Thanks calling the meeting of the Montpelier-Roxbury Board of School Directors Wednesday, August 28th opening at 6.35 First order of business is public comment There are a couple members including a little guy anyone Anyone wanting to comment Okay, now's the time Yeah, please come to the To the table so the people at home can hear you and please introduce yourself as well My name is Kallili Crochet. I am a Roxbury resident Roxbury Village School, I have two kids in the school system Can you hear me? I'm a force grader I am here tonight to voice my concerns about the bus route transportation and the time change of When the school opens It is very concerning that a ten minute time change really impacts families Especially families that work in neighboring towns and the way I understand it is the bus route there came out two days ago But I feel like there's a gap in the process of notification and My understanding is it feels like the bus road is dictating when the school opens But as I understand it the other schools are opening still at 730. So why the change? From 730 to 740 is really concerning Because it is like a gauntlet at our school to get in and out and the bus doesn't come directly to my house So either way I'm waiting somewhere I mean I will modify my schedule as most parents, but I don't feel that I should continue to go down this path of Modifying my schedule because it feels like I should just be from a part-time parent So that's my concern Mine is similar Unfortunately, my bus stop has not changed by 18 minutes. It's not just 10 The issue I have is I compared the bus stops compared to last year's bus stops as far as where it actually goes and The n5 bus route has one less stop than they had last year. It still follows the same exact route The only difference is that now transfers its students to mr One at white heating in Northfield versus transferring its students to the bus at the Roxbury school and then continuing on That mr. One bus still arrives at the Roxbury school as one of its stops at 655 which was the same time That n5 that bus So I don't see the necessity for the bus company to push off our bus routes in order to just make a different stop to meet the other bus Don't worry So that that's my concern is that again the bus company is dictating The hardship that parents now have been faced with unfortunately one day's notice because that's when we actually received the bus Scheduled yes, I work for an employer that I can change my schedule But I at least have to give them two weeks notice to stream my schedule as well as to request time off Which allows doesn't allow me an opportunity to do either To amend my schedule to accommodate 18 minutes difference when I had 25 minutes to make it to work And I now have said So that's where I find the problem with it and it's concerning to me that we as a district have no recourse to the bus company to Dictate to them. What's an acceptable amount of time to give us a notice? When they are going to make such a drastic change to the bus group and especially when I don't see the necessity In my eyes comparing them to last year for that change MR1 still is at every stop Identical to the way it was last year only bus route that has changed is n5 which only picks up Obviously the kids that transfer and then the rest of the Roxbury kids and he's getting to the Roxbury school 20 minutes later than it did last year And I just think it's unfair No, thank you. And just The purpose of these comments is to you know get information so we don't necessarily respond that that does not mean that we're not Concerned that we're not having conversations otherwise. I know the Administration has been working with the bus company on routes. So You know, we understand we understand the hardship and and we'll definitely look into it my question is Does is there a start time across all schools? That's the same because as I understand it UES is opening up their doors to accommodate parents for 730 So why is Roxbury? Is it up to the principal or the school board or the staff to determine that? That is an administrative matter. The school board does not get into that Thank you. Thank you. So and yeah, thanks for coming out here. I know it's Any other public comment before we go to the consent agenda Consent agenda actually have a comment on the minutes. They just want to clarify So you're pulling the minutes Okay, so we're pulling That okay The minutes and the parental involvement Any other I think anyone's interested in pulling or do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Approves a consent agenda taking out the minutes and parental involvement policies Second second all those in favor. Hi any opposed? Okay on the minutes is just a quick clarification I think Jerry said that she had not been sworn in and I just want to make sure that listen her was a board member without that note Whether we should add a note that she hadn't been sworn in yet just so it's clear that any actions taken I'm not sure there Was much I guess there is a note in here at one point, but I just Should she is she officially a board member? She hasn't been sworn in I think you could just put a heredical after her that says That thing's wearing in Okay, perfect Where's the typo it's on page 300 number four third bullet down there's a public left the l Okay, that's it Yeah, that word does So with those changes I'll second again all those in favor. Hi any opposed great Um, and then you know pretty want to discuss the That call I do in part because um, please monitor and report indicated that we might want to amend it or change this policy which means the policy committee but I have to take it up and Um, so I think it's truly up to you. I don't think that it's one that I think it could wait until the um as written until the It's on its regular schedule to be Reviewed, but it's totally up to you all Until it's on a regular schedule to be amended or yeah, yeah to that review. Yeah to open it up, which we now have ready to go for that schedule Yeah, I Is it your conclusion that it's as written in consistent with what s it requires? Um, it's asking us to do things that asa doesn't necessarily require anymore. Okay But you don't see that there's an urgent need to I don't think it's urgent No, I would not put it on the top of the policy committee's agenda I think I just wanted to make you aware that the law has changed and therefore the requirements for this policy of change And that might not be something that the bsba even recognizes on their model policy Because it's such a big change and if we give them time they might come up and go We're to be in a very efficient use of every word But there's no concern that we're not in