Okay, Jill is running late too. Okay. Welcome everybody. Thank you for coming to our school board meeting tonight is 6.08. Mark is recording already. I wanted to start this meeting just to say thank you to our staff. I know they had a wonderful in-service day for March the 13th day and I'm excited to see that work coming through and I'm sure Jen is going to update you on that later in her report. But mainly I just wanted to say that we know how hard it is and we feel the stress and we are just 14 board members but we are here to support you and the community is here to support you and we just want to thank you for all the work you do and there's nothing much we can do to lift that weight but if we could we would and we're thinking of you and then I'll move on also again because the school board appreciation month just to say how much I appreciate all of you you all bring you know something different to the board and you're you know the diversity of thought that we had in the board it's just amazing and I really appreciate all of all of you it now with that any any public comments I would like to welcome our guests so if you could go ahead and raise your hand to give me an idea of how much time we need I see one hand up we have one more minute okay I see just one hand up so welcome Jeremy thanks very much I'm Jeremy Hansen I'm from Berlin I have two kids in the school system one at Berlin elementary one at U32 I read the article in The Times Argus about the the property the school property in Berlin being transferred over to the town and I and as a former select board member and as someone who's kind of tracked the town center project I am not in favor of that so the members from Berlin are certainly not alone I didn't do any sort of big organizing or you know talk to a bunch of people and try to get them here tonight I apologize for that but I know I'm not the only one in Berlin who would who is against doing that transfer so I just want to make sure that the those of us in Berlin who are against that at least there's somebody who's not on the board who who is coming here to let you know about that so that's that's all I have thank you thank you Jeremy I appreciate your input yeah I don't see any other hands but there would be a space for public comment right after it Kari do you have a yeah floor I'm sorry this is unusual but I wonder if Jeremy would say a few words about why he feels that way because I haven't I haven't really heard that point of view articulated sure so while I was on the select board this you know the town center effort was passed over my negative vote and in part because of the the tax benefits and the tax breaks that are that were being given essentially without going into too much detail out of our property taxes to businesses in the in the town so you know Walmart applied for tax breaks coal supply for tax breaks and these were these are efforts these are developments that would have happened anyways I'm I'm not convinced that there's you know that taking school property and transferring it to the town does really helps in this respect I'm I'm of the opinion that we ought to have more in the public more in the Commons and less for the I mean less for the benefit of private business I understand economic development I understand the need for jobs I I don't think that this is a valuable transaction thank you thank you Jeremy so sorry moving right along any agenda sorry I'm home along today and hold on a minute any agenda revisions I apologize for that any agenda revisions okay so there's a couple that I would like to make if you guys don't have if your guys are okay with it we would like to move the annual warning draft that we had a 3.4 back to the finance part and you would understand once we once we get there so put it under 5.24 and the roof bid will be 5.25 we just want to have the conversation about the fund balance with that memo that you received today from Suzanne first and then we'll move into into that and and that's it that okay with you guys and then we're going to move right into the Burlington Center okay I don't see any heads saying no so we'll move right away first I want to welcome Nick Low who's representing us as he's our lawyer and he's here to answer any questions that we might have I sent a last-minute memo to all of you could you please just raise your hand I didn't hear from anybody but just make sure that if you could just raise your hand and that you got it and we're able to read it in all right okay so it could we I'm trying to figure out how best to start this conversation start I can start it by making the motion then we can discuss the motion if you like that so okay I'll move that the board approve the memorandum of understanding dated January 19 2022 regarding conveying a portion of the Berlin elementary school property to the town of Berlin and to authorize the chair of the board to sign that mo you on behalf of the board I'll second that thank you Lisa you got that yeah okay so discussion questions from the board go ahead Jonas floor under what circumstances would we want to discuss this in open session versus in executive session I'm gonna let Nick talk about this I'm just gonna give you I really wanted to do this in open session because I think both lawyers have already coordinated so but I also wanted to give you that option and that's why I included that that motion in there but I let Nick speak to that too yeah I mean I I guess that's up to the board ultimately what I can say is that you can discuss this in executive session it's within you know the exceptions that allow the board to go into executive session and I we did have that draft motion to do that so I I I won't really I don't really have an opinion about whether the board should do that or not but I would say that you can thank you Nick Lindy and Chris I think Chris had his hand raised first and he can't do these little ones so he can go first Chris you're muted Chris I'm going to defer and then you go first okay all right um my comment was in response to the public and last meeting because my understanding is the town center is a public it's not a Walmart or a coals that perhaps years ago there were tax breaks given for those entities but this is for a municipal building and public paths in order to make this possible so I think that was I'm looking at this as the good for the town of Berlin in the sense of a municipal building as well as town recreation so I just that's how I was seeing it thank you Lindy Chris I would urge that we not go into executive session to discuss this because I think what would happen is if we go into executive session folks who may have comments on this proposal the the comments would not see the light of day because we just come out of executive session and vote so I think for the purposes of transparency we should have this discussion in open session as opposed to executive session yeah could I just see thumbs up if people agree and yeah seems like majority has the thumbs up great so so what what I'm going to ask is maybe Nick you would be more indicated do you mind just summarizing the memo of understanding so that the members of the public can can hear that too because here in that we just have a couple because I was not able to put this out sooner do you mind yeah that's fine so this is basically it you know generally an agreement by which the school board would agree to convey the property roughly 3.8 acres on the edge of the undeveloped land on the Berlin elementary school property to the town and so the memorandum is written in a way that there's a bunch of whereas statements at the beginning and these basically say that the school has this property the town needs the property for purposes of the new new town center and that the school would be open to conveying the property to the town for purposes of using it for the new town center and so one of the ideas there is that it's a it's a it's for a specific use the other piece that we put in here that's newer from the last time I met with you all back I think in September is that if the board approves this today and signs off on this memorandum of understanding it would still have to go to the electorate of the unified union for a vote and so yeah it still has to pass that public vote threshold in order for all of this to move forward so if you all sign off on this if you authorize the sign off on it today then you you would be committing to conveying that property to the town subject to an affirmative vote of the electorate which would be go on to the warning for the upcoming town meeting the upcoming board meeting uh and um and in here we have in this agreement um we put in some conditions and we have general language in here that would be more specific once the actual deed is drafted um there also would have to be some survey and site work done in order to kind of um get the specifics on this but generally the idea uh there's a few restrictions that the property would be used for the new town center there would be some kind of landscaping buffer between the existing school and the new town center um the district could continue using hiking trails uh on the property and if these conditions aren't met um within within a certain period of time the property would come back to the school um and it's it's not indefinite right now we have in here 15 years so if that it restricts the use of the property for 15 years beyond that the town would have more flexibility regarding the property thank you nick and you know all of these conditions were came from our past meeting the the hearing that we had so we're trying to incorporate the feedback that we received from the board and and the town any questions oh Maggie I was just curious where the 15 year period came from I don't recall us discussing that previously so more info would be wonderful thanks that uh good question I you know in the initial discussion um I had proposed a permanent indefinite restriction and um anyone who's receiving land will will balk at that to some extent and so I think from the town's perspective from what I understood you know in a certain you know at some point in the future they may want to use this differently whether it's 15 years or a different period of time um who knows the 15 years is just kind of loosely associated with a potential bonding period for the town to get a bond on the new town center project it could be a different term and you know if the school board wanted to propose an alternative number we could certainly modify the memorandum of understanding and you know authorize it along a different with a different number and send that back to the town sorry but I would I would just add that I don't think it's unreasonable to have a time frame on there you know at some point in at you know in 30 50 years whatever it is it's not unreasonable to to think that you know the town might want to do something differently and Nick just to follow up on that you you've coordinated that with the lawyer for the town of Berlin so that the 15 years they have seen that right 15 years they've they've generally agreed to from what I understand if we were to come back with a different number I don't know how that would be received thank you Diane and then Chris you're on deck so just to clarify so say we approve it it still has to go to the voters and if the voters vote it down then it's no longer approved correct so then that really messes up the February one deadline correct we were being told repeatedly at that meeting that they needed to know by February first and so doesn't this then push it back to when the communities can vote I don't I don't know exactly what the February one deadline is I did not speak about that with the town I don't know if this would give them sufficient reassurance that for them to move forward I guess that's that's more a question for the town but from from my discussions with the town they agreed that they should go to the public vote before the property could be conveyed Chris okay so is there anyone from the town here because I think Diane is is right that we were their representations up and down that this had to be done at this meeting because they had to have something done by February first and if that's not accurate then I'd like to hear why it's not accurate and now I'm going to comment on this document as a whole the section 4d which is the 15-year period Nick was talking about to me is problematic because it is you know Nick in his is summary said that after 15 years if the town did any of these things the land would come back to the school but that's not accurate because it's the school would have an option to buy the land back to the cost of the improvements and I don't think we should be agreeing to anything about buying it back that if the time the whole purpose of this discussion was to provide the school property to the town of Berlin so they could complete their town center project and that that is the sole purpose for this land conveyance it is not to have a 15-year period so that the town if after 15 years they've done some building and say we'll sell back to the improvements which are now two million dollars because that essentially becomes a non-starter because the school is not going to buy back the land I suspect for two million dollars and if basically this 15-year period essentially after 15 years the town does have the obligation to say this is what we're doing although the language is hard because it says if the town bill or enters or uses those are all active verbs as opposed to proposes to build or proposes to use or proposes to enter into an agreement then the town is the first the school has to write a first refusal this this I cannot agree to the section I won't support the section you know my understanding is that we were going to convey this land they could use it for the municipal purposes for the town center and if they stopped using it at any time not 15 years not 20 years not 30 years at any time it would revert back to the school and that's the deal I think we should go with not not this this is this becomes a giveaway to me and not not we would not be doing our duties as stewards of our land and our assets for the school district I think if we agreed to this so I have a lot I just have problems with this because it's it's it's significantly different than what we talked about I think at the Berlin meeting in terms of any reversionary interest that we would have that we would retain the other thing on section C although I'm comfortable with the language that says the WCUSD to maintain and as opposed to saying the WCUSD retains the right to use the property for hiking trails and maintaining them and for the general public to do the same because allowing is different than asserting your own right to use that property which which is what our understanding was as well and then one minor thing is that there's a there's a difference