001push it back okay okay so I'm gonna call our regular meeting um of the Heartland School Board uh to order at 6 45 um so we'll start with I'm trying to see who we haven't attendance okay um okay so I'm going to start with uh changes slash additions to the agenda um we did already warn an executive session we had one student matter at the time we now have two student owners um so there'll be two different student matters we'll be discussing um and Heather had requested that we talk about um public Outreach I want to hit on that very briefly in the principles report but we have a very full agenda today and I don't think we can handle that um so we will put that on the agenda for our next meeting um
002the other thing would just be the Declaration of inclusion from the select board yes correct would you want to discuss if they want us to vote on that I don't think we have to vote on it I think it's more um looking to support it okay still yeah like and if the if the if it yeah it's not a voting matter okay okay um are you prepared to specific yeah I can pull up what it feels like yeah if we have further questions we can always invite Phil today okay um yeah we'll put that on for a short conversation um and we'll table it if it goes yeah okay um [Music] okay uh so I will take a motion to approve the minutes of um June 7th 2022 and then June 23rd 2022 which was
003our retreat if I want to make that question I so moved to accept both those minutes okay I can do them together right yeah unless there's changes you know I'm gonna have to abstain because I was only there for half of the retreat okay so we might need to do them separately so I can okay so we'll um yes do them separately because I also just remembering that's when I had covered and you had covered right okay so we'll do this virtually first okay um so I moved June 7th okay okay there a second um okay so we have a motion on the table to approve the minutes for June 7th 2022 is there any discussion okay um so we can vote uh all those in favor of approving the minutes minutes from June 7th
0042022 please say aye aye all those posed any abstentions okay so that's five nothing um and then I'll take a motion for the minutes of June 23rd Halloween moves Heather seconds okay um is there any discussion on the uh menenza uh June 23rd okay so we'll vote on that um hold those in favor of approving the June 23rd 2022 minutes please signify by saying aye uh three okay and then um no votes none okay and then two abstentions okay so that was three approvals no no votes and two extensions um okay do we have any public participation or announcements um something about public participation question about it or something um wondering about school times the 750 I saw something and another parent had asked me about like now school starting at 7 50 and not
0058 and going to 225 and not like am I missing something or starts kids can arrive at 7 50. start today okay so that is until 2 25 2 25 so we're all so we just extended it 10 minutes instead of 15. the pick the pickup time is 2 25 to 2 35. so it's a window yeah okay and the front end and the back end and I have Heather um by the end of the week I'll send out a letter to families and in there it'll have the start Med style got it okay great we think it we have one announcement we can make right a good one about the speaking of after at the end of the day John did find a director of the after school program so which is great news
006there's a question is there a concern that now that I've got special interest that kindergarteners are not allowed at the after school program it's only grades one through six I think you should talk to John okay I know so yeah no it's been it's been that way for a while but I think there are I would talk to them yeah okay um any other public announcers no okay um administrative report all right I will yep I'll share it working there we go okay so in an effort and for Christine and I to streamline presentations there'll be an administrative report instead of a principal's report and a superintendent's report so you notice that yeah it makes sense it would make sense so what we'll do is typically my stuff will be at the beginning and then
007Christine will add her stuff on the call the administrative report so I wanted to start with Summer Academy um we had oh my goodness I want to say it was 39. Harlan had the most students that went to Summer Academy this year it was wonderful I got to spend a lot of time at Summer Academy it was great seeing the kids some were fishing on Fridays we got one picture of a student who got this really huge fish and they just the smiles in the kids faces was amazing it was incredible and we only have thankfully One hiring update for our certified staff which is Laura Whalen who's our school counselor and I think in our last meeting Christine the board gave you the power to approve her so that was the only uncertified staff
008that we needed to hire which is wonderful she was um I don't think so no okay her she did previously work at Heartland as a support staff a number of years ago and then left um when her and her husband had kiddos so she is excited to come back and she's going to be a great addition okay the last meeting we talked about the town Treasurer so we talked with the town manager and he gave us the Insight that it's an elected position that she is the town Treasurer and at the school we utilized her service but by Statute the town Treasurer serves both us and the town of Heartland that the stipended amount for the FYI for her for FY 23 is 4 200 and he had suggested that we put a line item
009in for her stipend for next year 4200 for per for the town in France correct so a line item as in a specific vote just included in the budget yep okay that makes sense yep I wanted to include this too this will go out in a newsletter to families at the end of the week as well um throughout the whole Su we wanted to to increase security as much as we could and so these will be posted on the main entrance it just explains to visitors how to come in so what will happen is someone will get in through that first tour because it's a it's a double lock so you can unlock one without unlocking the other which is really nice so someone will come in through the first door we'll have someone from
