001uh that time um I see that we have uh still on the agenda changes additions to the agenda um which we're trying not to do anymore Davis so I'll let you judge whether this needs to be a change or an addition or not Elizabeth male wanting to at least bring up the possibility of doing like a windsor thing you guys do that during public comments it's not really like a full-fledged agenda item at this point yeah no I don't think so hang on I gotta open my door I think my wife I think I shut it which means my oh wait for it later um so uh Davis I missed okay um everyone have a chance to uh read the minutes yes okay uh I will take a motion to approve the minutes okay uh
002any discussion okay all in favor of proving the minute say I I did any um oh a post say nay any um what's the word I'm looking for thank you say that again Davis oh my God I'm getting nothing abstention thank you say no no obstetrics okay um 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 members of our community can approach controversial issues in a civil in 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 state start by identifying
003yourself um and the town that you reside in Windsor or western or one of the others any public comments calling folks in the room since I'm in the room that'd be helpful we can't hear failure yeah I only hear partial of what you said Davis try it again okay Bill I said would you like me to call on people on the road since it's a little easier than you're trying to do yes thank you but uh Davis you want to start us off though you had something to add sure yeah I'll just throw this out there because it's uh I think it's just to put on people's radar um Elizabeth uh shot me an email not too long ago and she's sick so unfortunately couldn't be here um she wanted to bring up the possibility
004of throwing together a two-ton picnic uh I was studying Outdoors uh and going to go select boards Etc um she said she's already spoken with Chief Frank and uh Sheriff Palmer about this idea they were all for it so no agenda just getting everyone together sharing a couple hours karaoke on game Star Wars who knows um so I just wanted to kind of throw it out there and put it on people's radar tonight um yeah I don't know the marriage much discussion but just uh you know be aware of that something's in the works and hopefully folks want to take part in that okay thank you Davis Davis if if there's anybody in the room please call um uh Dave Taft hello Dave cast from Windsor Vermont um I'd like to thank Hudson for his
005commitment and his work but um he does here on the board as a student rap um it was very obvious to me after the last meeting that he took the lead and personally I think influenced some of your board members in rethinking your community uh Outreach about the previous situation that we had and then after that I started thinking and I haven't been involved much in the last five or six years and when you don't have a child in school you lose a lot a lot of input and interaction so I've been trying to get myself back up to speed one of the things that I've been brought aware of by some of the parents is that there are also other students that are interested in being representatives of the school board so I reached
006out and to principal Ryan where she was very very helpful and she told me how naive I was about how that process actually works um and so she got me the application and the process if a student was interested in being on the board and I got to tell you I've been on dozens and hundreds of boards and that process to me is very intimidating um so but one thing I was happy and surprised to learn was that there was actually two seats available for student representation and I'm here to put a plea out that that Lord should actively proactively go out and try to get another student on the board um I understand that if you're in sports or you got a life then things going on it's it's can be problematic another reason
007why you should have two in my opinion because maybe Hudson's got something else going on I mean it's not always necessary just like it's not always necessary for all five of you or six of you to be here you know but I'd like to thank him and hope he does his good a job back in the school interacting with the students as he does around here but um here's my suggestion I've also talked to um Riley White my suggestion is that before or right after school starts in September that the administration starts the process of an election for school board candidates that Riley white said she would be glad to come over here teach a class facilitate that have the candidates actually make it known that they would like to run campaign have a seminar
008in the auditorium where they maybe debate or talk about it and then have an election because I think Civics is really really non-existent in schools much anymore and Juniors and juniors are ever so close to being legal voters I think it would be a win-win-win for the community for the school for the students but I can't help but think that after looking at the process of a student that has to go through the way it's set up now and this was updated September 2022 I hate to say it but to me it looks like another way to limit the participation unless they really agree with what the board is doing and and how they operate right now thank you for listening I hope you think about that thank you and remind me how to pronounce
009your last name I will okay thank you I'm used to doing that okay uh so I'm Tony piccuminos from West Windsor so good evening and uh to take just seven to three minutes in your draft resolution supporting teachers you reject the idea that education Equity is a zero sound proposition in which some students lose opportunities to help others succeed at the June meeting a board member said the following that belief is so common people believe I'm going to lose this if they get that that belief needs to be debunked that's not really what happens yes that belief is common here's a reason why this is a quote explicitly endorsing the idea from Abram X Andy's book how to be an anti-racist if racial discrimination is defined as treating considering or making a distinction in favor
010or against an individual based on that person's race then racial discrimination is not inherently racist the defining question is whether the Discrimination is creating Equity or inequity if discrimination is creating Equity then it is anti-racist candy goes on to say that the only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination the only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination the only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination incredibly the man who wrote those words was a featured speaker at conferences for both the National Education Association and the American Federation of teachers he's also spoken to Educators at Teach for America Ed Serge teaching for Change and the alliance for early success Melissa Crum a consultant hired by the ESU to work with the anti-racism and Equity task force also LED online discussion groups featuring not only
