001Okay, I will call this meeting to order on April 28th of the Windsor Southeast Supervisory School Board. Um, changes, additions to the agenda. Um, I have one new hire to bring that wasn't on the agenda. Okay. Um, so FYI, we will have an executive session, possibly a vote afterwards on the contract that supports that contract. Okay. Um, depending on where we're at, but we will go into executive session, discuss the particulars on that. Um, any other changes? Okay, without further ado, the most exciting part of the night. Student report bystandard training. All right. Present Miss Bourne. Miss Bourne has the slides you guys worked on with Miss right now. Turn off. Yeah, I already did that. It's coming else. Yep. The big It's just slow. No, we made it like that. You have to click
002it. Oh, I do. Okay. Thank you, Jay. Okay. Are you ready? Okay. So, I just click it. So, I may need to be in a bit different. Is this just to start a great green screen? There we go. trained and question. Let's see. Here we go. I have to click it again. Okay. I should have had this in rehearsal. where we went. The train the trainer empowering youth to address and harassment and bullying. An all day youthled training offering workshops on bystander intervention. Know your rights and advocacy to change the school culture. 22 students joined this training. 10 schools were all from Vermont. Other students led the three workshops. Why event to stop bullying at our school? We hear words and name calling very often. What we learned, hazing is when someone is forced to
003do something embarrassing or dangerous in order to join or stay in a group or a club. Harassment is when someone keeps bothering, threatening, or upsetting another person on purpose, and it's about someone's appearance, race, gender, religion, or anything else personal. Bullying. It is when someone repeatedly uses their power to hurt or control another person physically, verbally or online, which is called cyber bullying. What we do what we will do with it intervene when says something. All we do is pier last week said that's harassment in response to someone. Jace collected him and saying what harassment actually is. The judges at the start of the next year help Mrs. South and Mrs. Vector with a presentation about hazing harassment and bullying and what to do as a middle schooler. We get to ask you questions. Thank
004you. A present. Yes. Do you see um these skills the last slide talked about in middle school? Do you see these skills transitioning um into high school? Probably. Yeah. There. Do you think that um harassment, hazing, and bullying um is more prevalent in middle school or do you think it's pretty much the same throughout elementary, primary, elementary, middle school? Yeah, it's it's literally everywhere. Okay. Hello. Elizabeth. Yes. Hi, thank you for your presentation and I cannot believe that you are in middle school, Jace. Me, you're always being kindergarten in my mind. Um, I was wondering if you're planning to uh if you're planning to make presentations at all of the schools in our supervisory union. I mean that might be I wasn't planning on I mean maybe if we want to if we get the
005bonus of cash I don't know you guys told them that you had a cash cash there was a cash bonus payment for them to go to this training so that was it was exciting that they also applied and had to be accepted [Music] Do you both go to H Heartland? No. [Music] Valley. Gotcha. Well, that that was a great presentation and thank you very much. I really I I really appreciated hearing about that. Thanks. Sorry. So my question is what what do you think was the most interesting or sort of enlightening thing that you you learned through this training that you might not have been aware of before? Probably the difference between a and harassment. Yeah. Yeah. Just the kind of breakdown in terminology. Yeah. Right. I know that Miss Richtor definitely talked to both
006Elijah and Jace about their thoughts now being the only two people in the middle school this year trained. Um the only other trainings we had in the middle school were last year a couple sessions with the restorative circle um workshops and work there. But with these two being our only tomb trained students in this area, um I'm sure they would be invited to do something similar again next year, but wanting them to not have to lead it or do all of it, but to work alongside Miss RTOR and myself to like help have these presentations for the middle school. Sounds fun. So, I got a quick story to show you a perspective of how far we've come. When I was a freshman, fresh out of middle school, um there was something called freshman hazing, which
007is about a blatant as a label of hazing as you can get. So because I grew up on a sheep farm, I had to go around on that day with a little bite tutu all day long. And there actually was a picture of me in the yearbook playing basketball without a shoe in a tutu. And so don't do that anymore. Yeah. You would go from that level of accepted hazing and realizing how damaging it could be. and you young men have been trained to identify that. Um, do you think we've come that far? Do you think we still have a long way to go? Yeah, probably. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I think one of the big big steps is exactly what you shared here, Elijah, is that somebody had mentioned something in class and Jace
008said, "Well, actually, this is the definition of harassment." and M Price and I touched base with a couple students today who did something similar. So I think when we hear more people standing up in stepping into a conversation and saying that's not okay, this is what this means. Those are great leadership skills that you guys are sharing with the rest of us. So thank you for that. Okay, it does take a lot of work. Um, we as large mammals like dolphins and whales are hardwired to demand conformity during adolescence. I know that might be a little but it's hardwired into us and to unhirewire that and become a civilized society we have to work very hard against that. So you guys have taken that step to work very hard in that. So thank you. Thank
009you. Miss Price, you were there. Yes. Is there anything you want to add to what you noticed for the day? I mean, you all were engaged and you took a day to go to this workshop. That was a day that there was no school. So, even like bonus on top of that. So, um yeah, it was totally my pleasure bringing y'all and I am here to support whatever you decide to do next in this. Okay. Yeah. And I hope you share your experience with students and I'm sure you're gonna especially about the process and the bonus pay. I mean all that is good to share. And thank you parents. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well done. Approval of minutes. I will take a motion to approve the minutes of uh March
01024th, 2025. So move. Thank you. There any discussion? They're they're pretty basic as it was a reorganization meeting. Okay, I will take a voice vote. All in favor of approving the minutes, please say I. I. I. I. All opposed say nay. Any abstensions. Okay. Public participation. Public 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 that the board is here to listen. The public comment period is not designed for discussion. Please start by identifying yourself and what town
011you reside in. Any public comment going once and twice. Okay. Thank you. Um policy discussion followed by uh a motion. I'd like to clean that language up in the beginning, but the reality is we have no motions today because uh we have just uh four policies. The first one is a second reading. And so I'll open the floor up for active hate policy. Any discussion on that? John, I think John, you're muted. Okay. after reading it. Uh I I hope that we never have to uh use it, but if we do, I think we have to be very cognizant of people's first amendment rights. As repulsive is something things that people say, they still have a right to say it quite often. And uh since the policy includes outside of school uh functions and uh
012people's actions, I think we have to be really careful. Yeah. Thank you, John. I I agree with you, John. Um at the same time um the uh the policy is well written to address that and outline it. Um but your point of uh being careful with it isn't going to go away that that it I think the policy outlines the simple fact that if this is going to be used administration in particular have have to use it very carefully. I agree. Okay. Any other discussion? I guess I'm interested to hear if um I mean next next time we meet it will be the third reading. Is there any concerns? Um John brought up a really good point about being careful, but are there any other concerns about voting on this um during the next meeting?
