Adjustments to the agenda. Yes, James. There's only needs to be one executive session for a personnel not to Okay, we'll get rid of The second one. All right, any other adjustments? I think we'll just try and keep things Running smoothly. So I don't think we'll assign specific times to anything. We don't have a Busy agenda here Move on to item for public comment, we have any public comment I don't think we have any public at the moment We'll move on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes of Tuesday April 20th? So moved. I'll second that. Any discussion? I Would recuse myself from that. Okay. Oh Oh, came in and who refused? Peggy, Peggy recused yourself. Okay, so Yep, all right all in favor say aye Any opposed all right, so we have approved the minutes of Tuesday April 20th Move on the board comments. Do we have the board comments? I've got I got two I guess made questions One is, you know, I guess with the COVID stuff And we're now in the spring with seasonal allergies and stuff What's the what's the guideline again to families on on like what to do with their kids if they have allergies and are Sneezing and have runny noses and stuff What's the what's the protocol? I guess just to remind people about it and stuff really don't work And to coordinate the nurses they're getting really good at knowing their students and the families and they'll help you best navigate that and then they connect with Shane if we have a you know, they connect with local pediatricians both at Gifford and You know, you know, there are pediatricians office right in town. So I would say school nurses the best point person Okay Yeah, I mean, I mean personally our daughter had to stay home a couple days because of stuff He knows for allergies And I thought we had put it on the forums that she had allergies But the nurse said she didn't have that and we explained that it was allergies But then we still had to go the doctor I guess and get a note saying that she does have allergies It was either that or the cobit test so And once Okay And so then I guess my second question that I had to is I guess, you know We're getting to the end of the school year and and getting into next year But you know families are already starting to have to fill out forums and stuff for next year At one point a year ago, maybe two years ago You know, I asked if we could maybe try to find a way to to go to like a digital process for filling out all the school forums But right now it's still on paper. And so I just wonder if there's anything that we can do to Maybe streamline paperwork for families I know for us having three kids in the school next year having to fill out all those same forms over and over again It gets a little Tiring I'm just wondering if there's a more efficient way to do it that makes it easier for families and probably easier For you all too for tracking if you're doing anything, you know Digitally versus having to enter all that data and that's been put on sheets manually Right Chris that's in the budget, but not until July 1st So you probably saw a kindergarten form which is still on paper. I hope to have an update for you by the middle of July Awesome. Do we have any other board comment at this time? Alright, then we'll move on to the report to the board Jamie Good evening. I Hope you all get outside today and join a little of this wonderful weather. I have not yet. I plan to tonight So anyways, I'll let folks know I mean As I said in my board report, I mean this this time of year school just wind up They don't wind down and so we're in the thick of hiring I have committed to interview every finalist That works for the organization. So any new person we bring on I meet with And so I will meet with new teachers new Paris certainly of course new administrators and I do know that the special services Director committee has forwarded a finalist for me to interview on Friday. So that's good news that information will come out Excuse me in the SU board packet We have successfully completed all the budget process other than first branch. So Tara and I are navigating that And then we have a big vote happening today in Stockbridge because Stockbridge had a Reconsideration vote in regards to whether or not they might they want to still continue to pursue moving forward alone instead of in partnership with Rochester So those are some of the things going on across the SU. I had a delightful two-hour meeting with your principals this morning I'm really excited about the direction of the organization and I Think there's really Exciting and bright days ahead for Rud As we look to really continue to beef up our proficiency work our personalized learning or pathways You know, I think there's a lot of groundwork being laid as I said in your report The amount of teams that you guys your administration and faculty have proposed to get together over the summer is pretty amazing And our recovery funds are going to allow us to fund that so our recovery funds are being specifically focused on Making certain that, you know, we have high-quality PD that we have intervention in place specifically math We didn't have math intervention in place in any of our districts for target intervention. So we're looking to focus in that and so There's just there's a I think a real great excitement this time of year to look forward to what we're going to be able to Really roll out next fall. And if you have any questions, I'll entertain I'd be curious to see the amounts proposed for the SR3 or whatever grants for you know, just so that I can conceptually know like what scale of PD we're talking about compared to what we've funded in the past and you know, just be curious like Yeah, we can roll out what those figures look like I think we'll roll that out across the SU board to the SU board Andrew Because that money came to the SU and we're kind of strategically implementing it across the SU So once the SR2 grant is submitted and approved it's submitted. I'm waiting for approval I'm happy to roll out where those funds are going in the percentage breakdowns Okay Thanks Any other questions for Jamie? We'll move on to the principal son. So I think I get to kick us off. We Had a exciting teacher appreciation week, which we tried to celebrate everybody who works in the school So sorry, there's side people talking over here. They're not supposed to be in my meeting Anyways, so and we're working hard and filling a bunch of vacancies And I think that the thing I'm gonna mostly report out on is our goal number one Which is that we are excited to keep on leveling the playing field and we're gonna have Elementary middle and high school go to the summer best all together and keep on working on Aligning our systems, which is something we kind of talked about a little bit last last board meeting with like there's a hat rule Here and not a hat rule there So we're gonna keep on having those conversations Which sometimes hard to have during COVID times when you're not always allowed to be all around each other. So That's goal one And I've got gold to We just finished up an Intensive period about started back in February. So a good solid Three months of working on our continuous improvement plan. That's a document. We send to the agency of education annually That includes very specific Middle goals or improving student reading scores to student math scores Working on flexible pathways and a few other goals kind of looking at data about our school. What's working? What's not where we want it to be and and how do we Make make our best efforts to make some changes that'll make an impact on that the continuous improvement plan is Kind of the SU level to be submitted to the agency of education There's a kind of feedback process there, but we expect that at our August meeting will be Bringing that back to you for your approval and kind of talked to you about some of the details of that There are also equity goals specific to that Where we're looking at specifically students academic performance who are Qualified for free and reduced lunch and how can we target? Special support to help raise their achievement levels Thank you. The other huge that we've wrapped up in the last month is Identifying work that can be done by teachers and staff over the summer to make some headway on some of our goals here And we submit to you a link on the report of all the summer work teams And what their objectives are? Thank You Reed and on goal three. I get to talk about that first, but the three of us will add things here this is the one about community outreach and Pandemics really You know clipped our wings on this But now we're ready to go back and start having events and outdoor stuff And I'm gonna leave the the principles to talk about where it's happening with them But and I will be reporting in the middle. We're gonna go through this chronologically by age Andrew So it's not quite all the way open up So we're bringing Vince to us for an end of your field trip for both campuses We're really excited to have that opportunity to have Vince come to us and to do Something at the end of the year when we maybe usually are used to going on field trips Planning field days for both campuses And pan down Ray Maybe not And then I think we're also doing some moving up ceremonies in-house so not opening it up yet to to maybe having people come in but Want to celebrate our fifth graders as they get ready to launch into into middle school. So, you know cake it's all about the cake and Finally, I think just this week we were I wrapped up mailing out our welcome to the new babies in our communities So mailed a board book to every baby born this past year that was listed in the town report And I got I think almost all the elementary people to sign it to sign the welcome letter So hopefully people are receiving those That's a great Activity that you do Andrew. I'm really I wish I lived in your town when I had a little kid so My piece in the middle school is there's a lot of bulleted items there And I encourage you to read them all I'll highlight one But this is we had the Taren Institute interview some middle school students and Find out how the pandemic learning was for them And we got some great feedback two things I'd highlight is Students were talking about having less classes per day and longer blocks of time and that created less transitions and it was easy to remember for them and then the concept of working in projects and Was really really important to them and student voice and choice Because we worked with students the teachers did and negotiated the curriculum. This is a researched Thing that middle schools and other schools do it's kind of the constructivist educational model of Construct the curriculum or learning together Including the