WSESU Board Meeting REORGANIZATION - March 24th, 2025 (Part 1)

001All right. Just popped in. Okay. So, we're good to record. All right. I'm going to call the March 24th Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union board meeting to order at 6:31. And we're going to start with uh the reorganization of the board. So I am going to take nominations for chair person for the WCSU board. I move to nominate Bill Yates to be the chair of the Windsor Southeast Supervisor Union board. Do I have a second? Second. Bill, do you accept? I do. Okay. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none. Any discussion? All right, Bill. You Oh, we have to We have to vote. Hold on a minute. Hold on. We have to vote. All right. Davis, how do you vote? I. Bill, how do you vote? I. Nancy, how do you vote? I. Megan, how do

002you vote? I Elizabeth, how do you vote? I, Sarah, how do you vote? I, Beth, how do you vote? Hi. And Amy, how do you vote? Hi. Ann, Marie, and Heather just popped in. Ann Marie and Heather, we are voting on chair of the WCSU board and Bill Yates has been nominated and seconded at seconded and accepted. So we are voting. Would you like to weigh in? Anmarie I. And Heather, she's just getting on. Heather, she's banging her head on the table. Why, Bill? Why? Well, I think that's enough. Yes. So, Bill, I'm turning the meeting over to you. Elizabeth has raised her hand. I just I'd like to say congratulations, Bill. um you've done a fine job in the last year and uh I wondered whether um can we hear who's new on our

003board? I think that's a wonderful idea. Um if if uh is uh Megan Reed? No, she's not new. There's a different Megan. It's Megan. Heather, would you like to Heather Banana is is new to the SU board. Um, she has been an incredible member of the negotiating team. Um, and I'd like to welcome her. You want to say hello and introduce yourself, Heather? Sure. Hi, Bill. It's good to see you. Um, so I'm Heather Veneda and um, I'm actually at H Heartland Elementary right now. There's my backdrop because I my daughter is in the play which is this week. Beth Royy's child I think is in there too. So anyways, um so here I am. Um I I don't know. I live in Hartland. I got two kids who go to H Heartland. I teach

004at Woodstock Union High School. Um that's that's about the most exciting part. Welcome, Heather. And I said Megan because the We have a new me uh Megan where that correct? Megan uh or is it not Megan? Wait. What? It's Megan. She used to be Megan J, but she's married to Willie Wait. So, it's Megan Wait. Megan Wait. Okay. I knew it started with a W. Yeah. Um and she has actually joined uh the negotiating team as well. Um hopefully in a very short stint because we are anxious to get done. Um but it doesn't look like she's here quite yet tonight. Yes. What town is Megan away from? Weatherfield. Okay. I'm just I'm noticing that the the website lists John Harrison as the weather the new weather board member. Sure. Yes. I was I was

005just going to say that Megan is our um our representative to the negotiations team, but John Eric, who I don't see is on yet. I was just going to call him um is our uh SU rep. Oh, I think we talked about that. Okay, thank you for clearing that up and Marie. We look forward to those new members. Um moving on to the agenda. Uh election of a vice chair. Um if any um as we go through these if those in the audience and the board members would like to chime in to remind us all who actually has these positions. I pulled it up. I pulled up the minutes. You pulled them up. Christine is so organized. I got them just in time. Okay. So Megan Reid is the current vice president. Yes. Okay. Or

006vice chair. Sorry. So Megan Reid is the current vice chair and she's doing a fantastic job. Nancy. Nancy. No. Oh, I nominate. Sorry. Megan Reed. Do I have a second? Second. Davis. Uh, Megan, do you uh accept the position? Accept the nomination? Yes. Okay. Oh my goodness. This is going to be difficult for me. Um, going around the horn completely un unready reading stuff. Okay. Uh, to we'll take a a vote. Davis, how do you vote? I. Uh, Megan, how do you vote? I, Nancy, I. Elizabeth, I can you turn the camera on for the owl. Thank you. Yes. That that is off, isn't it? Sarah, hi. Uh, Beth. Hi, Katie. Oh, sorry. No, Amy. Can't hear anyone. Can't hear anyone. I only hear you, Nancy. Oh, it it could be that when there Hey,

007sorry everyone. The owl is uh kind of crashing right now. So, we are doing our best here. I'll turn the sound on my computer, too, so people can hear if people say things. again on the owl. Yep. Yeah. Uh Christine's gonna restart the owl so we can try to get back on track here. Trying to trying to start his little camera probably killed it. Amy, we're we're waiting for you to vote on whether uh how you feel about Megan Reid being the vice chair. Oh, I said I Oh, and missed it. Davis, do you mind calling on who's uh Ann Marie? I And who do we have left? I have not voted yet. Heather. Heather Veneta. I vote I as well. Okay. Have I missed someone? I don't have my visual right now. Okay. Uh

008then uh Megan Reid is the vice chair. Congratulations, Megan. Uh election of clerk of the board and Davis is the current clerk of the board. Davis, I can't see who's raising their hand. It's It's Nancy and I nominate Davis. Okay, thank you. Do we have a second? Second, Megan. Oh, outstanding. Okay. See if I can [Music] uh Okay. Um we're voting on Davis for clerk on the board. Um Nancy, how do you vote? Hi uh Sarah. Hi Beth. Hi Amy. Did you say Amy? I did. Okay. I couldn't tell. I Heather. Hi. I I have a vacuum cleaner in the background. or cleaning at H Heartland Elementary. I can't hear anything. Uh Megan, did I Yeah. I Elizabeth I. Amarie I and I am an I. And I am also an I. And Davis is

009Thank you. Okay. Um election of treasurer Nikki Buck. Nikki Buck. And she is accepted even though she's not here. Nikki said that she would accept any nomination. So, do I have a nomination? I move to nominate Nikki Buck to be the clerk of the Windsor Bethy Supervisory Union Board. Thank you. Do I have a second? Election of treasure. You're the clerk. Oh, treasurer. Treasure. Sorry. Um, do we have a second or did I miss Sarah? Second. Thank you, Sarah. Um, okay. And um, Davis, how do you vote? I, Nancy, I. Elizabeth. Hi Amy. Hi Megan. Hi [Music] uh Heather. Hi Beth. Hi Amarie. Hi. Hi John. and Sarah. Hi. Okay. And I'm an I assistant was assistant treasure was Amy elected assistant who was who? Amy McMullen. Amy McMullen is the assistant treasurer at this

010time. Do I have any nominations for assistant treasure? I nominate Amy McMullen as assistant treasurer. Thank you, Elizabeth. Second. Okay. Um Amy, do you accept the nomination? I I accept the nomination. Thank you. And uh Davis, how do you vote? Hi. Sarah. Hi. Amory I Beth I Oh, you're Heather. Hi Megan. Hi Amy. Hi Elizabeth. Oh, I and Nancy I and I am an I. What' you say, Christine? Oh, I was just saying Heather had her thumb up. Okay. Um, election of signer of the manifest. Bill and Nancy. Bill and Nancy. Um, we will be open to double nominations here. I nominate Bill Yates and Nancy Pedrick for signer manifest. Thank you, Elizabeth. Do I have a second for Bill Yates and Nancy Petrick being signer of the manifest? Sarah second. Okay. Thank you. Uh,

011Nancy, do you accept the nomination? I do. And so do I. And so, um, Sarah, how do you vote? I, Amarie, hi. Beth, I Heather. I Megan. I Amy. I Elizabeth. I Nancy. I Davis. Hi. And I am an I. Okay. Congratulations Nancy and Bill. um election of budget committee members. SU budget committee. We didn't vote on this last year until later in the year. Okay. So, you could do it now or you could do it later. It was Elizabeth, Sarah, and Oh, boy. Give me one second. Elizabeth, Sarah, and uh Ryan from Heartland. Yeah. Okay. Um, he's not a member of the SU board. Is that a requirement to be on the SU budget committee? I don't not to me. I mean, it's up to the board. I think it's a advisory committee and

012I mean on Friday mornings as we prepare the budget. He wasn't last year. Yes, that's correct. He Ryan Ryan filled in because hand No, but he wasn't he wasn't on the SU board. I mean, no. Yes, that's what we're saying. Yeah, but he was on the committee. He was He filled in. Um Yep. How do people feel about this? Do we want to take nominations or Okay. So, Christine, could you repeat those? It was Elizabeth for Mount Scutney, Sarah for Weathersfield, and Ryan for H Heartland. Okay. Um, do we know how Ryan uh Ryan was on paternity leave, so it worked out this past year, but um it was Hannah and she was too busy with her work schedule. Yeah. So, um um but we can also wait until August. Yeah, I think we should