compliance with the s it required. No No, it's not at all Especially this year with our Not at all. Okay. That was all the question I'm happy to put it off So do we need a parent comeback by the new standard? No We need a parent engagement That's why I added these these pieces that were pretty easy Right. And so what I'm thinking is the only reason we want that is because of what we've said in our policy, right? Right, which is which was basically looked as if the policy had been taken from the bsba Right website. Yeah, because it's pretty typical policy, but I was going to say even though that's what the policy says It seems like you I have a discretion to do what you Now have to do instead of what we put in the policy Right. I think that's kind of what I was Asking and trying to do in the monitoring report saying that the the important parts of this law We are following with the schools that are receiving title one a money And the of essa, you know, so we're following those new procedures the The parent compact piece is not as critical as it once was and no child left behind according to essa But when you said the creation of such a document is underway, I'm wondering if that's necessary There is a parent engagement requirement that's formalized on a piece of paper And so that the district does not have it didn't have it when we walked in So we don't have that now. It was not on our top of our to-do list last year So that parent engagement piece I'm like, it's but it's on like Barry's task list and we recognized it after monitoring this policy And digging into what essa requires versus no child left behind We do have a different policy that's communication a communication policy Under which the board asked the administrators to Report to us what it says there has to be meaningful two-way communication And it wasn't and at Fulfilling essa which is generally to Communicate effectively with parents you needed effective two-way means of communication and we had asked for a report What do I think we got on what those were So that work might be a little bit down Yeah, we'll see the the no child left behind was pretty Um specific and I just know this from my past world right and pretty specific that we had a document that says parent Compact at the top of it and and it was developed in a certain way and it said certain things um And and what from what we can find we don't have one of those from all we can find right We it could very well be in existence But nobody can put their fingers on it easily which kind of defeats the purpose of having such a document We searched but we couldn't find it And so instead of just creating one, which is not the intent of the law We said we'll we'll get that process underway Great. Um, so I think that we approve the policy monitoring report Second All those in favor Any opposed Great. So now we're on to um learning focus Which is Ken who I know has been waiting patiently all summer for this moment Um And she did just every well, but uh with the monthly or energy advisory committee, right? I am Ken Dome and this is KC even gave me the chair of the monthly advisory committee. Oh, thank you And we are here to describe some of the work we have done and I'm a request to you folks. Great So, um, the Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee is a group of volunteers that are appointed by a city council in Montpelier Um, I think started about Six or seven years ago now. Yeah, it started as the Montpelier energy team more than 10 years ago And our mandate is basically to advise city council on any energy related topics policy, um, but we also do kind of Other things that include outreach into the community. Um working business owners residents trying to um Basically support the city's net zero goal, which is for the city municipal operations to be net zero by 2030 Which means basically completely powered by renewable energy Um, and then we have a the city council has set a larger goal for the whole community to be net zero by 2050 Great, and can I just pause for one second? Um, I just want to note that andrew la rosa our facilities director Is intending to be here. He is at ues dealing with something but he He is going to come as soon as he can I just wanted to Note that because we said you would be here Sorry So, um, you know on the kind of municipal front of the energy committee We've worked on a whole variety of projects over the last Number of years. We were initially very involved in the development of the district heat plan Um, the one megawatt solar project which is shared between schools and the city Um, and then more recently we've been going through a process of doing energy audits And what they call retro commissioning of six of the major municipal buildings In order to identify opportunities for energy savings And help us kind of build up a list of projects that we hope to accomplish Um We also created a revolving loan fund, um, which has about $25,000 in it right now But it's basically set money that the city has set aside to help fund energy efficiency improvements to municipal buildings So we've done things like Weatherizing the or yeah, whether rising windows in city hall And adding insulation to the the heat pipes in the fire station Things like that. Um And so we're we've been going through all these projects identified in city-owned buildings And some of them are large and require hundreds of thousands of dollars But some of them are small and we've been able to fund them and uh Complete them through using the revolving loan fund And the the way those are designed is there's a payback period on those so it is indeed a revolving loan fund So that we've already had some pretty significant successes so that that fund is is continuing to be replenished So a little history here at the schools you may or may not remember But it was quite a while ago that the school district had a contract with johnson controls and it was a disaster um And they made some promises about the ability for them to help with Efficiency investments in the schools They did not we're not able to follow through we actually received compensation from them as a result um tom woods when he was Facilities director, I think did a good job at kind of shepherding The repair of that type of work the identification of what they did and did not do um and We've Many of the activities that have taken place in the school such as some renovations at union elementary Led to some very significant efficiency changes. Um, which is great Certainly has been focused on lighting And the certainly very big project at union elementary is that it is heated by the district heat facility But in doing that there was also a great deal of work