assessments and those are usually done in presentation mode The other thing I would point out is kids didn't like being pulled from classes And this is I know music to all the educators ears of like They don't want to be highlighted as being pulled out for more and I'd love to change that culture but we want to push in more than we pull out and You know, I'm just so proud of the teachers that they they were Helpful in like saying yeah, let's ask the students what what works and what doesn't work So it was real some nice meta assessment of our own programming Really proud of them. Thanks and read you're gonna talk about the high school. We had a pool going read your muted All right, we We're in the middle of spirit week right now today was twin day and tomorrow We have color wars where each grade dresses up in a different color And we're having our spring carnival tomorrow afternoon with fun and games outside Including a special menu from the cafeteria which we're excited about and And capping off spirit week is our prom this Saturday at the Grand ballroom at the hammer-in. So we're collecting votes for the junior and senior court Today, we're gonna have a junior court in a senior court and two kings and queens Due to COVID then the you know, this event is being made possible by Our junior and senior parents who started to organize a couple weeks before the governor's announcement And have been raising money And at this point we're about halfway to our fundraising goal of being able to pay for the the whole event through parent donations Kind of taking them off of the classes for having to pull all that together So it's gonna be a lot of fun and looking forward to that we are moving forward with graduation plans for June 12th and You know constantly changing guidance, but we will have the tent on the green and That's all said it's more a question of how close people can sit together and how many people we can fit under the tent Did it which will determine how many tickets we can give out to each family? so And just a last little update if you've been on campus in the last week or so you've seen it looks a lot nicer Thanks to the efforts of the high schoolers who are out doing their green up day of service They painted almost all of the outbuildings On the athletic fields They did out of gardening in our courtyard Internally and then the front entrance in a rear parking lot areas of the school got some extensive Landscaping so things are looking up and looking great Thanks. I think I say that's our report Now we'll entertain questions Everybody have questions for the principles. Well, thank you. It's good to hear about these things that are going on Okay, Tara Thank you. So you have my report I'll give you a few of the updates as Jamie mentioned. We have submitted our S or 3 application We're waiting on approval for that or sorry S or 2. Thank you, Jamie. I was working in S or 3 today We have completed our pre-audit with the auditors. They wrapped up in the office on Thursday We are scheduled for final audit the first week of September and then on school food responsibilities Continuing to do the monthly reimbursement through the summer food service program and for our School buildings that were awarded the fresh fruit and vegetable program We're working to get the plan for the centralized food service for next school year and then back on April 20th the USDA extended all children would continue to eat breakfast and lunch for free and that will be through the Seamless summer option So that will take enough to effect on in October because summer food service goes through the end of September So none of our programs have used the seamless summer option So we all will have to go through training on what that means and how that all works and everything in comparison to normal food service or summer food service program on Your revenue and expenditure summary. I've updated the COVID reimbursement on both the expenditure and revenue side from 8,000 568 to 7,000 113 and we'll continue to see shifts as we move expenses out based on the coding for the grants and Then I reduced your health insurance overspending from 45,000 to 29 815 That was due to some of the individuals that have left mid-year We've increased the supplies and book savings from a hundred and three three thirty seven to a hundred and fifty two three fifty eight I added savings and staff travel to of ten thousand one hundred and twenty seven dollars and then I added Savings in the professional services of seventy five thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars on the revenue side on the other update I made was to your interest income and that was just based on the last month's reconciliation from 2009 80 to 2090 so those changes Result in an increase in the expenditure surplus from three hundred thousand eight oh eight to four hundred fifty two thousand three hundred and fifteen dollars It increased the revenue deficit from ninety nine thousand four hundred to ninety nine seven forty six Resulting in the overall projected surplus of three hundred fifty two thousand five hundred and seventy dollars Which is an increase from the March projection of two hundred and one thousand four hundred and eight So your faculty staff and administration continue to do a fantastic job And then if you have any questions, I will attempt to answer them Oh, yes in the finance committee had our first meeting ready. I have anything for Tara. All right. Thank you Tara definitely great news about the Surplus that's great work everybody Yeah, just think Okay energy committee Chris my man you're on and working hard so Yeah Yeah, so I guess we have the SU energy committee and I've been I guess gladly elected the the chair of that committee so I get the So we meet on the what second Tuesday second Thursday of the month so We got the electric utility bills for all the campuses or all the the schools around the district or not the district the SU And I've been putting all the data into a software called portfolio manager. Let's put out by energy star and I've been looking at the last two years worth of utility data both electric and heating oil pellets for Sharon Because they have wood pellet boiler, but then I guess we're gonna add to it the propane for cooking at the different buildings and then we're also gonna look at water usage but Looking at the electric usage. I guess I can maybe I don't know if I should share I can just give the info But You know right now looking at the two campuses Between Royalton and Bethel On average, you know, we're spending more money Okay, right turn on where I can share So So this was just some initial data where I sort of gathered some info on on building square footages but then in each of the tabs I've got the Electric and and oil information for each of the buildings, but and then I'm gonna get updated area information from from Jamie But you know Bethel is roughly 56,000 square feet and Royalton's building is Roughly 71,700 square feet but on average Over the last two years on average the average monthly electric kilowatt hour usage for Bethel has been 20,872 kilowatt hours a month whereas Royalton is 19,054 I Added this in today. Actually the average monthly cost Bethel's They're they're sort of average kilowatt hour rate that they pay out when you factor in demand charges and stuff They actually pay a slightly higher rate than what Royalton pays so they're paying about 18 and a half cents a kilowatt hour when you factor in demand charges and stuff Whereas Royalton's effective rate is 16 16.73 cents kilowatt hour So but so on average, you know roughly Bethel's electric bill is about seven hundred dollars a month more Than Royalton and then on a square foot basis, you know Bethel is using more electricity Than Royalton Same thing with heating oil to Royalton's using a little bit more overall Over the last two years we've averaged just shy of 29,000 gallons And Bethel's just shy of 28,000 Royalton this year is actually up over this year is bigger than last year They're already up over 33,000 gallons of oil for this year But on a square foot basis again, it's about 50 cents a square foot for oil To serve the Bethel campus and about 40 cents a square foot for oil to serve Royalton You know, here's a plot of just what the monthly electric looks like for Bethel The orange line is their demand So we pay Part of our bill is we pay for the actual kilowatt hours of usage and then we also pay for the peak demand that occurs And that can be you know occurs anytime during the month But whatever that highest kilowatt draw that you ever hit you and you know, you pay for that and right now We're paying about $18 a kilowatt for those demand charges And and we do peak up and around close to 90 Kw and the in the during the year And then for Royalton And then here's what it looks like for Royalton So both campuses drop off in the in the summer and then they hit their peaks in the winter time You know the Royalton's interesting that it peaks each time in the like the January time frame Which is you know, I guess one of the colder months I guess it's right before the students go on February break and stuff. So But we hit the highest peaks then and then it starts to tail off after that but You know, so I think the The data, you know, it shows that you know, I think this performance contracting Stuff that we're gonna look at should be good and and hopefully it pays off I think you know, some of the renovations that have happened over the years at Royalton like with the gym Edition, but some of the rework that occurred as part of that, you know Helped, you know with some of the energy efficiency in Royalton, but I think both places have You know room to grow and and that's what we're we're looking at is looking towards the future and and making those numbers smaller so And then, you know, there's other part of the committee stuff I'll tell you I guess I got I meant this was one of my to-do list is to email Jamie about it but One thing we'd like to get for next meeting is to maybe identify prior to the next meeting identify maybe a Teacher at your school to to get in contact with to invite to the next energy committee meeting And just start to come up with some initial ideas for next year About ways to get students involved at all the different campuses around the SU but but for us, you know, specifically You know in Bethel and in in Royalton ways to get students involved in thinking about energy and energy use Excuse me does do your figures include the I'm assuming Royalton still has the solar installation on top of the building Yeah, the the numbers that I just did purely on the on the use side I didn't get into the production side. Although the production for those panels is Is pretty low? I