Since we're reorganization, I'll start to open the meeting up here called meeting to order at 6 o'clock and I'm going to jump the agenda Right to the board reorganization So I don't have to be running the meeting any longer than possible So I would look for nominations for board chair I'll nominate Krisby Bay. Kris, are you going? Absolutely, I'm going to serve Second for that. I would second that. Is that getting used to the process? Yeah, that's fine Are there any other nominations? I would nominate Woden if you would accept No, yeah, is there anybody else who wants the position? I would do board chair. I had thought I wouldn't if you were running Discussion Any discussions? I'm just giving me time for it. So We as I think it's fairly well known on the board we have a something to split which is now evident again And I think that we when it comes to board chair We'll need to work pretty hard All of us will have to work pretty hard because it's not the singular entity that does it I Will say although we have splits on certain issues I think we're unifying when we vote for programs and funding for the school and for the students as a whole and That is where I don't believe there's any split in that If I'm elected board chair, I would I'm trying Open things up a little bit quite frankly. I don't think there would be Even though the board chairs the primary communicator with the superintendent I would share emails around it wouldn't stop with me. There would be free flow of information so that Board members were informed pretty closely to in time to when I was informed about matters to come up You know because I think one of the things that I found pretty frustrating was to find out about things later in time We're right before board meeting When there's really no time for contemplation and reflection. And so I Would really work hard to do that Be quite frankly, I would also work pretty hard to reach out to the staff members more I don't think we've done that well, and I think I really push to do that because we're here a Perspective that we don't know often here and it's a very important one because our step members of the boots on the ground And they're the ones who are implementing all the teaching and policies that we end up passing so You know just give me an interview where I think or how I would Use this for all and serve For me the it's really essential to run a An efficient meeting and a meeting that is really clear on what everybody's role is I was very impressed at the last meeting that took place at U32 when Woden was running it. I liked how she made it very clear On agenda items that she would hear from board members first and then open it up to the audience that Gave me as a board member a chance to know that I would have the opportunity to share my opinion And it let the audience know when it was appropriate for them to have input I Agree with a lot of what Chris said about Engaging with the staff. I think the only piece I would add is that I would talk with the board about doing that as an Individual I would not feel that it was my role to go and reach out to them on my own And I would have some concerns around violating open meeting laws and Feel like through our emails we've had to do More than two or three reminders about open meeting law specifically With Chris's communication and that would concern me if you were board chair For discussion I want to first just react to the Sort of the idea of the division and the tension on the board, which I readily admit that There is a layer of that that exists But the idea that this that this board votes 3-2 on a regular basis Which was something I heard and leading up to the school board election Give me pause and I went back to to the minutes Because I was really curious and as it turned out we cast over 40 votes as a board last year four of which were 3-2 and Three of those were around board reorganization and one of them was on adopting the Vermont school board of code of ethics so you know I Think that's just important to to recognize that That when we have for them for the vast majority of the time We're working ideally on things I Just want to be clear about my position It's fair to the public I Was sort of not expecting this to shake out the way that it did In terms of having this happening and again tonight with two people running for this position And I really had my self didn't have any intentions in nominating a challenger Not have this type of dynamic play out But I just want to be kind of transparent where I have Trouble supporting Chris you and leading our board for a few specific reasons and One of them being sort of this whole idea of the community forum or mediation that we've been sort of wrestling with for many months and back in June That Sort of was delegated to you to lead and I know at some point along the way That Switched passed off and then came back, but it took us eight months to finally You know once we knew what we sort of wanted to do and I was engaged a facilitator took us eight months To make that happen And so that's you know, I have a concern with just that type of follow-through on something has that magnitude I Also have concern about Something that happened last year At a sort of climate meeting at school and which is a member of these representing the school board with two parents there Who were sort of preparing to share some very emotional experiences for them? You went at them and in a way in a way that basically made them feel like They didn't belong in that room because they were going to be sharing negative experiences and That's I Just don't think that's the way in which a board member can conduct themselves in such a fashion And the last thing is You know, we are about to enter perhaps a new era based on what we find out from the state about whether or not we've received the blessing of our Alternative governance model or if they have other plans for us And I think that's going to really take True leadership no matter what from our board chair To help guide us through that that process and no matter what I think we're gonna have to work more closely with other school boards As we move forward and I just I Don't feel comfortable that you're the best person to meet that fill that need I Really appreciate Caroline's perspective that she brings to the table in terms of her organizational skills her but her background is very valuable for someone that You know believes wholeheartedly in education, but has no experience in terms of you know the educational system and And as a professional Having her insight from that degree as an educator and as an administrator. I've found extremely valuable I think we're talking about issues Around things like trauma that has become you know something that we become more in tune with as a really important Factor in Many of the children across our supervisory union that are you're dealing with her knowledge and that's I just I feel like there's lots of strengths that She will bring That will help us lead us in a way that I would feel positive about moving forward in a way that this board needs to Forward to kind of get beyond the politics of things that start focusing on the kids So I need to briefly respond to Brian's comments about the climate committee And I'm saying you you were not at the meeting But you heard about it from your wife family leader And I don't know if you ever spoke with best scouting Stephanie or not But I was at that meeting and I did not go after either one of those individuals Because I knew the Actually couch my comments of saying understanding each of your families had experiences My comments were pointed toward creating a balanced view because there are no I didn't see any family representatives So folks who have positive experiences with that And and that's what I was forcing I ended up from you know It's supposed to appear at a meeting later in the day And I got a call from Lauer sharp Saying that you told him and we're very upset because Emily told you very upset And I bowed out of that indifference to you So I really disagree with your characterization that I went after anybody I don't think I do that. I haven't done that in these four meetings Which have been more numerous than the climate committee meeting so I just want to put that on the record because you know creating record here of sorts In March when we were discussing this and I don't remember if it was actually at a meeting or More informal It was suggested that you follow up with the central office staff who was at that meeting and check in and see their opinion Did you ever follow through with that? Because the day of that meeting I was at central office recording the audio and I heard about The incident because the central office staff had communicated Had communicated with somebody else Which was the superintendent who let me know that it may cause an issue at the board and when I said what happened What I was told was that you had gotten verbally aggressive Towards the two parents who were there and that is why when we discussed it in March I had suggested that you follow up with the central office staff who was at the meeting and you said that would be a good idea The director of student services who was leading the meeting No, and I don't use staff names at board meetings. I use positions In terms of transparency, we need to be able to talk about individuals Who you're referring to and the director of student services and so it's Kelly bushy And I wonder if this is getting to a place That would be better to have another discussion at another time on this subject It's up to you guys. I'm gonna let it go I'm just trying to I'm trying to keep this in a place on the target of where we are Don't have these frank discussions in public as we should be so Kelly bushy May have taken that tack, but there are other members from the central office like the psychologist Carol Holden I believe there are multiple other members of the only staff who were there as well and Did you did you ask any of them? This is not about I'm just asking if you Followed up because you had said when we discussed it that that would be a good place to go to get feedback about it Well, I don't know if you ever mentioned Kelly's name, but I was sitting right next to Kelly. She was right at my side and she I was certainly voicing my opinion about why all the family members were not there But I did not consider myself to be going after Pascal or Emily Well, I think what's important is that a couple things one you have to recognize where Perhaps your intent was and what the actual implications were on the receiving end of Of that for the people that were there I also, you know Understand that Kelly told you to stop Yeah Well, I actually have to Kelly going to stop I stop You know because the others were uncomfortable And I was voicing opinion about a balanced view and presentation to a climate committee that was Investigating and a climate and climate is not one-sided and perception is not necessarily reality I think I'd like to say that I think we have a lot to work out clearly I think that it is very appropriate to do it in a public session. I don't know that this is the right moment. I I'm supporting Chris for chair because I think he's in the best position to Work with Amy work with bill and work with community members and work with the staff And I have always seen him to behave with great propriety and Also a sense of curiosity that I think it's quite useful in this position. I have one small thing to add I don't know Caroline quite as well as I know Chris. I think that Caroline has some real strengths in really following policy and really making sure that Rules are being followed, which is really great Chris I have to say I Have I have been more and more impressed with Chris McBae throughout this entire campaign I talked to probably 60 people in our community Calling people and trying to reach out to them at various times And Chris came up multiple times with how many people felt comfortable with some of the decisions that he made how they felt Like he had a really fair and balanced view of things and getting to know him personally. I've I'd say I've been Actually really shocked by sort of the breadth of knowledge that's been there. So that is I support Chris for sure as the chair for that reason and Caroline I think you have a lot of fantastic strengths as well And so I think especially the way that you can really kind of see through the issues and make sure that the rules are being followed Is something that as a board I'm sure will benefit from greatly Are you ready to vote? Are you ready to? Keep discussing Okay All those in favor of Chris McBae being chair of Romney board signify sorry I should say the middle-sex school board because it's not the Romney board. It's the middle-sex school board Stay by back all those In favor of Caroline being the chair of the Romney of the middle-sex school board. I'm still trying to switch my language Congratulations Chris. You're the chair. I turn it over to you So let me welcome everyone to our meeting tonight and We certainly will we we expect and hope for Communication with the audience as we go along when the time is appropriate But we're going to continue on our agenda vote. We welcome everyone to our meeting and So we will continue with the reorganization The next online is to elect a vice chair of the board. Are there any nominations for vice chair? I nominate Caroline Are there any more nominations? Any discussion? Does anybody else want the position? Hearing none called the vote all in favor of Caroline May as vice chair of the middle-sex school district Next position up is to elect a clerk Can I just give a little and that's Chris I'll do this a couple times. I'm sorry. I just been doing this with all the boards That clerk you're taking minutes if there isn't a secretary present and It does mean that some signatories are needed by the clerk at a couple times during the year mainly around the bonding of money Because of it's just a different signature line than all the board So I just wanted to say those are it's not a big heavy-duty, but it's one to know what they are A question about the position. I have a particular interest in being a part of communicating our Creating a bridge between the the board and the community So does the clerk position have a specific role in Communicating with the community or is that something else? So understat I'm just going to answer your factual under statute. No, it's some boards. Yes, that's up to the board We This past year had somebody other than the clerk Responsible for communicating okay, so it could be part of that position. It doesn't have to be Yeah, like I said, I have a particular interest in that and by that I mean I Feel that we need to have a website that's more Transparent and more helpful to people regarding what exactly is that each meeting when the meetings are where they are? And generalized communications, maybe through the revenue the newsletter that goes out front porch forum I Think those are kind of the big ones And so I have an interest in in doing that job if nobody else does and if somebody else does I'd like to talk About maybe perhaps the ways that you might like to do that job also so I'm not sure if that counts at this but I nominate Allison Senior people don't get Whether any other nominations any discussion would anybody else like the job? Yeah, sounds like you're a lock Allison we would I would gladly take your help I'm serious. I'm and I say that was all sincerity Is it is it you that I'm responsible for so we can talk about that and I know it says discussion item later So the next item up is to establish A regular meeting in an awkward packet. We had a memorandum from U32 and we have a U32 rep who might be familiar to some of us to speak to that issue Yeah, just go ahead Of either to board