001e e e want to welcome everyone to a regular meeting of the W Northeast supervisory Union board of directors we're convening at six o'clock approximately and we'll do a round of introductions I think I'll start online Jamie if you'd like to introduce yourself sure yep my name is Jamie staro um I am from Westminster and I am on the board representing uh bell falls Union High School thank you perfect hi I am Hardy ml uh representing Athens Grafton thank you Mary Howard representing Grafton from the high school board then Morgan on the a board teamc Westminister School Board I'm Cheryl Charles chair of this board and westmin board and superintendent school Ed Conor business manager Haren Blan Westminster School Board Caitlyn dond Rockingham School Board I'm Paul bosi I represent Rockingham School Rick Holloway Rockingham
002School Board Chris kby rocking school so um I will call for any adjustments to the agenda if there are any any handy don't think so no thank okay and we'll see if there are any uh Communications and public comment hearing none seeing none we go ahead and review and approve the minutes from March 12th which were sent out to us today so I'd like to entertain a motion to approve those minutes that was ly Morgan uh who I saw or heard first approve the minutes of March 12 any corrections I just one okay uh in the minute said that Rick and I were appointed to the negotiations committee but Rick is a negotiations person I so my name shouldn't have been so good point all right so um delete Chris's name with respect to the
003Su Rick is repres pres in the suu board uh at negotiations so that with that with that correction uh are we ready to vote all those in favor in the room of the minutes with that correction signify by saying I I any oppose all right and then H Jamie your vote please I and Hardy hi okay perfect and so we'll move right into uh informational reports the first of which is from Ed Finance report please so I first of all I'd like to apologize for getting this out so late I should have I was trying to figure out the best way to present it and as such I uh and then there were some nuances to it that that I discovered towards the uh end of the day that I wanted to make sure I
004got um if you look at the uh what I what I you just got handed out the top part of is your revenue and what we're looking at is the general fund okay and the revenues in that uh table that's at the top are a combination of uh assessments special ed reimbursements and a few random reimbursements for say transportation and uh the Triple E Grant those kind of things are in there and if you go over you've got the budget in the First Column and then you've got encumbrances and those encumbrances are essentially I've encumbered to Budget on a lot of these because that's what we're planning that's what we're assuming we're going to get okay so in for as an example I I think we're going to get the full amount of the uh
005State a for transportation so to get that it was 126,000 and is that in the could you point that out to us second thank you very much I didn't hear you yeah that yeah you just type it in Ty it in thank you yeah so the top uh you go down you can see that the assessments we're going to get 100% of what I really want to bring your attention to is down at the bottom there's the the fourth from the bottom or the fifth from the bottom I didn't put anything in there that's an indirect cost reimbursement that's because one of our staff members works on grants and as such she gets we get reimbursed for her time so I don't I don't know off the top of my head the the normal number
006there so I just left that a zero but I would anticipate that we're going to get more than the $29,000 that is in there right now um if you keep going down the special ed reimbursement for Extraordinary the 194 though that that is uh again bued I put in an encumbrance to actual so I anticipate we're going to get 357 we also could get more and having talked with uh special ed they seem to think that there's that number is going to grow so we get more than the 357 and then the next one down I didn't put in any um encumbrance only because I that's for State Place students so whatever cost associated with a state Place student the district gets 100% of the money back and normally what happens as we get towards
007the end of the year there's more bills that are coming due that you'll get and that number that 11840 should grow the third one down the 995 982 that number is not going to change because that's the block grant in Prior years they used to that could grow depending on the use but now they've gone to this block grant thing so that number is going to stay the same so as you can see we're anticipating an additional $2,979 th000 in Revenue before year end down to the expenditures again I I the incumbrance is there are actuals they're they're in the budget or they're in the report so I've broken it out in three parts because we have three programs at the Su one central office one special ed and one's early childhood and what I've
008done is I've broken out the cost associated with each one incumbrances and expenditures and showed you where we are if you look at the adjustments into prior year that line there that third one from the bottom line 41 I don't know if you have that no they don't have they don't have the number sorry okay so that that 89,000 that's the re that's the amount of money that you guys were reimbursed for the Surplus at the Su back in December uh so that's an expenditure that was unanticipated that's why you could see there there's no budget number for that I just want to make that clear because what the expenditures in the central office include is an additional $889,000 and when we get to the bottom I'll show you what the result of that is
