001good evening everybody this is the uh june 6th 2022 meeting of the montescotni school district board and uh let's see okay um i am calling this meeting to order at 6 pm and uh has everybody on the board had a chance to look at the minutes from our last meeting okay i'll take a motion to approve the minutes okay all in favor all right uh i'll just go down the line very quickly amy how do you vote hi davis hi hi bill aye rebecca hi nancy hi and i am an i just as a reminder if you're on a desktop or laptop you can just press down the whole the i think i think it works on um google meets right press down the space bar and just you just see yeah that's how you
002can do it you can press the space bar and say i and and then let go of the space bar too mike so [Music] okay sorry um amy made the motion and rebecca seconded okay um my purpose is of minutes uh okay next comes record yep and next is public participation give me one second uh 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 we can demo again mutual respect having said that please note that the board is here to listen comment period is not designed for
003discussion having said all of that is there any member of the public who's with us this evening who would like to make a comment okay next we have the principles report i can share my screenshots of everybody oh wait i'm sorry before we do the principles report sorry but no frozen i'm sorry i had a um i shared with a number of you um a recording which was made by a parent and i wanted to um show it it's it's a few minutes long but i wanted to show it because i think it's pertinent to where all of our schools are headed and uh and i was hoping that maybe we could show it at the su board to work maybe a trunki no did you watch the video that i said uh david would
004you mind making me a co-host so that i can show uh misty's yeah you know actually i don't think you have to be a co-host i think you can just share um i think you can just share your screen and and go to that tab okay um i'm sorry sorry that's okay hi my name is misty booten and i have four kiddos in the windsor school i recently was able to attend a parent discussion that was put on by mike nicholson who has worked with our school on our strategic plan there were parents and administrators there from all across the country who had who were either there like myself to learn or those who have had some experience in self-directed learning so mike gave us all a really great description of what self-directed learning is
005and i'm not even going to be able to give you nearly as much information as what he gave us but it really is uh what it sounds like which is self-directed learning where kids kind of take control of their own education as far as what they're learning what they want to learn what inspires them um it kind of empowers the student to be able to really dive into the things that make them tick the things that they're really passionate about what what makes them who they are and what can you do to become better and more efficient at understanding who you are and what you want to be and so rather than a teacher giving you a b we're getting to c the student kind of chooses a what am i what do i what
006am i passionate about what do i want to learn about b how do i get there what are what are the materials what do i need to do to do that and see getting to that end result of understanding learning more and then kind of feeding that out to classmates peers you know and and being kind of an educator themselves in the in these topics that they're passionate about so um i'm going to kind of just try to get through this as quick as i can without rambling but i would say that the biggest takeaway i took was from speaking to a middle school teacher or middle school principal who has done self-directed learning in his school for five years so we were able to do breakout groups and we had a period of time
007of getting to talk to this principal who has quite a bit of knowledge on self-directed learning and implementation and how it rolled out within his school so i'm going to kind of give you a little bit of what i learned a little bit of what i took away from that conversation uh he started um the first year with one hour of self-directed learning in the classrooms he said the hardest transition was with some teachers which is completely understandable because you know they're worried about their student students they want to make sure that they are meeting state standards they don't want to lose important time um to give these kids the education that they need um but they started with an hour a day and he said that the kids loved it they couldn't wait they
008were like pushing through their work to get to that hour and eventually what he saw were teachers were coming to him and saying we need to do more of this during the day we need more the kids are so invested the kids are excited they're excited about learning we need to do more of it so they started to expand it out for more than it for more than an hour and started to build it into their whole entire curriculum and i don't think that there's a blueprint i don't think there's a book um it's so kind of new and that was kind of one of the things we talked about within our group is it's new there's no plan there's no there's no this is how you do it this is how you make it
009work it's kind of within the school and the atmosphere and the from what i took away from our conversation was that they just did it slowly and worked it in to the um curriculum of the and the way that their school was run so during the conversation i brought up the question that kind of comes through most parents minds and it was on my mind and i said to him and to mike um what about the kiddos uh who need structure what about the kiddos who learn best with a teacher telling them you need to complete a b and c you know what is it what about the kiddos who struggled to find a b and c on their own and um there was no definitive answer and i was not the only parent that
010asked that question but there was no definitive answer to that the what i took away from the principal especially who was kind of telling us about this was that there are kids who are already invested in education and then there are kids who are not and the kids who are not are checking out they're checked out they're not learning they're that you know they're just there there's multiple reasons that's happening um one they already know the curriculum and they're bored two there's things happening outside of themselves where they're just not capable of focusing in and it to just someone talking um so anyway so he said what i'm seeing in my school is more participation more excitement about education more kids involved more kids wanting to participate in classroom activities more kids wanting to do
011their work there's no one shoe that's going to fit everybody but that he's seen the positives outweigh the negatives in all aspects of what he has seen in within his school and he's super excited and you can tell when you talk to him he's very excited about this so i think i'm gonna just share one story i can't go on too long but i could go on but i could but i'm not going to but i do want to just tell you one of the things my biggest takeaway from this conversation with this principal was you know i told them a story about my daughter he's a middle school principal i thought it was really a unique opportunity and i said you know i have a 13 year old you know i have a middle
012schooler i find her to be self-motivated she's she's good at school she likes school well she's 13 she'll tell you she doesn't like school but she likes school and i said there was a week or two where she would just come home um and she would be uh just i don't know i thought i was like this is she depressed like what's going on she just grumpy and just tired and and i'm like what's going on like are you okay like is something happening at school and she's like yeah she was like i'm i'm not doing good in science right now and i was like what do you mean like i'm not getting my work done on time we're doing atoms i don't understand it i really don't i i'm i'm behind on my work
013and you know and she's the kiddo who likes to get her work in on time she really does she likes she likes to be a good student and you could just see her stressed right i could see it and i thought okay well i can help you with adam's no no i can't help her with adam's oh my goodness i haven't done that in so long so i was told my husband i'm like we're gonna have to meet with the teacher i don't know what to do i can't help her with adam's like i mean i can kind of remember them but i haven't done adam's like i know basics but like i don't know what they're learning i don't know how to help her with this so parent-teacher conferences were coming up perfect time
014to talk to the teacher and i we said to her teacher is there another way you can teach this to her is there another like avenue she can take to learn this and her teacher said well what do you mean she understands it and like she says she doesn't she says she's behind on her work she doesn't understand it so he pulls out her folder and he pulls out like some tests she had done some assignments and she's in he said she's doing it perfectly she just doesn't enjoy it she's not invested in it and um i think it's holding her back i think that you know this lesson on adams had held her back she wasn't she didn't like it she didn't enjoy it but she knew it she understood it and the teacher
015told me she gets it she's just not doing her work on time and i thought geez okay well that's crazy but all right well we'll help her get through this and so i said to this principal i said um you know an instance is like that what would you think you know like does it help the student and he said absolutely that's exactly what this is so you can't not teach kids adams they still have to learn atoms and if they don't like adam's then they sit down with the teacher and they can go over it for 10 minutes and they have to teach show the teacher that they know atoms they understand the basics of atoms and then they move on to the things that they enjoy doing they don't have to spend one
016or two weeks learning about atoms they have to show that they can understand atoms that they understand the basics and the you know they they understand the core fundamentals of atoms then they move on they don't have to sit through the next two weeks of atoms unless you want to if you want to choose to learn more about atoms and you're pursuing atoms and that's something you're going to do in the future then you take atoms as your topic and you learn more about atoms and that teacher can help guide you through it so anyway i think that was the biggest thing i took away from that conversation with that principal was his school gives kids the opportunity to show that they know atoms and then move on to the things that they aspire to
