MASD School Board Meeting @ Windsor School - October 6th, 2025

001All right. I would like to call this meeting of the Madison County School District Board to order. Uh on this Monday, October 6th at 6:30 p.m. Um number two on our agenda, any changes or additions that we need to make? >> All right. On to number three. uh approval of minutes from September 8th, 2025. And I will take a motion to approve those minutes. So move. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion about those minutes. All right. Hearing none, um I will call a voice vote to approve those minutes. All those in favor, please say I. >> Opposed. >> Abstensions. >> I Megan, >> thanks Megan. >> Yep. >> All right. And no nays or abstensions. So those are approved. All right. Moving on to number four. Uh public comment on non-aggenda items or announcements.

002Public comment is not legally required, but we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns over issues. Through these meetings, our board models for our students how to conduct public discourse and that the board and members of our community can approach controversial issues in a civil and constructive manner and can demonstrate mutual respect. Having said that, please note the board is here to listen. The public comment period is not designed for discussion. Please start by identifying yourself and what town you reside in and please limit your remarks to three minutes. So, any public comment or announcements? Um, the redistricting I have a hard time saying that word. The redistricting task force uh that is charged with um creating new districts of 4,000 to 8,000 students um is meeting

003this Friday at Oxbow High School in uh Bradford. They're meeting from 9:30 to 3:30 for their regular meeting. They have been doing six hour long meetings but from 4:30 to 6 6:30 they're having a public um comment session and uh you can go in person to Oxbow High School or they also are um there will be an online option. So if you're interested in um in uh giving input into how this processes or what you'd like to see or any of those six. >> All right. Thank you, Elizabeth. And I I saw that you had emailed that earlier, too. Is that Did you send that to Front Porchport Forum? >> I did. I sent out a thing, but at the time that I sent it, they didn't have a time for the public comment, and

004now >> they have a time for it. >> Excellent. All right. Okay. >> Um just an announcement that the Windsor was very much Windsor High was very much in um view during the womb dance and running several things. >> For senior project >> Y >> did very well of the Dank. >> Always a splashing. >> Oh yeah. Uh yeah, I mean I I had a couple comments in mind that actually touch on both those things. So yeah, I was so glad to see so many of our students out and our school community out for Autumn Moonfest uh running booths and just out having a good time. Um also I got to, you know, check out our sports games. Uh saw the varsity girls soccer have a great game and uh boys varsity football doing their

005best. Um, you know, it's good to see them just getting out and playing while we have this nice warm weather for a couple more days. Um, but yeah, really great uh homecoming in autumn weekend. So, great to see so much of our community out there getting together and uh doing some positive stuff. Um, I also just wanted to uh quickly have a little bit of a public comment on on the ACT 73 stuff. Um, just some followup on some things that I've kind of heard swirling about uh really before that coverage in the Valley News came out. Um, I I thought that was pretty >> Yep. I thought it was it was fairly accurate um in reflecting that you know this is something that the our supervisory union and our two neighboring supervisor unions in

006Hartford or Hartford's district and the kind of SUSD mountain views I think it's called a supervisory union but yes >> um it it is intent that really is meant to steer a process that if we did nothing the choice might be made for us and we are trying to as those three units express some agency that we we already share some resource and it makes sense to work together. Um the one thing that I think has been a little bit confusing for folks and I was hearing some of this beforehand as well is that um I think visually when you look at the online article it has the picture of the proposed new Woodstock High School. Um the new Woodstock High School expansion is something that's being discussed in Woodstock. That is not part of

007the proposed merger idea that we're talking about. Um there is not any plan to send students from this town to a larger Woodstock high school. Um >> or discussion. Yeah, it's it's not in the mix right now. So I just want to make that really clear like those two things were presented together in that article, but they are they are not really related. So I just want to just clear the air on that. Um but otherwise I think that you know the coverage of how that discussion went about the uh the proposed merger was was pretty accurate. um including some of the misgivings about act 73 which are shared by a lot of us. Uh any other announcements public comment? All right. Well, hearing none, we will move on to our administrative report. Turn it

008over to uh >> and I can look here. slide that you're >> uh we have a link in. Yeah, go into that one. too many pictures. Yeah. Um, so I have Caspian with me. Um, do you want me to tell them who you are or do you want? >> I can. Okay. um a fourth grader in our school and um I asked Caspian to join me today. We have just started talking about um our student leadership team and how we're going to form that this year and we haven't been too far down the process other than students that have applied. So I don't have a team to bring to you, but I am 100% confident Cas is one of our student leadership team members. He ex um displays an incredible amount of leadership in our

009school and um so today we practiced in the hallway this uh presentation we're going to give and he's going to jump in and his mom bottom. So thank you for doing that. We got one more. So, I think one of the biggest goals for the elementary school this year was under the stronger together that um we're using as an SU was to really think about communication involvement and opportunities for families to participate in our day. I think I noticed last year there's a real difference between what I see and feel inside the building and what some people might might hear and think outside the building. So, we made this a goal to really um not just promote the activities, but make people feel like they should be in our building and come see what we

010see and and what we're doing every day. And this just lists a few of the ways that we do things. None of these seem incredibly new, but maybe we're all doing we're doing them a little bit differently. So, we will have conferences. Um we're still working on our family engagement opportunities. We haven't scheduled those, but we're trying to think about not just having them as evening suppers that don't always work for people. Maybe it's uh books and bagels or something in the morning that we we look at the beginning of the day and the middle of the day and the end of the day to um make the building accessible to a lot of our families. I think the um behavior understanding and the engagement and the work that we did with the behavior matrix

011I know um is understood by our families and it's really increasing our communication and Cassie and I were talking about it a little bit today and what did you have to say about um our understanding of behavior in schools? Oh. Um that there should be like just not just for the kids but also for the teacher that there should be more expectations just not just like not to be like a pain to like your kids but like just to help because I have seen some teachers not appropriately dealing with problems with kids. So I just think that there should be higher expectations for teachers and >> and we talked about and understandings right like training how do we deal with these situations when they come up and knowing that um we have people that need

012support around that. Um we also Cassby have also noticed that it feels different in school this year with just that common understanding phenomenal um SEI room running right now with some really highly skilled people that are making a difference in the way it feels power. Um we also are looking for some volunteer opportunities trying to create some welcomeness in some ways and we'll share those with you. We have a lot of communication um staff to families um administration to families guidance to families and in return their communication back which I think has improved a lot has increased a lot. Um, we're looking at some crossrade school opportunities like middle school to elementary school, but also some of the student leadership things of, uh, can our fourth and fifth graders be helpful to our kindergarten and

013first graders? And, um, Cassie even thought about um, what were you talking about lunch, duty? >> Um, >> what are you talking about today? That the older kids could >> Oh, yeah. >> Right. Maybe helping in the in the cafeteria and having lunch with kids and showing them what it would be like to have lunch. And then our student leadership team which we're still um trying to form. We'll talk about that in a minute. And sorry can go one more Christine. >> Go one more. >> So just Whoops. Sorry. Go back on it. You went ahead and I didn't. Um the ways that we have tried to engage more people already this year. Our kindergarten always often offers a an extra kind of open house. trying to give our 5-year-olds an extra opportunity to feel

014comfortable in the building. They do do their half days as well as participate in our open house. PreK does that as well. They have extended open house times to let um families come in and get familiar with the space. During our meet the teacher night, we had um you know, I think one of the things I appreciate the most is we had uh 100% staff involvement, which was just fantastic. That was a different feeling last year. And 75% of families were engaged in coming and meeting and we kind of sent them around the school and not just come look at the one classroom but go together and go see the music room. Um and then we're still working on our community engagement and then we can go one. So this is something new that we've