009so then you go to special ed and special L is 888714956 now again those costs will be offset by additions to the extraordinary and state placed so that number could go down in addition there are expenditures that are uh there are incumbrances that are put in there based on people that we may or may not use as we move towards the end of the year so that the incumbrances could go down so overall that 88 deficit that's down from over a million dollars of the last time so it's it's coming down as we get closer to actuals meaning the year gets longer I mean the year we get further into the year so we're not I can tell you from experience that the encumbrances in special ed are difficult because there's a lot of turnover
010in special ed so what we encumber is what we had contractually for wages and sometimes those wages those people leave and we don't spend as much in images uh and then the Early Childhood Program you can see from that there's really only three things the direct instruction and the office of the principal both of those are uh regular Ed and there's no expenditures because they're all at Medicaid IEP Medicaid is paying for that program and then the last one is the direct instruction for special ed and uh that's that's the usually that's part that's paid for with the little bit of uh the little bit of uh assessments and the Early Childhood Grant so then we go down so the total expenditures are uh 11,535 th000 13 the the projected revenues as I just showed
011you are 800 10,704 and that gives you a deficit of $830,000 or 22.6 to negative all right when I did when I go down to the bottom of that you go I'm showing you what the beginning balance of this year was and that's an audited balance in the general fund okay then I take the revenue incumbrances and the revenue and the expenditure incumbrances and the expend ures and I take beginning balance I add in the revenue encumbrance I add in the revenue and I subtract out the expenditure encumbrance and the expenditures and your your general fund balance I'm projecting today at year end is going to be negative 43,124 you're right around zero right now is where you want to be much better than we could yes Medicaid you mentioned right so who's are we
012tracking that about when that may be cut off or not cut off or I don't think that there's any indication that's going to be cut off we we continue to hear from the AOE uhuh um that that we that they anticipate all current grants and funding and and funding streams revenue streams reimbursement streams will continue as awarded Y and will continue through next fiscal year okay so we we feel that is what if we keep getting signal to continue to budget and plan in our normal Point especially um since the federal government pass their extend iture on their budget on on last Friday that was a Lynch pin kind of if that hadn't gone that might have disrupted that but because that happened the federal government's always a year behind and so anything that kind
013of goes in place Fally now would affect this year 27 potentially thanks the one thing about Early Childhood is is that what I was told is over the years there's been a significant Surplus in there and at the end of this year you're not going to have a significant so most of the cost for Early Childhood is going to have to be picked up by the general fund so that piece of your assessments will most likely rise as it did this year or next fiscal year so I I think as of today there's about $992,000 in revenue and uh they just got in the second quarter I believe so that's less than what they've been getting in the past and I think that'll continue to be the case I think Chris wants to make a
014comment about that right however be charging for PRK Services next year so there'll be another Revenue stream that doesn't exist now so there may still be may or may not I have a question now Ed I have a question question too I don't know whether you can see me or not um because I'm blocked by the uh we can see you we'll have Chris first and then come to you Hardy just let's see if my question is your question so up in the uh on the expenditures you you show the adjustment to Prior year central office or which category in the central office it's the adjustment the prior year what Chris is yeah so you show the expenditure which is the pre previous year's fund balance right that was paid back to the districts right
015correct so just help me at the bottom you show a beginning balance of 787 694 how's that different than the uh Surplus that we paid out you guys came up with a number of them I think tab that just a function sort all fund balance no which one go left that one yeah that up yeah not that one go the function sorted should say yeah good that's the one we were just on well that's well anyway what originally when I when I arrived there was a you got refunded a million 92,000 now how you how that number was arrived at I have no idea but I it's unusual to send out a a a surplus refund in the middle of a fiscal year okay I would have waited until the end of the fiscal year
016to see what was left rather than try to fix something from a prior year even when you didn't we didn't get the 24 audit until almost what late late part of it so why it doesn't tie out is because uh we didn't have we didn't know what the 787 was going to be or at some point it must have been they must have thought it was bigger than that so that why the other part of this is that along with the general fund and this is going to take a lot of explaining but there's literally 50 more funds at the Su right in various phases of like revenue and expenditures with reg with balances in the end that are either positive or negative some of them haven't been used for years so what needs to