011Kennedy's Book but also a book called an introduction to critical race Theory at the time Ms krung tweeted the following anti-racism his critical race theory in practice if you are against CRT then you are pro-racism homework assigned by Ms Crum to the task force included listening to a podcast interview with race consultant Robin D'Angelo D'Angelo's book White fertility was just recently included in the National Education association's list of great summer reads for educators here's a quote from D'Angelo in the book a positive white identity is an impossible goal I strive to be less white to be less white is to be less racially oppressive D'Angelo's and Kimmy's books were also included in a list of recommended titles by the outfit that just conducted the S years Equity audit in light of these events it should
012not surprise you that there is skepticism and concern that both the national and local levels about the current approach to dealing with race and equity in K-12 education I encourage you to be a bit more Discerning when it comes to these issues thank you Tony um anybody online have public comment why once yes bill I think okay um thank you Davis items for discussion followed by followed by motions if needed um okay that's followed by motions if needed appointments sure um so that is one that I actually requested uh Beyond here um and that's for a couple reasons um take care uh so I'm gonna start with a kind of higher level reason than drill down a little bit specifically why I want to talk about this process so I I think that in a
013in a general sense one thing that one kind of practice that I'd like to bring to this board this institution is uh is continuous Improvement I think it's something that already happens to some degree but I think that uh particularly with processes that we don't often engage in it gives us the opportunity to once we go through them which doesn't happen you know too often I think that it's really helpful to have a debrief on them kind of talk about how it went a little bit and then maybe think if there's any way we might want to do different do it differently next time um so in a broad sense and the framework that I kind of want to bring up for that that I'll refer to a couple times as I as I you
014know start this conversation and by no means I think we're gonna get through all this tonight but I just wanted to introduce this idea so um there's a tool called a pdsa cycle now that means plan do study Act so looking at the recent appointment process and when we've been through appointment processes the planning is pretty quick because we're under a tight timeline this is leading into a little bit of a bouncing ball so we have 30 days when an appointment situation comes up to do it so planning time is pretty uh pretty collapsed we plan as much as we can in that first meeting and then we do it we ever have that process of studying and then acting and studying is when you once you're done with it that's sort of like the
015debriefing of it you look back at what's happened and you study you know what went wrong what went right um I don't think we need to be super scientific about it and do a plus build or anything but it's an opportunity for the folks who are in this institution to really to think about our processes and then the ACT part is when we decide okay here's how we want to do it next time it's a cycle into that act connects to the planning for the next time and I think particularly with processes like appointments they get triggered by by a board they can see it's really important to have that act done because that's probably as much planning time as we're going to get on the back end of the so with that little bit
016of background um I guess I just wanted to to have a little bit of an open conversation about about the last appointment like as a process um I know that um I say it's uncommon but it's appointments are fairly common I think like if we were to do a show of hands that made all the board members here I want to say more than half of us at this point were initially appointed to this board um and correct me if I'm wrong on that but I I mean I certainly was Megan was or was the reason the pointy Nancy I think were you initially um I didn't run and I I was just elected in the town meeting sure I stood up I was the only person I said who I was and they said
017yes yeah sure so sort of like a kind of appointments Elizabeth had talked to me and asked if would you run and um yeah so yes yeah Rebecca and myself were appointed as well and Elizabeth I don't know I don't think Elizabeth was not so I had a five out of the six board members were although I think she might have also it might have been a situation too where it was there was a vacancy at the time of town meeting so the two of you weren't technically appointed by a board but it was a it was still like not entirely electoral process right right and nobody seemed to be very interested in the school board at all and so it was please come and do your civil Duty kind of thing definitely so like
018that like two-thirds of the board then would have been would have been appointed I want to say a point that I mean the existing members of the board went through our process did interviews and appointed them ever to served until the next election um so I I guess you know I don't I don't know how folks are feeling if we need to go through the the sort of legal requirements to it obviously it's a 30-day window um you know we know that um the candidates who have applied for it you know I think we learned a lot during this last process I think because of the uniqueness of the situation and the security that came along with it I think it was a fantastic learning opportunity for us even though there were some some slip
019ups that we have added correct um in this cycle that's part of the act right as we know those things now and we can plan to address that and like have that you know do things in compliance the next time we're on this process um but any other General General thoughts or observations or perspective on Hudson um like I know there was talk about having the meeting the interviews about being in public session I think we should keep those private because it well it is a public figure it's incredibly uncomfortable and awkward but I think that as long as like the um letters of interest and um who's applying for the position is public are known and like um even if we have to publish our list of questions we're asking them I think that
020would be totally fine um I think so so Hudson are you saying that we should have the interviews in public session oops we should not but have all the documents associated with the meeting I think there was some question regarding if we could have the interviews and public and in in an executive session I think that is an issue the the executive session is very specific about what we can do in executive session and I don't think interviews of that nature fit into any of those Christine what do you think yeah I think I think the Pietro and I think we can we can't yeah but his advice is that you want as a board you want to be as transparent as possible so it would be maybe better served to have them in public
021session but you can technically have them yeah you can't discuss interview questions in executive session yeah that was that was where we where we got into a compliance issue and that's you know something that we know now but uh Hudson I appreciate you going right to bringing stuff up what I was hoping is we could get a list of because there are things that we legally have to do we can't we can't run the process over 31 days because legally it has to be 30 days but you know a couple of things I'm just taking notes on what we could kind of think about is should the interviews be public or should they be private because that we do have the leeway to do that um should the questions be public or should the questions