between the $10 purchase and the $1 purchase but that's extraordinarily minor but that's an inconsistency which should be cleared up but I am I am fully against D as it's written now because I don't think that was what our hope was thank you thanks Chris yeah and and D is a you know the whole thing is a draft so and then just to be clear Nick got this back today like a two o'clock or three o'clock back from the town so so this is just a draft so we can we can go we can go back to them with with the changes let me see Chris and Maggie is that an old hand or a new hand are you there Maggie other way Diane go ahead and oh there she is she unmuted Maggie sorry I thought I would express that just by leaving it up yes it's a new hand thank you yeah go ahead I was looking for information about how if that 15 year period is reached that would be revisited what mechanism would that be communicated that that would be an opportunity to revisit this Nick sorry yeah the way that this is written now there wouldn't be an opportunity to revisit after the 15 years the the board would not retain any authority to you know do anything beyond what's expressly set out there and if I can just briefly speak to Chris's comments the the idea of the automatic reversion I I did send that to the town in my initial draft to them and this is effectively you know their counter offer and I think as floor said you know this document is subject to revision or you know changes to what would be what would be acceptable to the board I my my impression from the town is that they were balking at a permanent restriction now I think what we could do is and I did kind of touch on this with the town a little bit in our discussions in 4c what that could look like is a permanent easement to use the trails and then you know that that I think makes it a little bit more firm there could be potentially in 4b the landscape buffer area is in the form of some kind of permanent easement as well I think the town my sense and I again I can't speak for the town but my sense is that you know if the town were to build improvements on the property and then it reverted back to the school they would want some you know compensation you know for the value of those improvements there's a similar provision in in the in the unified districts articles regarding you know improvements and transfer back to a town but again you know if the board wanted to just have a simple clause that says this property can only ever be used for the new town center and if it ever ceases to be to be used for that then it automatically reverts back to the school district that is you know that is legally possible to write a provision like that into the deed and we could modify this my mo you to to indicate that we want that type of specific language and that's what the board is authorizing but you know I think again I think you know it's it this is a question for the board to to figure out is there a longer time limit and then the the town is free to use the property for something different or is this a perpetual restriction on the property thank you nick diane so I just I just want to say that what I've been asking for months now is whether or not this would go before community members so I really appreciate that there is this clause in it and you know I'm still debating and listening to people in terms of whether or not I will vote for it but if I do vote for this mo you it is because it will go before the greater community to really weigh in on this thank you diane Chris I'm going to let mckaylin go first because you're ready ask one question go ahead um well I also agree with what diane says I'm I'm I feel some weight off of us knowing that it's going to go to the voters as a whole um but I also have concerns I have concerns about the 15 years I think that seems short I'm not necessarily opposed to there being a time limit but I'd I'd be more apt to go out like a generation or two um and then I like the idea of it reverting within that whatever time frame was agreed upon reverting back to us without having to necessarily pay whatever improvements have been made um so that would be my vote I'm not opposed to a time frame I would vote I would like it to be longer though um and my preference would be to not have to pay back the cost of the improvements thank you Chris I'm so just to clarify that the way this provision seems to be written and Nick please correct me if this is incorrect what I'm going to say set 15 year time limit is basically um you know it's it's arbitrary it's it's you know like Nick said it's probably mirror something to do with a bonding a time but it's arbitrary there's nothing that requires 15 years or any time I mean we could and I think we should um have a reversionary interest whenever this land is not going to be used for municipal purposes because without that after 15 at least this number 15 years it could be 25 years it could be 30 years um once those restrictions go away the restriction in terms of the use then the they could they could build a the town could build whatever they want on that land because there's nothing that holds them back having the reversionary interest um once the land is not being used for a municipal purpose which is what they asked for they asked us to do it for a municipal purpose not and like we heard everyone saying we'll never use it for anything else that's not our intention if that's not your intention then let's memorialize that in the language because the language here is very important um it has legal effect and if we don't get it right um then we may just regret it let down the line um furthermore um the not having a being required to pay anything if the land reverts it's basically a a safety clause for us because the town um we'll have you know spent money to improve it which is what we want them to do that's the purpose of the conveyance but we don't want them then to be able to take the land and use it for other purposes unless we buy it back from them we want them to just use it for the municipal purposes that they've asked for and if they don't then it reverts back regardless of whether they made improvements on it um by not having to buy you know essentially if we have to buy pay for the improvements it's a negative because we're not going I suspect we're not going to do that we won't have the extra money to do that so you know if we're by having the reversionary interest without any buyback provision required of us you know it holds it down to its commitment which is what I think they made uh and so the language here is important and we should we should get it right before it goes to the voters thank you yeah thanks thanks Chris I'm gonna let Carrie ask a question I believe Carla is here from this from the town go ahead yeah thanks um I got two questions one about this this particular topic which is is there a way that we could say potentially extend the timeline but also if the town is going to do wants to do something different with it give the district essentially a veto power um before that um decision is made I don't need an answer for that I'm just throwing it out there but I guess my bigger point is um it sounds like we clearly need to do another revision to this draft um and I feel like we're getting bogged down in the detail of this one particular provision I wonder if we should just acknowledge that we need more work on this and identify any other issues that we want Nick to work with say Floor and Chris on and before they bring it back to us thank you Carrie yeah I think it's clear Michaelian is that a new hand yeah okay go ahead and then yeah sorry I also wanted to point out before that it seemed to me in the meeting that we had with the town that um you know that it's pretty important to their project that they have use of this land so I don't I mean I think we should ask for the deal we want I don't I don't think we should feel like they're not going to accept it um you know I think we should come up with something we're all comfortable with um and not feel bullied into something else thank you thank you I have more hands up I'm gonna Maggie do you have another question otherwise I'm gonna give the Berlin town a the opportunity go ahead Maggie I I would love it if this could be answered by the town my understanding was that this was essential for the purposes of rerouting the entry into the complex not for development of the land itself that it it's it's necessary as part of their their buffer with the road so clarification on that would also be helpful thank you thanks Maggie Jonathan yeah thanks for um I just want to be clear again about where I stand and that is that um there is no MOU or you know a document that transfers district property to the town um that I would support and I'll give a few reasons why the main one is I don't see what interest it serves the school district to give the town property effectively we're doing it to help the town and that's nice and that's great but that's serving their interests more than it's serving the district interests so that's one reason another reason is is because I feel like during the select board meeting last uh few weeks ago we heard from Carla and others many many different entities that they have been contacted in contact with about this project trying to get the grant approvals and all these different permitting requirements understood that it's a lot of work that's part of the deal but I really still feel like we were last to the table and it's our property effectively uh and so we should have been first to the table so I have serious concerns about that uh and there are environmental reasons other reasons so once again I will just be clear that I will not support any transfer of any of that property to the town I have other reasons but I think those two are sufficient ecological reasons but those are sufficient for me I don't feel that this was done frankly in good faith by the town because we were last to the table that's seriously for me very very problematic thank you thank you Jonathan Jonas and then for real you can get to go Carla uh so I Jonathan I respect everything that you said the timeline for our involvement in this goes back I think at least a year it was first brought to this board I understand that the previous the Berlin board the legacy Berlin board looked at this until you know the merger sort of put that on hold so Jonathan I do share some of your concern there but I you know we did discuss this back in September right and it's taken some time to do that I do see a benefit to the school you know we've heard from the school principal um and we heard from the hospital right and we heard from the housing advocates those are some powerful human interests that are that have signed on to this I also share Jonathan's environmental concern I'm not sure what the law is and maybe Chris or someone else can it can educate us about who would you know if there was you know a problem in the wetland right that's at the bottom of that little valley you know who is responsible for mitigating that you know even if it's on our property if something happens on that piece of land after it's transferred and there needs to be some kind of mitigation who's responsible for that um I will support this with a longer period of reversion rights 15 years really does not seem all that long this is supposed to be a permanent project right there's a lot of work being done on this and and again you know Jonathan hearing everything you say and having heard you know from Vera and you know the other folks from Berlin including um I forgot the gentleman's name who spoke earlier you know there is some opposition to this but again Berlin has spent time and money and taken their votes to make this happen I think the um the decision to grant them a new you know the new town center designation was an enormous achievement right that's not easy to do I think per you know and having listened into some of that board's deliberations about it um you know this is not you know the kind of project that they wanted to support I don't think this is the kind of project they had in mind when they created those designations but Berlin got it done I think that that is um admirable but again at the end of the day it's not about the project right it's about the use of the land um you know for municipal purposes and making sure that that if we do this then our interests are covered I think 15 years is way too short I would I'm with Chris I would like to see this into perpetuity if that's not okay you know if the town box at that you know then we need to make it really really long right like like Hong Kong or you know the the Panama Canal 15 years right is a is a blink of an eye and it concerns me that that's the year that the town wanted to put in there because it seems like the plans are not as permanent as we thought um and that after 15 years they would think about doing something else with that it makes me very uncomfortable so I would like to see that change to you know again you know the number is random 50 100 longer thank you thank you Jonathan I just want to just say something quickly I just want to make sure that we don't turn this into a hearing so I'm going to open it up to Berlin even though they're not board members and not going to wait until we go into public comment but but basically the decision is is the school board going to need this property later on granted all of that we have said 25 years perpetuity you know we need to change but it's just try to keep it in the decision that we have to make as a school are we going to use this property in the future is what we're looking at and can we convey this 3.8 acres to the town of Berlin it's the main question okay Carla and then Thomas and just please be brief thank you I just wanted to to say that um the process of this drafting was done with the two lawyers with not in their sort of interest I was peripherally involved and I was just um I did make the comment that I was uncomfortable with this and perpetuity on a deed restriction just because that is extremely limiting for forever and but the term limit was the 15 years was something that the lawyer I think decided that was not the town we are not trying to limit it to that that 15 years I don't think so I just want to make that clear at least not from my perspective we do intend to use it for municipal purposes and there is no alternative plans behind the scenes so I think I think that's important I just I had mentioned to to Vince to look at the the option agreement which just because it did have a you know like a purchase of an amount to buy back and those types of things and that's where I think that came from but you know the town is is not wed to those terms and I think a lot of the the actual language came from the lawyer so I just want to make that clear and I think Tom wants to speak thank you Carla Tom thank you for having me I just