017be the things that really make them tick the things they want to learn and i am hopeful for the future of education being there because i do find that we spend a lot of time teaching kids things that they may not utilize in the future or that they are not passionate about so we give kids the opportunity to learn the things they need to know but then they move on to the things that really make them excited to be at school to learn to be them to aspire to be who they're who they are and what they're going to be in the future so um that conversation i think is really my biggest takeaway i don't have you know enough knowledge to be like this is how they did it they they had a book
018and they followed a plan and they made it work and it doesn't work that way i think it's too new um what i took away from the principal is you know it's a new concept there's no written out guide it's just finding ways to work it into your curriculum into your school and growing it and um you don't just you know you kind of dip your toes in the pool and then you get in slowly you don't just dive in um so anyway i don't know if this is helpful i hope it's insightful in some ways um it's what i took away from it i think that it's a great opportunity for schools to explore this option to talk about it more um anyway i hope this helped all right bye so uh thank you
019for for uh hearing misty i think it was really uh generous of her to put that video together she was a little bit nervous about talking to groups of people and i i suggested that that would be a good alternative so um so that's it thank you yeah and i think it's it's good that a parent and community member is understanding and sharing her experience with that because we as a board i've been talking about it since with act 77 and flexible pathways and it has been really challenging because i went to school where you sat in a desk in a row sometimes really innovative teacher had you sitting but it was mostly the teacher standing telling and students taking it all in being fed and when my kids so act 77 was coming into
020um power becoming part of every school district in the state of vermont being implemented yes and i would talk to my kids about it and they would say oh mom really i just want to go to school i said well you know you need to take a little bit more initiative and that's what we want kids to do to um like missy was saying not everyone wants to spend two or three weeks on atoms but there are also very innovative ways that kids can typically understand about atoms and create something else they'll show so yeah it's all very exciting education is so more exciting than yeah i was sitting in the back of the class taking it all in but you know um when we had that su uh forum the other night um it
021the 77 and flexible pathways came up and so i thought that missy talking about um that experience would have dovetailed really nicely so i dropped her a note saying i have to find a way to fit in your description so okay thank you and again thank you misty um oh you're here um okay we are going to uh move to the um principal's report i can start sharing this is our june 2022 and just so you guys know may into june tends to be really busy for us so um just bear with us we're going to talk a little bit about highlights from each school as we can remember them in the last minutes in our student celebrations as we can pull out of our brains in this time um so at oliver bridge here's
022some things i've been on last month we've done our full school concert unfortunately um it's the first time i haven't had a recording for it um something malfunctioned with our system so that's a big bummer but we're going to see if we can find some recordings we had a wonderful concert we dedicated it to um our heroes who have helped us navigate through coca times particularly those in the both the physical health world and the mental health world we invited people from outstanding to come join us from the hospital and they sent a rep understandably they're busy too so they can welcome but they appreciated the just just the acknowledgement that it's been really hard and they've done incredible work including our nurses in this process um our artists and residents of youth visa we've
023been planning did not happen yet last week just on unfortunate circumstances but we do have this week are some residents for photography and if you're interested you can click on that link and it takes you to what they're doing which is the world story exchange which is a pretty cool process where they actually teach kids a lot about photography um and these this couple works all over the world they happen to call vermont home so lucky us then we did our penny wars which we raised over four hundred dollars from our student trip it was pretty fun and then kindergarten screen took place in both of our schools aspects completed in both of our schools i believe robotics in three through six so we've been very fortunate this year to have as our librarian the
024same librarian that's here at windsor and she's been phenomenal of bringing just a whole lot of energy and ideas and she has ended this year with the students in the upper grades actually programming some things that the kids are just pretty tickled pink to be able to see their work actually create a robot we're working on our school gardens we've done book buddies with community members which has been just wonderful having the community members out and about around the school sometimes in the school just connecting with our students and we're hoping to expand that again next year and there's a picture of that in the top corner of the kids making book bags um so learning how to sew and create a professional process and i'm done mix up days which is where the kids
025are going into their new classroom environment just to start getting ready for next year we still have our senior breakfast upcoming tomorrow morning we're super excited to have our graduating seniors come back to join us most of them will be able to join us the sixth graders will be cooking them breakfast and serving them so that will be fantastic to see them just back in the building and see what they're up to then we're going to spend our day at the mountain for most of the day tomorrow we just go right to the mountain and then our class trip that you guys approved will be on thursday into boston our fifth and sixth grade canoe trip will be on friday down the connecticut river and graduation next week and i'm sure there's a ton more
026that's something coming and a ton more than if we've done but um this is what i got for you today and i'm gonna pass it off to caterpillar hi everyone good evening so our kindergarten through fourth grade happenings our registration is completed today we finished our makeups of our case screenings we have 19 students registered in order to um have some comparable numbers we're working on doing some consolidating of some of our classrooms we have a k class we are looking at a k1 multi-grade classroom into first grade classes at this time across our whole building we're looking at um interventionist um certified teachers being interventionists on our teams on our elementary middle school and high school teams so right now we're looking at two second grades two third grades and three fourth grades um
027we'd like to have three fourth grades we we have two this year but we have a bubble class in the third grade so those are things we're still doing some hirings and working out those numbers but that's our preliminary look at it at this moment we had our first mountain day today our first one since covet hit so we didn't have one in 2020 um grade three participated in our community gardens at the fairgrounds so that's exciting if you drive by 44 and see the gardens right there they've been working on them right at the edge of the near the edge of the road at the fairgrounds you can see those growing as well as in our own um parking lot next to the pool our gardens right next to the squall our fifth through
028eighth grade they've been working on interviewing some guest authors they also had a hike at mount us gutney the fifth and sixth grade were part of the hike today and mount tom was our seventh and eighth grade group last week they're also working on our community garden um june 13th is our six at six pm is our eighth grade passages ceremony this step up ceremony for our eighth graders to high school um next year we're looking at a two-person fifth grade team and a seven person middle school team with interventionists on that team windsor happenings we at the high school we have our senior night this is a busy senior week senior night is wednesday night june 9th is our underclassmen awards we're having um a staff um gathering on thursdays we have um seniors
029a new tradition it's not really new but it's it's about five years old maybe six our seniors walk through the halls beginning in kindergarten and walk through the whole building and all the students come out into the hall and high five them as they walk through in their their gowns um when they get ready to go to their graduation rehearsal graduation is friday night at 7 p.m we have the alumni parade coming up featuring our students on saturday on june 14th we are having our trauma team host some closure meetings for our staff our may intensives with the help of bridget fario our mtss coordinator helped make all of those sorry i said i meant to say s back makeups the may intensives was a success organized by chemistry teacher jeff baichi great success we
030also just finished all of the um makeups with mtss coordinator bridget ferial's support we have our hartford tech students next year we have five sophomores 32 juniors 22 seniors and we did do a small ceremony at school raising the ukraine flag that was organized and supported with the help of our student social justice committee and mr liam atwood who helped organize that as well as some of our students members i believe hudson rainey and ms zane wall also were helping with that last one was credit recovery we have credit recovery happening this summer and orientation for our incoming freshmen happening this summer thanks jen um you asked us to share a little bit about people who were leaving and reasons why this was just pretty general we have three teachers that we know of that