022be that private obviously we can't devise the questions in private right but whether they are being publicized I think is one of those gray areas I think that's something that's worth worth considering I also think like we need to have a timeline week one this happens school yeah we put it in the newsletters week two we're having a meeting like week one we're also having a meeting we too you know kind of set week three we are interviewing Canada um Elizabeth had a timeline that people had to respond to her yeah and she wanted to make sure they had enough time so um but yes that did happen I think maybe a three-week timeline is best four weeks we're getting close to that 30-day window also does vsba have anything so that's Hudson you were
023doing a fantastic job of anticipating kind of where I'm going with this and just I I see your hand Dave I just want to check with Bill our I know that we had some different guidance on how we were doing public participation during discussion items are are we having public take part like offer comments on individual discussion items or are we reserving after a public comment this meeting where we really should be reserving that for public comment um it really the the discussion items are really for the board we do have the leeway to to add com to ask others within the audience if they want to participate but I I think we're we're limiting that okay so in asking what materials are available part of why I thought it was really valuable to go
024through this process is that there really isn't a lot of detailed tools out there that tell you how to go through this process if you look at the vsba website it gives you some some kind of boilerplate on how to like how you might send out an announcement about it and then it tells you that very broad like you have 30 days to do this you can do an appointment until you hold the special election I think by and large people are going to end up doing abornance because spitting up in elections in 30 days is usually too arduous to functionally do um yeah so my goals you know that very delete a little bit here my goal for for this particular discussion is at the end of it what I would like to have
025and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this is to create some kind of enduring material for the board to use that outlines things like what's our ideal timeline how do we do interviews how do we do interview questions just have something so that you know I think that what we learned particularly with with Amy leaving the board is that institutional knowledge gets vested in individuals a lot and I think that that's really valuable when you have long time you know people putting in a long-time service like Amy but we also need to plan you know we saw what happened when we lost that individual on our board and we lost a lot of that now right so what I would hope to do going forward with this kind of process is to create
026some of those tools for us to refer back to so that we're not relying so much on individuals um and um what I wanted to say is we we had an election and that was very public and all the questions were given and people responded but those were people who had filled out um petitions and that was very different from the appointment and so it need to keep those two separate because just as that happened publicly the election the appointment um needs I think we need to have it not everything could be public but the interviews that's really putting people on a spot and I'd love to know how you would feel about that well I think I'll I'll jump in on that um I think at heart I agree with Hudson is that the
027interview should be private at the same time there's no reasons why we can't give the candidates an opportunity for a Public Presentation not necessarily us asking questions to be like we have three candidates and candidate one and two wish to address the public about their desires and strengths or weaknesses to be a board member that might be a good sort of in between to allow us to see how um the the candidates present to the public and also give the public an opportunity to hear from the candidates not in an interview process but in just in a and an opportunity for them to introduce themselves and talk about themselves and talk about their goals that might be a good way to sort of split the fence I really like that idea like maybe before each
028interview there's a public portion of we'll say five minutes where the candidate basically says what they're all about it and that is shown in the Bible this afternoon for the interview thing and thank you uh we'll kind of jump in there I was gonna say I think being in town and seeing different appointments this one's different than I think any ones I've seen on select board or the school board which I think brings up some interesting like this is a great opportunity but I don't know if we're going to see something like this exactly again like I so I I think right like this situation it it would have been hard for me to do to do in public given like the situation but that's not saying that it shouldn't have been public I just
029think it would have definitely been a little harder for me so that's my take yeah I think I think it's it's worth just repeating too like it was a really really unique situation it's it is so uncommon to have an appointment where you not only have an election that close but the winning candidate resigned immediately after being sworn in then you have that very short window to view appointment I think that I mean I honestly like my my opinion I think that the added scrutiny and eyes on it actually is going to help us improve the process I know that it was it was difficult to go through that but I think that it was very helpful in the moment and it's going to continue being helpful um my that I just kind of naturally
030came up but I'm glad I went there because I think that the the questions really are yeah public or private interviews questions be public and then the timeline being established I I thought a lot about that question of whether we do the interviews completely in public or completely in private and I in my reasoning I think I initially sort of leaned towards Cena Pietro and said like you know in the spirit of transparency you could just do them all publicly and that would be the most transparent thing and like I I want members of the community to feel engaged to know what's going on and and to experience as much transparency with this board as we were able to deliver the thing that gives me hesitation particularly about doing the interviews there's really two things
031one one is that when you're in a situation where you're making an appointment the decision makers of the board members we as board members need to be able to get the most nuanced sense of who each candidate is in order for us to make it a form an informed decision so the next question is can you do that is there some advantage to a private interview versus a public interview and I think I think that you can get about the same value from both but and the one thing that really makes me way more towards keeping the interviews private and I think part of it is just standard practice I I can't think of any other situation with an appointment where you would have a completely public interview and I I recall that's a digress