010the office come down and physically meet them in that vestibule area determine what their purpose is and who they're here to see and then we'll escort them into whatever location that they've got an appointment for so I just wanted to to post this but it'll also go home to families in my newsletter at the end of the week all the stuff's going to get their steps in oh they will yes they will they will all right there yeah so this is the fourth quarter financials for Heartland and it's also in the board uh portal um so uh it's um put in the board portal so it's there too if you want to see it in PDF form uh basically uh no real change um Harlan's in good shape you are right now uh pre-audit confirmation
011so things can change a little bit uh 429 000 in the black so um you would have a surplus in 22. if again if this is why it's fourth quarter last quarter but you're in good shape and um once we get this confirmation from the audit you know we expect that in September October plenty of time before the uh 24 budget gets going if anybody has any questions and it looks like the bulk transport yeah I was just trying to see like where the development of that production is contracted services and um some Transportation uh not a not a big uh amount but percentage-wise transportation a travel yeah so again I don't know slightly Below on wages but that adds up yeah it adds up because it's a big amount it's the biggest amount and
012uh and throughout Vermont I'm sure you've read the stories and nrsu hasn't been any uh innocent to it is that uh hard to find people job openings stay open for longer than they have which um is not great for the kids maybe but it's good for the bottom line in the in the last quarter yeah yeah exactly that's exciting yeah and thinking about the FY 24 budget um the board had asked for some possible expenditures when thinking about putting the budget together so earlier this evening we met with from Keith with Keith from Black River designs the I think it was in the board portal the previous one from 2014 that Black River designs did um and his estimate if we wanted to continue the work and maybe an updated similar proposal would be in
013a ballpark of 10 to 15 000 so that I mean he's going to get a more accurate estimate to Jim Taft um and then we can present that to you but that was this evening his ballpark estimate somewhere between 10 to 15 000. in talking with Jim for larger projects in the building we would love to replace right now that it's carpet from as you walk in all the way through to the main office we would love to be able to replace that with ECP tiles the plus side of those is they're really durable you don't have to stand and wax them every year like you would have to laminate tiles that would be in the ballpark of about 16 500. and the last thing I put on there more just as an FYI we
014do we have a van that is purchased by Heartland it's a 2009 with about 119 000 miles on it we use it I would say on a semi-regular basis we have students that are here that we transport to Windsor um multiple times a week we you know bring kids where they need to go depending on the need so it more just as an FYI for the board that we do have it it's in fine working condition right now but it is getting on the older end potentially of its life and so I just wanted to to give that to you so that you knew ahead of time were you able to chat with Jim at all about potential for leasing of Van versus buying any of those thoughts we tend we tend yeah we we
015tend not to lease we buy outright and usually using capitals or mouse that needs to purchase two Vans um and harlins was purchased not released uh now because we just want to pay the interest if you don't have to now we are in discussion of the student transportation in Vermont for Su or special ed about possibly um not a lease but a rental agreement okay which would be part of like kind of like the transportation budget uh rather than them using amount of Scot in these Vans they could use their own for the Su and that way it could serve OSU kids and it's not one School District's van um so we're not a big fan of leasing okay yeah I just I like that idea though like that it would be more like a
016rental agreement like a certain a set amount per day and if it's 185 days that would be the amount almost like uh Hertz rent a car or something I guess I just um I'm worried about maintaining a vehicle um and being responsible for yeah upkeeping safety and all of those things and when uh when Jim bought the mouse gunny ones we've been buying them uh from a local dealer and maintenance person right in town in Windsor so that he can maintain everything right there okay we don't have to go bar flying and Miss appointments or whatever it's right there in town so that's a benefit too and the new one is a hybrid you'll hear a little bit more [Laughter] um Christine mentioned this hey that's all right it's doubly exciting but the John letter
017is very very optimistic he has hired an after-school director um and we as the school are trying to be really flexible on people that would like to work there after school we're trying to rearrange their schedules to make it so they can be here for you know maybe with the exception of the last five to ten Max minutes of the day to be able to get to the rec and help support them too so yes which is fantastic yeah and S back results they're currently still embargoed but if you the board would like to look at them in an executive session we can do that in September okay so sometimes like I've got s back results sent home right you can get them they can be sent to individual families but I got one child
018so not the others does it matter like plywood uh you've gotten them already we as a school we got ours like on the last days yeah yeah some of the teachers sent them home yeah okay so it was up to the teacher well we typically um print them it depends when they come in they they did come in in June this year and um David lamb actually prints them all they're in the office for open houses when we typically give them out so teachers like to be able to talk to parents about them around conference time um so that's why but there's no reason why you can't if you want them individually we can send them out more Curious yeah but we can we can put it on the executive session to look at the