015started. Can you do you want to talk about this one? >> Sure. Um so it's shout outs for kids. So like when a teacher or another kid sees like somebody who's doing something good then or like nice for somebody else then they can like tell like Miss Thompson or somebody else and we're doing shout outs or what a morning meeting just make kids feel good about themselves and make them feel like they actually matter in what they do. And so we have a virtual morning meeting every morning, which uh doesn't sound very exciting, but it's actually very fun. Um we we play games, we have trivia contests, we play bingo. Um we do scavenger hunts for things around the school where the kids have to go find things and collect as many as they can,

016like work with their class and and then just give them the little bits of information. The shout outs was something that came out of the summer work from leader and me with how do we how do we recognize the exceptional behavior, not the expected behavior, right? Like that's what we should be expecting. What's the exceptional behavior? Um today I told Cassie and I thought he was the first person to receive a shout out and he corrected me. He told me he would never believe he was not the first. Um the part that I um think is the most important almost about this is not just making the students feel good about what they did, but we we send emails to families that their child has been shouted out. So, and every single email that um

017I've sent out, I have had a reply on from a parent in a positive way. So, it's just again just trying to open up that communication. Um teachers just fill out a form, right? and it goes in there and they tell me why they're shouting it out and then I add them into our morning slides and it's but I think kids want shout outs, don't you? >> Okay. Um, leadership assemblies. So these we've revamped these a little bit right from last year. You okay to talk about that? >> Sure. >> So um, we moved it to the theater. So just so it's nicer. Um and um we made it more Parson's awards without the category just to make it like pointed more towards like what exceptional thing they actually like did instead of categorizing them.

018And um we're doing more student um class presentations and there was an invitation to all families and community members. And we're going to start doing coffee for um the people who come in the morning. And um the student leadership team will eventually um like do like um lead the um the leadership assemblies. and and the hope is that the um they eventually take it over, right? Like we were talking earlier about, you know, I I open and close and the kids would read the awards, but could we ever get to a place where students could really just take this over and and some of morning meetings and um can we get their voices out more? We're still working on that, too. Oh, and then um Okay, Katherine, I didn't do my homework. I was supposed

019to put another ignore the three stars. So it was the end of September that we started um thinking about the student leadership team. The previous year I think selection and at that time it was election into the student leadership team had some bumps in it. Um, and we were trying to think of a way to involve everybody, but also make it um, make it something you earn, make it something you work for that fits you. So, we've refocused it a little bit. Um, but this was, you want to talk a little bit about this what we did? We met in late September. >> Oh, yeah. And um there are 38 um students um um trying outb and it's grade three through five um some random number of completed applications. I haven't compiled that yet. >>

020And the partition slip and >> so we had um we had requirements for um some of the students took themselves out immediately when we started talking about what it meant to be on the student leadership team. Some of them literally up 38 literally left the meeting which okay um and then we outlined for families. So the the letter on the right is what went home for families and outlining some of the requirements or the characteristics qualities that we thought. So the students had to go home and talk with their parents about this and both had to sign it and return it. And we were really strict on deadlines um and and shared that as a responsibility, right? When you're applying for a position or a job, um it's a responsibility. You can't apply two days

021late and and um have this the same. We did have some families that uh wanted to email in permission and I said this is a responsibility right like we're really asking for we will need help from families for evening events and things like that. So um what I haven't compiled or what the blank missing number is how many filled out the application and their signature got it in on time. So, we wrote subcommittees because um last year at the beginning of the year, I'm not sure how many people were actually on our student leadership team at the beginning of the year. I know at the end of the year it was four. Um they didn't have a regular meeting schedule. They had a lot of great ideas and they gave you a great video last

022year that the the three uh fifth graders who were laughed and did a great job for us. So, I'm a little afraid we're going to have too many kids. So, we talked about subcommittees. Could third graders kind of work their way into some of the bigger leadership roles that the fourth and fifth graders might have and do they want to have um subcommittee work around the school? Um I still think other kids will filter themselves off. They had to they realized their meetings will be at the lunchtime, right? So they would have to agree to come to lunch and um we'd make announcements, but again really pushing that responsibility piece of it's your job to know that you're coming, right? you're going to be in leadership. We'll give you some reminders, but but not all.

023>> No. All right. Um we This is a lot of fun. We back to thinking about ways that we can um connect with the community. Last year, uh after Harvest Moon Festival, James from the Wreck um reached out to Kate and said, "We'd love to find a way to get the kids more involved." And kid said, "What do you think?" And I said, "Sounds great." So, a week ago, uh, Monday night, kid called me late and said, "Uh, do you remember when we said we get involved?" I said, "Oh, yeah. I remember. We haven't talked about it." She said, "We're well, they're delivering 200 pumpkins tomorrow morning." Here they were. But we had fun with it. Right. So, what tell them what we did. >> Um, so we um painted them and um bunch of

024people got them Friday. >> Friday morning they came and got them, right? >> Yeah. Friday morning the wreck um centaur came to get them and they were displayed at the Halloween festival. So, and um that was grades um K through five and there were a lot of pumpkins. There were a lot of >> we um we spun a wheel during morning meeting to see who could come first because of course they all want to pick their pumpkins first and uh so they we lotteryed who got to come down and the only rule was especially for kindergarters which you got to be able to carry by yourself, right? So they so that left some of the big ones for the older but yours is in here. Which one's yours? Uh the one in the very back,

025>> the yellow one way in the back. When we were going over this this morning, he said his pumpkin was in the >> This one right to the left a little. >> I'm trying. My cursor is not >> in the other side just left of center right there. >> Oh, nice. >> Casian. >> Um so that was a really fun community event. Um we the teachers already talk about next year. I give them a lot of credit for just embracing the unexpected when I said there's 200 pumpkins in the office. Um, all of the teachers were very on board and excited and um I think um they have even more ideas for next year. So we'll be interested in that. And then last Friday we had our mountain day hike. um which the reason I

026put this in is not really as an an event but to let you know that we had 50 plus parents, grandparents, community members that came with us. So um about a third um third as many as um students and where did you go? >> We went on Mount Cardigan. >> Fourth grade went to Cardigan. U fifth grade goes to Ball in uh Rutland. um a kindergarten first grade to Mount Peg and second and third grade to Mount Tom and um it it's just a very um it's just a great day and it couldn't have been more perfect honestly with the weather and >> so and I guess what when I think about this what I appreciate the most is we've done that's we've done that it's October 6 and that's what we've done to engage

027the community already this year. So, um, not only are we working hard at it, we're having a lot of fun doing it. Just want to throw out to Caspian, I really like that you highlighted right off the bat how important it is for our students and our staff and our administrators to be learning together, especially when we make big changes like the behavior matrix. Um because it's, you know, it's change and it's adjustment and it takes people some time. But I think that was a really astute observation on your part that, you know, we all we all got to work on this together. But I'm glad to hear that it's already making some positive change. >> All right. >> I just talked about middle school and high school. I won't ask you to help me

028with this. >> Um, sorry. I'm just going to jump on that so I can see it. >> Colleen um is celebrating birthday. So, um, these are pictures from that Colleen shared and I think Jen, you're gonna talk about apartment wilderness, right? So, that's on there. Um, September students of the month, um, is the awards are continuing and you can see those students there. Also, something they're adding in is advisory of the month, trying to get that building in that group, um, of advisory students, getting them to work together and being nominated to receive advisory of the month awards and celebrations. Um, a lot of learning took place between farm and wilderness and back at school. So, there's water testing that took place there. It's also brought back to school and some water testing and comparisons