013Okay. Yes. Um, so Lori added the policy um, references, Davis, that you brought up last time. She put them at the very end. Do you want them in the interaction with other policy section or do you you want them at the end? Oh, I see. They got it. Yeah, the reference part. Um, I think it would make sense to link them if it's possible just to link them there in in the body in inter interaction with Yeah, I think you probably have it in both places. Yeah. Just to make it really clear how this Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up. I'll I'll call on Elizabeth first before I interject. I've been working on that. Um, are there going to be procedures that go along with this? I think there have to be I think
014so and fairly complicated and uh even webbed procedures. Yeah. Um okay because it doesn't it doesn't actually name who will be doing the investigations at all. Um, and by the way, I I heard from a constituent that uh the Mount Scutney School District or Windsor school doesn't actually follow its own policy um with regards to investigating hazing, harassment, and bullying. Um it's not supposed to have only um principles be the uh the investigators. So, uh, according to the Hbook, but, um, I'd I'd like to know what your thoughts are about, uh, about, uh, who might do the investigation and whether the same person would be, um, handing out any potential like who who would hand out the potential um, punishment? And would that be the same like who would would it be one person doing
015the investigation? Would it be a group? I don't think that's very well laid out. [Music] I think that definitely would be May I jump in? This is sort of my perspective on it seeing I've read the policy several times I'm sure as you have. Um my perspective on it would be that in the procedure you would lay out who would do the investigation. Um and at least I feel maybe Christine um could put in her opinion as well that uh any uh consequence possible consequent would be doled out via the uh the building principle. I would agree. Yeah. And and and we would get um consultation when needed. Um, and I I just had a may ask a question. Elizabeth, can you repeat what you said before? I was confused by what you were saying
016about the HHB policy. Uh, hold on a second. Um, just because we want to make sure we're doing it right. Hang [Music] on. Okay. First of all, it says I mean I think that we need to um take another look at student conduct and discipline because we don't follow it. Um it says under administrative responsibilities that the principal in consultation with educational staff will develop an overall discipline plan. Quote the plan unquote pursuant to 16VSA 1161A. Um it says uh under the same the procedure for student conduct and discipline uh C15 it says the expectations for student behavior and consequences for violating rules be clearly what must be clearly stated in the student handbook. It's not uh it says it says the rules must be communicated to students uh families beginning at the school year
017and enforced consistently. Um doesn't necessarily happen besides uh parents checking a box that they've read the handbook. Uh it says that uh uh let's see uh it says that uh if a student is on an I mean I think we should in other words I think we should revisit this because we're not necessarily doing this in our it says that uh if a student is on an IEP a manifestation meeting will occur after 10 days of suspension. Uh uh you can actually suspend a student on an IEP. Um and uh that's it. Which policy are you looking at? C15. Yes. Okay. So I thought you were talking about hazing harassment and bullying. Okay. Yeah. No, that's okay. I don't think it was I'm I'm not 100% sure if you're referring to a letter that that
018I read as well. Um, and we'll probably I'm I'm sure Davis will bring it up. I'm not referring to a letter. I'm not referring to a letter. I'm referring to some other communication from a different a different person. Um I I I feel very strongly that uh we as a school district can do better and and anything to do with behavior. Um at the same time, I would push back at um overly prescribing um consequences within a policy. Um I'm just saying that we we're not following the pol our own policy we have to put the um we've been working on the behavior matrix y and it it is in we we we're testing it out. It's should be ready to be publicized next year. We know that it's on our list of things to
019do. Um, so yes, you're right. And it's on it's on the list which um I think we publicized part of it this year. The part we were ready to publicize in the handbook. The rest will be will be um is on our list for what we're going to publicize in the fall. But yeah, I hear you Elizabeth. It needs to be really loud and clear. And Davis. Yeah. Yeah. And I this kind of falls in line with what we're talking about here. I think what might be helpful um with the acts of hate policy and I think it's it's good to have them reference at the end. It's I generally I think if you reference a policy in body and it is a digital document just linking it directly to where you is a good
020idea. Um, when it comes to I would maybe just look at just as a way of not duplicating this stuff and duplicating how followth through looks coming from a policy level. uh if there's anything in this student conduct and discipline policy and I'm thinking specifically about the administrative responsibilities section that even in brief can just be cited in there in the body a little bit um and then referenced back towards this policy. Um I I know you know we Elizabeth and Bill have both talked about the fact that there is work happening at the district level to make sure that there's clear um communication about procedures and there's kind of an I don't want to say overhaul necessarily but there's a lot of work being done to make sure that those are reflective of what
021the policy intends and are being implemented fully. Um, but part of that, I think, is making sure that when we put these new policies into place, just being when there's gaps where it may not be clear, how these things interact. Um, pointing to the policy that is the most relevant to it, which I think in this case would be the the um, what is it? C15. Yeah. Um, just kind of blurbing it in there might might be helpful. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, title one compatibility. Any discussion on this? Okay, I'll more than happy to jump in um because I have some real issues with this um policy around the fact um the school district in which the school is located shall provide compatible service staffing lab and curriculum material and instructional supply for title
022one eligibility and non-title one eligibility school. The district shall use local and state funds to ensure equivalence among schools and staffing and provide provision of curriculum material and instructional supplies. My main issue with that is that uh it is creating a policy that mandates a program staffing that is not necessarily required. Um, and the only at this point the only two schools that this would apply to would be Albert Bridge and Windsor schools because it's the only school that has multiple schools in its district. And so if Windsor qualifies for title one, this policy would require Albert Bridge to have the same staffing levels regardless if it is needed or not for title one instruction. Um and as we have discussed and reviewed a lot, um equality is not always equal. Um, and requiring a
023school to staff and follow title one procedures I I don't see is a good use of funds. Maybe maybe change school district to something else. Supervisory union. I want to see if it fits. I'm I'm I'm not sure what the point of that section is, you know. Yeah. I um title one funding is to is funding federal funding. We all have anxiety that it it it could go away. I don't prescribe to that worry just because don't worry about something you don't have control of. Um but yeah, I'm I'm I'm not sure what the purpose of that is. I can share what I know. helpful and we can ask Angie to be here. Um, I know that she has to do a comparability report and it's based on free and reduced numbers like percentages and
