001forum. I will call this meeting to order at 6:03. Um, we do have a change. I'm going to be discussing during um motion for discussion. Um, right there. But yeah, ECP assigned to general fund. We're going to add that for to number eight. Okay. Um, are there any other additions? >> Mora, a question. I think this is the last thing I asked at the meeting earlier or last week before my computer died. Um, do we need should we have an item for uh the act 73 consolidation thing here to approve that or do we need to do that? I I wasn't clear on that. Just the letter the the intent bit of that. >> No, we're gonna No, no, I don't think we need to approve it. Elizabeth, it you can chime in. >> No,
002I don't think we need to. >> Certainly the other the other boards were not going to. We can, but uh we >> especially see the letter's not done. Um unless it is done. >> Um >> well, there's a draft of it out. There's definitely a draft of it out, but I don't think I mean we it's not really enough time to read it, comment on it, and vote on it. >> Yeah, that's totally cool. Just checking. Thank you. That's a good point. >> Um, any other changes, additions? Okay. Um, we're going to jump right in with Boseies. Uh, Jill has been kind enough to grace us with her digital presence. >> Take over. >> Well, good evening everyone. Thank you again for taking the time to host me. I sincerely appreciate it. Um, back in
003June, I had presented information to this board around the intention of Vermont Learning Collaborative to transition to a board of cooperative educational service agency. Um, since we met, I am pleased to tell you that we currently have three founding members who have ratified the articles of agreement. Um, that has included Mountain View Supervisory Union, Springfield School District, and then most recently, Windham Northeast Supervisory Union has also voted to ratify agreement. Um, I'm here this evening. I am happy to answer any questions um that folks may have after spending some time looking at the document >> tonight we vote >> right yeah >> so you have questions >> Jill do you do you know what sort of um what would be the first priority for creating shared services or is there one? >> So, we do
004have established goals that are outlined within the articles of agreement and there's five um that are considered priorities. Um they include helping to support staffing and hiring, shared professional development, um shared related services and special education services and that does include specialized regional programs. Um consultation is another focus um of our goals and those are really the the priorities. We are not limited to those. Um if our membership indicates that there are other pressing needs, for example, transportation, um which is really cost prohibitive, especially for those students who are requiring transportation to an out of district setting, you know, that is something that the agency could move forward with as just an example. And so in voting on this I this is moreformational for everybody in voting yes on this at this point from my
005understanding of the document we are agreeing to move forward it it there's no um financial responsibility until the next steps are complete. I mean, this is just agreeing to begin to create an organization where creating the system for moving forward. Does that sound like a good? >> Yes, that was a very good summary. And to clarify the supervisory union, so Windsor um southeast has already made a financial commitment to the agency for this year. So there thereby if the articles were ratified this evening, there is no other financial commitment other than whatever goods or services um the supervisory union may need. um next year because there is a membership fee structure. Next year there would be um a membership fee as the Boseies again grounds itself and begins to grow and begins to become um
006more financially stable with regular revenue streams. Those um membership fees would ultimately decrease and the goal is that they would be eradicated over time. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions, comments, more questions for Jill? >> Okay. Thank you, Jill. >> Of course. >> Do you want to save the vote for later or do it while Jill is present? >> I'd like to save the vote for later. >> Yeah. Because there are people here to uh probably to do uh public participation and Okay, >> we have a section for discussion. I don't foresee an issue with it. >> I don't either. >> I'm I'm surprised that Parker has a dropping clips. Yeah, >> I know. And Jill, you're welcome to stay or I can text you when the vote happens. >> That's very
007kind. I believe the board has all of the language um for the vote. Um, so I will leave you to your very important work, but again, I appreciate the time um and the opportunity to answer any questions that you have. >> Thanks, John. >> Thank you, Jeff. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, approval of minutes again this month. We have two. There's two last month. >> Um, June 23rd, uh, 2025. I will take a motion to approve the minutes >> for that day. So moved >> second. >> Okay. Any discussion on the minutes? >> I mean I have noticed just the exacting sort of clarity of it is is quite nice. Okay. Uh I will take a voice vote. Um all in favor of approving the minutes for June 23rd, 2025, please say I. >>
008I. Um any no say saying no. Okay. Uh any abstensions? Okay. Uh August 18th, 2025. That was the retreat. Um I will take a motion to approve those minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Okay. I will take a voice vote again. All in favor of uh approving the minutes, please say I. >> I. >> Uh any oppose? Say nay. Abstensions. Okay. Thank you. Public participation and announcements. Public comments 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,
009please note that the board is here to listen. Public comment period is not designed for discussion. Please start by identifying yourself in the town you reside in. >> Daniel Moore hands. Go ahead. >> Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Great. Um, two minutes I think. Is that right? >> Three. Great. I'll be within that for sure. Um, good evening you all. I would like to briefly talk about Charlie Kirk and connect that to some goings on. Uh he was assassinated as I hope you all are aware by a deranged leftist who was radicalized specifically by gender ideology especially trans. Uh this is clearly evidenced by the fact that the assassin was living with his boyfriend who was quote in transition to female uh at the time. And the assassin himself stated that he
010was tired of the hate. Uh hate in that case being Charlie Kirk's belief and simple statement of reality that men cannot become women and vice versa. Charlie was a married 31-year-old father of two extremely similar to myself. You just passed a policy at the SU level calling it an act of hate to agree with Charlie Kirk's opinion, which the majority of the country does, that men and women cannot be interchanged or transitioned between and that they should under no circumstances be competing against each other in competitive sports. I am willing to bet not a single person on this entire SU board will be willing to make that statement, even though that's the belief of over half the country. Emails that were released following Tiffany Riley's lawsuit, showed the personal animus that was held by some
011still board members, at least four of whom are on this call, uh specifically to public members who were conservative just because of that. This is in writing released. Uh you all sure certainly have an over representation of LGBTQ agenda support both uh on your board level and in your personal lives in various ways. Uh you've also all been very openly showing your politics through these meetings um since Trump was reelected, describing all of these insane imagined threats and anxieties, these existential threats to your government schools. Uh, and it's it's it's it's very obvious anyway where everybody on the board uniformly stands. Uh, all the while, you still haven't reconciled with everybody who was on Tiffany Riley's side of 2020's favorite rake race hoax. Uh, but boy, you certainly have struggle sessioned yourselves since then, and
012you still do today on those topics. Uh so on that note in the uh for consistency purposes I certainly expect that you'll be bringing in uh different consultants starting committees and community discussions on how you might dradicalize those who think it's justifiable to kill a conservative because they disagree with the insane gender ideology that you uniformly push at the school and in your personal lives. Uh maybe the next drag show Davis helps organize will provide a good opportunity. Who knows? There's lots of opportunities around. Uh maybe Chris Lord's social studies classroom can be an opportunity uh where maybe he'll put on a lesson and just play Charlie Kirk's argument as to why it is disgusting for Chris Lord, for example, to have the Pride Progress flag in his eighth grade classroom. Uh I'm sure you'll
013be taking all this serious. >> I don't think we're supposed to be calling out Yes. specific people in in uh community comments. Thank you. in the social studies teachers classroom of which photos have been posted on the SU level newsletter showing the flag. This is not secret information. That's all I had to say. I hope this is not the only thing that uh uh the board has to say about Charlie Kirk in the aftermath. And I hope you look yourselves in the mirror at some point because the same sort of radicalizing forces that led to that assassin fester from the beliefs you spread. Thank you. >> Okay. Anyone else with public comments? >> Announcements. I'd like to point out that there was a uh I believe a productive um meeting between Hartford and Mountain um
014Mountain View uh and Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union uh regarding the idea of uh working together in the um recent um merger planning by the state. Um it was uh it was enlightening to see uh just people open to moving forward in a productive way. Yeah. >> Sherry, >> hi. I'm not sure. I just joined. Um the agenda online said the meeting started at 6:30. So I don't know if I've missed public participation. >> We are right in it. So Carrie, go ahead. >> Um I just wanted to um come on and ask um sort of state uh how I was feeling. I'm the athletic director for Weathersfield and um we had a a situation come up last week about the eligibility policy and I just want to find out um I guess where the responsibility
015lies to enforce that eligibility policy and it's about having a minimum grade of a 2.0 O in order to remain eligible for athletics. And the policy um is for grades 7 through 12. Um and it sounds like that um was confused or waved or something last week. And I I just want to express some frustration over um being an athletic director and being asked to enforce policies that the administration isn't going to back us up on. Um, and so I I wanted to put this out there because it is a schoolboard policy, I believe. Um, or at least it's in our parent handbook that the students and parents have to sign off on. Um, but with push back it got overturned last week and um I that is that's tough. That's a tough position to
016have the athletic directors be in. Uh, so I just want to say that that situation occurred last week. It sounds like it's not being enforced across the SU. Maybe one school is and two are not. Um, but we have athletes that play for Windsor on the football team and should one of them not be eligible if our school's not following it, I don't know what that translates to. Uh for Windsor, it feels like they should be able to be waved as well. Um but I did want to bring it up. >> So Carrie, do you know the policy number? Could you forward that to me? The the policy? I don't believe >> I don't know policy. It's in the student and caregiver handbook that the students and caregivers have to sign off on. It's in