029were done here. Colleen has started shoutouts. Um, she's doing them in the hallway on the television, the students television. So, the staff I don't know how she collects her information. Um but when students are seen again being showing exceptional behavior, they're recognized on the kind of marquee television that's in the middle of the hallway. And then um there's continuing work with bullying and education around that with students and they're h it's happening during their health classes as well as I know Colleen has been having advisory meetings in here um every other week just to keep that conversation alive and um not let it get too far away. And then um the shout outs that um Destiny lawyer had those were the ones that she was shouting out. I think those are the ones that came

030up um on the TV screencast. >> Did you hear me again? >> She said the whole script for you. >> She did send me a whole is sick. She was sick this weekend to the event she needed to be at and she stayed home. I have um the choice matters program um presented in partnership with the Vermont Agency of Transportation and it's highlighting its commitment to youth safety in the state. The core message is to educate students on the impact of lifech changing decisions related to driving including the importance of driving sober or staying focused and wearing seat belts. And then um homecoming um Kate is giving a huge shout out to Katie Katie Rainey. um she's the leader of the culture action team and she planned an amazing homecoming weekend for the kids. She

031had to pivot from the bonfire um to organize a uh an enormous game of manhunt which Kate didn't write this part down, but I'll tell you anyway. Kate at first thought this was not a good idea and um Katie really felt like she could put some parameters in place that would make it work and she did and she did a fantastic job and then they set up almost like a drive-in theater and um she called me was this th this was Thursday night she called me Thursday night and said I'm sitting in a field watching Jamanji with a whole bunch of high school teachers um but they had 100 students participate a lot of fun everybody showed up with positive energy and then the pep rally On Friday was prizes for staff trivia. Someone got

032I don't know who got tied in the face of event. >> And on Saturday uh we had the homecoming dance. A little over 150 students. >> Awesome. >> And then sending students day. This year they're hosting sending students day on November 7th. Um eighth graders are invited to engage to engaging in interactive morning being planned by the cultural action team in school. I've been busy too >> and I think I went to high school before you got to talk about farm and wilderness or you got to do that in >> I can do that now. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. So, um farm and wilderness just um kind of bridging the two communities together. Uh sixth graders from Alberta Bridge get to go over and enjoy and connect with the sixth graders from Windsor at

033Car Wilderness. Um and then the seventh and eighth graders do a two-day thing there basically. Um, I've done this now. This is my year maybe doing this with the crew. Um, and we're we're getting pretty good at the day thing I think which is really nice. I think the things that the students learn during the day um particularly in the seventh and eighth grade is really pretty fascinating. The things that they study, the way that the um teachers put together lessons that are super engaging and connect like they mentioned that right the science testing. They're testing the waters there. They're testing the waters globally and they're comparing them and saying which is healthier and why. And so there's no right or wrong answer. It's just what is it healthier for? So really good kind of

034open-ended experiential things that happen at Problem of Wilderness. It's always a challenge the overnight seventh and eighth graders overnight is hard and I have yet to feel like we get through it completely successfully. Um so I think that's something for us to think about. How do we make um the learning experience really meaningful and at the same time how do we make it so it's manageable? So I think that's a challenge um something a problem be solved. Um so continuing on with outer bridge school specifically exploratory which is sort of a a chunk of time that we have kids practice voice and choice around particularly arts and social emotional stuff is off to a really good start. We do short rotations where kids get to choose an art, music or dance or theater, something in

035the right kind of performance arts. Um or a social emotional thing which right now is focused around sports and sports conduct and kids get to choose and they rotate. Um the younger kid get a choice for every three weeks and the older kids get three choices over a period of time. So we're practicing that. So, it's really exciting to see kids um starting to explore what they really want and hang in there when it gets tough, which is what we talk about when we think about autonomy and self-determined learning is like when you really engage in something, even when it gets hard, you stick with it and therefore you learn the discipline of sticking with something when it's not easy. So, it's really exciting to see those in action. uh at the same time it's

036a lot of organization and also creates some creates some unpredictability for kids who are not used to having to make choices on their own. So it's a really interesting kind of um balance of of those two things when some kids are like stuck like I don't know what to do or I don't want to make wrong choice. Um and then helping them like hey you can try this and now try that. Um so it's really kind of a nice opportunity there. We had um so I want to follow up with some of the maintenance stuff that we talked about during the last meeting. Um so Jeb and I were able to connect about a couple things particularly around the um and I'll shift gardens up should be in a different spot around the gardens and

037the lands around the Albridgeidge school. So we know the building is the school's responsibility. The land is technically the towns, but it's always been school budget to sort of maintain like the long stuff. So, where we are right now is the tradition of the lands that are surrounding all the schools are maintained through like basic maintenance. Um, and we're on schedule to do that. So, we're going to update the field and get some more stuff going on there. The flower gardens, however, around the school were done by a volunteer community member a long time ago as part of their master gardening um apprenticeship. As I understand it, it's a lot of work and is not something that our maintenance team does. So, I've been in contact with connecting with our town manager around do we

038create a community auction here? How can we support these new flowers that are there that are pollinator and butterfly garden specifically designed by somebody who curated them but is no longer able to maintain them. So in the past since I've been here I've had family volunteers essentially come in and help do the work every summer um and into the fall. We're losing that capacity and you can tell by how the how the grounds look. So it's not in any of the other school budgets. So it doesn't make sense that it would be in the school budget. So we're working with the town to think about how we can problem solve this as a community. It's alo a great opportunity for us to explore that. And at this point where we are is regarding the gardens,

039they're going to cut it back, right? And there's three options that are available um that we can see as easy options. One is just put grass and get rid of all the flowers basically because then that's easy to maintain. Another might be some version of um a community volunteer program. We also know small communities have a lot of people who are so overworked and overcommitted and over volunteering already. We don't know if that's sustainable or something in between. So we're going to spend kind of the winter meeting and trying to create some kind of plan that we can propose when the gardens start growing again in the spring. So that's our current plan for flower gardens. Um, regarding the playground, I want to follow up on that one, too. So, um, after that, we did

040some working into and and clarifying expectations. So, we posted signs based on our visit, our insurance company's expectations, communicated, we put locks on stuff. We've also communicated with our um parents that since like it's it's pretty clearly labeled what you should and should not do. Um, at that point last month, I didn't know about the situation because it had just happened and I thought it may be a BTG or after school program um concern. I It wasn't a BTG thing. Um, it was really just a parent um kind of following right up on parental things, after school hours on town property, which is at that point. So, it's a little murky because it's not really a school thing and yet they're using school supplies. So, we've locked up some school supplies, but we also don't

041want to create a sense of it's a school thing and you don't get to have anything to do with it. So, we're creating a we have a community um kind of bin also that we're putting like extra stuff in for community because we don't want them to be without. Um so, trying to kind of balance the need for security and having the resources that we expect as well as supporting a sense of openness to community. So, that's where we are with that. Um so all of Roswell just happened this weekend. We had great um representation from our parent community, our state organizations and also often people like our parent organization. Um and had privilege of playing with a brassette that showed up. So you see that picture up in the left right corner. Um finding

042our stride is one of our um athletic opportunities. I know they do that here in Window 2. It's really hard in West Windsor to find an adult who can come out and do some work um for any kind of sports after school because we have that gap of 2:30 to 3:15 where we can't really have somebody volunteer who's a teacher and so it's kind of murky but we do have um our find our stride which is really successful this year and super fun. on the just off to the pink side of our fighting our stride group is our sixth graders taking out the trash again. Now we are in our third week of not having a custodian. They go about business every day picking up our trash. So our sixth graders are cleaning our school