think the I think the credit for those panels actually gets put over on to like either the baseball or softball field Utility bill which I didn't include those yet either Any of the perimeter spaces so like for Royalton, there's the baseball and softball fields we get we get separate bills on those Bethel there's Softball there's the baseball fields, but then we also get a separate bill for just the parking lot lights And then they get a separate bill for the sign out front. That's on its own separate bill So I didn't add any of those but Yeah, the solar panels on the roof You know, that's on my to-do list. I guess just to look at those But you know the overall production it helps offset the the sports fields energy usage, but But I don't know You know, they probably be good to get some look at that data and then compare it like what's the size of the array? That's on the roof and make sure that it's performing. I mean, do we have any type of service contract on those panels or is it just? Or is it just sort of static sitting up there and producing? I don't know if anybody knows on that race Yeah, I don't think the company's in business anymore the one that installed it or did the monitor Yeah, so Yeah, I mean so we could look at it Maybe that'd be something where we can you know have a chat with like Betsy Ricker and get her opinion on it, too And but I know yeah a lot of solar companies you know, they offer service contracts and you know, there may be an issue with like the converter Or something in terms of you know, it's efficiency if it's dropping off or if there's some panels that are underperforming You know that can sort of have a cascading effect So I don't know any background on that system But it would be good to look at it and make sure that it is performing as best as they can We also get the separate credit on the bill for For the solar that we purchased from the solar field that's up on G Hill Road and We pay out Was it's like thirty six hundred bucks a month that we pay out for that But then in turn we get credit on our utility bill and I've added it up for you know For this fiscal year where there's still two months left on it but from from last July up through now the amount of Credit that we've gotten so far Equals the total amount that we will pay out for the year. So if you take the thirty six hundred and multiply it by twelve That's how much credit we've gotten year to date and so the next two months will all just sort of be You know the the gravy on the top, which is that ten percent savings that we get With the you know the rate that we pay that that solar company versus what we actually You know use on our electric bill You know that's what they offer us when they come to us with those things is that you know We'll pay ten percent less than what we would have if we were just purchasing it from the grid. So so that is That's working for now, you know, but So I thought that was good to check on too, but yeah Thanks for all the work putting in on this it's great. All right, so I guess we're on to the policy committee that so I sent around to the full board the Third draft of the anti-racism policy that's based on the feedback we received from different boards and community members I met with the consultants. They provided a draft Dina had a few edits and so this is after it's been proofed by Dina and so This now is out to the full board It'll be on the agenda for the policy committee next week and it will also be on the agenda for the full board to talk about So that's where we're at with it. So I think we're getting close. I'm feeling I know I'm feeling Pretty good about it at this point. So we'll see what other folks feel So that's our last one for this year and then we'll launch back up in August All right Any questions about the At their racism policy At least Lisa that just so everyone remembers. Sorry Andrew the full board meeting is being moved from Monday to Wednesday next week Because The I get a tumbridge informational meeting on the budget So it'll be next Wednesday at 6 and the policy committee will be Next Wednesday at 5 30 prior to the board meeting. Okay. Sorry. I just want to make certain. Yeah, it's out there All right, we'll move on to the finance committee I guess I'll talk about that Yeah, we met on Two weeks ago Thursday or Before last Thursday And it was a relatively quick meeting just to go over the updates on the Projections that Tara had put together and We are going like we also are going to be looking at the warrants more Which had because of the switch over with How the warrants were being done they weren't getting sent out to everybody So they're going to be sent out to everybody and so we can all look at them But I think that was mostly up for the finance committee meeting Does anybody have any questions about that? All right So we'll move on to regeneration corpse a point one Oh, and you want to take a lead on this get a nice meeting today. Sure. Yeah We meet every Tuesday morning as you might remember and First I don't know if we Welcome you yet Peggy. Welcome as a newest board member really awesome to see you in Another role then then grandmother. Thank you. Thank you. I knew we were more than a grandmother You may find out more than you want You are so lovely with for your with and for your granddaughter Today we met with some folk guy from the regeneration Corps And this is Lisa put us on to this. Thank you. Lisa McCurry And they're nine organizations that are in a collective of sorts and I'm doing my justice here And we met with Henry Harris who's one of them and they're doing work right now at deferred academy sharing academy and land off high school And they want to work with us also. They really like focused right now in our valley And Bale is part of it. So right in the village So they want to see a possibility of really like working right away with the high school students In the village and doing some stuff. There's an agricultural component. There's a racial justice component There's a climate justice component There's five or six big areas they focus on But what they want to do at this is work with students in agricultural settings They're also going to do a site visit at both sites And they're going to um, see how we might work together as a middle school with us And the f bud middle schools And we also thought wouldn't it be great if we brought middle school kids to south royalton campus Or to the village and meet with bale folks or do some other stuff But it's really sounds like the possibility of a lovely Partnership and i'm not sure if any board members are farmers, but we would encourage that too And they henry harris who met with us met with myself andra reed and janey So we had a really nice talk and we're followed up right away with an email We've included some faculty and some other folks from their organization. What I miss team It's a nice, I mean they're looking to secure their funding through other grants There may be an opportunity for me to build them into esser Um to help offset some of the incurred costs. We'll see how that plays out Um, but I really see this as another avenue when we think about multiple pathways for students I was very impressed with their ability to talk that language too um, and uh You know, I just want to emphasize one of the things we were thinking about is is a great opportunity for students from shearing from chelsea strafford as we look to really branch into more of this experiential and agricultural type learning Um, because that is something we all have in common throughout this su And I would say rochester stock bridge too Is to get students to come visit your two campuses I think that there's a real opportunity there when you think about genuine connection in the idea of recruitment Um of those elementary and middle school students that this could be a genuine way to to bring our kids together. So, um, we're gonna look to to really try to capitalize that on as well So thanks again, lisa. I I did ask and I said, why haven't you reached out? And it seems like they're just getting up and going but i'm really excited to to build that partnership Yeah, and You know, they did We tried to uh make this happen last fall. So they've been They've got a lot of energy and a lot of intelligence and a lot of good organizational skills behind them Very impressive and you know, their information is really thoughtfully written and I just wanted to also plug that as you work on ways to work with them There is a community garden in roilton and There's also a community garden that's in its second year in bethel Just walking distance from the bethel camp bethel school campus In case there's a need for You know some hands-on learning You know growing food within, you know, if that becomes an interest with part of their curriculum and giving students a place to get their hands dirty Um, i'm involved with the one on the bethel campus or i'm involved with the community garden. It's in bethel so If that ever if that's of interest by all means We would love to have some students involved And if it wraps in with regeneration core that'd be even better Did I make sense? It's quiet. Yeah, no, we're all shaking our heads. Sorry. You're taking notes. Yeah. No, that sounds great lisa Awesome, and I do think that that garden piece, especially at the high school this year. So we need that contact And um, we'll follow up. We're meeting. We're gonna have a meeting. So if you could Share that with uh read and I that'd be awesome. All right. I'll do that. All right. It sounds good So we're hearing more about that um Okay, so the next Thing in the agenda is the summer board retreat dates I guess we need to pick a time to Do worse I've done fall in the past too is my understanding. I just thought we should go ahead and look at counters and get these booked sure so, um For anybody who wasn't on the board before Um, we usually do a slightly longer Meeting in the summer to kind of just go over overall priorities and you know, kind of Do a longer form Dive into subjects that might not get as much attention during the regular school year so um You know in the past we've had food and stuff at them and But I don't know what the plan is this year if we'll be doing them in person. They're remote or I guess we need to talk about that Well, I can say you need to hope it's not a heyday because that's where I get Where I'm trapped We can come help Peggy we'll have the meeting in the field As long as we don't run you over with our bales um I guess uh, do people have preferences for Any particular times? I'm Going to be away and I can do or Join remotely, but I'll be away Um, kind of the first couple weeks of august will be Some time and then Week after like that week of the 16th work