031are leaving who are taking positions to elementary and one high school all full-time teachers they were all taking positions um closer to their homes or due to family moves and other jobs you know katie had some that she might share with some positions also to be filled in special education but i think um elizabeth asked us why people were leaving and um there have been some really um lovely uh resignation letters that i'm sure dr baker once he gets them can share some of that generally about how people felt about their time here but we've had some really great responses and the three that i mentioned here are leaving because of family and shorter commutes and then this something we shared with you before high school are seniors some of their locations that they're leaving
032to go to their next step in their journey toward and if once the year is over i can add to that if there are more changes after graduation that i can share with all of you katie i see your hand i just wanted to chime in what um colleen set me up for is we also have three staff um members resigning um teacher positions and also for very similar reasons um moving closer to home we actually had some really good conversations with them and the resignation notes were um wonderfully appropriate but uh moving closer to home taking positions closer um seems to be the theme for um our staff as well as also one staff person just trying to contemplate what else they would might like to do um and we had very positive comments
033and some really good um feedback on ways we continue to want to grow as well so um and that's uh it just happens to be windsor school is the only place right now that i have uh professional staff resigning i mean one of them actually has a one-year traveler so they're kind of on a one-year contract anyway rebecca i see your hand yes thank you um colleen um last year we talked um a little bit about um trying to get information on those students who have uh graduated and where they're at and and i wonder if anything there was any follow-up to that and i wonder if that is something that um maybe um if if it didn't happen this year maybe we can um consider trying to put something in place for next year
034yes i do recall you did ask me that and i did we did have that discussion with the um school counselors and i believe i don't believe there was i could be wrong but there might have been a survey sent out to some of our um recent graduates but i could definitely um do some collecting on the last two years classes for sure thank you for the reminder rebecca sorry about that and nancy i see your hand yes colleen i wondered how many of the students were going on to college or um two-year programs for associate degree uh i don't know that the top of my head i only i think all the ones that were listed on that last page let me just take a quick peek [Music] i think on the the list
035that we shared other than the what i'm not don't have the specifics on all the gap years in the workforce and other employments through internships but of all the ones listed on the left i think all but one are four year programs but there are some students who are [Music] more than one student are going to some of these um institutions but i think there's only one that is not a four-year program but i can get that information for you to nancy how many are two-year and how many are four-year programs thank you rebecca i see your hand um i think i thank you i think um unh um does have a two-year program and also i think univer not um and university of southern maine may have a two-year component i don't know about
036the others i think they do have them i think the students who are going there are planning on doing four-year programs um i also have a question colleen um you mentioned where is it where is it where is it june 14th closure meetings yeah we we have been talking with our trauma champion team and they'd like to kind of have a um the last chance to meet with our staff just to talk about processing all the work we've done with um david melnick just kind of processing our work together um and and the healing that we all went through this pandemic for the last two years together and um just trying to um talk through that prior to leaving and going our separate ways for independent summer relaxation but to do a little bit more
037collective um discussion and processing jen might be able to talk a little bit more about that as the trauma champions have discussed that yeah so to our work with dave milner in which they're talking about um if we don't bring closure to the year that many people may go into the summer not really moving forward and healing but holding on to um just things that they don't feel sat right with them this year for all kinds of reasons so the first few steps are talking about uh acting as like a firefighter thinking about when you're on the ground and fighting the fire you have an eye level view but then if you happen to be one of those people who get to go up to the helicopter you then get to see how much is
038actually contained versus the claims that are right in front of you so a lot of us talk about what's your eye level view what have you had to overcome this year and what are you um hopeful for what how did you grow and then looking at the um sort of bird's eye view or the helicopter view is really thinking about um all the things we have done really well just to kind of take that step um backwards so that we can appreciate the work that has been done and then the next step is really thinking about what do we need moving forward so that collectively we are a more well community than if we don't take the time to do this relational work what a great idea one rebecca i see your hand uh you
039took it right out of my my brain elizabeth i think that's an awesome idea i think it's so important also um to help um the the staff um be able to [Music] not only acknowledge what has happened over the last year and a half but um um look at ways that they took care of themselves to keep themselves sane and and hopefully we'll continue to do that over the summer and and restore themselves so that when they come back they're ready um for the next um years i think that's a great idea though [Music] thank you does anybody else have any questions or comments for our principals hearing none thank you very much principals good luck with the the end of the year and all of the various ceremonies and passages rebecca i i do
040just have one more question for um friday is graduation at the high school and is that going to be indoors and is that going to be limited uh to a number of people and um or are there plans to have it outdoors the plan is for it to be outdoors rebecca we usually make our rain decision before noon on friday and we we um are going to keep happy thoughts that we've had many beautiful friday evenings in june for many years and that is the hope and with it being outdoors it is unlimited our students have um eight tickets reserve seating but the community comes out with their camp chairs and relaxes and enjoys the beautiful night okay um next is the superintendent's report yeah so let me share my screen mine is never quite
041as exciting and i don't have all those beautiful kid pictures uh that get rid of these other reports but let me try this and just stay with me okay so i uh i'll just kind of go through it there's a lot of informational uh pc we also lately we've been linking the video and linking these reports in the minutes so that if people miss things they can certainly go back so the updates really we just talked about this uh graduation season you know it's uh it's a hopeful season it's my favorite season i get to travel around to all the buildings and and participate in the graduation ceremonies uh con considered commencement activities right commencement uh certainly uh the derivative being more about the beginning and and it's hopeful to watch our young people get
042ready to leave those stages and move on to the next chapter of their life whether it's the sixth graders at albert bridge moving on to uh to windsor or whether it's uh an 8th grader at wethersfield or heartland moving on to a variety of high schools um or that or the seniors uh at uh windsor are moving out into their next series so um i would concur with what kate and colleen said and what rebecca asked uh you know the board has always been a big part of graduation at windsor please you know show up be there uh we have special seating for school board members uh in the front of that uh in the front so um just come on and join us it's a it's a great evening uh event um our last
043in school is june 17th and i still think i don't know correct me if i'm wrong but i still think there is a parent group that's trying to organize an essay at the rec center um is that still on uh kate and colleen are they still working on that do you know yes um they are actually still planning that and it's in full swing so i think there's going to be a pretty good turnout actually so we're excited that's great it's it's a great way for our uh seventh and eighth graders to end the year and um and to get together like that so thanks to that group that's really working hard on that yeah go ahead great elizabeth misty i know it's at windsor wreck what time does it start do you know misty
044are you there i am sorry i believe it's starting at seven but i would have to make sure i'm correct on that let me pull up my flyer real quick my daughter's yelling hi mr champ i'm sorry 3 17 6 o'clock okay six o'clock yeah okay six o'clock thanks okay equity proposals are back we had the four proposals we're partnering with springfield we did meet with the screening team we had several members from springfield and several members from uh windsor southeast we sat down we reviewed the proposals we had a a little five-step rubric that we used to do the initial scoring uh we were able to quickly eliminate two of the vendors we're down to two vendors now that are going to come in for final interviews on june 21st we're going to be
045looking at some some proposals that they've written for other districts so we'll look at the quality of their work and then we'll either bring one or two of them to the windsor southeast supervisory union board and springfield will bring them to the springfield school district board to try to get approval of a vendor there was a lot of enthusiasm in the group both and uh windsor southeast around getting this started as quickly as we could and starting the audit over the summer if we could finishing it up in the fall uh so i'm feeling pretty optimistic about that christine's a part of that team was part of that vetting process and so i think that ball will get carried across the line here within the next with the next couple of weeks um and again