043for us. Um and I I know it is hard to find people and I know that our school knows how to step up whether it's our students, our staff or our we always step up and make it happen. I just want to shout out that our sixth graders are doing that work. They're they're clearly the school for us to an extent that's appropriate for them. Um so huge huge huge shout out there. Um, our compost I just uh we have been able to get a grant and build that beautiful compost area outside of the school through a grant um within the state and we're saving a lot. We're saving a lot in terms of um CO2. We're saving a lot in terms of I don't know if it's a lot but some more more than

044my bank account. lot to handle. We're talking about not having somebody come pick up our compost for us. And the students are learning a lot about how to navigate and move forward in a world that none of us probably most of us did not grow up understanding how to take care of our own waste. So, it's a pretty cool thing. I just want to give a huge shout out to the community to um be setting up and doing that work. Uh so next one, HHP presentations and the uh behavior expectations last week. Uh it last week it was two weeks ago. Just two weeks ago I hadn't planned to present. Um and and parents had been known about that for about a month. Unfortunately, I was like not okay to show up. Um I was

045pretty ill. So, I put together two options for the next two Wednesdays and then one during the school day um on the 20th for our parents to come here and then to give feedback. I'm also going to work with our SU to put together a presentation that goes out for everybody because I think it's important that we have the same shared message and that then I can pull people's expertise to help create a video presentation. So, it's kind of a universal thing. So, that's our next goals for that. um so memorandum of understanding regarding the land our town hall um our town manager is working with their attorney's person who is willing to create anou it sounds like I mean before I came here I'm not even sure there was one but we can find

046one as far as I can understand and then when we merged it doesn't look like there was one specifically created for the land because it is the town land but when school's in session it's the school so whose responsibility is that it's kind of a little bit of that let's figure it out. So there were then that um openhouse was a great success I heard because I was going to do the presentation on that same day and I could not show up. I was so bummed. Um but I heard it's a great success. People had wonderful conversations. Parents had the ability to connect with each other and teachers. And then our student leadership team is um we had students present like why they think they should be in certain leadership roles. Um and it's super

047cute in in a way and yet you watch these kids pull up and muster all this courage to stand in front of their peers and say I believe I can help us move forward and it's such an awe inspiring moment. And I had one of the students who I have to tell this personal story who um wants to be a leader um in our school. And I wasn't sure what that meant for the student because they're kind of a quiet reserved person. But then I I teach lessons. So Friday is my teaching day. I teach all day on Fridays. And so I taught um a trumpet lesson and he's been in my trumpet group for a year. And we had a brand new person join the trumpet group. And I also had a horn player

048because I could do like so much. So I was doing pract all together. So I was working with the horn player while I said can you just let him know how to take the instrument out, put it together and give them the basics of some stuff. And so the student shared with the other kid, the new kid and within 10 minutes this kid was playing hot cross buns and I'm like it takes me weeks to do that. And the amazing thing was as I'm sitting there and I'm working with this other student I Yeah, that's it. You got it. We forget that sometimes we get so inundated with just trying to like get to the next thing. We forget to celebrate the successes and that was just one of those moments that's like oh yeah

049oh yeah that is why we do it and that also reminds me like you don't always see the introverts shine but when they have that moment there they are too. So super excited about both of those opportunities. And now I get to talk a little bit about our um kind of where we are with our behavior expectations and HHV presentations. So our goal was by the end of September. We shared it with staff and both buildings have completely done that. Um so then to train on that we've worked with our MBAs. We've all kind of worked as a team to make sense of how to do it within our new system um within the um Windsor side which also invited a West Windsor community. They shared out on the information which I believe was September

0503rd if I recall correctly. Um so that was shared out. We had some of our parents there. Um and that's postponing until next week and the week after and the week after. Um and we are working on cultural survey. So >> that was given to staff. >> Yes, we did it to the staff. Did it for the staff. for the staff and then we got our students are have all been um given at least an initial and some have had multiple renditions of what the expectations are as well as what HH is. That's where we are um in that process. And then if you go to the next one, we want to share a little bit about what our MVAs, which is um measurable. It's the so our power school version of what our behaviors

051are. So this is kind of what it looks like when a teacher goes in or administrator. I think this must be administrator. Yeah. Goes in. So we we put in who we are, when it was. Um you identify based on that behavior matrix that all parents now have access to whether it falls in the major or minor category. And then from there they get to select what they think the um key area of violation is that we're talking about. And there's quite a quite a range, but they all show up in our behavior matrix. So, whatever our behavior matrix is. Yeah. >> So, you have uh the ones on the top are numbered and the ones on the bottom have M. >> The M is major. >> Major major. And I think that's one of

052the cleaning up things that we've noticed like when teachers how important it is that they click the right one. Like you click the vasure or you click the minor. So that's something we've had to clean up a little bit. >> Yes. So out of bounds is off school property. That's always a major for example. There's no minor version of off school property. >> So yeah, thank you. >> They're always handled by school administration. >> Yes. And then next you're going to talk a little bit about some of the more detailed components of it. So you might talk about um was the student that you're putting in either the person who maybe did the unhelpful action, the person who was receive the unhelpful or were they a witness. Then you can add some more in information

053there. And then we talk about things like on that slide that if you look down so where it happened, date, these are all good basic information. or talk about gathering data. Um those all drop down and they select I just take a picture of >> so you may notice for example like a kid really often has um something that happens around 10 o'clock every day and then you can have conversation like oh wow I wonder if that's something having to do with their you know blood sugar or their right something about them as as something that's not just about their behavior it's about something else going on for them. Um and then our motivation we talk about um I know that's not pulled down but what we think might be the reason. Are they trying

054to communicate something? Are they trying to get something right? Those are the typical uh we call ADA um antic behavior consequence. Um what what's their basic motivation? And we know that basic motivation is much more complex than basic motivation. Right? We have that motivation either trying to get something you want or get out of something you don't want. And we also know that it goes way deeper than that. Like if you're trying to get out something you want, you don't want to do and you have skills to do that successfully, then you can navigate that. Okay? Right? If you're trying to get something that you want and you know how to do that with skills, you can do that successfully and it doesn't show up on these things. It's when you have that gap of

055you're trying to get but you don't have all the skills to get that helps us identify are you dealing with some kind of frustration tolerance problem solving skills, communication skills, right? There's a whole host of skills that get in the way of us being able to accomplish that. So that's where we get to dig a little deeper which then leads us to some version of possibly looking at like our learning skills inventory. Okay. So on slide time not that I can see it from there. Yeah, I think this is >> all right. So then you talk about in the next the teachers or the administrators get to put in like what we think might be uh like so where it happened but then we also talk about who's involved. You talk about who the staff

056members because you might find you have some staff members who are really good at communicating other staff members who never seem to communicate and that helps us as um kind of a team figure out why we're communicating what when. Um, it also helps us figure out where we want to focus our attention in terms of problem solving. Okay. And then are you on slide 11? >> Yes. Y 11. Okay. So then on slide 11, teachers get to choose um what it is that they did. So we talked about logical consequences. If you break it, you fix it. If you need a break, take a break. Um, if you need to lose privileges for a moment while you show you can handle it, you lose privileges. Um, there's other things also such as sort of practices,