013wait on this because things will change. Yeah. All the way through summer. Yeah. So I I just feel that would probably make more sense. Um just heard clarity bill we want to are we tableabling this till July maybe or what's the the budget committee starts meeting in late September or midsepptember? Mid September. So we need to know by August. The uh uh the issue retreat usually is August. Yeah. So I I am going to table this till August. Um hopefully uh the other the local boards will have a discussion about who they want to represent. Um and designation of official newspapers. I believe we have the uh Standard. Yep. Um Valley News. Yep. And the Eagle Times. You are right. Yes, that's what we have. Um, so is VT Digger on that list too? No,

014Digger tends to be the Yeah. But I think that's on the MSD. Yes, it's on. Yeah. Um, do we have any other um suggestions, desires for changes? Not as if I'm taking nominations, but no. Okay. Um, I will take a motion to approve those three newspapers as the um the designation of official newspapers. So move. So move a second. Okay. Um all in favor please say I. I I I Okay, there we go. Uh establish of meeting day time and place. Um any uh to be perfectly honest with you, I I my preference would be to keep the day um and start at six and it just be able to get through and um board meetings at the SU level especially around policy tends they can run later and So getting home at 9:00 is

015a little much and about after 8:30 my brain is frying. Um does uh so I will take a motion to set the time the the day as Yes. Can we have some discussion on that after the motion? After the motion. Okay. Okay. I will take a motion uh to have the meeting day on the 4th Monday. Monday of the month and the meeting time at 6:00 p.m. So moved. Do we have a second? Second, Megan. Okay. Thank you, Megan. Okay. Discussion. I I I would like to throw in that it's awfully early getting dinner for a family and then going to the meeting. Um I It it it would it would be hard for me, but I could do it, but it would be hard. Amarie, I agree with what Nancy said. 6:30 is a

016little better for my schedule. Okay. Um, does anyone else have uh feelings one way or the other? Heather? Um, I'm a fan of six o'clock. We do six o'clock in H Heartland and I feel like I totally understand the dinner on the table and that all that stuff. Um, but I think six o'clock gets us done earlier which for me is like home for bedtime. Yeah. My issue is is not necessarily feeding the little ones. It's getting him to bed. Especially my little choric young man. You're prince. My prince. Um, so if it had been at 6 this evening, I would have been about 25 minutes late. Okay. So that is also and and I can't guarantee that I wouldn't be about 25 minutes late going forward. I would do my best to be available

017at six, but work doesn't always cooperate. Okay. So, it's it kind of sounds like we're 5050 sort of on the Do people want to try a couple meetings at 6 and see how it goes. Why don't we vote on whether to have it at 6 or 6:30? I think that's where we're at. Yeah. Okay. Um, let's vote. Well, we have a motion to have it at 66. And so if we if it doesn't pass, then we'll just have a quick vote to have it on um 6:30. So, um, I'll keep track. Okay. Davis. Hi, Nancy. Nay. Sarah. Nay. Beth, I'm gonna abstain. I don't have a strong feeling either way. So, what's your vote? Oh, abstain. Thank you, Amy. Um I with reservations. Okay, Heather. I'm an I for six o'clock. Yeah. Megan, I Elizabeth.

018Nay. Amarie. Nay. And I'm an I. Don't forget John. He's on now. John Harrison is on now. John. No. Okay. Nice. So, we've got a five five and one one extension. So, you break the tie, Bill. I am an I. Well, you voted already, right? I did vote already. Yes. Because we have actually we have 11 people. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. One, one extension. Yeah, one obsession. Five, five. Yeah. Um, but that's 11, right? Yes, that's 11. So, which means five, six, Nancy. Um, how about alternating for four meetings and then vote? Yeah, that's that's an option. But honestly, if if that's what we're going to vote for, I'd say nay because I I prefer consistency than um anything. But that's that's my personal opinion. Um, okay. Uh, I will take a

019uh I I would make Beth where I vote. Break the tie. Okay, Beth. Then I'll say I sure. Okay. Twist my arm on something so dramatic. I know. Okay. So, that passes. But to be perfectly honest with you, if if it becomes an issue, I am more than willing to revote. Um I make this a couple tries. And if it does become difficult for people to to get here on time, then we will switch. Okay. So, I appreciate like Amy's with uh vote for with with reservations. I'm going to keep an open mind. Um, Robert rules for small boards. I will take a motion to approve. Robert rules for small boards. So moved. Do I have a second? Second, John. John has a second. Okay. Um, all in favor, please say I. I. I. I.

020I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Even though I think it was unanimous. Okay. Changes addition. So, we're we're done with the um reorganation of the board. Um changes addition to the agenda. Um we we just quick FYI, we do have an executive session, which is why I'm moving things along. Uh I will take a motion to approve the minutes of February 24th, 2025. Nancy, so moved. Do I have a second? Sarah second. Okay. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor of approval of the minutes, please say I. I. I. I. I'll abstain. I wasn't there. I'll abstain. Oh, by the way, John, I'll abstain as well. Okay. Um, John, John, would you like to take a quick We did this earlier. Uh, would you like uh to take a moment and quickly uh introduce yourself?

021Sure. First, I apologize for being late to the meeting. I didn't get the notice. The Emory alerted me to it. But anyway, won't happen again. Um, new member to the Weathersfield board. Glad to uh be appointed to the SU. Okay. Well, welcome, John. Um, public participation, Lexi, for dinner, 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 in 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

022and what town you reside in. I will call on Elizabeth who actually said that she had u an issue she wanted to bring up legislative wise. I do. So I I um while normally in uh public comment, I'm going to need your input. Uh we got the yield bill um which is what sets the property tax rate for um this upcoming year. And um the there's also a $77 million uh surplus. So without uh so the governor wants us to apply the $77 million to the ED budget um thereby buying down the tax rate to 1.5%. Without uh without the $77 million buy down um the tax rate I believe will be 5% uh increase. Um, uh, some of the Democrats have been lobbying to only apply half of the $77 million because we see

023there being the the effect, the net effect of the $77 million buy down is that it will cost the ED fund $120 million next year and our property taxes will be much worse than they are than they would be with uh uh the 5% this year. Am I making sense? Yes. Yes. Okay. So, um I'm coming to you asking whether you think I should vote for a $77 million buy down, a um stow that $77 million somewhere or an application of half of the $77 million. um to be used as and by the way uh nobody has talked about putting the $77 million into school construction uh or any of the other things that we are kind of desperate for. Um uh but so I need some input on whether to vote for the yield

024bill as it is right now or uh or to choose one of the other options. [Music] Um, so, uh, we public comment, we usually don't have a discussion, but Elizabeth is asking if you have input. Uh, John, do you have your hand raised? Yeah. A question for Elizabeth. Um, how did the I couldn't find the yield number as it came out of Ways and Means. How did it compare with the one from December from JFO? Uh it's much dramatically lower than uh the JFO number. That's not good news. No, it's an increase of 5% and I think the JFO number was 12. So it is good news. So So the the the percent increase is um the percent increase. Yeah. Is 7% less. the yield is higher. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. The yield is higher. That's

025with that's the that's without the buy down. Without with the buy down, the tax rate would be a 1.5% increase, but it would put $120 million into next year's deficit, which comes back to our school boards to try to eat away at. Okay, John, do you have input? No, that was just a question for Elizabeth. Okay, thank you, John. And Marie, I would tell Elizabeth to vote no. I think we've all all the school boards have already, well, most of them have passed their budgets. Um, the voters voted on okaying that if we go ahead with this buy down, it puts us in a horrible position for next year with all the uncertainty. I really think that money should being being saved somewhere in case federal monies don't come in or something like that happens.

026Um I just don't think it's wise to use the money that way. David Marie. Yeah. Just one quick question for Elizabeth. Is there any um is there any concept of what the impact would be for next year if they did that 5050 buy down plan? Uh it would be it would still be a deficit of $60 million. Um but it is thought that that would be more manageable than $120 million because that $120 million has to be uh raised through the local taxes. [Music] I I have to agree 100% with Amarine and I couldn't put it any better. I'd love to hear from someone from H Heartland if you are if you have any thoughts. Heather's gone dark. It's got to be Beth. She's driving home. I I I don't have thoughts other I mean

027I don't I feel like it's none of it seems like a good solution personally. So I'm feeling kind of stuck in the middle um overall. Um but yeah, I mean the whole idea of like the uncertainty of what's to come um in the current political climate um makes me want to squirrel everything in my life away right now. So that's kind of how I'm feeling. Yeah, I'll throw out I mean honestly is I wanted to hear about the kind of like the median option there, but I mean if we're already down at a place to Amy's point that voters have decided is appropriate. I mean, especially having gone through last year's budget season, setting ourselves up for something else like that, I it's not particularly appealing. So, I would I would not be with that.