024I was just talking to her about it today. So you so our rates change our free and reduced rates change yearly. Um, this past year for for next year H Heartland's jumped 8% Weathersfield's decreased. So the way she explained it to me is she can't have more she can't actually have a because Hartland and Weathersfield are roughly the same size now. Even though their free and reduce rates are different, Weathersfields are lower. So she cannot have a more expensive interventionist at Weathersfield than she does at H Heartland. So the comparability is around how much money you're spending based on the the free and reduced rates. I think that's what this is addressing, but that's not what it does is it because it just talks about compatibility within a district. Yeah. So, I'll I'll ask Angie
025to make sure she's here next month. She she can she's the expert on it. So, but Davis, I I guess my question is that this is I'm guessing this is being updated due to Yeah. this VSBA review. Um, this is a policy that has been in place previously based on the like red old Yeah. Does it looking at the language I guess other than kind of reorganizing how it's structured on paper, does this materially change anything by adding the kind of new yellow language and replacing that old red language? It doesn't doesn't seem that different. It does though. it. So what I guess help me I'm having trouble kind of well processing the and it may be how it's written but basically what it does is that if um Windsor qualifies for title one which
026it does that means all other schools within its district must have the same title one services available. Um, and that wasn't that wasn't the case under the older version of D4. No. Okay. And that would be the language in which the school is located that's been inserted. And I have no idea how that would be any way parked with title one requirements. Title one requirements are quite simply that a school must be 40% or more um poverty level to qualify as a title one school or schoolwide program. Yeah. And so, and it says quite clearly that the district shall use local and state funds to ensure equivalence among schools and staffing. That's pretty prescriptive within a policy. Beth, I don't I don't necessarily agree with that warning. I mean, I I view I it I
027don't know. It sounds like in my mind that you're not going to go get another like you should have the same ratio of children to student to to children to to teachers no matter regardless of what school you're going to across the across the district. As well as services, meaning they should all be getting an equivalent lunch. they should all be, you know, equal to whatever um intervention services, you know, like one school should not have any interventionists and one school should have interventionists. In my mind, there should be equivalence regardless of their title one or not. I mean, that seems highly inequitable, right? But that's not what this policy does because this is specifically title one compatibility. It's not about what the students need. is what that there is a compatible level of title
028one instruction availability between schools and and and basing that on whether another building is title one or not makes absolutely no sense to me because I agree with you that there there needs to be the appropriate level of intervention but making it a title one intervention sort of outline is not always the best use of money within a instructional framework. Okay. And also, I mean, the the the funding changes within special ed and um uh poverty um funding makes that really unnecessary because that that funding for students of poverty is already there. My biggest concern is that this language and we can get a legal opinion on it if if people want. This language very clearly states out that each building must have the equivalent title one staffing. It's not about intervention. It's about title
029one staffing. And that makes absolutely no sense to me. And we don't. And we don't. I mean, and by the way, I don't think we should, right? And so I think this needs to be looked at and basically reworked to hoping do what it was intended to do because I don't think it does. That's just my concern. But this is a first reading and so I'm more than welcome to push my concern and uh listen to other people's perspective on it. Yes, Davis. And this is one quick and we may not have the answer to this being a first meeting but I have run into this before where when the word district is used in this because this is an SU level policy. Are we are we talking about the district as like what we
030call a district you know a smaller unit within the supervisory union or is it using district to mean the supervisory union? Well if it's the supervisory union then it's even more concerning course. Yeah. Well and that's what and that to me I I' I've seen that used interchangeably before. So that's that's another thing I think looking going to a second reading we're going to want to clarify. Yeah. Because that does that really materially changes what this policy means. I mean I think in the bullets and in the rest of the language they kind of address that they're not talking about like well they do say staffing levels but everything else that they talk about is well the bullets are the procedures. So um and but they don't address staffing levels like nowhere else does it
031address staffing levels. everywhere else is about equal pay and right and it's the fact that it's talking about and what made me think of that is it's talking about um you know salary schedules and stuff I mean for professional that happens at the SU level right but if we're talking in district terms then it's saying district meaning SU right so that's bizarre usually their stuff is a little bit more organized yeah yes okay we give it D5 animal dissection. This is another first read. Um um I have a quick question. Is this based in anything um the legislative? Not that I know of. Yeah. Not that I've heard. Doesn't mean it's not there. Just not that I've heard. I mean, I I have some problem with it. If you know, if you're if at any
032point we're able to expand our curriculum by having, you know, a larger high school of sort, to be able to have um advanced biology classes, it gets kind of difficult to run an advanced biology class if a student is unwilling to do um what's the purpose of this? Does anyone know safeguard a student's right to be excused from participating in the lesson? I mean just from the policy statement mostly opt out for students who are not comfortable anti could also I think be cultural religious you know beyond just personal reasons that a student would not do this. Um, and I think too, and again this comes down to resources to some extent, but you know, there there are ways of of virtually simulating that kind of experience um that are available now. Whether they're accessible
033to us at this moment, I I don't know. Yeah. Um I I I did lots of animal dissections at my time. Um and it was it was my observations that those students who were the um most hesitant to do an animal dissection of course I always allowed off but those students who were the least willing to do animal dissection were the ones who I couldn't pull the I I had to pull the knife from their hand um because they were so entwined and engaged in the activity. Um but I mean I I have no issue with public, but still it's sort of Bill, I'm sorry. It looks like on the next page there are some statutes. Okay. I I I thought there might have been um which is looks like they took the language right
034from the statute. Okay. Okay. Any other discussion? Uh F1 travel reimbursement. Um, I don't know, Larry. Is there any uh financial changes that brought this about? I think it's just updated. Yeah, we've done it for years. Yeah, every year the uh we use some the federal guidelines for mileers to choose one. It would be there's three different ones. We use mileage basically. Yeah. Okay. Any other discussion on this one? Okay. Superintendence report as as Christine is ready. Elizabeth, you look wonderful tonight. Got that nice healthy smile on your face. I look up and I see you smile and I'm like, it just makes me see feel so happy. A thanks, Phil. I actually agree with Bill because I thought it earlier. He said it. Thank you. I think we're just happy to see this on.