Scott is here. He's also you third to board member For I don't know at least the 12 years I've been on the U32 board and probably many many more before that the U32 board met meets the first Wednesday and the third Wednesday of the month Probably a couple years ago. We tried to streamline it. So we were only meeting one Wednesday, but they're always November Excuse me November December January We always meet twice a month So we always meet the first Wednesday and the third month Wednesday during budget season because we can't get it done in Just one meeting a month Last year the Romney born unbeknownst to us Chose the third Wednesday of the month for their meeting and it never been there before and so November December and January We didn't have bill at our meeting because you only meet once a month So of course he would come to you we had to wrestle about Lori at our meeting and it just seems like It would be great if you guys could choose a meeting that didn't conflict with ours Because I think it would be better for everybody your board our board Both communities people in middle-sex could go to U32 board meeting or the Romney board meeting They wouldn't have to choose one not that people do that a lot, but I would just appreciate your consideration of a different night Do we have information on when all the other boards? So you are the last board to meet right now this month So I can tell you what's happening and then I'll tell you as you all know I'm working on my doctor that Chris has been instrumental in helping me get to that Through your leadership over the years encouragement So Tuesday nights is my doctoral night because I have I have online meetings on Tuesday nights We've said that as our cohorts and you want to be at these meetings. I'd like to be at all the meetings You know I'm here I am here you're superintendent, so I think I know there are a lot of other places for input So I would do I Have expanded from when I initially was here, which was just Monday or Wednesday, so I would add Thursdays. I would add other times So Monday Wednesday Thursday, sorry, that was a little long Yeah Fridays if you want to do Fridays, too, I don't know many people want to be here on Friday night And I'll I can tell you those schedule the other boards when you get there Okay, yeah, okay, so Berlin is on the the U32 is on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday Berlin is on the 2nd Monday Dodie is on the 2nd Wednesday and East Montclair is on the 3rd Monday. I Would and Calus is on the 3rd Thursday Yes, a third Thursday and I would tell you one of the things we learned with Calus and the reason they moved to the third Thursday Is that the 4th week of the month? Two times February and December is usually has a vacation, so you're rescheduling and the 4th Monday of the month gets impacted four or five times a year because of holidays like Memorial Day So I just know those days because we've tried to try to make it as efficient for board members as all also We just have started to learn the patterns of the calendar So the 4th Wednesday sounds like it's available is that that's an exact that is usually either a supervisory union Meeting or the executive committee. We're right now having even established that's going to happen tomorrow night Do the supervisory union meetings? Do they ever meet when the local boards do not? So this is a whole nother issue we're going to talk about a minute down here brown calendar And we're going to do a better two years ago You know we did a calendar and last and I was had feedback from two years ago. Don't do the calendar again There's been too many changes. So last year we didn't do a calendar that created more chaos. So this year We're doing a calendar again but They usually happen on those would be those carousel meetings this will be discussed at the executive committee tomorrow night and probably The Supervisory Union like I'm hoping it will be because I think there should be some discussion on this but there was We've had four Carousel meetings seem to be what's working plus a budget meeting for the SU those carousels have been September October February and June where March and December there are SU board meetings that have to happen But they're not necessarily a carousel with an immediate carousel. There has to be a local board That's a lot of information without a graphic picture of all this I mean Thursdays are tough in summer because my husband sails. We don't meet that often in summer Probably I'd rather I mean I'd rather a Thursday than a Monday. I think Mondays are really tough I Find Wednesdays, it's really hard for me to hear right at six I think once I thought Wednesdays are Totally Thursday Friday I could do Friday Tuesday I would ask not to It's a Monday Thursday Yeah, okay, and then the Mondays would either be the first or the fourth whether it wouldn't be a conflict Thursdays are open for first second and fourth right now So we have Monday versus Thursday at this point I guess how difficult is Thursday for Caroline versus somebody said Monday was a problem. I said Monday was Oh, I just found as an administrator It was hard to have the late night be at the beginning of the week And then you have the whole week to get through before you can rest and recover Oh, I see She works all the time I also have a preference for Thursday actually just because people have sick animals and they always call me on Monday Especially if we did like the first Thursday of the month Usually rains then Yeah, it's fine First Thursday of the month works for me except I will not be here on May 3rd. Oh, that's I won't either that's my son's birthday Didn't know that was the date Probably So, but I can say we do so we're We can jump I can't promise that but I'm pretty sure we can we've been juggling Thursday is Vacation I would actually So one of the things we learned and one of the reasons you all thought about not being on the first Monday first Monday remember we used to be there for years the first Monday was that was so early in the month So I actually would would support a second Thursday instead of a first Thursday I think it actually makes it easier. I mean Adrian in sky You may know that sometimes at U32 we get we're in the first of the month and then we got a long time that first week To go and sometimes the benefits. It's kind of a roll of the dice One of the problems with the first Thursday of the month is when you have a Full board meeting and a carousel meeting. It's the last Wednesday of the month And so you're literally meeting three or four days later. And so if you wait another week Yeah, you've generated more business Thanks for a quick meeting, but but then it makes for a long time. Okay second Thursday I don't care. Okay, so Pick the second Thursday of the month as we're going to schedule board meeting And anybody have time time problem at six at six o'clock p.m Yes, I thank you so now we need to establish the The newspaper in the locations for Official postings and I talked to this one as well, Chris. I'm gonna be doing this to you a lot. I'm sorry Just to give you information I would recommend that you use the Times-Argus so we have the same paper across all our schools Yeah, and and this doesn't mean we won't do other places The other thing is the statute has a minimum of two official postings We already post it more than to the two official But I recommend that in case we have an emergency meeting or 24 hour meeting It's easier to get postings up where they need to be they rarely happen But we'll post it as many places as you want But that in this motion, it's important to say just the two official physical locations and they must be physical They can't be virtual and currently I believe that it's the town offices in here Okay As the basic posting sites, but we can go more than one of them you should okay, so I move that we Establish time August as our official newspaper and location the minimal statutory really required posting locations of the From the school and the middle sex town clerk's office the phone board there Second All in favor Okay Next up is to elect a representative and then open it to the WCSU executive committee nominate Brian Tiglia Farrow for the representative of the executive committee Any other nominations? Do we know what day that meeting is so right now tomorrow? It's Thursday, but we don't have that sex We're waiting for all this calendar To happen and it looks at the issue one of the things that we have found is that the supervisory union meeting and having the executive committee Meeting on the same night doesn't work I'm just saying that plainly and blankly. It's just it's really cumbersome to either have a half hour an hour meeting right before And it's been much better from what I've heard from executive committee members as we tried to move it somewhere into the third week Most likely that will be either a Wednesday or Thursday But we have the U32 meeting schedule as well So those are the places. I think it will be the third Thursday, but I'm just not sure I need to talk it over with the executive committee and look at the issue and kind of balance This calendar it's one of things we're going to talk more about that as we get further down into the issue committees as well We're still trying to job that that's The best I can tell you right now. It's traditionally had always been the fourth Wednesday, but doing more care cells In the way that as you the executive committee has been working is to try to develop things collaboratively there for the SU board meetings So to be able to do that having it on the same night doesn't work I wish I had a wish I had a more definite answer. I just don't I Know me that Chris McBeth Are you willing? Any other nominees For the executive committee position as representative any discussion I Served on the executive committee this past year and worked With Kari Bradley to Tweak the superintendent evaluation we had a goal of a hundred percent board participation We did have an increase in the number of board members who completed their evaluations, but it was not a hundred percent Did you complete your superintendent evaluation? I did And is there a very other board member now? I am I was planning to ask last time, but we didn't have time We can hear the questions now did you Write comments as well as scoring. Yes, I do So I will say that having read all of the comments. I was surprised That some of the ones that you had made in public and in the executive session where we discussed it did not show up on the evaluation So and so let's do this. Let's have since you're relying on valuations that were submitted for the superintendent's Evaluation right you're citing my Evaluation in particular. I don't no no no no we can't see them. I don't know who submitted which one So I'm gathering the data and based on the data and seeing the comments I had made the assumption that you had not done yours Because the comments Thank you My answer when I said yes No, I believe I didn't see the comments that we talked about. No, I believed you and you said yes I was questioning I Was questioning that you did not make those comments that surprised me I'm not questioning that you did it But the fact that you Have spoken strongly about specific issues and those comments were not on the evaluation That was surprising to me and last year when you ran you had talked about how you would take that role and the Evaluating of the superintendent personally and that some of the things you would do would be to communicate When you felt necessary directly with the superintendent Whereas I felt that going through the means of a formal evaluation was more appropriate Which comments do you think I didn't make There were limited comments specific to Community support and and overall staff That you could when we went through each one in the executive session that we had talked about the importance of comments Now you're talking about comments that we made in the executive session And I would say that the comments that did make on those evaluation. I think we're very specific And I hope helpful I don't get to see them. I don't get to see if I only get to see a summer and probably identifiable so I Just say for clarity since we're talking about my evaluation here And we set this pattern Chris when you help develop it I think it was actually a good thing that I get to see a summary But I don't get to see the individual comments, okay, and they get filtered and given to me And I don't get to see actually individual comments I just get to see the summary of what the evaluation team puts together. I actually wish I did see all the comments Not trying and I don't want to try to attach it anyway. I think they'd be helpful So I think that's and that's what we do with Principles teachers everybody I would advocate for a broader range of valuations so that we had responses from staff members because The superintendent serves all of our members not just the board members And I think the board members oftentimes just don't have a broad breadth of experience With with Bell because they see my board means and they don't see them in the operation of the school So that is something I advocated for originally And the full board did not want to do that in that and I found that it wasn't expanded last year And I think she think it should be Because you can get some valuable insight on performance based on the individuals who are the More direct relationship and it's not necessarily just board members or administrators.  I think through the administrators We are going to talk about the this evaluation tool at some point correct Is that on our agenda for perhaps next week? Well, you know no the Just the executive committee, okay I thought we were going to have a moment to provide feedback on that that would be helpful Brian did you complete your superintendent? Thank you So all in favor of Christmas day as the Run the rep on the executive committee Next step is the alternative to the WCSU executive committee And And so just from a practical standpoint, this is if you can't go to the meeting I go in your stead And you can go and I'm going to go while they're just we're over meetings anybody can be there, right? Yeah, but you are voting member when you're when you're and you become a voting member for the SU Board because the bylaw one things that we learned two years ago getting tighter on the Supervisory Union bylaws is that The bylaws actually state for the Supervisory Union if you are the executive committee member or the alternate You become a voting member for the SU board So Okay, and so this is occasionally potential on the third Thursday of the month No, we know what I wish I wish that I could promise you something else. I just don't have it right now That's okay. I can I can accept this So All in favor of Allison Cornwall as the alternative for the executive committee as a running rep So next is to like three members to the Supervisory Union board and the executive committee member in the alternative must alternate must be voting members of the executive of the Supervisory Union board, so it looks like we have one Individual to be Selected I nominate Chris McVeigh Allison Cornwall and Brian Tiglia Ferro as our three voting members on the Supervisory Union board I would second that Any discussion, okay all in favor Okay, now we're down to Electing representative and alternate to each of the following WCSU committees, and we'll take them one by one Can I bill one? Yeah, it's gonna let me speak to all the workload that's on because all these have different workloads, okay? In negotiations there really isn't an alternate. I've been discouraging that Even though it is required by our bylaws, but the way we do interspace bargaining the ground rules that get set in there And Scott you're in there so you can confirm or I wasn't there.  