028Thank you. I really appreciate the the input. Um, I should also say that uh, John Bartholomew and I are already inclined to vote against the yield bill because we pushed really hard to get tuitions moved out um, this year while they're jiggering the system and the they were a flat no. The Ways and Means Committee was a flat no on it um, and like no discussion. So, uh, thank you. I know. I know what I'm going to do and I've got your your uh thoughts with me. Thanks. Thank you, Elizabeth. Is there any other public participation? Beth, a much more fun announcement. Hartland um has their musical Friday and Saturday. Two shows on Saturday. Um You're a good man, Charlie Brown. The kids are doing an amazing job. All the adults involved. Um it will

029be awesome. Come on down. Sounds fun. I played percussion for that show once. I love that show. My daughter's Lucy. It's gonna be great. Weathersfields also has a production of Peter Pan Jr. coming up, I believe, April 4th and 5th. Thank you, Davis. Um, just a couple of, uh, announcements, I guess. one. Um, since we're all here, congratulations to everybody on, you know, having your budgets passed. I think that's something that's worth celebrating again with the last time we did this in our fresh in our minds. Um, and then also I just wanted to acknowledge and congratulate the uh Windsor girls varsity basketball team on winning their uh on winning the state championship, the D3 state championship again. It's uh really exciting. I got to catch a handful of games this year. They're really amazing

030team and they Yeah, it's it's super exciting. Okay. Thank you. Any other public participation? Okay. Um policy discussions. Um and I'm going to start off. We have a lot of um third reads. So I'm going to start off with uh motions. So uh B7 tobacco prohibition policy and procedure. Do I have a motion to approve that policy? So moved. Davis, do I have a second? Beth, thank you. Any discussion? Um, I'll I'll also out there that this is pretty much covers uh the legal requirements. Um, there's not a lot of huge changes, just simplification in some areas and clarification. Am I wrong? No, you're good. Yeah, you're good. Any other discussion? Okay, I am going to unless anyone uh objects, I'm going to take some voice votes on these. Okay. All in favor of approving

031uh B7 tobacco prohibition policy and procedures, please say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Any abstensions? Okay. Uh C3 transportation. I will take a motion to approve C3 transportation. So moved. Do I have a second? Second, Megan. Okay. Thank you. Um I'm I'm I'm trying to find it. I have them all open and uh yeah. Um we had some significant changes in this in previous reads and um one of the issues of the first read was the fact that um it would uh require us to um guarantee transportation beyond what statute said. And so that Christine, you want to just point out quick changes that um we we left the word may in the policy in the state in the policy statement. I think the rest of it didn't really change much. The procedures

032I did update the procedures pretty significantly, but they were pretty loose. So now they're much tighter. All right. So thank you. Yep. Any other discussion, Davis? Uh, super minor note, but we just make sure that where the paragraph that says where it is reasonably starts below the line we're assisting with policy. Y fix that. I'm I'm sure it would go fix anyway, but okay. Um, yeah. Otherwise, I think we made the change we need to make. Y good. Okay. All in favor of uh approving try my um C3 transportation, please say I. I. I. I. I. Hi. I all oppose please say nay. Abstensions. Am I saying that right? Yeah. Okay. Got it. Yep. Okay. Um C6, participation of home study students. Um C6 and I I I think I just closed that. No. Um

033this is a very simple policy in which um it it just clarifying and what was changed I I think they just added I think they added school use of school facilities as I recall. Yeah. Did you do anything to the procedure? I sure did. I kind of looked like it you did pretty comprehensive now. So okay. So, thank you Christine. Any other discussion? Davis. All right. Just one one more very small format. I know it looks like there's a space before the word it. Sure. Yeah, that's it. Looks great. Language is good. Any other discussion? Okay. All in favor of passing C6 participation of home study students, please say I. I. I. They'll just Who who made the motion? Did Yes. And Megan. Megan. Megan. Okay. Thank you. Shortterm memory. Yeah. I should write it

034down. I'm talking about my short-term memory. Yeah. I couldn't remember. Um, thank you, Davis. Um I will take a motion on responsible computer internet and network use. So moved. Elizabeth second. Okay. Any dis Thank you. Any discussion? Uh just one note actually reading through this again. Um it might be worth just on a skim. Um the term under 5a control of access by minor inappropriate matter on the internet and worldwide web is obscene. Um on two I think the term is actually child sexual abuse material like in legally tends to be used now. So we might want to update that. Do we want to you can accept it with that change or pass it with that one change or or do you want to or do we want to see if that's actually the legal

035term? Um we kind of want to search for that. Yeah. I mean it came from the VSBA. Okay. So if if if this came from the VSBA, I'm inclined to go with whatever they say. I just I Yeah. Okay. So would I. Uh, but it it nobody wants to look it up. At at some at some point you might want to add it on to another special. It's worth checking because I know from like news we can change it. Okay. Um, all in favor of uh passing D3, responsible computer, internet, network use, please say I. I. I. I. All right. All oppose, please say nay. Any abstensions? Still don't think I'm pronouncing that correctly. No, you got it. Go ahead. No, just it's insecurity. D20, Curriculum Development and Coordination. I will take a motion to

036approve this policy. So moved. Amy second. Okay. Um I'm going to ask Christine to just point out the changes. Yep. So under number two, the superintendent shall we added assist um the director of curriculum instruction and assessment and members of the supervisory union and member school board. So we added the director um um we pointed out the director in that sentence because that's that's what that position does. Yeah. And we did in the procedures um add a couple um I added under number three a timeline for the implementation of new curricular program will be provided to staff added before the onset of implementation and b implementation of the curriculum is supported and monitored by the school administrator that needed to be clarified. So yeah and I I want to thank everyone who participate in the

037previous discussions on this. We actually cleaned up a couple things. Uh, any other discussion? Well, any discussion? Davis, is your hand still up or Oh, shouldn't be. That was Whoops. Okay. All in favor of um D20, Curriculum Development and Coordination, please say I. I I. All oppose, please say nay. Okay. Any abstensions? Okay. F23, capitalization of assets. And I will not take a motion because this is just the second read. Um, Elizabeth, there is a um a a on the on page two um the numbers don't don't correlate with the numbers don't correlate with what's above page two. Oh, never mind. Yes, they do. Yeah. I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of uh the first intent going numerical. That gets confusing a little bit. So, you want me to have her change

038that? I it it it really depends on what's custom. You know, my preference is not anything important. What's customarily done in these? I'll ask her. I really don't think it is. I don't think so either. Yeah, it it usually goes numbers then letters or letters and then numbers. Yeah, actually it looks like in the f in the definition section it follows that and then it changes under admin responsibility. So it makes sense to to make it consistent for next time. And this was just the increase of the value down there, right? That was federal guidelines change from 5,000 to 10,000. That's the only change. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Um C43 Windsor Wesu Act of Hate Policy. And believe it or not, this is actually a first read. Um, and um, for

039those of you who are new here, um, we had, um, I'm having a hard time remembering her first name. Lynn. Heather Lynn. Heather Lynn. Um, join an issue meeting and go through this policy because we actually had, uh, legal assistance in writing it. Um it has come up with an issue of um that was brought to us by from uh Windsor High School students and um in in the policy and in procedure there was uh very little we could do um and I don't know if this policy is going to actually solve the issue But it does clarify um with um wellroundedformational um clarification around First Amendment rights and all the other pitfalls in attempting to um in attempting to uh police hate actions and speech. Um I am at this point quite happy with

040this, but I'm not sure if it's gonna but I'm I'm I'm really anxious to hear what other people think. Davis, I so I do have some thoughts on the text, but I have my my third style thing of the night. Uh there's a letter K before non circle that one. Okay. Um, no. I I also am I mean I'm comfortable the language here. I think that it's I just want to point out it's helpful I think that we outline where due process comes in and um sort of at least begin to point to where this connects to other policies um that we're already using to uh to keep our students safe here. So, does it do that though? And how would we go about doing that if it doesn't? And I I I'm not saying

