001Then once they got back on a short bus ride kind of to the other side of the peninsula where there was this outside museum which explained a lot of like the history of like Norway and a lot of like older buildings like back with like Vikings houses with like moss on the top and houses that were made with wood and like barns and it was really cool. >> Did they have examples of all those houses? >> Yeah. Uh in the next slide there's a bunch of pictures and then we had dinner which Mr. Br made spaghetti. Very good. >> But yeah, the next uh slide I couldn't get a ton of pictures on here but that's one of the churches we looked at was super cool. And then there's some of the houses down there.
002And this is like an old either mark or tomb. We couldn't really figure it out. And here's a spaghetti made. It was very good. And here's all sitting at dinner. And then day four, uh, we traveled from Oslo to Vos, which is kind of a city in the middle of, um, Oslo and Bergen. I should have put a map in here, but Bergen is like up here. is like here and Vos is like kind of in the middle, right? So, >> yeah, it's more sort of east to west as we kind of >> Yeah. >> went >> across. Yeah. >> And um we left the Oslo Airbnb at 6:30 in the morning, which was a drag, but everyone was up and ready. >> Uh we went to that was Yeah, we got on a train.
003We took a train station through um like kind of like the country of Norway which was really beautiful. It was like something you'd see out of a movie. And then the train ride was like six hours. It was it was a long train ride, but it was really nice. And then we kind of got to a colder area where we got to the forge and that was we got on a ferry and we rode down the river and the ferry and it was like >> the fjord and it was like beautiful like huge mountains like snow cover. It was like something you see out of like a Disney movie. It was really nice >> like Bruce. >> Yeah. And um Then we got to the boss apartments which were across from the spool. It was
004a castle um which was now a hotel which was really nice and we kind of stayed across and even in like the town of Vos there it's like there were apartments this castle and like across the way there's this huge like lake and mountains everywhere. It was so nice. And then we went to another restaurant which had like a lot more like Asian cuisine. Like it had like it was kind of like Cotto's in a way. Uh I forgot what I got to eat but it was really good. Was like I got ribs actually. It's kind of American on me. And then we went back to the apartments. A lot of us were still wide awake so we did some karaoke. And then yeah the next pictures this was like the fairy ride. It was
005just really pretty. This is off the train. Uh here's another selfie, like a group picture with all the mountains in the back. >> I forgot to include it, but me and Ella made a Tik Tok like off the edge of the ferry and it had like 10,000 views and a thousand likes. Pretty proud of that. It was funny. The captain of the boat was like making fun of us, dancing and laughing. So, it's all pretty good. And then, yeah, it was really pretty. There's that's where we departed from just down the way. It's really nice. >> It's awesome. >> So, yeah. Then the next slide is more pictures. This is where we went to dinner. Here are little apartments here. >> And then that's the castle we stay across from. This is us getting to
006the ferry. There's karaoke. And then the next picture or next slide. We traveled to Bergen. We rode on a jumper plane, which was something I've never experienced before, but it was was pretty cool. >> Uh, we got settled into our new house in Bergen. It was like a really interesting house that you'd see on like one of those like little house like TV shows. It had like four floors and like a really narrow like windy suitcase or staircase in the middle. And um, it was really cool. overlooked like the whole city of Bergen, like out onto the ocean, all the mountains and stuff. So, that was really nice. Um, after we got settled in a house, um, we went down into Bergen, we went to a aquarium, which was cool. There was those little penguins.
007I forgot what species they were, but they're really cool to see. And they had a bunch of other stuff. Um, we also explored. There was a lot of shopping. There were there was a big mall in like the center of the town where we did a lot of shopping and then along like the harbor there were a bunch of like old little stores in these like really old buildings. It was really cool. They sold a lot of souvenirs, a lot of like handmade things like a lot more sweaters and a lot of like knives made of like reindeer antler and bone and stuff which was cool. There were a lot of like statues and stuff like that. I bought an Odin statue which broke the bank a little bit. Then I saw it in the
008airport. Later I realized it wasn't that authentic. But >> and then we had um we ate at this one Italian restaurant which was really good. It was like better Italian food than anywhere. Like it made Louis Louise look like a joke. And we ate there. They had really good pizza too. Really good pasta. Uh, we ate there both nights wearing burger because it was just so good. >> I think one night I ate like six plates of food. >> I think there's a picture of that. >> And then we got back and we all watched a notebook together. >> Yeah. The next slide. Um, >> that's a jumper playing. >> That's the aquarium. That's >> Oh, there's a little alligator in the aquarium. So, I was watching a notebook. It's not the notebook on the
009screen, but here's a World War II museum from Maza. I don't know why I included that here. But, and these are like the small like shops along the harbor. That's across the harbor at night. That picture is really nice. There's like the old boat and stuff. It's really beautiful. >> And then the next day here, day eight, our flight was delayed to Iceland, which was very scary. We didn't think we'd make it to Iceland because uh the day we left the weather had been so bad we couldn't even fly into Iceland. So, >> we were scared we weren't going to be able to make it. But we were able to board the plane, landed in Iceland safely. But when we got off the plane, started like a heavy cold rain. It was almost like um
