening up a can of worms because that's subjective. I think I encourage you when I did the walkthrough and I would encourage it again to ask AOE to come in and speak to what they believe the holdup is in allowing a student to use Act 166 funds to attend a pre-K program across state lines because there's nothing in here that says you can't go to a pre-K program in New Hampshire or out of state. My understanding is it's an interpretation and it may be the intent behind the law, but intent is for you to breathe life into, not me, and I didn't draft one Act 166. But I believe what you'll hear is that the way that AOE is interpreting the qualifications of these programs is that it's really only for not programs that may qualify. But I would really encourage you to hear from AOE on those interpretations, not me, because they're the ones who are saying yay or nay to the tuition in your class. I will also say if you're also looking at, and I have not heard all the testimony you've taken on the topic of pre-K in the garden, but if you are looking to do, to make, you know, I think it's, I actually don't remember the bill number, but the pre-K in child care bill that came out this session, yep. If you're looking at making large programmatic changes like that, you know, consolidating changes would be helpful, you know, rather than making one small change in the miscellaneous bill, not a larger change in a larger bill. And then, because they may not, they may not match. And if they're, if they're becoming out of your committee, that's definitely something to think of. And then the last piece I will just say is that historically and going forward, I co-staffed pre-K in the garden with Katie, my colleague Katie McClinn. Right. So going forward, if you're hearing testimony on changes to the pre-K in the program and statute, and certainly asking for any drafting, we should ideally both be in the room for that. Yeah. And for what is worth, Hayden did tell me that. So I can assure you it's my mistake. Just given a, just given a plug, because it's so hard to coordinate schedules, I just want to, just want to make a plug for that. Yeah. And then working group on status of libraries, I don't know. Yeah. Kind of just make one recommendation on the last section was pre-kindergarten education. I just recommend changing the titles to alleviate confusion and call it like cross-border pre-kindergarten education or something to that effect, because we're about to go into this big confluence. If we don't join, we don't move this into S56. Yeah. We just need to be able to really, clearly differentiate what, what, what, yeah. Sounds like a good idea. Are you talking about the reader assistance heading? Yes. I can certainly make that change. Great. And then back on the library study, I think we discussed about just adding this, and I'm not sure if it already has it in there. Thank you. This is about, we were going to ask the group that's already looking at libraries to consider this one extra piece in their report. And their report is due back when? It is due November 1st of this year. Okay. So they have some time to, and we would do that. We would direct them in statute to do that. Yeah. So I did add language here. So this is a piece of special law creating a working group to report back to the legislature with recommendations. And I did add on page 18, so their powers and duties, they shall study whether current law, lines 15 and 16, or the current law provides adequate protections for libraries from firearm violence. And then their recommendations need to include on page 20 lines 20 through 21 recommendations for legislative action regarding firearm and weapons safety on library property. So perhaps you and I could look at a new draft together tomorrow afternoon sometime. We could just go through it and then we can present it again for the committee next week. If anybody else wants to join us after tomorrow, you may need after three or four or something like that. We can just scrap that. Yeah, certainly. Library. The State Department of Libraries, many of these college libraries fall under that or should they? I mean, it's another layer. I could be wrong with this. Did you hear the question? I didn't. Whether or not, correct me if I'm wrong here, Senator Williams, and I repeat the question. Do our state libraries at our state universities fall under the heading of any power or authority that any kind of library commission that might exist has in the state? And I don't, I think all libraries are very individual, right? You could have a library has its own board of trustees in a town. You could have the state university libraries. Is there any overarching authority for libraries in the state? Well, there's the Department of Libraries. And this is not in my portfolio. So I'm sorry I can't speak as eloquently as I could. But there is the, let's see. There is a Vermont state. There is a State Department regarding libraries, what their duties are I can't speak to. As far as if you're asking that question in relation to the firearm piece, if you're asking that question not in relation to the firearm piece, I can certainly consult with my colleague who handles library matters that either here I can get back to you on kind of control of libraries or regulatory authority over libraries. I think how are they regulated and whether or not our libraries at the state college fall under their regulations in any way, or if they just fall under the regulations of the institutions themselves. I think they just fall under the regulations of the institutions themselves. But if you could check with your colleague who has expertise in libraries that would be great. If that, if that. Yeah. You know. Sound good? All right. I don't know. Okay. I know the Department of Libraries oversees the public libraries, but are the state libraries part of the public system? Because they are even in the municipal one. Public. So yeah, that's a good question. They don't have the board of directors. Yeah. In most cases, but they still fall under the state library system. All right. Okay. I think we're good. Okay. I will have a new day tomorrow. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Let's take five minutes. We'll come back. We're going to up.


Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. The government after-school program generates immense public interest. The journalistic prowess of one of St. Lucia's political giants is hailed and the school's Creole-Lamago Festival in full bloom. The government initiative to expand the after-school program spearheaded by the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment, Youth Development, Sports, Culture and Local Government has generated immense public interest. As we hear from Lisa Joseph, more than 30 enthusiastic and curious parents gathered at the Vidbuter Primary School in Lacklery to discuss the participation of their children in the newly launched National Lottery's Authority after-school program. The initiative which is in its second pilot phase provides participants with homework assistance, life skills training, sports activities and nutrition. Out of the 60 plus primary schools Vidbuter Primary was one of the selected 11 to be part of this pilot phase. There are five after-school centres in the north of the island. The centres are the Lagais Centre, the Vidbuter Primary School Centre, the Marshall Combined School Centre and also the Tenry School Centre. With the fifth one is Millet Centre. My role is to go around the centres on a weekly basis to ensure that the coaches, the staff working at those centres are adequately equipped with all the necessary that they need, the equipment, the materials that they require to ensure that the programme runs successfully. Gilroy Hall, Public Relations Officer for the after-school programme, reminded parents that the success of the programme is dependent on the level of input and support. The parents who signed their children for participation were satisfied that a comprehensive plan had been put together. Tony Neckles is one of them. I'm very interested in this programme because it is a holistic pattern that I want for my daughter. I know that it's necessary for her to build teamwork, to show respect to others, to be courteous and I find that this programme has the necessary ingredients and as well the National Lottery's Authority did the necessary vetting. As we heard in this meeting, they have had lots of interviews with the people so we're not worried about who's around the children. They spoke of insurance, they spoke of time and they also spoke of giving them something to eat after practice. The after-school programme offers not only academic, sporting and life skills training but the psychological well-being of the student is also of paramount concern. Martina Chalry is the social worker assigned to the programme. There are children who are coming from really impoverished homes, there are children coming from a bad environment, there are children who are being raised in domestic violence situations, there are children who have been exposed to violence and we want to make sure that these children who are part of this programme get the kind of assistance that they need to become better citizens, to become well-rounded students and to also develop their sporting prowess. Devid Wute Primary School is one of the centres that has reached its maximum registration of 45 participants. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. Saint Lucia joined the global community in celebrating International Credit Union Day on the first day 18th October. The day is recognised to reflect upon the Credit Union movement's history, promote its achievements and share member experiences. Zephyne Francis is the President of the Saint Lucia Civil Service Credit Union and the Saint Lucia Credit Union League. In Saint Lucia, we have 16 Credit Unions. Whether we need all of them is relative. The importance is that they serve in a purpose. Credit unions are community-based or occupational and we even have religious credit unions. So it means that we cover a wide spectrum. The Credit Union movement in Saint Lucia now is in excess of 92,000 members. When I say the asset base is not to scare anybody, it's just to see that we are growing rapidly and we are becoming something that people are beginning to watch. Because in Saint Lucia alone, the Credit Union movement have in excess of $876 million. So that says a lot and when people say you have that kind of money, they're going to start checking on you. Francis says Credit Unions were formed out of a means of assisting the underprivileged with their financial issues and that remains true today. Credit Union is a great thing, but we keep the secret to ourselves. We do not bring it out to the public. A lot of the public hear Credit Union. Have an idea but have not fully understand the Credit Union principle. But the Credit Union principle is found on a cooperative principle. And I believe that cooperative is the way to go if you want to grow your economy, if you want to reach the last section of people. So in principle, Credit Unions are doing what we expect them to do, which is helping people in the community to grow. Credit Unions don't just handle savings and loans and deposits. Credit Unions are in the education. They take care of the members, they take care of the members' students, also volunteer. Credit Unions are celebrating 70 years under the theme, find your platinum lining in a Credit Union. The fourth annual George W. Audlam Memorial Lecture celebrated the journalistic prowess of one of St. Lucia's political giants. George Audlam was a multifaceted man who used his razor-wit and creative skills to contribute to the societal change for over three decades. His oratory skills coupled with his aptitude for journalistic writing made him a formidable opponent. George Audlam's nephew, Buffalo Audlam, stated St. Lucia was poorer having lost a man who came from that generation of giants. Most times George Audlam comes to mind, I think of the education factor and I think of the bringing the journey of what made us the society who were in the 50s, 60s and 70s, what made us literary giants, cultural icons. How did we produce these men like George? What is it we're doing as a society to sustain that kind of eloquence, that kind of educational standard, that kind of levity, that today we could say, are we a great nation, you know? This year's presenter was veteran journalist Earl Bousquet. With over 40 years in the field, Bousquet remembered his encounters with George Audlam. More specifically, Bousquet recalled the magnitude with which Audlam's editorial pieces helped to shape the politics of the day and by extension, St. Lucia history. By the time George took over the crusader, he had long developed