SU Board Meeting - May 22nd, 2023

001It is uh 6:33 and I call this meeting of the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union Board to order at I already said the time. Um are there any changes any additions to the agenda? Just have one request as an item for action. Um, we are requesting that the board lift the vaccine mandate for our employees. We're still we're still we're still technically mandating the vaccine. Yeah. I have a question with the flag. Was that for our forutney or is that for this? Um, well, we're talking about it had being policy. So I think that um the first place to okay was to discuss it as policy per board agre district agreement would start at the um SU level so it would apply to everybody um and it's at this point I don't even think it's a

002first reading necessarily but you know just sort of opened up for discussion to be on front of the game of um Okay. So, we're just doing Are you going to let me in? I just did. Okay. Sorry about that. Um any other changes to today's agenda? Doesn't look like I'm in. Okay. Okay. So, did everyone have a chance to read the minutes from Yes. Thank you. Are there any questions, concerns with the agenda? Good to me. Yeah, they were very straightforward. Okay. Accept the motion to approve the minutes. So moved. Second. Any other discussion? Um, let me get ready for my round the house here. So, we'll start with online. Colleen, have you I Mark I Elizabeth I Davis. Hi Rebecca. Hi Nancy. Hi. And I am an I. Hey Megan. Megan. Hi. Okay. I'm

003sorry. And I welcomed you. Um, so that is approved and public participation. I just opened that up. Public comment is not legally required, but we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns over issues. Through these meetings, our board models for our students how to conduct public discourse and that the board and members of our community can approach controversial issues in a civil and constructive manner and can demonstrate mutual respect. Having said that, please note that the board is here to listen. The public comment period is not designed for discussion. Please start by identifying yourself and what town you reside in. Do we have anybody who has a public comment be it in front or behind? Yes. May I sit at the table? You must certainly come up

004here so that we all can. I appreciate you very sit next to me. Thank you. I have something I'd like to read. It will take me less than three minutes. Hope that's okay. And then [Music] we'll be done. Uh I want to say a few words about equity which has become a kind of mantra for schoolboard members and their hired consultants the past couple of years. It is important, I think, for parents to understand that equity is not about everyone having an equal opportunity to succeed. Our schools already provide that as they should with the help of IEPs, 504s, MPSS, anti-discrimination laws, as well as good teachers and support staff. Equity is different. It means everyone has a successful outcome. Proponents say it just means giving everyone what he or she needs to succeed. But

005the way they measure that is the success rate. That's the measuring stick. Of course, we all want students to have what they need. But in case after case, the tools employed in equity's name don't work, and they often make things worse. Under an equity approach, it is almost always the system that is responsible when a student has trouble finding success. Depending on the students identity category, it is the fault of systemic racism or white supremacy culture or the patriarchy or ciseteronormative society or colonialism or capitalism or some other ism. Too often in this scenario, the student comes to believe that he or she is not a unique human being with individual worth and agency, but simply part of an oppressed group being held back by forces beyond the students control, perhaps beyond anyone's control. So

006why bother? And this is the point at which the equity train goes off the rails because schools and colleges then start trying to manufacture desired outcomes by manipulating existing conditions. dumbing down or shrinking or decolonizing the curriculum, grading on a curve, making homework optional, getting rid of AP classes, not maintaining boundaries or providing discipline when it comes to bad behavior, eliminating college entrance exams, hiring staff or accepting students based on identity quotas instead of merit, and the list goes on. There are numerous examples of these things happening right now in schools and colleges around the country. Numerous examples of the negative outcomes that result. My guess is that the majority of WESU board members are not seeing these stories in their news and social media feeds. In support of the claims I've made here, I'm

007going to email board members a document called Who Benefits from Equity? It has 30 pages of examples of equity gone wrong in K through2 schools and in colleges. I encourage board members, staff, and parents to take a look and I thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. And my name is Tony Piccino. I live in West Windsor. I've been a public librarian for 20 years and I was librarian at Albert Bridge School for seven and I have two kids in the school system. Thank you. Thank you for your comments and your time. I appreciate it. Any other public comments? Okay. Administrative report. Great. All right. We have some um guests tonight that are going to be helping with my report. Just get it. There it comes. All right. Okay. So, the first

008thing um I want to talk about tonight, this came up at a meeting. I think the last SU board meeting, there was a parent with concerns about cell phones in school. Um it's been a concern of a lot of teachers, parents, administrators, even students. Uh we we noticed that um cell phones are becoming a a big distraction in classrooms. And we also know that social media um does not support good mental health in our children. So we um I sent out a survey to staff, students, parents to get some input. Uh what we were what we're thinking about is a no cell phones on your um out in school. And that was the question that I asked. Some of you probably filled out the survey, but I'm going to share the results. It's it's very

009brief. Um, I wasn't too surprised by the results. Okay, let's see. Here we go. So, the first um section is uh the staff and parent responses. We had a very um good response to the survey. 454 people took the survey and as you can see um 72% of those were parents of of that of those 454 responses and 27.5 were staff members students I did separately um you mind putting it on presentation mode oh yeah sure sorry about that so you can see it yes I can see it yeah you got it okay so um of of the staff and parents that took the survey, 85% of those support a no cell phones out in school approach. Um, as I described in the the header of the survey, um, I did pull there were a

010lot of comments. I pulled some common themes. Um, there were there were many people that expressed that they would like to have um their their student have a little bit of time during the day to check phones for after school plans. I mean, I think society has changed. you used to call the office and the office would send a message to the classroom that we find that doesn't happen anymore. Parents are texting their children all day, all day long, some parents. Um so there was an ask for a a designated time during the day for for students to be able to check their phones. Um some um parents really want the the their children to have their phone on them somewhere in a backpack or um pocket in case of an emergency. And that's the

011those are the times we live in. And um there were a lot of comments about school safety, school shootings. Parents want their children to have phones um on them in case of an emergency. And I will say it's often what we what we read is not helpful for parents to be texting during an emergency, but that's a um I think it's a feeling of safety for people. Um there were asks about consider consideration for students with 504 medical needs and obviously we would um support those needs and and there there may be plans that look different for certain kids. Some parents have concerns about phones being confiscated because I did say if a child if a student decides to take their phone out it would be confiscated for the day. So we have to wrestle

012with that figure out what to do about that. um we may just call parents and say come get the phone because it is could be a liability for us to hold the phone if something happens to the phone. So we've been told um and some people felt that this would be a really difficult change for teachers to manage and that is absolutely 100% correct. We're having difficulty managing it now. Um so those were the comments those were the common themes from the comments from staff and parents. Um next were the students. 194 responses not quite split equally but middle school and high school those are the biggest users we find although it is getting um we are finding students at younger and younger ages are having phones. So it's just about opposite. 82.5 of the

013kids do not want this approach and 17.5 were in support of it. And some of their common um comments or themes from their comments were similar to the parents. They'd like to have their phones in case of an emergency. They'd like to have access during lunch or recess or if their work is done. Um we know that once you give an inch, they take a mile. So it's it's really a slippery slope when you I would say especially when you allow it when work is done in the classroom. Um I don't I would not support that. it just opens up Pandora's box. Um, some students were concerned that that that um not allowing kids to have their phones in school lead to outbursts uh for kids that are in opposition to this um procedure. Uh

014some students said they like to be able to use their phones for music while they're working. Um, some said they offer a sense of security and some felt that using phones in school really prepares them for being adults because adults we know in the workplace have phones. So, I thought that was a pretty good pretty good um point. So, those are the results. Um, the administrative team, we've looked at these preliminarily. We're going to dive into them. We have a folding meeting after school gets out and um make some decisions. But I can say preliminarily the administrators in K8 are really not in favor of having phones out at all during the day. I think at high school there was a little um Kate felt like they they could be responsible at lunch if their

015phones were accessible during that time of of the day. So that's where we're at. We'd love your thoughts. Do you have any um they're one-on-one? Yes. for the devices now. Yep. [Music] I just want to point out hard is K8. No phones. So, yeah, this is a hot topic all over the state. I'm getting um questions from other superintendents. What are people doing to cell phones? If you have any procedures in place, please share them because it's a struggle. What do they do at the high school bell? Do you know? No. Okay. It's they treat them like young adults. So they're allowed to use them. Yes. Okay. Yes. I think it would be helpful to find out how other schools are responding to that. I remember when I was at at Claremont, um a business

016teacher would have them phones in pockets. She was pretty um clear about how it would interfere with their work and I mean it was not a matter of like you just can't you know she really spoke to them around we need this time to like really focus and that it's going to distract really good about helping students understand the value um of them being there it's not like she taking them away I you know so she really did a nice Uh but um it didn't work with all of the classes. No, we got the same thing going on, you know, and that's Yeah, I don't Gosh, it's Yeah. And it's And your policy has always been to up until now. What has been your policy? We don't have a policy. We have procedures. Um, and

017I think, you know, the intention was to a reminder from the staff member to put the phone away and then on a second reminder that the phone Kate would deal with it and and she would there was there's stepped consequences. So, you'd lose your phone for the day. If you did it again, you'd lose your phone for two weeks. But honestly, I think to be quite frank, teachers are tired of battling it and and some have just let it go. Um, so that's just the reality. It's not anything negative against any teachers. It's really hard. Um, so there there are some that are just really asking for something more um clear that we're all consistent with because So it sounds like the teachers really do want um some sort of brains bought in brought in.