for people But it makes sense to do a doodle pool and float out and then people could check their schedules And then you can see what the has the least ramifications what can get most people Yeah Andrew, are you volunteering to put that together? Absolutely not I'm happy to do it if you give me the dates. I will send out the doodle pool I could do a cheese doodle pool I just think when we've done them in the past it's the easiest way to figure out who you know Who's what date works best? So, uh, andrew I heard you talk about uh week of august 16th FYI, I'll I'll call in from somewhere So I can't be like arranged Going to be arranged on the 16th of august to uh, I don't know but 10 day span because Just so we have some more options on the doodle pool Yeah, that sounds good. Are we thinking like all day and evening? Break it into half days choices. I think yeah, I think afternoon Evening is probably what I would be thinking but Do rather people have thoughts Well, if we eat before we go then we don't have to spend money In the past haven't we started at like three or four and then we've gone till eight o'clock Yeah, yeah Did you say give people an idea of how much fun? Did you say july or august 16th? august Okay, that's the day elvis died. I just want you to know Okay Um, and then I guess we could do august 16th then one does uh in service days start Kind of at the end of august I believe they start on I don't have the school counter in front of me But they don't start until the Is it the 30th team? Yeah, I think that The the the front part of the week of the 23rd would be good But the back part of that's going to be like maybe why don't we say doodle poll 16 through like the 25th Sounds good I like it. Yeah, I mean the 17th of august is one of our regular Uh, red monthly meetings If we have an august meeting We'll have it. Yeah. Well, it's August So what if it went right into a meeting that night? Is that too much of a day? I think we've typically avoided doing the meeting and the retreat the same You know combining them so that we are focusing on stuff that's not kind of a regular order of business type things, but I'm I'm sorry. Someone came to my door and I had to step away for a minute. Um Didn't we usually do the retreat? It sounds terrible when I say it out loud on like a friday evening Just yeah, I've done that in the past september because A lot of people have it free um I don't know That that works for me. There's like no other conflicts except for I know to block it out from like social engagements Yeah, I think we have done in september before but I think that was because we wound up with conflicts in august rather than wanting it in september per se um But yeah, I'd be fine with a friday either Yeah, like friday the 21st, I guess both or no I guess we can see what the doodle poll says but right anybody else have thoughts about If friday is in my least favorite night to be out again, but if that's what you guys want to do, I'll do it I'll probably vote against that that's specific friday because I think vtc. I think we start back to class the following monday, so Uh, you know something earlier the week of the 16th Would be more to my liking than somewhat than later in the week So point of clarification if I was creating a doodle poll right now while you're talking Do we because we're having a board meeting on the 17th? We don't want to list that as a date or do we do want to still consider starting early for a board retreat Breaking for the and breaking a six Or not I mean, I guess you can have it on the doodle poll and if there's no other date that we can do it Then we'll do that day Okay, I'll leave it on If you make it the right way Of course she is this is what she does it means That's a compliment andra Yeah, she's she's also doing laundry and raising a child Okay, well one that's uh ready you can send that out and you can all see what day works best Um, so check it in the chat see if that looks right. I can fix it if it's wrong Looks good to me Yeah, looks good. All right um So we'll fill that out and have that on the agenda for next month Picking an actual date So now we'll move on to We don't have any action items. So are there any resignations or new hires? There were Do the principals want to go through them or I have a list of them here? I can take care of me Our resignations that I have in my hand are um And these are all, you know, we accept them with regret but uh, and they're all for different reasons I just wanted the board to know that both just personal like In regards to family changes from all kinds of different things. So Uh janelle rule is going to be leaving us uh to pursue a career at the harford tech center Um, so she'll be leaving the elementary school um Janet whittaker is going to be retiring after several years of service um Do we have any sense of how long she's been with us? A long long time is my understanding 31 years in bed 31. Okay. And and I think several more Yeah, it has to be longer in bethle because she was teaching fourth grade when I was a fourth grader I think it's 31 years as librarian Right And she was the homecoming queen a long time ago too I have that picture. I've been waiting for this moment And if you saw the principles report we had we're planning to do a really nice celebration for our staff At the end of the year that i'm looking forward to And uh kevin moran one of our custodians at the roilton campus is going to be moving out of town Um, and so he's wishing us the best um Claire etchuk is going to be uh retiring She is going to come back and do some part-time work for us in regards to intervention But clear after Again, probably I don't know. It's at least a few decades. Do you have a sense read? Of how long claire's been about three years Is that what it is? I think so Yeah, I'm just going to be retiring at the end of this year Uh, allison morrow is going to be moving on. Uh, she's currently working at the south roilton elementary school as the kindergarten teacher She's accepted a different position And just today came across my desk, uh, corine's, uh, scopey Is going to be moving on at the end of this year as the school counselor and bevel And uh read I don't have any one else in my hands. I don't know if you're in possession of anyone else, but uh Hannah romeo Will be moving to school counselor role in hartford high school um and ingrid van steenberg our guidance admin assistant will pretend her And one of our special education paraprofessionals Who started working with us in november will be moving back to minnesota over the summer So, um You know as the board accepts those, you know with that, you know, we're working hard to Replace folks, but we've also started meeting as an admin team to say Is there an opportunity here to look at doing business any different in a different way? And so we may you may see as we bring new hires forward that we look to To just restructure some of the things to best meet our students need Just based on the vacancies and you know, just Applicant pool and how do we best navigate it to ensure that we have a really strong team moving forward next fall? And so we we did like I said, we met for about two hours today to talk about that on top of other things Do we need to formally do anything? Yeah, I think you should move and just accept with regret, you know and just send them all the their best I have to have a motion I'll make a motion To accept them all with regret Wish them all well, particularly our retirees I'm so good Any discussion? All in favor say I All right. Okay We've got those retirements Just wanted to make sure that We probably weren't really clear, but uh, we'd love the board to join us on the morning of the 18th. We're having a brunch in Trying to come to kind of together, which is like the first one We've really come together this the school year as a whole staff to celebrate Surviving this year and celebrate the people who are retiring and moving on And the newbies who maybe survived their first year So I know that I've heard that People love to have the board kind of present or one of the board members may be present to At those events. So just if any of you can make it, we'd love to have you June 18th That's the morning out. Okay Yeah, can you send out the details as far as time and location? Can do And just so you know the principals and I are cooking that day We're making the breakfast So I think that's why I thought that's why we're inviting the board No, we're having a throwdown mr. Bradley. I've been working on my omelet skills I'm I'm so good at napkins. Here you go. It's not having omelets It's on the south wilton campus We're talking about into the year events This would be an opportunity to invite all of you to be part of the graduation on the south wilton green on june 12th At 10 a.m. We will have front row seats for every board member who wants to be there um and Super intended canardy is going to be helping with passing out diplomas this year, but traditionally One member of the school board also goes up on stage and hands out diplomas as well if One of you is available and is willing to do that be great. Okay. Does anybody particularly Would like to do that? I'm happy to do that. That's my I'll have to What's that lisa You you could If anybody Okay, I'm I'm happy to help but if anybody else would like to I'm I'm happy for that to happen I nominate lisa floyd Okay, all right. I'll I'll put lisa in the program Thank you I've just known to many of them since they were babies That's great Thank you Okay, I guess we'll move on to the next thing which is uh public comments. Do we have any public comment at this time? Still don't have any public so Move on to executive session You know just be the born of night it shouldn't take long everyone else can go Enjoy the beautiful evening All right. Thanks. Good night everyone Good night. All thank you Just do you guys to make a motion and invite me in if you would I'll entertain a motion to enter executive session Make a motion Okay, and we'll invite jamie We started recording Coming out of executive session at 7 13 Um, I believe we complete our agenda. So I'm Your future agenda no action No action taken that's right. Yeah For future agenda items we have We've got Retreat retreat.  Uh, just so you know you get a significant data report next month You'll have all your local assessment data and your SBAC data Um, that would be a huge chunk of the agenda too What was that lisa? Sorry, we didn't get that Is it assessment data you said jamie? Yeah, yeah, the uh all the academic assessment data Uh, so star found us in penel s back. Okay. All right. So that next meeting will be tuesday, june 15th at 6 p.m and I would entertain a motion to adjourn I just want to say up front. I won't be able to make the june 15th meeting my son's graduating and I have events that week So I apologize All right. Thanks for letting us know And I'd make a motion to adjourn We'll second All right, thanks everybody This might be record tonight fastest meeting Yeah