had some clarity I started speaking to to Brian your former superintendent in in August of 2020 and so this this process with this with the supervisor union has been going on for a long time and during that time the town of Berlin was was upgrading its municipal wastewater system and on on the school property you had a an old wastewater pump station that actually pumped your wastewater across those wetlands onto the Berlin Mall property the town of Berlin in good faith working with the school at at an expense of about $250,000 replaced your pump station on that school with with you know maybe it was my naivete I was working with Brian in good faith to the end to this to this project so the town and the school have been working cooperatively on this for quite quite some time and I would suggest you speak to Bill Ford your your your capital's improvement person he will gladly back up everything I'm saying to you the the the issue with the timing Fox Run is the 30 unit of workforce housing that's looking to to develop they have to close on their property in early February a condition of their closure of their I think their funding is that this road relocation comes to fruition that is the that's the February date that you're being you're hearing the town of Berlin and I don't think the school wants to lose 30 units of workforce housing thank you very much thank you thank you Thomas so if I'm listening correctly to the to the town before I open it up back to the back to the board they they will be willing to look at it at 4d in the in there so sounds like perpetuity is what the board is looking for in would it be 25 years to perpetuity does that sound reasonable it means forever perpetuity is forever I know so I'm just trying to give options a nick I should let the what I guess the way that we had written it now is that the use would be limited to the new town center and so I think what you could do is say it has to be used for the new town center for x amount of time and that could be a number of years or it could be forever or you could say it has to be used for the new town center for whatever 50 years and then after that it must continue to be used for municipal purposes forever and that gives the town some flexibility but still restrains it to municipal purposes and I'm just kind of trying to put some ideas out there I I'm not necessarily advocating one or the other but that's just another thought thank you thank you Nick does that sound reasonable to the board members I'm just trying to get a hold of the time too because we have a pretty long board meeting and I don't want to spend the entire meeting on and I see thumbs up so okay great Diane and Chris so just two two quick questions one is so if this has to be voted on by the electorate then we're not able so is the MOU enough then for the town to be able to say yes we've passed that February date and then two I mean I don't know what I'm voting on in terms of the MOU because there's been so many changes to it so I don't know I hesitate to vote for an MOU that I have no idea what it's going to say so just to respond to that quickly just because of the time frame we we have I usually try to not this and let the process flow just in you guys talking but we need to get a hold of this so the 20 in the only change that we are that we're looking at is is is in perpetuity for for D right sorry and I think the property would automatically revert back and the and the school board would not pay for improvements yeah and in B is the permanent easement so those are the you know basically the three things that I heard from the from the board Chris go ahead so if if if perpetuity is where we are then it seems to me that one two and three would go away because those are things that you know that just wouldn't happen or when they the town wouldn't have the option because the those um those specific um one two and three are basically piggyback on a time frame that would expire um but if it's perpetuity I don't think this these happen unless I'm reading a wrong Chris one is the presenter article to the unified electorate right no no no no he's talking about the numbers in D one two or the A O O O D A B D D sorry you right very very I'm sorry about that sorry sorry okay he said is that wrong Nick or does the perpetuity like if we extend that you know we basically convey the land for use for the municipal purpose of the new town center and if that doesn't happen if the land is not any longer used for that purpose then we get a reversion that's pretty simple these other parts I don't know if they are consistent with the perpetuity notion of perpetuity so Nick go ahead you can still have you can still have additional provisions that there's a for example for example a permanent easement for this school district to use the hiking trails permanent requirement that they keep a landscape buffer and so I think those those it it sounds like those are the three things a permanent landscape buffer permanent use of the trails um and they have to use it only for the new town center forever and if they stop the property automatically reverts back to the school district right so my question Nick is does that I mean those are pretty clearly and plainly stated does that then take away the need for number one number two and number three in subsection D I I see where you're looking now yeah yeah sorry you got us confused yes yeah yeah yes I think that yes that's right and I think we might even be able to get rid of subsection D all together and you know attach the reversion to subsection A and then we can potentially change B and C so that those are in the form of easements thanks Nick hey Jill um thanks flour sorry to prolong this I just want to make sure that we're not uh that if we do the perpetuity language uh does that place us at any risk at some point like what if there's a big you know like what if we don't want it back and and they and the and the and there's a reason the town would like to unload it and they and so they change the use and now it's ours again and becomes an albatross I'm just curious at that like it's hard to decide what we want forever so we we would retain that dollar option right I don't think anyone has said they want it automatically reversed okay so we have an option we have the option okay thank you sorry I was just getting confused okay so so I guess for tonight's purpose I think what if we could I agree to maybe let us do the the changes and authorize Chris and myself to look at them with that satisfy the board like Kari had suggested okay so do you want to do you want to amend your motion it's got a little bit you're muted you're muted sorry thanks sure I'll be happy to so I move to approve the memorandum memorandum of understanding dated January 19 2022 as amended by the chair and the board's attorney regarding conveying a portion of the Berlin elementary school property to the town of Berlin and to authorize the chair of the board to sign that MOU on behalf of the board thank you and I I will connect with you Chris don't don't worry about it I will second Scott's amended motion thank you that was the next question so you accept the amendment okay all those in favor of the motion as read please say aye aye any opposed no okay all right and then could we could we do the next motion uh Jonas or Scott or whoever has it in front of them just for the article I have it in front of me please go ahead okay um I move that the board present the following article to voters at our annual meeting quote shall the WCUUSD convey approximately 3.8 acres of undeveloped land that is now part of the Berlin elementary school property to the town of Berlin for use as part of the new town center question mark unquote thank you can I have a second to that second thank you thank you any questions on that or any comments on that uh oh I have Jonathan it will I let Nick go first because I think there might be something we need to modify sorry Jonathan go ahead sorry I as I was coming into this meeting I was looking at the agenda and I I looked at the rest of the warning um and I I would suggest just to make it consistent with the other articles in the warning um if I can give new language for a possible motion shall the school district authorize the board of directors to convey approximately 3.8 acres of undeveloped land that is now part of the Berlin elementary school property to the town of Berlin for use as part of the new town center and again that's just to be consistent with the other articles I accept the friendly amendment thank you Nick and thank you Scott Ursula you accept the amendment yes okay questions Jonathan go ahead yeah I was just my suggestion would be that that article be more specific saying should in effect should the the town of Berlin convey this property for the sole purpose of development of view of the municipal building something that is more specific to that purpose and not as as vague as it is right now because it should be clear to the town the the people in the district more broadly exactly the purpose for which this conveyance is happening which is to develop otherwise public property in the town of Berlin i.e. a municipal building thank you Jonathan and that would be clear in the memory of understanding right Nick so how do we link those those two well the memory the the motion now does mirror the memory and the understanding which limits the use of the property to as part of the new town center and so it's not specific it doesn't specify that there's going to be a municipal building and a road but I think that the the town is restricted by the new town center process to the plan that they have now but this leaves them a little bit of flexibility if that plan gets moved around a little bit so I that's why it wasn't it wasn't that specific and I don't know if there's any additional information materials that are presented to voters to kind of explain this article maybe that could it could be addressed in that way thank you Nick Ursula oh Chris is that a new hand no it's not sorry Ursula go ahead please so my question was whether or not a copy of the memorandum of understanding would be included in the information that's going to go out to voters so that they have some information there yes I guess we we would you know we are going to vote to send all everything mail in ballots so so we I guess that would be we would leave some stuff to the town to do a Rosie go ahead because you are that's why you're here today hi I'm Rosie Le Carrot I'm the Washington Central Supervisor well excuse me I'm I'm your school clerk so this is very interesting for me to hear about and I guess what I would say is that any information that you want to have people to have in their hands prior to going to vote at your annual meeting which is also town meeting um I would suggest that that be included in the school report that is generated every year um that that's a very tight timeframe but it is still doable I don't know if that helps answer the question or not helped me understand thank you thank you yeah that is a that's a good idea Rosie so let's go ahead and vote oh Chris is now I just want to confirm that we are going to get the memorandum of understanding out to the voters so that they know what they are voting with the specifics because I think that would be helpful and we can also post it on the website yeah in addition to sending out a paper copy thank you thank you let's go ahead and vote Diane I just have a quick clarification is this a floor vote or an Australian ballot that it will be on it would be an Australian ballot right Nick it's because that's how we vote there's no right question on that it's it's right it's Rosie Nick professional yes okay all right so all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi any oppose any abstain seeing none the motion carries okay thank you Nick for for coming it's me please go ahead and make some changes and we'll talk tomorrow right thank you for having me thank you the floor if I could I also want to say thanks to the folks who did come from the town of Berlin um Carla the note about the timeline the 15 years in there was well received thanks for that information yes thank you all yeah thank you Carla and talk all right let's move quickly a Kari do you have a suggestion to make a miracle tonight your hand is up I'll take it down I'm gonna take it back okay all right vote to mail in the annual ballots to all regular voters in the district all our towns have approved this so Jonas yep I move that the district mail the annual meeting ballot to all active registered voters in the district thank you could I have a second for that I'll second it Lindy and Rosie other hand yeah I see it Rosie since the motion has been seconded I'd like to request yeah this actually say it would be sent to all active not challenged voters the reason that I asked for that is because active voters every town has a number of active voters but some of them have been challenged which means they no longer live in the live in the area we can't take them off the voter checklist yet but we have good reason to have them challenged and not be here so rather than active registered voters I would request respectfully active not challenged voters thank you Rosie thank you for that as the person that made the motion I would be very hesitant to accept that I think if someone is is still on the voter roll you know as an active voter then we should send them out if your challenge process is not complete I understand that but in the interest of participatory democracy and making sure that everyone you know Eve you know everyone who should get a ballot gets a ballot even if some who should not get a ballot don't get a ballot I would prefer I would I'm I I'll I'd hear from the rest of the board but I'm not favorable to that that's not how East Montpelier's board voted that's how East Montpelier voted for active non not challenged voters no I'm using the language Rosie from the memo that we sent together so and and is the language from what is on on statue on on number two on statue it says to I include that so they could active registered voters in the district that's what says procedurally I think what's going to end up happening then is your town clerks are going to be flooded with mail that comes back that that you can't do anything with they're just ballots that can't even be considered defective because you can't open them they can't they're not deliverable that's the only reason for their quest but if you want to do it the other way that's how you want to vote to do it that's up to you I believe that the motion conforms to statute and if some ballots come back you know without having been opened or without having been delivered I think that that is something that that's something I'm comfortable with I understand it may make more work for town clerks you know and apologies for that in advance but I think we're going