032too much in here I know that it got brought up a few times of like well before the election there was this candidate forum and that's completely true but I also want to point out that is the first time that has ever happened and it was totally different because we all had announced and we were all running and it was yeah very good and I think that that's good I I hope that it's something that continues happening and I'll be completely transparent on that like I was one of the people because I'm also the Windsor and Airborne who had said like hey you've been doing this for July 4 I would love it if you did this for the school board too because it allows the public to know who's running to hear from them
033to like be in the room with them I think but after that process the public is then going out and they are voting for those candidates I the big issue that I think I would have with making the interview is completely public is that it really comes down to the fact that you would in order for it to be fair for lack of a better word here for all of our candidates they would have to be interviewed at the same time in like a foreign setting with the same questions rotating like that otherwise what I'm worried about is that if you have a schedule and we all know how hard that is the schedule within the 381 they're getting three people plus depending on how many uh applications we have in the same room to
034go through a mass interview if we had a mass interview I'd be total into it do it if you did a public interview it had somebody to go out answer some questions which often get repeated in these interviews and that public impression goes out there it then informs the way that the other candidates might approach their interviews and that to me I think that there's a built-in disadvantage or whoever the first interviewee is if you do the wall probably so that that really is kind of the nut of why I'm like I mean really towards keeping the private because you don't have you don't have some chronologically built-in advantage to being in any one of those positions if that's if that's how the schedule goes um short of short of leaving a caveat for like
035in the off chance we can schedule everyone we will do a forum style which I think is pretty unlikely um I gotta say I think was it Hudson was it your idea to have like a public statement section like an option like agreement like so if we had scheduled them each individually they would have five minutes to make their plea to the public yeah like an appeal kind of or like an introduction yeah um like do you mind if I say something else Davis Oh no you're great I also think like in many ways a school board member is a job your job interview was in public like right it is a job and it isn't a job um yeah and it's not an election it's an appointment right and usually an appointment is only
036going to be for a short amount of time right yeah almost always like if my interview of being appointed with the board was public I would have not then I would have not applied should be the student graph that brings up one other thing that I think is worth putting out there that isn't I don't think that it's in question per se but it's worth noting that I think it's standard practice in one of those one of those things that we look towards past practice and adopted pretty quickly is that we will only be appointing this person until the next election it's worth pointing out that legally the board has the new way to appoint somebody for the rest of whatever term they're being appointed for so that I mean it's I wouldn't be surprised
037if that were in question I think it's best practice to to run the next person and let you know again get it back to the or you know our stakeholders as quickly as possible to make that decision um but I mean I'll put that on my list of things that like we could we could change that in our in our best practice tool I I personally wouldn't be into that I think they're doing it for as short a possible amount of time is best but and I think that's the first time we did that I think usually we when we have appointed if we have appointed for three years really yeah oh okay yeah Nancy is correct I this is this was an an oddity in that we appointed a person until the next election
038uh but I think there was good reason for it um at the same time there's no reason we can't continue to do that in the future I I think that might be I agree with Davis is that that might be our new best practice to say we want to have someone fill this position but as soon but we want to put it on to the backs of the public to make their choice um but that's something we can we can decide on as we go through this process yeah you know and I yeah so I think the most democratic thing to do would be have just the until the next election appointment and I think that's probably the best practice going forward in my eyes who yes this was never a problem when we started
039uh there's just three people on our board and Elizabeth and I uh interviewed two candidates and picked and um we searched to see who would do it and nobody came to the board meetings the whole everything is changed and yeah I think that and I recognize what you're saying here and what Bill's saying is that I think in an environment where there's a greater amount of interest and a lot more attention on these seats yeah it informs that best practice of doing it until the next election that being said I think that just in general going forward that's something that I would want to put on a tool and say even if even if you have to like Shake every single tree in town and get a single candidate it should just be until the
040next election because ideally we want voters to be deciding it was on this board but if it's a short period of time would that make a difference I'm just like yes I'm just saying I'm like the select board like the slack board doesn't have the 30-day window so there's been two resignations in the past few years and they just wait until the next election because it was like a couple months away does that make a difference when we're asking someone to come out do the public stuff I'm just putting it out yeah it's like a lot so I don't know if that makes a difference or not yeah we want might want to look well it does make a difference and Megan you kind of jumped in with the topic that I was going to
041bring up I I think at some point going through this process we can make a choice of what time frame are we going to actually point someone you know for example if it's just three months until the next election um then we can function with you know five members until then um if it's do we want to say six months or what it is but it's it's something really to consider is like what period is too short to actually make an appointment if we want to transition to only making it until the next election I think that's something that needs to be considered because always in the past we appointed someone to fill that position until the outgoing the the uh the person who resigned to fill their entire term uh do we I don't
042think we have the ability to not do it don't we have to fill it within 30 days or can we say I believe we have a required ability even 30 days so I think that's where it gets tricky versus a select board select words can just wait until the next election if it happens in the middle of the Year where school boards my understanding based on the vsba guidance and the statute that informs is that if if we get a resignation 32 days before an election we still have to appoint somebody even if there's going to be an election two days after that appointment happens is it I mean maybe we could write the Secretary of State and get an exception for that like I I don't that gets into legal questions that I'm not