in terms of the heat distribution within that building So school district has a great history and we have the records that go back 15 years in terms of electric Efficiency improvements as well as reductions in the use of fuel It's what we Would like is to be able to maintain that at least but also to Work in the school buildings with some of the other municipal buildings in terms of the identification of activities The possibility of using Revolving loan fund perhaps you focused after revolving loan fund with the same sort of Philosophy the the payback of savings But the big the big line is that we would love the schools to be a part of the overall municipal goal being that zero by 2030 Which does mean some really significant thinking but it's still more than 10 years In terms of largely the heating of these buildings Both the high school and main street are heated by fuel oil There are opportunities for converting the biodiesel so that's a renewable fuel that would still maintain Largely the same boiler plant or some modifications, but modifications that have been accomplished in many many other places And if ever replacements or Incremental changes in my understanding is this building actually has three boilers possibility of converting one of them to solid biomass Just those sorts of possibilities as we as we work towards the future So that's that's one of the pieces to to see if the school district can work with us To the most help and also I believe it's great educational opportunity for the kids To see what they're what their schools are In terms of contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions of the city and to work towards those steps to And another huge piece which I know we've made some Sets discussions and making some progress on this transportation Still a lot of a lot of households Use personal vehicles to get their kids to school And the school buses themselves are still using Possible fuel petroleum and so there's possibilities there, but so there's a a menu of activities that we would Love to be able to participate with the school board and with Mr. Rosa in terms of identifying worse And we did now we have a variety of working groups within the energy advisory committee one of them is focused on municipal projects We did meet with andriola rosa a couple months ago just to kind of say hey Like we want to learn about what you're doing and and tell you a little bit about what we've been up to And so kind of started that conversation where we were able to connect him with the the school specialist at efficiency vermont And then they've been talking back and forth a little bit about And there's a big thing coming down the road at the state level The state manages its buildings with something called the state energy management program where bgs In efficiency vermont Identify specific projects and then work with the sort of the building managers to make sure that the activities like H back retrofit Happens in the most effective way. What's what happens is a lot of building managers. They'll sub out something But they may not have the expertise necessary to really see it through So what bgs is proposing with the public service department efficiency vermont Is to provide that same service to municipalities and schools so that The identification of projects Still largely will take place at the district level, but let's say there was going to be A significant HVAC retrofit The state has these folks that have done very large building retrofits And really work with contractors to make sure that the savings are very well understood And that the commissioning of the Project happens in such a way that you accomplish the savings So that's coming down the road and The experience is that by having that additional level of expertise. It's easier to go to the bond market. In fact, the state may have a Particular bond set of bond money available for municipalities and schools Kind of like the construction you know days when the state used to actually support schools Um, so they are working towards that So that's something just to be aware of that there may be you know, the several million dollars available for schools to do building Refits um with that additional bit of confidence of folks that have done some good work So you don't have to just do one office here, but you can work with teams of folks So that's got someone to keep in mind Meac will will always stay abreast of that and provide Just the ideas that it's coming and let's see if there's something we can do So the ask, you know as the general one, we hope that you folks will like to continue discussions with us and be available for discussions about opportunities for energy efficiency And maybe not to decide tonight But maybe you sign on as city council is signed on then 2030 is the appropriate target for The school buildings to join the other district buildings to be met Yeah, thank you. Um, this is obviously a high priority of mine. Um, you know Five of change is a huge A huge issue and it affects No one more intensely than our students who are going to have to you know live in a the world that's you know radically different um So it is definitely we want to explore more. I think we want to have open dialogue I think we want to really you know work with with andrew Um, and with you to see all that we can do. Um, I think you know the 2030 goal is, um The right one, uh, that's what all the science is telling us And I know that you know, we're a small drop in the bucket But I think it's important that that we show leadership. Um, but obviously that's you know 11 years away, so it's going to take take work and planning Yes The city is applying for an energy planning grant That we probably won't know about until early 2020 but um, but the idea of that is that we'll be Kind of bringing in some outside resources to help us develop a 10-year plan. Yeah for the municipality. So Um, you know, I think thinking about that like you know over the next few months if If they're a school district was willing to kind of partner with us in that we're hoping to have some additional staff resources and support to work on that 10-year plan I think definitely the extent that that we can you know identify state and other resources that can Can help us because it's I think doing it is it's going to require expense Yeah, so let's let's continue the conversation. Let's let's you know, I've got no andrew's looped in let's continue to To loop him in We are it's not district wide, but we Did charge a committee at our last meeting with looking deeply into Of kind of future options at the middle school, which I know is just one building but Probably a lot of the ideas that would apply to the