017that >> that doesn't make policy though. It's in the handbook. Um, >> either way, it's still a a a position that um that I was put in last week that >> No, I I understand that, but um I'm not aware of a policy. >> So maybe policy is not the right word. it's in the handbook >> and I just am hoping to get clarification if that is being waved across the SU or if it's being enforced or how it's being handled. >> Okay. It' be something for us to find out and discuss when why is it in the handbook and under what policy it you may be referring to. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. speak now if you want. I can I can I'm happy to speak to it. Sure. That's helpful. >> Yeah. Um
018so the um it it is in the handbook and it's in the athletic handbook. Um there are some eligibility rules and I to my knowledge it's not being waved across the SU. I know there were some concerns at the middle school level especially where um the September 19th date of running the eligibility report seemed quite early in the year for grades to be put into powers school um consistently across schools and classrooms. So there was a discussion about um with the H Heartland um principal, the Weathersfield principal and Colleen around um eligibility at the middle level this first fall round. And the sentiment was that it would get run if there were particular individual incidents and they would look at each case um specifically. the principles were going to check in on um how many
019grades were put in by the teachers. If it didn't seem like a reasonable, you know, amount of of um information was collected, there may be some plan created for that student. So, uh we talked about it at length. We determined September 19th is too early to run the first report. Uh that will likely change for next fall, but it was not waved across the SU to my knowledge. >> I mean, my question would be I mean, middle school students don't have a GPA. >> They they have to be uh earning a two in each of their four classes to be eligible. There's some behavior requirements, some attendance requirements. I believe >> um I don't think it was being consistently implemented in all the middle schools last year. I don't I don't think Hartland >> had
020eligibility rules. So this year the principles um work together to come up with something consistent across the SU. >> They are implementing it. It's not perfect by any means, but the um and certainly want our athletic directors to feel supported in the work that they're doing to help enforce those. So the way I understand it, the principles um run the reports or their assistants or somebody in their office run the reports. they give the information to the athletic directors um who then give the information to the coaches. That's how the process works. Um but the principles I think >> you know being the administrator in the building knowing the students and and we want to follow the policy uh consistently with all students >> but it's not a policy. I mean, not a policy protocol,
021if you will. Um, and I think this first round there there have been some bumps and we're trying to scoop them over. >> It's got to be difficult September 19th to have a data to say. Um, also I'm I'm not my assumption would be and I could be wrong that it would be the responsibility of the principles to enforce that. >> I think they look at the data. the way when I was a principal, it was it was up to the principal to look at those students if there were any >> extenduating circumstances. >> Yeah. Extenduating circumstances um make that decision and pass that information along to the athletic director. >> I guess my question is that are athletic directors and more importantly coaches expected to enforce that or would that be up to the
022principal to inform the students and the parents? Oh, yeah. The principal informs the parents on the Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Christine. I'm not sure. I I I would want to reread it, but I do think that it says the athletic athletic directors notify the coaches and I think the coaches notify the students. I think that's the way it's written. >> Um, at least >> Okay, I'll I'll check on that, Carrie. Notify. I know the athletic directors notify the coaches. Mhm. >> Um the I mean I would hope that it wouldn't fall on the coaches to notify the students. I would think that the administration would do that, but that could be I'll I'll look into it. >> I will too. I I just Yeah, >> it kind of sounds as
023if this is might be something we want to explore in policy. The part I'm struggling with is just that there's a directive given to the athletic director, but we're not part of the conversation. And so when I when >> when I went and communicated an advanced notice to families that we were going to be pulling grades, a >> a pretty heavy battle ensued. And I took a pretty good meeting all last week from people over it. And so I it just feels like either it should be followed or not. I agree that this date was early, but it is in the handbook the the specific dates that are going to be pulled. So, I just am looking for there to be clear and concise protocol and not I am a proponent of not looking at
024this much case by case because then you get into where do we hold the water to enforce it for one student and not another. So, I just hope there's some >> attention paid to that detail. It makes it hard to stand behind a >> protocol if it's not So Carrie, you for sure >> did I I just want to kind of point out that um when you have a complaint I I like this or a concern let's say more of a concern um it probably should be you know to first of all talk to the principal and then to talk to the superintendent and then if it's not resolved on those levels then feel free to come to the board. Oh, I respectfully disagree with that because I'm coming to it as I want it
025to be public that >> right >> that there's a situation >> you can disagree with that but that's policy that's actually the policy >> right so I'll just I'll I can leave it here I took my three minutes or whatever I'm good thank you thank you >> okay any other announcements public participation. >> Um I think the only other announcement that I would have um and I sent this out to folks as part of uh the Misc School District stuff, but we do have homecoming weekend coming up in what weekend after next? First weekend of October. >> Yeah. >> Yep. So, we're going to have I think there's a flyer that the school sent out that you can look for, but it's also in the town of Windsor newsletter and it's been sent to the
026West Windsor select board as well. Um, so there's going to be all sorts of sports events, student events, uh, on a moonfest Friday night. So really great opportunity for the, uh, local and school communities to, uh, get together and visit and, uh, have a good time. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Poly policy discussion followed by a motion if needed. And there won't be any motions today. Um, we are all on the first read. Uh, a F5 behavioral threat assessment teams. Um, I guess um I read through this. It's a rather in-depth policy. Um the question I have from administration is what would be the purpose of this policy? >> Uh it's required. >> Yeah. Okay. But but right but what what do they want to accomplish with this? I guess >> uh
027I think that it's part of you know >> a response. >> Yeah. Yeah. A response when there is a threat. I mean we're already doing this to be honest with you. We've had behavior threat training. We have to annually our behavior threat assessment teams have to have training now. >> Yeah. >> And we're following it. So I think they just wanted to >> train policy. >> Yeah. >> Is there a team in each school? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> There is. And we have, you know, risk assessments that we use to determine if the threat is um a major, minor, or, you know, low, medium, high. I think that's how we categorize it. If a threat is in the medium to high range, then we engage the leading threat assessment team. It's really about um
028I guess it's like centralized information so that if you have a student who's really struggling and students that that make threats are specifically struggling, it's it's about wrapping around and making sure that student gets the support they need um prior to an incident, a major incident happening. So that's the purpose of it and it's I think it's important. >> So, >> the only suggestion I have is the usual OCD thing is to make sure that the header >> Yeah. >> is on the same page as what comes after. >> Okay. >> Um, any other comments, concerns? >> Seems pretty straightforward. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um D8 selection of library materials. Um quite a few changes in this. Um it kind of it it it clarifies legally responsibility. It also removes technology integration out of the policy
029which doesn't really belong there anyway. um because it's about you know selective laboratories. Any other comments? >> I guess um I I did share it with the librarians. >> Yep. >> And the procedures as well because they have worked on procedures for us in the last for the last policy and they in in support. >> Yeah, it looks well done. Yeah. Um, and the stuff that's being removed is kind of pedantic. Um, any other comments, concerns? C8, pupil primacy policies and procedures. Um the only addition to this, the only change is uh the right of parent to inspect upon request any instructional materials used as part of the education curriculum for the parents child and any application procedures for granting access to such material within a reasonable time to after the request is received. And
030there's a header and there's a law. I guess this is probably a change in federal law that requires this. >> Uh, I believe so. >> USC. >> Would we just need to change parent to guardian? >> Yeah, for legal guardian we do like probably. Yeah. >> All the way through. >> Oh yeah. Good catch. >> But the word legal >> do slash >> guardian slash pirate. >> Yep. We'll do it. Okay. >> So is there a a standard that not all guardians are legal? >> Not all potentially not all parents are. It could be. Yeah. >> Yeah. In some cases, yes. In some I'm a guardian, but I'm not a legal parent. >> Right. >> It's it's very difficult to remove educational rights from a parent, but occasionally it does happen. Uh it's kind of
031important sort of to know that if a parent loses uh their guardianship often times they their educational rights remain intact. >> Okay. Any discussion concerns? >> That was a great catch. Um >> it's in the procedures parents. >> I don't have legal guardian >> but should be I believe legal guardian. >> You want both? >> No. No. I'm just processing. And at what point does >> what >> does a parent lose the right to inspect curriculum is that they've lost their educational rights or they lose their guardianship rights. >> Well, >> would it make sense? Would it make sense to just have Yeah, I mean we could ask we could ask your lawyer, but also if we just put legal guardian in there because a parent is a legal guardian. If we just replace that
032term, then I think that kind of gets rid of that, >> right? >> So, don't right of legal guardian. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Got it. >> Um, thank you. >> S42, Windsor Southeast Supervised Union acceptable use of information and communication technology. Yeah, I didn't see any changes. Is just this up for a reading? >> There will be some changes to the second. >> Okay. Um any uh sort of idea about what type of changes you hope >> updating to the model? I mean, this is written with you see a lot of references to web 2.0. >> Yes. >> So the original version of this is you're going way back 2012, 2013. Okay. >> I don't think there's a lot of reference to social media in there. >> Yeah.