010hail, but not not really. Uh it was very windy, dark, and then we got to the Airbnb at like 1:00 in the morning. Me and Mr. Brink went out and went out in the dark of the night, went to the grocery store, got a bunch the one 24 hours >> 24-hour grocery store in in all of Iceland, just like a 15minute walk and like >> the harsh elements of Iceland. >> Yeah. Uh there was a lot of people out and about and um we got there, we got breakfast and dinner. Got back to the Airbnb, probably like two, fed everyone, went to bed. Uh we got up decently early in the morning and we, this was kind of last minute, but this was cool. We took a trip to the Plland also known as a
011Pearl, which was like this huge like volcano and glacier museum. Um, it I put in here it was really cool. So, it was all about glaciers. Um, it talked about like how Iceland was formed. We watched this really cool volcano show that we just like sat in a room but it was screens all around. So, it made you feel like you're like floating through a volcano and it was like shooting you up and stuff. That was really cool. And then we went through a glacier simulator which was the only one in the world. said it was like this. It was ice from a glacier and it was cooled in like this special room and you got to walk through these like tunnels of ice and you could feel wall. It was like super cold. It
012was really cool walking through there. >> And then we had a snack at the top which was also really cool. It was like a rotating around the whole like top floor was rotating which was cool. And then we regrouped and we went to a full food hall which was closer to our house and everyone the food hall was really cool cuz it was like a bunch of restaurants on this little food hall. Uh everyone got to eat what they wanted. Then we went back to the house for the night. And then the next slide is Iceland day nine. We had a very early morning but we all pushed so it was our last day of fun. We loaded onto a bus for a couple hours and we did the um Golden Circle tour which brought
013us all around Iceland. We got to see uh some geysers which was cool. We got to see like kind of a glacier and like um this like beautiful like winter tundra. It was really cool. And then we saw glaciers. We got to see like some like you know explode or whatever. And then we went to a hotring which was cool. It was a geothermal hotring so it was like naturally heated. The water was really warm which it was super it was like 30 like freezing weather and then you get the balloon super warm and then there was a cold plunge and then you could get back and it was it was quite the difference. And then after we got back, we had to cut the um Golden Circle tour short because the weather started to
014get bad. We got off the bus. The weather started to get really bad. So, we went back to the food hall, which we ate at the night before, ate dinner there again. A lot of good food there. Then after we made it back to the house, the weather kind of cleared up and somebody saw like on their map there was like this huge like beautiful church. So we went out in the dark of the night and went and visited that and I'm glad we did. It was really cool site. You want go to the next slide here. Here's some dinner. Uh we also got TJ fries as one night. That was $80. Uh was a lot of food. I ate it all. Wow. And then here's like one of the stops we made. There's like
015the snowy tundra. That's inside one of the Airbnbs we stay at in Iceland. This is a volcano >> simulator there. That's the coroner levels of that. That's a church went and saw >> and that's good thing. And then next slide here is traveling home. Uh, we left our Iceland house like 4 in the morning. >> Got up at 4, I think. Got up at like, you know. >> Yeah, really early. Um, we didn't really know how to find the shuttle bus, but luckily there were some people out and about. So they kind of pointed us in the right direction kind of and um we made it back to Iceland airport on time for the plane. Got to Boston then got back on our school bus with our luggage for the last time and we all
016went back to Windsor. I assume everyone went home caught up on rest. >> Some pictures. Oh, >> then next slide. Little reflection here. Uh the trip and I think went really good. We had a lot of posit positive feedback. Um the reason it was so successful in all of our opinions was the chaperons did a really good job keeping us well fed. Yeah. >> I wonder online. >> Yep. Colleen, can you hear us? >> Are we muted? >> Well, my my computer's not muted. Yeah, we should be getting >> Colleen, can you hear me? >> I can hear you now. I couldn't hear you for a little bit, but now I can. >> Okay, thank you. >> All right. Sorry. >> No, thank you for that. Um, numerous end of the year activities scheduled like
017everyone else between May and the middle of June. A lot. And then a final leadership assembly. Uh on June 12th, we will honor our fifth graders um our student leadership team, I can't remember what grade level has a presentation that day, but that will be in the theater um around 8:10. Anyone wants to join us there? >> I don't know what's going on in the tech. It'll come backed um over the past month since we last met. Sixth grade has done visits over um to the middle school. We've done a couple of visits including um watching the play that just took place which is great. Um parent teacher conferences are almost complete. We've got three families we're still trying to surf around with. We've done grab day. We did grab day here. Had the kids
018go around the school, pick up some stuff. It's amazing how much stuff is in art. Even though um like people pick up stuff, but it's really fun watching kids like get excited about cleaning up their school. So, that was nice to see. Um we have Finding Our Stride has started as well as we have uh middle schoolers going over to Windsor for middle school track. So, that's exciting. >> What's Finding Our Stride? Find Our Stride is a running here. Like we used to do Girls on the Run, but we wanted to be more inclusive, so we found a new program. It's called Finding Our Stride. Um, and then uh upcoming we've got a couple of trips. K12 is going to the Opera House in Lebanon. 3 through six is going to the Mona. So, that'll