They are next year. Sorry. Thank you for helping me. I wasn't being totally clear We'll be negotiating a teacher contract and an ESP contract. Although the ESP contract is not Does not affect the middle-sex school district, okay? And so there will be quite a few meetings without calendar because they'll be trying to get a group of 20 together and Windows meetings I have no idea Okay, so Individuals interested. I'm sorry. I missed. Do we know dates and times for any of the meetings is that we just asked? So last time negotiations was an early afternoon like it was a for it really depends I can't it's who's on the committee chooses it who's on the group. It's it's a negotiations with the association it generally tries to happen and We usually try to have three hour sessions. We tried to start as soon as after school as we can Last time the rep from the middle-sex board was Laura sharp and Laura continued after he was off the board to continue through that It we've had some years where it's been four meetings We've had some years where we've gone all the way to mediation. So it can be any of the in-between and I Think we have very good labor relations right now I'm biased who is on negotiations from Dodie Johnny waterhouse great She did awesome last time. So I was making sure somebody and Susanna Culver who Yeah, she's been chairing at the past two or three times and she's on it again from Cal's I Tried it last time and my work schedule didn't allow it Please forgive me Chris. I'm not volunteering but I just have to interject that in my I don't know maybe Ten years of being a member of the board. It's probably the most positive experience Sustained experience. I've had as a board member is doing being on the negotiations doing interspace bargaining In both sides, we have really good labor management relations. He's not kidding The process is great. The people are great. It's just really good experience. So Okay Can we take a step back and see what of these things people do have an interest in so we can start to see where we're I'll speak all unless you'd like So transportation I've kind of been joking with the other boards This is the one you want to jump for we're in our second year of a five-year contract I don't foresee it meeting unless something comes out of school start time, but I think a lot of things will be there Policy it meets right now currently the second Monday of every month, but that may not happen going forward because Berlin has made their Established their meeting time earlier in the afternoon So there's something we have to find and one of the things we're going to do is once everyone's on these committees Is conduct some doodle polls to say what are the best? That is almost a monthly meeting It probably two to three times A year it doesn't meet on a month. It didn't meet this month of March School quality has been a meet has been a subcommittee that's been you can you back up a little actually? I'm I'm sorry to say that I have with these up, but I'm still not fully aware of exactly what The policy committee does in particular so one of the things that the That's a really good question Allison I've been trying to figure that out for my five and a half years here Because there's nothing that says what the policy committee should do Okay, they're one of the things that's been in agreement. What? There's no charge let's how about we say that Kevin there's no charge and I would like and it's actually one of things You'll see in my report that I gave to the executive committee for tomorrow night Is that I think they need to have more direction from this Supervisor Union board? One of the things they set for themselves four years ago was to use the common There are 28 required policies in the state of Vermont by the state or federal statute And they said they would use they would come to common policies on those For the first time and have them reviewed every five years If there are two more to go this spring, they'll have that done So that's things like kids have to be in school X number of days per year at X many hours per day That that's what you mean when you say 28 policies. Well that that's not it's something like that That's not a good example. That's a statue piece, but something would be like the hazing harassment bull Okay, or Animal dissection believe it or not is one that has to be a state require a state There are a few things a you might say wait a minute. There are also In the efficiency study there was a call there was a recommendation to look at having common policies across all boards And so my my question is where are we on that? And this group has to accelerate their work They have used the templates from the Vermont school board's association to use that and they bring them to the supervisory union or to be adopted there and There are two more policies. I hope that will be finished this spring And it'll be the first time that we will be staying within the goal of that committee Which is to review all required policies every five years To make sure that we're to date. Does that give you enough? It does. Thank you Transportation we Establish our transportation policy and how we provide transportation To the five towns that committee does that work They The past contract the past couple two times they have just really done in the contract negotiations And look for outside provider, which has been for students the past two times. They've been a little bitter for that the actual Workings of transportation and the SU is done through a transportation coordinator at the central office School quality is a committee that was started by U32 and It's really been working on monitoring reports. How do we monitor the work that's going on in the schools and My recommendation has been and have been putting all of this is that it really should be a supervisory union committee Not a U32 committee because we're working on our monitoring together and Different forms. I'll just say it that way There could be a long discussion after that the school start time is a committee that was established last year to look at school start time We met prior to this meeting today That does not have consistency, but we're getting into a public forum as you hopefully if everyone here is seen There's a forum next Monday night. Please attend at U32 Scott will be leading some folks Chris and will be as well It's your discussion on school start time So we're looking at that at that and it's probably going to expand from not just school start time But it's charged with that right now the leadership team would like it to talk about length of day calendar And other things as well because there's many things that go into them So I hope does that give you enough? Literally asking you because yeah, some of this is new. No, I'm sure the Transport the school quality is meeting on Thursdays right now on the third Thursday of the month And that's what they're trying to do with that Transportation doesn't have a set schedule school start time is all over the map right now And I don't mean that in a bad way We just made a schedule to get the forums done to get to the point Where we could have some really detailed forums to get some Brainstorming done and then to get to a survey to go out to all the community by the end of the school year To get some feedback based on the brainstorming that comes out of those sessions So informally look listening to what bill had to say and what I know about the committees It sounds to me like The ones that at least are clear to me Policy I think it makes sense for Chris because you would be the diversity of the group because you have opinions on policies and looking beyond the model You know what I'm you know what I'm saying, and I think that would be helpful to that group School start time has a lot to do with community outreach So I think that would be a good one for Allison if she was interested Transportation I did before and would be happy to do again since they rarely meet School quality and negotiations I think are the ones that if Everybody else agreed with my interpretation of those those would be the ones that it it would depend who is interested Just like to say I'm also interested in policy, and I think Chris and I have sort of a similar take Yeah, I could see that I actually have a particular interest in the school start time There's a ton of data I don't like I think it's really going to come down to how it happens and how people have a voice in it, so Oh Yeah So I'm gonna move that for the moment we've negotiations vacant like that We nominate wouldn't teach out for Representation on the policy committee May as our representative on the transportation committee Teleparo as our representative on the school quality committee and Allison Colmore as our representative on the school start time committee Would you well Chris you just making sure we get to work we want to get to that Sooner than later, but we don't need it tonight, okay, and how you said there would be a Way to figure out the best times for people is that true for negotiations to or it's more up to the Negotiations you bring in the association and this is this is just I want to say this in the most collaborative way It's associations there, so we have to have everyone on the table to kind of figure out My recollection of it. I don't remember having any Say in what the times were I can't I don't know if that's because I entered after they had started or sometimes the presidents and I Shares of the negotiation or who we think is going to be chair of the negotiations for the board kind of Yeah, that try to figure that out But we don't do that until there's been letters exchanged saying we're willing to negotiate and that usually doesn't happen until October And at that point you have to know who the players are Okay So I think I think we're gonna need to be in June with a rep Yeah, I think going anything past there would be issues And that's always the current has always been I shouldn't say always is always been the principal Okay, I need discussion favor Okay, so now we're down to the consent agenda may I ask you something do you want to go back up to 1.0? Yes, thank you, so we received our guests Other agenda revisions I Was hoping to move a point timekeeper from 1.4 down to read to board reorganization So that it's a role that is consistent, and we don't have to do it every meeting I would like to be in a time Thanks In terms of agenda religious revisions, I would love to have a moment where we talk about maybe doing it It's a call to statement of appreciation for our bus drivers. I know it's been a party Maybe Resolution a resolution. Thank you Any others Any other public comment or correspondence from anyone got two or three communications from people up out interested in gun Yes, discusses about guns in schools We all got one from Katie Chavaux At least not for your past one Monday night, so can I have both of those ours came Mostly from Montpelier, and we changed a little bit But I have them I don't have them in paper, but I have them electronically and I can read them to you If that's something where you wanted to go We could make it happen pretty quickly if you were so to adopt that resolution Is there The only reason to do it tonight is that there's legislation pending. Is that right? Yes, there is there's discussions going on We we've been sending that to our reprises and the senator's governor Secretary of Education and the chairs of House and Senate Ed in judiciary Because the talks and students are hopefully done testifying They've been going since three this afternoon that's a house, and I know we had some students there tonight Any other What now we were on public comments and correspondence Okay So then we're down to a 3.1 to approve the minutes from Yeah, thanks, so I just wanted to know that I I'm here. I'm not sure why everyone else is here. It's great that everyone is here I'm here for some specific reasons One is that I've been going to every local board local district board meeting this month To offer to answer any questions people might have about that act 46 hearing Particularly for us that didn't have a direct representative In that hearing so be happy to do that if that's of interest The second thing is just to note that I think everyone is aware that Steven look Term limited in his role as the chair of the WCSE board And so we'll step down next week Wednesday, and it's my intent to Stand for that position if you nominate it and so I just want to let everyone know that and Ask for your support Happy to answer questions about that too and then the third reason is that You know kind of coming out of a lot of the conversations that we've had over the last two three years I find that I have a strong interest in how the boards of Washington Central can work more effectively together And so it's I made a commitment to attending Every board meeting at least three times a year. I may be able to do it more than that. I can't commit to more than that and You know the reason really is that I should try to see how we can work more effectively together as a system So it's a pleasure to hear Appreciate you're It's been a fascinating process actually it takes doing all the boards it's been really enjoyable and I Conscripted Scott sort of although he you know he did agree To come to the last couple In Scott was also one of the representatives meeting with the AOE was And so You can take that up now if anyone has any questions about how that meeting went I had said to Matt that I felt his email was really clear it might be worthwhile to add his Email to the minutes so that everybody can read it it makes It's just a really clear it I felt like I could totally picture The meeting and exactly how it went so thank you. Are you still in the executive committee? I am You said that you are Formulating ideas on how boards may work together better or that you have those ideas I'm interested in the topic for sure, and I thought it just seemed to me that Necessary I guess to try to get out and see all the boards and kind of what they're concerned with and what their priorities are and You know how they work together Yeah, just what's happening at each school I'm sure I'll have ideas And that lion earth do you want to be chair of the SEO board I've asked myself that question a few times I Think it's because having chair of the act 46 committee from September to December I found I really enjoyed it strangely enough, you know felt that That was a really tough job to do and I was able to do it. I guess And I also you know to be honest I have become more and more convinced that Having three of my own kids come through the system, you know I'm more and more convinced that this is this is one system and they are all our kids and Each student's ability to learn and to thrive in the classroom depends in some part on their peers And they extend to which each kid is being You know nurtured and cultivated and given opportunities to grow and to learn it to become their best selves So that gives us an inherent interest in what's happening at all five Elementary schools as well as what happens when they come together at U32 And so I feel like it's that's a role You know, it's just the chair of that. I don't want to make it up to be more than it is It's just facilitating the SU board But I felt like if there was a position where I could you know invest some time Thinking into that that's a good one Any other questions at this time? Thank you very much both you and Scott and and everyone who's come to Just spend time with us. We appreciate it So now we're down to consent agenda And to improve the minutes any comments or corrections on the minutes I Second line of three point two point one That's the board wants to be responsible I Would suggest that it be rewarded to the proposed policy It's the other way the proposed policy wants the board