033>> Um and cyber attacks uh Yeah. >> are different back then than what they are here. >> So, I'm going to be updating some of those things. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I did notice a dated >> dated language. Yeah, exactly. >> Thank you. >> Um questions as well, anyone? >> Um draft health and safety policy first read. Um, >> this is a policy that we agreed to work on when negotiating with uh the professional staff. Uh, and this is the first attempt. Um, I've read through it. From what I've read, I think Christine and whoever else has worked on it has done a great job. Um, It's gone through uh the >> Yeah. So, >> has that had a legal? >> Yes. >> Yep. Um, and it does require a a close look on our
034part because because on if this when and if this policy is uh enacted, it will nullify aspects within the teachers contract um which they understand that that's what we were planning to do. Uh we we put some language into the contract that did some of this um with the understanding that if we created a policy as the contract says it would supersede what would be at the time. >> Questions for instance >> for instance uh the the health and safety section of the teacher contract specifically. >> Okay. >> Yeah. which covers some of this to be honest with you. >> Yeah. Which covers Yeah. most of this. Um while negotiating um it was clear how important these sections were or uh actually both um the professional and the um supports that. Um and so uh
035both negotiations uh it was clearly community had understood that a policy would be put in place or at least looked at to supersede um what went into the contract. Um they were very emotionally uh invested and rightfully so um in moving forward at least with something within the contract. So that's what we did questions. Okay. Um adoption of update transgend transgender and gender non-performance student C28 policy date by BSBA on July 15, 2025. Um Elizabeth, would you like to talk to this. >> We're not really reading this now, but there was a a concern that you had that when um the political uproar that this created in other issues when it was discussed and adopted. Am I speaking correctly? Well, uh, it really, um, I asked to have the policy be combined with what we
036already have, the update be combined with what we already have visually so that it's clear that we are not relitigating whether we have a transgender policy. Um, but just that we are voting on an update. >> Okay, >> we're not voting on an update. Examining and then discussing and then voting on an update >> um at some point. Um are we going to give access to that? >> Yeah, you don't have access to >> the link on the URL. >> No, it's not working. >> Uh it wasn't it wasn't on the material, was it? >> It wasn't. >> It was on the It wasn't on the meeting. >> Yes, it was here on >> She linked it. She linked it. We just don't have access. >> Okay, I'll see. I'll I'll have her give you
037access. >> Okay. Sorry about that. >> Thank >> um for the clarification. You're always good at that. Um any questions, concern about >> Oh, I can't see it. >> What what we can't see and what we'll talk about more next meeting? >> Okay. Admin, moving right along. administrative report. >> Okay. We go. All right. It's been a while since I've given a SU report. So, got a little summer stuff in here in the beginning of the year updates as well. So, I wanted to just start with summer academy, which um went um off without a hitch again this year, even though Katie was not here to be the administrator on duty. Um Alyssa McDermott, who's in the photo with the kids, kind of took on the role as being the person there every day. and
038we had um principles take turns, you know, being a week on duty at summer academy and and it worked really well. Um there is our attendance. We had, I think, 88 students enrolled, but it was summertime, so on average, we had about 79% of our population there. We're certainly talking starting the conversation about what it will look like next year. >> So 79 to 76% of those enrolled in the program. >> Yes. Of those enrollments were there. Yeah. Um this year, as you know, uh we used Medicaid funds to fund Summer Academy, um because ESSER funds had run out. And um in speaking with Jen, we think that if Medicaid stays intact, we'll be able to do that again. If it doesn't, we won't. We'll have to either um add some money to the local
039budgets to help fund it or the or the special ed budget. But at this point, you know, we're thinking Medicaid should be should be around again next year. Uh we're also talking about um ways to ensure that the um instruction that we're providing and and the experiences also because it is summer and they and we do you know some experiences for this for the students it's really having the impact that we want. So talking about data collection and making sure that um that is happening. So, I'll keep you updated, but wanted to let you know it went quite well this year. Um, this is just a shout out to Mr. Dower who um brought us the uh budget book last year, which is part of Clear Gov. And Cleargov um really noticed that Larry did
040a phenomenal job making the budget and the budget process transparent to our stakeholders. And so, just a shout out to him. He's also done a should a webinar for them >> case study. >> A case study. So um >> particularly complicated because uh we have four entities. >> Yeah. >> So that's they don't usually see that. >> Yeah. So we are really really thrilled to have it in place and we'll be using it it again this year. So >> Amy, you had a quick comment. >> Now she's talking. Yes, it is pretty awesome. >> Larry's pretty pretty amazing. I just want to throw out having having attended and I think it was the case study was what I was. >> Yeah. No, it was really insightful just to see kind of in dialogue with with
041clear gov the steps that you took to put that together. So I I appreciated that you you know took the extra step to do that and kind of add some more uh some more detail and context for anybody who uh who wanted to seek it out. >> So I don't know if there's a recording of that somewhere but that would be >> Yeah, I think uh I think it was recorded. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. Well yeah fine. It's it's enlightening. So, thanks Larry. >> I'm gonna be calling you Dr. Der. >> We are right. >> Rolls off the tongue. Dr. Dower. All right. Couldn't go without sounding out, Larry. Um, so I uh wanted to share, you know, I try to connect what we do to our strategic plan goals. Our one of our goals
042is student success and engagement. And that's a shout out to um Mr. Henry Yates. He's there in the on the left hand side. He competed in the International History Olympiad in Paris, France this summer, which is quite impressive. He was the only representative from Vermont, and he scored 55 out of 74 on all on the five parts of uh the all-encompassing battery exam, 62 out of 76 on the International History B World Championship. So, we're super proud of him, and if you see Mr. Eights about um just congratulate him. That that was a huge huge thing that he did. So, uh, very he's very engaged in in history. And it shows, um, some other pictures of just the start of the year, kids, uh, engaged in learning in a music class. And these, uh, on
043the right hand are some of our high schoolers who got together this summer. There's, um, been an effort with Kate to bring the groups together, all the leadership groups together under one umbrella so that, you know, the left hand knows what the right hand is doing and they're not duplicating efforts. and those um students planned a really robust um first couple days of school for their peers doing a lot of team building and and getting together and getting to know each other. So the kids are engaged which is excellent. Um wanted to share I think Bridget probably shared these with you in the last data report but these are our student success and engagement uh wildly important goals for the year. They are based on our dibbles scores for K3 students and our star assessments
044um for third through 8th students. There's some overlap third grade. Uh it's also um our our um math goals which are first through 8th grade for star assessments and then in the high school it looks a little bit different. We are going back to star >> content. >> Yeah. because um the uh data that they took the PSATs I think it was >> just isn't giving us what we need. >> So PSAT 10s but they were taking a sub test. >> Yeah, subtest. So we're going to measure um >> those are also on your continuous improvement plan. Very simple. >> Are you going to use the um STAR algebra assessment? We're you no we're just using star because it goes all the way up through 12th grade and the algebra assessment wasn't giving the kind
045of rich data that the >> star math does >> in star >> um to understand that uh in star uh enterprise assessment um it only measures um grade three to eight skills >> not not the one we're used goes up throughout two and even be on sometimes. >> Well, that's what >> Yeah, >> but that's the enterprise. >> Yeah. Whatever we're using is >> Yeah, >> they changed they changed the name last year. I think it's they they didn't do go up to, you know, they they assess any grade, but it's more after 8th grade. They're measuring proficiencies for that. >> Okay. >> Any new skills. >> Okay. Um I will say that around this goal, the administrative team worked hard to refine our uh learning walk form which is the form we use when
046we go into classrooms and look for you know those high impact instructional strategies and Bridget Bridget's helped with that. Um we are about to start those in October. Give the staff good month to get get rolling and then we'll go in. But um Bridget and um I go uh we meet with principal I meet with principles weekly but Bridget comes every other week and we do walk we do our learning walks together and and we then can sit down and talk about what we're seeing. Um the forms have immediate a place for immediate feedback for the teachers and then we look at the data um holistically every three months or so to see what um professional learning that we should be providing teachers in a general level. So, it's a system that works pretty well.