019be fun. We're going to have to ask them about the bubbles. >> Uh, K registration is coming up. We've got Touch a Truck Day coming up with our community. They are second one in our community. And then Mountain Bay, we all go to the mountain. We have the Vermont Music Educator Association fourth and fifth grade choir. We have eight students who um are planning on going to that. A sixth grade class trip is coming up and we have a shed coming soon from our skip organization. Um is approved by the town hall. And so it's going to basically be to house our ice ring that Skip has purchased so we don't keep getting holes in it. So it's a enclosed container. We're planning on putting it over by the back stop or by the um
020back stop and using it almost like a dugout. So we'll put a like a two over it so it can function a little bit in that space. >> Oh, >> sorry. What what is K2 seeing at the opera house? They are doing a um it's connected to their literacy unit that they did back in the beginning of the year and I'm trying to come up with it in my brain and I can't remember what they said it was. Um I don't think it was the fairy tales. >> Tall tales >> might be. Yeah, that sounds right. >> Is it awesome? our little um >> um show these little stuffies. Um if you have a chance, just zip around the corner. The fifth our excuse me, the sixth grade um bulletin board just has a lot
021of really nice pictures up right now. Um she does a great job all the time. I just really liked the sense of science that showed up in this one because um you know we catch a lot of things going on in this school. But this um inquiry stages inquiry process was really fun to look at. So if you have a chance to put your head there and then that bottom right hand corner is um we went the third graders went to the state house as part of their understanding of Vermont. >> They did. Yeah. And this is them at the museum. if you've ever been to the museum right next to it. It's actually really cool from there, but they had like the history of Vermont like chronological is pretty cool. >> Um, but the
022kids were great about talking about what's missing. We talked about that in our curriculum a lot like what is missing, who's left out of this story, and they were really fascinated about why we started at a certain point and why certain things weren't included. They had all kinds of recommendations for the next artist that comes and fixes it. So, that was fun. >> Um, >> you have a question here. >> I've got a couple of questions. Um, when did they go to the state house? >> When did we go to the state house? Three weeks ago maybe >> about. Yeah. >> Right. Walk away. >> Thought I had a grumpy boy after that. >> Did you? >> Yeah. >> It's a lot of work. >> It It was It was It was a great trip
023and he really enjoyed it, but he was spent >> tired. Yeah. >> Yeah. And where are the sixth graders going on their class trip? So they we've got a hybrid thing going. They're going to Burlington. They're going to do some things up there. Um they're studying force and motion and they're going to a get air. They've got some experiments they have to do at Get Air, which is like a trampoline park. So that'll be fun. Um they've got a couple of other things scheduled. And then the parents are doing a camp out here overnight um in tents. So, we're doing that one. We used to do overnights in Boston. Now, we've gotten to two days. Now, we're doing like a one day and an overnighter at school. They all want to camp out at school.
024So, >> cool. >> Is there Did you stop doing the um canoe trip with the kids from Winter? >> We have not done the canoe trip since um since our playbased person left. We have not Nobody's organized that kind of sad but we still have good news to go. >> Good evening. um coming up in the middle school um and things that have been going on. Um recently our eighth graders got to go to CCV to do the visit um visit day, take a few classes and learn a little bit about what it's like to go to um college college classes. Um overall it went pretty well for the students. Um we had in the pictures here some of the most recent pieces. Um we have a picture in the bottom left students doing their
025Asian cultures presentations in social studies. We have geometry group work happening in the second picture. Our student of the month's group for um the month of April. Congratulations to Scott Simon, Bradley Dower, Aaron Hollesworth, and Sheamus McGrath. And then our last picture up above is our some of our middle schoolers um at the end of the middle school play curtain call um last week um in the theater. The items that we have coming up are our spring concert. We are um planning with um Albert Bridge with Jennifer and Miss Cindy and team to do some transition meetings for our sixth graders coming to seventh eighth grade team and some of our fifth our fifth graders obviously coming to the middle school from Windsor and our middle school students heading to the high school and working
026with the high school counselors. So being in the middle we're working on both ends and working on our transition meetings in this month of May. June 8th, we have um a specific day at Windsor for a fifth grade stepup day. We've done the shadow days for our Albert Bridge students. June 9th, we have a middle school adventure day. In the past, we've gone places like um laser tag and um handover and the hop and different events. This year, we're going to do more outdoorsy pieces with um Mount Gutney Outdoors. some things in Paradise Park and um Kennedy's Pond and the fairgrounds. And June 10th is our eighth grade stepup and dance at 6:00 pm in the theater. June 12th is run by our leadership team, our middle school field day. and our recent studentled conferences.