to be responsible. I think that's a more accurate reflection Because I marked that as well that particular section and I marked a couple of the ones that I didn't but let's finish with that one I think the policy is something to be a stopgap measure not that the board would take over whether to put the principal administratively the stopgap so I think that does not have to be reflect Maybe that's what he reflects And if that's the minutes are I don't recall whether he said it at bluntly or not So I just think it's important that we just draw the distinction between what the policy is suggesting Versus what the board Yeah, I'm gonna support that right agree that the board did not say that during that meeting Yeah, that's it okay any others You know, I guess so the other comment that I had is that Which says Mr. Lynn wondered why the school would not want to remove principal other staff member if there was an immediate threat This caused them some concern and again, I don't think that was the sense of the comments and it's not the sense of the policy so That's an active reflection of the Discussion I Do I do I think he said that I don't think it's necessarily in the policy, but he did make that comment Okay, why would I remember very specifically because it was a rhetorical question I do remember saying that I do remember Different opinion on the board part, but I do remember him Second Thank you I Thank you Yeah, I'm Paul O'Tenty the emergency management coordinator for the town of middle sex Reason I'm here as part of my job, it's I have to develop some emergency plans for the town We have some in place one of the ones we don't have in place is an evacuation plan so we've started that process that the Local planning committee has started that process and we come to the line that says identify your shelter So I asked I said so what's our shelter and then everybody said to me we think it's the school And I'm like, okay, but we can't think we have to know so I've been new to town even though I don't I don't live here yet, but I will assume I hope this year But I don't know the history that's Evolved, but I've been told that somewhere along the line There was some renovation done here and part of that money came from the town the generator and some other things and The trade-off was this would be become the shelter so maybe you can enlight me on that and And so I'd like to pursue this and let's get it set up. I can answer up any questions. We can resolve any issues. I Really like to get it set up so we have a place identified and this is not going to be the Superdome in New Orleans Okay, the chances of us opening this as a shelter are The possibilities there the probability is pretty slim And even if we do it's There's not going to be like the whole town coming here or hundreds of people from other towns This would be more of a short-term situation where we open it because we've got a storm going and we need to move some people The big problem is three-mile bridge road with the flooding We need to move people out of there get them somewhere for the night And then they can make other plans a lot of people when we evacuate them ahead of time Have other places to go anyways, you know the last thing they want to do is throw a sleeping bag on the gymnasium floor If they have family members to go to Having said that of course we could always have something huge that is a different story But then again if we have a big event in town or in the state you have a state declared emergency You might have a federal declared emergency Then there are other provisions if people are going to be out of their homes for long term They're not staying in the school to be in set up somewhere else So my call is that during the renovation project we did have discussion about Yeah, I just don't think they were not formalized Chris, but I but we have the I mean We have the capacity here with the day with that generator sitting out back it can run this place Okay, so then so then well so part of the question I have is if The school became officially designated as a shelter and there became a need What does that mean in terms of? school functioning and authority over the over the building itself as the is there an expectation that Whoever the emergency manager fits you or someone else comes over and has authority over the building and how it operates I was at a start authority still rest with the principal and superintendent If there isn't clear answer to that I'm going to use the term it depends One thing we're going to do as we move forward with this We're going to come in and and when I say we I'm looking at maybe the custodian principle someone who knows the school well The fight so I represent it from the fight upon myself and we would do an evaluation of the building Does it have everything we need which we it kind of does it has the kitchen? You know this heat does the generator the Bathrooms and stuff like that But we'd be looking at what's the capacity because that's going to be important How many people could we house here because we don't we want to know that limit because and that could be based on Just how many bathrooms they are but it could also be based on how much Available space that we would want people moving in because we don't want to run through the whole school so To answer the question about Like where the responsibility lies I think that's a collaborative effort between the emergency management folks Whether it's Peter Hood is the director the emergency management director myself as the coordinator I think it's collaborative between the school and I'll say emergency management To work together to understand what both of our needs are and say okay this Without knowing if you haven't done this before it can be kind of overwhelming thinking that Boy, they're gonna just you know throw open the doors and let people run in and it's not done that way We we'll plan to develop volunteers will be trained as shelter managers So when we realize we've got to open a shelter Whatever that Procedure that we develop says who do we call whether we call the principal the superintendent School board the custodian will get the school open, but we'll also contact our volunteers People from our community will be trained to be the positions in the shelter the shelter manager the receptionist Kitchen staff, you know, we'll probably rely on Someone who's working the kitchen now to be able to open that up and and use the equipment properly As opposed to just let anybody touch your kitchen equipment, you know, I mean we still have that asset that we need to protect Custodian be great to have on board because he knows where the light switches are and all that good stuff if something goes wrong so We can figure out ultimately who has the the final say and the responsibility I think it's a collaborative effort where it's a community in need and you know At that point in time. We're just looking out for the best of the residents I'd be able to operate the school. I mean if school was able to be in session that day So nice to speak to this a bit we at Berlin In East Montpelier now but for East Montpelier was not the evacuation site for Irene But Berlin was we've had Berlin activated once since then I can't remember if Dodie is do you remember Matt? Callus is The school is because of the generator there Are the evacuation are the emerging management sites for those schools if we're in that type of situation We're not having school. I Mean, that's just the way it is So when I think about operation of school, I think we're in two different places frankly and well He talks about the biggest problem being a flood and a few I don't know how many people are affected on three mile bridge road If that's the most common likelihood then it's likely that school would be in session not necessarily We we lost we've lost like Berlin. We had to close down school And this is all before I was here But we had to shut down the school because we were losing a quarter of the town and three mile on three mile But bridge through my bridge road. I know I know the road. I can't think of the name that the You know, that's not as much of middle sex as as it was for Berlin But those are those are I have I would have a hard time thinking we would be in session frankly Because we'd be losing we losing culverts all over the place of me because the water thing we we have we lose culverts around here Good question because Back in was January. We had they had to evacuate three mile bridge road. It's about 13 to 15 households down there So yeah, so we could end up in a situation where because of the ice flows the river Rows they had to evacuate folks. It was in the middle of the night Some of the huge situation like that Usually they have some place to go some family or friends, but we might find out they don't and now the question is do Do we open up the shelter and then will it impact school? We might have the agreement that says, you know what we'll open the shelter if we can You know, there might be a time when we can't if it's for two or three people to come to the school Maybe we can find them some other place to go. We we're not going to open the shelter Unless it's really needed to be open Do you have volunteers to check on the very very elderly who don't drive and other people pick up for other things Is there a component in there? Not yet, but would you be interested? Right We're doing a couple of things Part of the evacuation plan with developing We're also going to target certain areas like three Mount Bridge or where they They're a trouble spot. So we want to get to every resident and say give us some information How do we contact you? You know, how many kids do you have how many pet you got whatever the story is So we're going to stop that. We also want to get more citizens involved so that We can do some of these checks across town and with certain target populations We do have a list as part of our local emergency plan. We do have a list of Some of those populations that are vulnerable the elderly folks that are disabled. Yeah. Yeah. I have a question Yeah, you have a response center a place that everything in middle sex to work out of Another great question. I was in Irene. I worked with state during that.  Yeah, same idea is you need to be able to Collect the information but you the reason as a headquarters is it's there.  I mean we got big time problems that I know of that I got stuck with you don't have access to everything and without a means of communication you don't know you and You're lost. Yeah, and it's and my thing about the fire department down at the river blew my socks off. It's an flood point Don't build in a flood I've done houses out all kind of stuff. It's just not where you put a fire station well But the point my point was That if something happens you have no other place to go Yeah, okay, and if the equipment down there isn't available It's down the river. Yeah, and there's a lot of money to hit. Yes, there is Here's where we're going with that the committee one of the committee's goals this year is to establish an emergency operations center They might be on that's one We've looked at a couple of places to do that and unfortunately run for tilling depends how you look at it It's going to be the firehouse That's the place we have I think there's some issues with that but Okay, I notice a lot of issues but we looked into that one. Okay, that's why but we are going to establish emergency operations center We're looking for some grant funding right now to get things simple things like white boards and some file cabinets a tv screen And yeah, we'll build that out as we go right now We have nothing but we need a spot where Whether it's an emergency where we're evacuating people could be a lost city a lost child In terms of our part of this could you just kind of list out In writing what you would need What you think the needs would be for the school and what type of Personnel would have to be enlisted to help make an emergency shelter run And what type of space requirements so it sounds like you're going to come do a look around at some point And then just just so we know what we're talking about the scope of what we are Are You're envisioning for our school's participation as part of the commitment I'd also like to say one of the great things about having a computer here Is that FEMA has a sample school emergency operations plan? Right. Um, and so maybe we can Work with that and I don't mind being triangulating it sounds like berlin may already have a better established policies We can talk about that, but I'm happy to volunteer to to be my person on that I would like a point for us and so I can call you and say hey Does that work for everybody else? Yeah Can I ask that there's at least Amy or someone One of the administrators here from the school because there's that's gonna that frankly, that's what's happened at the other towns It's gone right to the building administrator to being part of that because they know that they're building Well, why don't we come up with a proposal and then and then you can weigh in on it? Okay. Okay When you have to I'd like to be involved I didn't realize I was volunteering for a meeting and that changes things Oh Let's go say Yeah So we're moving forward with this. Yeah, this is gonna be able to make this happen I don't want to say absolutely, but I would say probably Just because you know, it's you know, it's the town does anybody have any concerns I mean if does anybody have concerns that they can think of right now The biggest one I do is people privacy Like student. Yeah, I mean students are the people who come okay if we're if we're open It's hard to be open and have students here at the same time Well, I mean as an emergency shelter, right? Yeah, okay, so I just mean I don't think it's insurmountable I just know that when you asked about concerns out. Yeah, that may be It may be that if it's an emergency shelter, it's not a school at the same time Right. I mean just just because I was wondering about that I thought you were probably going, yeah, well, that's where I am You know, and you know, so it may be that it's the emergency need is that we have to system school And that just may be the I mean, those are issues and look at this maybe a couple of different answers to do that Um, I don't you know, we're lots very very tight on people in the building. Yeah, yeah, so may But if it's a great need, I mean what part of the community I understand that In today's day and age And it might be something that's no, I think it can be figured out. Yeah, I do too. So what if we did this? What if we Had an agenda spot you not connect me because that's only next week. That's the one after that Because then you wouldn't maybe go ahead and then hopefully you'll come through the building Uh, together and have and work with I'm stepping out if you've already got a pre-emerging thing. Yeah Okay, so one other thing I can make of is insurance. That's sort of a no-brainer, right? Just making sure that the insurance yeah, our insurance would check that Okay I have a concern, but it's not really related to school. Like is this really? I mean, this is the best facility for sure But this is not the easiest place to get to especially if you're coming from three mile bridge rodent in emergency So I don't have to get back up shelter to be considered Excuse me no more different than the fire station can't get up McCulloch Hill Well, just because that doesn't work out well doesn't mean that we should put our shelter in a place Millions of dollars for a fire station if you're fire at your place or any place here You don't see a fire until it's too late. It cannot make it That's why we pushed for widening I pushed for widening the roads so we can get through it And it's going to happen to share hopefully Paul's working on that now But you put a station out here You live here and there's no graceful way to get here So that's the other half of the problem. It is the highest spot one of the higher spots But You gotta go through the low spots. We didn't look to every low spot. There is no Thank you very much. Next up is our school. Thank you board website and community outreach Here's Allison's agenda item Oh, yeah, I touched on this a little before when I said that I have an interest in in doing this but Yeah, I mentioned that I I really would like to try to Make the board and the things that we're talking about more accessible to our community And give them a better chance to weigh in And I say this because as a complete and total outsider as of several months ago Like I genuinely had trouble figuring out where to go and what everybody's talking about and when these things were going to be discussed And um, so I would like to work on that. It sounds like bill is a good one to talk to Before we leave Dennis make sure you and I schedule a time. Okay, that'd be great. Yeah Let's do that. Um I see the citizen chipping away too with your Announce in the back country. Yeah, it's not always easy to do. Maybe it's talking to you We'll try or you can make it We're just talking about Making updates to the existing website Or are we talking about creating Something new we have a website. Yeah, so that's it. Let's just I think you and I Probably Sure A proposal a proposal great And bill you had a comment about reaching reaching at senior citizens. Yes.  