047>> We're kind of focusing this year on what discourse is a continuation >> and on inquiry. Is there kind of a problem based sort of feel to what's going on in the class? And then just the understanding of learning goals. Is it evident what the learning goals are? And more importantly, do students understand >> what they are? >> Yeah, those are our three area focus. >> Yes. >> So, we'll keep you posted on that. Um the other uh big goal that we work on is culture and student uh student and staff wellness. You can see on the left hand side this summer we use some title funds to bring responsive classroom to our supervisory union. We had 30 um teachers and interventionists participate which was the most we could add to a session and um
048>> did that a week long? >> It was a 4 day training. Yeah, it's it's an incredible one. It was the best training I took when I was a teacher. So, um and and we had a lot of new staff that hadn't had it. So, it helps with lots of things, but um really helps uh a teacher hone classroom management skills, which is key to learning. Um so, that was a great great uh professional development opportunity. And then you can see on the right there are some freshmen uh participating in those team building activities that the student leaders planned for the beginning of the year which was pretty awesome. Um our our SUI culture and um wellness goal is really around chronic absenteeism. We've noticed that chronic absenteeism has continued to grow since the pandemic
049and this is uh what our whole school whole child whole community team had been working on last year. They actually requested that we focus on this this year and they have tweaked some interventions. We have it um we have uh created well they have actually three school engagement coach stipen positions using uh EPST monies and those staff members are tasked with early early intervention with students who are showing signs of some real absenteeism. Uh we've also committed to a new powers school plug-in which is MBA attendance monitoring which you'll hear about soon. Um we have to train our admin assistants and our parents. We're hoping by the end of the first trimester we'll have that all those trainings completed and it it's um a system where a parent can go in and log whether their
050child is out without having to call the school. They can give the reason. parents can opt in for alerts when their children don't show up to class, especially in the high school, middle school. That'll be very um useful. And uh it it's interactive and it'll give us the data that we're looking for to help us track um absenteeism. So, >> Elizabeth, >> yeah, >> thanks, Bill. Um Christine, I don't understand what you're talking about. When I read this sentence to myself, I don't understand it. Um, can you >> can you read >> Yeah. When when I read it, it sounds as if you're trying to increase chronic absenteeism. >> Yeah. >> I'm assuming Yes. >> Well, we we were trying to frame it in a positive way, but I mixed it up. We're trying to
051reduce chronic absenteeism. >> Yeah. >> Ultimately, so we can rewrite this so it makes more sense. But right now we have a abs chronic absenteeism rate of um >> uh 15 >> so it's it's it chronic absenteeism absenteeism is defined as 10% or greater. So >> if you're if a student misses 10% correct >> as close as the AOE can calculate it close to that. Right. >> So, we're trying to uh we'll rework this, Elizabeth. What we're trying to do is reduce chronic absenteeism. >> Yeah. >> So, um >> you were trying to do a positive trying to do it in a positive frame it in a positive way. >> So, to increase nonchronic acetism from 84.74 to 90%. Yes. >> Does that make more sense, Elizabeth? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank
052you, Davis. Yeah, I know that was the same question because I So those numbers represent the percentage of students SUI who are not who are not exhibiting chronic absence. >> Yes, that is correct. >> That is correct. But it is a little awkward. So I get it. >> Yeah, >> totally. >> John, >> yeah, I think that my question was just answered. So the the use of the word chronic in this uh presentation, explain it a little further, please. So when you if a student is absent 10% of their school days up to any point to the school years, 10% or more absenteeism, whether it's excused or not, those students are classified as chronically absent. >> And we and we have >> Yeah, everyone does. >> We have a bunch. So >> it is a
053it is a statewide nationwide epidemic right now. So we're trying to >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And that is a um federal term chronic absenteeism. So >> yeah, >> come federal civil rights employment uh reporting I have to report chronic absenteeism. >> Yeah, we all do. So, um, the last thing we're working on, as you've heard, most of you have heard, is improving behavior behaviors across the SU and the administrative team has committed to working together on this um, this this goal really. We've revised and updated our behavior handbook. We've linked it, it's public now, which it hasn't been in the past. We've provided training to staff and students on um, what the expectations are. We've had trainings on um hazing harassment and bullying. There were some parent meetings at Windsor. There'll be one at
054Albert Bridge later in the month during their open house. And we're going to we've committed to looking at behavior data not every month. It's about every six weeks with our staff. So, we've done some trainings in P school. we know how to run the reports and we'll be getting those in the hands of our teachers who will examine um things like uh what what are the most frequent behaviors, how many students are are actually um engaging in those behaviors. Often time you'll oftentimes you'll have a large number of of log entries but oftentimes it's a few students creating those logs and that helps us to determine what supports those students need. So, we'll be looking at that regularly um this year. So, that was a that was a lot of work we did this summer.