017happen is I need to go back through through and look at each one of those funds and see has there been any activity now if we could go back in history and look say I could go back to 2017 or I could go back to 2020 and I could look well we don't have that luxury because you've switched Financial systems a couple of times now and we don't have access to e finance anymore nor do we really have what we don't know whether the e finance was that accurate I can go back and I can look at the audit and see the paper Audits and go through and see if there's any activity once I'd establish that some of these funds haven't been touched in say five years then there's going to be a process
018of closing them and generally the the balance of that fund would be closed into the general fund so there's going to be some more adjustments to the general fund as we move forward so you're saying that this no I'm not saying in this 787 is sort of the conglomeration of all of the funds no I'm not I'm saying that 787 was a general fund balance that was left over after you took the opening balance in 20 24 you ran the year of 24 you got to the end and that was the final balance right but when you when they decided to do the refund they must have I'm I'm I'm completely spitballing here but they must have thought that that number was a million 91 cuz then all of a sudden there's an adjustment to
019that that I haven't that I put in here but I which means that the school districts will have to send money back because the million 92 was not right that is that is didn't we already do that we voted do that I have I haven't let the D I want to see the dust settle I want to understand it first I've had lot a really hard time getting my head around a million a million 92 getting refunded and now I want to make sure before I do anything that those numbers are accurate so let's let's go to Hardy if we may next for the question go ahead Hardy yeah I agree with that that the money has to come back um and I think we know the numbers um they're on a schedule and I
020I think we can handle that pretty well the only thing I not this is a very good analysis the the one thing I noticed is if you go to the expenditures and you look at the second line up which is fund transfers a budget of $200,000 that is the Food Service money that we transfer from the general fund to the food service so we need to put that in there in the encumbered because that's an expense we're going to incur first before I do that Hardy I want to look at the uh Food Service budget to see whether they need the 200,000 I think we ought to uh make sure yeah I'm not we're aware of what that number is and that it could be another $200,000 to the bottom line okay and if we
021put that in there then that instead of having a balance of uh it would be another uh the balance the fund balance at the end of the year would be negative2 200 uh 41,000 which which we would have to pay back the districts yeah but it's still early because I don't know how long I know it's early all right any other questions or comments or maybe you want to make any additional I just want to go back to uh the uh there's a that one there this one yeah can you make that bigger I can't because team told me how to do it so I just right in whatever you want yeah so the general fund balance is actually the Su Surplus refund there the original one are the numbers on the left the column
022that says original that showed up as an expense at the Su milli well that would tie out to what the budget is right now or to what the the or if you go back to the beginning balance in my projected 25 that's that number so what they're trying to do is they're trying to adjust the million 91 Chris to the actual which is 787 correct and that's why there's 304,000 due back which reduces the expense that I showed you from a million 91 to the 839 and I was going to wait until the year ended before I did any refunds because I like to do things at the end of the year and I think the Auditors like that too but it was the end of the year wasn't it because this is FY 23
023not F I'm sorry that that's wrong that should say FY 24 then Surplus oh no actually no it is FY 23 Surplus is what what we got I get confused you guys were using the FY 23 Surplus and you you didn't run it through FY 24 that's correct right so that's why you had to adjust the amount but you're getting to the point where you should be which is you want to end the year to zero yeah these are the same numbers we've been kicking around but you're right these numbers here are that that million 91 720 is the year end balance at the Su in 2023 and then I think when the Auditors got done with the FY 23 audit they realized that it was only 787 if I'm if I'm not mistaken just
024that was kind of the information that came to it looks to me like they adjusted this to the 24 balance because if you go the year end balance for 24 was 787 695 that's correct so they must have taken a look at 23 and said well we can't do 23 now we have 24 we got to fix this and that's when they did The Adjustment and like you you asked me that they haven't we haven't actually had a check cut we cut checks to each one of districts but we haven't gotten a check back thect balances yeah and that's the 304 that need to come back yes that comes back and and and and just for clarity for other The Cutting of checks is just things you do in the business office that are moving