046at the end i'll answer any questions anybody has uh the anti-racism task force had their last meeting for the school year it was last week or late the week before uh and uh they're going to try to find some concentrated time to meet uh either this summer or certainly in the early fall to prioritize the action steps which are still in somewhat of a draft form but there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm on that team and also one of the things that got shared out at this group meeting and some of you are part of this team is that um it seems like for a variety of reasons the anti-racism work is going slowly and we're kind of plodding along and we're not moving as quickly as certainly we would like to move
047and i'm going to address that on the next slide here in a minute but certainly the idea of keeping that team going christine's part of that team as the as the newly hired interim uh and i'm sure uh that uh her uh passion for this work will also continue to speed this up a little bit um and uh that leads to the next bullet here uh one of the things christine uh wanted to do mary gannon as you know is working with our boards we have our next meeting on june 15th it's one of the last in a series of three but it won't be our last meeting with mary remember there were three things that she was hired to do this kind of board professional development organized some community forums in the fall and
048uh most importantly uh and christine noted this is help us put that dei position together so christine is reaching out to to mary gannon she may have already i know christine's in that room so if you want to speak to this christine you certainly can but christine really wanted to move forward on that dei position and kind of get it on a on an escalated timeline a faster timeline because we need this position to coordinate this ongoing work and to pay attention to those timelines and dates because what happens is it's sort of like that circus act where you're spinning plates and you get that last plate spinning and then you look down the end and that the plate way down the end is starting to slow down again you run down there um it
049needs somebody needs to be dedicated to this work and uh christine i don't know if you wanted to make any comments about that but uh i know i i know there was some level of frustration with the anti-racism task force but also some level of optimism that we are continuing to move we've accomplished a lot and we've got a lot more to do did you want to make a comment christine i thought it might be helpful um to have somebody in place to help actually help with the equity audit when we're looking at the rf the proposals there's a lot of work involved in doing those audits and this person could help lead that work and then would be familiar and ready to go on implementing you know what comes out of those equity audits
050so um i didn't email her yet david i emailed you back to make sure it was that was part of her scope of work but i will email her um to ask if she has some um job descriptions to help us really get that in place quickly so that we can you know the board's approval post that position um i'd like to post it this summer that's and i know that mary helped i think she helped hartford put their job description together and she's helped a bunch of districts put their jobs so i'm sure she's got templates she's got some outlines that we could easily and we could vet those with uh with the task force so we could vet those with uh the boards uh and get that get that work moving so um
051yeah so that's on my right away to-do list excellent uh we had our first uh board on june 2nd and that was at 5 30 in the windsor at windsor uh followed by a barbecue uh craig lucano a food service person certainly has been barbecued out the last couple of weeks i think all of our buildings had barbecues this week including that forum barbecue while the attendance was spotty uh the bottom line is i think there was a pretty rich discussion about our strategic plan the meeting was recorded we had a little bit of a technical glitch with facebook live so we weren't able to stream it live but we will get as soon as we get that recording uh put together um we'll we'll get that out uh on our website and we'll notify
052folks that it is there because nikki nikki uh did a great job uh the heartland board chair of outlining the strategic plan she put those together and and brittany did a great job uh with some able assistance from uh patty and and angie of putting that video together which uh had some student voice and staff voice around uh what it means to uh do somewhat of what uh misty talked about uh which is essentially some of that self-directed learning piece which is part of our strategic plan so um i want to thank davis and w windsor on air and all of that were there that night and i don't know if anybody else wanted to make comments many of you were there about that forum i know the intent is to do more of them
053in the fall and probably we'll be able to match those up with with our equity and anti-racism work i think that could very easily be one of our next ones i can't see names but elizabeth you can if people want to weigh in to clarify that was the supervisory union uh board forum that's correct yep that's correct first su board forum yeah thank you thanks elizabeth i don't have i don't know whose hand should be answered first because i just dismissed that rebecca davis thank you um elizabeth i i do want to comment um on the fact that uh nikki did a a very nice job um of um presenting the strategic plan and the videos um of of the teachers the staff the um the children they were great and and i i was
054i just wondered if that also um uh that particular uh um recording can be used to uh maybe reach out to other community businesses i i i mean you know i i thought about it later and i said this would be great to share with the rotary and and try and get some feedback i don't know how we would even do something like that but i just thought it it's just a really good way of [Music] presenting what is it that we're doing that this what's going on in the schools and in the direction that the schools are headed good point thank you rebecca davison and misty yeah um i i was really impressed with how it went i know um it being as busy as it is right now a lot of parents weren't
055able to attend but um just just seeing the the quality of discussion that that was able to happen i think that having these events where where we're not conducting a business meeting and we can really deep focus on a single topic and uh and really let our uh you know our parents dig into this and have some really uh you know insightful discourse about uh you know things as important as how we're educating our uh you know communities youth and our strategic plan is uh unfolding and will unfold i i was just i was so impressed with how it went and uh also just one small update i i got an email from paula and it looks like tomorrow that uh that video is going to be out so um keep a lookout for that
056and that will go out on vimeo and facebook thanks davis misty yeah thanks i i'm kind of just going to piggyback off what david said i know there was a lot of parents who were hopeful to attend um there were a lot of sporting events that were conflicting with that date um and then i do know that there were parents kind of waiting for the live to uh spark up and it just didn't so we're they're our parents eager and waiting for that video so we'll i'll definitely be looking for that tomorrow and i'll share it with everybody i know that was waiting to uh see that meeting thank you no that's great and i know mr you've been part of that you know that very interested parent group so uh again if if i
057get my hands on that tomorrow uh davis apology if you want to just let paula know send it to me and i can get it out to misty because she can share it with her network of parents too that would be that would be great are there any other hands that would be great thank you yeah we will do that um anyone else with the hand up elizabeth are we good to keep going we're going to keep going i just wanted to thank davis again for all of that that uh hard work that went into that and everybody everybody else who who pitched in that was very very well done it was our practice waffle it was our practice exactly it was a it was a good way and an important way to do that
058and um and again that was su wide so thanks for that clarification elizabeth um transition work with christine bourne i guess i should have spelt her name right but it's b o u r n e um but the work with christine is is is going well uh christine was appointed our intro as i have as we've been announcing to everybody that uh will listen to us christine will take the reins on july 1st we've already met for two almost full days uh i'm sharing all kinds of files with her and information with her um and we're gonna meet several more times before the end of the year um there's just christine knows as you all know as i believe in my experience there's a lot through this job and there's a lot that goes on
059behind the scenes that is it kind of keeps the keeps the work moving and uh and christine's been certainly at multitasking she's proven that uh and uh and so um she's been a great uh you know a great ally over the years for for the last five years and it's done incredible work at heartland so i i know she'll do a great job in in that transition uh transition work with the new principal uh sergio uh simone of it is underway uh sergio is going to join us july 1 uh he'll be joining jennifer and colleen and kate uh housed at the windsor building sergio comes to us as and we met him i think at the last meeting um uh from current hatton he's been the principal of the day school down there for
060five years uh but we've already had a couple of meetings we've met two times with the prince with kate colleen uh and jennifer and sergio and we plan to meet again on wednesday just kind of doing some of that same kind of transitional work uh as we uh as we move forward i think he's going to be a great addition to that uh to that team um transportation for fy 2223 this came up at our last month stuttney board meeting uh that's the transportation between albert bridge and windsor and working with the bus company larry as our director of operations has been working hard on this larry i don't know if you want to give a a quick update uh you think we might be able to do this without a buy uh securing a