027We were at about mid50s and now we were having students doing some makeups with their teachers at school for people who were absent or didn't get to get their scheduled and we're going to keep working on that to try to get everybody to present as best we can. >> Thank you. Um those are two of our re recent uh tricks pictured on the left there went to Harvard Medical Museum. Um and above that Bernie Sanders post um Vermont day. Uh so those students went into part and then that was also Boston. They went next door um to the Canada Museum. Those took place last week. We have a lot of things upcoming. Um, but there are performance which is great people details. Um, our spring concert, our prom, high school fine arts showcase. I really
028can't speak enough about all and guy and Lauren Warner whom you come up to have brought to our um music program all the ideas they have and just make happen without um really the direction to do it. is just a program and they're just making such great things happen for it. >> June 3rd is our senior class night in awards at 6 p.m. if you can make it. June 5th is our graduation ceremony. We have we'd like to have it outside, but if any of you have been here in recent years, that does not seem to be happening. It's going inside because of the weather. We did get an email um last week or before saying that the man that we've used for our sound for 15 years and we have who we have our
029contracted will no longer be doing outdoor ceremonies and that includes this year. Um so he understands if we want to go with someone else. I am trying uh Scott and Erica actually hosted a regional principal meeting for us uh for everyone who attends the tech center. So I got all their contacts and I have reached out to everyone. So if anyone knows someone the key is they have to have a generator because we have no power out people. >> Yeah, that's the key because other than that we just need speakers for the band and speakers for the speech. >> Yeah, >> I would love to take it back. outside. Um, but I don't know if that's going to happen this year. And I've told the senior parents already just so there's no kind of blah
030at the end. Uh, it's fine. They make inside look beautiful. >> It looks great. Are you willing to give Nancy Pedrick a special dispensation to be able to shake hands? Yes, of course. But yes, um you are the one who >> I'm happy to supposed to give her the power to do that. >> Well, who's gonna tell her? >> I'll tell her. We just >> It's gonna be harder to find somebody say no. >> Yeah. >> She's earned it. >> We did our delight conferences. our fresh just like our freshman um was 68% shout out to Jer's entire home room um attended I know that had to do something I know he had something to do with that >> seniors who like to attend so they're might be same mindset that's >> but we actually
031did talk about that we did just have a meeting right before break um with all the principles who students attend the heart center um so me that Hartford um living in they get in on the conversation but obviously don't have the same pepper versus oh what's that um and we talked about working together better next year to get to see each other's PLPS and each other's um student life conferences so we could kind of um align them. I'm actually going to a workshop on it um Thursday with my two counselors. So, that's kind of um one of our big goals for next year to get more parent engagement uh with the student run conferences for our older students. I just want to remark that as the parent of a junior, um I was really struck
032by uh the student blood conference that we attended this year. It was it was really um remarkable. person who the teacher who uh advised our kid asked questions that were really insightful about our kid and required her to really think about how where she is in the world. >> Um and it really it was it was really profound. We were really We talked about it for days afterwards. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Almost your husband is doing something right. >> He does a lot of things. >> I know. But that was it was really it was really remarkable. >> That is kind of our focus for next year is um this warm time. I'm actually going to take a swarm. I'm gonna share it with somebody because that's a big commitment and things just
033so I can kind of lead by example but making sure that in March we're not like oh my god we have to get the student life conferences done that it's kind of like a year plus I'm working with the other principles to be able to go see theirs um it's super nice they all stock was my favorite answer he was like no one actually said he had to do all this stuff so I don't Um >> but with >> it does. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And this year >> we did kind of just go into a holding pattern with the PLPS because there's change and then we weren't sure what we were doing right. So we didn't want to keep moving forward until we got more direction. But we are actually going on Thursday. So
034hopefully we will have some more. >> Okay. I just got a little bit. >> Don't forget the sound people. some people um I always try to start with just some you know real real-time stories about what we're doing around student success and engagement and our other strategic plan goals. So Jennifer talked earlier about her her students really doing some outdoor projects. I happen to be here um watching them um mulch which was pretty uh pretty fun because who knew mulching would be so popular. I invited them all to my house to come and help me, but they did a good job navigating the sharing and the roles. Um, and they're they're working hard. Um, I think it's a fifth grade project that they're out there. And then I um got to go to art. Um,
035and it is you can just tell that uh it's it's spring and the kids are they just want to be outside. They're antsy, but um the teacher allowed them to have a lot of choice in what they were doing in art that day. this one girl. She um got a you know they directions here here are your options. Choose what you want to do. And so they all scattered and then this one girl brought out this big bucket of material scraps and I was like what are you going to do? She said I'm going to make a dress. And I was like okay. She brought another girl over, put the material around her, measured where to cut the holes in the arms and it was quite it was quite impressive. So, she had a plan