019aspect results in September okay and I wanted to include some upcoming events the first day of school is the 31st our plan is to have an open house combined with a community dinner on September 22nd from 5 to 6 30 and picture day is September 30th um the uh so I was going to add Heather's request to talk about um public events are we gonna do I assume we're gonna do our regular schedule of um like pre-covered trying to have an event every quarter like the character three times yeah yeah that's what I thought okay yeah like math night or whatever we're trying to tie as many of those things that we can to community dinners so people have twice the reason to come yes that's awesome and if you didn't put in kindergartens orientation
020day oh thank you I missed that one oh yes that one is going to be the 20 I don't know my calendar look um so I am going to report out tonight on um some of the work that the administrative team has been doing we spent a lot of time together lately we uh had our Retreat and then we went to the vpa conference together so um and we spent time doing a lot of hard work and also some time getting to know each other and having some fun which is uh necessary so one of the activities we did we felt it was really important to come together as a team and talk about what our core values are um so each member of the team got a deck of um core value cards I
021think they're like 50. in the deck and they had to sort them into piles and the first task was they had to whittle the pile down to their tent top or values that really who they are what they believe in and then they had the whittled down to five and then they had to whittle that down to three it's really it's a really difficult task and then we um as a group entered those into a a Wordle here and so you can see that the top values for our team are Integrity family and community and not that all the others are important but that is really that describes who we are as a team that's cool which speaks to who we are as a team yeah I wasn't surprised by the results yeah so um
022and and those are all of the core values one of our tasks at one of our future meetings is to whittle those down to our top three I don't think it's gonna be that hard but as an administrative team um yeah yeah sorry I don't control that um we also spent some time doing some visioning work and this came out of our some of you were at the Mary Gannon meetings where she tasked the board to go find the vision and it wasn't found um because it doesn't really exist and so we're going to work on that this year as as a community as a whole Community but as an administrative team we wanted to work through it ourselves to kind of come up with a draft version we can share and it'll change based
023on input from stakeholders but we did an activity where the administrators had to take the be the voice which is our part of our strategic plan and what we hold our hat on and and we we believe that our vision is embedded in our strategic plan but it's not a real clear and compelling statement that people can just say right this is who we are this is what we do so we took that um phrase be the voice and we had to illustrate that in a in a picture of sorts magazine cover diagram whatever whatever the teams want it to do and so it was quite interesting to see they all came out very similarly yeah um so and then they had to put words to um what that meant what what be the voice
024meant to them so in the end I'll say team Molina she had she used canva she said can we use technology and that the final one we all had a piece of we collaborated on it didn't change much from the beginning but our phrase be the voice achieving leading learning a better tomorrow for all is what um came out of our visioning work it'll be interesting to see how the community and the teachers and the students um um it changed that work that and they'll make it their own which we'll report that and then there's the van all right so we took it and the license plate fell off in their way yeah so we were driving unmarked Japan and we um realized that when we got um where we were going and so we
025called Larry I think everyone so we got the plate number and we didn't have any tape so we used Post-its to um hang it in the back window and it fell off and we didn't know it we were driving we had pulled over by cops and he was um I feel like I had a plate on my head when I heard the phone he walked up and he was a little nervous and Colleen World went out and she said for teachers we're teachers she just turned around and walked back you know he came up and he helped us he said well you got to put it up there and you do have to put like Vermont on there we just had numbers we had no and then he went home and told everybody we made
026it back when the plates have arrived they're here so and then that was um we used the van infused it twice it's great to have it and just a couple of updates just so you know some of you know this already but we posted the um coordinator for diversity equity and inclusion and we um we created an interview committee a diverse interview committee the committee has met we've reviewed candidates we've selected candidates interview we've created questions and we are interviewing tomorrow night and Thursday night so how we have four candidates that were interviewing so we feel pretty fortunate about that actually um Jim wanted me to report Building Maintenance projects are on track throughout the Su at Heartland there was a float issue in the well which he is handling on be ready before school
027starts so I think we were having some water issues recently but does the well level okay yeah it's nothing to do yeah well it's um it's just it's outside the well yeah so it should be fixed before school starts um and then just so yeah I think Larry mentioned this auditor space completed the preliminary work and they're going to return in September to complete that work and then we'll come back with any changes or recommendations yeah and then it'll be up you know as you know you'll be able to do a 24 budget cycle you'll deal with whatever is left in 22. and uh in Heartland particularly you have to send it to a vault it can't just be a board decision and that is that concludes um the report you will be getting um
028principals will be sending letters out I'll be sending try to hold us up for as long as we can but parents are itching to know some details so those will go out this week about the opening of school and we are on track to open we've got um we've worked we revised our family student handbook and our this year one of our tests was to create a centralized employee handbook we all had our own so that was one of the jobs of a subcommittee at our Retreat to take all of the handbooks and find out what was common and and put in what we thought was necessary so those will be those will be copied and uh the school logos will go on the front but they're Su documents nice nice yeah yeah it's really
