So we'll call this meeting to order. The focus of the meeting, we're gonna start with a report from the auditor. And then otherwise we have a EL report to review, EL 2.7. And otherwise it's pretty much as usual at the end of the meeting. We do have executive session time and we will as a board work on some public outreach work after the executive session. So seeing as we have no public for public comments, do you need to choose a meeting evaluator if one of you would volunteer to do that tonight? That would be great. Performing for an Apollo. I guess I'll do it. Well, no, I wasn't intentional. Please. Set up. Yeah, I guess. All right, so Teresa, here to talk. Hi, my name is Teresa Kajanski. I'm from the June 30th, 2018 audit of Orange Southwest School District. I believe you guys all have copies of the audit. There is a loose piece of paper in there that's stately, this is called the governance letter. This is a letter from us to the board. And there's just a couple of things that I want to just point out. The first part just says that we are responsibilities to audit the financial statements and in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and government accounting standards. We also perform something called a single audit which is because the district received $750,000 federal funding, it's a compliance audit of major funds. So that's part of what we do. So there's two parts to the audit. And this is the first year that the audit was performed under consolidation. That started July 1st, 2017 and ended June 30th, 2008. So it was the first year of the consolidated interest. So on the first page it kind of talks about the new standard that was adopted which is GASP status under 75. That really has to do with post-employment benefits that the state of Vermont actually handles for you guys but that number is on there and that's for basically health insurance, et cetera, of retired teachers and what that liability is. There was no other new standards implemented during this year. One thing that we just kind of like to talk about is our county estimates that are in the financial statements. Part of those is depreciation on the useful life of the assets which basically buildings and equipment. Another estimate is also related to GASP 75 and those type of things. None of that stuff actually hits your fund balance which is an important number for you guys. Not to, on page two there's a paragraph that kind of talks about the difficulties. We had no significant difficulties dealing with the management and performing the completion of the audit. There were one uncorrected misstatement that we did not adjust. It was under something that we call materiality. Had to do with the prepaid expense and adjusting the HRA liability. As you probably remember that was the first year as well as there HSA and HRA part of the health insurance and they were still, there were some issues with the company that was doing this accounting. Not really accounting but the administration of it. So we know that the liability might not have been exactly right but we didn't know what it was but it wasn't a, we don't believe it was a significant error. We proposed 13 adjustments to the financial statements which were accepted in the recording. Four of these adjustments were material to the financial statements and we'll talk a little bit about that a little bit later. Two of those were to adjust checking and savings accounts to correct year and balances. One was to match up grant revenues with expenditures and one was to correct the amount of revenue from the Raven tuition. The ones related to the grant revenues and expenditures in the Raven tuition is something that we sometimes assist in every year. The other two with the checking and the savings account we actually had a finding on so it's not being done and we'll discuss that and I'll read you the finding. I'm not sure if you actually have a copy of it with what you have. We had no disagreements with management and again I'm gonna skip this significant deficiency internal control to the end just to kind of talk about that. A couple other on page three, a couple other recommendations that we had is that all the checking and savings and investment accounts be titled in Orange Southwest School District's name. There are many of them still in all the old district's name at June 30, 2018. Did talk to Robin last week and some of these a lot of them have been transferred but not all of the scholarships and the student activities accounts and et cetera had not quite yet been transferred into OSSD's name which needs to get done and that was I guess believe was gonna happen by the treasurer never happened in the years before so that's something that I know on her radar to get finished by the end of this year. Any other questions? Sure but those would retain the purpose noted by a donor if that was a scholarship so if it was just for a Brookfield student and it was changed, if the name was changed to this mechanism that you're suggesting those accounts would still represent if a donor had given that money. And that would be for just a Brookfield. It should. Most of the scholarships were in the high school not in the smaller schools. Those just had like agency funds and smaller stuff like that but most of the big scholarship funds and all that are in high school anyway. So I don't think it was specified at least in anything that I can remember and I could be wrong if said like specific students I'm pretty sure it was already kind of consolidated because it was at the high school level. But each of the student activities accounts I believe, I can't remember without looking back at it that every school had their own student activity account but there were ones opened up and some of the money had been transferred over by June 30, 2018 but there's been a lot more work done on that and I'm sure all of them can speak to that but she did, I did talk to her last week about it just to see how that was coming. But really it shouldn't be in those and the old names because there's no entity called the Retreat School District anymore. Legally, those are, they should be done. So speaking of agency and scholarships funds hopefully when everything gets changed over they'll everything will start being accounted for in the accounting system at the business office. Just suggest that there's lots of good reasons for that to be done and so there's really some provided some better controls on all that money. And we suggest that the board adopt a fund balance policy which has not been done yet which kind of clarifies what you kind of can't do with fund balances which you kind of, you just have to follow the state statute anyway. Does that not something we're doing currently doing? So back in 2011 there was a new governmental auditing standard that just, that had you, that the board was supposed to adopt. It would have been at each level who can assign a fund balance who can commit. It's just really just a formality saying we're following these standards and this is what should happen. Just hasn't been done or other things I think. But I haven't done that. 2011? 2011. I'm just taking notes so I know what I'm following up on. Yeah, that's fine. So discussing the finding, and I'm not sure if everyone has a copy of this audit because this is actually the compliance audit. And I don't, I didn't see you guys have two copies. Okay, yes. So on page eight of the compliance audit, there's a finding and what it is, it's an internal control finding and we've determined that it was a significant deficiency. And the condition was that the checking and savings accounts were not reconciled to the general ledger in the time we're near. Internal control should be put in place to provide reasonable assurance. All checking and savings accounts are reconciled monthly to the general ledger. The cause is at this point there, back then there was no procedures in place to make sure that this was reconciliation was done. So we had recommended this in a couple of the districts in the past and then when everything got consolidated, I think it was just a bit over the treasurer's head and we came to perform the audit and the bank's theme has had been reconciled for the whole entire year. So- You've since replaced the red treasurer's job. Yes, so I feel like- We left and Robin basically had to do that job and reconcile it for a whole year. And it's my understanding that she's gonna transition to the new treasurer. But at this point she had been keeping track of that. But I still just had to make sure that everybody understood that that was a big, big situation. We found some things near the end. It nothing that hurt you, but there was actually a transaction that the bank messed up on in June of 18 that the bank figured out as well. But if something would have happened or if there were checks that hadn't been clear, it would have been a lot worse. So I think we all know that it's important that these bank reconciliation are done. That was a big finding. I'm hoping that it's not a finding in the future. As well. And it's not, thankfully nothing was missing or stolen, but it's the only way to find that stuff out. So these numbers in here, I'm happy to go over with you. But I think the most important thing was to really just talk about what I found because they're so old, they're June 18. All the fund balanceries been assigned for the next year for the budget, but I'm happy to go over specific numbers in the audit if you'd like me to. But it's pretty, it's like they're a year old. So it's very storable. But I know that there's some stuff that, this year that we can talk about budget to actual, it was a hard year to budget, being consolidated. Do you know things happen? A lot of new students come in and so, but I can go over that if you'd like me to. Is there any, these are all the numbers that you were getting during the year. Does anyone else, you know? Which questions, is he like to follow up on? Are there any numbers that struck you as odd or out of the ordinary? No, I don't think odd. I mean, there was a lot of capital purchases during that year, but they were all, we read all these minutes. We know that you guys are approving things and so. For the capital projects, did you, I don't know if that's part of the audit or not, did you verify that the purchases were indeed made kind of thing? So here's the capital purchase, here's the receipt, that's the invoice, everything. That is part of what we do. We ask for a beginning list of stuff that's over your capitalization policy and then we go to the actual invoice and make sure that it was approved and we don't, I don't go and make sure that you have that copier, not copier, at least, but you know that you don't have specific things, but a new truck or anything like that, but we look at the invoice and make sure there was stuff that was approved. If there was a, let's say there was a big addition at the school, that might be a process that we might actually go take a walk. But I'm not a builder, but we would like at least make sure that it was being done. Let's say, yeah, that there was a new addition. I can step out too of that if there's other questions that folks have, it's. So in review, just to stick with the capital purchases and I wasn't here when these capital purchases were being made, but do you feel like there is a sound process on the business office and the controls on again, you know, placing that order, receiving the equipment and then the sign off that there is not, that's not all under the purview of just one person, but there's like a second set of eyes you know to confirm, you know the checks and balances that you would expect at any large business. Do we have that in our business office? I believe so, you guys, the board also had responsibility to when they're looking at the orders. So it's not just the business office, it's all of you. Cause there's, you know, the warrants go out and it's stuff gets reviewed and it's good to ask questions to when something, right? I mean, you guys, I don't have the exact procedures with me right now and it's been a while since I've done but you guys are looking at them, right? We don't do much oversight of the warrants. Did you look at them? And sign them. And sign them, and I think it was a while to ask for questions. I mean, that's, you know, if you don't ask questions, people think you're not watching but that is one of the controls that I mean that I rely on like is the board looking at the, you know, the warrants that they're signing. I mean, for what we saw from the purchases that happened during this year, they were, you know, I would say that we looked at the invoices, we saw that the stuff was signed off on but there was a lot, but they also were, you know, disgust or approved at the meetings that it was gonna be done, right? I don't think they're too new. Oh, are you new? We'll be able to, oh, okay. I mean, for 17, 18, she's left. Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, but it's still good, like as you're looking once in a while, ask for something. Thank you. Is there anything else that you'd like to highlight or I think we should know more about? I mean, the biggest, this was a big year. There was a lot of work to get done to consolidate everything, right? And, you know, Robin does an excellent job from my end, there's a lot. There was a, you know, even though it was consolidated, there was a lot to get. And, you know, the state still wants everything separated by school even when you're consolidated. And so it's not like, oh, it's one smaller, easier job to do. I think just making sure that the cash is getting reconciled is really key. And I mean, I know you're doing that, but it now.  Yes, there's a separate treasure, but it's really the responsibility of the business office to make sure that the numbers are right. And if it's not happening, to figure out how to get that to happen, so. And for folks who are new, we were not unaware of that deficit right along. We've been, no, not in 17 and 18. No, but it had been reported to, it was. It was self-reported in executive limitations last year. Yeah, right, it was reported to us. It was when we were hoping it was addressed without the measure we had in the day. Does anyone else have another question? Or something they'd like to ask me, so. You had mentioned accounting for the scholarships in the actual budget. I'm trying to get a little clearer. Not in the budget. Yeah, just so I have an idea what we're looking for. In the accounting system, and the state has now purchased accounting software that I believe. If they get it up and running.  But you know, it's still, it's kinda like one of those things, it's like the business office, and then there's like, well the school has the scholarship funds, but really, it's all under the same entity. And taking, you know, there's so many, there's like pages right now of bank accounts that have $300 in it for people to give money. You know, it's great, but it's time consuming to keep track of all that. So there's just a way to even consolidate all that, you know, if you could do that legally. But just having one place for all that stuff isn't taking that like, okay, here is all of the agency funds of the school district. I just have one more question. Sure, but in the, your findings, the summary of your auditor's results, number nine, where it says the school district was determined not to be a low risk oddity. So, I can explain that. So that has to do with the federal compliance and because actually this entity is new, I can't rely, even though you were in business the last two years as a supervisory union, it's actually a new entity and you can't be a low risk oddity if you have been, if you write for two years and now you again won't be a low risk oddity because there is a finding. Right. So that's what that means and that just means that for the auditor's position, we have to cover more of a percentage of federal dollars. So we have to cover 60% of the federal dollars. If you're a not a low risk oddity, then we have to test 60% of those. So it means that basically we have to do a little bit more work to make sure that we're covered. It's like a three year recovery. Two years. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Sometimes you end up getting that percentage because usually we have to pick a big program and the big program almost covers those percentages, right? Because it's like, you just have to get enough dollars to cover the percent. Is it still the case that the state is requiring some of the funds to go sort of linked back to the original school where they're being used? You mentioned that the state needs, still needs Robin to break down some of the funds by where they're being used. Is that still true or is consolidation now sort of ironed out that? She needs to report, it's not the funds that are going to each of the schools. She needs to report the expenditures. What the state is doing with it, I'm not really sure. The money, the grant money that comes in is all coming into OSSD and I don't believe she's reporting separately. The food program probably has more detail by school just because that's the numbers. But I don't believe that. I'm not sure. It's probably the data collection for the federal government. It's probably a federal government requirement for the state's reporting. I think the state wants to know kind of how much each school's costing is more possibly like okay, you have these schools. What are the costs on each? It's unfortunate that consolidating hasn't sort of eased that process. I mean, hopefully it will, but it's still kind of new. Anything else? Thank you very much. Thank you. And everyone is very helpful. Thank you so much. Because it was hard to verify all the cash. Thank you. Thank you. You too. Okay, next on our agenda is the second review and approval of the wealth policy. We looked at this last month. This is healthy hunger-peak dates. So on the, in the packet, back of the second page in bold D and E under section four, there were two inclusions during the state audit that they wanted us to make and they gave us the actual wording that they wanted us to use. So that's what's been included in here. And really it kind of falls around making sure that if people are coming in to kind of serve food to the students that are outside the regular lunch program that they're following, the smart snacks guidelines, making sure that they're organic foods, that not a lot of process, not a lot of salt, those sorts of things. And then also encouraging folks that aren't normal entities of ours that might be providing food to students who are selling food, making sure that they're aware about those smart food guidelines, our smart snack guidelines, and that we're encouraging them to follow them. So people that are specifically under our control, but under our auspice. So if there's any questions on. Any further discussion about this wealth policy? Bonus. Okay, we need to approve this since this is the second reading. So we'll have a motion to approve this. Let's go to the motion. A second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, so the wealth policy is approved. Thank you, we're in compliance. All right, so next, seeing as we have no public comment is the review of the EL 2.7 report, which is the vote here. Commendation and benefits, do you wanna help us do this a little bit? Yeah, so executive limitations 2.7, kind of in general, it seeks to reduce the district's liabilities when it comes to the hiring and compensation of non-unionized employees. Administrators are a perfect example of that, as well as any kind of outside contractors that we may have come in that we pay under contract. They're only kind of one area of possible concern, and that was enumeration three. And that's the one that restricts benefits and compensation levels to the regional market. And so when I was taking a look through this year, there were two things under three that came up. The first was the teacher mentor program. That is something that is not, and historically has not been in the master agreement. It typically is in most districts. And taking a look at what we're paying both our mentor director and the mentors themselves, we're about three times what the other districts are paying. Only problem with is in correcting this is at this point in time, it may be considered past practice. It's something that I'm going to check in with PHR1. I do have a survey that's getting ready to go out to the other superintendents in the White River Valley group that I'm a part of just to see what their salaries are. You know what they're paying these folks by a comparison. And if it's not past practice, the idea would be to implement it not next year, but the year after to give folks that are currently expecting the range of salaries that we now have to get those for a year so that they can plan. So that's in process. The other piece was a student assistance program counselor. This is our drug and alcohol counselor that serves both the tech center and the high school. He was on a special contract when he really should have been a district employee under the CBA. There was some reason for that. Does anyone who's been here for a while, do you remember? We had, there was some reason for that. And I'm not sure what it is. I'm not sure what it was either. The one of the things that it did was that it kept him from being protected under our liability insurance. And I don't think he was ever required to carry his own. So having him under the new contract that we just put into place for him for next year, remediates that, fix that. It also allowed him to be highly compensated compared to other folks of kind of equal experience and stature. Also prevented him from gaining kind of a common benefits that the other employees get. So there was kind of a balance there. So he was not able to pay into the retirement system this whole time, was not able to take advantage of the other benefits that our employees get. And then the other thing that it did which was in violation with one of the executive limitations is it provided him with a multi-year contract. And so, now that he's. Which we approved it, or. And you have the right to do that. Yeah, that was the reason it was because he requested. Multi-year. And we wanted to retain him. I do remember we did have a fuller contract. To make an exception. So if he's willing now to take. He was excited, especially with the ability. I mean, he's in the municipal insurance. But at least he's paying into insurance now.  