061new bus um so the first and the bullet with transition work with christine next week uh christine's also going to meet the week after next christine's going to meet with all the department heads in my in my group at the finance and operations so that's transition workers includes that too uh so i'm pleased to announce i've talked with mike and uh the principals it's not 30 35 students it's 15 to 20 we think and we're going to set up to do in the pm he's talked to both drivers and they're very confident they can do it they're going to do what they do in the a.m they're going to meet at the mountain and swap buses and then bring them to their house or where their pickup will be might not be their house it
062might you know depending on the the road but it's going to be the same as where they got picked up in the uh so we're gonna do that we're gonna we're gonna try that out and see how it goes um and uh i wanna thank the principals and mike uh and i'll keep an eye on it especially in the fall and make sure um that goes off without a hitch also uh while we're on the subject of transportation uh katie and and christine and i are gonna meet uh in a week or so and talk about transportation needs for next year including transition k i guess it's not stephanie meaning like it includes not studying um and uh the age program and algebra and algebra one there's a lot of algebra one given next and
063it's my understanding that uh if everybody has any questions for larry feel free but mentioning algebra one i didn't put it in my report but i think we've got a pretty healthy number of eighth graders who want to um take that uh that accelerated algebra one class um at when's this 27 as of last week 27 as of last which would have to run two sections if everyone accepts that's amazing so we'll open up another section same thing first block um but i think that says a lot about the math uh certainly the math prowess of our of our seventh graders it's a it's a good class and we are going to stretch as many of them as we can into that uh high school transcripted um algebra one class so that's that's good news
064i hope that bodes well for the future uh you know each year the numbers have increased but when i heard that number uh that sounded like an incredible feat on the part of all those who are planning this whole uh algebra one uh and then last but not least this is my last masd meeting montescutney meeting i just want to thank this board this is a phenomenal board uh you proved yourself through the act 46 process um it's amazing how well uh you all work together i think for the for the viewing public other than those who know you i don't think you'd know who was from windsor and who was from west windsor because you all support the kids uh equally and you're committed to making the monastery school district uh the best that
065it can be so i just wanted to uh to thank you all for those years of support and of course doing well as we move forward so that's it unless there any questions rebecca has her hand raised david um david was that with the algebra one is that 27 incoming eighth graders um requesting algebra one for the ninth grade yeah and remember that is that's eighth graders who will be taking this 9th grade algebra class and that's made up of heartland students wethersfield students and windsor 8th graders we were always able to accelerate the windsor 8th graders but by adding on weathersfield and heartland and providing that transportation uh that's why that number just continues to grow that that's great and um i just want to make note that most of your students who are
066going to be entering a four-year college should start taking algebra one in the ninth grade so it's really great that we are offering that um to our incoming ninth graders yeah that's great we often say to ourselves as administrators and i i and i think the gates to college are are are thank god in some ways easing up a little bit i know many of the colleges didn't even request sat scores this year it's sort of like that blind application process right i mean it's tough to judge a child by one test but i do know that there are still requirements that cut at the college level and one of those requirements aside from a foreign language is algebra one so that's why we wanted to make sure that we could get as many of
067our of our kids on that algebra track as possible and uh and and it seems like we're making some progress colleen i see your hand raised i just wanted to clarify for rebecca that 27 will be eighth graders next year right they'll be eighth graders next year from those three schools i think misty has a question okay hold on i'm gonna call on amy first because she just uh she just asked to be acknowledged and then misty um just another um comment on the 8th graders being able to take algebra 1 it once they they take that they can they're early in their the math process and it frees up and or can freeze up or open up sorry their um junior and senior years for more flexible pathway opportunities in math to go to
068dartmouth perhaps or any of the area colleges or to do internships excellent thank you misty i see your hand misty are you here misty i see your hand raised all right we're gonna come back to misty uh we skipped right over the part where this is david's last meeting with us and thank you david for um not only being with us as separate boards but also um helping to usher us into um through that act 46 process which as we know was really hard and but now look where we are we think we're we're doing all right and so um thank you for for helping us through that uh and thank you for your many years of service to education in general to all of our children um to always putting children first as we
069often say about you and uh and we wish you best of luck in orange east orange orange south or orleans southwest southwest oh okay um orange orleans washington went to windsor what's up arlene southwest yeah yeah although orange east was also open so i'm sorry that would have been almost the same commute i thought i read something about orleans um and then i convinced myself that it was one of the orleans it was one of those southwest southeast yeah yeah if you can keep track of that good luck okay uh uh let's keep moving here um before before we move to the uh discussion part can i can i ask how what the status of the van is yeah inside it's being ordered it hasn't been delivered but it hasn't been paid for it's we're
070not going to pay for it until it's delivered okay but it's in it it's in the process yeah we have a couple um and we have the prices and we have the quotes and jim is picking it out and we're going to make sure it can be maintained locally and uh so i don't want to put it anticipated we don't expect to be waiting six months um when we come back uh when we come back in july can you give us an update on the maintenance of our schools including playgrounds i did a maintenance update in the able meeting i was just looking at some of the things on in the schoolyards and were some and i wondered whether there's a maintenance schedule for the schoolyards yeah every year we have to put uh the
071wood chips i believe we have to spend for an insane amount of money to uh to reach yeah so do you mean is that what you're talking about well i i i i i probably a little ragged i assume at albert bridge there is a broken swing and uh it is the only playground that we have in west windsor yeah um and so i wondered whether that was and it's a a baby swing yeah um and i wonder whether that was something that might be i could definitely uh okay um next is okay uh the middle school model is next no no um so i'll i'll just uh put in the chat uh the middle level overview quite frankly what i would like to do i mean christine and i met with the middle level
072task force last week um that document is in the chat now uh and um and this is still a little bit of a work in progress i do want to get into more of the detail of this with christine at our supervisory union board meeting because it it does impact all of our sixth seventh graders across the supervisory union and also as you'll see when you get to the timeline in that re that report it's a very brief report it's not a difficult read um but it will it will outline uh sort of a three-year timeline uh and of course uh pertinent to this board in that timeline is the um the need uh the need to have some discussion about this the the six seven and eight configuration and especially as it relates to
073uh albert bridge being the only school in our supervisory union that terminates at grade six so we don't have a seven and eight necessarily to to team up with so i think that community and christine's well aware of this we talked about it with the task force uh we've talked about it with jennifer um this this uh you know this board and this community is going to have to i think next year next fall have some conversations with parents with the community about uh how they want to uh integrate into this middle level um program i think bill and bill was bill was right in his statement uh a couple of months ago um middle school philosophy is just that it's a concept it's a philosophy embedded in this plan it's what we've been looking
074at all week it's it's part of what uh what we've been doing with mike nicholson and what misty participated in because a lot of a lot of the pilot programs in self-directed learning start at the middle level students seem most eager to get engaged in student voice student choice what sometimes called negotiated curriculum integrated curriculum thematic curriculum and uh and i think our teams have been working on that this year and you'll see it's embedded in that plan but again it's going to be a little bit of a slow process as we roll it out because what we want to do is we want to go slow for the sake mostly of those six graders and the integration of those sixth graders into middle level activities maybe starting with things like field trips assemblies advisories
075and having most of the instructional um most of the instructional work uh still happen in a in sort of a team configuration at the sixth grade level so i think that does two things first of all it doesn't impact albert bridge next year uh as much as we originally thought it could or might um because we are going to keep that sixth grade somewhat separate next year but it also gives us some time to have those community conversations and discussions about um about you know that kind of grade configuration at albert bridge or in mount scotty so again will christine and i will certainly take any questions you might have about that little overview of that report but uh again we could also save some time tonight because we are going to review it in