036and she was executing it. So, just being able to give students some choice, I think, helps them stay engaged, especially this time of the year. >> Um, here are uh some pictures of the middle school, the Windsor Middle School um performance from last week, which was which was entertaining. It was all about a little middle school scenario. So, the kids really got into it and it was it was fun to watch. And then, um Kim Goan, our flexible pathway coordinator, she sent pictures. This is um >> yeah this is rise against hunger event at Lebanon high school and she helps um she's the um interact um adult liaison to the Rotary club. So we have about 20 23 kids in Rotary Interact this year which is pretty amazing and they do a lot of community
037service. So she took um the kids to uh rise against hunger at Lebanon High School. There were three schools there, Windsor, Lebanon, and Masoma. They raised over $6,000 and packaged 14,000 meals to be distributed to an international community in need. So, um, just very >> Those are hairetss. >> Yeah, those are hairetss. Those are our kids in hairets. Yes. >> Okay. Because they I'm like, that's an awful lot of gingers in one picture. >> They're wearing hairetss. But it is so great to see them so involved in community and um and service projects. So Kim's Kim's a great um help with that. Um she you know some of the kids go to Rotary sometimes, but she goes weekly and is a is the bridge for them. So that that was great to see. Um I
038don't have too much um to share with you tonight, but I did want to just say again uh H949, which is the yield bill, they've Oh jeez, I didn't advance my slide here. Sorry. Um, >> uh, I think we talked about this last week, Elizabeth 220 is embedded in the yield bill. Um, moved out of, um, Senate Finance. It moved to House Ways and Means last week where they were taking testimony. We did get an all call from from Chelsea Myers, the VSSA VSA um president, and basically was like, "Please give me uh examples of what this means to your your district." And it means um I'll just share the numbers with you. Uh so for us, these are the reductions to go to from 118 to 112. Um Mount Scutney would have to cut
039$1.2 million out of their budget. Weathersfield, you know, 738,000 and Heartland gets hit the most 1.5. So, uh, I don't know how we would sustain that without either merging or or, you know, with and we are talking about that. I mean, tomorrow at H Heartland, um, they've asked us to bring a presentation on what what it what the numbers would look like if they joined Mount Scutney District, which is which is which is great. So, Larry's got that ready for tomorrow. Um, can I say a couple of things about the Okay, just couple things about the yield bill. >> One is that the inclusion of S2 the the spending cap for S220 at 112%. That is the thing that has been taken from S220 and put into the yield bill. >> Right? So S220 itself
040allowed for exceptions >> and that language did not um come to the yield bill. That's the first thing. The second thing is that uh the yield bill is now out of the Senate. It started in the House, went to the Senate, had this attached to it and some other things. Um and now it will go to conference committee. when the conference committee decides uh what the final bill will be uh in both the house and senate it's an up or down vote there are no amendments there are no changes it is just yes or no >> as is okay >> um and so uh if this remains in it you can expect I don't know about Charlie um but >> yeah he voted in favor of or he has been talking of S220. Um but
041the uh so I don't know how he will I can't imagine he would vote against the guil bill because he's um but you can expect the rest of us to um make strong statements and take uh strong stands against the >> and typically we'll get an all call from from Chelsea and I'll send something out if we need advocacy. >> But please be ready because um there the conference committee I believe it got put into conference committee on Friday so they're doing it now. So it'll be in the next few days. Um okay. >> Yeah. Thank you for >> keeping us informed. Um okay, last slide. Just a couple of reminders which you've heard a little bit already. Um we did complete VTCAP last week. All our makeups are done. Um we were still kind
042of sending in some waiverss on particular circumstances, but we are we are we are completely finished now. Um which opens up our next round of assessments. >> Uh we're going to be um engaging in star and dibbles from May 12th to May 22nd. Um so our kids will be fully tested out by the end of the year. And we are uh we met today. Principles met today. Bridget and Jen Holes, myself, just really um hashing out summer win, figuring out how many students we have, how many staff we need. I think our window, we we sent out uh our first round of invites, we sent out our second round of invites this week and we will finalize because we need to hire people and and parents need to know summer plans. Um ju just graduation
043dates. Uh middle school, as Colleen shared, is the 10th at 6. Windsor at um 7 o'clock on June 5th. Davis, I assume you're speaking. Is that Kate? Are we Is it the regular speaking panel? >> It is the regular thing. Um Colleen has a family graduation and she reads the name. So if anyone is down to the job is >> I'd love to do it. Great. >> There you go. >> Okay. So we've got Nancy, we got Elizabeth, we got Davis. Okay. >> Um and then Albert Bridge. Jennifer, that's still correct. June 10th at one o'clock. And how many kids are graduating from sixth grade here or moving on? Eight. >> That's a big That's big. It's good. >> Yep. >> And that is all for from us tonight. >> Ve camp waivers. I mean
044>> like medical. We had a couple medical. >> They'll probably all be turned up. >> Well, they might, but we're going to try anyway. >> The language this year. >> Good timing. Thank you. >> We have no new hires. >> I If I think of any found people who have generators, I'll let you know. >> Can you rent Can we rent a generator? >> I have extended batteries. >> I know nothing about them. >> We got a whole outdoor performance set >> to run the sound. >> It's a decent size sound system you need. Yeah. So that's >> the generator. >> It's not just a generator, right? Like That's why we got a generator. >> You can't make noise. >> Uh, it starts at 10:30. Brunch. >> Um, >> 10:30 to 11:30. >> What? What
045day is that? >> The 5th. The brunch. >> No, I said I call lunch. Brunch. >> We start at 10:30. >> Yep. Oh, I thought you were talking about the senior breakfast lunch. So, I got that for brunch. I Well, no, I love brunch. I go to senior breakfast. That's what I thought you were talking. >> All right. So, we do need to we do need to move on. >> Sorry. >> Good to see you. >> All right. So, uh that nod towards potential upcoming advocacy at the end. Uh was a good almost a good segue because first we got to talk about the tan. >> Well, the tan is the tax anticipation note. Um, everyone has to sign it in blue pen in about seven or eight spots. Um, it is so that we