025things like um and moving the Mon's around and you'll do that at the end of the year right find I think make some some general some some general comments about how you've been trying to you know get inside all of this even though things are better than they were you're still digging into all of the detail and really making sense of it for yourself which in turn helps us so I don't know whether you the 50 funds for example that you're dealing with is one is one aspect of that we'd welcome any additional comments because you're only into this for a couple months we heard his badge off today thought that he thought that meant something but no no we quickly uh reacted good we do want you in the building I may I ask
026a question about this so if you're saying that the original is is 23 I'm just trying to and that was if when I'm looking at it corrected I'm looking at Westminster right now because that's where I said so the original was 182 but when you say corrected it means that that was an incorrect number and the corrected number is 131 right Etc and so and the difference unclear about that but that comes back to Westminster I I'm trying that's what I don't understand so let me try and see if I can and then the way that that reads doesn't read that way that's what I'm going to say once we finally thought we had a number from FY 23 y it looked like it was a million 91 that need was a surplus at the
027Su level that then needed to go back to the districts through the assessment process so we went ahead and did that and money was actually moved from from the Su account into the different districts but then as the Auditors were working and figuring out FY 24 and finishing it up they said there's a mistake or it shouldn't have been a million 91 it should have only been 787 696 right so now you Bellow Falls Rockingham Athens graft and Westminster owe back to the Su $34,000 and so we had done some work around that earlier this year or at at the end of last calendar year right right around that time and and a decision was made in in a in a motion to move those monies back yeah Ed hasn't move those monies back yet
028and we'll do that at the end of the year so you'll see that I think what I I was looking at was that the Auditors looked at I'm I'm again I'm looking at Westminster we were being charged 186 s if I'm looking at this correct but it should be 351 right not charge I mean 51 I mean 331 and so the difference that we owe more of is what I'm wanting to say to S you you just have to pay back the balance you know we got 100 no I get you it's just because it was different in the first was over it was an overly over amount then they adjusted it and so in my estimate we're paying less than we would have if we had been going by the one you know 1
029million whatever it is it's okay trust me I get it I do no but uh yeah all right we should wrap this up unless you want to make any additional comments right now no I just one of the last things I'll say is that part of the reason that I haven't done the check back from each of the districts to the Su for the three for is getting back to what Hardy said if we end the year with a deficit that's greater than what like for instance if it was 200,000 that the districts would own not the 304 but the 304 plus the deficit you know what I mean it would actually I would just take the deficit and I would say I'd use that same formula the same percentages and say each district owes
030this and it could be more than what I'm showing here so there's a part of me that's saying well why don't I wait to see how the whole year shakes out before I do this check back kind of stuff but it wouldn't be a ton more because it's only an extra right now looks like 43,000 split between right but as hard you said if that 200,000 is needed by the food program it quickly jumps to 200 but again I can do this because it looks it'll make things cleaner it'll show the expense in the Su budget of 787 696 will tie back to the year end number for 24 so it'll be easier to understand channeling jigs do we get interest on that money that you're holding oh yeah you're getting if you you go
031back up if you go to the top of your thing have to DET this is a joke and you about some this is the one thing about jig he has look at that number $559,000 nice in interest my question there is is that the district's interest or is it the su's interest that's the district's are you mean is that all the districts well is that cash belong to all of the districts because we have so many surpluses or is that all Su cach is that just Su that's my I'm just curious it seems like a lot of money for the Su but uh well it does fall to the bottom line hard yeah yeah I know it does yeah I I guess at the end whatever the balance is is going to be either Surplus
032or deficit and it'll go back to the district so so later in the agenda we're going to talk a little bit about the role committee I'm not sure if you're able to stay with us for more of the meeting sure okay that would be good uh can we move on all right we'll go to the superintendent's give me a second here stop sharing and doing all that stuff thank you thank [Music] you no what we need to make sure you can get on yours is what we call collage and then you can just jump on control so um I just wanna try and go through and just highlight a few things because there's quite a bit in this report um but I just W to um lead off and say thank you to uh all
033of our board members but also to all of our community members and our tact um um folks paying taxes and our voters um all four of our budgets passed um and it was I can tell you that um I happened to be in New Orleans at a conference when that happened and um I was at a class where we were with other superintendents talking about budgets and they were all boning and to be able to stand up and tell them that I got four budgets passed and they're complaining about passing one budget um it just felt really good and I'm I'm very appreciative of uh of our community and their support for us so um um want to highlight and it'll be later is the Vermont learning collaborative what you have on there is the