043really familiar with me that actually might be a good question for JP yeah because I I hear what you're saying going like yeah yeah it is a time-consuming process to do these appointments and it and it feels like not the best of time if there's going to be like a month or two that's I mean one meeting for somebody to show up say hello and then yeah I think I think the question to ask is is are we required to make an appointment within 30 days or do we have 30 days to make an appointment that is a really important distinction because to make an appointment we have 30 days we know that but must we make an appointment that's sort of a that's the question that is a good question let me pull up
044the statute here because I actually have this open so legally this is what the SBA says the law regarding the requirement uh okay regarding requiring to fill vacancies within 30 days let me just hit that link and see what the actual okay so this is in title 16 and I'll just quickly read this and then um maybe a couple more comments and we can move on so I do I think that we should maybe wrap this up next month when we have a full board here um and then decide what we want this tool to look like or even a couple months later um really the idea here is just to talk about this when we don't have immense time pressure to be doing it uh and then be able to improve for that next
045time so this is the statute except as otherwise provided for a school district operating under a charter within 30 days of the creation of the vacancy the school board Shell by majority vote of those present and voting appoint a qualified person to fill a vacancy in the town school board or a vacancy in the position of the Town School District Treasurer in towns in which the Town School District Treasurer is elected separately from the town of Treasurer until uh an election a special or annual meetings held a record thereofs will be made in the office of the town clerk um so does it say there until the next election that doesn't really clarify yeah it's one of those so maybe again maybe this is something that when we meet with uh JP in August we
046can we can ask that question and get cleared that is a really that's a good point though yeah it'd be good to know okay nice discussion uh we are going to move on uh be approval of resolution now the question I have Hudson I haven't had one comment though so maybe different because we are a two-time there probably has to be equal representation from each Town that's true um whether if it was Wethersfield or Heartland number yeah they have smaller Awards yeah Yeah by person so yeah we'll ask JP if you're wearing that yeah yeah because I want to make sure we ask you to do that yeah cool yeah I don't think it uh I don't think it matters whether it's uh uh if there's two towns or not a school district is its
047own legal entity um about the the real problem would come if you you know lose say say this yeah six board members and you lose three I mean what's the yeah it's another one of those special situations that you know hopefully we don't have nothing but it does happen okay approval of resolution um my question for the group here before I I asked for emotion um do we want to put this off until Elizabeth joins us for next meeting yeah and she's the one who has done the work and really uh trumpeted this um resolution yeah I agree Bill okay any quick ideas or [Applause] um I I I was just really impressed with what Elizabeth constructed um and as as she's under the weather and this is really her push um I would prefer
048the weight Megan your opinion I agree I think we can wait okay Nancy what about you negative about it okay thank you discuss touring both schools together inside and out um I think this is a great idea this is kind of the first time I've I've looked at it we did this as the Albert Bridge school board at one point and um it was it was a great experience especially going around the outside and making lists of things like that the question is when do we want to schedule it um we want to do one building before one board meeting and one building before the next so you're already there I I think yes I think it might be a good idea to um have a board meeting at Windsor toward the building half an
049hour before and then the next board meeting have it at Albert bridge and tore the building before I think that's a great idea any idea just to see the building empty or with students no I don't think so I I I don't believe that is the point I could be mistaken but um Nancy I don't know if you remember when we did it at Albert Bridge we did it after a board meeting and we did a walk around we looked at the condition of the building the conditions of the room it was when we did before this is more about funding looking at things that need to be done problems within the building um I could be mistaken but uh Davis sorry I'm actually raising my hand for Megan sorry I don't know thank you
050if you don't mind if I speak I have so this was something that I a Community member had come to me and asked if we could look outside of the building so it is really what you said bill is what the intention of This was um and I know Elizabeth was going to reach out to um Mr Taft to see his availability what it would look like for him to be able to do it with us also I'm not sure what the outcome would okay Christine are we are we doing the Ascutney board meeting at Windsor next month as far as I know okay on an upper bridge but we have a set we have and we plan to do more on our bridge but as far as I know next month is here yeah
051okay is do you mind taking on the role of reaching out to uh Mr Taft to see if it's more convenient for him to to join us before the meeting or after I will do that yeah okay okay thank you does it matter does it matter to the board if it's before or after oh I would suggest before just in case [Laughter] yeah my pre my preferences is before as well at the same time having um him there I feel is more important than the time that we do it um it's quite I mean we could do it during the meeting as well but um yeah but I think it would be good for him to to to be there and say if we see something he could then chime in that is on the
052schedule for blah blah blah or yeah thank you okay um go ahead we're doing inside and outside maybe 5 30 because for Windsor it's gonna take a while because Windsor's kind of big yeah Albert Bridge is a little bit smaller you might need an hour for yeah yeah thank you Hudson I think that's really good input as usual um presentation on recycling recycling Hamilton is he here yes outstanding you're on what a uh what a wonderful segue into my presentation the tour facilities um so I am ham jillett and uh I'm a resident of Windsor and I'm also the Outreach coordinator for the southern Windsor Windham County Solid Waste Management District of which Windsor and Westminster are member towns um and I'm going to be very low Tech and wasteful of paper but I just