057you can make repairs, um, whether we contact the parents, that kind of stuff. So, that all goes in there and then the administrators take what we call disciplinary action if we need to, if it gets to that level. And then we mark it up. And that is what our MBA looks like at a big picture level for public facing information. >> Thank you. I I really appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> That was very helpful. >> Okay. Before I start, you are welcome to stay, but you're also welcome to leave. >> Thank you. did a great job. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Just a few things to share tonight. Um that uh I sent you all uh a form to fill out on the district uh quality standards for governance. Did you

058all receive it? >> Okay. Just want to make sure that I can resend it. We're looking um we have to score our rubrics. They are just self about evaluatory this year. Um but we Larry and I um felt strongly that the board should definitely weigh in on the governance pieces because that's what part you're really involved in. So uh we don't have to submit until November. So you have plenty of time and I'll remind you. I just want to let you know that those those were sent out. Um we have just about completed our fall assessments. So all STAR and Dibbles were um administered this month. Well, end of September. Uh at the end of this week on our early release day, uh Thursday afternoon, our staff are going to engage in in data div,

059which we've been doing for a couple of years now. they're getting really good at it and those will be led by the instructional team leaders with the help of some interventionists or team leaders. Um so each grade level will be digging in to their data and we'll help them set classroom goals and student individual goals. Um um and then Bridget will come back to the SU meeting later this month and she will um share out the SU data with you. >> Yes. Is there does anything get sent to the parents who have students significantly above the benchmark? >> Yeah. So significantly below so significantly below exact 139 right needs to go out within 30 days of the screening those were mailed out I believe on Friday schools >> assessment the class dipples assessment. Um that's

060what we use for our reading screener. >> Um the rest of the material will be passed out at parent conferences. Um, if parents do not come to conferences, they'll be mailed. And >> we are printing this year a parent report through Edge Climber, which we haven't done before. Um, it's a really easy to read report which gives you information on your um assessments star and or dibbles um your even your I think classroom grades just generally your attendance. It also will run major behavior. So, it's all in one document. It can be um printed right through Edge of Climber and we're going to do it three times a year. So, you know, we don't print report cards, but this is will give parents some information, which I think people have been asking for. So, >>

061yeah. So, we're going we're going to try you give us your feedback once you get the report. Um Okay. So what does it beside does it trigger anything else besides a letter home if you're >> Yeah definitely. So already knowing groups around the schools have been formed which are intervention groups. So there's there's there's what we call tier two and tier three. So on the tier two within working with the classroom teachers separate than the direct instruction time the students are divided up based on need and based on the the results both of dibbles and also star. Um and those groups are flexible. So with um additional assessments, kids are going to move in or out of different groups. But we also have tier three intervention which is a smaller group, more intensive things. And

062that's also part of act 139 requirements. So >> and progress monitoring, just so you know, actually happens through edge climber also. So goals are set for each group of students or individual students. And then our intervention is working with classroom teachers. We'll progress monitor every two weeks or whatever is appropriate. >> So you can tell if they just had a bad day. >> Yeah. I think if we find out that a student's had a bad day per se, it means that the scores are not in agreement with any observable behaviors or performance in classrooms andor different assessments. Sometimes we have we reset the star and run it again. But we can use star anytime during the year. We set the the dates and that's aggregated so that when we share out data it's included. But

063in two weeks we can give star again as a progress monitoring tool and then we'll pretty quickly know if something's a miss. >> Yeah. So I I'm thinking about that one year at Albert Bridge when they said it was like a a cruise ship when all parents and all families were sick. >> Oh. And I mean everybody was sick and uh and it really affected the everybody's scores because >> the the regular teachers weren't in the classroom. There were lots of people missing. So it's like a you know >> not the best way to take a test. >> There is a 24-hour reset the test though. >> So if you give a student you know a student who does point and click you see that you be like no >> try again. >> Let's let's

064do that again. And you have 24 hours and it replaces the >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And a teacher also is like can look at those scores be like something not right. That does make sense. >> There was a football. >> So yes, >> that is what I was wondering. >> Uh all right, just a little redist redist. It is a hard word to say, Elizabeth. Redistricting task force. Um they met on the 29th uh which was last week. There was a presentation on Boseies. Um the secretary did a little data dashboard overview. Um I think that will I think she's coming back to do more data um data work with the with the team. They they really need the data to do their job. So that's seems to be a little contention.

065>> All the data that's wrong. >> Yes. >> She's got to present that again. >> Yeah. Well, >> all the brought. >> Yeah, it's it's an interesting uh I did watch a little bit of it um after the fact and yeah, >> there's some data that's not accurate, it seems, and some data that they need that they that are they're not able to produce. So, we'll see what happens. So, for example, they wanted to they they wanted to think about making one of the maps based on Boseis clusters and and what they really wanted to do was have it be Boseis clusters and um to to have part of every district um be mapped to the designated agencies that are providing other services and uh which >> HRS HRS so it was kind of a

066dream for people who were at designated agencies to be mapped with the school system. But uh uh so they they asked to have data about use of DAS and and uh and to what degree uh at you know school populations and also at the DAS and they weren't able to come up with any of the data and which is unfortunate on several levels. But as you probably know and probably everybody here knows, one of the big reasons that we have such high per pupil spending in our state is because we provide services through our education fund. Um, and almost every other state in the country uh provides those outside of their education spending. mental health services. Mental health services. >> Yeah. So, it would it would be great all the way around if we were

067able to quantify that. Um and it's unfortunate that uh that that didn't happen. But the other thing they talked about the biggest other presentation was on um a map of uh career and technical education >> which was released. the draft map that map was released and they they uh were asked about what would happen in the southwest corner of the state where there is no career and technical education and uh they said let us get back to you. >> Yeah. So they're meeting they have four more meetings before they are um their charge is due December 1st. So we'll see how far they get. Um, and as Elizabeth said, there there's a public um, engagement session that evening on the 10th, so hopefully people can at least log in. Um, I I do want you

068to know part of Act 73 is class size minimums. And Larry and I have been working for the past month on um on class size minimums to see where we're at. And we're not done with that work yet. We're starting to meet with the principles, but we we will bring forward a plan with um during the budget season, budget process with with that information for you. >> So, um we're going to be okay in some places and not in others. So, creating a plan for that. Um quarterly financials are in the portal. I will pull them up for you here if I can get to the right screen. So, it's early. It's the first quarter. Um, you see on the revenue page our um there's a budget variance which is not to be concerned about

069because it's the anticipated revenue in the budget. So, Larry said not to worry about that. Um expenditures on the next um page on page two and we're doing you know fine with expenditures. Um can I'm sorry can just going back for a second to class size minimums. Um sure they they don't take effect right away. They're not in effect for next year are they? They are for the next for FY27 the budget year. Yeah. They are which is why we're frantically doing the work because it may impact budgets. >> Yeah. But also um another question I mean if three falls apart then that falls apart as well. >> Yeah, that's my understanding. If you hear anything different, let me know. It's you know we're Yeah, there's there's still uh some un there's some um things

070that aren't clear in that law. We're going on what we think is correct information on high school for um it's the core core classes that were are impacted um courses that are AP courses and um what's the word they used to line >> they have a word for it >> like end of the >> those are not in the calculation but anything that is in the graduation requirements That's how we're most people are interpreting. Um they have to have 18 students in them. So for us and any school that participates in um sending kids to the tech center, we really have to map out uh ensuring that we're offering the courses that kids need to graduate for all the kids that um are here and then gone to the tech center. So it's a it's

071a bit of a schedule and puzzle that we're working through currently, but Um, okay. So, financial report. I'll just go back to it. This is the breakdown. If you continue, it's by account detail. Um, I I said, Larry, why is the um workers compensation uh in the red? And his response was, uh, there were more workers complaints. So, that was his, uh, explanation for that. But um overall it's the first quarter and we're not really worried about um the finances at this point. But that's online if you if you want to look at it more closely and have questions. Larry is happy to answer them the better verse than that. Um and I believe that is the last slide for my report and I will um leave it up to you Davis if you want.