Technically he could be working for at least another 10 years. So it'll get vested, which is nice. To be able to provide that for him. So that has been corrected. The teacher mentor one, it's been noted. You know, I'm recognizing that there may be an issue there relative to the executive limitations. It's a matter of doing the hard research in the fall. Are they on the CBN? They're not in the CBN. Yeah. How much of a, how full-time or non-full-time is that? They are about, depending upon who it is, three or four times getting paid what's happening. No, I meant as a job, how much of a job is it as far as? So they meet weekly, 50 hours with the mentees to provide, you know, feedback to help them out with anything that they may be encountering to help them with their teaching. The director is a little bit more extensive than that. She oversees the mentors. There were probably, there are quite a few, probably 20, 30 of them last year here. And so it is a pretty expensive, expansive job, excuse me. There was some reason I was trying to track down why the director was getting paid as much as she was. There was some reason for doing it, but I can't get any clarity on what that was. So there was a good reason for it. But I'm still seeking out what the rationale was. But those were the two pieces in the monitoring report. So like I said, one of them has been corrected. The other one is noted, may or may not be correctable if it's past practice, but it is being researched. We'll have an answer for you in the early fall. But other than that, everything is in shape the way it should be for the executive limitations monitoring report 2.7 unless there's questions. So as I recall, this is our first reading in this report, is that correct? So anyone with further questions should see laying between now and the June meeting and also review any of the background materials that are available in the OSSD office so that we in full conscience can vote to approve this next one. We took interjection. We did put in for a special meeting to overlap with tonight because there was a tentative agreement reached with the teachers union. And this is probably the, if the board would make a motion to hear that, this is probably the place to talk about that under board management governance. It doesn't have to be an executive session then. Okay, do I have a motion then to add a discussion to the agenda about the proposed CDA contact? I'll make that motion. Is there a second? Second. I'm sorry. I think the comments, should I put this under me from, okay, 27 or is this? It would be under the category board governance. Which is along with, yeah. So after, I think it was what, six or seven hours? The mediation, it was a long time. A lot of discussion back and forth with the mediator. The tentative agreement was the salary increase of 3.15% of new money. That is a step increase as well as a little bit extra so that they get 3.15% overall. And then they had a wording change, something that they wanted added to the contract. And that was that there would be a maximum of three after school meetings per month. Which is reasonable, most of the contracts I've seen, that's what's in them if it's stated in a contract. With the exception, unless there's an emergency, if there's an emergency and they need to be in, then they can be called then. So those were the two major pieces. We also removed a section or two of language that was from the days when there were separate boards so the language didn't have any relevance or any meaning within the contract anymore. And so those are part of the packet that you have. So these meetings are faculty meetings and student meetings? Yeah. So after school meetings, usually department meetings or faculty meetings? So can you define for me what you consider a regular day? In terms of? Hours. It's not defined. It's not defined. So I guess then my question would be what's the expectation of teachers? I mean the school starts at 7.55 and it's done at 2.25. So what are the teachers' expectations for their day at school? So that is stated in their actual faculty handbooks. In most cases they are required to be there 10 to 15 minutes early state, 10 to 15 minutes after the regular period of time that the kids are in the building. But it's stated in the faculty handbooks and it rises to the level of being past practice at this point in time. And the expectation is to prepare for class. So if they need to do some kind of programming to get prepared for the next day, there's what's to do. Yeah, we have, I think the strategy and the board can probably talk a little bit more about this was to keep the contract as thin as possible just to allow more flexibility for administration and working with the staff. So doesn't the link define what the day is to teach them? I'm just often surprised, dropping off in the morning and picking up in the afternoon that when I see teachers coming and going. It is possible because the next round of negotiations will be starting in about six months, right? Because this is just a one year contract due to the negotiations going on between the state and the teacher's union at the state level over health insurance to be able to have that discussion. I think and Paul and I did spoken a little bit is, it might be good to get a subcommittee together ahead of time, maybe right at the end of the fall at the start of the school year, just to sit down and kind of talk about the needs. Because one of the things that the contract negotiations allow us to do is to try to find things of value, add things of value in terms of us being able to achieve the ends of the board is set. And so I think that strategizing might be a good thing. Pietro will tell you in terms of having a set day, it does reduce flexibility, but there are benefits to it as well. So it definitely might be worth something to talk about. So three after school meetings a month is reasonable from administrative standpoint? Yeah, like I said, in the contracts I've experienced, that wording is typically in there and that's usually what it is. And again, if there are emergencies, I think that's kind of the standard at the high school. I think the elementary school does more. And I think that's one of the reasons that, you know, it came up as part of the negotiations with the teacher's primary worry of making sure that they have the ability to plan and do what they need to do to be prepared for the kids. Meaning the elementary teachers, there was a little pushback about meeting after school? I think because they've had a lot of meetings. Just another word about the subcommittee. It'd be beneficial for us to have a subcommittee or a committee to talk about it, but also with the teachers. Because the teachers are likely to ask for a significant increase this coming negotiation. We basically told them this year that it's only a one-year contract budget set. We're not going to be doing a huge increase. And they're wanting a large increase. And so in the negotiation, I mentioned, if this is something you truly think that you need a large increase, for example, then we need to discuss that. And it can't be after the budget has been set. It needs to be prior to the budget. So when we have these subcommittee meetings, we may have to have a subcommittee meeting with members of us, meeting with members of the faculty, and trying to discuss what is a reasonable percentage increase. Because if we don't discuss it beforehand, it's just gonna be what Lane thinks is reasonable. And we fit into the budget. And then until they're gonna be right or wrong, whether it be at budget or we'll break the budget. So we gotta be thinking about that. And there's a good potential for all of this. We do talk about all the data that's related to the ends in the fall. And like I said, one of the things that we should do is craft the strategy around what we're seeking from the teachers around what our drivers are in terms of the ends. Oh, we've got these ends. These are the interpretations that go along with them. These are weaknesses right now. Is there something that we can do in terms of the contract to help us reach those goals? For me, the big thing, we kind of almost, I thought they were almost gonna be there, but the biggest thing for me is the number of days off. They have 26 days and they have another eight days on top of it that they can request either personal or emergency. Well, they've got 26 days and the average number of days our teachers are sick is 20 days. And so if you add that up, it's a significant amount of time lost in front of students. And so that's a pretty good piece in terms of the ends if we can get them in front of the students more frequently. The performance will rise across the board. And then we saw that, we looked at the charts together earlier this year. The schools that had the highest average absentee rate were the lowest performing and vice versa. But things worth talking about. Have they already approved this contract? To my knowledge, they have not had their meeting yet. So it's a tentative agreement. The parties that were at the mediation had signed off on it. But again, it would need to be approved by both the board and the union before it's ratified. Any other questions and discussion about this proposed agreement? Ready for the vote? We have a motion to approve the memorandum. Memorandum of the teachers union. I'll make a motion to accept the memorandum of agreement. Is there a second? A second. Any further discussion? The vote, all those voting in approval of this memorandum in the teachers union, is there? Aye, aye. Any opposed? Aye. Okay. Now we have a legislative update next, please. Oh, a lot of stuff. Actually, I had to take a lot of notes on it because there's a lot of numbers in there. House Ways and Means Committee is proposing to take 7.6 million from the Education Fund to pay for Lake Champlain cleanup. Some of this money, they're intending on replacing it with a new tax on software and veterinary supplies, but it would still leave a short fall of about $600,000, which would be paid for using property and incomes tax yield adjustments. So it would have an impact on our school taxes. The state realized an unexpected $4 million loss due to an increase in the number of students being outplaced. So we've talked a lot about the number of students of trauma that we have and the cost of working with the students in the case that a lot of them need to be sent out to residential placement. The state's also feeling that as well. So they're discussing a new tax on candy clothing and software downloads to pay for that for a million dollar short fall. The proposed, they're making some proposed changes to Act 173. Act 173 is the special education funding bill that takes us away from a reimbursement model to a block grant funded model. They're looking to add another year for implementation. So it pushes us about two more years out, which would be good. Senate Bill 40, which is the lead bill that has moved forward. They are currently seeking a five parts per billion threshold in terms of lead in drinking water. And they want every fixture in every school that could be used for drinking water to be tested. They want the testing to be completed by December 31st of 2020. Vermont Department of Health will pay for all fixtures needing to be replaced up to specific limits, which when I looked at them, they