I live on east hill. There's others in the back in a way that really don't Know much about what's happening I went around all the houses to get signed petitions so I can enlarge or widen macula road But other they didn't even know what's going on I mean that they need to some way open The broader scope of these people to know what their town's doing I mean, they're paying their holler and moaning for high taxes. Well Hey, we're building roads. We're fixing roads. We're doing this. We're doing that They don't have they have no means of finding it out They're not on front porch for None don't even have a computer, right? Okay, you know, you need to figure out Look at it some way Phone stone, you know phone zone or snail mail. I'm sorry still is good. Okay Computer stone word About specifically school board related stuff or all emergency town news. I think all Because the people need to understand where the money's going. Yeah, they won't have grown it to pay in higher taxes Then there's no show for I mean they live off Mile in the woods there and you got a client you can't drive in because it's pretty rough You know Chris alluded to it during the meet the candidate night where there was members of the community that used to do a lot of outreach And I think there's folks like you just said willing to help but just aren't aware of what's happening Or what's happened here? We'll Next up is the I have a question of why it's on here right now Well, we had uh, it was sort of on the template and then you and I decided to take it off but um I don't remember that I would just like to ask to Get a calendar I was thinking Fiji I just thought we had Really advocated for one last year and then it was decided not to have one so i'm surprised to see it back on there Okay, so i'm gonna say we should move it to a future. Sure. Perfect. Yeah, okay Next up is uh five point out reports to the board Um, we'll have verbal reports. Yeah. Yeah, okay Hey, verbetti. Um, so I've had quite a bit of work over the last couple of weeks. Uh, just in conjunction With some of the state uh expectations around school safety. I've met with the barracks not once but twice Um in just evaluating kind of our current status and um doing some preliminary Um examinations of our current safety procedures so that Is in the works um to address a lot of the community concerns. I think around that Just making sure that we're hitting the right stance. So Then I I also have uh, as you know Had you know kind of another aspect of that is just our communication in some of those areas Had a coffee talk with parents last friday around snow time procedures and that type of thing and In preparation for our action reviews so I feel like positive things emerge from that and I'll have further details Next week on some of the other Aspects of things that have been going on at the school. So more robust So the The state police involvement was because of mandated Mandated from the state not a result of community No, no that to be clear that uh came as an outflow of A lot of the current events. Um, and Was basically They were directed to get to every school in the state by the end of the month. So I when I read that proactively reached out to them and I actually beat the checklist To the first meeting, which is how we ended up with two meetings but Anyways, it's it's been a good beginning process to begin You know pulling Nate in to examine some of the resources that are out there Just so that everybody's aware You know, I think it it does live in some of these larger safety and emergency situations. Um, and You know as was identified There are specific challenges To taking something that's been maybe created You know by a federal entity and trying to translate it to the To vermont given our topography and um specific context So we're doing our best to translate that to our specific context for the best of our kids So I have I have three items for you that want to talk to you about I want to give you an update on the After action review that we conducted Monday from the bus incident Um, I need to talk to you about the oil tank. It's something that's come up and Amy I'm sorry, but literally Nate and I were talking at four o'clock this afternoon about the oil tank Outside that's buried in the ground. You mean when I was in staff meeting? Yeah, just to be clear. Everybody. I was still here I know but I wasn't going to bother you with this. It's something that Nate and I can do And then I need to inform you of a risk that the board has currently with the school district manning school district treasurer school district treasurer The we conduct the after action review on monday and I really want to uh Thank Amy for having to talk with the parents on friday. A lot of those pieces came in um Of the incident that happened on Tuesday afternoon with the buses with the bus get losing traction on molly hill road two of them molly, sorry molly supple Wanted we've had some good. We had paul I always forget paul's last name Thank you. I can have our time saying it too Was there gen michael was there from First student michelle scupper was our transportation coordinator Alyssa any Alyssa barracks. Amy were there from here from the building paul and christa metivier from my office and I was there as well We really went down from what we expected to happen to what did happen. We have a long timeline I don't have a full report for you right now. I'd be glad to give you what I have here. I've got copies of it um What we came down to was it was more on communications We we have timelines that I think have been expressed I tried to express them in my letter that I sent out to the community that happened If we're going to have a delay we have to know by 11 in the morning Unfortunately and the weather just turned on us and that's happened three times this year that we've had weather turn from 12 to 1 o'clock But we have to empty u32 first before we can empty the elementary schools because of the bussines Way, we're set up with coordinating busing across the five towns So There's a and to actually plow the roads ahead of time We need at least two and a half to three hours in front that the town crew knows to go with the plows And get out there before the buses hit the hit the routes That's just to have everything clear. I have a question about that. Um Is it okay to ask now sure about ruin your flow? No, um I was under the impression and I guess I was misinformed that vermont Made the decision that schools either run for the whole day or they don't run at all. That's inaccurate. That's inaccurate. There's some um, I was actually that day looking to I between 10 and 11. I was on the phone With roger hill I was 11 at 10. I looked at the radar image. I did again at 11 We were like, okay. It looks good There's no intensity radar image We're predicted to have seven inches over three days We look at snowfall rates and water concentration. What's coming down And it all changed on us at 12 to 1 in the afternoon And that happened to us the day before when a break too um, so We're going to reevaluate that again Roger and I were talking about that Wednesday the day after And see how can we do better? I think we're depending probably too much on the technology And we get direct forecast from no weather service And as you know, roger does forecasting for all the utilities in vermont new hampshire and does micro climate predictions within the state So we use those in um all the time we Feel that you know the communication system as Amy just mentioned is what broke down on us on that and We need to get that better We're going to get some better checklist on exactly where the communication comes from when an incident does happen So so when we were here on Friday, Paul had a Good sense of when when an incident and he was talking about things specifically from when an event has happened Like an accident or buses off the road that he Is the person with the best information because He's there and he right nothing's gonna happen without him in terms of writing a bus right And he gets he I think he said he should be the source of information to you agree with Amy Into the bus company not the drivers right we agree with that. So It was it's helpful to hear actually to have him Yeah, I mean we need we need what we we basically established which we have for every other situation Is an incident command system? That we have in public say I'm familiar with my service on volunteer fire departments And we need someone on the scene that can tell us what's going on And we have one point of contact instead of multiple point of contacts And that's the problem. We had multiple pieces of information coming in Between bus drivers from parents and everyone was trying to do their best and help us It was all good helpful place and paul and paul So what we did was we also are going to need to add some phone lines to this building And specifically one that people can't call in on our phone lines were literally tied up for 45 minutes We couldn't the only way I got to Amy was through through the wi-fi Was like she said she finally texted me Face time me You know and that was the way we contacted that day. So those are things that you've learned You know, those are some of the things we've learned. Um, you know, we're we're looking at Um You know, like I said, this isn't rough draft right now we're changing, you know some procedures for the bus drivers to and as I said in my letter and as you said What wouldn't you suggest to talk about a resolution for the bus driver? They're doing the best they can out there. It's a tough job Um, so talking about you know, just reiterating we rather have kids late Than a bus lose traction So uh, and that happened actually Thursday morning Two buses just pulled over and said when the sand truck can get here we'll go again Which is the right call And so we're saying from black clarity on the blackboard messaging protocol and really that that will come out The bus barn knows right away when things are happening. So That things will come out of there which they do they have access to blackboard to send out messages by routes by saying it Hey, if it's u6 is delayed That already happens. It just didn't happen that day Just one of the other things I want to talk about in this meeting was whether or not there can be different calls for different towns because because of the different climates that are In them and in the topography. I mean not all the towns. They think have the same right So right now we can't we can't right now with the way we have the busing setup if we wanted to get to more buses and have and talk about separating Their busing or transportation and how we do that. We're all really tied to you 32 Okay, one of the other things that was kind of thrown out is whether to use the most vulnerable Town to make the call as opposed to seeing across the because right so I have safety issues. Yeah, so I want to tell you that I mean that morning That at you know at 11 we were talking with all the all the town crews And the town crews were like we're ready to go And it just switched and that I mean Paul and I've had that conversation or easily. Yeah, we went to make the call It was there And it's it's the problem is the system. It's stopping and starting the system Is not instantaneous besides saying to a driver to stop where you're at But hypothetically if middle sex said we're good to go and berlin said we're good to go and he's went Pillar said we're good to go and waster said we have some back roads that I stopped it And I stopped I've stopped it. You would close for everybody.  Yeah, and there have been many days where I get three good and two no or one no and four good You know we we're talking on the radio. I'm I'm on the phone with roger hill and he's got the radio right there And I'm talking to the guys in the trucks At five but the problem is we make the call I have to make the call at 5 30 in the morning For buses going all the way to nine o'clock And so and the same thing is true for the afternoon. It's it's the stopping and starting of the system That is really hard to do Whenever if I said at two in the pick a time that you know, it's two to three hours from either end of the day And I say, okay, we're ready to shut down It takes an hour and a half to get the buses to u32 U32 has to go first U32 empties it takes It's not going to take an hour to do the roots like it usually does It's probably going to take an hour and a half So we're going to be late to the elementary schools and then the elementary school is empty So it's that it's like a three hour from when that Window goes and michelle subca who's a wizard with our software trying to figure out how to shorten all this It seems like it's something we look at every two to three years like how do you shorten this without adding more buses? And more You know This is maybe a discussion for another time because I guess it's more of an observation, but it sounds like a lot of time and energy and resources Is being expended on trying to manage this process, which I know it's part of You know the education system in a way, but to the extent of the sophistication and like the kind of micro Trying to manage this. I'm just wondering if it's the best use of our collective resources You know, or we should be just looking Long term, you know what we're going to have these days Where it just doesn't make sense to have school. Maybe we should relook at the calendar and think about Knowing we're going to lose day somewhere else Let's pick them up here. Yeah So that that is done. I will tell you that I've talked to colleagues in New Hampshire right now. They're losing their April vacation They're going to school for April vacation in New Hampshire right now So they don't want to have April vacation. How many kids will they have in school? I don't know. That's what they're wondering You know At u32 we have a definite one of the hard dates that's sitting there is graduation One of the questions I'm going to have for the executive committee and the su borx. We have to adopt a calendar Is can we stop saying from the day of, you know, when we have graduation, which is June 15th I believe Scott maybe you can remember but I know it's we're out further than we ever have been before Because of what I've experienced in snow days. We went out another week Can we go