middle school would apply to Some of the other buildings if you know Yeah Definitely and then transportation is Yeah, I think we took a nice step with with adding busing Yeah, I also think we took it was a small step. We decided not to expand parking at the high school, which Means that we're going to have to find ways To get to school and other than you know massive use of personalized cars. So yeah, you should be aware I think I don't know how public knowledge this is but Montpelier is on track for july 1st of 2020 to be a microtransit pilot Which is on demand Public transit so rather than the fixed-route buses exist There will be acts and as well as a call center for those folks that don't have access to smart phone technology Where you punch in this is where I am this is where I want to be and it feeds it back and says we'll pick you up Then we'll drop you off at that point. And so that's something that As we work towards july 1st consider, okay, what about the schools? What about some of the underserved parts of the city where the schools buses don't quite get to And also staff This is within Montpelier. Yep. But anyway that that is the v-trans GMT And the sustainable Montpelier coalition have a partnership to make that happen And v-trans is entirely behind it and is seeking additional fund stacks to expand the service The school And how broad will the service be because I know citywide but in terms of capacity, what if everyone decides Yeah, 7 7 20 in the morning, you've got you know 90 pick me up here My bedroom door impossible The reason via exists if there are a bunch of computer models But they're but they have programs in place so they match demand And then give feedback to GMT and v-trans. Okay, this is the sort of vehicular driver need you're going to have for these periods and So yeah, we add it to the mix and determine if it works or not But yeah, they that's exactly what they do is they'll you sign up the 80 people And they say well, where do they live and what you know, what's what size vehicle and Yeah, so it's it's intended for growth. No question about it. July 1st 2020 Yeah, yeah very quick less than a year. So it's heat a bigger deal than transportation in terms of emissions for the district That's a great question. We don't have we've been tracking electric and heating data For a long time, but we don't have any data on the School buses Yeah, my guess my guess is the heating is more than the school buses, but not more than the transportation Not much transportation takes place with personal vehicles And I would be hard to have to do some work to get that but in terms of Yeah, there's more fuel used in buildings than there is in the buses Are you aware of any districts that have really tried to tackle the the Every kid getting to school in in a different car problem from the perspective of climate change Trying to hit it as opposed to just that it makes a big traffic jam in front of Number one There are schools that work with their students to say from the students that I think this is a great idea. Yeah for coming. Yeah, thank you. It's fun to be back. Yes. Yeah, no and You also know if we all get busy so keep keep pestering. Yeah, thank you. Yes All right, thank you both and again, sorry that Andrew got tied up, but So we've got a couple board business items, uh, Jerry did you get sworn in? Excellent Uh, so now we can formally appoint Jerry as clerk and as Without me no Jerry we can not get your name right She's a clerk now, so I already number one proper spelling The point is clerk and his language immersion committee member and my guess is we need a Separate motion for each because they're different things So let's start with Jerry as clerk at the board All those in favor Great, congratulations. Thank you for serving. Yes. Thank you Jim I'm already on the language immersion committee. Are we supposed to have two board members? I wouldn't mind not being a language immersion committee if Jerry really wants to do it, but I'm just asking I think we do if we know what we're doing here We looked at We proposed to board members Because it's not a board committee. It's a school based committee. We proposed to board members, but I don't think Mike Berry would It's it's fine with me. I was just asking. Yeah Institutional history Yeah, I think you have institutional history and um, you know one of the discussion items with the language immersion might be How to integrate Roxbury with that program? Um, which is why I might have said Jerry on it the other the other reason for Jerry to be on it if she is Interested in willing is that I think that when it was originally proposed the timeline was anticipated to be fairly short But I think it's not going to do at my term Note any elementary parents who may be watching Um, so it sounds like it did make sense to still make that appointment Emotion I move that we appoint Jerry Huck to the language immersion committee as a board member representative My second that all is in favor Any opposed Great, and then pre-k needs Yeah, so we've had um, this is actually the second year we've had this but we managed to get around it last year We currently have our ues pre-k program. I'm just going to give a little background in case people don't know We have a ues pre-k program that it runs in the afternoons and then we also have A head start program that runs in the morning. Each program has about 16 kids in it um has 16 kids in it and uh because of the 160 the f-166 and the requirements for licensure Head start who are not our employees. It is we are allowing them to use their space um Has a very hard time finding a licensed teacher for their program each and every year They don't pay as well as school districts There's a lot of requirements on head start federal requirements on head start that involve professional learning There's a it's a big demand on the teacher So they have a hard time hiring each and every year Um, and they could not hire a teacher this year. They couldn't they couldn't find somebody to fill that position who was licensed so, um We don't want those 16 kids to not have a preschool experience pre-k. There's ample research to show that a Positive pre-k experience is it of utmost importance to a child's future um, so ryan herity and I Are requesting to the board that we make Um, morgan who's currently the part-time pre-k teacher under our employee full time to fill the need at head start and head start ryan has worked out With head start how that can work so it's so the families who attend head start still receive the services the wraparound services that head start provides um, however It's with one of our teachers and head start and ryan will work for work with the