076a little more depth at the su meeting because it does it does take into account uh our middle schools across the su sorry i apologize what does family stand for yeah family is the vermont association of middle level educators and it's a very active organization and they put on institutes and residencies and workshops all the time including the big middle level institute which happens and we've got a few people going to that institute uh in uh i i believe it's in june we'd like to see the entire middle level team next year go to that uh go to that institute um but vermont was one of the leaders uh probably as much as 20 years ago in middle level education so um uh yeah so that that's family my my other question is uh did
077you contact the tarrant institute at uvm about because that's precisely what they do is transition from junior high to middle school models yes i've reached i've reached out to them to be perfectly transparent i i haven't um we haven't had a face-to-face meeting yet but i i know that's what they do i know they are very connected to middle level um programming and and actually i think i think i think there's at least one person from family that sits on that terran board but but but yeah they are definitely on our uh radar you know in terms of the need for any consultation as we as we move along the resources are rich we don't need i don't think we need a lot of the other thing tarrant will do too is i mean they've
078also got some i don't think initially we're gonna need a ton of money to make this work i think it was much more around structural and organizational uh changes and built building out the staff component uh we we will need and you're gonna hear more of this through the budget season i think we need a few more dedicated uh unified arts humanities arts especially arts uh people uh to uh to be able to work uh because a lot of times when it's for example in windsor where you're trying to spread art teachers and pe teachers across the k-12 continuum especially now that we're reaching 600 students k-12 we might even go over 600 next year although we have a small k coming in um you know we one of the things that task force has
079talked about is can we beef up the can we beef up the arts also you know drama theater music art you know pe activity so certainly christine will lead you through more of the budget season okay just keep in mind that the services offered by the taran institute are free free which is very sweet exactly tried to get them to come to heartland a couple years ago um and they were so booked but they weren't available so we'll we'll try again yeah and christine you and i can talk about that on thursday but i did reach out to them and i've got i've got a contact name there i don't have it with me right now but i'll uh you and i can talk about that they seem they seem to me to be pretty
080open to uh yeah this was a few years ago so they may um and i think it's free um within the contract when i left ataquiche we were bringing in the taran institute so i'm a little bit familiar you you trade some of your um your staff meeting time your pd time maybe some professional development money from the staff i'm not sure um for their services which is a pretty good deal it is a pretty good deal and also i would imagine that uh arpa funding could cover or esser funding could cover some of that as well so okay rebecca i see your hand a couple of things um one is um i i have been hearing a lot about the middle school model and i'm not familiar with it and um but um i
081i i don't think the board is really getting a clear picture of what exactly um how this is evolving yet it sounds like it is evolving and i just wondered if at some point um christine david we would be able to have something clearer um um and sooner than about how how that's going to what that's looking like um that that's my own impression i i just briefly looked at what you posted david and you know yeah um it was helpful but not totally clear the second thing i wanted to mention is i know that um sergio monavic i hope i pronounced it his name correct um i know has a a a vast background in middle school i'm hoping that he will be part of that conversation as you move forward and not only
082that but we have on our administrative team uh we have people i mean colleen duchamp has a very rich background in middle level education jennifer aldrich has a very rich background and so does sergio you're absolutely right but again rebecca um uh in terms of detail the only major change right now i mean i'm not sure exactly what you need for detail i mean the action steps are spelled out there but i will tell you the biggest piece going forward is that we decoupled the five six teams we used to have you know we used to have a five six team and then we had a 7-8 team and that 7-8 team would then gravitate more toward the high school and you know and again not you know i mean many of them had some
083middle level background but essentially when we looked at the the research and we saw that the research really ran down to sometimes as young as 10 but there was some hesitancy to do that but we did see that 11 and 12 year olds really were developmentally starting to really starting to grow especially as the year processed on so we felt the important thing at this point was to decouple that five six put the six with the seven and eight and start to move in that direction i think that's that's the essential part of the detail right now as far as windsor is concerned uh and then what that'll mean is there'll be some logistical work that will go on so there's going to be some classrooms that will move around so that we can get
084the sixth grade at least logistically a little closer to seven and eight and we could start to build those programs with advisories and with you know some curriculum work and some assemblies um and again the only dangling participle is that you've got this grade right and it's going to be linked with the fifth grade there will be a 5-6 team at albert bridge and that's the conversation i think that we have to have going forward with the albert bridge and west windsor community and i think that you know christine's prepared and jennifer's prepared to uh you know to to lead that conversation and see whether or not you know it's it's you know it's it's it's important to decouple there as well i mean that's that's essentially uh the uh the question or are there
085ways we can bring those activities you know those middle level kinds of activities and uh you know to uh to albert bridge i mean that's that's that's the essential question well that that was thank you david that was helpful just in spelling it out that they have you are that's what the process is that you are decoupling um groups and that that's correct you know one is going in one direction and the other is going in another direction and the process is breaking down um you know teachers and and other pieces but that in itself i think as a um beginning um to this um um presentation is really important so that people can at least visualize what exactly is it that's happening thank you no that's good thanks rebecca and and the reason why
086we don't feel that pressure at albert bridge for the net for the upcoming year is that even though we have decoupled five and six and six is going to be i'm talking about it windsor now is going to be um you know uh closer in proximity to seven and eight and will participate in some of those seventh and eighth grade activities the bulk and core of their day will still be pretty much self-contained in that sixth grade pod so there'll be a team of teachers that'll work with that sixth grade certainly partnering with some of the seventh and eighth graders but there's not going to be any cross cross intersection of kids next year so it'll allow both five sixes uh you know it it takes a little pressure off of having to make that
087sixth grade decision you know like now i mean we've got time to make that decision i would just like to register a couple of things one is that we haven't seen any of the research besides the two links that are in the overview that you uh that you've shared with us so when you say this is based on the research we don't know what that research is and another uh comment that i would like to register is that i i do strongly object to plans being rolled out that are already completed plans with no with no input from the board i don't think that's a very good way to work with the board and get buy-in from board members because um i know that we i i acknowledging that i am no uh no expert
088in education whatsoever but i haven't been given the opportunity to learn about this and inform myself about this and so i i can and i've told you this on many occasions but i can at where i'm sitting right now i feel like i am being duped because i get a two-page outline for a plan that is going to be in place and uh i object to being to being uh to having our board be discounted from from those discussions what uh bill i see your hand you're listed as william i'm listed as william oh good yeah i i i just want to support what elizabeth is saying a simple fact that um overwhelmingly the research someone who is a at reading educational research overwhelming the research points to sixth graders that join into a middle
089school system perform lower than um sixth graders that uh are still within an elementary single pod system and as someone who's taught sixth grade um for a couple years one in an elementary system and one in a middle school system um in the middle school system that i did teach in um was similar to how david describes it we were potted we were based with these middle school and we were potted as a sixth grade and there were benefits and detriments to that system that i think is worth exploring with other than those people on the committee and i also i you know just to clarify i'm not against the middle school model i'm not i just i i strongly object to having a plan uh unfurled to aboard us you know the edu the
090board of education after the plan is seemingly already formulated and uh i i just think it's a terrible approach because it's definitely not going to get buy-in from uh necessarily automatic buying from community members so and that is crucial particularly in west you know in west windsor where there's the potential of of uh losing some of our students we haven't had you know we're just being presented with uh i am serious yeah i know i know and this is probably not very healthy for an outgoing superintendent to say but i i would not i would not have not historically involved school board members into the minutia of middle level curriculum middle level philosophy i mean you hire good administrators you've got great middle school teachers you put them together they look at some of the