046can borrow money if we run into a cash flow problem. >> So, we have to do it every year. >> Just don't sign the spot where it says William Yates because that's just me. >> And who's not here tonight? >> Amy. >> So, I'm gonna have to have her come in. >> Yep. >> Y can't be docu sign. It's got to be right. >> Yeah, it's got to be. >> Okay. Has everyone signed it? >> I have not. Okay. >> So, I'll do that. There's a >> sign it correctly. I'll have her address that. Um, it's like six spots, Liz. Wherever there's a blue sticky >> Yeah. Sorry. >> They still have my mailing address wrong after six years. So, >> okay. And mailing address. Can I ask a question about the wind program? >>
047Sure. quick. Sorry. Um I know it's at different schools this year and each school also has different programs that they're running. If a child was a Windsor student but in the program here base camp >> or you know vice versa would there be any um flexibility >> for transportation or just a different school? >> Yes. Oh, to do to do um when summer win. >> I'm just curious. You can think about >> Is that the whole time? Would that be the whole time? >> It it could be. I I mean, >> I'm talking about my students, but I just wonder if there's other students that we can talk about. I was just curious if that was something that had been thought about thus all. >> We had not thought about that. Would it matter if
048um there was transportation from one location to the next? >> I don't know. >> Okay. All right. Let's let's talk about that. >> I I I'll work on it. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that base camp's pretty awesome. >> And Hannah's not the only one or kid that goes to base camp. So, I was just curious. >> Is is base camp all four weeks? >> It is. And I know last year they let there was tutoring and they did let some kids do tutoring here. So it's just >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We'll work on that. >> Yeah. Two more. >> Figured out. >> Thank you all very much. >> All of us but Amy. >> We'll figure out Amy. All right. So, um, one thing I did add to the agenda, um, I got some
049outreach from our regional, uh, VSBA, uh, rep, uh, Neil Odell, um, encouraging us to engage in some advocacy around EQUS and the education reform bill. So, I will just read to you, uh, I'll read to you the draft resolution. I think that kind of gets to the point. He did have some kind of like reasoning around it, but I think that we you'll be familiar with what they're asking us to approve as a resolution. So whereas Vermont has a responsibility to ensure that all students funded by public dollars are afforded substantially equal access to high quality educational opportunity. Education quality standards or EQS established the state expectations and regulations for curriculum, staffing, student supports, and school quality. Public school districts are required to meet EQS in full. Independent schools receive public tuition dollars without being
050held to the same standards. This creates inconsistency in expectations for schools supported by the same source of public funding and a lack of transparency and accountability for every Vermont student. resolved that would be Mount Scutney School Board formally calls upon the legislators to incorporate as part of its broader education reform efforts a statewide policy requiring that all independent schools receive public tuition dollars meet Vermont's education quality standards and further resolve that the Musketney school board ornney school district board will communicate this position directly to its legislative delegation and relevant legislative committees adopted on today if we choose to adopt it. So, that would be the resolution that we're considering. Uh, any questions about that? >> Would it take a policy or a law? >> It was a bill. Uh, no, it was it was a
051bill. >> Yeah. >> This session and then we tried to get it amended. Uh, we tried to add it to as an amendment to the um H9553 bill this year. We've and it failed. I signed on to both of those. Um I don't I don't think it would be a good idea for me to be included in this. >> Sure. >> So I have so many questions. >> So I saw this and you know I was reading through the education quality standards. Um I I just I guess I don't understand like fully what the ask is because there's a lot in the education quality standards and like I would feel very uncomfortable signing on to saying independent schools need to do this without understanding what the actual repercussions would be for independent schools. Um I
052know that you know there I have exper some experience having attended an independent school that served kids that didn't necessarily do well in public school. >> Right. Um so you know my understanding is that there's been a lot of push back um against this from independent schools saying like we you know we can't afford to to do all the things that public schools do like these are the things that we do well. Um so I guess I would want to understand like what are the actual repercussions of this like why is why is that push back? um how specifically like would it affect these schools um and mostly the students and um I just I yeah I just don't feel comfortable signing something without actually understanding what the scope is. >> Sure. >> That makes
053sense. So, >> so one of the things is which schools do follow independent schools in Vermont do follow for the most part and I'm not an expert on it >> but I know that academy does quite well and so does Sharon Academy um with uh accepting students of a wide variety of ability and doing state testing and things like that and following the um the these standards. Um so I think and I don't know it' be interesting to sort of find out more about the the Vermont approved independent schools and how many of them actually do >> um apply those standards. >> I think all of the um Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> What is >> So what is >> what is the definition of independent school? I'm sorry. I don't >> It's a any