053wanted to I'm going to pass these around while I'm talking uh I have a question maybe I'm not allowed to ask this but I'm overhearing the discussion about Albert bridge in Windsor does Wethersfield are you is this the school board for Wethersfield no interesting so we this is the Madison School District is Windsor West Windsor okay all of the members of this board are also a member of the supervisory Union district and that also Loops at Heartland and Weathersfield thank you I just was confused about that um thanks for having me I probably could have been uh here spoken during the you know the public participation but anyway here I am um I'm I'm I've been to the board before about this issue and I and I've also mentioned that I uh I come not
054only as a a windsor taxpayer but also as uh somebody who works in for the Southwest District and specifically about Recycling and food scraps um the pictures that I'm passing around are pictures that I took just happening to walk across the ball field here in Windsor probably six weeks two well probably two months ago and it was the morning after a big game and my um my comments my reason for coming here is not to say what a mess this hasn't been cleaned up but to point out the fact that um there there is no distinguishing between Recycling and and trash in this space it is not only the school space but that's also in a public space and the bottom line is because the legislature in Vermont has passed act 148 the universal recycling
055law uh it uh the law is that there are six recyclable materials that are that must be sorted from trash and so this here is uh and I have a couple of suggestions but the bottom line is that the school is not following the law and that's sort of where I come in not uh I'm not a police person but my job is to go to all schools and all businesses and make sure that people are following the law and um I'm doubly concerned because um I'm a windsor resident and I don't like to see what I saw um I did speak to Jim Taft about it and I also I sent my initial email went to um Rebecca and you Christine and uh the three the three principles of this school and uh believe
056I send it to Jim anyway um what I'm proposing is uh number one there needs to be on the school grounds and in any public space there needs to wherever there is a trash can there there has to be a recycling container next to it there have been studies done that nobody will walk the average American will not walk more than five feet from a trash can to put something in a recycling can this even happens in Woodstock Vermont doing a terrible job um so that's that's number one uh two containers one adjacent to each other uh signage is key and still you're going to get people who are throwing recyclables in the trash and trash the recycles but in these situations they don't really have a choice and I understand that I'm very passionate
057about this subject and I know that all the rest of the world does not share that passion but um we we need to do as a as a winter resident we need to do a better job of um I think I brought up the last time uh my one of my issues is that when visiting schools come and visiting families they're looking at our school grounds and saying boy winter just doesn't really give a dart about environmentally sustainable issues and this is one that that happens to be a law so my suggestion is that the school uh invest in some recycling containers and some trash containers I can give you suggestions on ones to purchase they can be very simple I mean they can be as simple as 255 gallon drums but it uh it's
058very easy when there's an open container just to Chuck something in if you have a recycling bin that says bottles and cans only and it's got two holes in it people are much more inclined to see that um I did also speak to and I'm sorry I can't remember their names uh Jeff Cook who has Jeff's rubbish uh his sister and her husband had purchased the business from him and uh they I did speak to the husband or the team and he said they are going to be purchasing new decals for their they have their totes they're they're the black ones that you see in town they're like a trash can of wheels and they have a flip lid on them we call those totes in the business or toters and when Jeff first put
059us out all around the town and on the school grounds I had wonderful decals they were on the um in my personal opinion they're a little bit too wordy um I think you can make them very simple uh and in this case I would just say bought us some cans um but it just went to make it simple for the average person who who's come to watch their kid in the game and they've got a Coke can um they don't want to think about what am I you know they don't want to be lectured to they don't want to be given a lesson on the school grounds but um make it easy and sort of in their face about it so that's um that's that's what I would recommend I have to say but Jim
060but I'm talking to Jim on the phone he said Pam no one wants to recycle more than me and I don't think he realized who he was talking about um let's see uh um there are schools in the district that are sort of gold standard Thetford Elementary School is in elementary school it's not a high school but um their Recycling and food scrapping um particularly their food scrap system is completely run by sixth graders and the maintenance staff has nothing to do with it and I understand that maintenance staffs are have more than enough to do and this is probably the last thing on their minds if they want to deal with that and deal with me but my other suggestion would be that you um I mean everybody has to do community service in
061this school right in order to graduate um there was at one time an environmental group in this school and I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the teacher that read it but I did meet with them probably three years ago and I don't know if this school has an environmental or sustainability group I certainly hope that there would be but I think that the problem is that it's usually run by one teacher who's excited about it and if that teacher leaves the thing so it falls apart so I would like to see that established as uh you know in the curriculum but what I'm saying is that if you have a student body and they have to do community service could you ask them to at a football game or a soccer game uh
062to two of them or one of them just stand by the trash cans and monitor them and say oops that goes there that goes there and that was there and that goes there and that really helps and the other thing is I wouldn't sprinkle trash cans all over the football field because yes it's the the more you put out the more you have to monitor make people walk you know packing and either packing in and packing out or make people walk to a camp you know if you're standing on your side of the track and there isn't a can over there that oh well okay I guess I have to carry it over to the other side and put it in and um and there they will find a recycling bin and a trash a
063trash can so you know don't don't put them all over campus Because it's just more work for everybody um signage is key um other thing is the administration and staff have to be on board with this and have to support it I did a trash on the lawn day here probably before five years ago with one of the teachers in his class and um the kids I think the kids went around and collected all of the uh recycling bins or their trash bins and they said the worst room was the teacher's room because they were you know in the trash and you know the kids were trying the students were trying to do their investment here the teachers were so uh you know take it make an example um one other thing I'll just add