seemed, you know, fairly reasonable. But the problem is if it's something outside of the fixture, if it's above those costs, the schools will be paying for them. The state has promised to cover the first round of actual testing and this new round of discussions on this bill. And then everything beyond that will be on the schools. They set up or are working to set up the committee to examine school compliance with the privacy of student records as it relates to FERPA. And really what they're looking for is the committee to kind of go out in the new modern data age to make sure that people have proper firewalls and protections in place. We'll make recommendations back to the legislature. H79, House Bill 79 is a farmer school bill and it's going seeking to require 20% of food and lunch programs to be local. And then to investigate ways to try to ensure that all the students that are eligible for free and reduced lunch are enrolled. That's been a problem around here. We've got a lot of students that the parents just haven't enrolled despite how much we reach out and how much arm twisting that we do. Senate Bill 86 has actually been passed by both the House and the Senate. And this is the one that raises the age for tobacco and tobacco rated paraphernalia to 21. So just waiting for the governor's signature on that. And he has said he will sign it. So. Is that effective this year? So unless there's questions. Seems like they're taking a long time. I don't know if this is. Yeah. Usually when they get wrapped up. The only other one that really doesn't affect us was they're still kind of battling it out over the laying the forced consolidation of some districts. So much so to the point. Or one of the committees that was studying it is asked to be dissolved and reformed just because they've had such an impasse on it. Thank you. All right. Next is the consent agenda which we'll approve as a slate. So we have the minutes from our April meeting which are enclosed here to review. We've got to approve administrative staff contracts. Those are in here. So those are things that I will sign. Professional staff contract, new hires as well. And then unanticipated revenue. So this was a discussion with the auditors above and beyond even what we anticipated in terms of tuition revenue from school choice students. Because we had anticipated a bit we actually earned another 200,000 above. So it's my responsibility to make sure that I informed the board. Why such a wing fall? More kids than we expected that came than we predicted. It's funny we're already looking at the numbers for next year but of course there's still a lot of transition that'll happen between now and the end of the summer. The way things look right now is that Randolph is steady state, the high school and the elementary. But it looks like we've got about 10 to 12 extra students coming into Braintree and 10 to 12 extra students coming in here. So Braintree might even be over 100 next year. This should be over 80. So the numbers aren't increasing and that's not including the preschools. So the preschool students are completely in addition to that. So those are people who are out of the area. At the high school level that are coming here. What about here in Brookfield? Or is that just people moving in? Just people moving in. So school choice is funny. It's really nine to 12th grade. It's really kind of high school. Unless the unusual circumstance happens that a district does not have a school of a lower grade that will say they eliminated their elementary schools, then they're responsible to school choice those students out as well. So they get their education. So do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second? Second. Who's the first? Anne, okay. And Ashley. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda? Aye. Opposed? All right. Reports and incidentals. We'll start with the superintendent's report. So we talked a little bit in there about working what I'm calling the API process in the fall with the faculty. The last year and a half or so has kind of been spent just resolving kind of a number of ongoing HR issues, some of which were kind of impeding the process towards the ends, and as well as kind of working with the budget to put some structures in place so that we can focus a little bit more strongly on academics. So the API cycle is a yearly cycle. The first thing that you do is you analyze the data. One of the things that we've been working on with the faculty, especially the math department and the special educators this year is interpreting the board's ends. They're putting their own interpretation on it. They've looked at mine. They are determining what assessment methods that they will use to measure their progress towards that. So they will be the ones that are collecting that data and reporting it to me so that I can report it to you to get them heavily involved in terms of their own progress and how the students are doing. After the analysis is the planning phase, they identify what their needs are, what their weaknesses are. They start to talk about what they need to get into place to address those weaknesses. And that's an important process because it should be informing the budget, right? What their needs are, right? We should be reaching down bottom up instead of top down in terms of what our budget is and what our budget is serving. And then after that, it's implementation, right? You've analyzed things. You got a pretty good handle on it and what it is that you need. You've taken a strong look at what you think is reasonably gonna affect the change that you're looking for based on those needs and then you get it into place and every year follows that same cycle. What good, high-performing solid districts do that other districts do not is they will pick two or three things that work really well and they will just hammer away at them year after year until they get every maximum benefit they can before they move on to another initiative. And so this is really trying to bring the focus down to the faculty level on the board's ends, what it means to be successful on them and get the faculty engaged in kind of using those ends and those assessments to examine their own practice and improve it. The other two pieces that were in the report that we spoke about a little bit was Brookfield made the final decisions on the preschool program and what the structure would be. We had some data that came back in the survey that made us a little bit unsure about the childcare needs. Brookfield really, really wanted the after-school program, really wanted the public preschool but childcare was in question. So we had a meeting up here, we talked with some folks, had a couple emails that went back and forth that were pretty good. And so we have decided that we will have the childcare next year. So from 7.30 to 12.30, we'll be childcare up to three to four-year-olds. Those children then can move into the public preschool from 12.30 to 2.30, four days a week. And then in the afternoon from 2.30 to 5.30, there's a K to six after-school program for all students. We'll talk a little bit about it when we get to the financials. But there was about $55,000 generated from the childcare and after-school program at Braintree alone. Didn't quite put us in the black for that program, got us close, but I think that number is impressive because it really kind of spells out the need that's out there in the communities. If a community had a small school of less than 100 kids, it's paying $55,000 a year for childcare and after-school care. There's definitely a need for it. So that, sorry to interrupt you. So that means that the age three and four kids don't get the after-school care. They would have to go home on the bus or something? That's the quirky part about all this is K to six, right? Kindergarteners usually are age five, right? There is a whole other set of laws and licensures that would go along with an after-school program for the ages three and four. It's something we could put into place in the future if there's a need, but we've got to see what the need is going to be. Because it's a whole other program, whole other staff. It's actually called extended preschool. So it's not an after-school program. And the way that the state regulates it is that the needs for those instructors, because the kids are younger, is pretty extensive. So is this the same model that's currently happening at the brain train? Pretty close too, except they're a year ahead of us. So they will also have that extended preschool as well. And this year, do they have extended preschool? They built it in towards after the year started. Oh, so they do have it. Is that going to be a problem for some of the Brookfield parents that were here at that meeting? Is that they needed after-school care for their kids of all different ages? Based on the discussions and the survey data, we went with the highest three. Like I said, even the childcare piece was a bit iffy. And the extended preschool piece was even lower. So we did focus on the highest three. But the other thing too is once the programs are up and running, if it really starts to fill up if there's a need, right? And we've got these programs full and the ones that are prepared, generating a little bit of revenue, we can always go back, revisit and bring it in in late fall or in the winter. The other thing that came out of that meeting was the difficulty of recruiting after-school caregivers for something like this. Early morning for the 7.30. I don't want to hex it by saying we've been having good luck with hiring. Oh, good. I don't want to say too much because I'm afraid it'll curse things. But we've been having really good luck with hiring so far. I think the consolidation has something to do with it. Consolidation's across the state. I think there's more people that are available from schools that have closed down, which is one of the reasons why some people keep their fingers crossed. I have a couple questions about, earlier you talked about the teachers developing their own assessments for, I guess, how the students are coming along, which is really assessing themselves in a way, right? Is that, is it typical for, I mean, is that a normal process for the teachers to assess themselves? Yeah. And do we worry about the bias that is present when someone assesses their own. So the assessments, the assessments, one of the requirements on it, right, is they are doing the interpretation, of course, with our oversight and with our guidance. The requirement on the assessments is that they have to be objective. It's not based on the grades that you're given, the students in the class, you know, ESPAC, one of the reasons that I settled on it that the first year, of course, you weren't here in the fall was because it was objective, right? You could look at it, it is what it was. There was no perception in there to kind of shift it at all. And so what they're looking at right now is I've got to track my progress that runs up through eighth grade. They're looking at what they call the STARS program, which is another outside program that's tied to the Common Core that they can do 15, 20 minute assessments here and there, can give them kind of immediate feedback on where the students are at, and they can also use it for longer term