029very collaborative team working together so yes well it was good I like the shorteners yeah to the point yeah the team effort is good can I ask a few questions I'm sorry um I'm wondering about your Summer Academy your sounded fabulous did you guys do any sort of like at the end to see like its effectiveness like if summer Academy like is effective and like what improvements can happen for next year to make it even better um I guess that's a good Katie question no I do oh maybe you know we're using will you track my progress for the um Benchmark for kids to attend and then we will we will retest all kids in the fall and track my progress and last year Brittany presented I think at the sulevel the um the progress
030um and then my other question comes with protocol for safety do like besides this whole front door thing that we have now like do we have a protocol for safety that like everybody in the building like knows what to do and what their role is when it happens if it happens so we on all of the sem plays I think this is what you're asking Heather are being retrained in Alice protocol got it I come this fall so that's so everyone will have the same common understanding is that what you're using okay and we do have a safety team that meets uh monthly and we plan drills and we debrief those drills and make sure that the staff are up to speed on what they should do it's not fun but one you know you
031got to know what to do yeah so one quick comment to make sure like so I got left out of that Circle in my own employment of training because I work across every single school and so I'm no one's responsible for my training in that essence you know what I mean like it's so it's so it's and also I was trying to like the speech pathologist the physical therapist all those those people that are more like contracty yeah but they're in and out like I just stood in the like me and the speech pathologists were in like the in our office during the lockdown drill and we're like I think what we're doing with the right thing so um so just to double check to make sure that it was a hold of the events
032that are coming in yeah we're coming and going like we had an issue at one of our schools and I literally drove up and almost walked into the school as there was an issue happening learned at his safety training because he's our lead on this um that there are I think he said there is a light you can get so if you're in a lockdown it'll at the front of the school there's like a light that's what our system has I just didn't know what it meant we don't have that we've also talked about um I've heard I don't know if it's uh how I don't have all the details but there is I think an app that you can install on a like one of the biggest safety concerns is a teacher will go
033outside with their class for recess and leave their door open so they can come back in and that's a big safety concern those doors need to be closed at all times unless you're exiting or entering um so and they don't it's not intentional you just they just forget um but there is I believe something you can install in the door that will then if that door stays open for a short period of time well so you know to shut it yeah uh separately separately from the Alice training uh we're on the fall list for a state safety audit where they're going to go through each building and they're going to give us a list of things that are should be really prioritized don't need to be prioritized right away but should get done and uh
034so that's that'll be more to follow on that right now we're on the fall list so hopefully in the Fallas yeah no it's been around for a few years and uh the last time they were trained on it was pre-covered 2018 yeah cover it's you if the teacher and the students make the decision whether they're going to stay that's the safest um thing to do or if they're gonna they're gonna run they're gonna evacuate or they're gonna fight back and we don't teach our young kids to fight back we do discuss it in middle level like yeah this once if this happens you can throw something and that's based on Research that's come out from school shootings that is yeah so that's what that protocol um is all about that it's sad that we have
035to talk about these things but we do so um is there any I know one of the frustrations for teachers is having to walk all the way back to one of the main entrances to get their classes back in like I'm I'm assuming it's exorbitantly expensive to let teachers card into their own room yeah it is and you can't let them key into their own room they do have they from covid they have exterior door keys it's not best practice to be to have those out so um Jim would like to collect them but then they have to look up here or or they can key in there's a key at the end of the um K1 hallway and we could look and maybe possibly again depending on what the safety audit comes out with
036then we have to prioritize but to make it easier on the teachers we could put a card route especially at Heartland um you could do around the staff room there is one there we could do on there and you could you could pick a classroom or two or a hallway or maybe the end of the building I know there's one there there's one there so we could try to find them so they don't have to they don't have to walk all the way around that would make sense yeah yeah well we could look at that again yeah what about temperature in the rooms I know one of the I think one of the flaws is always that especially in early September right at the you know the rooms get so hot and people obviously just
037just to try to cool everybody down open the doors um is there do we have any approach to that is there any do we talk about it do we get fans for people if they might need one so they don't have to do that or well then even the windows I mean what's the difference between some of our windows and the door the door is open it's got to be closed yeah yeah and that's right there's like the difference is they have to try to break the window s open no wow there's screens I mean yeah some of our windows are not that different yeah but it's even more effort to get in a window and time is critical and those types of situation yeah effective situations but um I think a lot of customers