034Comm commitment letter uh we do belong and have belonged to the Vermont learning collaborative which um started out as a special Leed collaborative um to try and develop programming uh for um some of the students that we look at out of District placements uh we always struggle we've actually had less out of District um opportunities uh for students uh when we've really needed them there's not there's not as many spaces and the collaborative has been working to develop with um with with the members that belong to it to develop programming um there's um set to looks like Windham Southeast is actually going to develop a a program um and and Lynn now that you now that I'm rereading that that is a typo yeah so the collaborative is currently working with Windham Southeast to develop
035a program for students with disabilities and then we would have an opportunity to have seats there as being part of that collaborative so that's one of the the benefits that we have is being in a collaborative and then we uh we get a reduced rate so I'm just going to throw out numbers that these are please don't hold me to them but let's say a student would cost $100 a day but as a as a collaborative member it only costs $75 a day so there's a cost savings there and so um we work with them to look at what we can develop and then maybe get some students to come to us so it's a it's kind of a revenue Source um it's also the state of Vermont is looking at the collaborative as a
036model for the Boosey bill that went through and I know we hate acronyms and I can't tell you what Bosey means but um if someone does but it's a it's a term out of New York and it has to do with regional collab collaboratives that get together and so um the collaborative is looking to become a Boosey under that new bill as well um Andy just roughly how many students are affected by this just round numbers how many students from our district use etlc um so so right now they don't have a program that we have students that are going to it so we're they're actually providing um professional development at this point so that was some of the first things that btbc it's not btbc btlc um so it's not the online piece no
037I just want to clarify for myself okay um so the collaborative has been working with um helping do some um employment searches where we've been able to um get some um different um hardto fill positions um they've been working with they provide some online um therapy pieces for speech language therapy assessments so pieces of that nature so it hasn't been a direct impact on students if you want to think about it that way it's been more of an indect at your point so who uses the online therapy because that was presented to us before I'm really curious about this so some students who would have some students who would have it in their IEP as a service right we um if depending on their situation so without getting into a lot of the different pieces
038we might offer online support um with a with a a virtual person as opposed to an in-person understand no I mean but so it varies on each student we might have a student who's out on um on tutorial meaning we're looking for a placement for that student but it's not appropriate for them to be in school we still have to provide services so that might be a time where utilizing that service saying this would be future opportunities rather than present I was trying to get an idea if this is a present student benefit and I think at first you said it wasn't but it sounds like what you're saying maybe students are benefiting from this now we do have some students who are benefiting yet but it it's more indirect where they've been providing some
039staffing and some professional development for staff at this point but they are developing programs this is actually an action item later in the agenda so do you want to go ahead with other highlights um just real quick uh just because big PCB lawsuit update um so as you know we are currently um a part of a class action lawsuit that Lyn Lin Blackman and Tui um are spearheading against Monsanto um and that is getting prepared uh to go to court uh next January and so as part of the discovery phase six schools were picked for Source testing and Westminster was chosen um not because it actually had had um Airborne pcbs but because it didn't have Airborne pcbs but was built in the 1970s so therefore they're using that as are their actual Source in
040cocking and things like that so they're going to be doing that um but the high school wasn't picked so what happens in the discovery phase is bonsanto gets to pick one school Lyn Lin Blackman to you pick a school you know you go back and forth and so U another high school was or another another building was actually picked as opposed to bis Falls Union High School so that's why that High School wasn't there our high school wasn't picked uh but the AGS um the attorney generals their um lawsuit is continuing on so there's two parallel lawsuits still in the work um and then um PC monitoring here at the high school um so I just put that in there and just to highlight so last week we actually received an email um from the
041Vermont Department of Health telling us that we could actually turn off the carbon filters here in the building um and so the investment of the the um air handling system here is doing its job which is it is expelling any um Airborne pathogens so that's a it's a real plus here and so the high school board on Monday will be actually um hopefully adopting what sorry what we call an EA and I don't have that always in my head what it is but it's it's a corrective action plan um and how we want to address because we have to address remediating the pcbs um and then if there is a budget being proposed up at the legislator if that is approved b f Union High School um has been earmarked uh for part of that