So, that's an initial attempt at helping with the mind-watching. And in a sense, the text is so important because it just gives the whole theoretical basis for sorting out of these two thought systems that the mind is completely confused, the perceived mind is completely confused about these two. And there's a section in the course where it talks about like a weaving patterns of darkness and light that continuously sweep across the horizon of the mind, that this is a powerful mind that has accepted darkness or falsity or attack thoughts into it. And so we have sweeping patterns of darkness and light. This is analogous, in a sense, to the noise and chatter that one hears in the mind. There's not just the pure, still tranquility of pure light. There are these alternating patterns. So, in a sense, with a practical nature, mind-watching is something that one can certainly do when one closes one's eyes and begins to try to still the mind in more of a traditional sense, a meditation. And it's something that one can be doing and very aware of, or doing is not really quite the word. Just trying to notice the thoughts as one is seemingly going through the activities of one's day or watching a movie or in a conversation or a discussion with someone or reading a book, just noticing the thoughts. So is it noticing the thoughts and noticing whether that thought is of God or that thought is of the ego? Or is it not even that much? Is it just the noticing? I think what you've just described is in the advanced stages of mind-watching, when there starts to be some clarity, then real discernment, to determine which is which, then it becomes more and more obvious. But initially it's just simply noticing what the thoughts are, because the untrained mind has numerous thoughts that it isn't even aware of. So the whole point is to become aware of, first of all, the thoughts that are there, and then at some point discerning which thought system each of those thoughts relates to. It takes quite a lot of training just to be able to start to watch one's emotions and thoughts, because once again, that's going back into the mind. That's getting back to a metaphysical level, and in a sense the world was made as a distraction or a distractive device to keep the attention away from the mind, so that there's a strong attention to form, an emphasis on form, an emphasis on differences. It's something, for instance, entertainment and just feeling lonely or sad or depressed and wanting to just turn on the tube, so to speak, and just numb out or just focus one's mind on what's on that screen, and as if almost like a dream world or a fantasy world or a daydream, except now that there's images on the screen that one can become so distracted on that one doesn't have to think about anything, one's problems or whatever, but this is a process of looking at one's thoughts and noticing one's feelings. And not just during a quiet time of meditation every day, but continuously is really what you're suggesting, is what the Course suggests, is that it becomes an ongoing moment by moment sort of thing. It's not reserved for a certain part of the day. Yes, well you've been speaking of more of an advanced stage. At the beginning, of course if you look at the early lessons, it talks about maybe a minute here, a minute or so there. I mean, Jesus knows how untrained the mind is, the deceived mind, and therefore begins with very small incremental steps where there's no attempt at an elaborate discipline or structure at the beginning. This begins to build as the lessons go on. And the lessons are designed to be used by someone who maybe doesn't have a lot of time to be quiet or pull back in the traditional sense of meditation, but can just carry forth an idea into the day and use this idea in specific time frames at the beginning. And as one goes along with his work with the Course, it begins to transfer this and apply it more and more consistently. It becomes something that literally, once the value of the mind watching is seen, then more and more the mind voluntarily is more vigilant. So the thought of the day that the workbook lesson gives is in a sense an anchor or a thought of God that can be in the mind. And I'm sure Jesus knows, of course, that most of the time it's not the thought of God that's in the mind, of the untrained mind. And so the intent would be to, in a sense, insert that or have it available to the mind in contrast to what's usually there. And I guess it's really by contrast a lot of times that the mind realizes that most of the time that's not what's in the mind. Most of the time it's other than that. Yes. In other traditions, it can go by the name of the mantra, or in affirmations. But in a sense, at the beginning, the mind is so untrained that a central idea or a central thought to focus attention on is, in a sense, a way of keeping it on focus, of controlling extraneous thoughts. And this is not always so easy at the beginning anyway. Even with a thought for the day, one can notice the mind wanting to wander away, restlessness, wanting to end just plain old forgetting the thought. I mean, this is quite a common experience. And this is just an indicator, as you say, by the contrast of how untrained the mind is. This is nothing to feel guilty about in a sense of once one starts to judge one's work with the course, or judge how well is one doing it, or starting to compare one's mind watching exercises with one's spouse, or one's neighbor, or co-worker, or friend, whoever is maybe also working a similar kind of procedure, then once again we get into comparison and the guilt comes in. So it's something that requires willingness and it requires gentleness and it really requires persistence. Dedication. Dedication. It's the word that comes to my mind, or devotedness to really stay with it. You said that a lot of effort is required initially to do this, but after doing it again and again and again and seeing the value and benefit of it, it seems to require less effort. So talk about the benefit, talk about the value that you have found for yourself in the mind watching that actually has become an attractive force to the continuing of mind watching. Well, the stated goal of the Course in Miracles is peace of mind. And once one starts to get glimpses of this peace, it can be at the beginning fleeting glimpses and there can be lots of stuff that comes up and really needs to be looked at and it can be experienced as quite painful, but as one gets very consistent with this, as one just continues to move forward, put one foot in front of the other, so to speak, and persist in studying the Course and in generalizing its principles to wider and wider range of situations and circumstances and people and so on and so forth, that there becomes a much more of a consistency of thought. This is the advanced mind training where the peace that is experienced is wonderful. I mean, it's wonderful to be at peace and to not choose to be upset, so to speak, once the beliefs and once the thoughts have been looked at and questioned and there starts to be a discernment in the mind between the true and the false or the real and the unreal and a pulling back of investment or a watching dispassionately of those thoughts, then the peace becomes more stable. There are still points when twinges and reactions come up, but more and more it just becomes a strong sense of my emotional state is a result of my decision. It's not a result of what's happening on the screen. It's not a result of the way people seem to be treating me or acting towards me. It's not a result of conditions, economic conditions or weather conditions or financial, you know, on and on and on. These external things are recognized more and more as projections and from the mind watching, from going down and questioning beliefs in everything in this world, including my belief in myself being an individual person, a body with unique attributes and traits and likes and dislikes and all this, when that starts to be questioned and voluntarily stepped back from or disidentified from, then the peace becomes very, very stable and the joy is very intense. One wants to share this stuff. I mean, it's like finding the pearl of great value that Jesus talks about in the Bible and immediately selling everything else one has, you know, because there's just such great joy. This is the key in a sense that for centuries mankind has looked for. This is the key to peace of mind, to the kingdom of heaven. This isn't the only key if we talk about the course, per se, because it's just one tool among many. But it's certainly a very helpful tool in saving time or in helping the mind disidentify from these unreal thoughts and maintaining a consistent state of peace of mind. The peace of mind is the key, of course. The course of miracles is just a tool that is helpful in having that key and the door is always there to open as it were. In a sense, well, peace is like a goal. It's like having one goal as opposed to many, many, many goals. It's an abstract goal. It's an experiential goal as opposed to when I get this much money or when I achieve this status or I complete this project or I find that relationship that I've always been looking for, the ideal relationship or some form of external goal, those just begin to fade and fade and fall to the way side because the one goal of peace is held out in all situations and conditions. This is very seemingly unnatural for a deceived mind because a deceived mind is conditioned to the concrete and to the specifics and to specific goals, specific expectations. So this is why the mind training takes time. You have to begin to get a sense that all these other goals and aims, which we could call form goal and aims, have not brought me peace and that by holding on to this abstract goal of peace, that complete change takes place in the state of mind. To go to a boardroom, for instance, to a board meeting and have only peace as one's goal at first can seem a bit ludicrous in the sense of, well, I'm there at that board meeting for a purpose. I have to present certain things or we need to discuss certain things or we have certain objectives that the corporation is trying to meet with the business and so on and so forth. These goals literally are blocked away. As soon as any of these goals rise up as a priority over peace, then separate interests can enter in, then arguments, conflicts, disagreements enter in automatically because there's a perceived separate interest and you can't...