to graduation another week later because people are buying their plane tickets the summer before the next year And so I mean it's that pressure of there has to be 175 days for graduation And so I I think what that's a long answer to Brian to you to say Yes, we should be thinking about that about how we have that And what that does, you know Where's our community? I think we really should look overall at the whole calendar. I'm not I I think the way we're running our calendar now is so much built on tradition that it's not great for education Frankly, I think there are better ways To do our calendar overall for schools, but remember we have to have 175 days in common with the very technical center So it's not just our issue. It's fine. We've got to have one of our audience members had a comment Yes, go ahead please You're talking about buses and An organization of getting that young that man talked about Um, I'm sure you've talked about gun safety. Have you? Oh a lot. Okay. So the buses are everywhere And I was watching the news about Great mills where I taught long time ago and there the buses were right there And they took the students right to a designated other school What is the plan for this? So you're talking about an evacuation from this school? Yeah So I know that Amy's working on an evacuation plan from this school The unfortunate pieces in many of our element in our rural elementary schools in Vermont Here is not a place to evacuate to and for right here. They're probably the closest places to the firehouse Up the road the firehouse slash town garage up the road Which this time of year It's hard to get there. Well and the length of time to get a bus here Yeah, you're not going to get a bus here fast enough. Yeah, and some haven't parked on site I mean those are those are all things we can we can look at But It's going to it when it comes down to I don't think the analysis that boards do all the time around cost And some things have small risk but large effect and some have Large risk but minor effect So those are the things that So that's first thing. Sorry to go a little longer in that but I knew that people would want to hear about And I told and I said in my letter that you would all get a final report I wanted to give you an initial where we're at today with what we've learned Oil oil tank that oil tank appears to be from 1971 that's out there in the ground You know So I was going to ask you specifically Chris. I thought we even had a grant that replaced that oil tank Within the past 10 years. It's my recollection. That's what I thought too. So we made found outside with the library Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so we Um, and they removed the tank that had been there So this is why I mean this is why maybe you know, I should talk more after this or Because I was wanting to tap your your historical knowledge. We can see something from 2008 That a report assessment was done that told us to replace the tank then We can see that that the tank was moved originally from the old library renovation To its existing spot then and that was done in the 80s But in most we've been looking at the boiler replacement Roy said to us Hey, we just did a boiler replacement in berlin and you frankly needed a tank there. Do you need one at rumney? And we're trying to answer that question. Would the minutes have this? No, we don't have minutes We only have minutes back like seven years. So we're Going to keep it a long But records on equipment. We don't So let's just say that in all schools in vermont Historical records of renovations. Yeah equipment are not great. Yeah Agreed and that's not that's not just a Washington central issue. That's everywhere So we're trying to investigate that but I wanted to actually I really want to talk to you and moving forward We've got our Everything else is digitized from this renovation on great Actually not from the renovations from amy's and there's nothing wrong with the tank We've got so we don't think there is but the question is if that's a single wall tank How much risk and this is where this goes back to what we were just talking about and this is a We need board input is risk versus exposure Okay I thought I thought it was replaced. Well Roy seems to think it's from his initial investigation is still a single wall tank so Which means it probably wasn't replaced 10 years ago exactly because double wall tanks are quite a while And I quite remember double wall discussion about double wall. I just don't know for a second So I want to talk to you someone the last one is unfortunately. I need to inform you An open session that your school district treasurer is resisting to be bonded As as your treasurer we put in a third notice to that person that they need to be bonded It's your it's the insurance that you purchase as a board, but there Hasn't it to do it and what does that mean bonding? It means that if they do something wrong with money for the middle-set school district That they're covered by insurance from this appropriating funds So is it like a an insurance policy or is it a it's an insurance policy that covers That covers your treasurer for doing something wrong or fraudulent Okay, and it does mean that you have to give over personal identifiable information Got it. Okay The town's treasurer so the school treasurer And so I may be asking you to appoint someone different at the next meeting So that's the problem is that this person does not wish to give personal identifiable information Is from what I understand. Laurie Bebo has been working with her. We sent a third letter But it's my responsibility as your superintendent to say that you're at risk right now Without having insurance liability coverage and being your school treasurer being bonded It's not one I wanted to tell you but I I need to tell you that Can I just make sure I understand you said Laurie has been in contact with this person three times On the phone or has sent email communications or something and certified letter All three all three phone And she's actually reached on the phone. Yep. Okay, so it's not like the person just has somehow missed this Okay, does not want to that seems clear. Well seems to think that they don't need to and we strong the statute in law That says they must okay None it's all covered by us Is there a time for general public comment? that a board meeting Normally we have that at the beginning. Um, there's a topic that arises that you want to it's just an observation that I had and a question that I have I have to leave shortly I have to pick up one of my kids so If bryan's Statistic is correct that there have been 40 votes and only three of them were three to two We just witnessed another two of them tonight and as a new board. I would just Bring awareness to that as to the precedent that you may be setting or the groundwork that you may be laying For the work you're about to do together My second question is relative to The way one of those three to two votes was described that there was a code of ethics that didn't pass And I was just curious What the back story of that is or What date that happened on so I could revisit the minutes or watch on cax To clarify it did pass. Oh, it did. Well did pass three to two voted for two voted against Oh, and and it was basically a personal to the individual board members personally Uh, and I voted against it saying I didn't think that we had issues that would require a code of ethics um, and it basically dealt with like Um, constant of interest and things like that So you should be and how we conduct ourselves as board members in public settings read what code of ethics means um In terms of the policy because it's probably I want to view that on policy because I heard about The policy I didn't realize it was one of the standoff votes so to speak It happened last I would look at last April No, we didn't vote on it till january Yeah, oh, I would say I would say we shouldn't but it came up You go I just want to say I've been saying this at every meeting Students always make me proud to be superintendent Our students at U32 on the past month Been one of the proudest times to be an educator. I don't believe it at that Well fill that out a little bit just well the problem the problem is if I do I can be making a political statement that I can't as a superintendent We want to talk about the skills things they say showed they showed the mission of what you adopted Which is to be empowered creative Impassionate to be local and global citizens And they are demonstrating that and there are a few that when I was with scott and adrian Want to in particular that I would have given a diploma that night And hopefully scott you concur. I agree completely And they are telling the adults to stay out of it And let us do this ourselves Okay Thank you for that. Um, so we're in 5.2 fiscal any fiscal report, yes On page 8 You will see the current fiscal report for no sex school district Currently there are two things that were in march. We had a little bit more special education reimbursement And we had a little bit more special education costs, but the reimbursement was greater than the cost So really it's less than about a six hundred dollars change to the general the projected General fund balance remember this is a projection And alison we'll get uh, we usually have a time for new board members to go through financial reporting To see all the to learn the details of how we do this great not that you can't read it It's just it's kind of knows like what is lauri putting together here? So that's that's working really, um, you know, we're writing about the same place. We've been we're a little bit underneath the 4% projection we like to be at But we're much better than where we started the year so we're also Your building maintenance is very healthy and the thing I should have added to my report that I'm going to sneak in right now Of course in two minutes is that bill forward's working with us. We're about to go on to bits for a roofing boiler and some Embedded type of system that we've been using at berlin that would go into the lobby For cleaning boots boots and sneakers and to cut down the slipperiness on the floors. We're finding the walk-off mats do not work As well as we'd like And if you were in berlin right now, you'd see this new carpet that looks like a brillo pad And it can be extracted so you can extract all the and we're putting them in dodie and callas too and they just they it's a lot safer for the kids and It's really it's going to add life to our floor And how long So and we're plenty healthy in that fund any updates on the roof leak and if mold was I have Her back about the mold but the roof leaks have been you know, we Lost some some of the I think cover up there and then regained it. So I think we're still in winter friends So Yeah, so let me go a little bit more we're in rubber roof The leaks are happy around either the seams or where there are Punctures is the best way it's not a puncture but where there's a break in the in the ceiling where you either have a drain coming down that's collecting the this the runoff water or Vent pipe goes up and it was found not to be properly sealed. I think we reported that to you last time They're going to come back and take care of that We as soon as this started we entered insurance claims. Our insurance company is up to speed on this They have all the warranty information and everything so it's in their hands to recoup any cost as it is with most things That happen for us So the insurance company our insurance company is Is up to speed on that So we see insurance company I just want to say so my partner's a roofer. He was curious about it He looked at it. He said he has put in roofs like that and the instructions are actually wrong for northern climates because they don't take into account, right? So he's you know, I don't know the details. I'm the worst person to translate But I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to anybody who wants to talk to me. I think we have a mule high who guarantees the roof The company that put it there was a subcontract to put in is no longer in business Mule high they are coming back as soon as that roof is cleared and they're going to go through it And they own they own the warranty so they if they keep coming back now their warranty only covers the roof itself It doesn't cover the subcontract No, it doesn't call about the damage in the walls Okay, so our insurance company will take care of any of that And then they'll be the ones if they're looking to recoup costs to go from there. So I thought That there was a problem with the structure That subcontractor put together they hadn't done it adequately It's not the structure. It's just the roof itself And that company is no longer in existence Okay, but my understanding was that the subcontract didn't do a good job. That's what I'm saying. We're on agreement Okay, but mule high mule high is the one who warranties it. They're the contract. They're the roofing contract So what happens is there are plenty of roofers out there, right? So you use a material to put down the roof The subcontract doesn't give you the warranty It's actually the way you get warranties on big roofs like this is from the actual manufacturer of the product They send up their own inspector after it's been in place to say did the subcontract do it to our standard So we'll warranty it. They did that supposedly I actually know what they were here I question how they actually looked at it But so mule hide who owns the membrane is warrantying the roof And so they have to send someone up They took someone out of Maryland to come here when we did a lot of screaming and I there was some literal And that we got some up here and then he's like I didn't realize that I was coming to where there's a foot of snow on the roof And it's not snow. It's three inches of snow on the rest of that ice He said so we'll damage this whole thing if we have to chop through it So he said I'll come he left materials here. He said as soon as it's clear call me I'll come up and go through it because what mule hide doesn't want to do is keep sending someone here. It's costing them So they and they They recognize the issue I Once they did get mobilized, which took a little bit. They've been good since now. We're chasing water um, I I haven't talked to Nate either, but I kind of left it with Nate Wait when he poked a hole in that wall was let me know if you find something, but I don't hear anything I'm assuming it's good. I will follow up. But you can follow up on that with me The gc and that's the right of the general contractor when you do a general contract project they Work, so they don't hold any liability. They don't hold any liability that the the warrant that's the unfortunate way the warranty is Is written It's part of what we buy into that unless we pay more into that and uh Chris and Brian, I think you were both on the board at the time when we were Bright sizing the construction and it didn't affect really the roof That I recall. Well, we did end up going with I think a different roof design Well, we took we were trying to get flat everywhere and we kept the dog the dog shed or the doghouse roof So we have and we didn't do some other roofs which we're going to be the primary in the gym, which we're looking to do This summer any other questions No, okay, so we are Down to Our action agenda Well, I said in our discussion that we did not talk about a resolution for the bus tracks so All sort of drafts say something verbal and you can chime in the remedy school board Resolves to thank The bus drivers, um, and I don't know everybody's last name Jerry Okay, jerry who's driving for charlie these days? Charlie is is charlie there? I think he has any Is not doing like us Mr. Malone's been doing a great job of handling buses. I didn't know