042budget and so then we we have a plan for how we would use that money to eradicate or remediate pcbs in the building right um there's a legislative update um I won't go through all of that but that's just for your informational um um and then also we provide every year at this time a new guide book for uh board members um Ricky Adams is working on having that up on our website as well so there's some translation there with our our compliance issues um want to highlight the fourth annual Fearless Futures fair and that is um Heather Warz who is our career learning coordinator for the middle and high school um she puts that together um and that is a um a direct outcome of a lot of the work Heather we brought on
043in that role using Esra funds the high school and the and the middle school have picked that up locally her position but it continues on so if you have time please stop by um there is an update on federal programming as of when this was produced um so as you know that there was quite a bit of money that was cut out of USDA for local funding I just want to highlight this I did reach out to Harley and I said you know like what's the impact for us because we do a lot of local um you know Farm to farm table and Harley said the impact us was about $4,300 um because we utilize other funding streams so it's not a huge impact to us um yeah and then um I think as I
044said that um there is the um right now everything we are being told is that our grants so our title grants our idea which is special education all of that we are to move forward as if it is U being funded we do know we are getting less money next year in title and Consolidated federal grants that's going down that has to do with student population things like that so and then the director reported so but happy to answer any questions um one question I had just on how this operates the legislative one it says under that please the attached updates how do you access the attached up if you if you click on that link that will take you to a web page I must just have a dumb dra actually I spoke to
045Nicole about this is the document the links didn't work Andy sent a supplemental one so this was very confusing okay so you couldn't click on that version AB why I had the wrong one B it did are there any other questions for Andy any Mary you had something maybe you wanted to follow up with um yeah it was just the Public's access through the wnesu website is vital to communication everyone all the same communication all that same information would make much better decisions and it's really important that the links on the website for each public meeting work and so Nicole and Ricky are working together to try to perfect that and it has to be perfected it's by law so today's for example did not until later today and and we are aware of that
046and we apologize we as you know we had to transfer to a new platform and that has been one of the most Monumental lists and we highlighted the last month I think and and I mean we're we're a small department and and we're doing a lot of work and and and there's a lot of things that we need to get up there we know that we had just had a conversation on Monday of the things we need to get up there um we moved to the diligent platform which is the board-based platform um we brought that to you all a while ago um but a lot of that had to do with the ADA compliance and accessibility that was part of it so I'm just going to stop you so diligent is supposed to support
047that better than what we had previously correct okay it so diligent is a separate platform diligent is a separate platform from our our website platform but what diligent does is it it forces much of the ADA compliance piece so we can't just upload a PDF online like we used to do so when you used to click on those hyperlinks that were on the calendar that would get you the agenda that is not compliant with the uh ADA compliance and OCR so we have to have a new platform that brings it in so that it's accessible for all individuals that's part of the the piece so there there's also just some pieces as we are standardizing and moving things around we realize like what we used to do we can't always do but we've got to
048make adjustments as we're doing them so we we acknowledge that and as we get feedback we're trying to make those adjustments in real time so I'm gon to make a comment but we have a lot of action items on the agenda tonight and I'm a bit worried about time I know that Paul you need to leave to go to another uh another meeting which is unusual we understand that so not a problem with that but uh I'm just I'm GNA kind of apologize in advance that the meeting may go a little longer than we usually have them go yeah so with that uh any other questions for Andy okay let's move then and thanks Paul see you soon thanks bye uh help us with the appointments yeah so we are are actually excited to bring
049um Cody Anne Hines to you all to fill a vacant a current vacant special education position um Cody Anne um grew up in um Rockingham she schools um um and um she had moved away uh was in went to UVM then was uh up at uh was out in Washington worked out there and taught out there but she's recently moved back um and is wanting to come on and um join us um and so we're really excited we will need to just because of the fact that she was teaching in Washington and we're in Vermont she doesn't have her Vermont license so she'll come on as a provisional we will work with the AOE to uh secure that license I I don't uh foree a problem in that um she has a Masters in Education