by we're going to go by I'd prefer to go by statute and I'd rather mail out more ballots and fewer okay just just know that challenged voters have every opportunity to vote at the polls to come to the polls all they have to do is get their ballots there and and if they're challenged and their votes are legally deemed not you know voteable then that's something that happens right I understand that I'm not sure you mean unvoteable well or uncountable uncountable not a non valid ballot right if that happens if it's issued in return it's just not a ballot it's just a wash yeah so let's let's go ahead and vote sorry to make this shorter all those in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none the motion carries I call it Rosie thank you for being here and helping with the clarity of the and and again I echo Jonas's apologies in advance for any extra burden that may be on the clerks but you know just until they're stricken from the the registration they should get about I agree with him on that thank you don't have any problem with that either I'm all for voter access yeah thank you for your service though thank you Rosie and you're not done because we still have one more that don't go away so 3.3 community forum debrief and plan for February I am I am looking at the time and I know that this is incredibly important but I think we're going to cover some of that in in our next oops in our next steps to report to the town so if the board would allow us to just table that item right now and moving to the next one Jen is that okay with you I just feel we're going to cover it okay all right so I'm just trying to make up a little time a annual Daniel Vernon draft we moved it is school board goals they are in page seven if there's two goals they're looking for action they've long-term planning for the finance committee and the and the goal for the quality committee looking for a motion I'll move that we adopt the two goals as stated in the packet thank you can I have a second second I'm going to give it to lindy so we have discussed them Scott you have your hand up thanks for that um yeah I was just going to make a subsidiary motion to postpone consideration of this item to the first regular board meeting in April simply because I think that nothing will happen nothing bad will happen in the world if these two goals are not approved on this occasion and there will be a new board voted in in March and this will give the new board an opportunity to to consider what it's there for and what it's aiming for and rather than have you know I don't want to call us a lame duck board since so many of us will be continuing but I think it would be a very helpful thing for for new board members to participate and I'm sorry I didn't wait for a second before launching into that spiel oh no we we had a second so but I just want to say something like we have been doing work on this already so like Chris O'Brien you can speak to this but there's already work being being done both by the quality committee and for the long term for the facilities so I think the approving the goals today is just it had a little bit of a timeline is something that we're looking forward to getting done in in June and it's work that the board has been doing right now so it doesn't mean that we keep the new board can come come in and the goal is never done right it's like a circular process in in my way like the design in my mind you know like you're always going to revisit but but at least let's do what we intended to do Chris I would support that we vote on the goals tonight because it creates continuity from one board to another having a new board doesn't mean oh you put on the brakes and you continue with the process that you've haven't been in in place and and continuity is helpful for identity purposes thank you thank you Chris are you guys okay to vote any other questions all those in favor of adopting the goals please say aye thank you school for self evaluation is on page 13 Carrie I'm going to let you speak to it send a memo yeah just really quickly it's good thing it's a healthy thing to do a year-end reflection and that truck amended it forward so you know we want to keep improving reflect on the how they performed over the past year and then can you use the results for goal setting in the next year so we took a look at the school board association self-evaluation tool but it was a bit long for our purposes this year we're essentially proposing that we could use half of it three three of the categories and then potentially incorporate the others next year so that's it if you approve it we would we would send it out maybe this week probably give you a couple weeks to fill it out and have the results compiled for the February meeting to be the last one with this particular board I'm muted thank you Carrie Lindy your hand is up yes my question was in here we have a like a paper copy I assume it'll be an electronic copy correct it's already loaded into some online survey platform survey monkey yeah okay any any other questions I don't believe we need a motion for this it's more like you're okay we'll send it out I think that's fine all right okay thank you Carrie for doing this staff appreciation Diane just we wanted to have this place marker for us to stop and just think of why we are here which is for our kids and our teachers and our staff that make our schools run especially during this hard time if anyone wanted to make any remarks I will be reaching out to the subcommittee that the staff appreciation subcommittee with a couple of ideas to run by them before we run by the board of ways for us to show an ongoing appreciation for our staff thank you Diane 3.8 is an update in the career center and it is an update but also a request for for the board and I'll just explain it really quickly when we approved the warning at our last our last meeting since then there has been a little change that Harwood district asked for it and basically is an article number two it's just it doesn't change the intent in any way but in article number two it just listed a Montpelier Roxbury it didn't call us by district so the change on the language and article number two that they are requesting is that it reads Washington Central Unified Union School District Montpelier Roxbury district so if you guys are okay with that I would need a motion to update article number two and Rosie is here but Jodi needed it she couldn't be with us tonight because there's other board voting tonight but we need we just want to have a uniform warning for the six districts are you guys okay with that Jonas you want to move yeah so I would move that article two of the current warning make the following replacements replace replace BUUSD with Barry Unified Union School District replace Harwood with Harwood Unified Union School District replace Washington Central with Washington Central Unified Union School District and replace Montpelier dash Roxbury with Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools thank you Lisa you have that right right I'll second it Jonas and Lindy all those in favor please say aye any oppose the motion carries a contribution to the coalition of Vermont student and equity so this is the price holder that we have left to give some money to the to the coalition Scott yeah go ahead may I move that the board approve a contribution of five thousand dollars out of fund balance to the coalition of Vermont for Vermont student equity second sorry Scott and then Chris questions or suggestions thanks this is the Dorothy Naylor Memorial sort of contribution not I mean she's fine but she's just no longer on the board I it was you'll recall last time um her her plea that the board contribute money to the continuation of this effort to um to equalize the system for equalizing pupils in Vermont um which has over time um been out of whack and uh caused hardship to school districts that were um heavily populated by families with children who need uh extra resources and are not getting them so I'm um I'm hoping that the board will support this thank you any other questions or okay for my I had my hand up I don't know if you can see it yeah I can't see it sorry Jill go ahead Scott you're proposing five thousand dollars that's right yes so that seems like a lot to me do you have a sense for what others are contributing I think that is um that's in the neighborhood of what others are are contributing so we're contributing more um but this seemed like no reasonable lindy had kind of a similar question um as to Jill not the amount as much as is the money going to lobbyists is that what it's for uh correct um in part yes uh basically all the activities of the coalition um sometimes I don't know if they're hiring if they're engaging other consultants to help but um the uh if you've seen how they work um they're it's a very lean operation and primarily volunteer and they're only paying for the professional assistance without which it's impossible to get anything done in our system okay I guess I'm I guess I'm just gonna share I I'm okay we when we originally joined we joined without offering any without offering any money and they were okay with that the there's a lot of districts that are part of it that haven't contributed any money to and and that's okay mark does great work there is you know the the BSBA is also working in in this issue and mark sits in our board in our board too so I I am a little uncomfortable and I just personally I'm a little uncomfortable with putting money for a pay for a lobbyist it would be I have all respect for Maggie and Lionel but I would I would want that amount to be to be to be to be less if the board I'm a little uncomfortable but I would be more comfortable with like $2,500 or something like that it feels like a lot of a a lot of money Chris I would point out that the BSBA is a lobbying entity as well that we support well more than $5,000 on an annual basis and this is a an issue that I think we stand behind as a board because we supported the goal I think in the spring time of moving forward with this with the legislature changing the system so $5,000 is I think it's a fair contribution and unfortunately our system does run on individuals who are paid to lobby legislature leaders and spend their time at the state house which most of us cannot do and it just it's an unfortunate reality of how things can be accomplished in our political system so it's certainly a good cause and I hope that we we support this amount thanks Chris Jill and then Maggie so I'm a paid lobbyist so just to be just to be clear full disclosure so I think the difference for me between this and the BSBA is that the BSBA is a trade association so they do advocacy but they also provide us with all kinds of other services that are directly related to our ability to operate so I view this as a little different which is why it makes me uncomfortable it's really purely an advocacy effort and so it just there could be others so it does I feel a little uncomfortable and and $5,000 really seems like a lot thank you Jill Maggie I wanted to just echo what Chris said and hope that their support for this thank you Maggie Diane yeah this has been an issue that I think Scott kind of said it too the systems are changing and they're changing in a way that we can't keep up with and people keep bringing the bell and saying wait a minute take a look look at what it said look at what the legislature had said that needed to have happen you know with the weighted studies and everything and it's you know it's just getting kind of overrun and so what I heard from Dorothy's voice last week was this is an opportunity for us to cling the bell louder and that if we're and it's at a critical time for us to do that so that those who aren't able to get a voice can can do that and so I do feel that it's compelled that this is what we need to be doing okay are we ready for a vote any other questions I don't see hands up oh Chris is that an old hand old hand sorry old hand that's okay so all those in favor of the motion as read by Scott please say aye hi hi any oppose any abstain I'm gonna abstain I'm just really uncomfortable but I don't quite want to vote now it's just too a little complicated okay yeah and I'm also gonna abstain yeah I'm gonna abstain too three you got that Lisa thank you it reports finally getting here and we're a little behind schedule I know people would probably need a little quick break but let's move to the students report because they've been patiently waiting for us good evening everyone I think Maya's here as well um thank you for letting us share our report tonight so Maya if you're here and you want to start it off for us yeah I can start so uh first off we just want to say that the second semester starts tomorrow for everyone which means that we are halfway in there um we also had a four-day weekend because of Martin Luther King's New Year Day and because of the teacher and service um as it is coming to the end of the semester a lot of the art classes are displaying their work around the school and normally around this time of year we would have a big arts bash which would have shared pieces from the music department and shared pieces from the art departments but unfortunately because COVID it's mostly just the students and the staff and people who come into the school that are displaying their art but it's all very very beautiful and very very impressive uh last last year last week um change makers class led a call back with a bunch of students about cancel culture and how it affects activism and how it affects our community and more conversations are also to come for our students led by the various clubs that we have so with it being winner with the sports we've had a lot of the spectators have not been able to come because of the COVID uh because of COVID but we have been able to have some spectators be spectators be allowed now and have four people per player per game so allowing fans to watch uh at the games as well as watching it on the website to watch it um and just a little update from me because I'm a senior um I have turned in all my college applications and I have currently been accepted to college so it's very very exciting so yeah any questions for us that's it there's not a lot going on Chris you're unmuted oh my sorry my kailin I thought it was my yeah um I was just curious if any if there was a way to view the like the artwork online is there a website or anything it might be in the newsletter um our assistant principal Jess will post an online newsletter that should come with either the the weekly letter from Steven or just sent out um there might be an instagram page from the art department um um yeah otherwise I'm not sure there's much more access to that which is really really sad yeah usually there's only a few photos posted on the newsletter but I can speak with a few of the art teachers to see if more can