018Many do and some use them as a tool in their classroom. So, it's not it's not 100%. So, at the high school level, um, what are the high school teachers thoughts? They're split. Okay, that that's the group I'm talking about. Like, okay, some want them gone and some use them as a tool. And I think the inconsistency is is hard for kids. So, they can use them in some classes and not in others. and it, you know, it it it creates a divide, but thank you. Yeah, I'm I think I may be in the minority, but I have an eighth grader who does not bring a home school. Um, and you know, there are times that I was like, it'd be nice if I can text him. Whatever, I'll call. And I just it it

019really hasn't been an issue. And they're not distracted in school. I can always call if he has a question. I get phone calls like I used to get phone calls from you guys all the time and now the phone's number the school's number rings and it's just him like hey what am I doing after school? It really is not an issue and it makes me feel really good that he's capable of handling himself without having me tied to him. I feel like it's really good to just get run on gay. Yeah. On the flip side, the grade levels, my daughter Sarah came to me. She was a junior in high school. Said, "Dad, I need $1,000 for a a graphic calculator." I'm like, "Your aunt just spent $1,000 for an iPhone." She goes, "Oh, good

020point." Yeah. I mean, that can be a tool. It was a tool. Yeah. Yeah. I know. But she was she didn't need a graphing calculator for high school. Yeah. The phone um for me and my granddaughter is important. Yeah. It's that safety net. Yes. Yes. Anxiety. Yeah. Yes, I think we're at kind of a a difficult and we we've been at we're at where a difficult cultural moment with this because I I I thought some of the student observations were pretty pretty on point. You know, the proliferation of personal devices in in every part of life for so many grown functioning adults, you know, in the workplace, out of the workplace, you know, my phone helps me be able to work from home and kind of stay on call if I need to go do

021something. like there's all of these benefits to having that kind of connectivity. There are also a lot of downsides, right? And it's I think it's it's another consequence of just living in this era where technology is just constantly outpacing itself and we always are trying to play catchup. Um, I think that I'm generally I think K through eight for me is like a no-brainer just because when we think about development, particularly in those younger years, I mean, the presence of that kind of distraction really worries me. Um, and I think, uh, yeah, I don't know. It's something I'm pretty split on because I tend to, you know, I have the more hardcore part. red brain just wants to be like, you know, it's ah we survived the '9s. We didn't all we had cell phones

022like, you know, it was like five people and they were texting like on weekends. Um, but you know, the the the the paradigm shifted on this stuff. Um, I think that I think that a policy where there was some mitigated access for high school age students makes sense. I generally think that in educational settings, you know, we have devices that we can provide for students to do a lot of what I imagine we would do on a personal device. And it also could present an access issue if you know, and I'm not assuming teachers haven't thought of this. I'm sure they have they've planned this out and they're doing this in responsible way, but if you're relying on students having personal devices and you have students in your classroom setting who do not have those

023personal devices, it it can create an imbalance there. Um, so I think relying on the technology provided by the school for that kind of stuff makes more sense to me. Um, you know, 14 to 18year-old students during during break time if they need to catch up on messages. I understand some some students do have jobs. They have responsibilities. It's the way that they connect with the outside world and and function. I I totally understand. Appreciate that. Um, but uh yeah, I think I think having some more guard rails up in this makes a ton of sense. Thank you. What if we just sidestepped the policy and provided funding for individual classrooms to get uh signal jammers to get signal jammers and that way uh when they go out into the hallway there they cost about

024$300 just as a cursory Google search but uh and the teachers would then yeah there's safety concerns of we use we do we emergencies. In emergencies, we use cell phones, right? Wouldn't the teacher have control of that? I'm just trying to be one more step. And if we're if we're putting an all call out because of whatever we're doing on that all call with that that the teachers use, they wouldn't know to turn it on or off. It's complicated. Yeah. But I I That's one interesting idea. I wrote it down a little bit. We'll look into that. We have some folks online. I'm sorry. Jamie, how many emergencies do we get every year? Well, we lock down the schools sometimes or Jamie Turner. I don't know who raised their hand first. I think it's the

025order. Okay. Thank you. So, I work at a hospital and when we did our active shooter training, we were told as employees that we had to turn off our devices for safety. So, I'm just curious when schools are taught active shooter training what the the rules are for that. We have um well, Larry's working on it. Is that phone dependent, Larry? The Google um chat. That would that would only be for teachers, right? Right. So, uh yeah, but it's it's it's phone and uh computer. So, they could access it on their computers. Yeah. Okay. But their phone has Wi-Fi connectivity, doesn't it? Okay. So, this emergency is an email blast or it's similar. Yeah, it's very similar. Just pushing out information, right? Um, so no, Jamie, we we weren't told that, but I can also

026from Alice, right? From Alice. Um, but certainly it's a good question to ask. calling. Well, now I'm interested. What's the um theory behind turning off phones for safety? So, the the thought behind it is if you're hiding and you have a phone that you know rings or dings or whatever, then the active shooter will know where you are. Thank you. that that makes it make more sense. Um, most of my question was covered in um I was interested in what was happening today in school. How do you see this policy helping or hurting or changing things in the classroom for the younger kids? I mean, is it still going to be a problem to get the kids to put their phones away? Uh, I think from what I hear, K8, it's not so bad. High

027school is where it's the most challenging. So, um, I think it's making sure that we're sending a consistent message and sticking to it together and supporting each other in doing that, right? Good first step. Yeah. Yeah. But I I don't I don't think it's going to be easy. I think they'll there will be if if we say no cell phones out in class if that's where we land I think we'll get push back for a bit I just want to echo Can you all hear me? Yeah. Um I just want to echo what Davis like K8 I don't think cell phones are necessary at all but high school like I use my phone academically a lot. I'm gonna be honest. um taking pictures of notes on the board or um yeah um I use it

028as a scanner like so not having access to that would be kind of an adjustment but I understand and I'm happy to answer any questions but I think that mitigating access is important but just coming up with a consistent message. Yeah. Can I if I may? Sure. If if we did have classroom blockers, you could still have your phone, use it as a scanner, use the the uh camera. What about the Wi-Fi, though? You'd have to wait till class is over. Then I wouldn't be able to send the thing I need to my computer to edit the document. You'd have to wait until later. Yeah. Okay. So, so I'd like to push back just a little bit. I'm not really pushing back, but I'm going to bring up a a point, something that Hudson and

029Davis sort of to round that up in which the educational setting that we're really going for in a high school in which a teacher is a manager of students, not the harbinger of the information. they are they're they're there to manage the students. And I'd be curious to see, you know, some of the objections of teachers, how does that compare to the teaching style of those that use devices as a tool? Um so that's that that's kind of my sort of push back in which you know if there is if there is a a teacher who doesn't really want to have cell phones there's quite possibly a blocker may be a a good tool for them to click on when it's time for the students to focus on one thing doesn't nec all the time

030or just a simple fact that there comes a time in which you have to begin to let loose of control and allow students to become engaged in the environment in the technology that they're comfortable. Also realizing that not everybody has a cell phone. Exactly. Yes. And back then Nancy um thank you. Um I I I think that um because someone had commented on that it prepares them for the um role you know world of being an adult. I I I think that um I know that the workplace has changed, but in the world um of adults, you know, if you're in a meeting, um your focus should be on whatever is going on at that meeting. Um and um I I think that cell phones would be an interruption. It will will be a distraction.

031And so I I think that um whatever you decide to do um one is I hope that the message is not coming only from administration but that it can be a message from parents also because clearly they they are expressing some concerns and views about how this how to move forward. Um but it it it you know the other piece is that students may have to um understand that right now yeah that the decision falls in a way that is well they may not see both sides to that and I think that this is an important lesson for for them and and for for the school also because but it um you know there are two sides and I just hope that when decision is made that it's brought forth with administration care and support

032and it can be presented to students in a way and shared and where there is that sort of communication. And I just said this is policy. This is what we're going to do. You know, but it becomes never conversation. Right. Right. That never worked. But it becomes a shared conversation. Definitely. I wanted to um ask Hudson. Well, first of all, thank you. Never to me how phones could be used in a classroom. And I think that's something that parents need to know. Um because we don't use phones that way, but students do. some of the students. But Hudson, do you go have any classes in which a teacher ha asks you to put them ask the class as a whole to put them away? Um it's usually individual students, but um like um if you

033some like a teacher starting an assignment, he'll say, "Hey, can you please put your phones away?" Like at the beginning of class, but that's really it. Um, another brief thing about the blockers is that that would block non school-owned devices, which would become an issue for people who um need to that use their own devices for other reasons. Something to take in consideration. First, I I before we go on, I want a technology question here, Larry. Um, does students own devices? Can they connect to the Wi-Fi or not? Uh, students, uh, Hudson, are you talking about like seniors who bring a MacBook instead of the Chromebook? Yeah. Yeah. So, they would connect via the public Wi-Fi. But would that blocker block the computers, too? Some blockers are like a Faraday cage where they don't allow

034anything. And then some only would block cell towers. Uh, some would only block 80 beta 211n AC um, wireless. So, it depends on depends on the device, I'm assuming. Okay. One of the issues at Harford that they had that they kind of have to let go is that, you know, if students log into the Wi-Fi, they can, but their device is then controlled by our filter, which, you know, shut down X, Y, and Z. But we can't stop students who have cell towers. Self powers, right? So, yeah, I think um and this has been a really great discussion. I don't want to drag it out too much longer, but I think uh you know, Hudson, I appreciate you chiming in a couple times in this. I think that that really underscores why it's so important

035to have student representation on on this board and on our local boards because, you know, we don't have that kind of insight into the kind of workflow that students currently are using their devices for. Um, and I know as one of a couple, you know, token millennials on this board, like I I see some of that. I mean, like I mentioned earlier, like I in my everyday work environment, it's it's a tool that I use all the time. the scanner thing. When you said that, I was like, "Oh, yeah, I use that, too." You know, there's there are a lot of functional deployments of handheld devices that we constantly rely on. Um, so in as much as I think that there should be some mitigation, I I also wonder if there's a way that um,

036you know, administration could do some sort of study of functional use of handheld devices and maybe whether it's a way that students can use their personal devices. if there was a way to maybe in a classroom setting where the instructor wanted that to be allowed, if there was, you know, either budget or grant funding to get some devices that could be like handed out to students who may not have them. Um, if we're talking about functional, you know, workflow stuff. Um, I think it's something just to back up what Rebecca was saying, it's something that's worth worth some consideration and discussion. I I I think we're at a good starting point on it. Um, but I definitely it's one of those things where it's easy to run the risk of just saying like, you know,

037it's a distraction, get rid of it. And that's not the paradigm we're in right now. I mean, it really is. There are a lot of really great advantages to having handheld devices that we can use to to enhance our workflow and enhance our instructional capability and education, but they also come with a lot of distraction. So, yeah, it's a tough need to thread. Well, it sounds like we've got K8. We're pretty much in agreement. they don't need phones, but high school, we need to figure out what makes sense. But I think on the I mean the K8 needs to like because kids do feel connected nowadays. So K8 needs to be able to call home. Yeah. And I think like in the last year and I don't know if it's because of 8th grade or

038if it's post pandemic, but my son feels more comfortable calling home than ever before. And it hasn't been like too much. I don't think it's interrupting his education or anybody else's, but um I don't know if it's the teacher, if it's the grade or what, but previously I never got phone calls and he was very lost at other points. And so I need to like like if kids and parents are connected and if a kid is feeling lost that we need to make sure that teachers, you know, we're getting rid of cell phones, you need to allow these kids access when they need it. Um and then my like for the high school in a basket like teachers can decide even some do. It's it's really that it's if it's it's really hard to manage.