writing skills that equaled his oratorial and performing genius. He had long been writing and performing while studying the skills of the world's best writers, playwrights and poets, and had already developed that ability to transmit local messages through their words. But George would also marry the words of Shakespeare and short of the lyrics of Cessenne Descartes, any of her songs with a ring of Ramo Poliwans, your mentality and the commonality in equal ability to transmit messages in language, sound and performance. George would often invoke cruel perverbs in his columns to translate the words of the feathered pens in the language of the market steps. That was George, the writer and publisher. Audlam was known through St. Lucia as Brother George, hailed as one of the Caribbean region's greatest orators. He was able to capture his audience at home and on the world stage when he served as St. Lucia's permanent representative to the United Nations. As the owner of the crusader, a left wing publication, Audlam challenged the government of the day on its policies and programs in witty, satirical prose, as well as traditional writing forms. From the government information service, I am Jacques Kingston Compton. This is Nation Beat, stay with us. Small household electrical appliances when faulty can give rise to big problems. If you have just purchased a small appliance from a store and you are concerned about the safety of the item on appliances been at home for some time subjected to wear and tear from regular usage. Have it tested by St. Lucia Bureau of Standards. It is better to be safe than sorry. For more information, contact the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards at 456-0546 or email SLBS at candw.lc or visit the website at www.slbs.org.lc St. Lucia Bureau of Standards, making quality and standards our way of life. Welcome back. Celebrations for La Margaret were in full bloom Wednesday with the staging of the school's Creole La Margaret Festival. The Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Powerment of Development Sports, Culture and the Local Government in collaboration with the Cultural Development Foundation, CDF and the Folk Research Center FRC held the 2018 School Creole Festival on Wednesday, October 17th at the St. Joseph, the Worker Church, Grosely. Acting Prime Minister and Parliamentary Representative for Grosely, Honourable Leonard Montoot applauded the participating schools for their involvement and encouraged the youth to keep the Creole Flower Festivals alive. Let me congratulate all of the teachers and the officials who have worked with the students to put this together. When I see what happened here today, I know that our culture is in good hands and our flower festivals have a safe future. I want to encourage you, the students, to enjoy these moments. When you reflect on your school life, these are the moments that you will treasure and you will cherish. I hope that after you have graduated from the schools that you now attend, that will not be the end of your involvement in the Flower Festivals. This is our culture and we have to keep it alive. The festivity was followed by an award ceremony to honour one of St. Lucia's leading Creole School activists. Her name is Miss Loubain. She is the principal of the Marsha Primary School. The participating schools came from Grosely Infant, Primary and Secondary School, Marsha Primary, Tastry's Comprehensive, Cicero, Odsa, Balata, R.C. Boy's Infant, Donata, Lady Gordon, Ave Maria, Tirochet, Carmen Henry, Kair and Sir Ira Seaman Secondary School. Senator the Honourable Fortuna Bellaro stated that she was impressed at the manner in which the youth was able to play the different roles within the different groups. It's good to see that the young ones are so taken up in terms of understanding what is happening within the setting, the way they sang the songs, the way they participated, the way they executed their roles. I think that's significant and even in terms of taking instructions, these are some of the things that we saw in the setting this morning. And it's very important for us to celebrate as a people and to know how to celebrate and to know how to solve our problems. And through these initiatives, through these programmes, like now my great La Rose, we learned to appreciate the value of resolving conflict amicably. And I think a lot of that came through in the presentations this morning. Reporting from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Development, Sports, Culture and the Local Government, I am Jevre Marie. The health of its employees proves to be a major priority to Wasco. We have more from Jacques Henson Compton. The Water and Sewage Company, Incorporated, or Wasco, hosts a health fair for its staff and environs this week in an effort to promote healthier lifestyles. The fair's purpose is to encourage attendants to undergo regular medical examinations. Blood pressure, prostate and vision tests were offered free of charge. Communications and Marketing Officer at Wasco, Sherri-Ann Gayard-Williams, illustrates the importance of regular medical examinations. A lot of the time, workers are very busy, their schedules are very hectic. And yes, we know that we need to make time to go to the doctor, but some people, because of their schedules, are not able to do so. So we are taking the initiative and bringing those services to them and making it more easily accessible. Gayard-Williams says this year's fair has seen improvements from the previous year. We have partnered with the Ministry of Education. We have the St. Lucia Fire Service. We also have the St. Lucia Red Cross Society who are collaborating with us on this initiative, on this effort. In addition to the healthcare services that are available to the employees today, we also have a SOCA exercise session that will be held to close off this whole initiative that will be held later this afternoon. We also have some training on CPR, emergency response, first aid. We also have basic fire training that we will be offering to the staff. So all of this is in an effort to keep people informed, to help people stay healthy, and to keep them active. Participants of the fair also received valuable information on various health topics such as cancer. Reporting from the Government Information Service, I am Jacques Kingston Compton. That's Nation Beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm with a repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we feel the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norville.