050um and is almost like I think she for Washington was one class away from finishing up whatever endorsement piece for special education so um uh she's done a lot of co- teing which is really exciting uh because it's a direction we're looking to go in so um we're hoping to bring her on as a master's step five for this year okay we need to entertain a motion uh to authorize you to hire uh Cody hins Cody and Hind and thank you I'll make a motion for to authorize Andy to um hire hody Cody sorry Cody and Hines as um Masters plus five special okay motion on the floor thank you any discussion I could just add that would be pro rated just so everyone knows for the remainder of the school year yeah sure everyone
051okay any any discuss all right then I'll go to the scream we do the roll call just because people are remote that's just how that works so hardy yes thank you Jamie yes all right and those of the room all in favor yes cath's oh I'm sorry Kathy thank you Kathy your vote please yes Kathy and welcome to the meeting sorry we didn't acknowledge you earlier thank you uh and again all of those in the room signify by saying I any all right so welcome to excellent thank you very much um I am passing out a revised teacher roster um because I we noticed a couple of errors that are highlighted um in Orange uh for you um but happy to discuss anything that nature um so we have some people in the earlier version
052we saw some people you had designations for people who were not renewed this list includes non-renewals um reduction in forces as well oh I see them still okay they're there yeah any I mean overall is this um the same as last year in terms of the overall number of people uh with the reduction in force obviously is less people um most um most of the folks that are reduction in force are uh folks who used to be paid out of our Consolidated Federal grant we had preliminary numbers that we knew we were going to be receiving less of those dollars and so we're having to do some adjustments um and again when we went through the list you know obviously following our our collective bargaining agreement looking at uh those teachers with the least seniority
053um or however it falls out in that list and looking at it um and then we are going to have to go back once we have our final numbers on our title and do some reconfiguring to make sure that we are equ equitably servicing our students at all schools so um it's it's an impact I mean we were having to adjust from lack of money that we had a year ago yeah but I I I mean it's I want to be very clear it has nothing to do with anything that's currently happening in Washington or anything we've been hearing about um this has to do with title funds traditionally we get less every year many years we've had carryovers that we're able to carry over um and so we've been kind of living on that
054and and and doing that those surpluses if you will the carryovers or we've used them and we're getting down to um quite a bit money um over the last couple of years it's been about a half a million dollars Less in title funds so just like in our special ed Grant we get less money these days um it again it's all tied into those long-term waiting pieces and things like that so now are all schools getting less less or is it because of the it changes on your demographics also so you know as as students move around um um some socioeconomics plays in in there um but it's it's not all connected directly to your poverty level or things of that or free and reduced launch so there's a lot of calculations that go in
055um but we as I say overall um I believe you know it's it's almost close to $200,000 this year of less dollars Chris has a common or question yeah well and the jump in on that the calculations are not Andy's calculations the state makes house how things have to be so Andy there are two people that weren't on last year's roster that are on this year's but they're both non-renewals they were hired must be new hired yeah they were H they were hired after we had the approval they were hired over the summer that's too bad yeah yeah all right I'd entertain a motion to approve the teacher roster for 2025 26 as presented that be correct so I move the roster that was revised for 2025 be accepted okay any further discussion or questions
056no okay all right let me go to the screen again I'll start with Cathy your vote please uh yes thank you Hardy yes and Jamie yes thank you very much and those in the room signify by saying I I any opposed all right thanks Andy unanimously approved excellent thank you very much okay then uh the next item is the Vermont learning collaborative so uh we talked about it earlier I can answer any addition additional questions um these were dollars um that we did put into our budget um that was adopted um for uh next year so this would allow us to continue on with our membership with the collaborative for next year so we can have a motion to uh approve the recommendation of the superintendent to pay our dues to the Vermont learning collaborative
057for this year be the motion I make a motion that we do Chris got that one Chris can you make that motion so the motion's on the floor uh any discussion or questions Mary any more it's an increase this year can you speak to what the it's from 11,000 to about 19 I think yeah so that has to do with um your uh how the collaborative works is based on all the suus that or SDS that join into it and then it's based on your per pupil allocation we used when it was originally assessed we had a hire per pupil we our per pupil are going down but the cost stay the say so that's that adjustment that goes up so and again as you said this money is in the budget this is a