that if the charlie There yeah, frankly, wait, he's not doing the late bus. I know but and he has in the past. I heard he had her shoes. So jerry gill kill gill and Either charlie or could you find out that far as we can? Okay, um, so the remedy school board results to thank them for um getting children To school and back it safely in a very challenging set of circumstances It's not very flowery add something caroline. That's how I like it. It's not flowery Straight into the point Do we get that to them somehow or Okay So I'm talking action agenda and we have a 6.1 award of playground big which was part of our board packet Is there a motion? And then we can have a discussion So yes, you can just move that I move that we award the bid to um Um I move that we do that thing that you just said So moved Do we have to put the amounts in? So this is a bit that we wanted to talk to you about. That's why you see this Questions That's why we see what you'll see if you look on page 11 Yeah, there are different amounts and based on what we want what you'd like to do The equipment only is 20,000 The and amy, please jump in here the company installs all the equipment. So if they do it outright It's 9 000 I would actually recommend from my experience in doing playgrounds That it's a great community volunteer that helps with community engagement that you go to the next one down below Which is 4 000 where they supervise It means a little bit of we'll need some help getting everyone together, but I think it's a great community activity Is it weekend they can do in a week? Yeah, they come in. Yeah, they help I we're gonna rush to talk to them tomorrow Um, the next one So those two that at least though if we number these one and three would be my recommendation The next thing is wood chips with borders or wood chips flush with ground We think they can do another alternative for covering it's going to cost us But we may not need to buy the wood chips straight from them There are a certain type of chips that are regulated that you have to have in a playground. It's not just go get Some wood chips from the local sawmill They have to be a certain shape and size and all that that is actually regulated So, uh, but we think we might be able to find a better place than from the contractor because we've done them before We refresh the wood chips like every two years around. You mean a cheaper option a cheaper option cheaper When I saw that price Wait every Um, so but then we would have to build borders. I'm assuming if we went with some some of our schools Don't do that calis does not we don't currently have Or the border is more dangerous in terms of trip. I think a trip, right? That's what I'm asking Some places have some places don't It keeps the wood chips higher, which is what provides them Do you have them around the existing toys or you know to play stuff now you got you've been doing that you go that I thought what do we have? Yeah You can okay, do you have any safety data? I have not looked at this Do you um, do you know either of you offhand as to what is the safest material? Yes, the rubber mats are probably very expensive that you might see in an urban setting and the rubber mats are um So I don't have a good feel for cost, but replacement rate I have no idea. Okay, so we never looked at them because frankly because of our climate Wood chips is what we've been doing at all the elementary schools And there are any other options besides which of these sand I would assume. No. No, it's either Wood chips or the rubber mats. Okay. We currently have a piece still and currently a piece on which we get away with But or really shouldn't be using your grandfather. Yeah But if you do that then you can replace them all and you can cover yourself We placed the piece stone with wood chips and you got then you've got your supply if you need more you have it Because you're going to have to replace not replace it but You have to replace it for the elevation It's been two years. It's about every two years Todd hill and Chuck pocket two heads of custodian wanted berlin wanted East Montpere both certified playground inspectors force and they do this the guys just do it. I mean I ours was replenished this last year for the zones that we have The students or the the stones or Should we have a sense of overall what do we have a budget on this already 30 30? Okay. I think we come in So you're going to come in you're going to come in at, you know 24 25 here with the two recommendations that we gave right Anything five would do the wood chips and the boys. I just haven't had a chance to go Because the borders might be a good community project till we have plenty of carpenters. Yeah, I I agree I think it's for every time I participate. It's a tremendous community activity have people come and do it. Okay Any other question for Amy are you the one that selected the equipment That like this $20,000 is that like who picked that the children? Yeah Is this was this came from that? Okay, so you actually said like was it direct? All right, they did their dream sheets If you get back to the fall and we looked for common themes among what they were wishing for Surfaced several different designs and the whole school voted in an all-school meeting. No, yeah I mean my kids told me I just I'm like shocked. I like that's also real that it actually real as the kids Translated down. That's great. You're much nicer than I Great and now we're doing this I guess the one thing sort of obvious is that there was only one bid Is there another source that we could contact to see if they can beat it. We contacted four vendors. We contacted four vendors only one decided to bid Okay, would we want to write back to those other ones and say here's what our bid is do you want to beat it? I can't do that. I don't think I can do that. I wouldn't be sure if it's this big law.  Public big law bid. One minute, correct? Sure. Well in public big law we have to post it a certain way Okay, we're allowed to send it out to at least three selected bidders when we send it out to as many as we want We send it out to four. That's what they did that service area But once the bids come in and are all open It must be awarded. It can't go with one of the lowest three bidders Um, and if it's over a certain rate, you must go with the lowest and have no choice That's if it's over $500,000 worth of work It's not a service And while the units and the services they're trying to get to us So, um, so right now we've We've authorized in advance $30,000. You have we need you just because of bid law I do accept the bid accept the bid But we are accepting the bid for equipment only plus supervised installation. Yeah, that's recommendation So if but if are we accepting the bid on contingency that it meets certain A certain amount or are we accepting The board and then in turn accepting that whatever it comes in It's already you have you have the bid there The question that we talked about there was the ground covering And I don't have an exact figure of what the wood chips are just looking at these wood chips prices Compared to what I've seen for other wood chip prices We've got to find something better And we should go read and we can reject those wood chips and say let's find a different place to do that Anything okay, so we'll just get friends with these or solid numbers. These are these are these are quoted They wrote it on piece of paper and said this is what we'll do the project for depending which one you want Okay, and the scope of supervision is one because that's the one that may not be Based on a certain number of hours and a dollar cost per hour I don't have was a project we have to get so many volunteers and then And they base it on projects that they've done before and the out the length of time it takes And they get people in Let them know Like they have little teams and so they have a staff member with each one Yeah, that's exactly what I do the Elmore Morrisville and Wolcott school buildings It was you get you get it's a great ptna Ptno They usually get everyone together and say you're coming you're working but you're going to be directed And you know a guy says okay, you're going to dig up You're going to we're going to have a machine here to dig the hole When that happens then put this in here You guys over here are going to put together these components now everyone get together and haul it over Stick in the hole with the concrete Temporary to support it It's cure in a week So I have one final question and that is um, I don't know this company I don't know if anybody has any experience with this company If not, um, I would be interested in getting reviews and at least checking on their work at other facilities before we actually agree to pay them $20,000 So we did that in our process great. They they've done reputable work. Okay excellent I mean There's the poor companies. They had We use black river design most of our work of anything we're doing and I say john who are the people that you've worked with And we've called. I don't know how many folks you called on them, but I mean, I trust john's judgment and what he does Okay, it just aren't that many people. This is one of the problems with Vermont I mean he must I don't know if you see it in your work allison, but we see it in schools all the time They're really like one or two contractors in the whole state for a lot of things. Okay Okay If there are no other questions, um There's a motion in our second. I don't think there's a second So I second you moved it. I moved so I will second your motion on this bid Um, all in favor Just so i'm clear what i'm i'm agreeing to it is the equipment only plus supervising installation Or are we just more generally accepting the equipment only and the supervising solution equipment at 20,186 50 and supervised insulation at 4092 thousand 31 cents so it's clear Okay, um all in favor I Yes, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your quick. What is this proposed? This summer, right? See, there's one you need to bring out for people Big time So the kids are thinking it's happening that like as soon as the snow in the ground I'm just here to like publicly report that so you guys want to disappoint the children Okay, next up is um various practices practice for Well, actually establishing communication 6.2 Um, that was my idea just because I was um last year. It felt a little confusing It wasn't sure when people sent correspondence Into me specifically whether I was supposed to put that in the record or not And I I think we should just get really clear so that we know and that people who are sending us Uh, correspondence or giving us a call Know that um So I don't think this will take us very long Um And I would suggest that practice if we have incoming correspondence address to all members that those should go in the board minutes Um, but I'm I'm open to encounter thoughts Uh, I agree with the contingency that if somebody has a personnel matter and they request it as an executive session But they're giving us the data That it not be put in the minutes I think we'd have to also be sensitive to What the information within the email pertains to Because there may be something that's submitted to us as a board about a personnel matter that Shouldn't be necessarily putting the public record as an issue of privacy. Uh, so I think I don't know if we I think we can have sort of a general rule, but we need to have exceptions for when certain things Will require Could we ask the writer if that person wishes the communication? Like there may be limits on what we yeah, there's some things that you there's some limits that you can and cannot do Okay, so there's correspondence it comes in and it deals with the personnel matter from a member of the public And send to any board member Not the board as a whole but it's an individual member Yeah, I would want to get you some clarity frankly Chris before I spoke here Um because there is It depends on position position of The that the person holds to the person the writer with the person being common the person being commented on um to a degree there's also just Privacy piece but that I'm not thinking statutorily Um, and I'm not going to sound the expert on it um I'm also going to say that If I wrote you a letter i'm going to keep using myself as an example If I wrote you a letter about my daughter megan and decided to put the name in it and said this is what's going on at school to megan If you as a board posted that you would have just violated Her privacy you don't have the right to do that even if I said you could right Okay, so the right is with this student not parent Right parent not wave students rights exactly That's one of the things that the student there's many pieces on that around student record and student privacy This parent doesn't necessarily have power over the student records or student Privacy Those are two different things right and no, I mean we know they don't have power over the student records As kept by the school, but what about I mean, where's privacy like that? I would like to see that Well, it's the piece on that is that they can They can say what they want You can't then use that as a school like I could keep saying here my megan's a ballet dancer and she's uh She's run she's decided to run track and I can say all this You can't say that then repeat that somewhere Because I decided to give it to you that's I can do that as a parent But you are sitting as the organization of the school district Like I've had parents talk to me all they want about their kids in an open session and I say thank you very much I'm glad to discuss this somewhere else and they're like why not here? I said I'm in an open meeting I can't talk about your child in an open meeting and open public forum You can't either as a board So FERPA is relevant. What's the other so there's some personnel pieces that In the statute that there's some personnel pieces that I would have to I want to check frankly with phro about Where those limits are? I just don't have those off the top of my head. I try to be very conservative to respect our personnel and say You can talk about me But I think the personnel should be kept as quiet as possible Says on the side we actually when we were approving our minutes at our last meeting We had mentioned a staff person by name in reference to some conversation we were having and we actually removed it From the minutes just because it's a policy like we try not to refer to people by name A policy or a practice Yeah, I mean it's not required to be so it's a practice I just wondered if you had your own policy because I'd love to see it so that we could I don't think we do have to talk about it. I don't know. It's just a norm that we Yeah, you know, he's abided by it. We didn't want to break in that case. Yeah Thank you I mean it's Just to have some Information about what the limits on on keeping things out of public record that we receive as board members Is you know, I'm playing a chris winter. Maybe asking him to come and stop by Because he's with the secretary of state's office and deals with public record issues all the time I don't think he'd be the one for personnel matters. No, I think but he wouldn't at least be able to deal with that that aspect of What what we can't Chris is Chris is right there now in the legislature. They're looking at open meeting law again And we're hoping records in let's say. Oh, yeah, it's big down there right now on that I think that would be helpful for putting this off and then having someone come in to tell us what Whether you uh fault lines are I think so for 6.2.1. You mean Actually Six point one because six point sorry Six point two point one point two who responds and when Seems like we could decide that we did My memory says that at some point since I've been on the board We did discuss Having somebody