Hello and welcome to TV30, a production of the Government Information Service. My name is Jesse Leans, Information Assistant at the Department of Sustainable Development. The Caribbean Corporative MRV Hub, that is Measurement, Reporting and Verification Hub, 2023 annual meeting and the Biennial Transparency Report, BTR Work Plan Workshop will be held in St. Lucia next week and in studio with me to speak a little bit about that activity those activities as well as a little bit more about the MRV Hub in particular is Ms. Denise Joseph representing the MRV Hub here on Island. Good day to you Ms. Joseph. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you Jesse for having me. Wonderful. So before we get into the events, if you for the benefit of our viewers could just give us an understanding of what the Caribbean Corporative MRV Hub or Measurement, Reporting and Verification Hub is all about and how it applies to its participating countries. Okay, thanks Jesse. So the Caribbean Corporative Measurement, Reporting and Verification Hub or MRV for short is an organization that has been developed over the past five years. So we received a grant from the German government to support 12 member English speaking countries, Caribbean countries that is to help them with guidance, training and capacity building as it pertains to carbon accounting, modeling and projections and other stuff related to greenhouse gas emissions. And so that's what we do at the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub. We have a team of experts that help the 12 member countries going from Bahamas all the way down to Guyana, the English speaking Caribbean with their greenhouse gas inventories with their reporting requirements as it pertains to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFGC. Wonderful. And so when we hear information about measuring research in general, reporting, verification, that information is usually for the technical mind. But if you could break it down for us and help us to understand how these modalities, how these modes of research and so on can be applied to various sectors of various causes that St. Lucia is currently involved in. Okay, thanks Jesse. Let me see if I can do that to the best of my abilities. So with measurement and reporting and verification, what we do at the Caribbean Cooperative Hub, we more or less, countries have been doing it all along. So countries have been doing their inventories over the past few years. St. Lucia, for example, has done four inventories so far, that's greenhouse gas inventories. What has happened now with the Paris Agreement, and I think we all know about the Paris Agreement, we have more reporting requirements. So we're now required to do our inventories every two years. And so that would put a strain on the human resources of the countries in the region. And so that's where the hub comes in place. We've developed a team of Caribbean experts who have the knowledge, the understanding of the national circumstances in the various countries. And so they're helping those countries develop their greenhouse gas inventories to assist in data collection and modeling and projections as it pertains to our nationally determined contribution, which is our NDCs, that all countries have to submit as part of the Paris Agreement. With measurement, we more do data collection. And so we support countries in understanding what data is required to be able to do the accounting itself. So for example, we do estimation of emissions for the energy sector, which includes energy generation, the transport sector, we need to collect data on the various aspects of the transport services to see what kind of emissions are being released per country in the region to meet our reporting requirements. So these are some of the things we help the countries with. We provide them with guidance documents. We support them in their know-how. We do trainings on workshops for and invite the technical experts in the countries to join in those workshops and understand all the requirements that need to be met as part of the new Paris Agreement. That's been put in place. Okay, so looking at what's in the Paris Agreement, speak to us about the input that has been provided to and the support that has been provided to St. Lucia specifically through the MRV Hub. We know that there are several projects ongoing. You spoke to the nationally determined contributions. Speak to the value specifically that it has had the resources, resource support that has been provided has had for St. Lucia. Okay, so with the establishment of the MRV Hub, St. Lucia has benefited greatly with that organization. So we've had a number of our technical experts in the government of St. Lucia be trained in the different areas for the greenhouse gas inventories. So you have areas such as energy, you have the industrial processes and product use, you have agriculture, you have waste, and you have land use, land use change and forestry or more or less the forestry area. So we've had a number of our technical experts in the government of St. Lucia trained in those areas and a lot of them are now on the UNFCCC website as listed as experts in the region. And so they can go on, do reviews for other countries, develop themselves even further. And so what the hub is there to do is to build up that capacity within not only St. Lucia, I know Jesse said about just focus on St. Lucia, but within the Caribbean and also help the Caribbean technical experts share best practices, share lessons learned because although we know that we have differences among the Caribbean, but we do have similarities as well. So it's important that we share those lessons learned, share our mistakes, our obstacles that we face, because sometimes most of the time they're almost the same obstacles that are faced in most of the countries. Okay, wonderful. So speak to the significance of having, I mean the benefit of having in a cultural context of having St. Lucia experts, having Caribbean experts being able to test research, look at the information that they're getting from St. Lucia in terms of as you indicated emissions and what have you and be able to make determinations from that. Okay, so a lot of our countries, well in the region, we've hired consultants from overseas to come in to do our estimations for us because most times they have the knowledge and the know-how. Building up our Caribbean experts, we more or less mitigate the area where we have to explain to them our national circumstances, we have to explain to them what goes on in the country, we have to explain to them what kind of data we collect, why is it difficult for us to get some of the data, what are the attitudes of the people in the region and why it is that people do certain things that they do. How does the government services function in the region? So all these aspects we need to, we as Caribbean experts, we have that knowledge and so that it makes it easier. So for example, just explaining to a foreigner how our bus systems work is a difficult task all by itself. Having experts in the region who are able to write it, to explain it on paper, to the international forum that this is what goes on in our country, this is how we operate, this is what we think is best for our country as well. And it also helps you to define policies that are relevant to the countries and not policies that are just copied or paste from European or American states. So it's our own developing, our own expertise in more or less a sense. Okay, wonderful. What is the latest news coming from the MRV Hub? I know we're coming to the annual meeting and a little bit about the workshop happening in St. Lucia next week, but what else is outstanding in terms of achievements, milestones, particularly in 2023? Okay, so in 2023 the MRV Hub is actually coming to the end of its grant. So we're establishing the organization because as part of the grant we're supposed to establish an organization with an aspect of sustainability. In all of this we also have a number of programs going on. So we do have our summer academy which we've had for the past three or four years, I believe, where we train, as I said, we train experts in government on greenhouse gas inventories. We are now extending it to the private sector because we believe that involving the private sector is just as important as the government workers. Having the private sector understand what's going on, having the general public understand what is going on, what is required from the government service, well the government officers to report in those areas. What is COP all about? Why do we make such a first for climate change? This is why it's important to bring in as many people as possible. So we have involved the private sector in our summer academy that's coming up. In addition, with the modern and projections program which I lead or head, we have a webinar series coming up starting from May 24th, going till June 28th where we introduce different tools to the Caribbean. So we introduce different modeling and projections tools that the technical officers can use. We've brought on the developers for the different tools and they will be speaking about the different tools and areas where they can help the technical experts in the countries develop those areas. And we as the Caribbean Cooperative Measurement Reporting and Verification Hub, we stand in the background to support the countries in whatever area that they need. In addition to all of this, we've developed a number of guidance documents. So guidance documents, they're basically reports or documents to guide technical officers on how to collect certain data, how to do certain reporting, how to do certain analysis. So we've developed a number of guidance documents related to the waste sector, related to data collection for different tools for modeling and projections, related to the transport sector as well in developing the emissions. So that's what the MRV hub is all about, building capacity in the region and showing that we have the technical experts because it's a continuation of building capacity. It's not just one expert being the know-all. We want to make sure that we in the region, we can do the necessary estimations and train others as well because you need to maintain that sustainability. Every two years is not an easy task. We have people moving on, going to universities, going on to further jobs. It's important that we continually build our capacity and be able to keep meeting out, well keep on meeting our requirements to the international forum. Okay, we are speaking to Ms. Bernice Joseph from the MRV hub and we are talking all about monitoring, reporting and verification, measurement sorry reporting and verification hub as well as the events that will be happening next week here in St. Lucia from the 24th to the 27th of April here on Ireland and you mentioned that the project is coming to an end but will it really be the end? So we are due for a break when we come back we hear more from Bernice. The world's climate is changing and that affects all of us. Storms are becoming increasingly intense. Periods of intense drought and heavy rain stress farm animals and destroy our cross. Higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reef and change the migratory patterns of fish. St. Lucia contributes only 0.0015% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is doing its part along with countries around the world to reduce the emissions that are warming our world and changing our climate. These efforts are called mitigation but decades of emissions have already changed the climate and the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today will increase average global temperatures even more. We need to adapt that is do everything we can to prepare for and respond to the actual unexpected negative effects of climate change and everyone has a role to play. We need to protect our crops build homes that withstand storms and keep our drains and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events. Learn more about the government of St. Lucia's national adaptation plan and the steps you can take to protect yourself and your fellow St. Lucia's. Thank you so much for staying tuned to TV 30 next week the 24th to the 27th of April 2023 St. Lucia will play host to the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub 2023 annual meeting as well as the Biennial Transparency Report Plan Workshop. I'm speaking to Ms. Benise Joseph from the MRV Hub and she has been speaking to us a little bit about the project MRV Hub measurement reporting and verification hub providing expertise in those three areas for St. Lucia in being able to go forward to international agencies making its case being able to develop reports on its own within the region about what our particular circumstances are here in the region as it pertains to climate and other environmental matters. So Benise you indicated before we went to break