041I don't disagree with you. I'm just wondering who would do that because I I too think it's important to reference the other policy around harassment and bullying where they may be applicable when applying this policy because there is a lot of overlap between those areas. It's in under interaction with other policies. There's a section on page three. Okay. I don't know if you want more than that, Davis. Well, I'm wondering is throughout I think Beth Well, let's hear what Beth has to say actually first. I would just say, yeah, there's a lot I think there's a lot of overlap with the hazing, harassment, you know, bullying stuff, but that's not there protecting um employees. So, I feel like the really big role of this is to implee from hate. Yeah, we already have a Sorry,

042I didn't raise my hand. Um, it's okay, Elizabeth. Go ahead. Uh, we already have uh protections for employees. Employees are completely protected. Uh, in That's not what it seems to be the case all the time. What's that? It I I don't I don't know. I I' I've seen some circumstances that doesn't seem to be the case all the time. And I I I think Our employees need to be better educated about that law because um it is uh we took great pains to make sure that teachers were are protect all employees are protected under that law. It doesn't have to it doesn't even have to be the person who is being harassed who files a complaint. It doesn't have to happen at at the place of employment. Um, it doesn't have to be severe and

043pervasive, which it was before. We removed that. Um, it can be a one-off incident. It that it's all about having a non-toxic work environment. Right. So, the question is though person, and I don't know if this is Larry's point, but is that representative in policy yet? Has that has those legislative changes been shifted to policy yet? No, but do we need a policy to cover what's already in statute? Not necessarily. Except that having that does it cover um you know, students? I mean, I can see how it adults to adults, but is it covering students to adults situations? Uh, you know, repeated hate speech from students to adults? Is it things like that? I don't know. I I let me let me look into that and and give you an answer tomorrow. Okay. That'd be

044helpful because we get stuck there in all directions in that. Yeah. But Beth, um thank you for bringing that up. As this is just the first reading, I I think that is something that's really important to investigate because I have heard um about examples of that as well. Um, not that this policy is going to solve that issue, but to have it outlined and be able to reference that statute in policy as well might be beneficial. Okay. Any other Yeah, it would just make it stronger, I think. Yeah. Okay. Just checking one quick thing. I just want to make sure we covered all the all of the policies that we need in the because I think we talked about Title N and HHB. Yeah. I just want to make sure there's nothing else because I

045I just recently kind of compiled a bunch of those. So, transgender policy, anti-racism. I don't understand what statute the art remedy would be for an adult to adult outside of the school district. Yeah. I'm so sorry, Larry. I I forgot you had question. Well, it's I I just don't I I don't understand like I see how this policy could be with adults to students, students to adults, staff, etc. I get that. But a staff member inside the district and an adult outside of the district, whether a parent or whatever, post some stuff on Facebook about somebody online. I don't know how what any statute would I don't know if there'd be any remedy. on views about uh how that could be adjudicated because this is a private citizen's right feelings which which is um I

046guess and and and this hate speech policy addresses that those limitations really well um and you bring the parent in I guess I guess what if they come in just students I was I was talking about what Elizabeth was referring to. I don't I don't understand remedy for Yes. Davis teaching third grade Davis. Uh yeah. So the policy that um we might want to include C15 student conduct and discipline in the ones that interact with it. I was going to say I knew there was like a third one that directly talks about Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, this is going to be a I'm gonna run it all by Heather. Yeah, that's fine. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is a this is a Yeah, this is going to be a work in progress. Yeah. Um C81, behavior

047threat assessment team. This is new. This goes into effect July 1st, 2025. go. Um I can just share that we already um are doing a lot that's in this policy. So it's not a big surprise to us. And it comes with procedural requirements. It does. And reporting requirements. Yeah. a long one. Are we talking about the threat assessment? Yes. I've got a question. Sure. What What remediation is there for students who have been wrongly accused of being a threat? um who students who are wrongly accused. Yeah, I would say there needs to be um conversation about that and um some repair. If if a student's been accused and it's not accurate, there definitely needs to be um some acknowledgement of that and some conversation and some repair in that um with that student depending on

048how you know and how far reaching that is, right? So prepare with others if others are involved and believe that student to be um considered a threat. I that's just what's coming to the top of my head. I don't know that it's happened um and has been brought to my attention. So my yeah my my question is what is the data collection going to look like? And it's a form. It's a form from the AOE that we have to fill out. Yeah. No idea why they It's a It's a long form. I have no idea why they can't, you know, get their current data system working properly. But anyway, yeah. Okay. Any other discussion? administrative reports. Okay. Um I'm gonna start. Let me share my screen. All right. So, I'm going to start by connecting

049us with our with our goals like I like to do um our strategic plan goals and culture and student wellness. Some of this was mentioned during public comment, but I couldn't go without sharing um that our that our girls are champions again, state champion, D3 state champions. Um yeah, I know it's pretty pretty awesome. Um congratulations to all of them and their families and the coach Cabra who's been a coach with us for quite a while. um and who has two daughters on the team which must be pretty special for him. Um we had uh so there's a picture of a community engagement night at Windsor which went really well. It happened to be on the on the night of the semi-final game so attendance was a little bit lower than we'd hoped but um

050anyway there are three two more at the elementary level planned um that night. There was a middle school engagement night as well. So um some pictures there. We've got kids in Costa Rica. So, Katherine Angald is there and Hannah Claire with um some high schoolers in Costa Rica. We also have students right now in Mexico. Um so, I don't have a picture of them, but they are there. They made it safely. We had um at Weathersfield um an event on St. uh around St. Patrick's Day where the kids designed leprechaun traps and it was very educational because they had to plan it out and write their steps and create and um tried to catch leprechaun. So, that was pretty fun. and um made made lots of smiles. And um we had an assembly at H

051Heartland and Weathersfield recently and Tracy will talk more in her report, but um it's called um Ryan Stories, Ryan's story, and it is um a presentation from John Holligan who is the parent of a student who was was bullied and it was um quite a powerful and impactful presentation. And um I will say that our students were incredibly respectful, emotional. Um it was it was a pretty sad story and I think um it'll go a long way in helping us with some prevention around bullying. So yes, uh just quick question. Um the community engagement night, do you have the dates for the next two of those? I do. I'll get them to you. I do. I don't have them right now. Um um and our student success and engagement goal, we've got kids really engaged

052in um we're really trying to do hands-on um learning with kids. So there's some salt map um design in one of the pictures. We had a at Weathersfield we had an invention convention. The fourth grade um put on a invention convention. We had six students from Windsor High School go to the state science fair and some of them placed which is pretty exciting. We had some um students, some Windsor Theater students who went to the Vermont Regional OneAct Festival at Petetro Academy this past weekend and they're going to be doing um Alice in Wonderland. You'll hear about that coming up. And we had um Rajny Edins came and did artisan residence um which was pretty powerful as well in Windsor this last week. So, lots of things going on around our goals that we're proud

053of. Um, I didn't switch the screen. I'm sorry about that. You missed all these great pictures. So, I'll just give you a second. Um, I want to shout out Larry Dauer, our CFO. He recently received a certificate in education finance from Georgetown University. he continues to enroll and do all sorts of um business finance work which makes him um the amazing CFO that he is. So just a shout out to Larry for that. Congratulations Larry. Um on that note, Larry wanted um me to share that the FY24 audit is on the website and completed and we had no material findings which I think that's pretty much our MO. We don't get a lot of material finding. Yeah, not going to not going to lie. So far so um I I am doing my best to

054keep up with the legislative session. It's fast moving and Elizabeth can certainly weigh in if I'm mistaken, but it seems like the governor's proposal of five districts isn't really going anywhere. The Senate um ed committee, there's a person on that committee, Seth Bongards, I believe is how you pronounce his name, has written a bill which is gaining some traction. um it focuses on governance and redrawing um lines. So the proposal is six districts, three SUS and two interstate districts. So I think if um you have feelings about that, you're I encourage you to reach out to your legislators. They want to hear from you about um your thoughts. That one is is gaining traction from that's the word um from the VSSA. There is a proposal in the works at the house um and the

055house has invited the superintendent association to work with them on a proposal and we've been working together on um a proposal that seems more manageable and um with a more um with a timeline that would that would um fit the work that needs to be done to consolidate. Uh, as you heard, uh, oops, I skipped one. The funding, um, draft language should be coming out this week in a bill for the foundation formula. So, I'll keep you posted when I hear about that. And as Elizabeth said, the yield bill left the house at a proposed 8,596. I think it was 8553 um, prior or our last yield number. Yeah. So, but we've already talked about that. So, move on. Um I I'm going to just briefly update you on some some things that are coming