038have fans there are a couple of um rooms that have air conditioning like this one this one the art room um I believe that at one point there was a plan to put some AC units yeah but when you have to I mean it's priorities in the budget right yeah if you have a few more years like 22 then yeah you can look at the capital reserve and try to build it up and see where your priorities are yeah okay okay um so unless anybody has any further questions for the administrator report gonna move on to items for discussion um we kind of already hit on the treasurer's role um yeah so so it's an elected position that we're required um to split with Tim um it's also not an enormous cost um and we
039did choose to increase our pay immediately right yeah yeah but to make it equal to book Town yeah um so unless anybody else has anything further on that I'm gonna check that out soon okay um so we looked at one of the discussions is I'm going to skip over closeout of the FY 22 budget report I think we'll just discussed that too so I'm going to check that out too this is helpful okay um so moving right along um big picture of budgetary changes anticipated for fy24 we also already talked about that and that was the floors um or the entrance floor which I'm super excited about just based on how many times I personally have spilled coffee on that floor um and that that guilt can now yeah that was 16.5 I think yes
040um and then we talked about uh the yeah a van but that's really looking it's looking further out yeah yeah I think I I think it'll be fine there's no at least at this point there's no large expenses needed on it so hopefully we can continue using it as normal okay and then the last one was the Black River which we'll discuss in a minute um so that's it for budgetary changes you would stay the course as far as staff mapping and I guess how what's happening with our bubble class next year just to track that situation that next year is the year when it normalizes right because they go into Middle School they go into sixth grade next year okay they're in fifth grade this year as you would call the 516 came with
041a plan right so I think they would like to keep that plan in place that's all right so that was nice so that was my question sort of that's how yeah okay um because that class will be in sixth grade so it would be essentially keeping the same level of Staffing for that group and that's that's the proposal I'm completely off topic what are our numbers did we get any more kids this summer or we we've gotten some there are some that I'm still waiting for registration so there's a few that I've been waiting on but yes we have gotten a decent amount they're still just kind of waiting on finalize you know residency [Music] the other the other week Linda and I were in the office the other week someone called the five kiddos
042which is great like one or two k's a couple first and one second like it was just it was fantastic um yeah we're like we'll take them yeah yeah it's fantastic nice um Larry's gonna give us the number right oh thank you as of today oh today again if there's still some that are sitting yeah that's 247 so you're up from last year nice yeah I think there's some stores there's some sun on our desk and and she's going to get those out our lowest point I feel hopefully it's like f280 just like a couple years ago yeah but we do have a large kindergarten class 33. yeah 33. and I know there's at least as at least two k students waiting I think paperwork-wise yeah it's nice to see class sizes back in and
043some of those students will be in TK uh some will be in our um we have a special program for some autistic students we have a name for that program yet um so in just kindergarten autistic students so in terms of numbers in in classrooms it's not outrageous um okay uh uh so that's right on big picture budgetary so then we'll just start running numbers and I think the following year is the financial cliff that everybody's talking about right that's when our Esther funds run out right one more year and the Su board made a decision which they can change but uh they wanted to put in the 24 budget which is the upcoming one um uh the Dei coordinator they wanted to locally fund it and not have it at Esser for 24 to
044commit to it and then uh we have a position for our strategic plan um the data coordinator position which would be go to the local Su budget which is currently Grant funded at answer um so that's the only changes I see and I think um we'll get that SQ budget committee up and running we usually meet on Fridays yeah and some in some curriculum funds yeah yeah well the curriculum budget I'm talking about FPS yeah yes but in terms of budget may change some depending on your s yeah yeah okay so um now we're on to the building committee discussion um I mean I feel like there hasn't I there I haven't really had a independent part of it I mean I think it's more of what we all just did together yeah okay so
045um so we just a very small building committee um Sarah and myself and the administrative team um plus Jim Taff from the Su met um with uh Black River design who did a facility report for us in 2014 um that outlined the state of our building and um also had some preliminary designs to address some of the challenges um that we're facing and those primary challenges are the security of our front entrance um it really comes down to two big ones it's the security of our front entrance and then um the conflicts and scheduling conflicts with the cafe generatorium um situation I was a Jeff Merino name and it's just so appropriate what explains the complex it explains the conflict quite nicely um and so those are the big ones and then um one of
046the more um minor things that we would like to address is um potentially depending on how things working work out building in some smaller meeting spaces because we're um running out of uh individualized educational places um foreign spaces where you would have an individual meeting um and then all of those changes also bring up whether or not we need to sprinkler the building and whether what codes trigger that requirement so um we talked to Keith maybe I know Keith's last name so we talked um Keith came and met us before the meeting tonight um to talk about um what that what it would look like um so he's the one uh their company is the one that did it yeah um it sounds like he was involved in the yeah it sounds like he was