091research some of which what is outlined here and then they make their decisions as they go forward and these common themes emerge from a committee of 21 to 25 i don't remember exactly the number but i think you're you're you've been consistent with your with your uh concerns elizabeth i think you know you can a a fresh pair of eyes with this board and christine might help uh i've got years and years and years of middlemen i think it will ultimately be good for sixth graders i don't know the research bill is pointing to but i've never seen that but again uh you know this will get rolled out slowly and and christine and i can talk about how to uh work with this board uh and particularly the west windsor contingency of this board
092as we move forward i think that's that's really important uh i don't wanna i don't want anybody to feel steamrolled but i also don't want anybody you know to kind of micromanage the process either but i'm interested in micromanaging the process just let me be clear but what i am interested in is being part of a process when you're changing the structure the basic structure of the schools i mean that's reasonable to to for the board to ask to be involved in that discussion i mean i i have zero interest in minutia but i would like to make informed comments about it unless you want me to go and find my own uh resources and and to educate myself about it um then providing providing resources to look at is not unreasonable actually um rebecca
093i see your hand and then bill i just want to comment on um and raised the the point that i think it was two years ago um clermont's schools decided to uh turn and i don't remember exactly the specifics but um change um their school it was a change that that really did not um get input from the community and just going back to elizabeth's comment about how important community is in um being involved in informing themselves and in the decision not so much maybe in the decision making but informing themselves um two years later i think this past year they needed to reverse that decision and part of the reason that they reversed the decision um and and went back to the old system was because um the community felt and part of it
094was that there was very little community um interaction around this discussion and and david i'm i i don't want to negate um what historically you've experienced or seen or um either but i do want to say that i recall reading the story and saying how did that happen you know how do how does the school system just change something without not engaging the public the board um in in making such a big change um and um unfortunately then have to change it again a year or two later so i it's just a comment about the importance of community engagement and also you know it when i made that made my stand on community engagement talking about uh how community participation how the importance of community participation and but also the uh importance of informing the
095community and the board every step of the way and that the worst this is according to the the new york state board of education the word scenario is to roll out a plan and explain it afterwards and then field questions uh and so i know bill i know bill wants to go but i i i want to respond to this because i i think i think we're talking about two very different things quite frankly but i know bill may want to go first go ahead bill you're muted though we can't hear you of course i i lowered my hand and thought i'd yeah we are talking about two different things um but i think we're talking about you know things in which we have been very clear about as a board you know one that
096this had to go out to to the to the public at some point before rolling it forward and yes we are talking about curriculum and and it is up to the professionals to to to to develop curriculum but to take a step back i'm not the average school board member the simple fact that if you haven't heard about the research that i have read and i've read a lot about it because that's what i do then you haven't really researched this topic sixth graders in middle school you google that and you're gonna get three or four different articles right off the top right there and this is vetted published research about sixth graders being in a mixed group middle school in sixth graders in um potted alone in an elementary model it's that simple if
097you haven't read it you haven't read the research that's straightforward so let me tell you where i think where i think we're kind of we're we're and again i'm outgoing so you can scrap this on july 1 if you want to i mean a lot of work has gone into it but here's what i'm saying here's what i'm hearing i've been involved in community discussions where you've got three or four elementary schools that are k-6 and you're talking about moving those sixth graders out of those elementary schools into those middle schools that takes an enormous amount of community conversation that's not what we have in windsor southeast in windsor southeast we have a six seven and eight middle school already at weathersfield we have a six we have sixth grade contained in our school system
098we're not talking about moving anybody this is a unique problem to west windsor where you have a group of sixth graders that the community needs to have that community dialogue and investigation i don't know why i just don't know why and this would be the last thing i'd say because again you you you know we are not talking about a humongous organizational pattern shift here because in many of our schools already we've operated in this configuration and i understand that we would have needed much more community dialogue much like we'll need at west windsor as we decide what we want to do with those six graders and that would be the time i think to look at maybe bill's research and whoever's other research and in the end if we don't move them over we
099don't move them over i don't think you'll get anybody at weathersfield to scrap the 678 model they use it now it works they have you know integrated advisories i don't think you'll necessarily have that happen at windsor or or or heartland either but i just want to tell you a lot of time went into this i'm not talking about the curriculum or the studies about sixth grade i'm talking about organizationally the only organizational change that would require kids to come out of one building and go to another is at west windsor and it's probably about four or five kids so i'm i'm gonna jump in david i i i just want to clarify this is not an su meeting okay this is a mount of scrutiny school board meeting so that is the topic it's
100not you know what's going to happen to scuttany what's going to happen in windsor it's not what's going to what's going in in heartland it's what's happening in the mount of scrutiny school district and so the issue that i think elizabeth has and the issue that i have is granted we haven't involved the public but you haven't involved the school board that simple you haven't involved the school board in the discussion so and just to clarify on my part i i'm not and i have said it already a couple of times but i am not i am not uh negating the middle school model i i am in favor of the middle school model what i am not in favor of is leaving the board in the dark about what the plans are and it's
101not that it's just not that big of a deal to keep the board informed is the thing so uh i think we should move on um the next thing on our well we already talked about uh what the plans were for some of our post-graduation plans we heard that from during the principles report let's hear about the intradistrict choice so at this point we have three fundamental documents that have been shared with you all and my my feeling is that it's ready to go to be sent out to families um and i can certainly hold off and just wait until you guys are ready one question i did have is do we want paper copy or do we want it to be something like a google form which makes it more accessible for some and
102less successful for others um or are both okay and my other question was that the information that should probably go directly to the principals the two elementary school principal so those are my kind of two questions that i have left over a google form or electronic form um would probably be i'm sorry a google form or electronic form versus paper copy would probably be easier to share between schools so do you think maybe having a paper copy there are some families who aren't so tech yeah right acting couldn't do both okay all right and then it's okay for the go to the two elementary primary elementary those particularly done two partnerships yes okay no i think um i'll give you guys a hug to read over if you have any changes you need to make
103you can let nancy know who's working with me on this or you can send straight to me um could we once this is once this has begun can you please um update us each month on requests yeah yep we can do that so we can see easy enough i'm sure that's it thank you um we've had multiple people help out but nancy's been a great help bill has been in there um giving feedback and a couple of community members who've really just been able to kind of jump feedback she's going to be really helpful for both communities thank you all for the work on that okay and then we have a retreat um i think i think we're we're just going to talk about when um and last year we had we welcomed davis mcgrath
104to our midst during our august retreat um is how does early august sound for i don't know when people uh if we meet if we have our retreat in july then we will have august to sort of decompress from and process some of the decisions that we make during at the retreat instead of uh having to kind of jump past implementing anything or or uh seeing anything actualized does that make sense before the beginning of the school year so my my vote would be for a late july retreat if but i'm only one vote is anybody else happening why nancy patrick like that late july okay is there any among us or are there any among us who will absolutely be gone in late july i think it depends on when in which late july