056at us. Um seems like daily. So really trying to keep up. Uh there was a dear colleague letter um and the office of civil rights department. I'm just going to read a little bit of it. Um says we'll no longer tolerate the overt and covert racism discrimination that has become widespread in this nation's educational institutions. The law is clear. Treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent. Institutions that failed to comply with federal civil rights law may consistent with application law face potential loss of federal funding. And then they go on um and they there is a link to a web form where people can make a complaint and and that is tied to you

057know the complaints tied to funding. So um the the general advice from the agency of education currently is for educators in the face of these executive orders and guidance document has really been to proceed with our planned professional development and instructional activities in accordance with our SU instructional priorities, needs assessment activities and state board of education rules and to consult with our legal counsel if we have concerns about any specific activity um or action. So you may have heard that on the news. Um it is it is what's going on currently. Um I have sore not so great news to share. Um but so there have also been orders around um genderbased discrimination and title N enforcement. And there was a a letter about um a letter about that as well. and um that was

058um communicated on January 31st basically telling us that we need to use the 2020 guidance and regulations of title 9 and not the 2024 guidance on title 9 which we've really been doing anyway because that's what the guidance has um been from our legal council and if there is any gender um harassment discrimination we we can fall back on our HH policy and and So, I will just read this statement because it it actually makes me feel a little bit better. Um, protections for LGBTQIA+ students are enshrined in Vermont law and have not been dis diminished in any way by this federal action. Transgender and gender non-conforming student best practices and laws for the prevention of hazing, harassment, and bullying remain in effect, and the agency of education will continue to provide guidance and oversight

059consistent with these state laws. So the agency is um telling us we can just continue as is which is which is good news. Um the next um executive order is uh the agency the the latest update talks about closing the department of education. I'm sure you've seen that on the news. And returning authority over education to the states. It directs secretaries to ensure programs receiving department funds terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Um, but there is a note that Secretary McMahon and White House officials have publicly acknowledged it would require an act of Congress to eliminate the department, although it looks like it's being dismantled every day um and right in front of our eyes. So, I'm sure it will end up in litigation, but um it's unnerving for

060sure and an anxietyprovoking for all all of us. Um and then just one last federal funding update. So, as you heard, um there is a potential um loss of federal funding if people if there are reports made. But we um also had some updates that our title programs, our idea and our majority of our Perkins funding are forward funded. Therefore, they're funded through they're secure through the this fiscal year. and we think there won't be changes to those for next year. We do know our title um it's anticipated that our title allocations are going to come out quite late like late June. We usually know in May and we have people that um are funded through title. So they are kind of up in the air until this funding comes through. We have heard title

061one probably allocations probably won't change a lot but title two may. Um and we do have people funded through title two as well. So thinking about how to how to manage that. Um we have also heard we may lose Medicaid money and that money pays for things like um well it pays the person that does the uh Medicaid billing. It pays for we are hope which all our schools benefit from. Uh this year it's going to pay for summer academy because we lost you know our our ESSER funding is is gone. So just a lot going on. um and trying to stay on top of it and make good decisions about um the things that are important here and how to move forward. Um I heard a hand. It was mine. Um I I just

062want to reassure you that we actually do have a plan in case Medicaid funding gets cut. Oh, that's very good to hear, Elizabeth. Thank you for saying that because that has been on our on our mind. Um so thank you. Okay. Um last slide and then I'm going to let Tracy take over. She's got a little bit of a longer report tonight so trying to go a little bit quickly. Um just things coming up across the SU. We have student led conferences. um April 10th and 11th, students are preparing and teachers are preparing and we're excited about about those so that students can show the gains that they've made over the course of the year. Um mentioned at the beginning of the meeting we have two plays coming up u Peter Pan at Weathersfield April

0634th and 5th and your good man Charlie Brown at H Heartland March 28th and 29th. Um we do we have most of our graduation dates set. I won't read them all, but they're up there for you. And we're still working on Albert Bridge um to be announced, but I'll make sure to get you that information as soon as we have it. And then I'm going to Tracy, you going to share your screen? Yeah, I can. Okay, let me unshare. Wow. All right. All right. Um, hello everyone. Glad to be here with you, Heather and John. Nice to meet you both. Um, and, uh, I'm gonna just start by saying this was really difficult trying to put together a report for DEI right um, now in the context of our social political climate. So, um, some

064of what I'll mention, Christine and I were talking, um, may be a little bit repeat, some reinforcing of some of the things that you just heard and then, um, a ridiculous number of slides that are mainly here for the record. This felt like, uh, I didn't want to miss anything tonight, so I'm going to I'm going to go through this quickly. And if anybody has anything that you want to stop or or add, please jump in anytime. So, um, also starting with, you know, our themes, our goals, our values here at WSU and a ton of gratitude and appreciation for you all as a board. I mean, I don't I don't think I can say enough about how amazing this board is and to work with. And I know that I would not have a

065job if it weren't for this board. So, I appreciate the ways that you all continue um to both be um committed to the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and invested in it. So, and it's it's because we all know that this is about belonging and connection, but like the kind of belonging that we're not asking people to hide parts of who they are, right? Is that so that everybody can show up with all of the most amazing things that they have to contribute without changing the system, right? And that's what makes us stronger, better, all the things. I don't know if y'all have seen this comic before, but I love this because it's it's basically depicting there are a bunch of people trying to get into this building and there's snow and somebody says, "All

066these other kids are waiting to use the stairs. So when I can get through shoveling the stairs off, then I'll clear the ramp off." They say, "But if you shovel the ramp, then we can all get in, right?" So I mean that's what this at the heart of like DEI work for me is definitely it's about all of us. It's about improving circumstances for some so that we all benefit. I know like you know when I started this work uh it was back in 2012. I never imagined that people would be attacking DEI because we used to talk about it as a way of helping to support people becoming better humans and I think that's what we're here to do. So, just want to stay grounded in that and that it's better for everybody. This

067is not a scarcity game. This is not a zero- sum game. This is like we can we can if we can close the gaps for some, then we're actually going to make it better for everyone. Um, so just to lightly touch on the current social political climate, um, you know, all of these things are happening every day, every hour. We've got political corporate backlash. We've got all these criticisms about things that are happening, divisiveness, more polarization in our communities, lots of anti-Dei attacks and examples um as absurd as you know like um who's flying helicopters and uh anyway lots lots of chilling effects reinforcing stereotypes. All of these things are happening. Some of the um some of the activities are more directly impacting education. So, this is a there's a great summary resource. This is

068actually linked in the top right corner from a group called Education Council that is um keeping tabs on all of the things that are happening in education, what the status of some of those orders and actions are. And it's a great way just to stay informed about what's happening. So, um, what you're seeing on this page is the top left is the most recent or what I mean I I may have missed something today or in the last couple hours, but, uh, that's the one about dis, you know, about dismantling the Department of Education, which I think is unlikely, even though, like Christine said, it's it's it seems to be happening, right? There's a lot that it's just like, how is this even happening? Because we know Congress would have to approve that. So, um,

069anyway, tracking that, uh, there was one there was an executive order that came out March 1st designating English as the official language of the United States. The thing that's important to note about this is this could threaten, um, funding for our English language learning programs. You know, so that's one way this could impact it. And they, you know, it's 11% of all US students are English learners. And we know that that's increasing, right, with I imagine with younger students, too. So, one of the many impacts um the dear colleague letter that Christine mentioned um I'll talk about that in a little bit too and how there are there's a lot of confusion right now. There's a lot of confusion and people don't know what to believe or what to think, but um I'll get into

070that in a little bit. Um keeping men out of women's sports. There are also some links in here that I put in knowing that Vermont supports a lot of these, you know, Vermont AOE supports best practices for schools regarding transgender and gender uh non-conforming students. There's a great um FAQ from Outright Vermont that talks direct. It's linked in the slide and and um directly addresses this executive order and has a lot of amazing um information in it. So again, just a couple other things. Education Council is a great resource uh for staying up to date on what's happening with executive orders. Couple of things that I just wanted to pull out. Um again, some of these may echo what Christine shared um from our state part state of Vermont AOE. Executive orders do not have

071the authority to override, right, any of the laws that already exist, which is really important to know because I think a lot of people are seeing executive orders and they're assuming this is somehow law. These are not law and a lot of these things are being challenged. So executive orders on their own do not have the authority to override any of these rules especially state statutes. Um and uh so right the the recommendation is that we proceed with plan professional development instructional activities and that's what we are planning to do. Um this is another uh uh document that was created by a multi-state guidance from um Vermont's attorney general along with 13 other states in the District of uh of Columbia attorney generals wrote this document basically saying that you know they feel like there

072like DEI programs have been mischaracterized practices and programming that lawfully promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility confer important important educational and social benefits for students. Um and also in response again to this dear colleague letter and this uh this FAQ document that the US Department of Ed put out um these attorney generals say that neither of those you know have the force of law. So they cannot disturb right some of what's already happening in our classrooms and instructions and all of that. So again, just kind of challenging the the weight and the perception that these that these letters and executive orders um don't really have. Um also in that multi-state guidance doc um is the underscoring right that that um in order to prepare all students for college and careers, right, including this is explicit

073here, including students from historically underrepresented backgrounds who are disproportionately students of color, right? So, um, where we may be hearing like not to talk about race, not to be explicit about it, here's a statement that says like sometimes we need to be right, we need to factor this in. Um, so this may mean taking targeted action so that students from underserved communities have access. This is this is all within all of what we're doing is within um the realm of legal things so far. So, this is just to underscore that what we're doing is okay um and necessary, right? Um let's see a couple more examples to highlight. This is one that the AOE has on their federal updates, right? A lot of folks are saying like title funding is going to get pulled, right?