072Um, I can keep sharing if you want Bridget to share any of the grading if there are questions. She has a little little couple slides to help answer questions if you have them on grading. >> Uh, sure. Yeah, we got a couple of quick things to get through before that. >> But if you want to leave it up, I don't think we have anything we need to share before then. So, >> all right. Um, so we're going to move on to item six, which is our items for discussion, followed by motions if needed. Uh, and we're going to start with the decoupling of capital debt letter, uh, that we as a board have an option of signing on to. Um, and I know that got that's in the packet, so everybody should have had a

073chance to look at it by now, but >> um, >> functionally what this is is this is uh kind of being spearheaded, I think, by Mountain Views folks. Um and this is about decoupling yeah decoupling capital debt from the education spending formula. Um right now uh my understanding correct me if I'm wrong here but is that uh particularly construction funds that are coming from those capital debt sources um are being considered part of per pupil spending. So for schools and situations like you know Harvard is and Woodstock especially is right now uh that can make them run the risk of overshooting the uh the limit of people spending uh if they get a new building which is hugely problematic under the existing formula. So they requested that we sign on to it. Um Elizabeth, you

074have something to add to this? Um yeah because one of the discussions has been I don't know if it's between the redistricting task force or I think it's probably redistricting task force is the fact that uh uh there there will have to be building associated with all of these new districts and while the legislature acknowledged it actually school construction the fact of school construction ction was actually the only thing that everybody agreed on um when they passed >> H454 into act 73. So they they are acutely aware of school construction and yet there is no funding for there's no funding at all. They just so the ability of Woodstock and other districts in their same uh position um to be able to spend money on it even just having the ability to do it um

075is really critical. >> Yeah. Based on this letter, I mean it functionally in the current setup, it almost punishes local taxpayers if they do decide to pursue school construction. I think I'll just read a little bit of the middle of this uh letter. Uh as you know this artificially I'll just read this whole middle paragraph. It's not very long. So without immediate action by the legislature the current school funding system requires any district that must must borrow to repair, renovate or rebuild facilities have its construction debt counted in its education spending aotment. As you know this artificially inflates the district's perutable spending which in turn places schools at risk of hitting the excess spending threshold. If that threshold is crossed, taxpayers are penalized, paying $2 for every dollar over the limit. Needless to say, this

076discourages critical capital investment and forces districts with aging unsafe buildings into impossible position either neglect facilities further or burden taxpayers with punitive double taxation. So, I think that's kind of the meat of that paragraph. Um, so I I would be in favor of us signing on to this. I yeah, I have no objections to signing on to this because I think tying construction uh >> to spending just discourages construction which I think is the point of the legislature passing this >> that was the point was to discourage >> discourage it at this point. So >> yeah, until after I mean they they did it on purpose so that there would be no construction until the districts were settled because they didn't think it would be >> fair to for many different reasons >> uh for

077um construction to occur when they don't even know what districts there will be. That makes sense. >> It does. And yet we have Woodstock High School which could be shuttered condemned any day. >> Wow. >> That's the that's the time the redistricting timeline is not reasonable. >> I think that's a consensus of all thinking people. Um and so because it's not reasonable any immediate needs are ignored >> which is unfortunate before discuss this further. I apologize this a little bit backwards. So, I will take a motion for us to as a board sign on to the uh request for a letter request for special session legislation to decouple capital debt from the education spending formula. >> Salute. >> Second. Excellent. Any discussion? Uh I while I while I really appreciate the um letter uh it's

078we're not going to have a special session between now and and January. It's just not going to happen. And I regret that. It's just not. And Phil Scott has been asked publicly about it. Um and he has said absolutely not. Um but regardless of whether we should have a special session anyway, um uh uh I regret that that is part of the letter. I think that the uh you know it would be really nice to have the letter uh urging the the uh legislature to deal with it immediately in January as like the first thing that they do so that they you know can um get moving on it. Uh, but I regret that it asks for a special session. >> That makes sense. >> At the same time though, and I agree with Elizabeth,

079I feel a miss not to support an SU that we are hoping to work with even though it's it's charging at windmills. Well, I guess part of the question it part of the question for me is that timing piece like so it it is such a it is such a complicated position to be in. >> Yeah, >> it's complicated for Woodstock and it's it's also complicated for Woodstock's potential partners. Um but in principle like at a very basic level construction should not be part of the excess spending threshold period. It shouldn't >> it's not right. >> Yeah. Another part of this letter is that it points out that the state hasn't funded school capital construction since 2007. Yeah. >> So we're we're coming up to 20 years. >> Yep. um which is what just just

080under half of the life lifespan of a school building. >> Yeah. >> Um so say it's not surprising we're seeing a lot of facilities around the state starting to hit that age where they desperately need improvement or replacement. >> It's definitely one of the elephants in the room. >> Yeah. And and in in in my opinion, like the only way to when you when you create a new district of 4 to 8,000 students, the only way to actually show that there will be opportunities in that new district is to offer funding for a new a brand new school. Um, I don't think, you know, I just don't, and I could be wrong, but I don't think the opportunity of being in a class with more students is the same as creating new educational opportunities for

081um for students. And so, you know, my my hope my personal hope is that um there will be new skills new schools built all over the state to kind of mark in the era in which uh we're going in on it. >> No, and I I share that hope, Elizabeth. I think that that fundamentally speaks to the frustration that I think a lot of people have been having. I specifically have which is just that hope would be expressed on a much longer and more reasonable timeline and we're talking about the 100% systemic change that we're looking at and >> five years and 10 or 15 years might even be pushing it. >> I know. >> But yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um but it's worth saying. >> It is worth trying. I was just going to

082say it is worth >> it's worth saying over and over again. Um, >> yep. >> So, I and I I I hear what you're saying too about I mean the the feasibility of a special legislative session maybe not being the most realistic target for this. That being said, I think other than that, having this bring to attention that this is a really really pressing concern. >> Absolutely. And I I don't >> bring up Yeah. >> I I'm not saying that that we should not sign on to it as a result of that. I'm just saying I think it's naive to think that especially in October that we're gonna have a special I mean personally I think we should have a special session because of other reasons. There are things that need to be addressed really

083urgently that we're not addressing but that's not what this is about. And uh and it's it's just not going to happen. But again, to me, fundamentally, uh, we should be getting things off of the, um, education spending, not adding things to it. >> All right. Any further discussion? All right. If not, um, I will I'll do a roll call vote for this one. So, I'll start with our folks online. Uh, so Megan, how do you vote? >> I, >> Amy, >> I. >> Bill, >> I. >> Nancy, >> hi. >> Elizabeth, >> I >> and I have an I as well. So, the motion passes. We'll uh sign on to that letter. All right. And I can um I can email Carrie, I guess, and have her add her name to that list. So, I'll

084I'll just make a note. Bless you. Sometimes there's three. >> Excellent. Do that after this meeting. >> On to our next item, which is the update on ABS ground status. I think that that was covered. Yeah, that was covered in our administrative report. So we can skip that and get to high school grading questions. And thanks Bridget for being here tonight just to show us a couple more slides and address any more questions we might have thought maybe. >> Yeah. So if you want to pull the slides I think um this some of this was an overview done I think before the SEU board in May. Um and I just want to kind of go back over the structure and then obviously address any questions um that arise from that. So our move was as