assessments. One of the things that I've noticed that has kind of come out of the discussions with the faculty is the students are actually doing quite a bit of learning in class. Problem isn't what they learn. They know it right then and there, the problem in some of these cases is retention. For whatever reason, right, they learned it in front of the teacher here today. They're able to use it for a few days, but there's no spiral back in the curriculum to make them rethink about it and use it again a little bit later down, so the retention's poor. So I think a lot of the scores that I've seen, especially in mathematics, there's a lot of reasons for it, but one of the contributing factors is that lack of retention. One of the nice things about these assessment systems, and it's one of the reasons we had midterms and cumulative finals when we were in school, was it makes you go back. Rethink your way through most of what you learned or at least the most important of what you've learned because it increases retention. If you can think about things three to seven times, it's gonna be with you for life, and so that's part of it as well. But no, it's objective assessments. So when you report the answer, won't be the teacher's house kind of presentation of their performance? No, no, and I've got a pretty good handle. But in terms of talking about the professional learning communities, the types of groups that should be active in schools, that's what they do. High-performing professional learning community in a school is usually a department or it's a grade level team that sits down and it looks at the data. And it says, okay, based on this, all our students were poor on these two or three standards, what are we gonna do to go back right here and now to teach it in a different way so that they get it and to know that they got it. Or after you've dealt with any kind of curricular issues, it's okay, you know, when we're taking a look at these assessments, these three students are really struggling. So these guys are gonna get, we know they need some extra help, so we're gonna put them in one of our, and they've got a whole bunch of them different support programs there so that the students can go in for an hour, year, hour there and then get caught up on the pieces that they're missing so they're not getting caught behind. But that's the work that the department should be engaged in. So I just have a clarifying question on that. Yeah. Like that analysis of that information and we talk about each of those departments. So I'm assuming, and I should probably know the answer, there is a department chair for each of your major departments, English, science. High school level, there are the teachers at the elementary structure a little differently. They usually go by grades as opposed to discipline. So just with our eye on the high school for a moment, because I'm thinking about the testing results that we are well aware of, is there that the, let's say for instance, the math department, that department chair is meeting with all of the other math teachers and that curriculum is being defined at that level on how that trickles down or trickles up through the system. And then that analysis is being done in that setting as well as that individual. Yeah, so they had their very first K to 12 meeting about a month ago in the math department, which was good. So we had a collective group of the elementary teachers, not all of them, but a collective group because they all teach a little bit of math in talking with the math department and what they were really focused on was that interpretation of the ends. And it was kind of, it was impressive. They didn't come up with a final interpretation because they were so aggressive, and I mean this in a positive way about all the things that they wanted the kids to be able to know and do. So it was very impressive. So the meeting that's happening on the 28th is trying to weed that down into a final statement. They've already kind of settled in on the assessment tools that they want to use, which is good, but they're really honing in on that interpretation piece. So as far as the board is concerned, putting those ends out the way that you did was a really good thing. The piece that has to happen is it's got to be the teachers that are working with it. We look at it, we examine it, we hold them accountable by saying, hey, you're weak here, we're gonna provide you resources. What resources do you need? But it's really them that has to own it and look at it. And it's kind of funny, we talked about retention in another way earlier this year, which is how many teachers are we keeping each year. One of the things that retains teachers is high performing PLCs as professional learning communities because it's an interacting with their peers that they get the most learning and growth. And that is valuable. That's usually the thing that keeps them around for a long time. So going back to the defined day and only three meetings a month, how are they fitting that in their schedule? Because I built it in. I built in half days every month. That was, remember I was talking about where we spent a year kind of building the structures before we could do the work, that was part of it. The elementary principles are awesome, but they're very, very aggressive about using that time. So they kind of fill it up every time they get it. I'm trying to pull some of that time back to be able to do this work with them. I'll be the primary person doing the work next year with them. But I've also, I've got the K to 12 English person. So I got kind of a K to 12 English director and I'll have a K to 12 math director as well to support this work as well as Katie at the high school. So while we don't have a curriculum director, I've got parts and pieces that kind of English and math right now. They will all be working on the interpretation and developing their ends. But English and math are fundamental to all the others. So if we get those up and running, get the other scores to start to rise that the larger community in the state sees from us will be a very good stead. It all kind of plays into a goal of keeping the enrollments increasing. As long as we've got more students coming in, we can continue to build programs. The more programs we build, the more students that we will get. We're kind of at the point where we've mopped up all the students that are around just because of consolidations and closures. We've got students, I was actually pretty impressed with the students that we've got coming next year under school choice. But there's only so many students that fall into that category that we can grab. We're now at the point where we've just got to build better schools if we want to keep those enrollments going up by having people physically move into town. Right, well, we've got employment opportunities at the hospital and various locations around the area. But people aren't wanting to locate here, so that will all sort of snowball. It will all grow together. And that's the piece that we're looking at. Yeah, 99% of preschool is because we need it. It's good for the kids. 1% is because if we've got them, people will move into town to take advantage of them. So there is a bigger picture here. That 200,000 that we just talked about, the reason that I was making sure that you knew about it is because it allows me to spend a little bit of it before we have to claim it for reserves. We've got the, a lot of talk has happened the last year or two over, the kids don't have any computer science courses, they don't have coding, they do next year. They'll have, they should have a robotics, very well-developed robotics program. They will have their coding and hopefully we're gonna try to be able to build the Lego robotics down into the elementary schools to kind of support that as well as part of the STEM initiative. So a lot, a lot going on. Totally, I just wanted to clarify a question. You mentioned the English director and the math director. Are those two new positions that you're hiring or are those positions that you have? Consolidations under the budget. So the K-12 English is here, she's under the regular budget. She was part-time under title. We were able to move her out with the budget increase and get her so that she's regular. The only two people that were left in title when we were looking at that budget increases because we didn't wanna go for the 18% was the math person. There was some restructuring that was happening there anyway. So the math person will come out of the, out of title and then we had like a 50% special education support sort of person that was in there as well but that's it. Everybody else has been moved out of title into the regular budget, which we couldn't depend on the money. We're named, you know, this year we couldn't even get the services to the kids that that money was geared for until November. And next year, it may be problematic that the AOE is working really hard but they're still not, got their systems quite up, they're running the way they need to be. But they're working on it. I give them a lot of credit. Thank you. How close were you to the line where we were like 18% to the line? Oh, a thousand bucks per student. So we still got a thousand bucks per student. What was interesting was Bruce Labs, they're pretty close to it. I mean, they're over 10,000. I think if I remember, I have to go back and look so don't call me but I think we're at 17, three and I think the line was 18, three. So we're 17, 147 or something like that and that's a lot of student. Okay. So I think White River or the Swiss Railway team could retake a little bit. So there's some leeway. And again, the more students we have. Right, the farther we get. Yeah. One more. The last piece was it went and made sure, talked with the elementary principals and just making sure that people do realize that therapeutic program is open to all three elementary students. I repeat that a few times. It is based on priority. What they were looking at as they were getting the program set up, they were kind of discussing, well, what's the easiest way? Do we want to have students come from another school before we're sure the program's up and running fully but now it's based on priority. So as they go through the, any of the students that are on an education plan as they go through the meetings, the yearly meetings at the end of the year kind of evaluate how the students are doing, they are creating a priority list. These are the students or the best fits for the program right now.  