047involved in the actual project back then so um so that's nice and it also sounds like um there's not wasted money um by putting things on hold for a while and then coming back um they have all the plans they have all the concepts that they sketched um so we're now looking at um potentially hiring them to do um 10 to 15 000 worth of work to put together a plan that we could use to um float the idea to the voters and see where we stand okay right a pre-bond um contract which would set us up for um yeah and we wouldn't be we're not moving fast on this um we're just excited that we made any forward progress um and the timing is good because I've done five year plans for the other
048two buildings I've been waiting on this so if this will be good to update the plan which is almost 10 years old now right and prior to my role here so I I think it would be good for me to get with Keith and Jim and yeah and get this updated plan and allow us to do A Five-Year Plan uh which would be separate than the bond projects but a lot of this a lot of overlap research so you'd have the whole picture yeah yeah this is not a new school this is fixing like yeah and I directly asked that question because because it was floated um and um Keith uh very much said that this building is um you know it's not perfect in all ways but that there's no reason that you would
049raise the building and start over [Laughter] um it's got issues but it it is salvageable and well and with a good place to build yeah good for quite a long time yeah and we've spent a lot in the last couple years maintaining the building um and I think it's in good shape when you look at it and it doesn't look awful so except for the uh Heartland elementary school has fallen off every summer yeah one letter comes down yeah it's on the stand so it's um I don't know the O has not been lost it's on it's in the flower garden right there I don't think of flowers so it's on the uh split up in half so the kid hit it with a basketball and yeah multiple piece and we glued it back together
050this one I only saw two parts okay so are there any board questions of the building committee so I mean it's just nice to move on extension and forward yeah I I would say that one of the things that sort of came up was this question of can we just reconfigure our existing space or do we need to add some space onto the building so I think that for the board to just going forward obviously one is more expensive than the other but as we really look to the plans and those will be available to everybody really without adding some square footage it's just almost impossible to get what we want which is a very you know secured Lobby with the office on it so that you really can't get into any other parts of
051the building without going through the office and being let in um and having more cafeteria space designated the cafeteria space so we're not competing um so we'll you know we'll you can just look at all the plans and sort of see that but just to keep in mind that yeah I had to work through that in my mind I think I've been thinking oh we just have to move some walls and and they can see how I think moving forward that may be the Hard Sell because if we're saying well our numbers of students are not going down but you need more space right um so I think just trying to figure out well what yeah like and then you think well if it's the cafe gemitorium yeah we're trying to use one space for
052three functions and it just isn't effective so that's why and you know our theater program has grown yeah a lot are probably our Athletic program has grown if we look at it well in rpe requirements across and I even asked historically because I know that in the 90s we had massive amounts of students here um and I just can't imagine how we fit all those students in the building and it turns out that we had um so so that really helps me like around the fact that we have declined enrollment but we still can't fit in the building and the 90s fit but it doesn't sound like it would be interesting to see when those when those trailers showed up and when they disappeared yeah yeah the other thing to think about all the supports
053that kids need these days that they that has changed I guess you know we have social emotional interventions we have interventionists we have more special Educators we have hcrs clinicians we have school psychologists you know everybody needs yeah it's difficult and those are all legal mandated programs and the confidentiality is legal I think in the 90s special education wasn't integrated in the classroom it was its own it was not as integral I mean yeah it was on the edge of being integrated yeah and I think that that drives so okay so I'm checking that off the list [Laughter] um okay um so we're on to the decorative Declaration of inclusion sure so um one of our select board members Phil hobby is putting forth the select word sometime he hasn't yet I believe of the
054Town putting forth the Declaration of inclusion it is brought in right let me pull it up on my phone Vermont Declaration of inclusion so it's in a um Vermont's Declaration of inclusion is a Grassroots effort working with Community leaders to reinforce the message that Vermont is a safe and welcoming place for all so and if you look actually Windsor and Wethersfield has already signed on to this declaration the towns the towns Windsor has a different one question of inclusion well they're on their website as listed is it did you read the whole thing so well I just read like who signed up oh and um and read the Declaration it's an entirety read the Declaration in its entire yeah well the no no that's not the Declaration the Declaration is I mean it's yeah I
055mean it's actually not that long the town of blank condemns condemns racism and welcomes all persons regardless of race color religion national origin sex gender identity or expression age or disability and wants everyone to feel safe and welcome in our community as a town we formally condemn all discrimination in all its forms commit to fair and equal treatment of everyone in our community and will strive to ensure all of our actions policies and operating procedures reflect this commitment the town of blank has and will continue to be a place where individuals can live freely and express their opinions by the blank select board on blank date so that's the direct that's the Declaration that would be put forth to the slack board to say our town it wants to sign on to this and they