064on is that I did talk with uh and I'm blanking on his name I'm sorry um the Food Service problem correct thank you Craig lacorno and I did spend part of a day here during lunch period in the state streets you know the elementary school and they're doing uh they're doing a really good job of it and they're things that could do better but I I applaud them for trying um it's quite a zoo down here I don't have kids so I haven't been in the school for a long time but I I just want to want to you know hands my hands off to them for doing a good job and the last thing is that I um this is what I do for a job I love it and I am a resource
065and I hope that people will uh use me call me with with issues because I um I'm happy to come in and give suggestions to help you know make signs or tell you where to find your best times but I really believe that this is a very very important in getting sort of more so all the time so thank you thank you one thing I'd like to point out is um especially things that are really concerning um or younger people is Plastics in the environment and so when you're looking at a large Institute like a school and if you have a sports game that has concessions limiting single-use plastic uh plastic wrappers uh plastic cups things like that and what that does is it makes recycling one much easier because you have less things to
066recycle but also it's pumping fewer Plastics into the environment so and you are you are at the mercy of the Plastics industry and the products that you buy you know those little tiny uh things that put ketchup in the students I'm sorry uh you know that's not recyclable even though it's got a number on the bottom it's smaller than two inches so you can't it'll fall through the cracks and the sorting facility but um yeah I agree and that's why I'd say start small and you're going to have to you know people are going to be throwing away plastic candy wrappers because there's nothing else to do unless you want to drive them up to Subaru and White River Junction where they can be interconnected and recycled but um yep I totally agree with you
067we're joking in class yeah thank you I really enjoyed that um very important issue annual goals including how we measure progress ah where are we with this um but Elizabeth was hoping that one could wait until okay yeah yeah okay yeah so that's that's okay with you that's fine with me um I'm I'm I'm not big on annual goals that can't be measures but correspondence with the board um is this regarding a particular correspondence or with the fact that we're not accepting correspondence as a public meeting anymore is that okay but yeah I think it's in regards to how we're like putting a policy in place like we want to for putting guidelines about when we get letters and things like that how we are going to deal with them for everyone no matter what
068they'll let us a blanket policy that was my understanding yeah and I think that as it came up at The Retreat too I think it was related to that is is a is correspondence with the board public comment and how do we how do we treat that because obviously his board members they're like we get Communications that are are in no way intended to go on the record but we also get Communications that pertain specifically to individual agenda items and that's where that question comes up do we updates those out of practice or upon request to an agenda and have those count as that public comment for that individual or did we do something else because we don't really have a policy on that or well we we do put correspondence it comes to the
069full board in email form in the packet there's a there's a they've always created a correspondence folder so it goes in there if it comes to the whole board if it goes to you individually I don't know what we don't have a policy practice for that so broadly anything on any subject that comes to the full board right now is being Patrick I'm familiar with that document I haven't yeah so is that packet online um I my understanding was at the retreat that like you don't have to do that like it's not we don't have to do that it's something to really think about if we're giving people just something to think about I guess like if we're giving people um if we're thinking about limiting people repeating themselves in public comment and things like
070that I just don't know if it's something we want to consider I'm not I don't because regress it right so I yeah I think it's important in uh in the school board meeting and Amy was really good about this is that you know the fact that um this is not a open meeting it is a it's a public meeting that means that um we are as a board or meeting in front of the public the public doesn't have a right to participate yet we have public participation because of the Spiel I shared because because we we share that I think it's really important that if someone from the public wants to send a letter to the board that there is a process there that we all would get it and we can read it um
071at the same time that would not become a record of the school board meeting that would not count as public participation because public participation is people who show up um and um that was that was pretty clear in the training that that was a good policy not necessarily pause but but a that is best practice is that what you're talking about Megan yes yes you said it thank you and I haven't we been I asked to add things to the minutes or yes by some of the comment goes in the minutes typically right they've only been asked to do you mean in the letters yeah bit please attach this yes to the to the into the packet right the correspondence folder yeah you don't have to the board decided to do that I mean it
072was like one of the first meetings I was at last year so that's the corresponds for not adding it to the minutes the correspondence folder yeah and that's the distinction because it's when somebody stands up and makes a public comment during and then you know it's it's worth noting that it we've made a change it seems to the way that we do public comment and which we are now only doing public comment during public comment time um but when public comments get made during that time when the minutes come out you can look at the head of the minute so we approve every meeting and a a brief of that public comment is included in the minutes [Music] if you write in a letter right now the practice that we have which you know I'll
073just be transparent I think it's a good practice to compile full board Communications and put them in that in that catch-all document but it isn't tantamount to actually showing up and making a public comment and therefore it doesn't it doesn't get noted in the specific documents yeah because we approve the minutes we we approve the minutes at every meeting we don't approve the packet the packet is just ancillary supporting materials yeah and myself and Elizabeth have been very clear in responding to people who send us these things and say I would like this to be part of the meeting and we've been very clear that what we are doing from now on is that to be part of the meeting and have your comments considered part of the meeting that is what public participation is