professional learning pieces of it as well Um, um When we first talked about preschool a couple years ago We Were not going to have them separate We were going to have All ues instead of how do you mean um Kids receiving head start support. We're going to be integrated with It's not receiving head start support Was my understanding. Oh, okay. That has not happened. They're two separate programs. Do they have to be? Is there No, I you know, I'm not When I say that I'm not positive how kids are split up between a m and p m So I'm making the assumption that the kids in the a m are the ones who qualify for head start wraparound support Okay, because we had talked about making sure that they were integrated not separated I'm not positive that that has happened based on the way people have talked to me about the programs But I have not I didn't know that history. So I wouldn't I wouldn't know to answer that question, but I certainly can't I have the same recollection I don't remember that it was part of the discussion that there was going to be a separate head start Then we were just meant to be one Just to say corroborating that that's what I would call it. So explain to me the funding difference The funding the morning pre-k class Is completely funded by head start As of right now because they pay for their teacher correct. So what happens when we extend mortgages We would be paying for that full contract or there would not be a morning program So I'm curious to know where we would lose the head start funding. Yeah, why don't we We don't get any any funding from head start at all So you're asking why can't head start pay morgan Well or part of it That money was for going to somebody. So why couldn't now that also be part of Part of morgan's own I mean, they don't pay as well. So I'm assuming it wouldn't Foot in our home salary, but why would you lose it? Um, I'm not positive. I couldn't answer that question without making some assumptions right now Couldn't we see if we could avoid losing it? We can see if we can avoid you losing that we're on a bit of a time crunch So we want to make sure that we have support in place We have a teacher in place for the kids in the morning program We can certainly find that out my hunches and i'm tapping completely off the cuff without a knowledge base on this So, please don't take it as such, right? Is that One of the difficulties with head start and finding a teacher is not only licensure and not only that they pay much Significantly less. It's also requirements that that teacher has to do in order to be a head start teacher Um, so I would imagine If morgan were paid for by head if morgan agreed First of all to take to work a full day and take that pay cut essentially She wouldn't be on our teacher contract for the full day if that were the case So she wouldn't get the full benefits package. You know, there's lots of things that wouldn't be involved in that I'm talking about a bargain with it. So I know I'm not you would not that we could cut morgan's pay Is that a supplementary And I would say also that she could make requirements of imagine morgan won't have any trouble meeting the requirements of whatever head start Things she ought to do It's more of the work that she needs to do during the school year to For for that head start piece is different than a public elementary school Right, but nonetheless, I'm wondering if if she would do that and if it could happen if we couldn't still get that funding It's certainly worse than I would say Yes, we should have preschool for kids to whom we have Promised preschools You should definitely do that and we should definitely hire whatever teacher we need to hire But I think the board would love a better understanding of our preschool program And we consider it. I would have ryan or pengie how to do that because I'm not an expert in this with with the head start program involved I'm not an expert in it Yeah, the immediate need that was put out the last minute onto the board Why I was put on the last minute is because we need a full-time teacher. And so I'm curious to know um Why is it last week does head the head start not know A couple weeks ago They were working to try to get a teacher for a long time They ryan was in close contact with head start to say hey, how's it going? They'd say we're still interviewing You're still interviewing and about a I don't know a week ago. I went to gym and I said Yeah, we're not going to have a teacher So I guess my second question is will more individual Have we uh ryan has spoken to her to say liby's going to go to the board to to get the approval for this Um, would you be would you be willing to do it? And she would she was looking for a full-time position Anyway, so It is it would be a one-year Peace until we can to give head start time to figure things out So it wouldn't be morgan's under the understanding that this would be a one-year full-time peace Unless the board decides to make it a full-time position. I agree with michelle We have kids coming tomorrow. I want them to have a teacher. I just want to be clear about Is there any way that we don't lose some of that money and how is it? And what is this preschool program? We can find more I I believe it's pretty separate the head start piece in terms of financial Is very separate, but nobody's asked the question of can we if you're going to pay a teacher anyway Why don't you take pay part of our teacher that we're covering for you? Nobody's asked that question. Yeah I I'd love to understand better because I feel like when when we were first talking about starting this program like We got a whole bunch of new furniture and stuff because we were through head start in the sense that I had was that the head start Engagement with the program was kind of a subsidy situation not like they're borrowing our classroom situation I'm not sure how if that's evolved the way that it was envisioned But I can certainly ask more questions to find out Yeah, it would be good to know like do we think that That's the best approach. Do we if we can have a full-time teacher providing preschool? Does it matter if it's head start or not? Right. I just have started those conversations those exact questions. Good Do you need a motion on the teacher part? I don't know if we need a motion. Um, it's a We don't usually make a motion for an entire Well, to authorize the expenditure that yeah, it's certainly more than $5,000 Yeah, um, yeah, let's be safe and make a motion. I think it's I think that's the best route. Yeah I make a motion today and work from part time to part time to go to head start program Should we make it more general? Maybe authorize the Administration to Staff the full preschool