035Well, Elizabeth is gonna help me in a bit with my presentation when we get to the legislative stuff. So, let's start with something a little more um fun to talk about. Hold this up real quick. Oh, so slow. All right. Okay. So, I just want to start by connecting us to our strategic plan goals. the one we um one of the three is culture and student and staff wellness. So, I couldn't help but share some um pictures of our we we had two middle school uh elementary middle school plays last month. One was at H Heartland which was um the picture in the middle which was um your good man Charlie Brown. was quite amazing as um the plays just uh really amaze me um what we can do in our little schools in terms
036of drama production. So, and it and it takes a huge effort. It's it's school staff and parents and community and students. So, it was it was great. Um Weathersfield ran um Peter Pana Jr. which was also amazing. And Windsor's about to have their play. Oh, Colleen, help me do. Friday and Saturday, 700 PM and Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland. So, we've got another one coming this weekend. Three plays this weekend. Three plays this weekend. That's really cool. I I played percussion on both of those plays just this this year. No, no, no. Say, "Wow, Bill, I know Nikki does. Nikki plays Charlie." Yeah. So, they were amazing and the kids did a great job. And so I just wanted to highlight that. Um we've got some some kids there at Albert Bridge. They had
037an author's day. Every student in the school wrote a book and shared them all um with each other. And I was able to spend a little bit of time there looking at their books which was which was just uh also really promotes school culture when everybody's doing something and older kids are reading to younger kids. And so it was wonderful to see. Um, we've got a student up there receiving a heart award at H Heartland. And I know um the schools um focus on really promoting leadership and and respect and kindness and they highlight that in monthly um award ceremonies and assemblies. So I wanted to share that. Um the next slide is um student success and engagement goal. Uh we have the high school national honor society inductees. This was um a couple of
038week weeks ago they were inducted. Those are the new the new students in the um National Honor Society at the high school level. And then in the middle um we're we're all dressed in black. Um the middle school has its first chapter of the Junior National Honor Society. So those students are been inducted into the Junior National Honor Society. And I think the students really wanted wanted this and Colleen helped make it happen. So yeah, and they they all applied and Mr. um Avent who is our high school national honor society um advisor is also the national junior honor society adviser. So he's doing a lot of things activities with them together and all of those students will be able to keep up their criteria and membership through their ninth grade year and just kind
039of give them that extra leg as they want to move forward to a high school national honor society. So we're really excited that this was pretty first year we did this and a lot of it is thanks to Mr. avent for bringing that to us and the kids were really excited and the whole eighth grade was welcome to apply and all of our eighth graders are still welcome to apply throughout their experience now through the end of the year and we can they can be in the fall induction. It's great. Um and I just um wanted to share a few pictures of our studentled conferences. I'll share the data in a in a minute about um our participation rates, but you see some families and some students leading the conversation which is pretty pretty exciting.
040Um one last highlight around student success. We have two students from Albert Bridge School, uh the academic team club that are headed to the national academic competition in May. We have Lev Barackian for the geography B and Henry Yates for the history bee. So there they are in the P. Oh, I didn't turn the page. I'm sorry. There you go. There they are. Um they um yeah, it's pretty awesome. So they uh Henry also scored high enough to earn a spot at the International History B, which is in Paris this summer. So they're deciding whether they're going to be able to make that happen. There's a cost to it. And yeah, exciting. So it's very exciting. Yeah. Okay. Uh here's the conference data for you that we've collected so far. Um, our spring conferences, our
041student led conferences. Um, usually typically our fall conferences are are more um, attended than our spring, but we have pretty good results this year. Um, for H Heartland, 77% at the elementary level and 68% at the middle level. Weathersfield 87% for elementary and 64% for middle. Albert Bridge, a total of 94.8 participation. It's a whole school. Windsor Elementary at 84.3, Windsor Middle at 71% and Colleen reported that 32 of the students are scheduled to finish. We're below 28 now. We're about 74% right now today. And high school had 29% of students participating in student le conferences. So that's the data. Um, and now we're going to move on to the legislative updates, and Elizabeth is gonna join me in presenting tonight. So, when I did the report, I was trying to um tease out some
042of the important parts of H454, which passed out of the house um recently. And then, and I did that and I'll go through a little bit of it, but then um on Thursday evening, I think or Friday morning, I found out that the Senate has responded. So I'll do a little comparison of what the two um look like. So I won't read it all but this is a you know a comprehensive overhaul of the education system including governance standards and funding. So I think this came out of um last year's um having so many budgets in the state fail and this was a response to that from the legislature. So under governance and administration, what the proposal that came out of the house does, it expands the commission on the future of public education, it
043recommends adding um five non- voting members to the commission to form a school boundary subcommittee, which is from my understanding, these are people that are knowledgeable in the field, perhaps um some retired superintendents or people that really have expertise in this area who will who will gather data for the next 6 months or so around um population um school population facilities what where it makes sense to draw lines and and whatnot. Um and that would be due back to the legislature by December 1st of of 2020. I thought it was 2025, but my notes say 26, so I'd have to look at that. Um, there's some work on a state aid for school construction program because we know if we're going to if we're going to make changes and consolidate schools, that might mean that
044we need to be creating new schools or building new schools. So, there's a task force on that. And the bill also requires the agency of education to develop a three-year special ed strategic plan by December 1st um focusing on measurable outcomes and um act 173 implementation. So there's pieces of it. Um there's some there's some um education quality and standards within the bill around class size minimums which would be kindergarten 12 grades 1 through 4 15 kids and um 5 through 12 18. And there's some limitations for multi-age classrooms. That mean you can't combine more than two um grade levels. There's some school size language. So, um, yeah, but that portion's not in the Senate portion. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I'm breezing through this so I can get to the comparison. Um, there's some
045school size intent in the in the in the language as well. Any school that has um operates 6 through 12 or any subset of those grades would have have an minimum enrollment of 450 kids. Uh, Christine, if I may. Yeah. Um, yes, please. That was Go back. that was that was stuck in there as a placeholder. Um Okay. So that they could uh so that they could have a section on um school construction financing. Okay. So it that's not finalized um because that they just want they don't have anything for school construction financing. They just wanted to make sure that it was in the bill. Okay. So that they could address it when when they need to. Okay. And also I I just want to draw your attention to the fact that uh they what