be posted seeing as no one can come because of COVID this year because I feel like that would be important for all the students work to be shown yeah that would be great thanks thank you Diane and then Lindy sure it would be helpful to know from a student perspective how this is feeling you said you know it's your starting your second half of the year almost there um but how has it been this year as when we think of last year my if you want to speak to that first logo after okay um um I I don't know I think everyone's just going day by day especially with the COVID cases um I know last year last I keep saying last year last week especially everyone's getting a little freaked out because there are so many students and teachers not at school and that was definitely worrying um we didn't really know what was gonna happen like if we're gonna I know a lot like administration is trying not to have everything online seeing as that was so difficult but we didn't we didn't know what was gonna happen because I had like half my teachers for a couple days last week we're out and we just had the full subs but I do think that all the teachers and admin are doing a really good job with keeping everything um like on task and ever and see so yeah I can very much um agree with everything that Maya said being my senior year I'm really really happy that I'm able to you know hang out with all of the seniors and be able to have those connections with my teachers with my last year there um and it's it's really a lot easier to learn in person and to not be on zoom um it is a little bit hard with all of the cases coming up and having all the subs but the fact that we're able to still get our work done to be able to get all the assignments done and most of the projects we've been doing and just a quick follow-up I didn't know Anna if you were wanted to share which two you were accepted to yeah um of course so I applied to eight of them and so far I've been accepted into Leslie college which is in Cambridge, Massachusetts with an undecided major and a partial major in psychology and education and the other one was Roger Williams which is in Rhode Island and same thing for education that was wonderful Lindy um the student reports just made me think about if there's any way on our websites to be more updated with photos or picture rotations that would highlight some of that so that when you go the main page has just a little ticker thing with the pictures going around or I don't I don't know because I just opened them to look at them and thought that would be a nice thing to have and but it may be the way our system is set up that it's too much work and the last thing I'm asking somebody to do is have another thing on their plate with all that's going on right now but the student artwork at U32 from when my kids were there that was such a celebration and amazing work and still great to see the work of the kids so it would be nice if it could be somewhat visible. Lindy I'm not sure who is responsible for the website but I can try to talk to Steven and student services because we have updated it within the past couple years but I totally agree that it's showing a score from there be really cool. Thank you so much and again I can speak with the art teachers and maybe we can get a slideshow set up um I know some of the teachers already have photos and we can try to share that maybe on the website or through the newsletter. Thanks Jonathan I don't think you know you're on good yes there Maggie. One of you mentioned the question of going online and I'm wondering how informed do you all feel about how Vermont's rules around that might defer from other states and you know if you feel like you have adequate information to understand what the options are for our schools because they really are different than what you might be seeing from peers in other states and I'm saying this also from my team at U32 as well well you know we're going to go remote and you know that's that's not the reality. Yeah I the only things I've heard about is like while watching the news and so I knew that it wasn't a possibility um but I have heard a lot of my peers talk about like the fear of going online and I just feel like it'd be important for maybe in the newsletter or something just to like get everything straight on the possibilities of what could happen because I know there's a bunch of confusion especially last week with what would happen to school if COVID cases kept spiking. Yeah I I can very much agree with that we have heard that we're not going to go online because of the state and the governor stating that we are going to be in school at the time however when there are too many staff members unavailable to sub to teach we do lose a day of school so that really that impacts our learning a little bit we didn't have a school couple I mean I think it was last week or the day the week before that and that impacted my learning as a senior and impacted a bunch of the other students learning because we're missing those days in the classroom and we I'm not sure if we're making them up or how that totally goes so I think we understand to a certain extent that we will be in school or we will not have school but we don't know how that will affect the end of the year and just overall what would happen. Thank you both thanks for the thorough thoughts in report and on that note let's move into the superintendent COVID 19 update. Thank you I'm gonna say a few things unrelated to COVID actually that build exactly on what Anna and Maya just said so that should help. We had talked about earlier the Education Quality Committee in that goal talking about finishing up the student learning outcomes and next on the docket was artistic expression we talked a little bit about the possibility of that being a topic of the community forum which I know we're not going to discuss tonight. That being said I've been working on some preparation for that next body of work so I took some photos last week at U32 of the artwork although not like a gorgeous slideshow but those are ready I also have all the links to the to the play that was done at U32 earlier this fall in the middle and high school concerts and I had sent out an email earlier this week to the all of the art and music teachers and Erin the theater teacher including the elementary folks to start to get some stuff for that slide so that's one way that you and the community will be able to see that so that's in the work so I'm glad there's interest. Tonight the principals are off given the topics on the agenda and the fact that they are so busy I thought they would appreciate not having to be here tonight so that's whether or not and in-service I'll just quickly tell you about before we go into COVID so the in-service day was fabulous I want a huge shout out to Kara who you're going to hear from tonight about Act 173 and Shelley Vermilia our equity scholar-in-residence and Ellen Dorsey who's been doing instructional coaching and some of the professional development and assessment work this year they took the lead in putting the morning together and it was fabulous that folks spent some time in a keynote together again thinking through some aspects of identity and then they engaged in a presentation with Kara related to Act 173 you're going to see a modified and shortened version this evening and then we spent time either engaged in racial equity work either folks engaging in a protocol called courageous conversations or engaging in some work of their choice related to racial equity so that was the in-service day the second half was just for teachers and it was a professional workday folks are working on our core cards they'll be issued next week in terms of COVID Maya and Anna hit it on the it hit the nail on the head there so lots to say the very first thing I want to say is a huge and very public thank you to Maria our COVID-19 coordinator into our school nurses they have been working tirelessly to make sense of the change in guidance to communicate it and to keep up with our numbers which have been high since since we've come back from December break I would be remiss if I also didn't say Maria could not make it tonight so I'm going to do my best but if there are technical questions I'm going to have to defer them and come back to you for an answer so let's see last week the school nurses and Maria meet almost every Thursday with our pediatric liaison and last week I had the opportunity to join them in that meeting and and we our pediatric liaisons is something that I think was really for me really powerful and a message I want to convey to you all into the community and that is that right now our schools are in the business of risk reduction we can't eliminate the risk all we can do is reduce it and our mitigation strategies have been working the transmission rates in our communities are higher than they are in our schools and I think that that's really important I know that there have been questions and concerns about the guidance we're turning it around and changing our practices as soon as we are able to do so Maria and I last Thursday afternoon hosted a question and answer session for staff just voluntarily for anybody who wanted to come I think we had about 25 people we recorded that session for anyone who couldn't come but one wanted to see the recording and then we've generated along with the principals a question and answer document that we are updating so that our staff has the information that they know so that ideally their anxiety is lowered and we're not projecting it onto our students as well let's see we did offer surveillance testing today we're able to offer it next Monday after that we're not quite sure some of this I wrote in the community letter for you all we've received lots and lots of tests and we're in the process of offering the consent forms to families so we can send home rapid antigen tests with kids or families can come and pick it up at the elementary schools they're talking to the school nurses at U32 Maria just sent out today a permission form and so and we're at I checked right before this meeting and we had 66 people who had already signed that permission form so that's good we are offering a vaccination clinic on Saturday and at U32 but we're awaiting some of the final details I think it's hosted by the Waterbury ambulance service I think and so as soon as we have all of the details we'll make sure that that information is out there so folks can sign up Maya and Anna mentioned we did modify our spectator proto protocols so just starting this week for four spectators per athlete or coach a big thanks to Hank and Orman our athletic director he's overseeing all of that and the the school closures I've kept you all bored in the in the loop on that we did have to close U32 we have very few subs in the district and at U32 we've been covering all of our vacancies internally and so teachers step up and they sub for each other which is fabulous and it means that they're not getting their planning time so that's also exhausting and we just we hit a breaking point even with administrators I went and subbed for a classic even with all of that we just we knew we couldn't do it and so that was that Friday that we couldn't have school and then we came back on a Monday and then the following Tuesday we had lots of school lots of staff shortages across the district that coupled with the code I see Michelle there kind of smiling we were texting bright and early about that and the principal's and I laid at night trying to figure it out but we reached a breaking point then there is no remote learning so just to be clear and I said this in the community letter there isn't a provision for that what is very clear is that the state board of education has given our secretary of education Dan French the authority to grant waivers if we get in a position where we're not going to meet the 175 student attendance days then we can submit a waiver I've been keeping track of all of that information really carefully with the principals and if we get to that position I will submit the waiver request I will keep you all apprised of all of that we're fine right now we're kind of close in some schools but we're okay right now we also still have possible snow days to get through so there's that and I think finally just again I don't have the numbers off the top of my head I'll have numbers in the community letter tomorrow but we've a lot we've had a lot since January 1st of positive cases and overall when I looked earlier this afternoon we were at about 248 from the beginning of the year if you remember last year we had 10 positive cases and right now we're 248 so again just a huge thanks to the folks who are working hard under stressful conditions and and to our parents as well for keeping their sick kids home I know that's not easy but that's the most important thing we can do so that's the COVID report and any questions I don't see any Jen thank you so let's let's move to 4.2 the Winuski Valley High School Choice Agreement Michelle yeah Michelle has taken my lead on this one this is an area of experience and expertise that she has so this is the annual agreement that the board approves the superintendent design every year for the high school it's under it's one of the state statutes and I'm sorry it's not filled out in the board packet but we can accept 5% or 10 students whichever is fewer to come into U32 and we can let out 10% or 40 students whichever are fewer so 5% for us is 20 students so we we accept 10 and 41 students is our 10% so we let out 40 we don't ever have 40 students going out we always have more than enough students applying to fill the 10% so the board would just need to appoint Jen to to sign this agreement and I can answer any questions you might have about what the school choice is about thank you Michelle could I have a motion Lindy your hand is up just had a question is this does this include the Montpelier U32 or is this no that's exchange okay that's what I thought yeah join us does a motion need to include the blanks there in the second paragraph no because I can I'll write those in okay then I would move to authorize the superintendent to to sign the choice of public high school collaborative for the 2022-23 school year second thank you Jonas and Scott any other questions seeing none all of those in favor please say aye hi any opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously let's move right on to act 173 update Kara welcome thank you for being patient and just go ahead and you know do the presentation as we had planned a we were not sure about timing I know that it's taken along this is an important subject Kara's going to try to keep it short but I'm letting her just do what she had planned for for today and we'll gain the time and the finance this is important thank you floor I appreciate it I'll try to keep it as brief so I may skip through