085we've talked about for many many years is to truly have a proficiencybased grading system. I think in many ways Hartford um jumped on this earlier perhaps got through a lot more precoid. We got sidetracked with CO there's no doubt and talked about power standards and just never got to the sort of point. In the meantime, Vermont's had teachers all over the state meet over the past few years and develop what are known as you look at the bullets up there uh critical proficiencies which you know these are sort of uh name switching in many ways look very much like power standards broad proficiencies that we think are important and these are defined more carefully by the priority performance indicators you were said by Christine being a layout which I'll show you on the next next

086screen as to how these two flow into each other and the final and I think most important thing is these indicators are great but they have to be measured by something and so for every performance indicator there is a proficiency scale that goes with it. Um, so if you turn if you if we click to the next picture, if you're a parent or a student, your your front page actually looks not much different than last last uh year. At the very top is what the front page is. So for all of your classes, in this example, I've only clipped out English nine. This child in English nine has a three. um you know for a lot of a lot of parents and even some kids you know who are in the classes that's their what

087we call our quick look right um what what teachers at a deeper level and the assignments reflect is if you doubleclick on that grade you'll see potentially what's down below and what's down below are the assignments themselves and the uh performance indicators um priority performance indicators what we call the PPIs that um are in that project and are graded on the proficiency scale. So uh production and we'll see this in a moment in the diagrams that were shared with you conventions for the written verbal response production writing process and then and on through. So those are where those kind of um the three comes from. What's behind the three? And again, depending on who you are and who the audiences, sometimes the three is what they see and sometimes um you know, kids certainly have

088to click down because they're the ones who are getting these pieces back. Um, some of those pieces will end up being what we call the portfolio pieces and some will be uh just other classroom pieces along the way. Um, there's obviously a lot of formative work that goes on in the classroom that is, you know, more non-graded. Um, these are usually what I call smaller summitives, little important building blocks um along the way. Um so um teachers have been um teachers and departments agreed on what we call weighted summitives. So what that really means is that pieces that um are big such as the final essay um uh those pieces are absolutely weighted more um there and the proficiency tasks themselves that will become part of the student portfolio are weighted more. Um, but that

089doesn't mean some of the smaller pieces don't have weight. It's just not weighted as much. Um, but they're still all um graded on the scales based on the performance indicators. So, that's just an overview and any questions I'll get to them in a second. So, if you click to the next thing, it'll help you to understand that diagrams that were sent to you how this flows. So at the very top was Vermont's statement put together with all uh you know expert department people across the state of basically what does a graduate look like in this area of ELA. Um what we call you know the graduation requirements. So proficiency based graduation requirements. Um below that are are known as the critical proficiencies. And I I do want to say that the indicators that are below

090that that are define those proficiencies remember are minimum standards for our graduates. So it's not everything that a classroom does. Certainly it's not everything that calculus does. And in fact, if you go to the math ones, you will see there's no calculus on there at all because remember, these are graduation requirements for all of our students, not what um students that are taking more and more advanced courses have to know. We do have those indicators, but they will not appear on this document. These are graduation requirement documents. So, from the performance uh indicators, you can see I've pulled those out. um you can start to see how um for example the critical proficiency leads to conventions that was seen on an earlier slide from the English classroom um and you can also see another one

091there production if you go to the last slide you can always hop back these are the scales so when you see something like on this one you're looking at production it defines very clearly what a three means right for a student I hand statements very similar to what Hartford has. I can boom boom boom boom boom. These are what are considered three um obviously children are leading up to that um for our graduation um for our graduation requirements. Um students that are advanced classes, teachers will add to this, right? You might have to compare and contrast two pieces of author's, you know, works. um you might have to uh analyze the historical time period with which something was written. So teachers add on to this, but I'm I'm going to emphasize again these are our

092graduation requirements for all of our students. So the IN statements really reflect when our graduates walk out of here, whoever that happens to be, um this is what is expected to be shown in uh pieces of work in their portfolio. Um, so that's kind of the background as to where our grading system is in terms of um in terms of and how it relates to Vermont. Just as a note, a couple we were we gave the teachers these Vermont ones. Vermont came down, the AOE came down, working with our teachers last year at the high school level and teachers did have room to remove which was rare, keep exactly the same or add a few. I would say most of the adding came a technology standard in science and I think I shared this with

093you a physics standard in science um indicator and also a couplet map especially around geometry which I had shared with AMOD was very thin uh so a couple were added in geometry um so other than that in terms of uh the documents um nothing the ELA one frankly was very good it's hard to find room in that most of the teachers accepted um all of them. In the case of classes like technology, they did not have one done. So we created one based on the ISTY standards and which is really nice because ISTY standards which are the tech standards in the nation already have proficiency scales. So there was some of our own homework that had to be do done around that. Um but for the most part most classes they are already in place.

094The middle school ones are already done and so are the proficiency scales and light elementary also. But right now, um, our middle school only at Weathersfield in the specials, um, are grading using the new PBIS. But that is the plan is that's a next year thing. So, >> so what's the plan for stack development around you know because this is a really good starting point but when you the the when the tire hits the road or the rubber hits the road you have to begin to create benchmarks you know what does u conventions look like so then you can start to build reliability and and validity for the assessment pieces. >> Absolutely agree. So, so um thinking about where we're at right now in the process, um teachers last year began to develop at high

095school level proficiency tasks and so they had to look at those against the proficiency scales and make sure the task is meeting what we're we're trying to get at. um pieces obviously this year need to be collected and what I like which you're kind of describing is what I call the calibration that's bringing pieces to the table and really analyzing those pieces which could be benchmark pieces and saying this is what a three looks like that's that's work that Vermont used to require of our teachers back in the day and I absolutely thought it was really really important like is the three of a response to literature uh piece according to what Tracy thinks the same as what I think and putting that on the table really analyzing why we each think that's a three

096we actually had to be calibrated back in the day from the state of Vermont 86% >> right >> so I agree very much that that work is so important yeah >> and just to make your own understanding so we're we're going about the work as we approach establishing reliability and validity around this stuff of creating exemplars internally that we can use to inform what those standards are within our >> Yes. And and to the degree remember we've been we've been standards base and really when it came down to it just by the natural process we've we've been thinking about power standards for a long time and a lot of these reflect a lot of the indicators reflect exactly the priority that's been years for some of these. So if you walked into Mr. Be's room,

097you would see pieces that he has with the science department calibrated and decided where where is this at. So some of the indicators language remember were built from the NGSS standards, you know, put together two or three. It isn't like it came from brand new, but it's just saying these are the priority for graduation. Yeah. >> Um, so it's it's new in this sense to our teachers, but frankly, our teachers understanding years now of what we call power standards and what should be our priority was not that far off from what the work is that they had to do. So, but I think that Bill's point and it's the best thing to do is collecting those pieces and having conversations about them. So, yeah, >> it really becomes a learning process how to teach. >>

098Yeah. This is really important. So now how do you teach that? Yeah. >> And then it's that communication between teacher to teacher say hey this is what I have. This is how I do it. >> And so when I assess this piece that analyzing of saying well why did I score this a two and you scored a three. Those conversations begin to build the teacher's understanding of what the standard is. And when that happens, it builds an understanding of what are your expectations of the student and then they can communicate that expectation to the student and then the students begin to understand. >> It might become clear in your point that looking at a piece that students just don't really understand the deeper meaning of slope. Something as simple as that, right? Rate of change

099or whatever. And so it does inform instruction. you know, this is an area we're just not emphasizing enough and getting away from star data, right? This is really the at home data, which is sometimes a much more of a learning experience. So, yeah, >> thank you. >> Yeah, questions come up down the road, don't hesitate, shoot me an email. >> I really appreciate you you explaining this. This is this has been really helpful and thinking it through. Absolutely. >> So, any other questions before we go? >> Oh, just a quick comment. It I find it very amusing in this list that they have the physical education standards in here finished. Um, as opposed to some of the others that they still need to do. And it points to uh who has power at the AOE.