039Oh yeah. So there are kids using their phones appropriately and there are kids playing video games in the back of the room, right? That's just the reality. Um and we know there are kids taking pictures and there are kids taking pictures, sending videos and so so more to come. But I appreciate your your insights on that. Um I will um uh I I I'm bringing two procedures every month. I don't know if anybody um noticed them in the portal or not. And that's okay. We don't have to I mean I I I made a copy of the volunteer volunteers and work uh study students because I made a couple of changes on this one that aren't reflected in the portal. And the other one I'm bringing to you is the um a super easy one,

040drug and alcohol testing for transportation employees because that is taken care of by our transportation company. So we don't really have to comply with the federal regulations because they do um with their drivers. Um so that one's pretty straightforward. I um worked with our transportation company on that. I wish I'd called him first because I tried to write out all these procedures and he said we do that. So that one's easy. And the other one is um procedures for volunteers and work study students. It it follows the policy. It just clarifies what what those roles are and what forms of um fingerprinting or or criminal record check needs to happen when you're volunteering in the school not supervised by a school staff member. When they're fingerprinted, do they have to pay themselves? No, I believe

041they do not. Tina can concur or unmute and correct me if I'm Yes. Good. Good. So, um you can peruse that. I'll go on because we took a long a long time on the cell phone, but we can come back to that and um if you have questions, we can talk about it. Um Katie's going to take the next slide. It'll be brief. Very brief. So, um it's part of a policy. We have to bring this information to the board. Check the box. We're doing it. Um rule 4500, which is restraints and seclusions. Um we have 10 total in the SU this year spread across the buildings um for which is super small. Just want to put that out there. That's like minuscule and the and it's fairly um um some of those restraints were

042just escorts when someone wasn't extra happy and because they were really resistant. They need to walk into a place and wet. Um the inclusions were really brief, very so trained staff. Um we have six suide trainers. So meaning those people train. We we did a train the trainer program. So six of our staff who are embedded within the school. Some float, some don't. Like one for example is always at Elbert Bridge. Um which has been incredible because then we always have someone to check, someone who's in the building. Um and which we have found we've now reduced everything. So Weathersfield has a total of eight staff, Hartland has a total of seven staff trained. Windsor's 12 and that is just K8. We um nobody at the high school is um and that's okay because that

043actually was mostly what our habit was before anyway. Um and Albert Bridge has three and one and then plus I know that looked like a low number but that also has one embedded trainer in in the school as well. So yeah, there you go. So So can you remind us how did you get so many trainers? I I don't people for the most part I'm sure people here and on the call don't understand how really amazing that is. I have six trainers. I asked a lot of logistics in planning it. Um okay I it's a few great hairs here. Um the uh we so one of the reasons we went to safety care and I think I did explain this before to refresh it is a much more consentbased approach that is um less invasive

044than CPI in many people's opinions. So the other is um CPI has become extraordinarily expensive um quadruple what it costs us for and not sacrificing any um um crisis prevention intervention which is our former u model. Um we're starting to see many schools move over to safety care and because of that the cost savings we were able to train more staff because we really felt strongly that we wanted one of our preventative measures is to have more fidelity in implementation and understanding of what this really should look like and that has that's why our numbers are really that low. So that's why and I really just asked and people said can I and they took the three days and they did it. It really was wonderful. greet staff greet staff that you know if you

045ask and all that they're doing that they're saying you know and it's split between three sports two support staff the two school to home coordinators and two BCBAs that got six which so it was you know a nice representation of folks do you think that the change from CPI to safety care has played a role in in decreasing okay that's Great. Um, both emphasize verbal deescalation a lot. Safety care does it in a different way. And, um, also we've had a real shift. I would love zero. That's my I impart that to others. um that if we're moving to the way of not intervening and how what we can wait out for kids, it also I will share did make us revisit what the intent and why we were supposed to what the rule says

046and that was very deliberate and we're going to continue. We embedded that also in the training and that has helped. Now, I think having been trained in CPI and COMP, which is another um intervention system, I mean, they they're pretty kitchen sink and there is a lot of focus in training on the nonviolent critical intervention. So, I it's good to hear that there's an alternative approach that's uh that's shown some some good results. And last thing I was u we did do a whole training for offered up to six hours for any staff to do the verbal only and we're going to continue to do that next year. Um I'm strongly believe that not everybody should know the physical intervention. The more do know where you don't oversight the more misuse. It's just numbers. Um

047but the verbal piece is really important. We had many support staff take us up on that and further take us up on the afternoon for the followup. So, um, that was pretty cool. So, this isn't used in high school. Is that the We did not have So, we don't mandate who we we can't tell people they have to go do this. Um, if they're hired as a behavioral interventionist, that's part of the job and we talk about that. Um, generally in high school, we we can call somebody. We've got plenty of staff who are in the building and they are called, but um much bigger adultsized people. And so um and this year just happened to be and actually last year too I think there might have been only one staff person last year was

048CPI trained. They just we tend not to um and that's okay. Um we have the we have the staff in the building which is great. All right one last slide in my report and Tina is going to share out um what she's been working on. Thanks Rene. Um, so I really got on this bandwagon of trying to grow your own um, you know, teaching staff from within because we have a lot of support staff that have bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, um, that we think would make, you know, possibly excellent teachers. We're going into a teacher shortage. Uh, we're definitely feeling that in our hiring now. So, in an effort to try to stop gapit and then create a feeder program that is constantly helping us promote a um internal growth system. I put together a

049survey to see if there was any interest within the SU to both help me um work on this initiative as well as interest in possibly being part of this initiative. And so that interest survey was sent out and I received uh 57 responses total. All of them were positive. It was actually really nice to see a mix of support staff and teachers uh current teachers. Um of those 57, 32 were support staff and the blue and rep and red on this chart represent um high levels of interest in participating in this program. So we had 37 and a half% say they were very interested and wanted to do it. Um the other 43.8% said possibly if it would work with their schedule meaning that white that work life balance that makes it very difficult for

050them to go back to school right and and get what they need to get certified. Um so I ended up putting out another feeler to see who would like to uh join the committee with me and we formed that committee. I have 11 people. It's comprised of uh staff support staff, teachers, administrators, central office folk as well as a board member. So that we have a lot of um you know we what's the word I'm looking for? there's a lot of stakeholders involved in helping to grow this. So, it's a community-based program as well as um you know, we needed that commitment from the top down. So, with that, uh we had our first meeting two weeks ago and we discussed uh funding sources, brainstorming educational avenues, uh possibly doing collegiate partnerships so we could

051offer coursework uh inhouse that could help them so they don't have to travel. Um, we I also sent out a survey regarding what current education programs and tracks our staff are currently on to kind of give us an idea of of who they're already working with, what their what their goals are, where they see that they want to go and uh from from there we said we would touch back. Um, we have our next meetings tomorrow and we're going to discuss avenues for education criteria for this program. Um, and the education survey results because I do have those as well. So, that's kind of where we're at. We're just really getting it off the ground. But, um, so far it's got a lot of positive feedback and a lot of momentum and I think it

052it could do a really amazing thing for our community as well as our schools. Big shout out to Tina for leading this effort. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a quick question. I have a comment, Tina. Um uh there is funding if the budget if the state budget passes, there's funding for grow your own um at at like 100%. anybody. They started it with nursing and uh medical personnel. Anybody who worked anywhere in a hospital could uh advance their education um with like full um tuition payment. And now they're they are extending it to education. Wow, that's great. Yeah, that's huge. That's going to make a world of a difference. Try the best. Yeah, we just need the budget, but I'll I'll I'll see if I can find uh where it is in the

053budget so I can send you a description. Oh, that would be great. Thank you. Y this is an aside, but um somewhat related. This just prompted me to think about it. Um we have um several foreign educated teachers in our communities and the ones I've talked to are interested in teaching again but feel like the hurdles are too big. Um, and I don't know, I've heard the state has made it easier for foreign educated teachers to get certified um, here, but I just like I throw that out there, not to start a new initiative right now, but like if we were to um, understand what the loopholes were, then we could send those foreign educated teachers to you guys and only one person would have to do all the research of how to make it

054Um there's there's actually uh they had a bill about that this year. So let me I'll see if I can find it. Yeah, there is there is definitely I know a few of them. Um so in my connection in my talking to the AOE about it, some of it is just a transcript review. They have to see what that foreign college offered to see if it aligns with the requirements of the endorsement. Sometimes they can get a provisional and then they would just have to finish out a few extra courses or you know maybe they don't have a like a practice exam in a different country and might have to take it here. But we do have some avenues. Um it's just a matter of like what their you know what what their uh area

055of specialty is you know like I happened to meet a community member um a couple weeks ago at the job fair who taught English in Japan to Japanese speaking students and then is now teaching Japanese to English- speakaking students at a private school um in the state of Vermont and she really wants to get back into public school. So it's like but she feels that she doesn't want to teach English to English- speakaking students, you know, so but she can only speak Japanese. So like her, so for her it's like trying to find a good, you know, niche that she could do with her skill set and her background, right? So sometimes it's getting creative with what their degrees allow them to do. Yeah. As long as everyone understand that the state of Vermont is