who was designated to respond. Thank you for the email We will discuss it at a future board meeting or something along those lines So they would know that they had been heard and that it would be discussed And I feel like we fell apart in designating a person and so then people aren't getting those types of responses Um, so like when when Katie Chabot sent her email You know, I I wanted to reply but then I thought well I don't want to violate open meeting laws and it would just be great if we knew and didn't have to all agree That somebody like woden allison somebody just had a blanket response that they sent every time and then they were responsible To bring the email to the board for us to discuss it and send a response that was representative of our discussion You could do that Wouldn't it be respectful for the person that you got received their email? Sorry, can you repeat that wouldn't it be respectful to the person that you as the board receive their Exactly letter whatever email. Okay Because many times you don't know if somebody got it exactly and that at least is the courtesy I know we had to answer everybody's thing no matter what But you got their message. Yes. Okay, so I feel you talking about the person who gets it responses. Thank you often base to the board as an immediate response I think you should not but they're not being the designated necessarily the designated Well That's between us, but I mean I think the as a board somebody or individually you got to decide that I got it Thank you for your consideration. That's it And it will be discussed at a future board And that's I think why I divided these out into two separate pieces The first is the correspondence that it's addressed to all members and allison if you as clerk don't mind sending a brief email saying That I think would be really appropriate But then when incoming correspondence comes to one person that that member then is responsible for the I should have a clarifying statement on that. So it would not have occurred to me Six months ago that if I sent an email commission to all of you That it would then oh now we're going to talk about it in open session Like I would not have known that so I think that the response needs to include like We're going to talk about this if you don't want that to happen to let us know Can we can we let them opt out or does that violate open meeting laws? Like so so here's a piece that I Want to say and I'm looking for the policy and I won't find it right away, but I know we have it Is we have an escalation of issues that are happening within the school, you know if you have you if you you know if someone comes to me as a superintendent Which happens quite My uh, let's not even put a qualifier happens. Um I The first question I asked them is a have you talked with your Is this happening? You know if they tell me the issue. Okay. Thank you. Is it happening in the classroom? Have you talked to the classroom teacher? The grocery store example. Yeah, right, you know and and have you not okay? And so it's that escalation. So I think you should respond I mean what you're talking about is is how do we respond so people know we've got the message Which I think is a good one to have And it's a good communication practice of did you get the message? Yes. I got the message Thank you. And this is because where you're going Allison is it should it be In the is that something that is a topic for the next board meeting or maybe it's not intended to be one? Well, that's a better question I actually was just talking about the person maybe they didn't want that thing But you're actually a very good question, which is should we even talk about it? And so I'm happy to be the first responder, but I will probably need clarification on some of those issues sometimes Um, so does it violate meeting laws if I then bcc everyone so like or copy everyone? Like I I'm responding and I'm not entirely if I'm not sure about I mean, I'll send them back to the source because that's what you're supposed to do as much as possible But sometimes I may not know no, I don't think an individual board member responding So what we were discussing was an email comes to the entire board. I think there is a statement That we agree upon that gets Responded back such as thank you for the email We will be discussing it at a future board meeting as an example Okay, it would be very different to say Um Please please go and speak with the principal first That's a judgment call and that I wouldn't put on an individual board member to make outside of a board meeting Okay, so in that case then maybe anybody who writes to all the board members should get a blanket response back That says if you're having a problem with this we are going to say this We're you know, I'd like that lists what it is so that they know as opposed to like for instance carol Carol Lynn. I'm really sorry. I'll get it. I promise. Um sent A message back to katie chabot and I got that as well and I actually Not understanding all this thought it was exceptionally dismissive. I was like, okay So she doesn't care about that and she just like oh fine. We'll talk about it later And now that I'm hearing this. Oh, it all makes sense. She was just getting back to her telling her we've got this But I don't know how katie felt. I just think that it would be more clear if we sent them something with more Solution when Establish a protocol published protocol and saying and explain we're not being dismissive. We're just observing right right protocol or Here's the public correspondence and there is in the handbook already an established communication Is it called a communication? It's part of our policy that you have as a board And that's something that I just wanted to surface as I've assured teachers You know and was my understanding that if it's an hr thing that that chain of command will Follow so you will first talk to the teacher if that isn't if a resolution is not made Then you're going to bring it to my desk if you're not happy with my resolution Then you'll take it to mr. Kimball and that's the person who's actually has the problem does that they have nothing to do with that Not until like after all of those steps have been taken. Okay, great And that's two years ago we Worked on like creating Was a procedure it wasn't a policy was a procedure to address exactly this Whatever happened to that I have a final draft you do Chris and I worked on it I shouldn't say final The the the final draft lays with me it got pushed off the agenda multiple times because of other priorities and I would be happy to bring it back. It was Around all communication not just email how to communicate at a board meeting the idea being If everybody Knows the rules and has the same expectations for communication. Everyone in our community can communicate at board meetings Not solely people who are Comfortable and know how So I do think it's important to bring it back up Be fabulous. Yeah Can we get it ahead of time so we can yeah, yeah, if you want to ship that we'll get in the packet great When you receive it If someone came to discover that public record Right, it has to go past different attorneys eyes to ensure that we're not violating But I do that all the time when there's a public records request That thing's I can take your crack at the response if Great want and I will bring something to the next meeting Or you could You know what chris feedback we could think about it You're gonna be there tomorrow night Chris will be there The reason I bring that up is it might be better for the whole issue To have that discussion Because it's the education of everybody It's public education too, so folks would be here and if they hear It would be a great commonality to talk about Back Any more discussion on So 6.2.2 Um, I guess I feel like it doesn't fit in in the same one and maybe we could just decide I'm with you on that one what I know As a board member as opposed to Yeah, so then that board member would be responsible for sharing it with the rest of the board No, that that's not true. I think public a public record a public record and sharing it with the board and Are very different things public record means it's discoverable And I'll let you define that because you're the lawyer But it's discoverable. It's a public record What about written or um verbal communication? No. Yeah, good luck Right, so then I think again a lot of people just may not know that email is very casual Oh, I'm just going to go ahead and write my concerns and now suddenly this is something that's discoverable So can we let people opt out just letting you know that if we follow up on this conversation It now becomes a public once you want you receive it you Right now We can be very clear and then do our approach for posting or whatever. Here's what happens. Okay. Um, then hopefully that'll get out I think if you guys just make the website More user friendly and you put all this information out there and then we advertise that you are making the website more user friendly Because it's all in there, but you you have to date to find this Yeah, I know totally and I think if we put that information right next to our email and contact information, it would be a little easier to see All right, you have your own section maybe school board or school there already is one. It's just not it's not obvious Yeah, okay. That's the color pictures. The color pictures to find Okay I think we did six six point two point three Is where and having communicate norms to the public they would address that policy we'll address next time Next to six point three established established front porch forum Hostings do we continue this practice? If so, we'll take on that So currently my understanding is we publish the agenda as written No opinions And rodin has been doing it. I'm happy to keep doing it I'm you know, alson if you want to take over and your role is you know if that feels I'm happy either way Um, I would like to take over and I don't know if I can send things to you guys ahead of time One of the things that I think would be really helpful Is to give people a summary because I think a lot of people aren't going to be through and that that I realize There's some editorialization there. Um, so it would be nice to avoid that but For instance, if the agenda you could say here's the agenda tonight We're going to be talking about reorganization, which means electing people to do what job Um, we're going to hear from an emergency emergency response and trying to summarize it in a I feel like that would be helpful for people That got there was a sticky issue With doing that. Um, this was fine.  This is you know, and you stuck to it Thanks The intent I totally understand and was something like reorganization a summary is simple There was An intent to summarize in exactly that way And others viewed it as an opinion and it caused heart feelings. So I think That the idea of summarizing it would be really tricky to do I think we aim for that as we improve our board relations. Yeah All right, so we'll start with the agenda and then I can I address your other piece, Alison I'm creating posts for front porch forums Every board's wanted to like discuss it via email and you can't unfortunately according to open meeting law You just made an open meeting you just violated that so you have to appoint someone some boards rotated Some figured out right there at the board table and some do what won't I don't know if you were volunteering to do it or not. Sorry. I lost track You can you can you know, but that's someone that someone someone just posts up a summary and is trusted that that's the person Who's going to take care of it? Okay So I move that Alison Cornwall be in charge of front porch forum postings Great On the subject of emails open meeting law, etc. Chris I will forward you The agenda for the meeting tomorrow night for the exec because it didn't it only went to woden and I And I was thinking of forwarding it to everybody, but then I didn't have everybody's forward email So I'll just forward it to you. Thank you That's the other thing. Alison. You'll want to be On a u32 email. It did. I said about yeah, she she it just wasn't you know Automatic I had so I had to go back to her email copy it and then I realized chris and brian only have personal So then I thought I'm not it just wish we ever get into discoverable place We can do it a lot faster Who's the alternate I have it never mind I will send it to chris and the alternate. It's just forwarding Okay, so next is do we need to vote on that or not by the action agenda I moved One second second Okay, next to a point representative to discuss winter roads and bus issues at the select board meeting So you have for the chair possible I plan to go because since I'm in the operations mode of that It's next Tuesday night am I correct on that? Okay So the final order of business tonight is the uh, won't you know if that's I can find out Proving the board's orders You want to have a chance to look at I did I just had one question which was green mountain consulting for just over $2,000. What's that? That's uh, we have a beat a behavior consultant who comes in and helps with student plans Yeah, I think it's good as we have a lot of very Illegible Any discussion All in favor For future board members at the principal preservation problem policy and the mediation It's the Yes, if we put it here it'll get on the agenda Public communication protocol What did you guys decide to do but the gun resolution did I just We did not take that Yeah, we want to do it Get my computer going I think I have it I have I have u32s right I can pull that up. I don't have Yeah, the Montpellier Rocksbury is Is a pure grammar Pieces so you have the east Montpellier lunch. I have both east Montpellier and u32 No east Montpellier decided to take a phrase out Take what out take a phrase out a sentence out actually a whole sentence So You said 5 p.m. Right? 5 p.m. Thank you. You just gotta take a minute to boot up So should we want to 9.0 I don't know what that is either Seems like the issue we discussed Right. I think we discussed enough with the calendar and we'll be back more in that in April I don't know if we'll be there for next week Developing a board calendar and board goals You'll hear more about that tomorrow night But you've heard some of that as the supervisory new goals and we're trying to work on alignment between And among boards as Matt referenced earlier Any other future agenda items anybody asked? I do have a question That is related to board calendar and communication. Do we Want to continue the practice of meeting after the supervisory union Board meets There was discussion about having Keeping meetings local You So like right so like looking at these future agenda items None of them are time sensitive Do we need to meet next week as a local board after the su meeting or could we meet on april 12? To discuss these three so that they're discussed at our local school Do we have a problem with that? I just want to know that we I'm sorry to interrupt but But we are hoping to have something on the agenda for the su meeting next week that would Require local board Decision maybe I don't think it's that simple for you to make that general sweeping Peace I can say specifically from As far as what I would like to bring you for my report. I would like a little bit of time Okay, so We could have a brief meeting then I know I mean two meetings in a within two week period But We could do that if everyone's up to that. I'm a little unclear. Actually. Can we just recap? So so next week is the supervisory union meeting But we also have a local board meeting after it's like seven o'clock, right? And we're saying that we don't want to do that maybe no No, I was just bringing it up because it was brought to me as a question I do want to encourage community p