054>> It's a blanket term for uh private it is now used as a blanket term for all private schools and independent schools did indicate uh the the bigies ones that um were written into the state constitution. >> Yeah. So it's it's those and every other private Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um but there are some private schools that are not particularly um rigid what sort of uh curriculum and expectations that they put on to the students um >> or acceptance rates. >> Or acceptance. Yeah. And and I think the acceptance is is you know really the one of the main cruxes is that um if you if a school is going to accept public money then they need to accept public students. Um and so whether or not how the Supreme Court last um judgment on
055religious schools. >> Carson Bon. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. pound 8 that would push back against this and whether or not it would be influence on if this is asked if that would have any um it well just to be clear nothing is nothing in this regard is going to actually happen period all of the bills regarding education >> are done >> so this is just a statement from our board M >> and it also does have to do with um to me um it has also to do with financial transparency. >> Um because uh uh we don't we don't actually we don't have access to um any data about how students are doing whether how they do how they perform on standardized tests. I don't know what um we don't actually know anything about the
056quality of the education that they are receiving. Um and it wouldn't matter if people were just sending their kids to private schools, but we're spending tax dollars on that. Um and so we as with anything, you should know what you're buying with that money. So, I'm I'm in support of of this and I'd be happy to sign on to it. Not that anything's really going to come of it, but it's sort of that, you know, if we as a society and a tax base are raising money and spending money for something, we should have some insight on to what that money is accomplishing. And so >> I mean I see like I see the transparency piece, but it's just that that's only a piece, right? Like there's I mean there's 17 pages of guidelines that
057you know may not be able to reasonably apply to everyone and >> right >> you know >> bits and pieces of it like yes make sense to me but I don't feel like any of us in this room really have enough information like we want make schools follow all I mean it has everything like you actually >> well some of us do have enough information but >> no I mean about about like the independent the schools themselves like what's going on in those the schools like how it would affect the right schools >> that's one of the issues we don't have any idea what's going on in the schools and so that's kind of the main issue we don't know what's going on in those schools because we have no data on what's going on
058in the school. So that's kind of the main push of this. For the public entities like ourselves to have an idea on how this may affect it, we need to know what's going on in the schools. And even though we're spending millions of dollars on tuition towards independent schools in the state of Vermont, we have no legal ability to know what's going on for our school. And the main crux of public education is that it's not here to serve the individual students and individual parents. It is here to serve the society and to have this offshoot uh with no reporting requirements um hinders that ability exactly what you're saying. We have no idea what's going on. I told court reporting requirements, but I mean this is telling this is everything down to like how their
059MTSS plans need to be laid out like their student teacher ratio, how it's telling them how to do it, not gathering information. And I just feel like that's a little I don't know. I just I can't I don't feel comfortable saying like yes, I'm going to mandate what independent schools are doing. >> That's what public schools are mandated to to do. I'm aware, but I'm also aware that independent schools sometimes fill in >> for students that public schools don't work for and I >> don't want that to go away either. >> Uh, Megan, >> I just have a question and I'm sorry if I'm not quite understanding and I might just ask for some clarifying questions. So it sounds like what is um what Liz is reading to us from is that is dead correct
060like this this bill that they were trying to put through >> the what the letter is about is affirming the bill that we tried to get through. So by sign I'm just so what this is asking us to do is to kind of put it back in front of our legislation. So >> it's making a statement >> and really I think that it's kind of a placeholder for the next legislative session. That's what I when it we could come back with a bill that says we want them to be we want independent schools to have to adhere to this and this >> but not necessarily all of this. So we're not by signing this we're not saying it has to be this exact we're just we would like it to be revisited if we're we
061would like this to be revisited. It's important to us to have is that what this is sort of >> this statement is basically asking us to say we think that independent schools should be have to follow all the same education quality standards as >> public schools. But I mean is that going to cause schools to close because of student teacher ratio? for a second. Like what does that actually mean? Like that's a pretty broad thing to apply. I mean there's specialized schools for specific populations. There's schools for specifically like for kids with disabilities. Like what is I mean >> those are not in considered independent schools, >> therapeutic schools. >> Well, they are members of VISA, >> right? But uh schools that are designed just for students with disabilities tend to be categorized as uh
062placement schools. And so the special programs um >> but there are other types of program like there's the arts academy and there's >> there's other um >> of course the skimmies >> and I I have absolutely no issue with those independent schools doing what they want, how they want it, and following whatever guidelines they wish to as long as they don't take public money. >> Well, sometimes taking college money is the only way for low-inccome students to attend a specialized school, >> right? >> But you and I aren't going to agree upon this. >> That's fine. I'm just But I think it needs to all like all of our opinions need to be >> Oh, yeah. >> Absolutely. And like the for example the MTFS uh guidelines it's a requirement to response intervention which is