056multiple multiple months behind. Yeah. So, yeah, licensing. Yeah, I think everybody that I've talked to, including the parent that you're talking about, um, initially said, "No, there's no way. It's too hard." And it, to me, it'd be nice to just say, "Go talk to this person. Send them to you, Tina." Um, to know that it's not impossible and it's not maybe as hard as they're making it out to be. I think it's scary, right? like to have to have all of your, you know, hard work criticized or critiqued. Um, but you know, and there's avenues that people don't even think about, you know, like you, somebody with that degree possibly could teach English as a second language, right? The only problem with that is we need to make sure we would have enough students that

057would need that help. So, you can get creative. It's just we have to think outside the box sometimes. Um, but yeah, I mean, we've definitely helped we've definitely helped non-traditional teachers get certified, at least at the licensing level. Um, you know, this program though is really geared towards those that, you know, might have a bachelor's degree and and just need to go through a teacher certification program for a year or some of them have associates and need to finish up to, you know, they're doing a traditional track. So, there's so many different avenues and we're just trying to figure out um how we can support our community members, you know, because at the end of the day, if we're taking our current support staff, bringing them up so that they're teaching, then the community can

058then help refill the support staff positions, and we just keep it going, right? So, we're constantly drawing in all of this new talent as well as helping uh stabilize the talent that we currently have. So, that at the end of the day, like it's just a feeder program. We're constantly growing more people. It makes it look like we have um you know, we invest in our staff and then that gets out to the communities and then the communities realize how great of the you know, how great the educators we have here because we invest so much into them and then they want to send their kids here. So, no longer do our outlying towns want to send the kids away. Now, they want to send them here, which allows us to grow because we need

059more positions because we have more students. And I think at the end of the day, that's the ultimate goal. Awesome. Thank you. All right, I'm turning over to Larry. Yeah, I just I just looked at the format in operation presentation and I just think it's so very it's really wonderful. I just wanted to give you a heads up from we're gonna talk about so this is uh this is my annual report about finance and operations and uh it consists of department here I'll keep it shortly this has been the portal uh since last week obviously you'll have a copy of it if you want to read it um another thing I mentioned last here is the vastness of this position uh is that uh there's so much to it you're going to see about human

060resources uh Tina just spoke about that growing your own program so I won't bo that but uh we also implemented this year frontline central central is the uh allows team to uh assistant Jordan to do um onboarding and offboarding we've really streamlined the process and trying to simplify the process for both the hiring managers and for team and HR department so that um everybody gets what they need. were able to integrate with it and buildings and graphs. Everybody has what they need employees and uh that's a good thing this year. Buildings and grounds as Christine alluded to earlier. We've been working with uh um emergency services or SRO, chief of police, and soon fire department to uh create crisis emergency plans for each school and the SU. Um there's a lot that goes into it.

061This was requested on behalf and um so that's what we've been working on in addition Jim's been a big part of that and uh we finished the amount of spent weather five year preventive maintenance of capital plans um my next job is to work through a lot of the categories to access the state chart of accounts I hope to get that done sometime this summer and um then move on to heart that we're going to feed that that the sound's been more than enough. I'm not playing the product on this. That's all right. Uh so, uh next, business services, uh very busy group. Um thank you to all our boards and budget committees and voters and Connor specifically uh works with the building off the local budgets and they were all adopted and passed. Our

062uh fiscal year 22 audits came back without any findings and um we put them all on the website uh so everybody can access them. Uh we thank Diana Crawl at um yeah want me to speak louder. Can you put the microphone closer to you because you're coming in and out pleasant according to participants. Did you hear that Lindsay? All right. So uh I'll just speak louder. Um, thank you to Deanna Croll, our assistant business manager, for all the prep work she does. Uh, she's constantly reconciling um, all of our books, uh, whether it's payroll and whether it's, um, accounts payable so that, uh, as she does that work monthly, it makes the, uh, audit process go smoother. Kylie passed, our purchasing agent, has process processed over,200 purchasing requests. Most of them come directly from the

063teachers. um for fiscal year 23 McCoy and proudly have split up accounts payable and they process over 4,000 invoices for all our schools in the supervisory union. Moving on to IT services, we finished what I talked about last year, which was the access points and the C security cameras at all schools. Um we deployed over 175 access points thanks to Eser money and thank you to Andrew Doo uh for helping us with that. Um this is the biggest upgrade for connectivity in history. Uh we have um I'd like to talk a little bit about uh two other tickets to have to deal with it. Not tickets. Uh first is uh David Lamb, loyal employee of more than 28 years is retiring later this year. And uh in order to save valuable resources and these staffing

064uh we're going to organ reorganize some of the task duties within and outside of it so that um we will uh not replace that FTE which will save some uh significant money at the SU level and uh resources and we know that one of the um constrinations at the local level is that the SU grows and grows and grows and grows. Well, that's when we work on the fiscal year 25 budget. we can at least show that there's one FT decline there without um we hope to lose any service from the IT model. um dark fiber but we also did an e- rate process and we assigned an agreement um that will double our internet speed effective live one from one gigabit per second to two gigabits per second and move to the dark fiber

065mod dark fiber model which allows us to lease model which increases the connection for each of the schools that connect to Windsor back to Windsor into hub um 10fold so those connections will increase um at at the beginning on July one in fact we already got three of them turned uh from one gigabit to 10 gigabits and all that in addition uh because of the RFP processor ring at a savings of approximately $40,000 a year. So I think between the Trish I mentioned earlier and uh rate um again this will be good news for the SC budget committee when they start working on this year 25 as a starting point uh food services at the request of um Bill our food service manager Craig is is on the call and he will provide an update

066on the BC food services before I hand it back to me. All yours, Greg. Good evening. So, thanks for having me. It's been a while. Um, I I would like to say I'll start with the good. We are full and Christine always tells me I have to be nice, so I'm going to be nice. Um, I'm working on it. I uh we are fully staffed and OP and we probably have one of the the best kitchen staffs I've had in 20 years. So that's a huge um success. Um I think yeah things are going pretty well. I we have a I believe we have built a very successful, promising and encouraging food program in the whole district. Um, I always say that Hartland and Weathersfield are probably a year ahead of the game, a a

067year ahead of Windsor, but um, Windsor's coming up and we're putting a lot of effort forth on um, continuing to build a quality program in Windsor. Um, staffing is huge. It's it's really the key to our success. Um we have solid lo lead cooks that are getting paid well that are leading the programs well. That's a huge, you know, that's a big step in the right direction. That was never in that was never part of the line item. Um and that's really important to see. Um um our participation in H Heartland and and participation is really good in H Heartland and Weathersfield. We're averaging 190 students in Weathersfield on a daily basis. 185 to 90 in Hartland. Um, Windsor's still Windsor K through five is solid. We do about 190 or like 185 or so.

068Um, so it's in line. And then Windsor High School, it middle school and high school, it plummets. Honestly, um, I don't understand. Well, I do. There is a reason for the 9 through 12 program being light. Um, middle school is not bad. Um, but high school is definitely a challenge. Um, and I could go on for hours about the high school program, but I I only got 15 minutes. So um please we um you know we so one of you know a lot a big highlight and I a big highlight this year has been free lunch Wednesday for um all employees in the whole district. Um, I know it's it's I it's a very it's been very well attended. Um, people seem to enjoy it. I think that my intention of free lunch Wednesday is

069different than Christine's and and Larry's. Um, not that it's bad, but I really I promoted free lunch Wednesday as a catalyst to for people to come down to the dining halls, eat our quality food, see that we provide a a great breakfast and lunch or a lunch every day or you know, one day a week anyways, but every day. And then hopefully it would in turn bring more staff to eat in our dining halls Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Um, and that that hasn't been the case. Um, maybe a little bit, but not significantly. So, um, I like I said, I think it's I think it's a great I think it's a great thing. It has, you know, it it does come with a price tag that we haven't really discussed and we need to discuss.

070Um, I mean, really, it's costing it's about 50 and I don't want to get into money either, but I think it's something that you need to hear. It's about $50,000 a year. Um, it's not a big It's not huge, but it's big enough on a on my level. Um, what what's costing us $50,000? No. Well, that's how much that's pretty much how So that's how much it costs to feed the staff pretty much. Um, we're serving Yeah. On an average day, Monday, Tuesday, we serve probably 10 staff members in each building. On Wednesday, we serve 60 to 80. So, it's and like I said, it's it's nice, but I think it's I think we need to continue to promote what the real purpose is. Um uh which, you know, we continue to support local farms.

071We we buy a lot of local products. One of the one of my goals is we need to promote it better. We're not promoting what we're we're our local sourcing as much as we should. Um, but I think moving forward with a full staff, I think we'll have the ability to do that. Um and one you know one of the my biggest things and is especially motivate is mostly Windsor based but we really need accountability. We put $150,000 into that dining hall last year um on brand new tables and brand new chairs and all new graphics and it looks great and we have the nicest looking dining hall in the state of Vermont. Um it the biggest benefit has it's been a lot quieter every lunch period it the kids are separated um and it

072has been a lot quieter and that's nice to see the accountability end of it is kids don't respect it as much as you know I just was in there last Tuesday kid jumped onto the table up over the partition I you know Christine and Larry get sick of hearing me say it, but we need it needs to stop. We need to make kids accountable and there is no accountability in Windsor High School. Um, and it h I I've been saying it since day one. It needs to be a complete circle. It can't just happen in the dining hall. It needs to happen in the classroom. We have to stop thinking math, English, science, history, facilities, maintenance, cafeteria in a different line. It does not work. It never will work. And we have to change it.