some slides because I see you working really hard to keep folks within the timeframe so I would invite people to ask questions as I won't be able to see you all as we go along I will be buzzing through it potentially a little bit quickly so feel free to slow me down or pop in if you have any questions all right so act 173 I started in this role six months ago as the director of student services and started learning about act 173 then and I'm excited to share with you all tonight so thank you for the time next slide these are the questions we'll be learning or we'll be answering today learning about sort of what what act 173 is all about and what served as the genesis for this change in school regulations and what our next steps will be what this will mean for our schools next slide mark and I'll allow you to read this yourself it's from a summary from the vermont agency of ed website it's their explanation of um or their summary of act 173 and then next slide mark and so we'll start with a conceptual understanding of the shifts brought about by act 173 on the left side of your screen you see siloing the siloing of education that we hear about and this represents sort of the the current divisive nature unintentionally um of the rules and regulations and the funding structures of special education right now um act 73 173 serves to dismantle those silos and it encourages flexibility collaboration and communication um across the various domains in our schools in order to best support our students next slide mark thanks and so to answer the question of where act 173 is coming from what information informs this act we're quickly going to review two different uh data sources the uvm study for the funding of special education and the dmdry or just district management group report again these serve as the foundation and the justification for the changes brought about next slide and so uvm's finding related to the funding structures of special education broadly a move from the reimbursement model to a census-based funding model i believe susanne i wasn't here last week i believe susanne talked about this um in more detail and i'll allow you to read through those those five items on the right side of the screen that discuss why a move into a census-based funding was important and really what they what was the report found was that the current funding structure um which will changes as of july 1 of this year when x 173 goes into place incentivizes students being placed into special education and the identification of students um it wasn't transparent and um it misaligns with policy priorities and the flexibility that we know is important for student learning next slide and the dmg report was related more to programmatic um practices within schools and they made five suggestions or five opportunities to improve services in our schools and these five opportunities align with the very foundation of act 173 and we'll come around um to these later but these also serve as the foundation for multi-layer systems of support and then just a moment we'll explore what that means so these five tenants really are the foundation of the movement forward as of july 1 give you a moment to read through those next slide mark all right so what will these changes mean for special education conceptually we can talk about the change from breaking down silos um and increasing the collaboration and communication and really doing what students need um what will that mean practically we'll talk about that for a second because there's there's various systems that will need to be in place in order to to support that next slide so we'll talk briefly about current special education eligibility and then how that will be different as of july 1 excuse me and that will speak to the way that the silos will be starting to be broken down a little bit and you'll also start to see how we'll have to have some different systems in place to support these changes and tangibly and more practically these are what this is one of the biggest shifts that we'll see in our day to day work with students that will be the result of act 173 and that's in special education eligibility so currently if a school team is wondering if a student has a learning disability or a disability and they suspect they might be entitled to special education services then that information is handed off to the evaluation team and with the current regulations the evaluation team can complete that evaluation and find eligibility um in a disability area without really any other information about the student or from the school team we know that's not best practice and there's a lot of work that's been done in order to work around those regulations because we know that's not best for kids and yet the current rules really encourage the siloing and leaves this this pocketed team to answer which silo does the student go into as of july 1 and beginning next school year when a school team asks does the student have a disability do they have a specific learning disability um rather than taking the student and derive deriving their own data the information will bubble up from the school's team and so they'll ask the classroom teacher the interventionist maybe the art teacher will have insight to add special educator folks on the IEP team and say tell me about what you've learned through the various interventions that you've tried let's all look at the data um and tell me what you already know about this student's learning profile their strengths and their needs in order to inform um the evaluation process and so that really expands the role and the responsibility out down into the general education setting and that will be a new shift for us and the answers really leans away from what silo do we put the student in and it's not as divisive as to as to answering the question what does the student need in order to meet the grade level and learning expectations next slide okay and so the remount agency of education has released or supports four different domains that we need within our schools in order for an effective um transition into act 173 and i'll go through these briefly and maybe in the future we can talk about them but for sake of time um i'll share them with you briefly educational support teams coordinated curriculum local comprehensive assessment systems and needs based professional development and so educational support team is how do we layer in and measure supports for students and students response to those supports when they're not meeting um the expectations whether standards within the general and classroom coordinated curriculum how do we provide consistency across our schools and across the school district um both how do we know that third graders and callous east montpelier are learning the same in math and then how do we know that all students as they move from kindergarten through graduation along the educational trajectory in washington central how do we um measure and keep that consistent local comprehensive assessment system how do we establish how do we look at where do we go for data and how do we use that data to inform our decisions about student learning and then needs based professional development is a macro take on that how do we understand the broader needs of our schools and our our systems in order to inform our professional development choices um for our staff members next slide and so with these four systems in place the educational support teams coordinated curriculum comprehensive assessment system and targeted needs state based professional development um we have the establishment of vermont multi-layer systems of support um this graphic may be new to some of you so i will walk you through it and i in your mind just hold a vision of the silos and this is this is a new take um on a visual of education and so here we look at the purple rectangle and that represents the general curriculum and so that's the instruction the universal instruction that all students are exposed to and then you see the blue the green and the orange light on top of that and that's the added support when students are struggling students are struggling to meet the expectations and what's unique about this um from a prior model that we'll talk about in a second is that you'll notice that it's not all covered right it's not all covered in the blue or the green and then the orange the support is only provided in the areas that's needed and we'll talk about that in another second go ahead mark the next slide and for a long time the move away from the traditional sort of binary perspective on general ed or special ed was in a response to intervention framework which was established in the early 2000s and um here this is again a move away from that binary which kind of silo does a student go into and instead there's tiers um and we're moving more towards the layer because the tier model continues to encourage placements of students in this rigid and flexible domain we might find a kid to be a tier one kid or a tier two kid or perhaps there are tier three kid which indicates they need more instruction or more intensive intervention than most of the other students and then on the right side of the screen again that there's more of a nuance and there's more layers to student learning so when we look at the visual on the right side of the screen the top left of the rectangle that's just purple that might be reading comprehension for a student and so when we look at this we see that they're doing well in their classroom and no added supports are provided perhaps at the bottom right we see math calculation and the classroom instruction was supported by an added layer that's indicated by the green and then while that met some of the needs related to math there was an additional layer provided and with indicated by the blue layer and then an additional layer provided by the orange and by the time we're at that orange layer of support and on our third intervention we know a lot about the student learning that we can share with the evaluation team we know what aspects of the blue layer worked we know what aspects of the green layer worked and then we have a solid conceptualization of the nuances and individualization of that student's learning profile that isn't available in the current regulations or in the RTI model that we see on the left next slide okay and so this is the visual as I had said that's presented by Vermont multi-layer systems of support and you'll see that a strong effective efficient MLSS system that we're moving towards aligns with the district management groups five opportunities for improving services to students that serves as a foundation of Act 173 so this slide just brings us around to how MLSS will meet the needs that were identified in the prior research conducted in 2016 and serves to inform the necessity of these changes next slide and some text to allow you to read that through that for a moment some of the pillars the important domains of a MLSS system is outlined by the Vermont Agency of Education next slide and so what is next Act 173 begins July 1 of this year and so we have a lot of a lot of changes coming our way and I should add that this presentation hasn't touched on a lot of the details that are embedded in Act 173 but it's a big undertaking and I've heard a lot of folks parallel this to proficiency-based grading and so I'll share with you briefly a few slides around what we're doing in the coming months next slide we're really fortunate in Washington Central and that we have a strong foundation of work and bodies of work that the leadership team and staff have been focusing on for various years so we have some we have a lot of work developed and some readiness for this change through these various bodies of work that are listed here on the screen so we're certainly not starting from scratch and again Act 173 aligns with what we know is best for students and so we've been moving in this direction for some time next slide and in terms of more tangible steps this winter and spring what we've done so far as Jen spoke about a little bit earlier was a similar presentation was shared with the entire school district at our in-service yesterday and then two months ago started sharing this information with case managers and again there'll be some shifts in their daily work that we started talking about and just preparing and beginning to ask questions together I should also add that the rules the special ed rules will not be released they're hoping until in March to have some more clarity around it and solidification but all we're sort of building the plane as we're flying it but we're doing the best that we can to get this information out as it comes out from the agency of education and then our next steps Julia and I are planning doing some backwards planning for how we can be prepared for the next school year and how we can best use our time for our professional development in the winter and spring there's a hub group within the leadership team Alicia myself Ellen Gillian have been talking about how to roll this out within our schools and to understand our readiness and our preparedness and move us forward from there and then we've also surveyed our staff for interest in engaging in an Act 173 work group so that we can hear from and integrate the ideas and work of the folks in our classrooms every day next slide so that concludes the presentation that was really fast I just dropped a lot of information there's tons of information on the Vermont agency of education and more is coming out every week again this is sort of unfolding before us there's more resources technical assistance and updates and then I'm happy to connect with anybody at any time to talk about the implementation at Washington Central our goals and our progress and how things are going and that concludes thank you Kara that was wonderful I'm gonna open it up to board members in case they have questions that you were you were really good so I don't any any questions or comments Jonas can we get a copy of the presentation and can we clip this section from the video of the meeting and make it available can I ask for an edit to that Jonas if that's okay yeah I would offer I could make another video that might be a little bit longer I'm not known for being short-winded so I also sometimes do better with the container so maybe that's a better idea um but I could provide one that kind of speaks more to the slides and isn't as rushed for people that might not that that could be helpful I'm happy to do that in the next week if that's an okay timeline that'd be awesome Kara really happy to yep yeah only if you have time Kara you don't need one more thing on your plate so take it off your plate if that doesn't look good okay thank you for Chris hi Kara thank you very much for that presentation do you have a sense you and the staff of what the board can do to support this transition