046they want it the fact that it's grades 6 through 12. Um so uh and it all of that is appealable. Okay. In the House bill. In the House bill. Okay. So So Elizabeth, which part is only appiable to 6 through 12? The 450? Yeah. But the the class size minimums is also appealable. So where it says so Elizabeth where it says any subset of those grades. So I mean thinking about the schools in our supervisory union Hartland Weathersfield they're K8. So it's my understanding they would be included in that because they have a subset of those grades. Is that your understanding? My understanding is that what they envision is uh regional high schools and regional middle schools. Okay. Okay. All right. Moving moving right along. Um there's a lot to it. The um part of
047the bill is education finance system transformation and that is um talk of a new foundation formula. It would go into effect in July 2029 contingent on the new school districts. Um, the bill repeals most of the current statewide education finance formula and introduces a new foundation formula and that would be districts would be would receive an opportunity payment per student and then that would be adjusted annually for inflation and I believe by the by the long-term weighted membership. Okay. And also the Yeah, the weights the pupil and the weights. Yep. Yep. And then there's some um statewide property tax restructuring as well. I think Elizabeth was sharing some of this with us um in the past. It does establish four property tax classifications. Homestead non-h homestead apartment, non-homestead residential and non-homestead non-residential. So there might
048be um different ways of um taxing so can afford to pay um for education and there are tax credits that go along with that formula. Okay. I um just hot off the press today. So I Let me pull this up. I did share it with you earlier because it wasn't in my report. You have it in your email. Uh I just need to get to it. Hold on. Okay. So one of the things that the one of the differences between the House and the Senate is that the Senate uh shutters the um the commission altogether. The commission on the future public education of Vermont according to the Senate would be done and replaced with a legislative task force of six members. They would have to you don't include this in there but um according to
049the Senate they would have to uh decide on everything about governance by August 1st 2025. Yeah. Uh that's just insane. That's like that's including after the legislative session. So it would be between June and August that they would and a half months. Yeah. Well, that's what they did in act 46. It's like let's let's just rush everything so nothing's done. So nothing makes sense and it's all crap. Yeah. That's that that's that first section on school district boundaries. So the House version, there's a a more um robust committee working on it with people that have some expertise and the Senate version does not have that. Just gonna put it at that. Um let me scroll down. school size and a school and class scale that none what we just talked about and there's no language
050in that um in the Senate response to address school and class size scale um statewide cohesion we um the house bill included a statewide calendar uh statewide financial um and student information systems which I just want to say tackling that in in of itself is It's a huge undertaking. Um there's fewer districts. Yeah. Right. So moving moving um to those it just we just need to be methodical and um thoughtful about how we do that and when we do that. Um the Senate response is only graduation requirements. Uh prohibition on school closure and transition to paying tuition. I'm sorry I scrolled up too far. Um, so under the House bill, it requires those districts that close schools to designate up to three public schools rather than moving to full choice tuitioning. The Senate bill does
051not include anything on that. State aid for construction um stays the same. Tuition eligibility is a big um there's a big difference here. Uh in the House bill, it allows tuitioning to independent schools that have at least 51% of their student enrollment um composed of publicly funded students attending during this school year and only allows out of state tuitioning to public schools and therapeutic schools. The um Senate response is allowing tuitioning to independent schools operating in a district or supervisory union that relies on choice as of July 1, 2025 and has at least 25% of its student enrollment composed of publicly funded students attending during the um this school year and allows for out of state tuitioning to public and private schools of neighboring states and provinces. So that's a a difference. The state board
052of education appointment piece is actually really important because currently uh uh currently the appoint the um it had actually a lot more in the house bill about this because currently the problem is that currently the board is composed of 60% um uh representatives from private schools. Yeah. um to govern public schools and uh and those are all govern guminatorial appointments. That's the numbers. Yeah. So um and then lastly, tuition payments. Um tuition paid to a public or independent school is equal to the base amount and any weights that the student carries in the foundation formula. And the Senate response does not include this provision. that those that's a big um overview high level view. Elizabeth, is there anything else that you think would be important to mention? Yeah, I I there are a couple things
053that I wanted to mention um in the House bill. I'm not sure like just taking a step back uh uh first of all, the Senate came out with this draft on Thursday. um I shared with a few people but uh but uh they are they are doing a markup every single day this week according to their agenda. So it'll change a lot between now and when they vote it out. They're they're not even scheduled to vote on it this week. And and mind you, I'm talking about the Senate committee. It still has to get out of committee before it can go to the Senate floor. Um so they're still they're still going to continue marking it up. They they did a the um copy that uh is up right now is extremely shoddy like it
054has some due dates being in 2024 um and it's it was kind of hastily done but uh a couple of the things that I I think are important for the House version of the bill um are one thing for Bill Yates in particular It requires the state board of education to come up with graduation requirements uh in the next 12 months. So, which is good, right? Yeah. Um it is good, but I can imagine how rushed that would be to get that done within 12 months. Yeah. But I do know they've been working on it. They have not been working on it. Probably haven't. Well, no, they have not. They've been working on the uh education quality standards. They've got that set, but they have not been working on the they've been talking about working
055on the graduation requirements, but they have not worked on it. The difference Thank you for clarifying that. I can tell you because I attend every single one of these meetings. Um uh the um And she's still smiling. I know. Oh, it's funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um uh so there are there are a bunch the house version of the bill does a lot of um uh changes that are good for uh education in general does a lot with the state board of education requires the the agency of education to get its act together with regards to special education. um requires the state board of education to to get its act together in a bunch of different ways that uh it really has not been it has not done in several years now. Um the the Senate