073Um, and I'm going to say it till the day I leave. We have to fix it. We can't We shouldn't be telling kids to get a fresh fruit and a vegetable every single day in May. It's not acceptable. It's needs to happen in the classroom. It takes two seconds. Okay, kiddos, make sure you get a fruit and vegetable. It's not that hard. High school line, you know, they come and go as they please. There is no structure. It's hard. You know, the first lunch line, we have probably 25 kids. That's it. Um, we're compete. You know, they're coming and going. They're leaving campus. They're doing whatever they want to do. Um, they're eating in the student services pretty much every day because they don't get exactly what they want in the dining hall. Uh, it's

074a big issue and we need to fix it. So, that's my rant and rave. Um, I think we have a I think we have I think we're moving in the right direction, but we still have a lot of work to do. Questions? Well, thank you, Craig. I appreciate you stopping by. You know, in many ways, um, the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Food Program is the envy of the surrounding districts. Um, and I think I believe you're a big part of that. So, I appreciate your time and I I appreciate your passion. So, thank you. I'd like to give a shout I'd like to give a shout out to Rodney. Yes. Fantastic for ABS and I don't know where else he goes, but wow, he's wonderful. Yeah. I'm sorry I I didn't speak to I I ABS

075is on our Oh, another big thing is a big another thing I should mention is we are having monthly meetings with each administration. Um, so we meet with um each principal, me and Rodney and lead the lead cook, and we we talk for a half an hour about what's going on in each building and what's um so that's been very nice. It's been happening for the last four months. Um, and ABS is always on our radar. We can we're we're going to be bringing a fresh fruit and veggie bar. They're going to have fresh fruit and veggie bar at ABS soon. Uh we just got to figure out um spacing, but that's always a that's always been a challenge. But um we have a we have a designated lady Wendy um that services um ABS

076along with Rodney. And Rodney is Yeah, Rodney's done a great job. So thank you. You're welcome. Christine, to go back to the high school, what what is the policy with the open campus and food? I don't I don't know. It's just seniors. Just seniors campus seniors unless nobody does. Nobody gets called out to go get food. What? Hudson can't hear you. Uh just it's just seniors unless you're called out. But Oh, okay. Gotcha. Out to get food. They can leave campus. Okay. Um, so are kids bringing food or are they just not eating? They're not eating. Yeah, both. They're not eating all the time. They're getting delivered from somewhere. I mean, I just Are seniors bringing it back to the kids are not eating? No, I don't I don't think so. Okay. I I think

077some of them eating. I think some of them wait till they get home to eat or they bring their own or they're sharing food. Some of them I don't know if the lunch um I don't know if the tech center um schedule interferes. Hudson, do you know if that's the case? Yeah. Hudson, what's going on? So it's really a combination of both. Um so Hartford's afternoon bus leaves around 10:45. So there's like 15 minutes of lunch for them to get a grab and go. kids bring food from home, they don't eat or they um a lot of them will get like just I think it's just kids are kids. Um but um then then the Hartford bus that leaves in the morning, comes back and eats around they get back at around 11. So after

078the first lunch is over. Yeah. So we need to work on our high school. Yeah. Lunch. So, so Hudson, I'm going to So, I guess I'm one of the ones that was passionate about this program when we first started it. And so, you know, part of the big push that we had in H Heartland and Weathersfield was really the community support and educating the kids. And um I think Craig's right in that H Heartland and Weathersfield are started a year or two right ahead. I mean, but also I think even further ahead because we started pushing two year. I mean, we started pushing before you were even hired as a principal in Hardland. And so, it's been a huge build up to where we are. And I guess it just feels like maybe we need

079to start pushing in in the Windsor community and and building that support from the ground up. And I've gota I've got to think I mean yes high school kids will be high school kids but I think that there's also a lot of kids they've got to be passionate about local foods and eating well and if we haven't told them or if we're not maybe it needs to be more of a grab and go. I mean, I don't I don't know, but like it just really feels like we need to start engaging the kids and figuring out why we're falling short because it is it's it's all of our food program now and we need to all figure out how to to bring Windsor up. It's an important piece of of I mean the entire process

080of education here. So, I think it it definitely is worthy of Yes. um us spending time in promoting this and I you know and I mean we could even look at incentives for teachers to be part of promoting this and maybe you know we'll get more staff you know to participate but um it may be a great way to give teachers um yeah I don't know but I agree with you yeah I think it's it's really important you know the food piece for our kids and especially if it's I mean it's free Right. It's free. It's free. Especially if it's free. It's free. It's like a no-brainer. It's not even like a cost when we develop the program. Um well, it's one it's it's something to think about. You know, the state of Vermont is

081is really pushing this whole um uh allowing every child universal meals, right, is is on the governor's desk right now. And and there's a lot of people against it because they're for one for the upper class are going to get something for free and they don't like that. But two is that meals have been free for the last four three years, three and a half years. Correct. Our participation has not gone up one bit. One one it might be a handful but that's it's a small handful. So and where in Windsor High School pres provides build your own sandwich pizza every single day freshmade soup every single day. Fresh fruit and veggie bar every single day. two different options of hot food every single day. It's better food than Pizza Chef, Panera, Cumberland Farms. No,

082there's nobody in Windsor that serves a local ground beef burger like we do. It It's not I'm not patting myself on our own back. It's the truth. It doesn't m we're there needs to be structure in the building. There needs to be everybody not everybody but there has to be people on the same page believing in the same purpose and idea. If a kid does not want what's for lunch, they go into student services, get a package of ramen noodle, and heat it up in our microwave. That food should not be available during school hours. I've said it 85 times. It continues to happen. Student services does not support us. I don't care if she likes me or not. I'm not there for her. I'm there for the kids to feed them quality meals. So,

083that's the reality, right? It's it's I could talk about this for hours. It's I'm not there to make friends. Greg, thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. See you. Thank you. Have a great and I think possibly we could shift this to the Mos school board as well as open because it's we're all we're all on the same page with you as far as passion is. So, I thank you for your page and I your time and I think we really need to address this. Yeah. Yep. Have a good night. Thanks a lot, Craig. Good job. All right. Uh, moving forward, uh, just talking about some of the stuff on uh, our plate for the next I'd like to give you guys a preview as I did the same thing last year when we talked about

084all these other things versus the dark fiber I mentioned earlier. Um, we're preparing for that. Obviously, the um, BCAP testing, the inaugural BCAP testing has been going on. Uh, the Edi pilot, which is to do with state reporting. Um in the summer we're obviously very busy around buildings and grounds maintenance and IT. Um we're going to um institute a ticketing system like we do for IT for HR uh and uh and payroll. Um I know Christine has some priorities around an SUI events calendar. Uh upgrading our switches again with some ESSER money. uh communications, we want to do something in the communication space uh with our strategic plan and try to unify communications around the SU uh obviously facilities form. Um Cornish and Planefield have decided to transition uh to to a consulting model. What's

085up? I don't know is trying to see your under way. Yeah. uh Corish and Planfield uh they are posting a position and I know they've had an interview because I was on the interview committee. Uh so they have a finalist and we'll see what happens. As you know, we've been serving uh Cornish for a while and uh we're going to transition as part of this attrition we were talking about uh to a consulting model for at least the next couple years to eventually uh they'll be on their own. they um they are hiring a full-time FTE all for them. Um which we've been pushing for a while because that's what they really require when they're combined just like how they have one superintendent. Well, that changes what we get. We won't be getting we won't

086be get well see what h so what I did was I was able to make it so it's not as much of a cut from our revenues. Eventually we eventually the revenue is going to go to zero but for now uh so it's not all in one year. um we're going to consult with Cornish and Playingfield whereas for the last two years we haven't had anything to do with playing field um which is Cornish. So now that they're hiring an FTE rather than doing their tickets and everything for them we're going to help this person get them going on their legs we know where all the bodies are buried in those buildings and then let them go. Uh so skeleton right skeleton but uh also in the fall we will do uh service awards recognition

087uh many other districts around us and sus do this and uh Tina and Christie have been working a lot on this. We want to make sure that uh we uh recognize those who have been here for um many years. You know, I was thinking when Craig was talking, you know, I've been working here since 2006 and uh and I and I went to school at Windsor in the 90s and um and the the quality of the food, you know, uh is is ridiculous compared to what it used to be. So, as many of you were speaking about, uh the exit interview report uh we will give in the fall. We um for those that take us up on the exit interviews, uh Tina will be ready to report on that. Then I already talked about

088what the reorg do I services. Um I hope to work with the Harland. I know they have they're the one with a separate building committee. So I'm going to have to work with them on that. We're going to work on the fiscal year 25 SU budget in the fall. In the winter you obviously have the district budgets and um one of the things I didn't get off my checklist that I got to do next year is creating an eval system for uh finance and operations. So um it's not just you know the department heads as you know many people in the worker buildings of grounds food services etc. So uh to model that I'm going to create an eval system for the department heads. I'm going to model that and then hopefully they will do

089that for their employees. Um and then I'll update the five-year plans if necessary. Uh so I just want to thank uh this is obviously not a oneman show. There's many people that uh put in the work. Uh Craig already spoke to it. um all these people on this list here. Um I do my walkthroughs on Wednesday. I walk through every building and uh it's great to see them doing such great work. And I know uh teaching is where the learning happens, but as you know, a lot of learning goes on outside of the classroom and uh really want to thank everybody and especially David Lamp for his 28 years of service to the Winter Southeast Revis Union and Heartland School specifically. Thank you, Larry. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, we're a little off schedule. We're

090trying really hard to be us, too. Um, so items for discussion. Teacher salary schedule placement. I think you put that on there. Huh? Did you put that on there? I don't remember putting it. I think we talked about possibly having [Music] No. Well, we did have Yeah. to be able to talk about the um the school day, but not Well, we're talking about people who had um experience in other places and how to place them on the on the scale. Yeah. But that's all in the contract though. Okay. Well, I I don't know where that one came from. Are you doing the negotiate contract negotiations right now? We're starting. We're starting. Yes. We're trying to set up a a meeting for the 25th. 25th. Yes. Thursday night. Um to start a discussion. Um so really

091wanted to do it different. Um, can we would it be all right to share the contract with the SUR contract on the website? It's on the website under HR. How many different um how many different uh categories are there? Are there many or ahead? There are some listed in the master agreement um across schools so that everybody has um the same except the high school has some department heads and then the local schools are um able to create their own stipens. So if a teacher works in one school, could they get a stipen for a particular activity in another school? They sure could. Was that it? It's not limited to the screen that you worked at. Right. One, one common example would be coach. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. So that must have been what