and what are what do you think the skills uh are there skills that need to be developed in order to transition from our current system to this multi-tiered system uh and what is your sense as to what specific skills are needed if they are basically asking what what can we do to help support this transition in in terms of funding or what have you yeah Chris thank you that's a wonderful question um I my sense in the moment in talking to people is that the biggest barrier is we all know that stress really shrinks the effectiveness of our brain and our ability to be open to thinking and creativity and change and people are stress levels are so high right now um and that to me feels like the biggest barrier in terms of where I think some of the challenges might be the database decision making um involves some cultural shifts that I think can feel to educators that it undermines their educator intuition um and I think it can feel like we're moving towards a my worry I should say is that it can feel like we're moving towards too technical of a of an understanding of learning and um I'm just curious about how that will go for folks so I would say for example I asked a case manager how does it feel to you when I say learning is a science and there was a strong reaction to that and she said well learning feels more to me like an art um and I'm and she was nervous about Act 173 because she felt like it's too much of a tech we're moving the database decision making so I'm not sure what systems might need to be in place for that um I'm thinking of the questions and the themes that came out of the in service the other day there was questions around interventions and what interventions we're going to use a shared definition of interventions um tier one instruction general ed classrooms and I would invite Jen to answer this too sorry I have so many responses to that it's hard for me to um clarify I think in terms of support really bolstering the support and the bodies of work sorry the bodies of work that have already been done the I think or that are in process the maybe third to last slide and um there's a real barrier I think in terms of time and everything people have on their plates that I think might be the primary the challenge people have so much going on thank you care okay thanks very much yeah thank you all you know Jen do you have something to to add or are we ready to move uh no I would just say I agree with Carol we we have a good foundation we just have further to go and it's creating that time in the space for the ongoing uh collaboration and work together for consistency I heard that theme yesterday as well in terms of just clarity around roles responsibilities um expectations for students those things clarity in a para educator role so more more of those they came up and those are the things that I think that work group and the hub group will be focusing on for professional learning yeah thank you Kara that was that was wonderful thank you for taking the the time and and the board will continue to support your your work on on there and we I believe by everybody paying attention today we're creating that shared understanding of of where we're going and what you need so thank you oh Ursula do you have a last minute question go ahead not a question just a super quick thing can we as a board kind of decide like at the very beginning of next year or early in our next year to revisit Chris's question on what they think they need when they've been there um it I feel like it will help us get an understanding as we're moving into developing the next budget great thank you Ursula yeah no take it okay I'm I'm gonna give everybody three minutes we've been sitting for two hours and eight minutes so take take five and we'll be we'll we'll be back shortly all right 8 13 let's get started and we're gonna pick it up right at the finance committee we have a couple of information reports because we are you know late on time and I really want to be able to get us done hopefully in a half an hour unless there is any questions on on the monthly reflection or Daniel a report information of facts on page 27 29 I'm going to move right into the discussion and action with just one thank you for Virginia Matt to see and and their entire team and I know I'm forgetting names but thank you and then let's move into 5.21 energy consultant I see Robbie is here with us and Jeff is with us and Chris O'Brien is with us so Chris I'm gonna let you go ahead and run this quickly okay floor so thank you I'm gonna uh be reading right from the summary that I provided to the finance committee um so the board authorized Jeff forward from forward thinking consultants to review the net metering opportunities for Washington Central Unified Union School District forward thinking has completed the review of the net metering proposal from Kingsbury Hydro and our electric bills from GMP for central office U 32 Berlin and Doty and has offered recommendations in the report included in the packet the report indicates that the agreement presented by Kingsbury Hydro is fair and reasonable and estimated savings through this partnership are between $10,000 and $15,000 a year in utility costs it is unlikely the district could find a better deal now or in the near future and should lock in this arrangement by signing a 10-year extension to the net metering agreement with Kingsbury Hydro electric advice from forward thinking is to wait to explore net metering opportunities for the schools in the Washington Electric Co-op Service Territory which is Calis Eastmont Pillar and Rumney right now renewable energy policies and flux both nationally and in Vermont bills at the national and state level may increase federal tax credits and state incentives for renewable energy projects for schools and municipalities it is possible that these state federal policies will improve the return on investment for renewable energy development for schools in the future and we are advised not to lock into any long-term agreements at this time so recommended board actions would be that Jeff recommends that the board authorize the superintendent to sign the 10-year net metering contract with Kingsbury Hydro electric thank you Chris it could I could I have a motion and then we'll discuss all all moves at the board authorized the superintendent to sign the 10-year net metering contract with Kingsbury Hydro electric thank you Jonas thanks Scott any any questions okay so let's go ahead and vote all those in favor of the motion as read by Jonas and second by Scott please say aye. Aye. Any opposed hearing none the motion carries I just want to thank Robby for being here for your patience and I especially want to thank Jeff and Chris O'Brien for all the work that went into this so thank you thanks folks okay and let's move right on into 5.2 the general fund and budget communication I'm actually gonna move that to just below and let's do let's have Suzanne do the general fund balance first so that then we would have to hold the warning and everything together and then we'll talk about our next steps does that make sense okay good go ahead it's Suzanne could you talk about the the memo that you just sent today. I received an update from the AOE with new equalized pupil numbers and they're decreasing the statewide equalizing ratio changed from 0.95 112 to 0.94732 and that even though the amount that we were calculating for the early college students was the accurate amount that percentage change decreased our equalized pupil calculation and so the new equalized pupil number is 1413.39 this resulted in an estimated increase to the education spending per equalized pupil and an increase to the estimated equalized tax rate and I provided in the memo the new estimated tax rates by town based on the two scenarios provided by the tax commissioner one of the issues that occurs with the warning is that the warning requires us to put in the per equalized pupil dollar amount as well as the percentage increase year over year which in order to provide that we have to pick one of those scenarios from the tax commissioner one of those property yield dollar amounts we had discussed last time not choosing um and I think we can provide the chart and show both of them but the warning itself requires us to say the education spending per equalized pupil and the percentage increase from the prior year and in order to get that I have to have a base property yield number so what I'm looking for here is a board action or board direction on utilizing a property yield number whether it's the the more conservative $12,937 dollars or the 13846 which is which assumes that the legislature is going to utilize the full 90 million dollar uh ed fund balance to reduce tax rate thank you Suzanne so in essence what oh Scott go ahead and then uh your first law okay so what I was in the language that we need to change in the warning that we already uh approved that I'm hoping everybody can sign tomorrow and Friday just tomorrow and Friday are the two days that you'll have to sign and then it has to be done by Monday it's in article six is the is the is the change so if we agree to do the scenario be that is the more conservative right Suzanne that's that that's what we had said the the language will read shall the voters of Washington Central Union school district approve the school board to expend 36,169,267 which is the amount the school board has determined to be necessary for the ensuing fiscal year this estimated that this proposed budget if approved will result in the education spending of 20,391 for equalized pupil this projected spending per equalized pupil is 5.03 percent higher than the spending for the current year that's the change so I'm looking for a motion to Scott I'll move that what you just said okay thank you Scott Suzanne just got this this afternoon and we've been definitely second by Chris right okay any discussion any question on what she just explained Diane so Governor Scott said something about 45 million I mean do we have any calculations about the middle of the road I guess I just worry that we put something out there and then it it is going to be different um is is just it always is different but it's usually different to the good for usually but so that's just I'm wondering the tax commissioner did not provide a middle of the road and the way that he calculates that property yield is impacted by so many different things I don't feel comfortable trying to calculate that middle of the road um I mean I guess we could estimate and say 45 million halfway through but that's not what the tax commissioner gave us yeah and I think that the timing is the main thing for us right now because this has to be signed tomorrow and Friday like I'm saying because it needs to go to the printers we need to change it they share it with all our town clerks so that's where we are is Jonah I saw another hand before yeah that's me okay so Jonas um I would suggest that my initial instinct is to take the more conservative road Suzanne I if I'm understanding you correctly the downside would be that we raise more money than we need if we took the conservative route and it turned out that the legislature did end up spending some amount of money then what is then then what is what is the downside of taking the conservative route um it doesn't mean that we uh raised too much money we we raised the same amount as the 36 million stays the same um the downside is that we are putting out to the taxpayers and the voters that this is what our estimated tax rate will be and the more conservative one shows an increase in the tax rate for Berlin and Worcester um so that's that's really your downside is that uh you potentially lose some voters because they're worried about their tax rate um which may not come to fruition because that property yield may be different thank thank you um I I would just to follow up on that I would still favor the conservative approach without assuming the add balance um because the increases are low enough that I think that that is appropriate especially considering what we did with our budget last year which was to reduce the raw overall spend um I think that these tax numbers look look okay to me without that use of of 90 million dollars thank you Jonas Scott I agree with Jonas and I would also point out that I would rather lose voters on this budget by um by showing you know the worst case scenario than lose them on next year's budget because they don't trust us to give them straight depending on you know what actually happens if um if we were to estimate high and then the um the state came in um you know with uh with a worse sort of tax picture so anyway I think the conservative approach is the way to go thank you thank you Scott I think in the in the past we have had this happen a couple of times when we have posted the good news and it usually gets that if it if it changes for the best we can you know always make sure that our communication plan is is good so that we will send that information out to to to all residents so that they that they know that something has changed are we ready to vote? Jonas I see a hand up yeah I just remembered this question Suzanne if I remember uh from the last meeting correctly that this per pupil per equalized pupil spending would put us over what the penalty threshold would be if the penalty threshold was being imposed this year but not after there are certain things that were allowed to deduct which are basically your debt service okay so when you take those things off no we would not be penalized if there was a threshold this year Scottie thank you okay great so all those in favor of the sorry yes I don't have the verbiage to this is this I did I just I email it to you Lisa did I missed you okay um just a few minutes ago literally okay okay see it okay it's in your inbox I see it Lisa okay thank you right all those in favor please say aye aye aye aye aye aye any oppose any abstain hearing none the motion carries thank you so back to you the fund balance recommendations Suzanne on page 40 uh the board touched on this last week and had some uh discussion around it if uh currently in your budget and currently based on that article six that you voted on uh 325,468 of general fund balance is being used as revenue to offset the tax rate if the board does not approve use of that full amount that her pupil number will change and so will that percentage rate so that's why I wanted to pair the the article up with with this section um so some direction from the board uh are certain to you around whether the full 325,468 is the will of the board to use as revenue to offset the tax rate is that an old hand Jonas or a new hand it's it's an old one but I will use the opportunity to make the motion if you'd like yeah I move that the board authorized the use of 325,468 of general operating fund balance as offsetting revenue for the fiscal year 2023 general fund