program. Staff the full. Yeah, it's a union elementary. Yeah, okay So I'll make a motion that we authorize the administration to Essentially ensure that we have a fully operating preschool program in the union elementary Both morning and afternoon Great, and I will find out more perhaps bring people who know more than me to come to a board meeting to talk about it All is in favor. Hi. Can you post? Great Thank you. Thank you. Um, okay, we are 20 minutes ahead of schedule and andrew Yeah, they they they did their song and dance and waltzed away Um, so unless you are in it for the entertainment, you're happy to Go home They just gave a you know an overview of what they were about You know wanting To kind of continue and I think deep in discussions and with the district about Uh, how we can be a partner in the city With meeting, you know the admissions reduction goals um You know, I think kind of a question for the the district and the board is whether want to formally adopt the net zero by 2030 Did you ask them that question They want to adopt it. No, they don't want us to adopt it. Yeah Which despite the head shake is something we we may we may discuss I think if it's discussed it needs to be a thoughtful Yes bringing real professionals to Uh, let's see if we can meet those goals I'm sure we can meet them. This is a question of how Yeah, I guess you could meet those More of a question of how much You can probably meet the letter. Maybe not the spirits. Yeah So, yeah, so I I think we basically agreed that we would yeah At one point I think one of their points that they brought up was the sort of notion of retro commission We are actually working with efficiency from on and cx associates on retro commissioning all our buildings We're letting the dust sell from the summer Cx is going to start with this building Yeah, so I think there's there's kind of pretty deep interest on the board and you know Further collaborating and further figuring out what we can do Yeah, with the realization these are not necessarily easy or inexpensive problems, but Amazon's on fire and you know our Nordic ski seasons at risk, so You know people in Miami might be swimming soon, so Thanks, Andrew. Thank you Yes, that's a good news. Thank you Um Okay, effective school board members. I honestly just put this in here. We talked about a Article discuss and I thought I looked through tons. I was going to go with board communication Just as an add-on to what Susan did with us that one trainee and then I thought we have jerry's on board as a new board member You know, it's the new school year Problems are arising Which I'm sure you're hearing about in many different issues. And so I saw this one and I thought this just might be a good reminder of What it is, um You all do as a school board. It was not meant in any kind of finger wag way whatsoever just more of the time of year is here where Um kids are going to school and we have a new board member And so that was the intent behind this and I don't know if there's any kind of discussion you want to have around it Or anything of that nature um Or just say hey, this is this one's tough for me or this one's easy to be down Yeah, I mean, let's open it up for discussion. Um I got this kind of late. So I only skimmed it but it it's all stuff that we've Talked about. Yeah, it's all stuff that we've talked about but I think it's all stuff that's Hard and good to remind It's all in the vsba stuff to Has everybody been to the vsba trainings? A lot of these are suggestions are good for any kind of non for pro not for profit forward I mean it's focused on schools, but We're in the same roles applied In business One team Yeah You know as I read it I thought about this the time we did a Check-in, how are we doing? Remember that and I was thinking Okay We surveyed ourselves Right to say how did we do this board meeting? How would we do and I was just wondering about that is it Should we do that? I'm not proposing it. I think it's no. I think it's a good idea to check in with ourselves occasionally Um So I think the john carver model policy governance requires at the end of every meeting you fill out A survey, how do we do? Were we on time? Did we follow the rules? I think every meeting is a bit over the top in my opinion, but The best you could say that We didn't adopt the carver model by the by the books. So yes I thought the um, you know the keep learning section was helpful, but It's a little short You know the work that you're actually should be doing as a school board member as opposed to the sections of what you shouldn't be doing It's right, you know, you think it's good for the board to check in occasionally on whether we're Making a shared commitment to professional development. Are we getting enough? Are we taking advantage of the vsb resources? I feel like we've been getting really great Um, you know learning focus sessions that have really helped in that regard But it's also good to network with the vsba and with other board members in other Towns that we're going to I was going to say that I think in the last year we've had some great Focus learning so that you can't just assume that school note board members know anything about how education is going Or specifically how it's going in the schools And so it's good to have Somebody tell you how it's going Yeah, and it might be just be a do this at all where They do a little homework on the board before they Come in. Oh, yeah, they do homework on him. I mean Susan did when she came in last year, which I missed but You think we're just having them come in and because sometimes self-valuations tend not to be as effective as when you've got You're talking like would the vsba come in and do an audit of Or maybe like a survey of board members where they, you know, ask Ask some questions and get you know Responses that we don't share and then look at them and ask just how we're doing and yeah and say well, you know I read through these and Sounds like there's some, you know dissonance between what's being said here and What you read it might be really nice to have an outside agency come in and do that And I'm sure Susan also would be thrilled to have the opportunity We did have we did have Val Gardner coming to meetings regularly For a year. Did she come for a year? She came for a while already watched a couple days who didn't come to which I'm just going to say is another option Thank you. Watch them on tv And then she met with brian and I and we debriefed about how things had gone I when I think about your roles and granted I still consider myself a newbie in this But when I think about your roles, I think The board and from what my experience is the board meetings are almost the