in speaking about the MRV Hub that the project itself will be coming to an end. Does that mean the end of this degree of support for the participating countries? Well not in a sense so with the MRV Hub the project itself so the funding from the German government is coming to an end but what we hope to do is continue to support countries in their areas of capacity building but we also during the project what we've gathered from countries we've received direct contracts from countries to help with the reporting requirements as well and so that's where the Caribbean MRV, the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub is going to continue to be there to support countries and continue building the capacity until it reaches a place where countries can do it by themselves. So part of the project was to build a sustainable organization that can continue helping countries and this is what we've done so far. Okay and I would imagine that this week's annual meeting would encompass that sort of transition, provide some insight into that. Speak to us a little bit about the annual meeting that's happening next week in St. Lucia, the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub annual meeting, the fifth annual meeting and what it would constitute in that sense. Okay so the annual meeting is twofold so we have a workshop previously to start off the annual meeting and then we have the annual meeting itself so I can speak to the workshop first and then talk about the annual meeting which is the following two days. So the first two days is the workshop where we have training on biennial transparency work plan so what countries are doing they're moving from a biennial update report to a biennial transparency report which is under the Paris Agreement and so this workshop is going to help countries develop that work plan in time for the reporting requirements for the BTR so that's where we have training, continuing our capacity building and helping with technical officers develop that capacity and we're working directly with another organization and so this is going to happen on Monday and Tuesday. How do the two reports differ? So the biennial update report was previously under the UNFCCCC Convention and it had GHA inventories mitigation assessment and other aspects involved in it. In the biennial transparency report countries are now required to basically report on the updates for the nationally determined contributions so what have you done where have you reached for your national determined contribution in addition to that they do have to report on the greenhouse gas inventories and also there's some aspects on adaptation where countries have to report on so it's an all-encompassing report which is different to the previous biennial update report. Understood so that would take up the workshop component. Yes so that's a workshop component we're using a tool that has been developed by PAKPA and FAO and so they will be using we will be supporting countries whilst they help use that tool develop themselves and be able to develop that work plan in time for the biennial transparency report requirement dates which are which begins in 2024. Okay understood and then the annual meeting tell us about that. And so the annual meeting is our fifth annual meeting and every year we bring in all our technical well our representatives from the different countries the technical officers that we've been dealing with in the different countries we do have sorry a steering committee that's representative of the different countries as well the steering committee basically guides the MRV hub in the work that they have to do so the MRV hub doesn't work on itself we are guided by countries the countries guide us on where they need help where they need us to work in and so that's where the steering committee comes in. So this annual meeting it's about sharing what we've done more or less what we're doing here so we're going to be sharing what the hub has done so far with our country partners what we've done over in the region what is to come in the next coming months and in the next years and how do we move forward and how do we transition to an organization without the grant support that we've been receiving over the past five years so this is what the annual meeting is about it's also an opportunity for countries to share best practices to share lessons learned and to meet each other as well because we work in silos we work virtually a lot of most of the time and especially since covid it's good to get out and to meet your your counterparts in the other countries as well with the annual meeting in addition what we try to do is it's an area where we can get direct feedback so not only just hosting a virtual meeting but we have country representatives right there in person and they tell us where they need help where they want us to to work so we're guided by them as well so we provide guidance but the guidance is provided by the countries to provide guidance to the countries absolutely and speak to us a little bit about that what what are some of the support systems that are required I mean overall you provide a cadre of services but speak to us about what the participating countries usually require of the MRV hub so thanks Jesse again with the countries most of the times what we get feedback on is that the human resources we are small islands we very much lack human resources and that's where the most countries need the support the additional human resource the additional guidance on what it is that is required by the international organizations this is where countries usually ask the MRV hub to to to provide that support in addition to this the MRV hub is also providing support in terms of being able to store data countries have access to the data that's readily available to them we do have an issue where data is sometimes lost in our small island developing states it could be that it's not properly stored it could be that we've had a hurricane that has destroyed everything so the the MRV hub is more like a backstop in that sense where we provide that support to two countries as well and further on we do help them understand what is required in the reports and how sometimes you do all those technical analysis and you see those documents and probably you you're not able to understand what's in the document itself so that's where we come in to try to explain to the countries what is it that you're looking for how to assess some of those the work that's been done by different consultants over the the areas so that's where we are providing guidance to the countries in the these different areas wonderful just diving a little bit deeper into the annual meeting any specific any experts any body coming in to to engage any notable figures we do have so the the Caribbean Cooperative MRV hub is funded by the German government but we do have three other partners so we have the greenhouse gas management institute and we have the UNFCCC regional climate change office that's in Grenada and we have the wind ref which is hosted in Grenada as well and so with these three agencies we do have Michael Gillen Water who's the executive director of the greenhouse gas management institute he will be coming into for this meeting we have Myra Santelia I believe that's the name she will be coming into that meeting as well she is the representative from the UNFCCC at the regional office we do have representatives from the organization of Eastern Caribbean states joining our meeting we have our program director Wiley Barber who's coming in to support the meeting he's always there and he's such a fun character to have around us well and we have Carlos Esos who's from Patpur who's going to be supporting with the first two days of the workshop as well we do have other persons coming in from greenhouse gas management institute to more or less learn support and help out with the the overall organization of the workshops okay wonderful I want to touch a little bit on some of the lessons that have been learned just coming out of being able to receive this degree of support from the MRV hub speak to us speak to us a little bit about how much better equipped how far the participating countries have come since the impact of the MRV hub in the region and also looking at some of the requirements that are that are at the UNFCCC level looking at the Paris agreement the the requirements for data research are increasing particularly with every single negotiation that happens there comes you need to prove it you need to prove what you're trying to negotiate for so speak to us about the significance of that thanks Jesse and I think that's a wonderful that question is an excellent question in terms of data and understanding the the importance of data how we can get the data how we can fill in the data gaps that we have as well the Caribbean the MRV hub has been able to to help countries significantly in that area and we have countries coming back and asking for support so once you do a good job people usually come back and ask for support so that's what we have happening with the MRV hub so we have countries requesting that kind of service from the the MRV hub to help in in understanding the data storing that data and having that data in a useful way as well some of the the other trainings that we've done just to to mention some of them so for example for the modeling and projections program we've introduced an asynchronous training where persons are able to to learn the software and do it on their own time with their own well at their own pace as well and what we found that we've had over 80 percent of the completion rate were women and normally in the energy sector in modeling in that technical area you don't find a lot of women engaging in that area and so it's just been tremendous well I guess it it's just been well I guess we've been proud the fact that we we can actually reach that demographic because you find that sometimes women with children they want to be able to do work on their own they probably don't have time to come to a workshop or you have a series going on these are the aspects that the MRV Hub has been able to to delve in so understanding what's going on in the region understanding how to program our training to fit our people in the region how they schedule what they do and this is this is extremely important and and we've been having success rate on the different levels well extraordinary levels related to that wonderful thank you very much Beniz Joseph it's all the time we have for now Beniz Joseph from the MRV Hub speaking to us about the upcoming Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub annual meeting that will be taking place here in St. Lucia and it will be preceded by the workshop that's a biennial transparency report workshop that will be happening on island bringing together the participating countries here under one roof on island in St. Lucia from the 24th to the 27th of April 2023 my name is Jesse Leans it has been a pleasure speaking and and getting a little bit more information from you on what will be transpiring this regional activity next week in St. Lucia do stay tuned for more programming on NTN it's all the time we have for now goodbye thank you


Well, what a day it's been and what two days it's been I should say and so This is the start of the closure and I want to start thanking people. But first of all to tell you I started Yesterday saying that I'm very optimistic of where we are and like President Clinton was saying today. I Think there's really a future now to patient safety. I think things are going to happen Remarkably fast. I do not think in 10 years time. We'll be sitting here thinking. Well, we still haven't made much progress I think we will and we'll have data to prove it All the technology is changing Everything is changing plus we've got more and more people involved in patient safety more organizations the WHO things are going to happen things are going to change and Whatever it takes to accelerate that I think we'll pull some of those triggers and it will happen So I want to thank you all the audience for being here and be disciples of patient safety. I Want to thank Sarah Keane tremendously for the amount of work. She's put into this We were really novices the team trying to put this together so Sarah was so helpful Sonars wonderful. Thank you. So now And the rest of the team Nabil Consuelo Tamara And Colin Without that we couldn't have done this. So and thank you and the Marriott VA. They've been great help. Thank you Stun gun and lion video and Encore as well and Obviously Joe without you this wouldn't have happened at all


Who's the first athlete you think of that wraps number 15? We threw out Carmelo, Yokech and Patrick Mahomes. I'm from North Carolina so the first one that pops in my head, Kimba Walker. Do not forget how quick his crossover was. With that said, I want to hear you name another famous number 15.