092that was on the agenda, Bill. I don't know. Which one? Teacher salary schedule, please. Teacher salary schedule because I know that you and I talked about it, but it was it wasn't it would have to be in executive session, right? Um but uh I I just sort of to quickly summarize one of the huge issues I see and um that I believe would be a good step forward is to change the differential. Um what I mean by differential is the fact that the the lowest salary cell on the schedule versus the highest salary cells within this area. Windsor is the highest differential. It's 100%. Yeah. Which is pretty incredible. That's what you brought up at the last meeting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um and so that was at our our meeting, not Oh, so that our

093meeting was at one of the last. Um so that's that's one of the things that I hope to discuss and come up with a mutual, you know, solution to that issue. So, and we're starting early. Starting early. Start the discussion. Y um really want to allow for a dialogue to change the pantomime the um the tenor of the meeting be able to take our time and say um you know what what they want what we want and then be able to take a break over the summer and digest it and see how we can come up with a solution. Do you have an idea if you want a two or three year? I would prefer a three-year contract. I mean, that's I'm sure the teachers would too, to be honest with you. It's a long

094process. It is a long process. And the simple fact that um it's nice that we're on stacked stacked. Uh ne next year is the last year of the teacher contract and then um the year after that is the last year of the support staff contract. Um, I would like to request as an SU board that we think about adding a stipen for um uh there to be a and we haven't talked about it in the budget, but if you're it it starts at the contract in order for us to be able to add it to the budget to add a um building location. uh um a person in each building who's who is like the part-time or whatever you call it um counterpart to our sui coordinator. So there's one person who's secured in every

095building who's getting paid for that work. Mhm. Um I think it would uh really go far in not overstressing. Several other supervisor unit went to this BSBA thing last week and several other supervisory units are doing that. Um and uh I don't think that would be much of a problem to add that to the stipen list as a possibility. Yeah. Right. So, and then um you know we can talk about it during the budget discussions but but that's where it starts. Yeah. We have to deal with is Yes. Is it a curriculum budget because um item because I do pay for the team leader stipens come out of the curriculum budget. Yeah. So we may need to up that would be an easy place to put it. Right. Are we talking for FY 24 or

09625? This is 25. It's got to be 25. 24's already been passed yet, but we don't even have the We don't even have the person right working for us yet. So, okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Okay. BSB board replacement. Um, it's taking us a while to get to discuss this. Um, yeah. So, for Amy, Amy was the rep. And they're having um I think they're having uh their their uh regional board meetings in the in the next couple of weeks. So, so I guess that basically what we need to do is we need to decide who's going to do it and then I would contact them and uh I wouldn't be thrilled to do it on on some levels but uh it's probably something I should do unless how often do they meet? quarterly at quarterly.

097I don't know how actually I'm not sure how often they meet together, right? But uh you'd have to become all things the SBA, right? So you'd have to start attending all of the things. something I had to that I did. I've never seen you on a single a single being a representative kind of force. It's good stuff. It's good. And the other the other members of our our uh region are really good. Right. Nancy and heart. Yeah. My my only hesitation was sort of the same hesitation that Davis had about certain things is I'm I'm finishing a masters. I'm finishing my capstone right now. So my time is a little Yeah, I feel good. Yeah, I got I got a month I got a month to finish it. So that's sort of I I do

098just want to say that we should congratulate Davis because he just finished his topic. Awesome. But with uh with Rebecca taking the um position which kind of put me on a position when I was there, you know, I work for the district, but right um but I will I will contact them unless anyone else wants to jump up and think so. Is there anybody online who wants to do it? and Nancy um [Music] but how how often they meet but the honesty of it I mean I I have made a commitment to this school board for the long haul and so I will gracefully accept this position and move forward as a sense of responsibility and a learning opportunity. Especially after I'm done with my capstone. Yay. Yay. I will inform him tomorrow that I

099will be the new representative and I have to dive in. I think we should vote on it. I think we have that is probably a good idea. Yeah. I will take a motion to appoint Yes. I will nominate Sir Bill Yates to the BSBA board. Okay. Second. Okay. Davis. Hi Elizabeth. Hi Megan. Hi Nancy. Hi Rebecca. Hi Nikki. You didn't I think Mark I. Thank you. Bill I Jamie you're here. Hi. Thank you Jamie. Really? And I am an I. So it is I'll be an I too. Sorry. I'm sorry. [Music] Thank you. [Music] Okay. Adoption process. Angie had a good question about, you know, what position, what what role do we want? Um, and I I've put some thought into it. And so I I I'll say what I think and then I'd be

100very interested to see input from other people. Um I think the role we'd like I would like as a board member step you know to be informed you know what's coming up um monetary what sort of money are we spending on it what sort of data is supporting it uh what sort of timeline it's going to roll out as um and then for us to I'm not necessarily saying give our blessing, but to um I guess give a blessing as a board. I guess that would be it. Yes. What What else? I'd like to know well in advance of it being implemented. Yes. What's being considered? Uh, I'd like to be more than informed on what we're piloting and instead know what options we're looking at and what research has been done on it. Yeah,

101that's when we say that was my meeting as well. When I say it, I'd like to know what the research is that supports it, right? The data, what's the data behind it? Um, who owns the company? what what you know who's who's putting it out there. Yeah. What need to film? Um I mean that's that's a pretty big ask. But I I think it's important because it's the curriculum. It's what we do. It's the biggest part of what we do and and they're questions that should be being asked anyway. So yeah. And those are things that should all go to parents. like everybody needs to know these things and so it's not I feel like it is a it's a big ask but it's not an unreasonable ask right I would um step forward or

102backward I I like I I guess I agree with the word give our blessing but I don't think that we should be the ones voting on it like I think that's why we've hired a very good superintendent because that to me feels like it's stepping on the boundaries of we've hired Christine to to do this work and so I don't want to vote on the curriculum but I want to know everything about it. Yeah. I think I think being fully informed and having input and being able to discuss it short of yeah making decisions out of it. Yeah. Being able to have some discourse around it would make make a lot of sense. As elected officials we are responsible for the money we spend. So I also like to know how it fits in with

103the education quality standards and uh uh and my confusion is that the last time we had various before your time. The last time we had various considerate and before your time. Yeah. Before your time. just before you. Yeah. As a curriculum director. As a curriculum director. Yeah. Um that the last time we considered curricula, it was completely run by the board and the board did vote on it. So um and we had a series of presentations on the various curricula. Um my time. Yeah. Right. I thought I mean it made me it was right when I started on the school board and it made me I think I said this last last meeting it made me really excited because the thought that I was like why would anybody send their kid to a high school

104outside of our supervisory union if we have a really great curriculum that's K that goes from K12 like if if it's really good and high quality and it's being implemented by really great teachers why would you need to send your kid outside of our supervisory unit for high school. And that is partly because the board was totally engaged. I mean, I bought it. The board was totally engaged in that whole process. So, just for whatever it's worth, I I think that the curriculum as well said is that's what we do. That's the bulk of what we do. And yeah, and you know, when others other communities or parents are looking at us, that's what they're looking at. I, you know, they don't see the teachers, they don't see the administration, they're looking at what's the

105curriculum. And so I I think it's extremely important to be part of um understanding, you know, the flow of how that comes about. I also would like to know who is involved in making those decisions. you know, all week um include, you know, so I I agree with Mickey. I don't think I would I don't necessarily have to vote on it, but I'd like to know who's who's part of that decision m are you talking are you engaging teachers in that process or is it just administrators? I you know, is it just department heads? How what does that process look like? Because it affects our all of our kids. And I also feel like that's the most important thing that we do. And in the past I don't know how long I've been on the

106board a while. It has never come up. We've had private conversations but it has never been part of Yeah. Until now. Until now. I mean we talked about it last fall in the presentation prefilm presentation. I talked about it. It wasn't even on my radar. Yeah, we just started. I mean, how long have I been a board member? Right. Well, the other thing is that to be able to switch the pan of when and how you share it to the board. It may not necessarily be during board meetings. Um, I mean, the last time I saw any real excitement about curriculum is at 46 meetings when they were talking about Yeah. talking about building a whole new Yeah. the mountain curriculum. The mountain curriculum again. That was before. Yeah. It's been a while. So when

107we talk about engaging parents and it's hard to get community members to to listen to a board meeting, but possibly if we could have it a community meeting would that be able to share that information for for board to be included in that to hear what's going on as well. Anyone else who wants to do it or we do it during a board meeting advertising to the public that at this time this is what we're looking at. But yeah, it's I mean we could do it. Uh yeah. And I agree. I don't think the board needs to necessarily vote on it. I I mean some of us are education people and some of us are not and so we don't have any business voting on it but I would like to be included in that.

108But I think we ask good political questions. Yeah. And when and when we see it and we discuss it, it also opens that door for other community members to have access to that discourse and access to those materials, which I think is perfect. And I think it's important for Hudson to be uh part of this series. Oh yeah, I think it's important for Hudson to be part of the discussion. Raised his hand. So I'm not You have to tell Oh, can you hear me now? I know I'm not officially on the SU board, but for those discussions, am I allowed to be present at the table? He's not on the SU board, but is he allowed to be present? Yeah, we're asking for your opinion. Yes. Yes. I will get my research right to you

109all. He will do his research. Hudson, by law, this is this is a public meeting. Yeah. I mean, you can come here. We can't kick you out. We wouldn't want to. And we wouldn't want to. Now, by the way, are are the other boards? We're working on it. Yes, they we have we have official official student on the board in Weathersfield. Oh, as last meeting and we're I think we're working on it. Yeah, we're close in Heartland. Yeah. Cool. I think that's someone else. uh Hudson has put his hand down. Okay. So, I think that's a good start to discuss and I love the idea of a community meeting just to introduce the curriculum. I think that's a very wise Yeah. Not necessarily I want to spend the night. No, I get it. on another

110meeting at the same time for something under an hour. Yeah. And and anyone can chime in to give you guys the time that you really need to present the facts and the ideas that you have. I I mean I my suggestion would be that um it's in the form of a forum instead of a um meeting right because I think people will be more likely to come and it also be in every town part it could be part of open house could be yeah wow or separate just it's hard to get people to come out so I think of the big things that draw people in and try to leverage those meetings. But yeah, with the whole week of technology, I mean, the amount of people we have on the meeting here tonight is more

111people than Yeah. had in a long time. That's true. So, so thank you for that question. Did you write all those things down? But I I think like having a pedling about sorry having a forum also draws uh community members who aren't don't have children or students in the district. I know in West Windsor we have plenty of community members who are interested in what our our students are being taught. Yeah. Where their tax money is going. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. um SU board retreat. So Christine and I discussed and talked about a August date for a retreat and our regular meeting I don't know we didn't get into detail detail bill but our regular meeting is late in August the 28th. Yeah that's not going to work. That's not going to work.