easier part of your role You ask really good questions. You think you're thoughtful if you come prepared You know, all of the things that I certainly ask of you all as board members I think your harder role and I don't want to speak for any of you Is is the community engagement outside of this outside of the meetings Particularly in this community and that's That's a place where if an outside agency like the vsba came in to do more anonymous surveys and talking to you You might have some different things pop up than like board meetings. Yes Although I was thinking this section that says do your homework and ask tough questions You were saying we asked questions, but as I was reading down There's a fine line between saying That's the administration. They're going to decide and how much does it cost? I was thinking about just what we went through or How does this support our mission and I think that's I think it's working, but I think that's a tough thing to to be able to Ask you those questions for you to feel like you you do get to make the decisions, but we'd like to know the answers One of the things that the questions Reminded me of but I just wanted to raise maybe something for a board discussion or a learning focus later in the year Is that um, it's my understanding that we're going to be in We're the district is doing a much better job now of collecting data for it starting down that road We're working on it and we're working on it. We're working on it So an update on how that Is happening later in the school year might be helpful We've been unable to ask some of these questions successfully in the past because there were no answers to them It'd be nice to kind of have the parameters of when are we going to be able to start? Yeah, yeah, well, I mean and on two sides, right? So with efinance coming on that is a much once it's in Grant will want me to say Once it's in place That helps financial data at our fingertips, right? That's what that does for us Which we couldn't because they were on separate spreadsheets or even got the good paper for last year, right? um, financially and Contractually and all of that piece will be in one spot Or you know, I have access to it. So it's easy to get into and should be easy to get that data Um, and then we've also just purchased through power school, which is our student or as I our student information service um Their power school analytics, which is the data management source for academic data Demographics everything so so once we learn how to use that we should be able to make tons of you know, we can Do lots of filters and sorts and get data from different sources Not just aspect data, which is basically what I have to give you right now and Number of kids who took the ap and you know that kind of data So um well that and thinking about that The data for academics that the board needs should be generalized data, right? That's the level where you are it should be pretty generalized and definitely not identifiable by classroom or or child so So since we're getting those tools we're we just got them You know both of them so and we're getting them. We would do data managers who's learning how to use the system Smooth a mic, you know, like so we're we're learning how to use those pieces and getting our our information put into it You know what might be of help? However, even though you don't have the actual numbers to go with the data As you said in the beginning, we don't have the data we need to have to determine how kids are doing academically Locally it would be nice for an update on that not necessarily here are the numbers But okay, here's what we just decided decided here are the things we're using for assessments and Here's the funny thing tina. Yeah, it's like I read your mind On the Do we have a board meeting on the 18th? I don't have my calendar up. Is that the right date? Yeah, I'm almost positive that it's the 18th of september Yeah For you to look forward to each principal will be giving about a 10 minute presentation around I'll give a reminder of the district by focus and then Each principal will stand and talk about what their data told us to make their focus for the year And what that what they're doing in order to support that so that's starting on that will happen on the 18th And the plan this year with the principals is to have them come Periodically to say this is how we're doing so far and this the superintendent reports You know that I used to do other charts and things that that will feed The focus areas that they present on the 18th So you'll Be get it we'll be able to target in more about what exactly are we doing which will help you I think in the Going out in the community as well Because not all the changes that need to be made to ensure equity and I mean ensure high levels of achievement Are going to be fancy You know And and so you'll be able to talk More about why they're not fancy. What what are they? So that's That's the purpose behind that but they're all set to come in the 18th Yeah I have a new big question. Go for it Jerry So when I looked up the school on Wikipedia All right, we're going to send you to Karen McKenzie See what what was there It did talk about The rankings I think going back 2007 If I remember correctly like so that's what I was wondering is why why has it not been updated? Is there just it's not tracked anymore? How did they Do the scoring at that time are you talking like through at us news and we'll go for it ranking Those rankings Those aren't done through the state of vermont in any way shape or form The only ranking that vermont does And they only will start it this year under essa the new education law Is that they have to be according to essa? Publicly named the bottom five percent performing schools in the state of which we are not there So we won't be on that list And they're required to do that that is the only ranking that I would call official Through our school system. I would encourage all of you for those u.s. News and world report pieces to just ignore them They're not an accurate representation of what happens Many of them if you look at the top performing schools in vermont because those are the neighborhoods we know and those are the towns We know look at the socioeconomic Number of the schools that are ranked one two three four five and you'll see the the richer Areas of the state And there that's primarily what it is It's also interesting to look at what they determined to get the rankings Yeah, some of the things they determined to get the ranking are not on the top of our list Yeah, yeah, so I would I would ignore most of those rankings There was one year and it may have been 2007 Where montelior was accidentally