056version of the bill does not include any of those requirements. So the the the house kind of um theory is getting our act together first and then slowly moving through methodically through the rest of potential changes but doing it in a way that um that uh is very uh rational. Um the and the Senate and the House committee is made up almost entirely of educators and schoolboard members. And so they they have put a lot of thought into they have kept students first in the um when they've been working through all of this. And uh in the Senate version of the bill, the or in the Senate committee, the committee is made up largely of uh uh people who serve on the boards of private schools. And so you'll see the difference between um uh
057the requirements or the difference between p the way that public and private schools are treated in the in the Senate version. Um again um a lot more will change. The Senate is much more interested in adhering to the governor's original um proposal actually uh which is a little bit wild. Um so it may be a starker difference by the end of the week than uh than it is right now. Ann Marie has her hand up. Is that okay? Yep. Amarin, I just wanted to ask Elizabeth if she knows if any of our senators, our Windsor senators are on any of these committees and what we should be saying to them. No, they are not. Um on the Senate education, the most accessible people are probably uh uh Nadir Hashim who's down in Windham County and
058uh Senator Hinsdale. Um those are the two most accessible people. Uh then there's uh Seth Bongarts, Senator Bongarts, who is over in Manchester and uh he of course is doing everything he can to protect the uh burn. Um, and so but if you were going to write a letter to somebody, I would I would write it to either Ram Hinsdale or Nutter Hashim or both. So couple things I did for a two second my perspective. I I would prefer whatever bill it is does nothing as opposed to do it too fast. Yes. Um, also Christine and I had a discussion um before one of the negotiations regarding um this summer's um SU board retreat with the possibility of um uh having the retreat and inviting all board members to have a um frank and honest
059discussion regarding um the the possibility of of of merging into a single district and how that would then roll into the possibility of uh a a regional high school. Um just kind of have that open discussion. And so Christine thought of it because I was going through one of my new brainchilds and Christine said, "Hey, may maybe we should talk about this as a whole district." And I was like, "Sure." So yeah, it's more about being proactive in terms of what's going to happen to us, right? That's all. And on this particular list, it's that tuition payments at the bottom that um is really going to hit um Hartland in particular, but also Weathersfield without controlling those costs in any way. [Music] um to kind of look at and how we can have a discussion
060and then uh take a temperature and then possibly have a a meeting with Woodstock and say, "Hey, what I should add that um the House version of the bill preserves school choice for um like not just for current districts, but current towns that have school choice. voice. Um uh and uh they envision a 4,000 person [Music] um the the districts being uh 4,000 people and or 4,000 students. I'm sorry. There's a difference there and which is a huge difference actually. And uh the one advantage of that is like when we were going through act 46 uh West Windsor wanted to explore the possibility of merging Albert Bridge with Reading Elementary School, but we couldn't we were not allowed to actually even talk because they were part of Woods the Windsor Central and we were Windsor
061Southeast. So um at the there are some small advantages of uh a 4,000 student district and it would also tremendously lower the the uh or raise the tax base so that it would lower taxes. Um on the other hand uh loss of local control of course um which uh uh we have never experienced before so it would take a lot of getting used to and there would be a lot of pain there but um uh at the same time though I you know I I can't foresee a 4,000 student school district being logical within the geographic confines of of Vermont. I mean, if I look at um you'd have to have multiple high schools. Well, let me just say this. Let me say this. A 4,000 student district uh means that we would have 22
062districts. Okay. What the Senate is proposing is 14 districts. What the governor wants, of course, is five districts. So, 22 districts is to me a lot a lot preferable uh than either 14. So, 4,000 would be um Windsor Southeast, uh Woodstock, Hartford would not quite make it to 4,000, but it would be close. Yeah. So, yeah. um and then include in Springfield then that would put it over. So just full frame of reference here, how many districts are there currently in the state? A lot 58 58 something like that. Yeah. Yep. But I mean looking up north um yeah county to be able to create that and I have heard from I have heard from Norwich that if we built a regional high school that they would be interested in joining. Yeah. Yeah. And I
063you know and also I think Woodstock would be interested just the simple fact to have a way to dump Killington. Um, yeah. But yeah, I I I guess the way you once I do the math, I guess 4,000 is not completely out of the but I think the first step would be to create a 4,000 student SU go from there. I don't know. We will keep you updated. Yep. It's ever changing. So, um, uh, I included, just so you know, H54 is back, um, on the floor being talked about. I don't know if they're going to push to pass it this year or or have language for next year. It is the cell phone bill. Um, John John, um, asked that we talk about it a little bit tonight. Um, I put John Erien, who's
064on the letter board. Yeah, he he brought it to my attention that it was back on the floor and it came up today um, in my meeting. So I think the concern um was or could be um how you interpret utilizing social media for communication with students directly. And I think that um Larry and I talked about what that means. You shouldn't be direct messaging students through social media. Staff should not be doing that. So it's prohibited already. It's already prohibited. And if that's what it means, that's great. Um and the other part was um do we allow students access to social media on our school um devices and we do not currently it's currently blocked 100% but right social media is blocked on Chromebooks. Yeah. And and you did that as a board I
065think couple years ago. Yeah. Yep. We did. Y so um I don't know if it's if it's going to go anywhere this year or not. Elizabeth, you might know. I do. Well, it I do know that the cell phone policy is definitely going through this year. I think it might be coded by the end of the week. And this bill is uh the the two things on the House um side uh in the House Education Committee according to their agenda for this week because I have just looked at all the agendas. Um the House the House Education Committee is looking at this bill and the cell phone bill this week. Okay. It should it should be moving, but if you're interested to watch the videos, you don't have to tune in for the discussion per
066se, but you can watch them at your leisure on the on the website. If you need help with that, let me know. Excellent. Thank you. All right. Um, I just wanted to update you on the um, executive order. The title six certification letter did go out from the agency from Zoe and other people at the agency and we were it was quite quite controversial um what we were being the superintendents were being asked to do but um in the end the letter came from um the state the agency and so basically um it uh states that the um that that we do follow Title Six and we rem remain confident that Vermont schools have consistently complied with Title Six and continue to do so, including through our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. And so, basically,