074And as Christine was describing, like we don't know how that's going to be impacted, but nothing is happening yet. So, um, this funding for these programs, right, is is secure for the remainder of this school year and will continue at essentially the same levels for next school year is what the AOE is talking about with these funds. This is also um, important to note. So this is in outright Vermont's FAQs and it's also in our education quality standards that reiterates right no student in the public school or independent school shall be excluded from participation in so this directly addresses the attack on uh trans u trans girls trans women participating in sports specifically we also know that federal law like there the federal government does not control our state curriculum. There there are laws in

075place that actually spell this out. So, there are two examples here. One's from the Every Student Succeeds Act and one is from the General Education Provisions Act, which both say that the federal government basically like has has no control over state local agencies and the and the content and academic standards and assessments, curriculum, all of that. So, that's also worth remembering. Well, the most important thing is the 10th amendment. Can you say more about that? Well, the 10th amendment states directly that any power not given to the federal government in the constitution is uh uh given to the states, which is why there's actually no federal education laws. Thank you. That's the 14th amendment bill. Uh it starts with the 10th amendment and that applies to um it apply to local governments in the 14th

076amendment. So that's a um yes it's the last bill of rights the 10th amendment. Yeah. Yeah. So um I mean we know that not everything that's happening right now is constitutional right. I mean there's there's there's a lot of clear a lot of a lot happening. Um so some again just some of what I wanted to capture here is just for the record and just to remind us all like of some of the things this is just a way of spelling out some of the things that DEI is and some of the things that DEI is not. I don't know that I'll go through all of these, but um you know the arguments on the left hand side, right, are that like DEI is about just about race or it's about um censoring material supporting

077patriotic education, indoctrinating children, and the one thing I just want to say about indoctrinating children and youth into things like gender ideologies, we already do that. We have two boxes that we put everybody in with their board and we say if you are you know like we're already indoctrinating we're already indoctrinating students youth into ideologies and so just just to say that out loud um DEI is not about shaming blaming you know it's not about lowering like lowering standards um so again just spelling a couple things out this is about bringing out the best in everyone this is about building community together. Um, this is about, this is an example I used when we were doing an all staff training, right? It's like if you had an orchestra symphony, right, where every instrument was the

078same. I know they're slightly different in this image, but just imagine that these are all exactly the same like cell, right? I mean, that's not a symphony orchestra, right? You need the diversity. You need people with different skills. You need all of us so that we can make beautiful music together, right? it makes us all better. And the reality is too is that DEI kinds of things really come into play in so many different aspects of what we do institutionally. So this was just an attempt to capture some of you know when I thought about reporting out like where we're at with DEI. I mean really it fits into everything that we do and it's not really it's it's about how we do what we do. And um I'll mention like we're starting to look

079at using an equity filter or lens which will allow us to continue that kind of integration across so many different programs, policies, practices, all of them. All right, I'm going to keep rolling along. So again, please jump in any questions and comments along the way. I'm going to shift a little bit to um just pulling up some highlights that connect with the instructional leadership plan. This is how I organized the report last time to you all and highlighted some aspects uh in this plan. So one of our goals is that all staff, students, teachers, administrators and board will participate in ongoing capacity building training and support. So um again this is just a snapshot of some things we're doing. I don't think I included all of them but um this is the schedule that we've

080been working on. We have I mean we've had equity coaches who are also leading staff meetings. Um we have I've been meeting with administrators one-on-one and then as a group once a month. Um so yeah there's there's a a lot of meetings and capacity building happening including uh we had the inservice dedicated to DEI on January 6. We also had a followup uh restorative practice DII session at the early release last Friday and um Weather Scale had this with their support staff participated in it which I thought was a great idea. Um and then um John and Mary will be back to do another um support for restorative practices May 23rd. Um I mentioned using an equity lens or filter which at the last um administrative team meeting we started talking about how we can

081do this right and it's basically taking from the AOE has a tool and so it's using questions that ultimately end up uh surfacing more questions. So these are the kinds of questions too as a board it would be great for y'all to think about right as you're developing policies or coming up with different practices. These are the kinds of questions you can also be integrating. If we're integrating this like there was a there's an article um that somebody wrote about equity uh Lasix, right? Instead of thinking of it as a lens or filter, what if it was just LASIK and it was just this is how we see the world. I mean, I think about this all the time personally, right? If if uh if we're if I'm buying something from a a store, you

082know, I think about who owns this store, how am I am I supporting um a a blackowned business, you know, in this purchase? Like what are all the ways we can always be applying a filter or lens? So, this is something that we are talking about. How can we get more practice with this next year and integrating it? Um well, get practice this year. this year is not over, but like really integrate it next year because it's going to help us identify the gaps and that's what equity is all about. Like where are the gaps and how can we fill them so that everybody has what they need to succeed. We also have a book club this year. So, uh we this was the second book we are in the process of reading my grandmother's

083hands. And what's kind of cool is although this is suide um Albert Bridge has their own like they've been meeting with staff talking about it. I think there's an optional meeting at H Heartland. So, even though it's an SUID um initiative, it seems like it's it's finding pockets like within schools. So, even more discussion happening here. If y'all haven't read this book, I definitely recommend it. Okay. So, the second goal in culture and student um wellness is about creating and sustaining safer, braver spaces across our SU. And some of the ways that we're doing that, um, hopefully it seems a little familiar, is talking about and and trying to integrate and practice some group agreements or norms. This comes up a lot with administrators, uh, also in our buildings. If we're going to be able

084to have difficult conversations, if we're going to give each other feedback, if we're going to talk about things like race and racism and transphobia and all these things, it's really important to have a shared set of values in how we're engaging in these conversations. It makes it a lot easier to have hard conversations. Again, these come u mostly from courageous conversations. Um as Christine mentioned, we had Ryan's story presentation which was yeah, I mean it was really powerful. We heard from John Halagan who really appreciated the attention that students were giving him and he navigated through a power out in H Heartland when he was doing the assembly there. Um and uh he was he was also recommended to us from uh by Amanda Garces who is with um the Vermont Human Rights Commission. And

085so they've been doing a lot. I mean they've been doing a ton of work. Uh she has been she led the social and ethnic studies like act one work, the EQS work. Uh she works for the Vermont Human Rights Commission. Anyway, she recommended having Ryan's story presentation and then pairing that with some train the trainer um upstander um bystander intervention trainings that are offered through them and also a partnership with the Vermont Student Anti-Racist Network, the Education Justice Coalition Outright Vermont. And so we um there's an opportunity on 11 April 11th, excuse me, for students to participate in this train the trainer program and they had to apply and be accepted in order to be part of it. We have two Windsor Middle School students who will be participating in this training on April 11th.