ranked like fifth in english or something. Yeah, and then peter evans the principal was like They used a wrong number And he was flooded with calls of people wanting to have their kids boarded here and Don't get me wrong. We still while i'm not flooded Yeah, we get quite a few people who are trying to get into our system because of those kind of things because of that kind of Yeah, yeah It's entertaining I'm gonna put michelle on those phone calls No, I was wrong How in person for that Any other comments on this? I think it is a good idea to do some sort of set the valuation and look at that I can talk about it. So since we have a new part of member, we did talk about it before Do we have any system? So when we get a new board member something happens to the new board member We always say hi Welcome Uh, we we did think about a mentor Yeah, does anybody want to volunteer Ryan has sort of been Yeah, Ryan's been a director mentor. Yeah, Jeremy have sat down a couple times So we did make sure the the big policies that were supposed to be reviewed as soon as somebody's sworn is Somebody's elected read these. Here you go. She's been there and done that. So she's got we're closely going the way We said we were going to Do you want to it's kind of continued by that role ryan or does someone else will have So i'm happy to it's Easy because we're trying to carnival and things like that Gives you some time to talk about it. Yeah Okay, I think that's the step we talked about it And then there's a There's an event and I think you said yeah, which has a school built session. Yeah And I would encourage you also to attend so the bbsba They have free webinars online free webinars. Yeah I didn't for example, I didn't sign up for it. I sent a yes Anna signing everybody up. All right. So so far we have jerry tina and bridgett who are coming To the november. Yeah, so if anybody else wants to go to that just let anna or myself know Okay, we'll get you signed up for it. Excellent. Um Motion to adjourn Second


So, welcome to the 11th session. And now we answer the question, why we have looked at systems with all these three properties or why we have asked about these three properties in the first place, additivity, homogeneity and shift invariance. What is it about these properties that makes systems which possess them special? Well, if you go back to our first discussion, one of the things that we promised was to evolve certain general principles for first understanding systems by bringing in abstraction and then building systems. In a nutshell, the answer is when a system has all these three properties, either by design or by accident, the system is very easy to analyze and rather easy to build. Now, it will take us a while to appreciate. In fact, it will probably take us all through the course to appreciate this. But right now, let us begin in this session by looking at a very simple principle that at least takes us toward that direction to appreciate why these three properties give us something very unique. And to do that, let us first understand a very simple principle, namely that you could think of any reasonable, now I explain what I mean by reasonable, any reasonable signal as a combination of very narrow pulses. First, let me explain that idea to you informally. So, here we go. Let me show this to you graphical. It is much easier to understand graphical.  You know, what I mean by a reasonable signal is one that does not have more discontinuities than we can handle in a given finite interval and something that does not have any great abnormalities like the signal I told you, which is 1 at the rationals and 0 at the irrational. We do not want to go for those kinds of signals. Otherwise, also the signal is continuous almost everywhere except at some isolated points. That is what I mean by reasonable. So, let us look at a region in which the signal is continuous like you have here. So, signal is continuous in this region and we take this interval which I am marking here in which the signal is continuous. And I am now going to use this principle. I am going to build this principle of pulses. So, I divide this signal into very narrow regions on the time axis, very narrow indeed, as narrow as you could make it. Let me do that. So, first let me take intervals of size that one can discern and then we could imagine that interval becoming smaller and smaller and smaller. Let me take any one interval here. Take this interval for example and visualize that interval going smaller and smaller and smaller. Look at it carefully. You know, if the interval were to grow smaller with a continuous signal, smaller interval tends to almost constant function. So, for a continuous function on smaller and smaller intervals, the function is almost constant. So, essentially what I am saying is on a very small interval and please understand this carefully. We can think of the function. Let us say the interval size is delta. We can think of the function as a pulse. Essentially I am saying I can almost think of the function like this. You can visualize delta become smaller and smaller. And the height of the pulse is equal to the value of the function in that interval. So, of course, in brackets quote unquote constant, constant value of the function in that interval. Now, go back to the previous drawing that I had. So, here what we are saying essentially is that in each interval we have a pulse. Essentially now you can visualize. I am going to draw it in a minute, but you can now visualize. You have this little pulse, you could fix its height to be whatever. You know, you could fix it in such a way that the height is proportional to the inverse of the interval size. You will see why after little while. So, if the interval size is delta, I will fix the height to be 1 by delta. So, the area contained under the pulse is fixed to unity. You will realize later that it is the area which is critical ultimately not so much the height. So, you have this little pulse. You shift that pulse by different shifts which are multiples of the interval size. And each such shift you multiply it by the value of the function in that interval which is assumed to be almost a constant. And when you put all these together, you get something very like the original function that you had. Now, let us draw this to understand. So, what I am saying is you have this continuous, let us take a small segment of the continuous function. Let us take this basic pulse. And let us see if we can construct this continuous function out of this basic, out of this little basic pulse that we have drawn here delta and 1 by delta in height. Well, we will see that in the next session. It will take some explanation. Thank you.