055Um Jen Hulse is here. She's not feeling well, so she's home, but she's on the line. I just wanted to share with you that she is coming to us with a wealth of of experience and knowledge in special education at our at our um welcome back. She took our support staff and went over some onboarding protocols, which they've been asking for. um when you hire staff and you kind of just put them in the classroom without a lot of training um it's frustrating for them and and so we we've worked on that and Jen helped with that. She put in some um protocols for determining one-on-one support. Yes, it is. Thank Elizabeth um which includes a fade plan. So when you have a student with that needs a one-on-one, you don't want that to be
056forever. You want that that that support to fade and that student to become independent. So, she's helped us put um that in place. She's revisiting how to determine SDL with a specific learning disability and she's working on the service plan, which is a big project to um and Larry will speak to that a little bit when we get to the budget. Uh other updates, I wanted to just let you know I have met with the math teachers actually this afternoon regarding algebra, which you all tasked me with. We are meeting again because we did not come to a conclusion today. So, we're meeting again in October. said by January we need to have an answer. Um and uh we are meeting Larry and I are going to meet with um some representatives from the maintenance
057custodial staff to talk about consolidation. Um and that's later on this month. >> Harford is no longer offering a standalone. >> They're not. >> Yeah. We went back and forth and it's, you know, it's meeting the needs of the kids in a way that um we can do it with staffing and, you know, some people think online is not the best way to teach math and some people think it's okay and so we just need some more time to digest it. But >> yeah. Okay. Just want to keep you up. Uh you're probably paying somewhat attention to federal funding, probably not as much as I am, but um this is just a graph. The red is um the proposed budget by President Trump. The dark blue is the Senate budget. This is all title. And
058then the House um is the lighter blue. And as you can see that there's a lot of um consensus on title one and idea idea B special education funding where things start to um go in opposite directions is when we get to title two, title three, and title four. So we're not real certain that those are going to stay in place. Um some some groups are in support and some groups are not. So that will impact us in our budget which we're planning for um and the AOE assures us. So they're supposed to pass um by October 1st, right? This this budget. Um if they don't, we have been assured that the AOE already understands what to do. Um and they've they've given us reminders that uh education programs are forward funding needing meaning meaning
059that the agency and eleas already have access to federal 25 funds which are used for the 2526 school year. So if there is a shutdown, which there may be, they have um I think we'll be okay funding wise, their their um concerns are that they there will be no one at the US Department of Ed to answer questions or process grants or applications, amendments, waiverss, that kind of thing. But I'll keep you posted. >> Um quick I know quick redistricting task force update. I have not been able to watch the meetings. I know Elizabeth has committed to doing that. So, I just read the minutes from the September 10th meeting. The big takeaways that I noticed were um there's a strong recognition of the need for robust public engagement. I think that's really important as
060well. So, I think that's great to read. The uh members highlighted the importance of solid data to um help them make their decisions. And they also talked about a rubric before the map drawing. Um they need a rubric u before that happens. So, their next meeting is the 29th if anyone is interested in watching. Uh, two more quick things. Uh, there is a VSBA VSA annual conference. Um, it's the board officer superintendent training. So, if anyone is interesting, just interested, let Lori know and she can help get you registered. It is in Burlington, I think, this year. So, Davis, I know you're going. >> Yep. I think Amarie is going. Think Elizabeth said she might go. So all are welcome. Um and then lastly um Larry and I will be attending tomorrow and Wednesday the
061VSA VBO which is business officers um two-day training which this group uh was there last year and we're going to be working with their presentation from last year to continue. Um the the talk of budgeting. Uh the theme this year is budgeting for now, finance of the future. And it's suggested that the sessions are going to be around practical information and tools to support our current budgeting efforts, which Larry has already started. And then we're going to talk about um exploring the finance reforms of act 73 which I'm sure is actually going to be most of what we talked about for two days but it'll be there for the next two days and we'll share what we learned. I will stop sharing and Larry is going to >> well it's on here. >> Oh is
062it linked? >> Yeah it's on the next slide I think. >> Uh that's the human resource update you know budget budget now. Well, the HR motion for discussion. >> Okay. So, you want to go to the budget? >> All right. So, uh I shared with everybody the budget um over email last week before uh it was shared out to the SU budget committee. Uh so Sarah, Elizabeth, and um Ryan from H Heartland has been working with us and Jen Hulse uh special ed director uh has uh was at the last meeting. So um this I'm going over the budget book. I don't want to go line by line. I just want to go an overview of the budget book. Um, I think it would be beneficial if you have any questions about the actual budget
063uh to um email them to your budget committee rep or myself, no big deal, and we'll answer them. Uh, the evolution of Vermont education law. This page, I added what I could about Act 73 knowing that we're early in on that. Um, as you know, a lot of the uh budget book preamble is sort of um organizational executive summary. the budget process timeline which is where you can see right here uh September 22nd that's today um we have moved up the budget timeline as we talked about because uh we would hope that we can get an approved SU budget in October meeting so that I can do the locals because weatherfield has asked for us to present their first draft in November Weatherfield meeting and they meet earlier in the month um than the SU
064uh enrollment trends uh based on last here. Not much different. You know, uh Hartland and Weatherfield are starting to uh separate a little bit as they were converging for many years. Uh they are starting to separate a little bit and uh overall as an SU we're kind of bucking the uh state trend from the last 10 years, which was about down 2% for the state. We're kind of holding steady as an SU. Um even though there's some minor variations in each school. Uh what that means for Weathersfield is has they've been converging with Hartland? Has Heartland been going down and Weatherfield's been going up? Uh since most of our assessment is based off LTWADM um and then food service is based off actual student count. uh Weatherfield is going to be paying a little less
065this year about 1% less of the SU assessment um because they are now um have fewer students relative to the increase uh personnel changes. There's a slight change at administration operations and that's more or less around needs. Uh Christine mentioned earlier about title two and the possibility of that um going away. We fund uh some of the curriculum director salary out of title two. We have put uh n the other extra 40% of that salary into the general fund preparing for title two possibly going away. And um but we made up for that based on student needs around ELLL. We have a 1.0 ELLL uh teacher which we do not need a 1.0. 0 and we are lowering that amount uh to.3. So um that is the administration offer changes and uh special education changes.
066Right now we view no changes as Christine mentioned. This is really early on in the process and the service plan is usually done around October and Jen's going to be working on that. There may be some staffing changes um later, but for right now, we're not anticipating any staffing changes >> year-over-year. >> Just the one administrator for special ed. >> Yes. But I'm talking about the overall number. There is one administr one less administrator in special education from the budget year-over-year. And you'll see that under administration salaries. Um this again is more of our strategic priorities which many of you know about some information on budgeting and now we're getting to the meat of it currently in the budget book and one of the great things about the budget book is as uh as department
067heads and we meet so for example you have early childhood program is in here and the general fund as it stands today but uh food services will be added later Ian's working on his budget right now and I don't want to, you know, um, put too much pressure on Ian, but he's done a great job with his budgeting. And, uh, for the first time, I'm pretty confident that when we present a budget, we'll finally have a food services budget that will not be a money loser in operating deficits. We've had operating deficits in the in the food service budget since we went inhouse from contract services. and Ian's done a great job of um food sourcing, local grants, fresh fruits and vegetable grants, and bringing in some more revenue uh to hopefully be a break
068even enterprise fund, which is what it should be. Uh the main headline um as I go down uh Beth >> Dave just a quick note around food service is that um it doesn't necessarily need to be it's it's to say that it needs to be break even is a little hard because I mean what is a percost meal that Ian's trying to do right now? >> Like it's it's really low. It's it's like >> it's like less than $2 usually. Like it's it's significantly lower than what we could ever buy ourselves or even sometimes prepare for our own families. So just realize when you're saying that it's an even budget, that's really hard. And so in saying that, you know, it's in the red, a better way to put it is that we're investing in