086And our hope is that we can do maybe even have them come and do like a cohort training for students um at our SEO [Music] equity tickets. I think we are up to about I think now it's about 150. So about 150 equity tickets have been submitted this school year. 54 of those have come from students. And I just wanted to break it down into the categories that we're seeing these tickets come in. Um yes, Elizabeth. Um, Tracy, is the QR code the only way that they can access the equity ticket? They can access it. There's a it's in the student portal and it's in a staff portal also, the Clever portal. So, they can access it through the Clever portals. We've talked about having paper tickets available, but then no one seems to think

087that's a great idea. Um, I my my concern about the QR code is that they're not supposed to be using their phones in school. Exactly. Exactly. Yes, we we thought about that which is why we put it in the clever portal. Um so yes, if y'all have other thoughts and ideas about Well, they all have Chromebooks that you could they could use their Chromebook could use to to click on the they could get it through the through the portal there for the portal as well. So yeah. Yeah. Um, so, uh, so you can see the the top categories for tickets that are coming in are around racism, LGBTQ plus, uh, hate, harm generally, and disability. So, those seem to be the the top themes, um, of tickets. Um, one of the ways that we're using

088tickets is, um, equity coaches are leading all staff meetings and they're they look a little bit different depending on the school. Um, but one of the ways that they've been using the equity tickets is I went through anonymized anonymized anonymized um some of the tickets, pulled out those um things and then uh they had staff practice how to interrupt, right? So actually try and what would you say if and when you heard you know a student say this? How would you respond? That was one of the things we heard I heard from folks last year. It's like we need more practice and how to call in call out. And so we're like, well, why not use equity tickets because these are happening in our schools and have people practice so that it can just become

089more familiar and a practice out of habit, which I feel like there's a lot that we're doing here which could ultimately be some of the procedures for our activate policy, right? It's like these can all work together. Um you all hopefully saw that we also had a parent teacher survey um staff survey family survey that went out on gender inclusivity. This is the gender inclusion consultant who we're working with who had worked with Hartford um checking in on uh where um people are at with our transgender policy. And so I pulled some language or just a quote, couple quotes, statistics from the YRBS data. That's the youth um you youth risk behavior survey that goes out every two years. So, um, what you're seeing on there, and part of the reason why we do this,

090right, is that compared to heterosexual cisgender students, LGBTQ plus high school students are three times more likely to report self harm, make a plan to kill themselves, and attempt to kill themselves during the past year. This is not this is disproportionate, right? This is this is a very disproportionate. Also important, I think, to say out loud that we are not doing the work that we do and the things that I'm describing out of nowhere, right? We are doing these things in response to the things that we are hearing from students and staff or noticing, right? It's it's all in response to um to patterns and all the things that we're seeing. We're not we're not manufacturing these things in any ways. And so Wired BS data, I think, calls some attention to that. uh more

091specifically, you know, I'm sorry this has a lot of information on it. This was just a snapshot of some info that I pulled out of Windsor specific um data. So, you can see like when we're looking at the high school um and these are all self-reported, right? But you can see anywhere with an asterisk is statistically significant, right? So, you're seeing that first line, self-reports of being bullied in the last 30 days. Females, LGBTQ plus, and um students on IEPs all reported a statistically significant higher level of feeling like they were bullied in the last 30 days than their counterparts. Um you can see again anywhere where an asterisk is those are all the places where there are some um statistical significance in the experience of either female LGBTQ plus bipac or students with IEPs

092are happening. Um I think the plan I'll share a little bit more out from YBS2 at the Mount of Sci boarding. Um but it's available online. It's linked on this page. You can see middle school um similar patterns also. And I just thought, you know, some um one of the reasons it's really important that we have a transgender policy in place is that we know that although um we would love to imagine that all families are supportive of their children and whoever they are, we know that that's not the case. And I think one of this one of the statistics that you know ate dinner at home with at least one parent or other adult family member uh four or more days during the previous work. So you can see that that number 76 um

093for LGBTQ plus students and 91 for um heterero or cisgendered students, right? There's a statistically significant difference in those experience. And if that's one indication of the kind of supportive home environment and the and the differences that LGBTQ students might be experiencing, I think that's important to note. All right. uh building and sustaining a dedicated team and community of support. This includes like support for our gender sexualities alliance groups. And I uh love this was a tableabling event that they did during lunchtime. It went really well. The students had um baked goods that they were selling for donations. And really they were available to answer any questions, to talk with other students who might be curious or or um just want to come over and support, you know, be allies. And I love how this

094even says that the Windsor High School GSA aims to create a self-welcoming space for students of all identities. Right? This is about um again working together, rising the tide to float all boats and making sure that we have safe spaces for for students who identify as LGBTQ for the you know the data just just shared right it's important that they have spaces to connect and um be able to be supported. um equity coaches. I had a long meeting with them and in reflection of this past year, some of the things they share that they think have worked well is they um appreciate the conversations that are happening in their buildings, more with their administrators, um again just more openness and talking about some um things that are connected or related to DEI, having student groups,

095um having colleagues more involved, having a position in our that is that is dedicated to this work were just some of the things that they mentioned that have been going well. Some of the things that they feel like need improvement. They feel like there's some inconsistency in how we do what we do across schools and across the SU. So, um all of these are opportunities which I'll share to in a little bit. Um navigating the comfort of their colleagues, right? Again, why we have these group agreements. We have to keep building the norms to be able to have some discomfort. I know that doesn't mean that we're unsafe. Um having time for students to do this, the way that discipline works, uh followup, um you know, repeat offender, some of the things around our behavior

096matrix. Again, these are all things that we're planning to update anyway. So, it's good to have this input and their vision for uh three plus years from now. I love how it's really pointing to like students leading, people feeling safe, people feeling seen, supported, more unity. Right? This isn't about division and more divisiveness. This is about bringing people together. Working on hiring practices, which we've shared some um also developing, you know, we've got like a a slide deck that we could do a comprehensive training for any hiring managers. And also a reminder that we do have in our policies our commitment to diversifying our workforce. And then these were some additional goals around student learning. So some ways this is showing up is that a number of us on the admin team have been going

097to these EQS sessions from the Vermont Principal Association and having time to just think about what does this mean for us to really integrate these. Uh, and that's also where we met um some of our speakers who we've had um like Susanna Davis who was at our January 6 in service, Rajy Edins who's a poet, spoken word artist who we had uh speak and also do the um residency. These are just again remembering why these things exist, right? Like I said, we're not making this up. We're responding to things that already exist. So, um, there was a report that came out in 1999 talking about racial harassment in Vermont public schools, saying that it was pervasive in our public schools and not a priority. Um, right, which led to Act 54, racial disparities in state

098systems, 2017, how education is one of the five state systems in which racial racial disparities persist and need to be addressed. Why we do what we do. This is why the EQs are all about anti-racism, anti-discrimination, culturally relevant practices, all that good cons. Um on the left, this was one of the most beautiful examples about how we can imagine integrating things like leader and me, right? One of the leader and me habits, and this is a shout out to Mary Richtor, who's one of our equity coaches and school counselors in Windsor Middle. Um she said she used chat GBT and and she chat GBT leader and me habits and black history month and then um so the middle school did this whole project around the eighth habit which is find your voice and students had

099an opportunity to pick um a a black figure. I think there was a certain time range where they lived to do some research. They shared posters. So, it was a great combination integration of how we can do this work in a in a in a pretty seamless way. And so, um, again, just highlighting acknowledgements during the month and how can we weave those in even more so that the shortest month of the year is not the only time that we're talking about black history and that we see that as our history. Oh, I'm gonna have to and I'm just Yes, this was just Rajny Edin's donated materials from Little Paka and I think we're I've got a couple more, but I'll just leave you with some opportunities. Very good. Close. Yes, we have a lot

100of opportunities to continue to just strengthen and sustain what we're doing and how we're doing that. So, I will leave it there. Thank you. Yes. Um we do have some things. Uh resignation. Yeah, we do. Um okay, great great report. That was super cover. Um we have a resignation of an SU um employee, Genie Wade, for the end of this year. So we want to just let you know because we want to post that position before the end of the year. And we do not need to vote on that, right? Just letting you know. So, we're going to post that one. Um, we have a termination and um I'm gonna recommend the termination of um it is a pair professional and I can you do have to say her name. I can say her name

101is and I I concur and so does the union. She just hasn't been coming to work at all. So, did you say you want me to say her name? Well, I think if we're gonna vote on I can say her name. We have to. Jessica Smithers. Okay, I will take a motion to uh terminate Jessica Smithers. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, any discussion? So this this this ties into uh E. Another thing on the agenda number um letter E. So, yep. Um and I lost. Okay. I will take a voice, not a voice vote, but a we go around. Davis. Hi. Um Elizabeth, hi Nancy. Hi Beth. Hi. John, I'm going to abstain. I don't know enough about the circumstances. I'm reluctant to uh terminate somebody without knowing more information. Megan,