Do you have any students who are on the program? All depends on the severity of the students. We actually have made two really good hires, exceptionally talented people, expensive people, but exceptionally talented who have worked with these students who have worked with Dave Melnick's strategies before and who actually have worked together before. So I think we've got a good fit on it. But it's, you know, that's one of the, I'm gonna tie it in with special education. You know, one of the questions I was trying to get at is how big of a caseload should a special educator have? Well, it depends on how tough the kids are that you're working with. Six kids may be a hefty workload depending upon what their needs are. 20 kids may be appropriate, again, depending on their needs. So I can't give you a straight answer. It'll depend on the needs. But as many as can be, can be recycled through and doing, you know, just the general math of it. Again, the caring for the kids is the primary piece. But, you know, if we can prevent even just three kids in the next couple of years from having to go to out place but we paid for the program. So have we done some kind of assessment of all our students to figure out who might be in there? They do them every year. If we do it every year, where are we for the needs then? So could you say it could be 20 and 56? So if we have already assessed them? They're going through the year and assessments now. It's, I mean, by every year they do that and they're making that list. The other pieces that they're talking with Natalie and Deb is that they've got to figure out if I've got a spectrum this big, where does the program fit? They're going to be hopefully rare but there will be some students that we just can't accommodate here. Who are they? Down on this end, these are students that should be getting the resources and support they need through best practice in the classroom. Are they getting that? So part of their discussion is, you know, where is their range for this program fit? We know what's up in the moderate to severe range but, you know, how severe can we go? It's good you're making it. I hadn't thought about this stuff in a couple of days. I'm glad you're making you think about it again. Any questions? Heather? So beyond your report, we've got RTCC, so anything you should know, I know that they have their house. Good news, we had people there. Good. We had a board member from the White River. White River, yeah. So they just, White River just consolidated? This is the first new board member show there. So we had a board member there and we didn't have the usual board member from Northfield, Williamstown, right? Since their consolidation, I don't think it's anything. It's been a while. Yeah, and so. So you just had one? So. Well, we had one board member and then we had a woman from. CCV, which was good. I don't know who the gentleman was. He was funny. I found him afterwards when I was going through the open house just to invite him to come talk to me if you wanted to. I think he's a parent. He's a community member. He's a community member from Northfield, right? Yeah, yeah. But, but neat guy. So there's a community member there. So did you talk about moving the RTCC meetings to be? Yep, and they were being a whole. Just a second. We propose perhaps moving the RTCC meetings because we have had such a hard time getting board members to come or participate to having them begin at six, four times a year or three times a year before this meeting. So we would obviously have a quorum of ourselves and hopefully, and we would invite board members from the other districts, but we would have a more robust discussion with Jason, who currently is the director of RTCC. Anyway, so. So currently it's just usually the meeting is Jason and then one of our board members. And so it's kind of rough to have any kind of discussion. It's not really a discussion. It's more of here's my report. Okay, here's my couple of questions and end. And so 30 minutes would be plenty of time. But yeah, they were okay with it. They didn't have a day that did not work. Second Monday of each month worked for the board member that was there. He said that their board meetings are the third Monday he thought, but he wasn't sure and he was no longer on the main board. He's only on this board. So something like that, something weird like that. So he will be able to make it on Mondays. And then CTV, she said she could make it. And so. Jason was a minimal. Right. And then we just got to reach out to Leo, Connolly and whoever the representative is from Northfield. I don't know what, what are they called now? Now that they're in solid A. Northfield, Williams, I'm not sure. We're getting a lot of the Northfield teachers. Pain Hill, Pain Mountain, Pain Mountain. That was our call? P.A. So we got to reach out to Pain Mountain and figure out a theory of what they're making. What's, what's neat about the decision to possibly hold it as a part of this board is that I think within our own community, I don't think they hear a lot about the tech center and it's this right here. And so I think there are a lot of, a lot of folks that do, you know, watch, watch the cable. There are folks that show up here. I think it'll just get the word out about all the great things that are happening there. And that, hey, this actually exists. There's 147 kids here that we serve.  Is that something that we can begin in September or August whenever the next? The kind of the reading of the, what the regs are is they do have to have an advisory presence. So, you know, invite the advisors in as the board that actually makes the decision. It is this board, but they have to have an advisory presence. They have to have input on any kind of policy changes so much so that if they give you their advice and you decide not to take it, I have to file a report with the secretary. Not just, I mean, they won't check it just to say, hey, we went against the advisory board's advice. So there is a little bit of teeth to that, which is interesting. So yeah. So that will be scheduled for either August or September. Yeah. This fall. Great. And I saw that we did not have a report from the high school this time. He was sick for several days. I don't know if he, Well, I won't say, camera, but he was very sick. Maybe for a while we can talk about that in a second. And were there any questions or comments about the elementary principal's report? I didn't notice any further comments about distribution of the administrative services over the elementary schools. No, I'm actually, I'm coming in. We've got the superintendent's conference at Lake Moray at the end of this week. But I told them I'd be coming in and spending a lot of time in this building in May. So over the, after this week, probably the next two weeks, we'll be spending a lot of time here just to see how it's going. David's been spending a lot of time up here, which I think was wonderful. Any other questions or comments from any other board member? Okay, we also have the financials. So talk with Robin. Everything is as it should be, which is always good. I took a look at some things myself. Everything's on track with where it was last year, perhaps a little bit better. We will end in the black. I can talk a little bit about surpluses. In terms of the tech center, they're looking at about a $60,000 surplus at this point in time. In terms of Raven, they are looking at a $65,000 surplus, which they will use to apply towards the transition that's currently underway. So do we know why those kids? In some cases, it's kids. In some cases, remember that we are planning the budget a year in advance based upon current staff. And so whenever you get the transitions in staff, if we hire a little lower. Let's see, as far as OSSD is concerned, we actually did pretty well this year in terms of surplus. So if you just look at the budget from the current year that we're in, there will be $57,000 left over. So it's actually pretty good considering it was a $17 million budget. We are also receiving another $131,000 in reimbursements for special education from state-placed students, right? We pay for them up front at the end of the year that the state pays us back for it. And then we have the $200,000 in unanticipated tuition revenue that we just talked about. So at the OSSD, we're talking about $388,000. In terms of surplus. So yep, there will be some to put towards the new roof on Randolph Elementary in terms of the reserves at the end of the year. Does anyone have any other questions about the financial report that was presented? Okay, next is the facilities reports. So there is a, we had talked last time about the need to have eyes on the target in terms of things that have been purchased. So I put in kind of a restructure of the facilities report, hopefully to serve that. We'll see that in the packet there. There's a couple pages of instructions that have gone to the facilities managers. We sat down with Robin, had a little bit of discussion with the auditors actually, to kind of come up with this idea of a threshold. What is a reasonable threshold that above which that somebody should have eyes on the ground, that somebody should actually go out and make sure the work is done, or make sure that if it was a piece of equipment that was purchased that it's actually here and the threshold was 5,000. So what you're gonna see in this report is a couple of things. It's got a few more details. It's very similar to what you've seen before. But the biggest thing is that it's gonna go into Google Docs about every week, every other week. We will go through the report, the things that they are putting on there, which is everything that they purchased above $5,000. And they will take either myself or Robin on a tour. When we have seen it, we go into Google Docs, we have access to the column where we can put in our initials and we will initial, but it's been checked and done. And so that's all set up and that's happening right now. I think what the other piece was. Oh, the other part of this is the estimates. So they have to provide an estimate for this work or if they're purchasing it, they have to show what the cost is gonna be. At any time that the board would like to see those estimates, they are providing detailed copies for me. So if there are things that you have questions about, especially if it's something that I'm asking for reserve funds for, I can provide you the full details ahead of time in terms of this. And that way we know that what they're asking for, what I'm asking for is actually tied to what the need is. So I think that should be helpful. And current, so the current expectations that they'll present the estimate to you or Robin. And so then- It doesn't go on this list until that estimate is in the end. And then when the work is finally done, whether we review it, someone else is going to review how close, whether this was in the book. Yeah, and then the two columns that are in there, there's the actual, there's the estimate column, there's the actual cost column, what you actually pay afterwards. They're in there, they keep totals. And one of the reasons to do that, it's able to review, hey, this year, you had a million dollars in estimates, but for some reason, actual cost was 1.5, what's going on? It provides a little bit more data to be able to ask those sorts of questions, as well as to be able to say, hey, look, every time you use this vendor, they're always 50% over an estimate. So it's providing some data that's usable as part of the intent to have that structure. So. Any other questions or comments? All right, we've got the board evaluation. I would say the only thing we should work on is just more participation from everybody, a couple of us spoke, a little more than others, and that's it. Otherwise, I think, I don't think anybody was tampered and said, do not talk, I think anything like this, I think, was just, if we could try to have more involvement. See you later. See you later. Yeah. Otherwise, I hope it was fun. Okay, so next, we have an executive session.