069the school meal program, that we're not just relying on the the um the the funds from the state and the the feds. So, it's just um if there's a lot of push back or quality issues or anything like that that do come up, I don't think it's ever a bad thing to invest necessarily in the meal program overall. So, >> just a little clarification on my end. >> Thanks, Beth. I was referring more to the fact that it's a separate fund from the general fund. So, under the Vermont uniform chart of accounts, which we have to use, they transferred us to 2370, which is it's supposed to be nonprofit, right? it's going to be nonprofit, but it doesn't necessarily have to mean um in the red, just like the general fund is nonprofit, but not
070in the red. Uh so, yes, thank you. Um so, the headline number you're going to see, I think, uh is around special education to give some context of why that looks so drastic. Um does everybody in the board, you'll remember back in January, so January was fiscal year 25. This is the fiscal year that end just ended last fiscal year with I was worried about a $1.2 million deficit as we increased revenue on the revenue side from special education spending. Why did first of all why do we have that deficit? Because some students moved in that required um extraordinary placement services and we took care of those students as as we're required to. There was a revenue um comeback for that. However, during the fiscal year, we weren't sure the muddy the waters were muddy
071in January, February. As we went through the fiscal year, um, and this auditors are here next week in this room, um, we hope to, uh, have better news for fiscal year 25 closing out. I'm pretty confident we will, that we will not have ended up with a deficit. By using some of our fund balance, we have um, we are going to be 200,000 or so to the better. So all that worry from January, February, it turned out okay. However, those students are still here, right? They didn't go anywhere. It was an unbudgeted for um cost. Now for FY26, because we built the budget for FY26 in fiscal in the fall of 24, those costs still weren't there, right? Because it was a fall of 24. Uh we're going to be in a similar boat this
072year. Hopefully the revenue will pick up. That's the reason why you're seeing such a drastic increase in special education spending for next year. You're already spending it. Uh so the revenue budgets and re the budget is revenue and expenses. So special education is up the total budget's up 16.4% currently. Special education accounting for 15.3 of that. Admin and operations is 1.3 currently. Of that 1.2 two 1.2% currently. It might go down after a motion tonight. Um I have a motion on the table with the SU um funds. Unlike the local funds at the SU, the CFO has a fair amount of latitude to for fund transfers, but there is one fund transfer I can't make without a board vote that I would like a board vote tonight, which will lower even more of that administration
073and operations at no extra cost or no cutting of quality. Um it's just a literally a money transfer. Uh so that's where we are. There's a lot more detail in the budget book if anybody has any questions. I think what's uh usually surprising to people is when you go to um expenditures by function right here, this table, you can see that almost 60% of the SU budget in the general fund is special education. We're about 10% is our transportation. We have a new transportation contract that many of you remember we went out to RFP for psych services which is in the student support services budget is another 7%. Um and so the the non the first non-sp specialed item is technology which is about 5 and a.5% of your total dollar. Um physical services which
074is my office is three and a half% instruction and curriculum which is Bridget's office is 3% and so on so forth. Um, so just uh that's the uh the headline number. It's a big increase, but I think it's really important that everybody understands uh this was the context from the FY25, we are now actually budgeting for those students. And you'll see under revenues up top um right here, revenues by account. If you expand that table under revenues by account on the far right side, you'll notice that we're getting $484,000 more dollars in revenue. That is specifically because of that. Um, so the increase of revenue from the state, any student over 67 to $69,000 per student, we get 90% back from the state. And the and the big drivers Larry besides um those out of
075district placements be healthcare. >> Yeah. Teacher negotiated wage. >> Teacher negotiated wages. We have we are in the final we're budgeting FY27 which is the final year of our teacher wages. Uh current master agreement and a support staff or we have an agreement. So which makes my budgeting a little easier. Uh, and then I for health insurance I um I went with my Bazbo partners and we're averaging if you do a three-year running average and I know that there's some talk around the state that the number might come in a little lower for health insurance. We are um estimating 11.9. The three-year running average would have been 12 point something. I'd cut it to 11.9 which is the same number we budgeted for last year. If we get an October letter from Beehive that says
076it's 6% great. I will make those adjustments. And again, that's the benefit of having a live transparent budget book that is out to the public on the website is that I can make those changes um and they will update for everybody rather than sending, you know, spreadsheets back and forth and not knowing what version we're on. >> Yes. >> Oh, another last thing. This FY27 draft budget preliminary does not include the maintenance consolidation we discussed at August retreat. Um it's important to note that if that decision is made, uh it'll be um it'll be expenses and revenue neutral because it'll be zeroed out of your local budget. It will greatly increase the SU budget. It will greatly increase the SU assessments. However, there it'll all be tracked because you can look back at the local
077budget and they'll be zeroed out. Um but right now this current budget does not include that. >> Right. Back to you. >> Okay. Um motion for discussion. Um HR, do you want to do the um Bosey first? >> Sure. >> Let's throw that in there. Here's the language for you. >> Very specific. And that's the signature if you vote. Yes. >> Quick quick question just around the the Boseies. So is that because we'll need to budget for that membership for next year >> that we are paying out of um Medicaid reimbursement. >> It's not the general >> the next year one. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. I move that Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union board vote to one approve for participation as a founding member supervisory union in the proposed Southeast Vermont regional board of cooperative
078education services under 16 VSA chapter 10. And do I have to we we don't have to vote on these separately do we? This is just one motion. Subsection two, approve and adopt the articles of agreement for the Boseies as presented. Three, authorize the board chair to sign the articles of agreement and submit them to the Vermont state that's Vermont Secretary of Education as required by 16 BSA 603 and four authorized a supervisory union or school district representative to participate in organizational meetings and take all necessary steps to implement the BOSEISE in accordance with for law. I will take a motion to approve that motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. You guys are really pulling it through today. Um it along >> discussion. I think it's all right. I I think it's a financially
079um and educationally um forunuitous um move. Elizabeth, >> thanks. Just to clarify or satisfy my own curiosity. So when we enter into Abosis, um if we expand, you know, as far up the 91 corridor as M Peely or say, we're already expanding all the way down to the border with Massachusetts. Does that mean we would be sharing services for that entire area? Yeah, we could. >> Yeah, the new board would have to go on there. >> Yeah, >> we could. Yeah, >> okay. Thank you. >> Um, >> but Bob Hillier is on the 91 >> 89. Yeah, sorry. >> But we know what you meant. Fairly ribbon. Yeah. Um, any other comments, concerns, questions? >> Okay. I will take a voice vote and make sure I go through. Uh, David, >> hi. I don't think
080Nicole's here. Uh, Heather. >> Oh, thank you, Heather. Um, Nancy, >> hi. >> Be >> hi, >> Elizabeth. >> Hi, >> um, Amy. >> Hi, >> John. >> Hi. >> Megan's not here. Sarah >> is Ann Marie here? I don't see it. >> Okay, there you >> Okay. And I am an I. >> That's it. Or you sign that bill. >> Okay. >> Thank you. I will text Jill right now. >> Um HR discussion. >> Okay. >> Um >> did you get John? >> Yes. Okay. >> And he voted I too. Um about a month ago, uh there was a change in the central office. Um our a HR coordinator left and Larry um decided I'm reviewing this. We discussed this in the library. We decided to look take a analytic view at that office
081and uh we offered the um the uh >> intern thank you position um and I will hand it off to Larry to uh >> where we're at. So um you know uh opportunities come when they come and our HR uh previous HR director left um at a a a bad time for us which is onboarding offboarding uh the end the fiscal year rollover. Uh not her fault. I'm having lunch with her next month but that's what happens. Uh so in that time period um I wanted to step back. I think it's always important when somebody leaves to and and this was in the email to the board on July one from Christine that uh we look at the whole thing. So I looked into a bunch of different processes for example outsourcing payroll. What would
082that look like? Um could I make the numbers work to do that? Uh could we look at some of the things in the uh district quality standards as far as cross trainining? If you guys remember the August retreat, uh there were some uh important things that uh accountwise everything is payroll is not in one person, purchasing is not in one person. A there's some cross trainining in some control. So looking at all those things, uh we had to make a decision about um what would be work best for the central office with our current staffing as much as we could. Um and the decision was made um to move payroll back under the business office uh hold over from Christine's predecessor that put it under HR and by putting payroll back to the business office