067state of the state is proud to certify our schools continued compliance with Title Six obligations as they actually exist in law, not as federal administration would like them to. I believe I heard that Vermont signed on joined 18 other states in a lawsuit against the US ed seeking a declaration that the April 3rd certification requirement is unlawful null and void. So um that was that was decided on Friday as having been unlawful. It was okay. Zoe sent out an email I think today. Excellent. So that's good news. Okay, I want to um update you on central office staffing for next year. Um so you'll hear in our discussion items, our items for action, our associate director of special education is moving is retiring um resigning from the position. And um with that happening and um
068discussions with Katie and the new special ed director, Jennifer, um our plan is to shift responsibilities to the some of some of the associate director's responsibilities to the current special education coordinator and add more days to her contract and see um how that goes. We're trying to be fiscally responsible and um Jennifer knows if that um she's feeling like she needs more support, we can come back to the board. But um for now, it's a way to try to be fiscally responsible, especially not knowing what what's going to happen with our title two funds, which do fund um half of our curriculum director's position. So, I just wanted to let you know that that's our and and Christine um reached out to me and I sent a email. Unfortunately, I didn't dcc this cuz you
069forgot. I forgot. Um and uh but I felt it would better to move forward with that than to to wait and lose that opportunity for that fiscally responsible way that we could always change. Yeah. So I just wanted to let you know that's we're headed there and say it publicly. Um so uh the quarterly report is in the portal. I will pull it up and just show you the end of it. Larry's gonna chime in with me if need be. Let's just get to there. Okay, you can see it. I can't see it. My screen a minute. One second. She's real slow tonight. Christine, can I just pipe in a couple of little things that I forgot uh to mention from the the H454? The House version of the bill does do away with the
070excess spending threshold and it does do away it it does set all tuitions um at the same rate. uh which is the minimum. It'll be set at the um whatever the uh whatchamacallit is the private school rate. Would it be private and public schools will be set at the same rate. They will not be set at the uh they will they will not there will no longer be an allowable rate. Yeah. um it will instead be set at the uh uh whatever funding formula is. I think that has caused none of our Jewish high schools were anywhere near state. And so my guess I I laid out the math for one of my colleagues at Hartford uh who was asking who's also a taxpayer and about the if it was implemented for next year the
071the the the budget hole for this particular school district would be huge. because of the you know roughly 128 roughly exactly 128 tuition students that are there to lose2 to $3,000 for each one of those students closer I think it's closer to three or $4,000 but even if it's $3,000 at least a half a million hold uh I agree with it yeah exactly but it's like it's too too sudden of a change. Yeah, too of change. People can't react. So, I don't know why this is not coming up. Mind you, Nikki, that uh what what according to the bill that would be implemented in 2029. Yeah. Oh, okay. So, okay. So, yeah. Then, then there would be time that that makes complete sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. But it would be
072a rather large shift so far. Yes. So basically with we ended the third quarter. I've since updated the financial. So I've broken it out. You can see it there. I don't know why it won't show. I've broken it out by administration operations and special education. This has been on the portal since May 1st. Sorry, April 1. Um, so basically where we are is uh non-special ed spending is is over uh $65,000 and that's almost all 85,000 of which is gasoline. As you remember, we are currently under a transportation contract. the new contract that the board um ratified or um picked out of the RFP was uh um has a much better gasoline rate for us and um so I expect that to be fine for next year. The main uh concern is special ed spending
073is over expenditure budget by roughly half a million in tuition, half a million in purchase services, and over $100,000 in administration salaries, which is what the board decided to do. Um remember last year after the budget was passed, we took out the associate director, then we put it back in. Um so that's, you know, roughly 1.2 million. We're hoping that uh uh the revenue catches up to that um with the intensive needs revenue. I submit a report quarterly to the state. The next one's due August 1st. So, we won't have final numbers till August and what our options are. Uh but just wanted to give you a heads up. That's where we are. I'm checking the revenue um estimates weekly at this point uh to uh try to give you the best options in the
074summer if this continues. And Kate Katie is prepared um she we we've been talking at length with Katie. She's coming next month to present and um you know when Larry and I have talked with her she she has had some unexpected movements and she has had to hire some additional BIS through HCRS and that is some of the increase. So um as Larry said we don't know exactly where we're going to land but we want you to be we don't want any surprises. So at this point looks like we're over. Um, we don't know if we'll end over or under, but um, just keeping you updated as to where we're at. Yeah. And Larry, sorry to be stuck on H454, but another another thing that the House did was um they uh they changed the
075the fiscal year to match the school year. So the um the uh December letter would actually come out in on July one. Yeah. So that it makes it easier to budget. Yes, I remember hearing about that. That that's pretty exciting actually. Yeah. Great. Okay. Um my last slide if if it lets me go for it. I don't know what's happened but I seem to be frozen. Is just um important dates. So the graduation dates that are coming up. Um Windsor High School June 6 at 7. Windsor Middle Passages June 12th at 6, Albert Bridge June 12th at 9:00. Weathersfield June 9th at 6 and Hartland June 12th at 4. So three on June 12th. So be a busy busy day and then one on the 9th and one on the 6th. Um but we're looking
076forward to those and I can't believe it's already almost graduation and summer academy. Um paperwork's gone out. Katie's planning it all. um she won't be running it, but she is setting it up for success. And it'll run July 7th through August 1st. And that is concludes my report. I've got a question about the summer academy. Um is that the uh using the last of the ARPA funds? No, we have No, we used that last year. We're using Medicaid reimbursement and talking about what we're going to do if that goes away. um for the for the following year. So Katie's um you know, we've talked about what it costs to run the program. It's it's an awesome program for our kids and um we're making it work this year. If Medicaid stays in place, we could
077probably get away with it again, but if not, we'll have to talk about how we fund that program in a different way. Yeah, good question. She's still continuing. Last year we implemented um so it's a half day but Wednesday is a full day and they go on a field trip all the kids go somewhere nice and so we're continuing that this year we had great feedback on that last year so all right back to you Bill okay items for discussion followed by motions um substitute pay I know there's I believe there's been some discussions in the local districts about substitute pay that We at least landed on a $150 as a starting point. We did. Weathersfield was a yes. Um Mount Scottney, we talked about it. Hartland, we didn't did we talk about it formally?