102I Sarah, I uh Nicole, hi Heather. Hi. and I am an I. Okay, thank you. Okay. Um, retirement. Yes, we have a retirement of Dorene Cororo and um I just want to read it because I told her I would. She's writing to announce her formal retirement from Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union as a PAR educator effective June 30, 2025. I would like to thank you and the entire SU for the opportunities given to me over the 26 years in the district. I've enjoyed working with so many amazing people, but most of all the students that have brought so much joy into my heart. I am finally ready to move on to the next phase of my life. I will miss you all greatly. So, I just need to read that to you. It's awesome. And um

103I congratulate her. Yeah. 26 years a long time. I am jealous. a lot of those years with me. Yeah. Substitute pay. Um I have some numbers. So we're um talking about um potentially uh raising the substitute pay rate. I think it's on the agenda at every local meeting, but um and we would like to be consistent about it for payroll. So the numbers that I found uh currently around the area WNESU uh they pay 120. So our current rate is 125. Windham Central is 120. Windham Southeast is $21 per hour. So they do an hourly rate. Two Rivers 125. Brattleboro 125. Lebanon 175. Woodstock 175. Hunter confirm that for me. And Hartford's at 130 at the moment. So that's all I've gathered. So, um I think I think to attract substitutes, um we should consider

104raising the pay. Yeah. And I think that with those numbers that you put out, it's clear that the places that we would be competing with in the upper valley. Um a few of them, I mean, at least one is a substantially higher rate. And uh I mean, Harford, I think, is the nearest comparison. And they're also higher, if not Yeah. Yeah. like 11 higher. And I know Harford's talking about freezing. I think They're really struggling. Yeah. As well. It does. It does have a significant impact because when we don't have subs, we're pulling pair professionals and that often means that we're struggling to figure out how we're going to pro cover the pair professionals roles and responsibilities on days when they're called to sub. It's the the hidden cost thing that comes up so much.

105You know, when we're not able to compensate folks enough, we actually end up not saving money but losing it elsewhere. Correct. So, correct. Um, so they're on the I So I I believe we should put this on the agenda to vote on it next meeting because it's on the I think some of the local um districts would like to know a ballpark number. Yeah. So if we could set that at the SU like a ballpark, I can take it back. Uh John, if we're going to discuss it again at the next meeting, could we have some numbers on line? Is that is substitution teachers handled as a line item? And if it is, uh traditionally is we come under, over, or spot on. It is a line item in local budgets and the SU budget

106for SU employees that we go back couple years to see how that's triggered off. Sure. So, so, um, John, well, I think everyone's aware of this, but I think it's worth saying when we're talking about SU employees, we're talking about, uh, uh, special ed teachers um, and in special ed um, parents um, who are required to be there. Um, we have to get substitutes for them. Um the the the kind of figure that I think that that has been kind of banded around a little bit in in the progression of things would be at least in my feeling would be to for next year 150. um that would be a reasonable race and would get us within the ballpark of at least the ballpark of those um around us. So shall I take that number

107with me? I I does anyone else have any um input on that? Nikki, that was where my gut took me to. So, I'm in agreement. Okay. Awesome. And Marie, I think 150 sounds reasonable given the other numbers that we were just told. Um, I think we need to be competitive to attract the people. So, I think 150 is probably a good number where we'd like to be. Davis. Yeah, I I completely agree. Okay, thank you. Um, board chair authority to terminate support staff. Uh, this is an issue that had has come up and was brought to my attention by Christina and and Tina. Um the fact that when termination is required because a a a a staff member um usually a support staff member is not coming to work and hasn't directly resigned and a

108complete lack of communication. I think it would be appropriate for the different boards to give um the board chair the ability to act in in accordance with the board if it's going to be a long time before the next board meeting. it. Uh, one of the things that uh, convinced me that this probably should happen was the fact that until an employee is officially terminated, it can't be the the position can't be advertised. And so if this happens uh, three weeks before a board meeting, that that really is an opportunity that should be moved forward. The thing that happens is is sort of to to balance it out is that um uh there's an issue Tina and Christine get together. They they communicate it with uh with with the with the union. Uh the union

109of course uh for the most part is is in agreement because this person is just not coming to work and they're not communicating why they're not coming to work and so everyone's in agreement. I think it would be then then be if at some point we vote on it even possibly tonight um uh the board chairs um would act for the board to satisfy the contract requirement. This isn't in policy. It is it it's in the um it's in the contract that the decision would be made by the board. And that's appropriate because of course the the the board is the actual employer. Um but I think if there's a time worry about um getting the position advertised um moving on from an employee that's not working on that that's working out. Um I think

110if it's a Mount Scutney school district employee then Christine would contact Davis. um if it's um a SU employee, they should contact me. And the same thing with uh Wesfield in um Hartland and then that that that board chair is acting as the board. There's also Yes. Well, I was going to say there's also, you know, times where we have to while we're waiting for the board meeting, we have to put someone on paid administrative leave. So, it also can cost money, right? While we're waiting, that's all. Yes. Um, so my only question, I think that those that rationale for having chairs have that authority makes a lot of sense. just, you know, because again, when you have somebody who is like, you know, not not showing up or not able to show up, you're

111undercutting the ability for the rest of the people in that system to functionally do their job, especially when it comes to support staff. Um, the only thing the question that I would ask is a lot of the time in my experience terminations are pretty clear-cut. You know, like administration, the union, everybody's talked about it. I would just say that in the in those rare cases where there is maybe a need for discussion or it does feel more like a margin call, I'm assuming the chair would have the ability to say I this one feels off or I want to I want to be able to talk to four others. We can kick it out. Yeah. That that that's the exact reason why I don't want to in any way create a policy in which administration

112can can just go ahead and terminate. Absolutely. I I' I'd like that that that board chair in terms of timing to act as the gatekeeper and if there is any question in mind then that board chair then has the power to call an emergency meeting. Absolutely. And so that's why John that's what I was just going to mention that the chair can call an emergency meeting with 24 hours notice. So, I'm not sure it's appropriate to give the chair the authority to terminate somebody without the other members input. That is true. That that is a point which is why this needs to be discussed and and reviewed. But a lot of times, John, um the termination is very clear-cut. And so um the the the and this is the second termination in in the last

113two months in which there was no question that um because the the employee E was just not coming to work at all. Yes. I think too that if we end up doing this in the interest of uh of the board still being aware of what th those decisions being made, I think that we should make it practice whether that's through a procedure or just some kind of memo, how we've done it with things that don't necessarily need to be policy that we would inform the board at the subsequent meeting of the entire situation like why yeah why that decision was made, what the kind of in-n-outs of it were. um so that we can just so that everybody's on the same page even we're not scrambling everybody in you know emergency meetings to do this

114and and and to take it to the next level I I have no issue of uh actually looking at creating this as a policy. Sure. Yeah. Um either and that might just solidify because if there's a policy then there can be a a procedure. Sure. doing so. Um, but this is something that we I wanted to bring up in this meeting so that we can get it on the radar um and get us solved sooner than later. So, okay. In the interim in the interim do do we have any um I think Tina was hoping that in the situation of we call no call no show right y they're not calling in they're not showing up or reaching out nothing coming back to us that um the board chair could make that determination and obviously

115share the information at the next meeting or share the termination um at the next meeting. Well, I'm I'm happy to take a motion to uh um give the board chair that power, but we can only do that for the SU SU and it's mostly most of our pair professionals are SU employees. So, um so I will take a motion and if if people aren't comfortable with it, they they can say no. I will take a motion to give the board chair the uh to make a motion to give the board chair for the remainder of the um FY uh 25 school year the ability to approve the termination uh if there is a time factor involved and to communicate that to the rest of the um SU board. So moved. Okay. Did Did anybody write

116that down? Well, I was trying. Y Okay. Uh do we have a second? Nikki second. Okay. Um I'll I'll go around. Davis, how do you vote? I Elizabeth. I Nancy. I Beth. I John. No, Megan. I Sarah. I And Marie, hi. Nikki. Hi. And is Heather with us? I'm still here. Hey. Hi. Okay. Thank you. And I am an I. Okay. Thank you everybody. And I So for the remainder of FU25 and they're required to contact the rest of the board and it's only in in in times where um but time is a factor. Yep. Okay. Those are the four points. Um okay. and uh executive tax session. Yes. And I I'm not fully Is it uh we're going in under sorry uh VSA uh 313 315 1A 1A contracts. Yep. Okay. Yes, we are

117going into executive session. I will take a motion to go into executive session to discuss contracts. So moved. Second. All in favor, please say I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. All opposed say nay. Abstensions. Maybe it's my hearing aids. Okay. All right. Let me turn the c Let me um stop the recording. Um see who's in the room here.