083and do other business functions we can have some of those cross training and financial controls that obviously leaves the HR position and uh we did a posting uh and we had interviews and we had multiple interviews uh >> in-house posting >> in-house internal posting And uh our interim applied and there was an interview with myself and Tracy Thompson uh who's an administrator, Jesse Farnsworth who's our Medicaid clerk, Gail McCoy who works in the business office and Aaron Day a teacher in Windsor and myself. We had a uh rubric with a cut score that if our current interim did not advance past the cut score, she would not advance to the next round, which included the superintendent and Tracy Price, Jen Hulse, Frank Romeo, and Christine, all administrators. Um, and based on the feedback from both
084separate committees, uh, we would like to offer the HR coordinator position to our interim Jordan Sergeant. She comes, she's been with us for four years, uh, now, four years and two months. Um, she is, uh, finishing up her degree, which she'll have in two months. Um, in human resources, she worked for many years, uh, prior to that at AIS doing payroll and benefits specialists. Um, I've, um, worked with her and she worked very closely alongside our outgoing HR director, um, prior to this. and I've uh been supervising her since we made your interim and and uh working with her and coaching her and I think this is a an excellent decision for the SU going forward. Then we will post the payroll position um separately after this. And that's the update. And I really want
085to thank Tracy Thompson, Jesse Farnsworth, Gail, Aaron, Tracy, Jen, Frank, and especially Jordan for their patience during this process >> and and for Jordan doing both jobs. >> Yes. Doing both jobs. I'd like to thank Larry and Christine and Tracy for doing a very thorough um very thorough look at this. And uh I mean what Larry shared with me the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing payroll. The reality is there really wasn't any >> I couldn't make the numbers work. >> Yeah, I tried. Um it it's important to uh point out that um this isn't really it it it doesn't require the board's approval for for this position, but because it is such an important position, I thought we'd do a quick vote. Um just to kind of a voice to show our support. Um so
086I will um because this is not a motion, we're not actually voting on it. Does someone want to make a motion? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I will make a motion to approve the hire of >> Sergeant >> as uh the HR director. Um do I have a sec? A first. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh all in favor please say I. >> I. I. >> I. All opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, thank you for uh the timeliness and hard work of the SU office administration in such a critical time. >> Open enrollment starts in a couple weeks. >> Yeah, she'll be busy. >> Thank you. She'll be she'll be thrilled that process is over. >> SU board treasurer. >> Yes. So, at the H Heartland board meeting um this month, Nikki Buck resigned >> from
087the Hartland board. Um, so she was one of your board treasurers. Yeah. Um, so we'll need to sign another treasure board. >> This means you'll have to go get your name on the >> No, not you, but whoever. I think >> whoever is at the SU. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, we would have to have someone from another uh district. >> Another district. >> From another district. It doesn't have to be. >> We've shared it. >> Yeah. >> Who is the new uh H Heartland board chair? >> They are uh voting in October, Elizabeth. >> Wow. Okay. Thank you. >> And just out of curiosity, what's uh what's their deadline to uh appoint a new member? They are taking um letters of interest currently and um they are actually having uh an at their
088October meeting they're very condensed board meeting because they're doing a community engagement session on act 73 that'll be most of their meeting but um so they didn't really put a deadline on it they're just taking letters of interest and October they'll report any interest that they've um heard >> and go from there. Yeah, >> I know it's a 30-day window if the state gives, right? So, >> there would be a deadline >> to appoint another member. >> No, I'll get on that with them. >> Okay, >> that's having been there. >> It's an important thing to keep in mind. >> I remember that clearly. Um, do I have any uh ideas, volunteers, nominations for the position? >> Do you want to know what you do? >> Yes. Thank you. >> You just go to the
089802 bank, which is across from Cumbies, and to the Mnt, and you sign, and usually that's about it. But every year you have to take care of the uh there are checks that go out from the athletic association >> and you have to make sure that those usually I just go to the banks and pick it up and bring it to the next year >> except it was pretty difficult this year but we solved the took several months yeah >> to solve a big problem but that's done so I think it should be very simple from now on. Okay. >> And everyone's very nice in the banks. >> Is there anything stopping Nancy from doing the >> doing it by herself? You mean >> right? So, uh, >> you had two. Yeah. So, that's that
090would stop her from his position. >> Any volunteers? Actually, the thing with the checks, that's only for RSU because that's for Windsor High. So, nobody else if you were a signer that that's you don't do very much at all. >> That's quite the pep talk. >> Um, do we need to fill that position tonight? I think we could I don't know, Larry. You think we could wait a month? >> Do you want it done? >> The auditor's here. >> Elizabeth has raised her hand. >> Is she Is she the backup treasure for the SU? >> Nikki? >> I don't know. But >> Nikki is the >> You're the treasure for Moscott. Are you a backup treasure for SU? >> I'm the SU. >> Yes, she's the SU treasurer. >> Yeah, I'm not forcing. >> Okay.
091So you need >> I nominate John Harrison. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> John, do you agree to the position >> as the wearer of coal in the great town of Weathersfield? I would be honored. >> Okay. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Thank you, John. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you, John. >> Thanks, John. >> Um, >> thank you, John. >> Okay. Um, before we move on to board self assessment, we have uh let's do the uh addition. >> I can speak to that a little bit before the motion. So this is um I mentioned this during the budget uh presentation and um this would lower the FY27 general fund. There is a fund balance in uh uh fund 2025 which is early childhood. We want to move
092that over to -ate which is 2610 for a one-time purchase of implementation costs and other trainings. Um, and because it's one time, I feel it would be financially responsible to pay it out of a non-general fund operating fund. Um, this motion would allow us to do that, which will lower the FY27 general fund. Um, and uh, and um, but because um, like I said, I have a lot of latitude as a CFO for SU uh, funds, but not for transferring restricted funds. So, that's what this motion is for. and so it can be in the minutes so the auditors know that it was done. Um and like I said, this will lower the FY27 general fund. This is for um replacing front line, which is what we currently use for time and attendance. This will
093allow us uh to do some of those uh guided walks that Christine mentioned earlier with the Danielson rubric, PD. Um it has um applicant tracking which is important for uh our diversity efforts and hiring. Um, so there's a lot of a lot more to it than just uh the kiosk where they swipe their fog for uh time and attendance. Uh, but that's what this motion is for and we have to have it phrased this way so we can do the fund transfer. >> Thank you. Okay. I will take a motion to assign $47,000 from fiscal year 25 fund 2025 surplus and transfer the same amount into fiscal year 26 to fund >> 2610 that part. >> This is still moved. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um, Bunny, let's take a look at this. We will
094start with Sarah. How do you vote? I >> John. >> I >> Amy. >> I >> And Marie. >> Hi >> Elizabeth. >> Hi >> Beth. >> Hi >> Nancy. >> Hi >> Heather. >> I >> Davis. >> Hi. >> And I'm an I. Thank you. Thank you. >> Um board selfassessment survey results. >> All right. >> We don't need a motion, do we? >> No. No. They're carryover from the retreat. Okay. Um >> we had eight people complete the survey. So I think that's great. Um let's pull up the right tab here. It's the wrong one. Okay. >> Use the It's loading. All right. You see it? Yeah. can't share your screen. Okay, I'm g try that again. >> As as we wait for the technology, I'll I'll throw out there that I tend
095to underscore I believe I I feel I tend to underscore on these type of things. >> Yeah. >> Oh, so you're the you're the disagreeer. Are you the disagreeer? I will uh I will all right uh I'm happy to share this with you. I thought I would pull it up tonight. Um in the past I've printed it and people have asked me not to waste paper and color print. So, I'm just if you want it, I copied a couple, but um so these are um this is the annual survey that you fill out uh to see how you're doing as a board. Under the section create a vision for education in the community, the board regularly discusses where the district should be headed in three to five years into the future. Most people agree. So,
096red is agree. I know it feels like red should be disagreeed, but red is agree. Um, blue is strongly agree and then orange is disagree and green is strongly disagree. John Harrison, I tried to figure out how to change the colors. >> It's very do it. >> Um, there is a trick to it though. >> Yeah, you'll have to show me. So, blue and red. >> Blue and red is um agree or strongly agree and yellow and and orange is not. And then purple is you're not sure. So, pretty good agreement on you discuss where the district should be headed. I know we're we're um we're probably in need of a new strategic plan in the next year or so, but I didn't feel like we should spend the money on that this year because
097of >> consolidation. So, I think we just stay the course for now. Um >> Yep. >> Okay. The board engages the community when establishing the future. There was um one person that disagreed, but uh seven people that agreed. I know we did when we did the strategic plan we had a a very good turnout from across the community and many stakeholders. So um but that was you know five years ago. The vision is focused on what we want for our children in written it is written in terms of the expected results for student learning and growth. There was full agreement on that one. The vision is farreaching not limited by the walls of the school or borders of the district. There was strong agreement on that one. One person was not sure on that one.