105um i'm out of town from the 20th through the 23rd so yeah 20 through the 22nd or weekdays yeah you're not gonna get everybody uh i will be on an island in the middle of lake champlain but i will have internet so okay lucky you um i know i know i want to have internet on an island in the middle of lake champlain well it's my sister's place we'll all come okay yeah 10 acres got a bathroom nice cabin um well let's i mean let's try to just do it the last week of july if that would be okay with everybody okay amy how are you fixed for late july i have no idea all right i'll send a i'll ask laurie to send out a doodle poll about it um when are you done
106we have our retreat the week before that and then we have bpa the first week of august okay yeah okay and [Music] then uh teacher retention we also talked about already i can have the abs ones if you want oh yeah for those who have left this year we had one loon leave due to the stress of the job one leave due to better paying someplace else one need to leave because of relocating closer to home one uh these are all teachers uh so this is for this year no i'd say let's see one two three are not teachers one is a teacher when left because of stress of the job already left yep yes this is the year's data yep can we repeat the rest of this so one left because they got better
107paid someplace else okay and then two have left because um they're relocating closer to where they live or locating their job closer that's a lot of people bridge sorry okay because we've got amazing people coming in too you know wonder closest right yeah okay uh let's see um and uh i know i've said this before but i mentioned to christine that um we have the what's the bill number [Music] number one let me remind everybody that legislatively speaking 293 which is the creation of the state youth council got signed into law by the governor um it'll be a a student youth council that is for ages 11 to 18. yeah 28 people uh will be starting in november and committees will be concerning youth voice education equity and anti-racism and climate change and mental health
108and they will have statewide hearings and they will have the governors they will advise the governor and the government operations committees of the house and senate and uh the what was the other one that um there was a miscellaneous education there were two miscellaneous education bills one of them uh was really miscellaneous but one of the precepts was um uh oh okay age 716 delayed was the bill that uh delayed the implementation of the 173 the special ed block grant project but it also what makes it miscellaneous is that it studies and requires holocaust education statewide so be aware of that and another s273 the other miscellaneous education bill um uh encodes in law no suspensions or expulsions for children under eight and it also requires the provision of alternative services for students who are
109suspended and finally elizabeth is that in school and out of school suspensions or everywhere the student is during the education day so is that what you mean so if they're even if they're not on school grounds even if they're on the bus or on us on a field trip or wherever is that what you mean by no you have this there's two levels of suspension for state reporting and and you have in-school suspension and you have out-of-school suspension so uh alternative um alternative uh alternative services must be provided to students who are suspended so both in school and out of school um and so the one that i was just the reason that i brought these up was because of your reporting about the albert bridge um staff because s197 was the mental health supports
110bill and it provides for mental health supports for students and educators and it's got ample funding for or people across our state it should dovetail with our um uh telehealth as particularly mental health telehealth uh laws that we also passed this year so filling in some of the gaps for mental health professionals in our state we can also we the we provided for the use of mental health or the licensure of mental health professionals outside of our state for the purposes of telehealth um where uh where is necessary so uh so if you have any questions just shoot me an email and i'd be glad to follow up i'm sorry if i have been um inarticulate and besides that for our next agenda nope we have an action and that is the fy 23 credit
111and amy's holding up the form yes so elizabeth and i who are here um we signed it um it will be at the su offense before this is like by everybody else yeah yep lori said she would email people that weren't here in person okay i'll sign it but we don't need to vote on it no yeah so please please stop by the seo office and uh sign the four places that need to be signed for the extension of credit for the fiscal year of 2023. i didn't see that amy but is that is is that a line of credit with a bank basically correct what does it say at the top it says governmental certificate and it's a oh the short-term loan that happens in between um that's anticipated it's a tax anticipation note
112so with the bank i just wanted to interrupt because the bank will want to see a motion from this board that approves the tax anticipation note in the amount of um and that signature page that amy's holding along with a copy of the minutes where that was voted on we'll go to the bank and that will instigate the the tax anticipation note i just want to make sure we do that i move that we accept whatever yeah the tax anticipating note in the amount of is there amount on that amy there is and two cents okay right in that amount nice second good only three year accent anticipation short term alone in the amount of 2 million and 430 thousand nine hundred and forty six dollars and two cents uh it was already done it
113was already nancy was it you nancy yes yes and rebecca okay on the line um uh okay amy how do you vote uh davis how do you vote hi bill how do you vote uh first i want to say thank you to david for for remembering that because we do it every year yeah uh i and uh rebecca how do you vote hi nancy how do you vote hi i am an i this has passed unanimously okay now the uh next the next agenda is for our uh yes for our um our retreat which will be the last week of july if we're lucky um does anybody have any uh suggestions that they'd like to make as a topic for our rebecca i see your hand um student voice we've been talking about including student
114voice in our uh on our board and that hasn't happened yet so how do we how do we go forward with that yeah about that actually um okay and there is a significant amount of resources from vermont school board association oh great um okay and uh anybody else have anything any like broadish topics that they'd like to discuss pertaining specifically to our district i think i'd like to at least touch base on pk again on what pre-k sorry free kindergarten to the technical work i i talk in state code one of the one of those miscellaneous education laws has provisions for a universal calendar statewide universal school calendar here we go again to that and they're also looking into a universal kindergarten entrance so that's right uh nancy did you have a topic that you'd
115like to bring yes i wonder if we should uh discuss um middle school sixth grade uh specifically and um and maybe bill could help us with some readings so we could you know we could educate ourselves even though i taught middle school for a long time and we did separate this sixth grade finally into its own little pot [Music] davis do you have something that you'd like to you don't have to i'm kind of putting everybody on the spot if you have something that you've wanted to talk about for a long time um i mean we're pretty engaged in the conversation already um with the work with mary but i think if we if we incorporated you know touched upon the equity work that we're doing at that retreat that would be uh beneficial okay
116amy do you have something that you'd like to i i think the student voice okay if we are i think the middle school needs to be a completely separate meeting but a bank student voice and finally coming to some decision we've got we came so close and then covet happened and it would be great to to figure out how to move on with the plans that we had in place yep okay and also that reminds me that um we were invited uh we all received an invitation from the windsor jedi committee to participate in a um a panel on june 23rd and so um if if you're of the mind i think it would be great if we had a good showing from our board i will definitely be there see nodding their heads yes
117nancy you're duded you're still muted okay i'm trying to read your lips but i can't oh no she's down there still muted do you have the ability to unmute nancy by any chance uh you know i can't do it on my end but hold on let me well nancy's trying to get unmuted i just want to confirm that date it is the 23rd with that jedi group is it is that what everybody has okay what time is that uh it's usually at six i think they meet at six okay okay to my calendar but christine do you have that in your calendar not yet where do they meet uh they meet at the windsor welcoming center but i think you can also you can come in virtually though too right okay yeah davis what would
118you like to say about the jedi it is it is um the purpose of the panel is as part of uh pride month yeah i was just gonna ask i knew that it was a tie-in with uh with pride month i just wasn't sure if there was any more detail on the exact subject matter of the panel but you read my mind to that question i will forward uh i will forward the email to everybody again but i i believe we were all already invited um and uh and i'll try to send the um participation information at the same time so the 23rd at six coming right up um can you hear me now yes no no we can't yes yes that was what i want that's what i wanted i don't i didn't think
119i got an invitation so i just wanted you to afford uh forward it again and you are so thanks yeah and the other thing too is i think the reason it wasn't in my calendar and it's probably not in christine's is because we have the conflict i think the heartland retreat is that night on the 23rd is that is that true christine 4 30 yes so maybe we could maybe somehow we could jump on after that if we have time but but i do think a good showing from this board i agree with elizabeth to have a good showing from this board yeah all right well i will i will uh as soon as i hang up from this i will send resend the invitation and uh with that i think we are done for
120the evening so i will take a i'm going to shortcut the vote on logging off and i'll take a motion to end the meeting okay and nancy seconds and uh all those in favor please say hi thanks everybody