063research wise is an extremely important aspect of any ed educational institute that is accepting public students because not everyone's the same learner. itself. >> Yeah, I'm just reading through examples of like it's just, you know, >> yeah, >> flexible pathways. Maybe some schools >> just as that's all part of the whole EQs, >> right? Um, yeah. Any further discussion? All right. What I think I would like to do since again this won't pertain to anything happening in this legislative session and I do think that it would be good to have an entire board here if we are going to vote on something like this. Um I do want to I'll table this for now. >> Um but I think it's a good it's a good discussion. >> Um I do I do want to bring
064it back up and you know maybe discuss it again and consider adopting it once we have Amy here as well. Um can I just tell you all one more uh kind of tendental thing but it's all it is related to the legislature to bring it up but it is rather important. >> Sure. and that is that the Senate's version of H955 um they have slipped in uh adherence to the federal uh school voucher program. So >> can you explain that? I'm sorry. Uh that is a on the one hand it's federal funding that um uh grades a voucher program which you know would help to pay for um defay some of the cost of our private school tuitions. hand. It also has uh strings attached to it and is also opening the door to um
065charter schools. Um so that is in there right now. It has already passed out of the the Senate and so when they go to conference committee um that will be one of the things that is bargained for and again when it comes out of conference committee it is an up or down vote. I think you all already know how I plan to vote on that bill anyway, but um just so you're not just so you can roll your eyes, I plan to vote against um for myriad of reasons, but that just adds another reason to the list. >> Nice. additional context and I appreciate a good discussion about this. Um >> um I I should say that uh uh I there are plenty of people who are in favor of H955 and uh and we
066do not yet know what it will look like when it um when it comes out of conference committ. >> All right. Well, we'll stay tuned. All right. So, I think we can table this until next >> month. Yep. >> Until next month. Yeah. >> Amy's here. >> Yep. >> Dad, what you're talking about? Page 95. >> I'll make sure I'm tableing exactly. >> Pretty strong. It looks like they're pretty strong now. Last vote. >> Yeah, there were Democrats who didn't make a motion. >> No, you didn't. >> Yeah, we don't have to. Okay, >> I just put it on the agenda for next time. >> You know me. I just like to be president. >> That's totally cool. All right, so moving on. Uh, last thing we have to do. This is a nice easy
067one. Approval of school district clerk. Um, so Jacob Ford was our district clerk last year. He did an awesome job. He did it at the 11th hour and like learned everything quickly, pulled it off with flying colors. Uh he does regret he he hit me up earlier today. He couldn't be here tonight, but he wanted to, you know, come and make an appearance and kind of introduce himself or reintroduce himself, but uh he does he is willing to be our district clerk again. So, uh highly recommend him. Did a great job. And uh just would love to have the same district clerk two years in a row. Maybe three, maybe four. >> Just not one different one every year. Um, so I will take a motion to approve uh Jacob Ford as our school district
068clerk for the uh 2627 school year. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? All right. Uh, hearing none. We'll do a roll call vote on this one. So, Bill, how do you vote? >> I. >> Elizabeth, >> I. >> Liz, >> I. >> Megan, >> I. >> And I'm an I as well. Also, we've approved Jake. >> Um, weren't Weren't you going to try to um ask >> We did. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> We We did that formality. It was received how I expected to be received and Jake will be on this paper. So, all right. Um, okay. So, setting the next agenda, I think. Um, again, it assuming Amy's here, I just think that that's something if we are going to >> vote on something like that, I think
069having everyone there for that, um, makes sense. >> Um, and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of time urgency since in this session, it's already kind of a ship sailed a little bit. Um, so we can kick that one to the next meeting. Um, anything else anticipated? >> No, I don't think so. We've got, um, our meeting will be June 1st, regular meeting. Our retreat will be in August. >> Yep. So, we'll do our we'll be able to do our student growth report, behavior report. >> Um, >> and we had on here discussion of the role of the BAC, but I think we'll save that for the retreat. You think >> or do you want to start it early? >> Um, let's just look at it. I think that's a good I think
070it >> Yeah, we don't need to get deep into it, but I think um >> so I'll put that under items for discussion. >> I like previewing the retrieve a little bit. Yeah, >> perfect. And then I'll put EQs and ED reform on again next next month. >> Absolutely. Okay. And then that'll I'm sure something else will come up. You and I will communicate if it does. >> All right. Still won't be out. >> No. Not yet. >> No. It'll it'll be four days before graduation. I will hopefully written what I'm going to say about >> preview your speech if you want. Right. >> Oh, no. That that gets read once and once. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> Yes. Sure. >> When will we know when the last day of school is?
071>> Soon as I hear from the secretary. been waiting. Check my email every morning because everybody's asking. >> So, we asked for one day waiver so the kids would end on Friday. Um, >> be great. >> Yeah. >> How many snow days? We didn't have very much snow days. >> We had two, >> but it takes them to a Monday. So, we we'll see. >> Fingers crossed. >> All right. >> Well, sounds like we got a lean agenda next time. You know, if anything comes up good with the 17th for August. >> Sure. Okay. >> All right. We'll get that in our calendar. >> I am not. >> You are not. >> No. >> Where are you going to be? Vacation. I hope >> I'm going to be taking my child on a college tour.
072>> Oh, >> all right. >> We're going all across the northern tier of the USA and then down the >> Oh, that's awesome. >> Coast. Yep. >> And then through Santa Fe. >> All right. And just before we adjourn, well, I got you all stuck here for another sec. If you haven't signed up for uh Brown's little baked bean supper stuff, please do. >> If you can make it and can't, that's cool. But if you can make it, please sign up to a >> All right. I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor. >> I All right. Thanks everyone. We are adjourned at 8:13 p.m. Thanks so much. Good >> job, Davis. >> Yeah. What? Because of the sleeping