098Under policy parameters, the board adopts and follows policies to ensure that school resources are used appropriately and effectively to meet district goals. Full agreement on that, which is great. There is a process for soliciting and responding to input from staff and community. Some agreement on that, but maybe that's a place where we could um you know, the board could work on a goal around that. >> Although I know you've been working on community engagement and communication. So um the board delegates responsibility for implementing policy to the administration. Absolutely. The board has developed an ongoing system to review and update all policies every 3 to five years. And um one person was was not sure but the rest of you are in agreement that we do that and we try to keep up with all the
099changes that are brought by the AA and the VSBA. Um all right. work with the superintendent to provide educational leadership and to manage the district to achieve the mission. The board has established an excellent working relationship with the superintendent. We have agreement on that. The board has established clear priorities and goals for the superintendent. We have agreement on that. The board annually evaluates the superintendent. We have disagreement on that. We know that one. Um monitoring progress toward the vision. So, the board regularly evaluates progress towards meeting established school goals specific to student learning. I think we've gotten pretty good about um our data work and presenting that to the board. So, we're proud of that. Um the board regularly evaluates progress toward meeting established school goals specific to systems operations and we had agreement on
100that. One person who was not sure those kind of align with the district quality standards. Would you say there? >> Yeah. The board regularly evaluates its performance in meeting established board goals. There was some disagreement in that area. Are you evaluating your the goals that you set annually? Some agreement. A little bit of disagreement. The board assures adherence to policy. Everybody agreed on that. Are pretty much in alignment this time. Um under developing, adopting, and monitoring a budget to support the vision and assuring strong oversight of district finances. Um, the board adopts a budget that focuses on programmatic priorities. There was there was a majority of agreement, but one person did not agree with that statement. The board develops broad budget parameters and expects the administration to create line item details. Yes. The board engages
101the community in setting budget priorities. There's some agreement and some disagreement on that one. Um, we could talk about that. The board is attentive to the district's ability to pay. Yes, the board assures that internal controls are in place to protect public funds. It's all those accounting um checks and balances Larry talks about. The board carefully monitors expenditure reports to asssure the administration is addressing issues with revenues and expenditures. Um yes and one unsure. And then I think this is the last category. Engaging the community and supporting the education of students. the board engages the community meaningfully in understanding changes in the education system needed for today's learners. So there was some disagreement on that and that's again that community engagement piece. Uh >> I think the important part of that is that engaging the
102community requires not only us engaging but the community engaging as well. >> You've made great efforts. It's hard to get people to participate for sure. Uh when monitoring progress, the board examines district data by gender, race, and socioeconomic status to measure the success of all students. And again, we've we've implemented that over the last couple of years. The board keeps the community informed of district performance. Yes. Agreement. The annual school budget passes on the first try. Um >> Not always. Yeah. Especially that really tough year that we we had in H Heartland. Oh, sorry. There is another category. Meeting legal responsibilities. The board stays out of staff and student issues which may result in quasi judicial hearings before the board. Full agreement on that. The board handles those hearings in a fair and orderly fashion
103and arrives at a clear fair clear and fair conclusion. I don't think we've had one in a while, but um agreement there. The board handles collective bargaining responsibilities effectively, seeking to find the proper balance between assuring a highly qualified and motivated workforce and recognizing the taxpayer ability to pay. Absolutely. >> That's not easy, but done it. There's all agreement on that one. Um, >> you skipped one. >> No, I'm sorry, you didn't. It's operating legally and ethically. the board adopts and has signed a code of ethics that outlines expectations and commitments. You all do that at your local board meetings. I think we do that at the retreat. Um I don't know if we did at the board retreat this year, >> but you all do. >> I think we I think we touched on
104it. Yeah. Just sort of agree. >> We like sign it every year. >> Yeah. >> Board members respect the fact that they have no official power outside of of the actions of the full board. Full agreement on that. The board adheres to open meeting law and carefully follow statutory guidelines for executive session. Yes, on that board members are respectful to other board members, administrator, staff, and community members. Agreement on that. Board members have the information needed to make informed decisions and understand their potential impact. There was one person that did not agree on that one. Board regular board meetings are efficient and generally last no more than one to two hours. six people agree and two disagree. We've certainly been working on that. Uh once a board decision is made, desenting board members respect the
105board's decision even if they continue to disagree. Have agreement. Uh one person did not agree on that one. Board members annually participate in board development activities. I know that's a goal um that we've been working on trying to get board members, especially the board chairs because that's by law. often have to go to that get some sort of training with superintendent. Um board members understand that they are community trustees to assure quality education and that taxpayers get a great return on investment and that they are not operators of the school. Full agreement on that. So um those are the results of your survey. Thought they were pretty positive overall. You're doing a great job as a board. Um I I don't know. Um the board goals from last year were communication with stakeholders and make
106tangible progress towards our equity goals by operationalizing and institutionalizing them. Those were >> we were both in last year. >> Yes. So, you know, if you wanted to adjust your goals from last year based on the data from your survey, um, they're right here, Bill. Those were last year's or if you want to come back to it next next month after you kind of come back. >> Would you like me to send the survey results to you so you have them? >> Sure. I will do that. And I'll put it on the agenda. And thank you for those of you that were able to take the survey. >> No, I sat down. Why don't you send it out again? I said it. >> Did it. >> All right. And stop the sharing. There you go.
107>> Okay. Okay. >> Um, do we need an executive session? >> No, that would be good. I don't need one. this early in the year. It's probably that likely setting the next agenda. Um I think it would be good to take a look at the board goals >> on the agenda. Time to look at what direction we want to take. >> Um >> that's your budget adoption. >> Yep. We have a on the board work plan we've got uh the policies obviously secondly that report Bridget's up for a report next month >> that'll be the data disagregated because we'll be done with star um >> and then we have the budget >> Elizabeth >> thank you um could you please make sure to get the data out to the board before the meeting takes place.
108>> Thank you. >> Yes. Great, great reminder. Thank you. >> Um, negotiation. Um, >> we're in this is year two. >> We are are off. Yes. >> Um, >> teachers will be next. >> This is the second year, right? >> Yes. >> Of the teacher contract. Yes. Okay. So, >> three year contract. >> It's a three-year contract. So, um, >> start. >> I think it would be >> advantageous to start early next year. Um, we made an attempt to start the summer before and it uh >> um somewhat. Yeah, >> but there was a there was a lot of changing going on. Um, >> I think we as a SU board should at least touch base, not next month, touch base at some point regarding uh the goal of um how we want to proceed
109and um if we do or not. um in um [Applause] somehow getting the different associations to merge um >> as one. >> Um it's it's not within our power. It's not our preview, but I think it'd be good to set up um and and pay them to to come to a um board meeting just to kind of >> to talk about it. Yeah. >> Okay. What month are you thinking for that? >> I don't know. Later in the year. >> Yeah. >> Like after the first of the year? >> Definitely. Yes. >> February. Perfect. Okay. >> Elizabeth, is that a uh >> It's a new hand. >> New hand. Okay. Go ahead. >> Can we please hear from uh Tracy Price at our next meeting? >> I think that'd be a good idea to hear.
110Yeah, she >> Yeah, she's on. Let me just see when she's on. Elizabeth, we have her scheduled. Uh yeah, not till December. Would you like the reports next month? Probably a good idea. Tracy, are you still on? >> Believe she left. >> Okay, I'll let her know. Yeah. >> And and you're not looking for anything extensive. Just sort of a an update. >> I'd like an update. I I What What is your schedule like? Uh why >> you mean the board the board work plan? >> Yeah. Why why haven't we heard from Tracy in months? >> Well, we put her on uh when after she reported every month for the first year. Um the board was asked if they wanted to continue having her come every month and that I think the decision was quarterly.
111>> Yeah. have her quarterly coming, but we can put her on as often as >> And I think the other issue is that um last time she was scheduled, she was ill maybe. >> And so she skipped that month. I think it seems as if it's a long time. >> She'll come She'll come next month for sure. She She'd be happy to report monthly if you want her to. >> I know. >> Okay, we'll put that on the list right now. When did that vote take place to have her come quarterly instead of uh instead of monthly? >> She put out an email >> like would you like me to continue to report monthly and um >> I think we discussed it at meeting. It was in the old office back in the winter. >>
112If it seems a little too long I mean I'm happy to move it to every other month. Um, >> she'd be happy to she >> because because I agree with you, Elizabeth. It does seem as if um it's a quarterly may not be enough. >> Okay. >> Especially if she had missed a quarter. I mean, that that's now six months. If we wait until December, it just it >> Yeah. Uh it if we are going to be working on our um school culture, shouldn't we have somebody speak directly to school culture? >> Yes. >> Good point, Elizabeth. Thank you. On top of it. >> Thank you. Okay. So, got it. Okay. I will take a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> So moved. >> So second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >>
113Thank you everybody. >> Have a good night. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Just under two hours. >> Very well done.