112So yeah, it should be earlier in August. Yeah, you said the eth date. Oh, no. The in August. Yes. Let me get rid of the event I started. What time would it start? Well, that's a that's a good question. Um, also we learned Christine and I learned and learned a lot. There's some that uh board retreats have to be public and have to also have a remote option unless they are strictly training. Right. Okay. So, okay. They cannot be like uh you can't be setting your goals in a you can't be setting your goals in in a session. We can do the equity audit training which we're planning to do. We can do the um um we could do the open meeting law. Yeah, we're we're good actually. But you we're not supposed to be

113deliberating in uh in a retreat unless it's public which is I think they're they're warned they're on the website um with a with an agenda is weather I don't know about man yet are people interested in having a three hour in the day go over a lot of different stuff or we previously have done it in the evening like 5 to 8 with dinner right would it be makes sense to do it on a Monday because we all keep Monday work that' be great thank you we could even do it Monday July 31st to we're not doing July meetings. End of July. Yeah. Some of us have a meeting on August 1st, so I'd prefer not to do July 31st. You have to go on a Tuesday. Yeah. On Tuesday. So, it looks like we

114have the first Tuesday of the month. Seventh and 21st are the two Monday options we have. Yeah. Seventh. I think seventh sounds. I think that's a great idea. And I do like the idea of five. Is that 5 to 8? Yes. 5 to 8. And where do we know that? We've done it at Windsor. So, we can eat, but we've also done it at Weathersfield. Oh, that's right. We did do it. Oh, no. We've done it a Weatherfield. We've done it at Heartland, too. I don't remember ever having a Heartland. It was before your time. Yeah. Yeah. So, that was a while ago. Just saying. Let's Let's see if we can get some logistics for hardwood. I mean, I'm not gonna argue that. We've had it in all the cafeteria. I don't I don't remember.

115Maybe that's because all of our time other dining service, wasn't it dining service? I thought we had the whole board there. SU board retreat, August 7th, 5 to 8, Hartland. We can name it. Okay. And do you want um me to reach out to Craig for food? Yes. Yeah, you got it. Okay. Okay. Um does that cover it? Yeah. Okay. policy review. C5 firearms policy first reading. Um, wait. This is pretty boiler. Yeah. You think? Yeah. We're not writing our own. It does. It doesn't even have the name of the supervisor. [Laughter] 21st. What do you think? My question firearms, but I mean is do we have a policy for weapons? That's what my question was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think we do. We just had we just we just um went over Yeah. Yes.

116Recently. Yeah. Like the simple fact is the firearm policy is wired. Yeah. I don't think we can roll them all in together. Yeah. No. Because this is based upon a federal law. And it talks about explosion, but it also talks about a case by case basis. And then it talks about um maybe being in school but you know on site but away from everybody else. And I wasn't sure is that part of the it's exceptions or is that the rule? I don't know. I think that's providing if if you're going to um I think it's an option if a student has brought a weapon to school and still educate them while they're not in the building as a consequence. Yeah. student who's unaware. That's not an uncommon thing in Vermont. Bring in a 3030 shell

117and just come up and hand it to me. I'm sorry. I was hunting my dad. I brought by accident. I recall when I was in your school back in the early 2000s, I think somebody had their rifle just in their car rack and forgot about it. I mean, it does happen. It does. Yeah. I think this is just guidelines to help us to help sort of guide what the punishment no what what they guide the case by case um it's not guidelines but what may apply in a case by case consideration. So in the portal and you currently have a firearms policy is it revised um in 2019? Was it more expensive than this? This seems No, it's not. Oh, so it's just a It looks pretty close to the exact same thing. I thought

118it looked pretty close. Yeah. Does this mean if someone has a firearm even in your car or whatever that they have to be exposed? No. That's why the that's why the four bullet points there. Okay. That's modifying the expulsion. Okay. Some leeway. Yeah. Okay. Good. Circumstance such as No, no. I think it would be good for us to add this at first reading maybe to to I haven't read the old one to look at look at them back because if we have a firearm policy then we do right so of course we do is this replacing it and or what's the difference sounds like they're I mean they I'm I'm reading them both at the same time they look pretty anything different when I compare them it just says VSB viewed and so maybe they

119didn't change it. I don't know about you, but I can't read the top. No, I'm reading the bottom. Oh, I know. But the firearms, the adoption notice, this text may be a disclaimer. It should be removed prior to adoption. Yeah. So, we do have this policy. So, So, I don't think you have to adopt it again. Yeah. Okay. Like the exact same. It looks exactly the same to me. Megan, you read it, too. I read it, too. I looked at other schools like Hartfords in other areas and they a lot of them combined weapons and guns, but it sounds like we have a separate one for that. That was the only difference I saw in other places. Christine, would do we have a place to say that we reviewed it um in just Yeah, we

120just read it the current Do we have to have two readings to read or No. Okay. That massive Well, yeah, but we didn't read all of those ones. Um, right. I just want to make sure that we're not just like, okay, we have this check and then it says 2019 when it was actually 2020. Yeah, that's that's where I want the check box. We'll have Lori update if you adopt it tonight. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I make a motion. Oh, wait. We can't do that yet. D1 title one part A L parents and family engagement policy. Um, you know, required. The only thing I'm concerned with is um Christine and I talked about this simple fact that in a policy we're having a uh required open house and we have no contractual requirement for staff

121right to come. So who is going to man the open house? So, um, but that just that's something that popped out at me like, okay, we have to ban this. What do we have to do? But I think that's something we need to address along with other things in the next in this upcoming contract negotiation. How are you going to get staff to participate in uh willingly in IEP meetings uh back to school nights and things like that when the contract language is a little fuzzy. Okay, it's very fuzzy. It's basically it's non-existent. I just It's not that it's non-existent. It's just the part of it that really was affected went away. Yeah. Uh the only thing you have is that administrators couldn't assign one or two nights for parent conference meetings. Yes. That's just

122not that doesn't cover that. Elizabeth, I just have one comment and that it's just about our policies in general and that is uh if you're going to use acronyms after the first reference then please put the acronym in parentheses after first reference. So for example, continuous improvement plan is in it uh and then it's referred to as CIP in the policy itself. Yeah. Okay. Is that ADA? What's that? Is that APA? Yes. You don't know anything about ADA, do you? They do that somewhat. The American Psychiatric Association uh citation guidelines and like style guide. Yeah. Yeah, they search the rules when you look at a textbook why it looks the way it does. It's true. That's People need to know sitting here. I used to tell people this is our Is this our second reading?

123No, it's the first read. Okay. So, I read it. There were actually 34 pages of a long You didn't have to. I copied it. But the arrest are just forms for the different different engagement policy documents. So yeah, that's allurdical. It's the federal government. We don't have a choice. Yeah. Jeez. Yeah. It's the feds. That's why Andy spended all the local meetings going over the It was not the correct format. We actually adopted it in you. Y'all adopted it in February, I think was the first reading. So, yeah. Oh, good. Good thinking. Yeah, that was the wrong one. Okay. No, this looks a lot nicer. All the extra stuff on the bottom is basically for us as we're implementing. Yeah, it's just tools. Got it. the first center. Any other comments? Some other just if

124not we can move on. C-22 new student activities combining C22 and C23 second reading. Um, one thing that came up with in Hartford, um, talking about, um, athletic student clubs and whether or not to, um, require them to have uh, [Applause] doctor checks up, physicals. Oh, physical participating in a is is a physical required for I mean for a student the yearly physical um to go to school to play sports. Yes. The DPA requires a minimum yeah two years. Two years. A lot of schools, Hartford included, has switched to every year just because it made it so much easier for parents to remember because parents would be off and be like, "Oh, I we did this last year. Now we did it two years ago." Um besides the fact, you know, their students change a

125lot. a lot of course amount of change um for um grades 6 through 12 um so they just require it every year and it it is I'm working with the AP on um online registration so that's why I get involved with this um but um from their perspective it just saved a lot of hassle for parents and and school staff. It does does it seem I know access to healthcare like doctors right now. See this is saving parents houses. Yeah. Is really really hard to get appointments so in any sort of timely manner. That would be my concern of doing it to year. I'd be interested to see if that affects that because it's really hard. Yeah. Well, at the same time though, Hartford is in the center of the medical world, right? In the

126upper valley, but this doesn't mean you can get an appointment. No, it doesn't need that. But I have that problem. Yeah, I am not advocating that this school district goes to that. I'm just saying that was something that we did. That would just be my concern. But, uh, so we don't require a yearly um, physical checkup. Yeah. Go to school. That's interesting. DPA that intercolastic sports. No, not even sports. Just that the child has to have a doctor. It's a burden. You're not going to keep the kid out of school. No. So you can't go to school because you didn't have a physical. I think this was required in Long Island. We always every because I remember everyone getting one in August. Yeah. They might have changed it too. Was it? Um, I'd love to

127know what Hudson thinks about this. Hudson, are you still here? Yeah. Let me focus away from the sports aspect of it. I'm not getting anywhere there, but just the club. I don't see him anymore. Um, overall this was pretty comprehensive. Um, he spells it out. Yeah. And even to the point of, you know, defining what sort of activity it is depending on who is sponsoring it. Oh, no. I think he's I don't think he's here. Yeah, I think he turned off. [Music] I'm sorry. We're dying over. His face is getting brighter. Thank you. Do they have screens? Some don't. Some don't. It kind of does. I'm afraid to touch it. When pushes her nose against it, it's usually safe. Oh, it falls. Oh well, just make sure you know what's out there. But it's again