100>> Well, thank you uh Bridget for some time with us tonight and hope to explain that a little more. All right. Uh item D, community dinner check-in. The perennial item. Quick one though. It looks like just about everybody has signed up. Uh, thanks for jumping on and doing that. I think we're in pretty good shape. Um, I would just say if you have not jumped on and signed up yet. Uh, please do. Um, and if you know, for some reason you're not able to make it, just let me know and we can uh can figure it out. But uh, yeah, me dinner is November 6. So, we got about a month exactly to figure that out, but we are well on our way. And the only note that I will have is that uh because

101we do have we are signed up for another one closer to when we did the last one which I think is in February but I can double check that. Uh my thought on that just to get into your heads now is I'm totally cool just repeating exactly what we did in February. I just want to make sure this one was a little different so we didn't just have a complete standby. But I thought uh >> why not? >> I thought that one worked really well and we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Just just >> All right. Any other thoughts, questions about that or we all we all good? >> Um I said I would bring some um tea along that. >> Yes. >> How much do you think? >> 50 gallons. >>

102Okay. >> I think a couple of the you know >> Yeah. The bigger ones. >> The bigger ones is usually good. And then, you know, if we can't use them, they'll um you know, Mary's really good at telling us whether they want to keep some in there or whether they want to set us up with some depending on what's >> because there was a lot of drinks left over last time. >> Oh, it was okay. >> You know what we can do, Nancy, is it might be we can probably check with Mary before and just get her assessment on what they have there already. >> Okay. >> And that way if they're already overloading because I think last time we brought something, we just they didn't need them. So, >> when do you want the

103venue stuff to be finalized? >> Um, that's a good question. You know, I love a deadline. Um, let's say look at the school because it's easier. Um, I let's say by like a week out, I think that's fair. Um, and really I think most of it's there already. Um, yeah. So, if we can get it by by uh you know, Thursday, October 30th, you know, let's say end of October since it's the following Thursday in November, that'd be good. Yeah, I tend to look at my menu based upon what's what's on sale >> and and what's easy to cook and easy. So, >> I do a meal at cousin's dinner that is quite popular, but I I do uh chicken thighs and pork roast >> and so it's easy to cut, easy to serve, and

104it has that variety. And usually it's barbecued. Sounds delicious. >> Right on. Yeah. Looking forward to it. It's a lot of fun to do these community vendors and uh Daniel had a great time. >> Great time. >> A fun time to get kids there. It was a lot of fun. >> Yeah. He and Hannah were stars of the show there. >> All right. >> I have forgotten. Yeah. Yeah. Both of them together. Yeah, it was pretty great. >> All right. Well, we can keep, you know, again, this is planning stuff or this is coordination stuff around this. So, we can we can do this offline, but everyone, most folks have dropped something in. Uh, if you need me to receive the link, too, just ask and I'll I'll send it your way. But, uh, cool.

105All right. And moving on, we do have a resignation to consider. >> Yeah. Did we share the letter with you? I'm not sure how much I should read in public. She shared it with the board, I think. Um she shared you shared with Davis. >> I shared with Davis. >> Yes. >> So the music teacher that we have currently who's one day a week um needs to step down due to family unfortunate situation. Um she's I can read the letter if that's you. You want me to read the letter? I >> don't think I mean it talks about personal reasons. Um, I mean, things happen in life >> and we didn't get it. So, we're looking to try and get somebody in. At this point, it's point4 position. >> She's only covering two of it

106anyway. So, now we open it up to four. Although, I love teaching music. It's >> 12 a week that are in addition to my own part. So, >> yes, >> I'm happy to share that good focus for our students. All right. So, um I will take a motion to approve the resignation of Sarah Carile. >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion? >> I wish. Yep. That's not me. Megan, >> are you trying to say something? >> No, sorry. >> It's okay. All right. >> Just making sure. >> Yeah. No, I I echo that, Bill. I wish her the best of luck. I know it's not an ideal circumstance. I appreciate um you know, the time that she has uh put in already while she's been part of school community. >> Yeah. and she said she's

107trying going to try and help bridge the gap until we can find somebody as best she can and between the two of us. We'll make sure our kids get some good education. >> Well, truly appreciate on both of your parts, but I'm glad we can open this position up now as we need to. Uh all right. Well, pending our vote. Uh so I there's no further discussion. I will take a roll call vote to approve uh the resignation of Sarah Carile. Uh, starting online. Uh, Megan, how do you vote? >> I, >> Amy, >> I. >> Elizabeth, >> hi, >> Nancy. >> Hi, >> Bill. >> Hi. >> And I am an I as well. So, the resignation is approved. And again, best of luck to you, Sarah. >> Thank you. >> All right, we

108are on to seven, which is setting our next agenda for Monday, November 3rd. Um, I think it's probably a good time to do a final community dinner check-in since it's within a couple days of that. So, if there's any loose ends by then, we should time up. Um, but like I said, we're in good shape on that already. I appreciate, you know, so many folks jumping in there. >> Um, >> we're going to have the student um growth report data and um also uh we're going to include some behavior data with that. >> Yeah. say we're probably far enough at the end of the year that we can start to start to look at that. Excellent. >> Would you mind sending it in advance on the >> You're going to get it October sometime during

109mid October. >> Thank you. >> Uh do we need to look at forming a local budget committee as the next meeting? >> Um we put that on I have it on the principal agenda for tomorrow actually to >> Excellent. >> put something out to the community. So yeah, um yeah. >> Awesome. >> Y >> next agenda. >> Yeah. Anything else on the >> um I'm just thinking if Larry might have some we should probably have a preliminary budget conversation. You may not have numbers but start >> talking budget. So >> yeah, I think that's what I figured is have a little a conversation about kind of what we're looking at, you know, early days and then I think just getting the word out to the to the community about taking part. That's something we did

110last year. Next >> next year is the last year of the teacher conference, right? Yes. So we have to we have one year off now this year. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So we have those numbers. Hey, the good news is that uh in a new district then that's like what 2027. So uh you won't have to worry about it anymore. >> That's that's not something I'm going to miss. >> Or maybe you will. >> Bye. The last last round was rough. >> Yeah, >> it was a little rough, but uh >> 27. No, I think we're going to have to negotiate next year. >> And it will be the new district will be all leveling up. >> Yeah. Right. >> Yep. >> So, cross that when we get to >> Interesting to see. >> Yep.

111>> All right. Uh, anything else for next agenda or we we hear what we got? If anything comes up, we'll give you an email. >> All right. Uh, item eight, executive session. >> No need. >> No, I don't think we need any of that. All right. Well, that brings us to nine, which is adjournment. Uh, so all those in favor of adjourning this meeting of the Madison School District boards, please uh let me know by saying I. I >> opposed. >> Nobody closes or abstains. Well, I am adjourning the duty of the Madison School District board at 8:07 p.m. And thank you all for being here. >> Thank you all. Have a good night.