budget thank you Jonas could I have a second second thank you Diane Chris um I'm just um okay I just have a process question um we just voted on the tax rate right and um if we voted this down we'd have to go back and vote again on the tax rate okay so in the future when we have things like this where one is a trickle down on the other we should flip the order because that's how we had it Chris it was my mistake trying to that's what I said before we had four point but then when I introduced Susanne I said start with this but okay just just because yeah you know we're back you know more or less bound I think we're doing it anyway but just from a process standpoint I would hope let's yeah we had said for 5.2 and I just okay thank you that's that's my only comment on this yeah I'm I'm supporting it but anyway thanks okay any other okay seeing oops sorry seeing none the board support sorry yeah all those in favor of approving the motion to use the fund balance in the amount just read by Chris by Jonas sorry Jonas and second by Diane sorry the phone to me yeah there's somebody that is not muted that I think it's Jonathan there might be a comment oh there he goes okay all those in favor please say aye aye aye any oppose hearing none the motion carries all right finally they when I do the roof bid and I haven't forgotten that we're gonna talk about the other stuff so the roof bid could I have a motion you know somebody I'm not certain where that is so it doesn't have a page number or yeah the minutes come next Chris or Suzanne do you have a some language for a motion for the roof bid that just happened two days ago and then was it my hand I'll make a motion I move that we award the bid for the U32 roof project to evergreen roofing in the amount up to I think it's $270,000 which takes into account the bid itself and a 10 contingency Scott and Kari am I far off on that that I'm amazed at your memory Chris yeah so and Chris is Chris is right here and he can correct us but that was the amount yeah and I second okay can you say it one more time Chris no that memory is gone now move we award the bid for the U32 roof project to evergreen roofing in the amount of 270,000 which includes includes a 10 contingency the amount of up to $270,000 which includes the amount of a 10 contingency and then just it yeah to evergreen roofing LLC did you say that yeah I did yeah okay I didn't say LLC but yeah and who's seconded scratch okay any question Rosie your hand is up and Lisa your hand is up I just want to make sure you don't forget my warning oh yeah no no we're yeah we're not gonna forget your warning we're gonna do that one right now we won't forget it now yeah sorry about that yeah sorry that was my mother-in-law I apologize but yeah sorry it's 90 all those in favor of approving awarding the bid to evergreen roofing please say aye aye aye any oppose hearing none the ayes have it one one little thing to to share with you about about this is that we are we're accepting the the bid and we're applying for a waiver because we just receive we usually ask five different vendors to bid we receive just two bids and by law we're required to have three bids and Susanne is already on top of it so just so that you know okay I'm moving right along it so that we have two things the warning for Rosie well it's for you but yeah okay let me just move in for yeah for clarification the language that you added for the Berlin for the Berlin town center I'm presuming that's going at the end of your warning as it stands right now as an additional article and it's not a separate warning it can all go on the same ballot correct I will say so because always it would be too confusing to have a separate ballot so it would be an article within that ballot Jen your hand is up I had the same question so I don't know if you want to put something emotional on the table to discuss or not but I definitely have some questions about how we can support you given the action tonight so a whether or not that then becomes article nine in the same ballot and you had talked about the memorandum of understanding and sharing that in the annual report and I'm a little worried about that time wise because we're right up so I just want to figure that out together I don't want to I don't want you to be misled thinking I'm just a little worried about that we we need to get it turned over into the printer ASAP and I don't know that I can I'm just worried that we won't get it in the school report that we have to think about other ways to get it out there thank you Jen that is a good point we might just have to put it in on our website and not be able to get it on because I don't know that Nick can turn her around that that quickly and our deadline is Monday right so we have to have everything done by Monday but did everybody had a chance to review page page four and five that's the warning that we are about to prove so could I have a motion Lindy or Chris mine was just I think the article nine is different from the informational page so on the ballot we have to have the article nine but then the information page might not get into our annual report but we would distribute it either electronically through front porch forum various ways that way yeah thank you Lindy could somebody make a motion to Kari you're muted sorry about that just gonna point out a typo on the signature page that Ursula it is brilliant and then I'll move that we adopt is that the word the verb adopt this warning with the amendment of article nine second thank you Kari sorry I would also point out that my name doesn't appear on the list of school directors on page six yeah you're absolutely right yeah I don't know where that came from we'll make we'll make we'll make those changes and then any other questions Laura yep I might add that if we can get at least a link to where the memorandum of understanding is going to be on the website I would be happy to I can I still have a little time to get it in my own town so you know report so that would be somewhat helpful and I'm more than happy to spread the word to the other town clerks as well if they're willing that'll be wonderful thank you Rosie our deadline is Monday for our annual report yes okay well and sooner if possible it would be Friday yeah yeah sooner would definitely be better we've been getting emails from the from Ben Merrill like where is it can I have it can we get it going so if you could sign it by Friday that would be amazing we can send him some of the other steps but yeah we're at the 11th hour yeah yeah definitely for signing we the signatures got to be done tomorrow and Friday Monday is just is it's off to the printers literally okay okay can I just ask a logistical question so we go to the district office to sign it right yeah yeah let's wait a minute yeah so central office for four members that have never been there is right next to you 32 and and you would just walk in with your mask and Melissa will be ready and she'll have it there for you for you for you to sign and what hours is she going to be there tomorrow and Friday yeah Melissa usually is there by about 745 definitely eight and then one of us will be around uh past 430 but yeah and so and if you think Friday somebody will be there by 730 yeah and we'll all know yeah if you can do it just be I'm sure there's always flexibility so email email Melissa or Jen or me or Michelle and we will make it happen for you we'll figure even if we're going to meet you somewhere to sign it we'll make it happen and can I just ask quickly because this is my first time and I don't want to mess it up but so Michelle who has lots of experience is there anything else Michelle that we need to be thinking about to get this finalized and turned around is that everything okay that's everything okay this was the biggest thing that we were waiting on yeah all right so yes if you're had those hours are problematic for you just find us find us the email or phone at central office we'll figure it out okay thank you Lindy is that a question him it is it's another typo I think um McKaylin's name doesn't have all the capitals in it and she's not saying anything but oh thank you Lindy you're correct yeah sorry I didn't I should have reviewed that page I didn't it's it must be a document there but yeah sorry Jonathan yeah just quickly um Ursula is listed as uh in Berlin is that correct yeah yeah we we just corrected that it's not correct yeah okay all those in favor of adopting the warning I don't see Vera on here she's there she's there yeah thank you sorry about that I don't know how yeah I don't know how Jonas is not in the format but we'll we'll figure it out yeah and yeah all those in favor of approving the warning with the amendments please say aye aye any oppose any of staying here none the motion carries uh McKaylin I saw your hand up is that no it's okay right so now moving into the consent agenda we're gonna approve the minutes yes I will move to approve the minutes uh December 1st December 9th December 15th 2001 and January 5th and January 12th 2022 second okay thank you Scott any revisions to those any comments hearing none all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi any oppose hearing none the motion carries and now we have the board orders Lindy I have them open trying to find my mouse to scroll around um I make a motion to accept the board order of 12 16 21 through 1 19 22 in the total amount of 990,744 dollars 19 cents thank you could I have a second second thanks Diane any questions any okay seeing none all those in favor of approving the board order says read by Lindy please say aye aye aye any oppose okay hearing none the motion carries so before we move into into the last little part in the discussion discussion part the last question I just wanted to get the consent agenda done but Jen and myself are looking for some feedback from from the board in in just our communication plan for the budget and that's where I wanted to loop in a little bit of the of then the next community engagement so it's all it's all together we haven't forgotten it but I'm just leaving the best for last so now that everybody's really sleepy and tired do you have any any any thoughts or any recommendations different from what we've typically done put it on the website we're going to try to record our next meeting so that we have a recorded meeting of the budget now that we own the budget they will present the budget and so please speak besides the report we we heard you loud and clear in the report if we the report that is going out is a streamlined report it includes the table we're sharing the tables with all our town clerks they have access to all of the to all of the information the report is going to have some pictures in color because that was I already shared that with you but it's a it's a more like Ben is calling it reporting it's not as flashy but it would still be have some color so that's okay all right so personnel all right floor I just want to say one thing the band had had some ideas about reorganizing some of the budget stuff on the web page too so it's just more obvious and more direct so if that's okay with the board we're just going to go ahead and do that so that it it's more supportive for you all as well okay and yeah Suzanne had some good ideas okay that sounds great personnel so nothing to report that's a change from when you last saw it so there was nothing in the packet nothing no changes vacancies I told you we review them every week we have some parent educator positions still to fail we we have the driver's ed position that I've talked to you about that last week still we're going to do the memorandum of understanding for the semester and we're working on finding qualified folks for next year still that outstanding Berlin special ed position we're making do with one less instructional coach and we own the student support position that has been open for quite a while at Romney there are a few new applicants we reviewed well Carla told us we didn't look at them in full spring but there are there is some movement so hopefully we're getting closer and closer to filling those vacancies and for the time being it just continues to you know add some strain to our system it causes us to have the driver's ed mo you but we're hopeful get everything filled the one other thing I guess I would say is can't remember if I mentioned this to you last time but we do have a driver vacancy we we offer transportation as part of some students IEPs and or for students who are experiencing homelessness we're contracting it out and it's really expensive and so we're looking at adjusting the pay rate so that maybe we can make a driver position more attractive that will ultimately be a very fiscally responsible decision will save money in the long run so we talked about that this morning that's it thank you Jen that's wonderful I have two more pieces of information before I let you go one is that you received the email from Rosie we don't need to if you are running for the board you don't need your signatures you just need to send the form to her and how you want your name or to your local clerk we have received an application for she has received an application for call us there is still just make sure that if you're communicating with anybody else that is thinking about running for the vacancies that they know because you know I don't know if you're communicating I know call us has been very active but if you're communicating with somebody in middle sex just to make sure that they they know that there is still the position open we had somebody that was thinking of running for the central vermont career center but there's still an open position for somebody for a member at large for the central vermont career center so if you have somebody in mind it has to be done by Monday so hopefully there's a couple of people maybe in the Worcester area they're thinking about it right now but I just wanted to put that out there for for for all of you um Chris yeah is the deadline for all the positions in Monday yes get to get through the million to Rosie okay get to Rosie or to your local clerk and they will get it to Rosie but you know you can go directly to to Rosie and just get it to to to them okay thank you just so I've understood the the signature requirement on petitions gone they passed they passed as 223 yeah they passed as 223 this morning yeah well not past the governor signed it because they had already put it on his desk last week yeah so no need to worry about the signatures anymore okay anything that I'm forgetting a need for reflections 10 minutes of nine besides being too long no it's good meeting thank you thank you everybody we'll we'll send you the update and the Miranda from the standing and we'll see you at our next meeting thank you thank you thank you bye thank you everyone thank you everybody thank you everyone Jen say good night bye thank you thanks