078We I have it on voted on it. We didn't vote. It's on this next week's agenda. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, but um I think it's the you know, a good first step into dealing with an issue that we will discuss during executive session, but uh um what do people think about voting it on the SU level at this point? Because it would have to be approved by all boards. Um because the SU hire substitutes for special ed teachers. Yeah. Even though it's not as often. Thoughts? Okay. I will take a motion to um update substitute pay to a $150 a day. So moved. Second. Okay. Um we'll go around the room. Elizabeth, how do you vote? I Beth Ied July. Yeah. Yes. Effective July 1. Ann Marie. Hi. Uh Davis, you're right there. Hi. Um
079Sarah, hi. Um Nikki, hi. Hi, Nancy. Megan, hi. And I am an I. And John. John. And John. Hi. You're hidden, John. Thank you, John. Okay. Uh resignation. Okay. I have a resignation from Tom Dalzy. I'm happy to read it to you short. Um, it is with a heavy heart and a lot of hesitation that I submit this letter informing you that I will not be renewing my contract for the 2526 school year. This past year has been one of the best of my best of my over 35 years in education in the upper valley. I've enjoyed the support gained from the challenges and look forward to continue coming to work each day in this amazing school district. I have only praise for the the two of you who wrote to Katie and myself. I
080was trying to not say that but and the opportunity you provided me. However, my decision to not return is based solely on the stage I am in my life. I am fortunate enough to be able to retire. I feel it is the right time. My wife is also retiring and we both look forward to traveling on less hectic days together. Additionally, we became aware both our daughters are expecting children within the next six months. So, it's very exciting what he has. So, so that he's saddened that he didn't come to WCSU earlier in his career. Um, but anyway, he's So, Tom is leaving. Uh, that's the resignation. Yeah, we do not need to vote on that. No. Elizabeth, thanks. Christine, are all of the contracts in for next year? Uh, for teachers and support staff?
081Yeah. And um we have a few staff members who requested an extension. I think we have four who haven't signed for teaching. Um support staff don't have their contracts yet. They just have letters of um intent intent to because the because we didn't have a contract. Um administrators, yes. Um we held off on the one specialed um because I wanted to talk to the board about it tonight, but yes. And uh I would like to request that Christine be reviewed. Thank you. Yes, Elizabeth. That that's one thing I wanted to bring up in executive session just kind of to throw out there about assistance in that. But now that I'm done with negotiations, I will have I hope more time to devote to that. It's been a a busy time as a board member. um
082retirement. Yeah, I've got um three actually. Okay. Uh one is Mary Rasco who is um has been in our district for 32 years, our SEO. She's been a support staff member. She worked in the kitchen at H Heartland. She currently works in the kitchen at Weathersfield, but she is ready to retire and spend more time with her family. So that's Mary Rasco. I have Judy Shambo, who's also a support staff member. um sending the letter with some joy but also filled with sadness wanting to express her gratitude uh sincerely and what an honor it's been to serve the community for the past 20 years. So those two and then I have Jean Morse who is um I know was a school uh school counselor at Hartland and he's now a school um psych for us
083part-time but he is actually he told me for real retiring. He went to part-time but now he's retiring. So those three are the re uh retirements. There was a another one on aou contract. I brought that to Hartland because she's Oh, outstanding. Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that that Yeah, these are just asking employees. That was a while ago. Yeah. Okay. She she did tell us. Okay. Elizabeth. Yeah. Uh is Kieran ZTO still with our SU? Kieran is um very part-time. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Just wondering. Yeah. I think he's two days a week. Elizabeth focuses mostly on truency across the SU. Yes. Okay. So, those are retirements. Okay. Uh family leave request. Family leave request which is um from Cararissa Van Alstein. She is writing to let us know that she
084will be um on child care leave starting September 4th and she's she'll be taking six weeks and returning to work after we do vote on those because she can come back and request more time based on the contract I believe. I mean she gets to take it but yeah I don't think we could vote no. No you can't. Yeah. So I don't think we you can we well if she wants more time then back and then we vote on her. Yes. So that's in the contract. Okay. Not that I don't like the vote but I just want to from the Hartland side thank Mary and Jean because those two were staples in Hartland for most of my kids time there and uh they were staples for a lot of Yeah. both half of the adults
085in H Heartland's time there. So, yeah, you're amazing. Yeah, I I I was just wanted to double check because I I have to deal with that every year. Um, no more, Bill. Um, okay. Um, executive session, new hire. One new hire first. That's right. I'm sorry. Okay. So, one new hire. Um, this is a special ed uh teacher. Her name is Molly Stevens. Okay. She's got a BA from the University of Vermont, masters from Cassipin State. She's been a special ed teacher in Vermont for the past 23 years. And we would like to offer her a position as a special ed teacher in our SU. She be I think she would be assigned at Weathersfield for for next year for somebody who's leaving. Yeah. Yep. So, I do need a vote on that one. Yes,
086we do. Um, but I will take a voice vote because I'm not sure that we could ever pass up on a special teacher at this point in this hiring range. Um, I would move that we hire Molly Stevens. Molly Stevens. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor, please say I. I I Thank you. All oppose, please say nay. Any abstensions? Okay, thank you. Um, executive section VSA section 313 to do with discussion on contracts. I will take a motion to go into executive session. So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I Okay, stop the recording. Yep.