128it heads towards procedures up here in a couple different places like this principal superintendent may set standards for academic eligibility for participation. Um, yeah, I worked on the procedures for this. I pretty much took them right from the policy. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing good. Any comments, concerns? Not being addresses the things we would want to address. I'm not Nothing's jumping out at me as being a major issue with it. Uh, A22, notice of nondiscrimination. Um, Lori or Tina that had the question. I think it was Lori about body type. Body. Yeah, we talked about it last time and you're trying to come up with a word. All I can think of was body type. Yeah. Physical aspect. You could say physical attributes or appearance. I mean that I think is a that feels like it would

129fit. Physical appearance. Yeah. Physical attributes or appearance. Okay. I think that's more sensitive than body type. I agree. That's what usually is that's a term that's usually used in articles or social media. It would not be my preference. Okay. Let's go after. Okay. Yeah. And other than that, I It's fine. Yeah. Okay. I change that. Um the other thing that uh I sent out today as well as Lauren emailed me. I apologize. She thought she had put it in the SU cold example. Yep. And I think going through cold judges, I I think it's important for us to have a a policy. Thank you, Megan, foring this for us. Thank you. This would make things so much easier and for years to come. And it is really a solid Yeah. I remember them working through

130this. Yeah. And I'm sure they had a hard time working for it. So I'm very happy to take their templates. I liked how student was. Yeah, that was the thing that stood out to me the most is that it really centers student interest articulation as as the the main driver of this as well as laying out the purpose of the flag pole. Yep. What its main intention is and then what it can be used for. Um and that it clearly gives the responsibility to the school board which those of us who have been on the Bosi school district for several years this would have really taken care of some past issues. Oh, we've only ever had one flag request and that was for the Ukrainian flag. Hudson Hudson just wanted to raise the pride flag.

131I know. I know. But okay. Historically speaking, as long as I've been on the board, there's only been one flag request. And according to Amy, that was the only one I think that we've I mean, in her tenure, we got that takes us back 15 years. Yeah. I really like their format for dates of uh warn first reading, second reading, third reading and adoption. [Music] What else can we take from the whole chest? I see. No, that is good though. I like that. Huh? For the end of each page, it's it's on the end of page one. Yeah. Yeah. There's another Well, we don't have all of the readings. Yeah. Yeah, we do. We don't on the top. We don't have date warned. We don't have date first reading. Third reading date adopted. Okay. Well,

132I think it's a good policy. Do you want It's too late for me to actually take control. I'm too tired. Okay. Oh, thank you. Okay. So, let's Is it possible to Let's ask Lori to sort of change. We'll put this one into and bring it back for our first reading next next time. Excellent. Awesome. You got it. Okay. Items for action 822 notice of non-discrimination. Maybe that'll also encourage requests. Um be kind of cool. Yeah. And I think Yeah. And then we had another one we wanted to look at. Firearms. No. Yeah. Firearms. No, we're not gonna vote on I don't think Oh, yeah. Yeah. We have to vote on it. We're gonna change. We don't need to read it again. Right. Okay. So um in one fell swoop I will take a motion to

133approve C5 firearm policy and A22 notice of non-discrimination. So moved. Okay. Do it once. Any any discussion? Okay. Start with online. Colleen, how do you vote? I. Jamie, I and Mark Mark and Marie Hi. Thank you Marie Davis. Hi Elizabeth. Hi. Megan Reed. Megan. It's too late. No. No. That's my dyslexia. I've been practicing her name all night. And so, of course, I goes away at night. It does go away. Words go away at night. I bet you tired. Nancy. Hi, Rebecca. Hi, Nikki. Hi, Mark. Mark's an I. I'm an I. Excellent. Did you get Yeah. Um and B we voted on SU board member that's me and we determined the date of the SU Bill. May I make a Larry reminded me that he's on vacation. I'm sorry I had to step out for

134the date we chose for the retreat. So is vacation he's gone? Yeah. I wrote it in pen and I will be you'll be gone. So the other Monday was the 21st. We've got Mona Scott me on the 14th. Yeah, the 21st is our other Monday option. Other Monday option. I won't be able to make the 21st. I'm taking my child to uh RIT to go to college, so won't be here. If August works for everybody, then um yeah, let me just You won't get dinner. I'm here. Hi She's a title one interventionist. That's why she's coming to the SU board. Gota. Yeah. All right. I'm ready. Um, so my name is Rean Thomas. I am an academic interventionist at H Heartland. This is my second year at H Heartland. Um, I work with second, third,

135and fourth graders. Um I think around December I had decided that I was not going to return to H Heartland as I was going to take a year to travel. Um and pretty shortly after I had put in my request I realized I didn't want to fully leave. Um I have built a lot of really meaningful um connections at H Heartland and so I did some brainstorming on how I could still go on this trip that I've been planning. Um, and the main purpose of my trip was to go and learn more about teaching English as a second language. As you all know, we have some more English language learners at our school and I have began working with them. And although I have definitely found some successes, I also know that I need to

136build my knowledge base around that. And so I'm hoping to complete a program in Barcelona. Um, it takes about eight weeks to complete and I'm hoping to go from the end of September until mid December. So, I'm formally requesting a short leave of absence so that I can um pursue that course. And and short meaning um the first half of the year or you talk about school year? No, just um from the end of September. So, I'd be able to start the school year. Um, so the first ha I would be there from until the end of September and then I'd be returning um mid December. Lindsay trying to read your name with my reading glasses off. Oh. Oh, we can't hear you, Christine. Yeah, that's better. Better. Guess the headphones, they don't work, huh?

137Um, I just wanted to take a second and just say um that I would fully support Regan's um attempt in doing this. Um I was when she came to me with the idea of wanting to to find a way to stay at H Heartland, I was thrilled. She is an incredible asset to our team and we would we would be truly would wouldn't miss her if she was was gone permanently. So I would definitely support any way that Rean could continue to be our in our wonderful staff. Second. [Music] Well, this is Spanish. Yeah, there's a huge need in the upper valley. Yeah. Yeah. Um Okay. Uh Colleen I J Hi and Marine. Hi Mark. I I did that register. It did. and I am an uh enjoy your learning experience. I applaud you for

138um taking on challenges and life experiences. Thank you so much. Thanks everybody for hanging out with us. Thank you for wanting to come back. Definitely. Thank you. Okay, so thank you. uh setting the next agenda for June. For June, right? So, we've got the meeting in June. We're going to take July off and we're going to have a retreat in August. Is that Yes. Okay. So, I have um uh authority to hire I think would be important if we're not meeting in July if they're okay for for um for me to do that. I had I think Bill and maybe refresh me. I I had wrote down last time something about busing. Did you bring that up? Oh, yeah. That was a parent at the Mount of Scotney district who wanted to Yeah. And I

139know uh at the Mount of Scundy meeting, I do know that parent and I uh I see her out and about frequently in the community. Um I will speak to her in person when I see her. Um it's a particular challenge. I was on the other side of that route growing up uh at County Road and that bus number three goes well it used to be bus number three goes up around County Road comes out of H Heartland and comes down Route Five. So if you're if depending on if you're the going home or getting up it it is a pain in the butt. It's a long ride. It's been the way it is for 25 years. It's not a reason to continue it. But uh I know that the principles are looking at the

140routes and uh they're going to get those routes to Christine and I'm going to make sure that everything is taken care best we can. Yeah. Um, and we're adding a third bus for Money next year. Yeah. Nice. So, I will I will not put that on the agenda. Then it sounds like Larry's I will speak to that. If Larry could just give us a update, two minute update. Yeah. What he finds out um I have title one part A would be second read. Student activities would be third read for next month. Yeah. And um and the flag. Yeah. Okay. I've got a question. Yeah. Is there a way that we could get a list of all of the things that our teachers and staff are being trained on? Angela, we've already got that. We've done

141that like all in one place. Yes. Would you like that next in June? Yeah. Okay. I'd love to know what's annual and Oh, yeah. What's up hiring and you know what when when things are refreshed. Call that we're gonna call that on the agenda. Um what did you say originally? Hiring training and uh require uh schedule trainings. Okay. Because we have uh we have the foundational trainings for new hires and um then we also have like this year's trainings what we're focusing on all staff trainings. Yeah. Yeah. It's not even necessarily something that we have to devote a lot of time to on I just really love to see the Yeah, it's come up and we're trying to be really cognizant of not overloading our teachers. So Angie did a great job um getting everything

142in a in a document that's easy to read and it's pretty clear. We presented it to the faculty advisory council to the union leadership um just to kind of show um and and kudos to Angie and her team for being forward thinking planning it all out. Uh I'd like to touch base on negotiations. Okay. uh just sort of um this first meeting is going to be pretty un informal, but I think I think I feel more comfortable having the board appointation leader leader for the um so that would be an action item. Yes. Okay. Got it. I mean, last time we just decided amongst ourselves, yeah, the whole crew and uh Christine have discussed having her take a much different role. I had a couple of things that I wanted to ask you to put

143on the agenda and now I didn't bring my sticky note with them on it, but would it be all right if I just Thank you. Oh, is my voice in the background? At least I think it's Okay. Um, is there a need for an executive session? Okay. Thank goodness. I will take a motion to end the meeting. Nikki is to go back to work. Oh my goodness. Mark is second. Okay, let's whip through this. Davis. Hi, Mark. You said Mark. It's okay. You're tired. We're Davis. I'm gonna ask you to vote. I in favor. Um, Elizabeth, I Nancy, hi Rebecca. Hi. I am an I Hi. Okay. Um, another thing that we learned or I learned I don't know if you I learned a lot the VSBA uh meeting the other day was that when

144you have a and we we'll talk about this at our our retreat, but yeah, when you have a meeting where it's uh um hybrid, if more than half of the board is present, you you can do a voice vote unless unless you want the voice, Right. But recorded. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. That's good. Good to know.