Welcome to dealing with materials data, in this course we talk about the collection analysis and interpretation of data from material science and engineering. Till now we have done 3 modules, first is the introduction to R, second one is descriptive statistics using R and the third one is probability distributions. So we have pretty much every tool that we need, so we are now ready to go take up data and analyze and draw conclusions. So in this session we are going to do one such analysis. So this module is for processing of data and in this module using R we want to answer the following questions. Suppose if you are given an empirical data set, how do you estimate the true mean and what is the confidence level of that estimation? Because we make lots of measurements and at the end of the measurement we want to give one number as the mean value of the parameter that we are probing. And when we give that value we also want to say how confident we are that value is correct or in what interval does that value lie for a given confidence level say 90 percent probability this value will lie only in this range. So there is also so it is not just the mean it is also about the distribution of the data, the spread of the data. So we want to give this information. So we know that each observation is a sample from an underlying distribution. So given the data can we characterize the distribution is the next question. Of course if we assume that the underlying data set is normal we can do some analysis. If we do not have that assumption available to us or if we do not have reasons to believe that the underlying distribution is normal how do we go about analyzing the data. So these are the three things that we want to answer. So take a data set can we say something about the properties like mean and spread and can we say something about the underlying distribution by looking at the data. And if we do not have the assumption that it is a normal distribution can we say anything about the data. So these are the type of questions that we want to answer. So obviously these are simple questions. There are more complicated questions that we will ask that we will do in the next session. But in this session we are going to simply answer these questions. And because now we have had some experience with R I am going to show all these examples using the same data set that we had been using namely the conductivity of electrolytic tough pitch copper. So that you are familiar with the data and you can see the different analysis done on the same data so you can understand how these analysis work. But from this exercise on we are also going to give lots of other data for you to do the same analysis. So some of the analysis that I am going to do is repetition. You might have seen it but this is the kind of set of steps that you need to follow if you get a new data set and we will have more exercises of that type also in this module. So we will take up these objectives one by one and use the copper conductivity data. And one more data that is important for a completely different reason namely from the existing literature. If there are some data that becomes available to you first how to get that data in a form in which you can analyze and then second how do you analyze. So these are the things that we are going to discuss in this module. Thank you.


Ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States. Oh, please sit down. I don't know about you But all morning I've been sitting in there watching the sky. I Heard early predictions of rain have to get this over with but I Thank you all very much, and it's always a pleasure to welcome the businessmen and women of America to the White House I'm delighted to take part in celebrating World Trade Week Which reaffirms the importance of our well-being of trade and recognizes the need for increased export efforts America's future growth and prosperity depends on how well we develop and compete in foreign markets One in eight manufacturing jobs is related to exports and 25 percent of our farmers cash Receipts come from exports in fact exports account for 25 percent Of the total value of all goods produced in this country Exports mean jobs for our people Profits for our businesses and growth for our economy And that's why it's going to be a pleasure to present the well-deserved E&E star awards for excellence in exporting But let me begin by pointing out the backdrop for export opportunities in the economic climate here at home. I Know you're all familiar with the dramatic turnaround that has been accomplished We're in the midst of a wonderful economic expansion, and I believe we have a lot to be proud of Our growth is helping to pull the rest of the free world out of recession and this will increase Demand for American exports, but occasionally the interests of diplomacy and the interests of American industry seem to conflict Well our administration sees it as our job to reconcile the two and make it easier for American business to open up new markets on a fair footing and We're working hard in that direction 1982 we passed the Export Trading Company Act Aimed at opening foreign trade opportunities for medium and small-sized companies The bill removed impediments to trade permitting companies to sell American products overseas More efficiently and more effectively We're also implementing an International investment policy to reduce the number of government measures that distort or impede the flow of international investment Our trade missions have been to Europe Asia Africa and Latin America seeping seeking to develop new export opportunities Now these are just several of the efforts We're going to do everything we can to get government out of the way to make sure that you have the opportunity to compete Effectively in world markets and there's something else Last November I visited Japan and Korea Last month it was China and next week it's Europe and the London Economic Summit And I'm beginning to feel a little like an export product myself But one of the key purposes of these trips is to see that all the export trading doors are opened as wide as possible As I told a number of export trade industry representatives last month in Tacoma When I go abroad I go as something of a salesman do everything I can to promote US exports Except possibly wear a buy American bumper sticker on my bag We're committed to keeping markets open to free trade We oppose protectionism because like so many other forms of government intervention. It doesn't work Protectionism brings higher prices. It provokes retaliation and it insulates inefficiencies in production and will continue to oppose it Government can set the framework for expanded trade, but it can't make trade flourish That's up to you the private sector to make that happen And that's why it's my privilege to present the E and E star awards our award winners are making it happen in a Fiercely competitive environment. You have good reason to be proud and we're proud of you And so now for the awards and I shall turn this back to Secretary Brown This president I would suggest that maybe we're all better off now that you are selling for all of us rather than just for one company or two as you have in your past If you will when I call your name come to the podium here to the left and we will Have each of you come individually this president the first recipient is mr. James B. Cantrell president of Belco Industries Incorporated of Carrizozo, New Mexico Mr. John bond huss president of bond huss corporation Monticello, Minnesota Mr. Emery G all caught president of Canberra Industries meredin, Connecticut Mr. Sergio de armist president of Florida exporters and importers Association of Miami, Florida Mr. Leonard Koonsman director of the agriculture development and marketing division of the Oregon Department of Agriculture of Salem, Oregon Mr. Reef Pfeiffer Reese Pfeiffer president Pfeiffer wire products, Tuscaloosa, Alabama Mr. Richard D messenger Chairman of the board of power Kerber's incorporated Salisbury, North Carolina Mr. David Zimineck president REC specialties Camarillo, California Dr. Leonard Skulnick president spits space systems Chads Ford, Pennsylvania Mr. John Walker, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development in Nashville Tennessee I assume Dr. Donald Turville president Zeus scientific incorporated raritan, New Jersey this president those are the 11 E awards and we have three star e-star award recipients They are mr. Harold W. Godderson president Gomaco corporation Ida Grove, Iowa Mr. William Donahue Commissioner, New York State Department of Commerce and last but not least mr. President mr. Steve Perry general manager Toledo scale company division of reliance Electric, Worthington, Ohio Thank you all again for being here Congratulations to all of you and thank you very much now. I'll go back to work Thank you all for coming we'd like to have the opportunity to congratulate each one of you ourselves