So, let us start by moving to the next section that will talk about psychology and its relation to health. So, when we say the word health, it encompasses a huge domain where we are not only talking about the physical health but also mental well-being. So, mental well-being and physical health is together known as the concept of health and psychology is the science of behavior and it has much to contribute to enhance health promotion, disease prevention, address health disparities and also we have to keep in mind that psychological well-being is basically about a person's life going on well. So, he has to understand the concept of feeling good and feel functioning effectively only then you can say that the person is healthy when he is healthy in the real sense of the term both mentally as well as physically. Suppose there might be certain physical illnesses but a person may be feeling good and might still contribute to the social functioning in a proper way then the person is considered to be healthy. Therefore psychological well-being is about an individual's perception of happiness well-supported and satisfied life and that is known as the concept of health and therefore we see that there is a close relation between psychology and the concept of health. And in psychology and pro-social behavior the word pro-social behavior implies that kind of behavior which is beneficial for the society pro-social behavior is social responsibility which is an implicit duty of every individual or an act to behave towards others for the benefit of the society that means your behavior as an individual belonging to the society is more acceptable and that acceptable behavior is known as pro-social behavior. So pro-social behavior describes a person's behavior helping behavior towards others without any obligations or self-interest it shows a lot about your personality how giving you are and how human you are human in the sense being more pro towards the behavior towards the society it is the analysis of human orientation towards others how you treat others what is your behavior in the society it is known as the pro-social behavior social work as a profession as it is known as a noble profession it helps to attain pro-social behavior of any individual and deals with social deviance with empathy now coming to the concept of social deviance what is social deviance that kind of behavior which is not socially accepted or which might be harmful for another individual in the society a person's behavior harming another individual in the society is known as social deviant behavior and to deal with such deviant behavior or social deviance is one of the objective of social work profession and to understand social pro-social behavior as well as understand the concept of social deviance the role of psychology is immense here therefore a social work professional has to have the psychological understanding of these two terms that is pro-social behavior and social deviance now what is empathy empathy is a principle of social work again is a feeling which enables you or is a skill that enables you as a social worker to understand the problem of the client from his perspective that means as we say understanding the problem of another person while standing in another shoes that means understanding the problem from his or her perspective and not unconsciously or consciously putting over our prejudices over the person that is known as empathy the ability to understand an individual and to share others feelings is highly linked with pro-social behavior therefore empathy is said to be an ability of an individual to understand the problem of the other from the perspective of the other and not from your perspective the degree of pro-social behavior varies from person to person social influence and social cognition influence the influence that occurs when once emotions opinions and behaviors are affected by others that means as you see the two terms social influence that means the influence on an individual that is given by another person or another one in the society it occurs when once emotions opinions and behaviors are highly affected by what others are doing by how others are treating you or how others are behaving it automatically impacts your social behavior that is known as social influence it takes many forms and can be seen in conformity in socialization in peer pressure obedience leadership and persuasion so all these things are influenced by the other in the society it is a well-known fact that more than more people in a group more people more will be the power of influence of that particular group yes because we try to influence each other when we are in a social group according to the social cognitive theory and individuals behavior is not directly influenced by any external stimuli but those which we allow us to affect us therefore social cognition says that cognitive theory says that an individual's behavior is not directly influenced by any any external stimuli like any random thing but those things which you allow us to affect us the capacity of information processing in mind is also a factor in social cognition cognition which helps gradually which develops gradually from childhood to adolescence cognition is the ability to understand the social behavior that is why it is known as social cognition belonging to a society and individual develops the understanding the understanding the behavior of another individual or groups or members in the group that ability to bring about that understanding is known as social cognition now moving on to this branch of social psychology which is known as developmental psychology human beings undergo changes pertaining to physical mental social emotional spiritual as they advance through their life cycle and developmental psychology as the word itself says as a human being develops from being a fetus in the mother's womb to being delivered as an infant and childhood and adolescence and then adulthood and then old age a person develops mentally apart from physically the mind also develops and the outlook develops the emotional psychological spiritual all the aspects develop that is why it is known as developmental psychology the psychology that deals with the development stages of any individual or any human being is known as developmental psychology it studies the physical social psychological changes that occur at different ages stages over the lifespan of a human being from conception to old age developmental psychology will help you to understand why certain changes in behavior take place from a person childhood to old age so there are so many transition stages and these are the stages that has been put forth and the prenatal stages it refers to the formation of the fetus in the mother's womb and here my major body parts are formed inside the mother's womb and then the after that the brain starts to develop and neonatal stage that is three to four weeks after the birth of the baby when the birth take place the child infant tries to adjust with the social environment with the outside world so neonatal deals with those crucial three to four weeks after the birth of the baby when the baby is said to be struggling to adjust with the outside environment the air the environment or the social situation so the baby is trying to adjust to that particular needs the basic needs of food air water and and also love that the person will feel that the child will feel it comes to though it is in the unconscious or semi-conscious state of mind then infancy the period when the baby actively tries to interact with the outside world with the help of certain bodily and verbal cues here the baby is more active and you will see a lot of behavioral changes in the particular infant childhood is that phase where a child develops skills and abilities and a personal identity is formed therefore the child is more active there he or she develops certain skills and there is a personality that is being formed in the particular child in adolescence this is a huge transition stage where a person is usually in the confused state of mind whether the individual belongs to the childhood stage or he is supposed to be treated as an adult so this is a transition stage in this period a system of values interest develop in an individual which prepared the ground for taking responsibilities for an adult life it creates a lot of confusion in the mind of an adolescent and also he or she wants to explore new things in life as this is a an important stage of transition the adulthood state when an individual enters the adult society it acquires an occupation and has his own family and therefore responsibilities come in and here we see that the person struggles sometimes in adjustmental issues so in each of these stages you will see that there are usually adjustmental problems that an individual goes through so moving from the adulthood state where the adult individual enters into a society and takes up responsibility of his family and occupation then moving to the adolescent state and also that comes also can be returned as old age state where an individual crosses around 70 years of age and then he is considered to be a person who has had all the life experiences and is knowledgeable and conscious about the various realities of life this is also the stage where a person may suffer the grief of the loss of a spouse and also has many adjustmental issues when the person suddenly becomes you know when the person loses economic independence or where the person if not much dependent on his own savings will have to depend on the earnings of their children and therefore it brings about a lot of life crisis or a crisis situation in the mental setup so this stage also deals with a lot of loneliness and also you know adjustmental issues with the maybe the person is living with a family of the of the next generation or maybe the person is living alone therefore there will be a lot of adjustmental issues in this particular stage the person also has to realize when suppose a person at this stage of old age or senescence is going through certain kind of physical illnesses or mental illnesses the person has to accept the reality of life the reality of death and therefore it might lead to a certain crisis situation or you know or sometimes many go into the panic stage therefore there is lot of counseling that is required or a social worker has to take the role of counseling and then you know making things clear to the particular people who are suppose in the confused state of mind so therefore in all this in developmental psychology as you see which deals with these different stages of development you see that the role of a social worker has a lot to do with you know sometimes that a parent may bring a child to a social worker who has suppose any problem in adjusting with the school environment or the family environment or an adolescent who is under peer pressure or who might be under addiction then an adult person who might have certain life crisis or midlife crisis and also has problem in his occupation or in the family or may have problem with the spouse and in old age may have problem with you know the sudden demise of a spouse or the or the losing of economic independence and that kind many and also onset of many illnesses so all these things all these different stages a social worker has to play an important role when a client comes to the social worker seeking help in dealing with the adjustment problems of these different stages so in this class we have discussed about the role of psychology on social work profession we have understood that why these psychological concepts understanding them is important for a social worker because only by understanding these social concepts the psychological concepts you will be able to apply the methods of social work specifically case work that deals with the individual problems and the adjustment problems and another method is group work again in social psychology we are dealing with the individual's behavior in a group setting in a societal setting therefore practicing group work and case work you need to have the basic foundation or basic understanding of psychological concepts pro-social behavior how a person behaves for the benefit of the society which is not harmful for the society and the behavior that is harmful for the society is known as social deviance social influence and cognition is that how the society influences the behavior of the individual and the social understanding that an individual has is known as social cognition and developmental psychology deals with the different adjustment problems in the developmental stages of any human being starting from the pre-natal post-natal infancy childhood adolescence adulthood and then old age or senescence so that is all I hope this video has been helpful to you in bringing about and understanding the different psychological concepts and why psychology as a discipline is important in social work profession thank you so these are some of the references that are set here also our eslm section and the ones that are given in the lms you will be seeing that there are the different self-learning materials on this particular course on the various courses that we have introduced in the bachelor of social work program thank you so much


how to use the SQ4R reading technique. This video will explain the SQ4R method of active reading. By engaging this method when you read your textbooks, you can overcome many of the difficulties you may encounter when dealing with hard to read and hard to understand material. SQ4R is an acronym for survey, question, read, reflect, recite, and review. Flip through the chapters quickly to get a sense of what is covered. Look at headings and key terms and read the final paragraph. Turn headings into questions to guide your reading. You can keep track of your questions by using the Cornell method of note taking. Read the chapter, looking for the answer to the questions you posed. Think about what you have read and related to other information you have learned. Without looking at the text, restate your question and formulate an answer in your own words. At the end of the chapter, look over your notes and familiarize yourself with key points. Use the SQ4R method the next time you read from your textbook to better understand what you read. Happy studying.