074for eign like you said like I would like to have it as like a is a document right is it possible for us to have like hardly lawyers or something up to you know well Megan I I I think something like this is really I agree with you it should be part of a um a policy or even a procedure but you know but this this really is how we what we use policy for you know because that policy then Becomes of how we are actually going to operate and that policy is available for anyone to read yes and I think Christine's probably typing away and searching to see if you can find things introduce your question Hudson I I think that this doesn't quite rise to the level where we need to involve Warriors
075in it but it's again we will probably get really specific language if we did that right well we also have to pay for legal fees we yeah Hudson we've already got legal advice uh Pietra was very clear that there is no law or obligation to occlude um letter sent to the board as part of the meeting at the Su board or can we approve that independently um I I think it makes sense to do it I mean both Elizabeth and I are on board with this sort of procedure and so I think it makes sense to discuss it at the SU and then um pass a policy so that all boards are um create um are acting the same way um and I would prefer to create a a policy if that's what we're going
076to do that all boards would agree upon so you have one policy Bill we have one a20 which is board meetings and preparation and distribution policy so maybe it just needs to be um tweet okay we'll put that on a future agenda for the issue probably sooner rather right oh yeah we got a couple new policies to deal with um but in taking forward it would be good to have that in place at the starting thing open it on the agenda no because we can't well it depends on the retreat it's right it's public or not so it depends don't want to do in August we do I'm putting it on yeah so um August 20th um yeah August 20th that makes sense 28 28 so 20 well 20th something or another yeah okay setting
077the next agenda uh I assume we have a meeting next month um 14th so so far I have tour of Windsor question mark get a time on that approval of the resolution annual goal goals and how we measure progress um I think the administrators will give you an update on summer and opening School and anything else you wanna I'm uh I don't know I don't know how this this is a little off topic but if we're going to create some process for appointments that might be something that we want to bring to the Su board as well at some point it's true you know if we're going to create a policy regarding it or a procedure it would be good to have all boards functioning the same especially on you know your behalf right because
078so that you don't have three different policies slash procedures for appointing new members and present it yeah I I think that might maybe we talk about it with with the full board here hopefully at our next meeting in August kind of review what we discussed this time see where we land with uh with Rebecca yeah yeah I'd like that I I brought it up as the Su board because I'd also like to discuss it at the next um School Board as well because we're the ones that I don't know if the Su if the other two boards have the problem with appointments as we apparently do well I don't know if and something we need to look at right so Portland's not londonfield's not sometimes their roles are different depending on what you are if
079that's law nausea back though we see much but the finer points of the law on it are the only exception that I saw in there is if you're a charter school that's different otherwise I mean it should ostensibly be a similar process for all four deal the only slight presentation that I have is that I I can understand the benefit in having a unified policy across three districts essentially for doing this but the Su level itself would never have to actually do that process because it's it's a school district process so that's where I mean I I leave it up to you to say whether it's appropriate to talk about it that level or not yeah well I guess I guess the the discussion is the next Ascutney board meeting could be does this rise
080to the level of something we want to put into a policy or is this just something that we want to lay out for the amount of scotny school district as a procedure um enduring materials yes I like that yeah yeah but you know if we come up with a good procedure there's no reason why we can't present it at the Su board for the other two districts to look at and then maybe as an entire group we might want to codify that process in some way yeah that's a good idea I think at the very least presenting at that level to say hey we did this thing this also applies to something that that man is going to happen in your District here's kind of a toolkit if should you choose to adopt it at
081the query at least whether or not we're you know approving on that level yeah and it has happened not many other districts yeah so it happens more often than we hate to admit foreign do you want to give an update on our recycling improvements um I'd like the principals to be able to weigh in on that so maybe September yeah yeah but I'll put that on there except it doesn't um doesn't Windsor have zero sort in the school we have oh I don't know what you have the recycling center it's probably a classical glass it so it depends there's no town trash or recycling utility is it's private companies so like I know I I use Jeff's they have a zero sword service I use weather Fields don't yeah I think zero sword is pretty
082common I I know that uh Casella does that too I think there's one more desert this ones are I think they all have zero sword options so I'm sure the school has that option well I I know that um in in the cafeteria there's recycling bottles I mean there's the cabinets that help you determine what what those where um I think what Ham's referring to is the athletic field right yes yes so I'll talk to Jim um because I know in the school we are working hard on teaching kids about Recycling and we're working with cat from that Burger King remember her last name but she she um helped them devise that system she helped us at Heartland um the kids built one two years ago I think leatherfield and Windsor and West Winds are
083both schools are working with her this is coming in which is exciting I think the question for him would be too like of why he suggested just like the can and bottle one I think a lot of times when you do that my guess I would like to hear what he had to say would be that you get more compliance like everything in there is actually recyclable other than if something goes in the recycle bin that is not recyclable it can ruin all of the recycling yeah so I I think that might have been what his aim was that there's more of a chance of the stuff in there is going to be recycled if you kind of limit what goes in um I know that when we're talking about Plastics the the standard for
084plastic being considered soil soiled is pretty that's a pretty easy like hoop to jump through whereas when it comes to more porous things like paper cardboard all that like you said if like a piece of soil paper that might otherwise be recyclable ends up in recycling bin that can actually ruin entire battery recycling so I I think you're probably right just something to think about yes it is okay well that's on my gym list are we in need of a um executive session okay thank you thank goodness okay so um I will take a um motion to adjourn the meeting Davis back in Megan any discussion all in favor of adjourning the meeting say aye oh I I'll um oppose say nay any abstentions okay you guys have a great evening thanks Bill yeah thank
085you Davis foreign