Three, four, five, my mom said, tapping each fence panel in turn. The rain hammered down and I was soaking wet, desperate to get inside. Still, she didn't like it when I argued, so I just helped to count, in the hope it would get done quicker. It didn't. As usual, she had to do it again herself. She flipped the light switch 17 times before sitting at the table with me. So, Oliver, how was your day at school today? Tell me what you learned, she said. She was so used to the rhythm that I never saw her visibly counting. It was good, I started tapping out each syllable as I spoke with my finger to count them. We did fractions and math, and I got them all right. I paused. That was 15 syllables. She raised her eyebrow at me. Your day, I added. She smiled, satisfied. You might sound insane. It was.  It's an inconvenience.  My teachers commented that I was a pretty average child who was very good at math and poetry. Besides that, I was quiet. I mostly went by unnoticed. I'm sure they wouldn't blame me if they knew why. Trying to tell the teacher the answer to four times five in exactly 17 syllables was likely to make you appear quite strange. I asked why, of course. I asked why in every combination of 17 syllables that you can imagine. It didn't take long after starting school. Before I realized the other kids didn't have to do everything in 17s. They didn't count out 17 chips from the bag to eat, and they didn't have to have exactly 17 toys. Birthdays were never very fun for me. Getting new toys meant throwing away the same amount of old ones, and they never had to stay at home on the 17th of every month to do 17 hours of silence. The number 17 keeps us safe. If we don't do it, we'll die, she said, matter of factly. I accepted it in the way you accept everything as a child. I left home on my 17th birthday. It wasn't my choice. It was the way it had to be. I'd been prepared for it. I knew ever since I was a small child that I'd be leaving on that day, regardless of my circumstances at the time. I was relieved, to be honest. I loved my mom more than anything, but I came to realize that she was very mentally unwell. I wanted her to get help that she so desperately needed. But she refused to admit she had a problem. During one particularly rebellious moment as a teenager, I turned the volume on the TV up to 18, but her reaction ensured I never tried it again. The older I got. And the more I realized how I'd been cheated out of a normal childhood, the angrier I became. As I matured and got on with my own life, I withdrew from her for my own sake. When I got the call that she died, I'm ashamed to say I didn't feel much of anything. I was 34 with a wife and two kids of my own and contact with my mother had gradually dwindled ever since I left home. I felt like I barely knew her anymore. The funeral director called.  Oh, and when are you going to the house? I was thinking I could come with you tomorrow. The twins will be at Jasper's house. I haven't even thought about that. I guess I need disorder stuff.  But some things like the syllables I occasionally still did out of habit. My childhood home look just as I remembered it. Jenny approached the front door and I moved automatically to the fence. One, two, I started. What are you doing? Jenny asked, bemused. I stopped. What was I doing? I shuffled slightly, feeling uncomfortable.   But I felt a strange sense of anxiety as I stopped and joined her at the door. It was the first time in my life I'd entered this house without first tapping and counting the 17 fence panels. I pushed away the fleeting image of my mother turning in her grave. I reached automatically for the light switch and with a great deal of mental energy flipped it only once. I felt sick to my stomach. It was strange.  But somehow, being in this house, it made it all come back. The house had always been extremely cluttered, but now it was even worse. Jenny's jaw dropped as she looked around. Seventeen tiny house plants lined the windowsill, 17 mugs hung on the kitchen wall, 17 pens in the jar, 17, 17, 17. Jenny didn't have to count everything. To see how strange and out of place everything looked, it was immediately apparent to anyone with eyes that this house contained either too many or too few of everything. I walked up 17 stairs to my childhood bedroom. It was completely empty. It hadn't been turned into an office or a guest room or anything. It was just four bare walls with no furniture inside. I felt strangely annoyed about this.  But as I looked through the house amongst the clutter, there was literally nothing left to indicate in any way that she even had a son. Feeling nauseous, I walked out to the back garden and lit a cigarette. I smiled and wondered whether if my mom had been a smoker. She would have insisted on smoking 17 at a time. I closed the door behind me and took 17 mindless steps to the shed. When I was a kid, I would have to take big strides to make it 17, but now it was effortless. The shed was locked. Maybe she kept my stuff in there. It made me feel better to think she may have kept some sentimental stuff. Maybe she cleared out all the junk and now it's full of boxes of memories. Maybe there were 17 drawings from when I was a kid and 17 report cards and 17 photographs. I would eventually need to get it open to empty it out. But I decided I would leave that until last to keep the hope alive a little longer. My thoughts were interrupted by an ear splitting shriek that made my blood run cold. Jenny. As soon as I rushed back in the house, it felt somehow eerily quiet. Jenny. No answer. I called out again. Nothing. The bubbling sense of unease that I'd felt since arriving transformed into complete and utter terror as I ran around the house, throwing all the doors open. Every room was empty. She wasn't there. It was then that I heard the tapping. I looked around, trying to identify where it was coming from. It was like it was coming from everywhere at once. Four taps. It was getting louder. Five.  Six taps. The tapping stopped. Eighteen taps. I hadn't even meant to count them. I just always counted everything automatically ever since I was little. I grabbed my phone to call her, but it went straight to voicemail. I ran downstairs again, counting each step automatically as I ran. Sixteen. Sixteen steps. How was that possible? There have always been seventeen steps. I couldn't miscount. I never miscounted anything. I've been counting my whole life. I resisted the urge to go back up, to count again, but Jenny was more important. I heard the scream again. It was inhuman, horrifying. It was coming at me from every direction, closing in on me. It wasn't Jenny's voice. It couldn't be. I didn't know what else to do, so I searched every room again. When I flung open the kitchen door once more, Jenny stood in the center of the room, just staring at me. She looked completely normal, except all the color had drained from her face. I grabbed her and pulled her close to me, but her arms hung limply at her side. Jenny, what happened? Where were you? I've been here the whole time, but you haven't finished your sentence, Ollie. Then she collapsed on the floor. She was still for a moment, until lots of things started happening at the same time. She started heaving and retching, coughing up blood. Then she did. She shook and convulsed in my arms. I reached for my phone automatically, shocked in horror, making me barely aware of what I was saying to the operator. All I could do was hold her and be there and pray that she would hang in until they arrived. Time seemed to slow down then. It was like I wasn't really in my body, but I was watching myself, as if I were someone else. It was then that a memory formed and as I looked at my wife, I wasn't just looking at her. In my mind, I saw the image of a man lay on the same kitchen floor in a pool of thick red blood. I could smell the bacon burning as though it was happening right next to me. My mom was there too in the memory, younger than I remembered her. We were both screaming. I called the man daddy. It wasn't possible. I had no memories of my father, who I was told had passed shortly after I was born. A lack of pictures of him in the house and my mom's unwillingness to talk about him meant I didn't even know what he looked like. Yet, here I could see every line on his face. As quickly as it came to me, it went. I was back in the kitchen, holding Jenny and telling her it was all going to be okay as she brought up more blood until her shirt was covered in it. I mentally willed the ambulance to hurry up, the smell of bacon lingering in my nostrils. I had a moment of clarity then.  I needed to get her out of this house. Carrying a 120-pound woman was somehow more difficult than I would have expected. When I got to the front door, I realized it was stuck. My mind wandered back to the memory I had earlier, and I wondered if it was real, whether this had happened back then as well. Had my mother tried to drag my father out of the house and been unable to get out. I wasn't going to give up that easily. I grabbed a chair, broke the window, and with only a few gashes on me, I managed to get us out and lay Jenny down. The moment we were outside, my mind started to clear again, and I knew everything would be okay. By the time the ambulance arrived at 1717, if it wasn't for the fact that Jenny was covered in blood, you wouldn't have known anything at all that happened to her. She'd managed to sit herself up and looked like she just suffered quite a severe nose bleed. They took her in to check her out, but could find nothing wrong with her. I don't know what happened in the house. All I know is that when we returned home, Jenny knocked on our own door 17 times before pushing it open. When we went to pick up the girls from her brother Jasper's, she made me drive around the block 17 times before stopping. As I write this, she's on the computer house hunting. She wants to move, you see. She doesn't mind where we move to as long as it's to a number 17. I don't know why the number 17 is so important, but I know that it is. I know now that I won't ever escape it. I can live with it if it keeps us safe. I just wish I could apologize to my mom now that I know she wasn't mentally unwell after all. She was right. She was just protecting us. Maybe if I'd listened more or taken her more seriously, she could have told me what from.