056would I guess they would vote because they would sign on as a town and so Phil just approached me um as his neighbor and school board over um to say do you think the school like wanting to be supportive of this and it seems like it seems very in alignment with all rdei work that we're doing but he just wanted to say that if it came up at the select board that he would feel comfortable saying yes the school board is also behind this commitment in the town and so he didn't want to speak for any of us before we as a committee just couldn't speak on it the um mountas School District adopted a an equity declaration last night at their meeting and they adopted the same one that the town of Windsor select
057board had adopted previously it's a little bit different I can share it with you if you'd like and I know Elizabeth was planning to bring it up at the next SQ board meeting so so we'll be happy to hear apparently yeah an SU uh they Madison got me adopted their own okay so you could certainly adopt your own they asked unless you both could adopt one as well so yeah I mean I'm personally like I think that it fits with what we're trying to do as a school and I love it if the town was it's a declaration different from a policy like we're going to just to say well and at the end of it it does say you know our policies um we'll strive to ensure all our actions policies and operating proceeds
058which reflect this commitment so we are saying that I think if something isn't along with these because the policies against us you can kind of say hey this statement we made this progress the one statement I think that stood out in the Windsor declaration the rest of it was similar said uh calls on all called on all of those living visiting or working in our communities to ensure Liberty and equity for all persons so again because people that are busy summering in or whatever yeah a couple of years ago do you remember and and tell me them in there and it was the visiting thing that was the sticking point because people were saying how could you enforce this against someone who's driving through our town and stops for gas you know it'd turn into
059this huge discussion it was not very clearly written and it was there's a lot of um this sounds much clearer to me and much yeah Hartford it looks like signed on already too and Woodstock and Woodstock Village so I so I personally I think as a school we're trying to meet all of that but I think it's more important that our community sign on we're a smaller entity within our community and I 100 yeah back the select board in doing that and I think that what them doing it is more important than us doing it um because we're part of that we're part of them yeah yeah like we're the smaller entity um right so yeah so yeah I mean I don't think we need to go yes and he were to say it's separating
060the school board supports us doing this that sounds like it would be inaccurate yep great okay um do you want me to communicate that yes uh yeah if you want to yeah that'd be great because I lost his previous email and yes a mess of other things um um so items for Action um I don't think we have any specifically um I know there's a Community member uh who wants to talk to us um but that would be an executive session and we may um choose to have an action after that or not um okay so we'll address that in a minute um so we'll move on to setting the next agenda um so right now I have a further discussion on public participation um public participation community staff students the whole everybody yeah that's
061good how to increase public participation yes within the school and and in the board meetings yeah um and then um I think we may have a building update yeah hopefully it seemed like we may be able to have something more formal from Black River designs that I could I could bring a degree a timeline on this or are we just like kind of inch in our way well we said March of 24 March 24th to have a plan that we would have people hold on okay got it so we use I've got so right now we're just assuming it's preliminary stages of just like what could this look like and once the three of or the committee are you opening it up a little bit to like we have tried to open up daf and
062just some students we have tried to open it and have gotten we opened it to the community and got almost no input okay um yeah I mean we had two people who expressed interest but the times the meetings were difficult and yeah yeah so I would reach out to the wreck As you move forward because I think John is yeah yeah because there's a lot of competing structures yes but Heather I do like your idea um about asking the students you know what parts of the building what parts are a challenge for them that's a great idea yeah yeah maybe they can draw some seed plants I know they're the ones that living would you want that for September I mean September it gets because close there's not many days of school so maybe that's
063more like I don't know or on November what's nice is that we're like ahead of I feel like we're doing okay so yeah so maybe that's more yeah well the kids are like in here yeah well they even asked Black River if they have like a cam survey or something to start the conversation yeah that's where it is I'm guessing that this isn't the first time that that idea has been quoted I'll ask them and then I'll let you know what they say whether they've got something or or we could tweet something or maybe they have some ideas on ways to ask questions if they don't have something already created or just observations like this is something that we've got done like in the museum world is like you just sit and watch people and
064how they move around a space and it's like if someone's always tripping on that corner whatever early no one goes in this corner is sometimes obstructing something around yeah interesting like just have somebody sit in the cafeteria and see what's working what's not working yeah like I don't know high school and there was significant Community interest um security aspects yeah right yes so um you know I think I think if you put it back out there with the idea that like part of this plan is to try to make the building more secure I think by just saying that you will get well we did that oh yeah right yeah yeah I do think that recent events sadly have brought this thank you for the Forefront of people's minds I think you have directed that
065email Sarah yes I think I mean I feel like how many of you been to Wethersfield School so it I mean that's the kind of secure yeah entrance that's modern and yeah it would be the way to go and they did that work and they added on another they had this they did in 20 cafeteria right yeah they have a gym now right that they you know they um renovated um and it was a big number and um it would be even bigger number than what this would suggest even with the increase from square footage costs from 2014 to today yeah but just um and that's a newer building to begin with too yeah so I think it just um I'm just spitball but is there a way to take video of the Wethersfield entrance
066and kind of show them I don't know to show them this is what a secure building two two towns down they do school renovations right okay but yeah so they know yeah but the requirements for a secure school yeah plans but I have already dressed the same thing that we I mean the issues haven't changed up and I can bring in September whether it's I'll talk to Brian and whether it's some compilation of photos or a video that just kind of walks you through so you how you get in and enter the building yeah yeah you can see it that would be helpful yeah okay uh okay um and then sorry needs to be looking like a blurb from the staff that actually works in that in the office is like just a little like
067yeah how did you feel about this change yep in your work environment because I so I'll keep Budget on the we need to keep talking about budget I actually probably get started it's going to start in September and I'd like to get the band back together with the budget committee we had last year uh Colleen represented Heartland and uh it was really effective Rebecca and Jamie from Wethersfield yeah and we usually meet Friday mornings and we meet weekly and we do that for about five six meetings I think and then uh then we bring it to the board so it sounds like we may not have big updates it just occurred to me that this may be the first meeting in two and a half years where we have not had a coped update and
068we haven't really discussed that has not been part of this special yet well let's keep saying you know how everybody's feeling how staff are feeling you know you know so I'll add a lot of covet update to my report in September even if it is even if there is nothing yeah are there any is like is there anything coming from the state to say what what it's going to look like on August 31st I haven't heard a word okay we're all on our own interesting I think they they I think what I've heard I mean the testing stations have closed right it's it's more I mean what we put in our handbook was um if you are sick stay home if you are feeling like you want to wear a mask you should wear a
069mask if you have symptoms but we haven't had any guidance on on any of it and it feels like the endemic is here and we've adapted you know what I mean yeah although like my kids or sleep away camp the last couple weeks and so this is very much on my mind like two of them had pretty major outbreaks that needed to be managed at the camps and like kids I mean like Excellence than at any other time during the pandemic or anything thank God you know my kids were not part of it like kids were sent home it was daily testing there you know they had to really pivot and manage these situations so I do think it's you know it's important as well we can pivot if need be yeah we're prepared dude
070I think I do need to say something like there needs to be a covet update like yeah or something I think and do we have like hell yeah in that parent letter we should say how we're going to handle a case like are we doing what the state recommends of five days and then coming back with a mask or you know there has there has nothing yeah for schools nothing um we 've done it for so long that I think if we if we start to have cases we'll come together we'll say this is what we need to do but we were hoping to start you know a new year a focus on covet and so we got through one meeting sort of sorry I mean we'll do what we need to do but we're
071going to start out not contact racing I mean if your child can scope in we're going to send that child home yeah but not saying yeah yeah well I mean as a parent I would love to know if my kid was just go it would just help me be a little more hyper aware if of anything like that's I mean just to monitor my kid for that week to make sure and maybe test a few times to be safer yeah other people but but that's just my and we talked about that because it is it's a lot it's a lot it's time consuming to do that work um and the fact that you know we we did talk about that as a team and and determine if there's a parent that's really nervous about their
072child getting covered they should call the nurse and ask the nurse to notify them if there's a case in that class individually so that we're not robocalling you know classroom after classroom after classroom um because it's going to it's going to be here yeah school at the end of the year was just doing on there was a case in third grade what you want you know it was kind of like that was all we would get an email about that and it was the last time they were in school was on Tuesday and that's all we that's the information about is yeah as staff and parents which is contact tracing yes but it was to the who who it was the it was like one email list yeah you know so it wasn't one email
073okay yeah we'll see what happens yeah we are hoping not to go there but we'll see yeah we'll see um okay uh so I think that that covers the next agenda so we've got a public participation discussion a building update uh continue with the budget um Lindsay's gonna do potentially covet update as part of the administrative report but I'm leaving it there um and then we're also going to have a planned executive session to discuss s-backs um so that is done okay so um I would take a motion to move into executive session um to discuss two separate student matters um and to have a we have continued budget discussion on here um which I'll check in but I think we're all set yeah okay um I still move okay so Colleen moves that's seconds
074um okay and um oh those a favor moving into an executive session please say aye aye are those opposed extensions okay five nothing uh we are now an executive session okay hold on yeah and then um Haley uh so catv is gonna um that's okay hold on one second I have to move into a separate Google Beach anyway because it's a public link that she's on right now so technically anybody could join in yeah but you're not going to end it because I own it you're going to end it you're going to leave the meeting uh yeah this this meeting [Laughter] yeah um and then we can um