058formality at this point to approve a contract all right uh any other discussion okay once again I'll go to the screen Hardy how do you vote hi thank you uh Jamie yes and Cathy yes all right thank you all those in the room signify by saying I I any oppos all right well you guys we're moving along more scar uh the next item is the election of an assistant Treasurer you DET whether yeah we we looked into that and and I think that fell into and I think we kind of mentioned it was um or maybe we had a discussion the there was a a past where a previous treasure was unavailable and so we ran it might have been when I kind of came on as uh superintendent four years ago and so we
059kind of added an assistant treasure to make sure that we always had someone as a backup um but it's not something that it in governance is needed and I don't know you've got we have a Treasurer that that is currently in the bank and signed and everything yeah the only the only time we've ever needed it is when someone has we have an assistance so that they can sign warrant that would be well we have warrant signers separate from Treasurer that's what we use them for I I think the treasure was you is really used for payroll more than anything and well just I sign Banks documents mostly but there are some statutory requirements like Treasurer has the treasur but not there's no yeah there's nothing you can just you know if something happens to
060me you can appoint somebody else all right so I think uh with everybody's agreement we need take no action on this was a treasure for number of years and thought that we just we appointed like any other board member in their absence or some there I there was something so I I I distinctly recall and not the Bel point we ran into some problems as we were doing some shifting of business managers and we we ran into some really Troublesome problems we were able to get figur it out and get but that was reason it ended up on the as a position is it digital now or do you still have to go into the Su office the treasur I think you're kind of mixing in the signing the warrant separate that's the treasurer does
061not sign one no I used to go in and sign checks I used to have to go in and sign that's electronic was every two weeks yeah Ed was nice and bought me a stamp this had to do also with um um we were switching banks that was the other problem that was going on at the same time and and that's when you really need a treasure so and I believe he was in the so all right without we're moving on no appointment of an assistant treasure uh then the next item I think is to look at the charge of a finance committee when we were at our reorganization meeting uh last last week we had the that item and we got into discussion about whether it's a budget committee which Chris had recommended at
062the time or a finance committee I committed to writing a description of a charge for the possible committee and that's what you have in front of you uh you know I to just to restate what I said A week ago I still think there's some I personally think there's value in having a larger view Finance Commission that uh page 19 can look at some of the big picture issues and I've cited the example in this description of the changes being discussed to uh education funding in the state of Vermont right now a proposal being considered uh in the legislature which will go in depth to Ways and Means in the next couple of weeks is to move to a foundation formula which is a different approach to funding in the state so I think I
063think that the finance committee gives us an opportunity to have a smaller group of people jump in in a little more depth and detail on some of these larger um uh questions and certainly within the overview of the finance committee is the very specific responsibility to have oversight make recommendations to the full board and develop the draft budget which which we have done um Chris you may want to comment because you had not thought had for anything well no I I haven't really changed my mind either and not only that but I I think your example is a poor one because we're we talk like this all the time right that's fine uh because for example the the information if we were to start to if that legislation was actually passed you the we start
064to move toward a foundation formula we're not going to sit around in a finance committee and calculate on the back of a napkin how much money we're going to get I mean all that comes from the state you know you can spend a lot of time calculating the numbers that the state's going to give you um so anyway I'm not it's fine I'm not you know I'm not really goingon to argue I'm I'm just saying we we never really needed this before all we needed was a budget committee I still don't think we really need it but but I'll have be happy to serve let's let's see if there's any other um Hardy I don't know whether you have any comments to make about this do we do we need is it simply a budget
065committee and is that sufficient or do we need anything with a larger set of responsib think what you wrote up was uh quite good and um I believe there's probably going to pop up a few things that should be looked that and I think Ed will probably come up with some of those and let us know what they are um any other discussion about the proposal to have a finance committee for one year and notice that this is not to get in the way of to supplant any of the uh finance manager or the superintendent's responsibilities it's really for me I see it as an advisory uh um group that gets into some issues kind of on an as-needed basis feel like a wee bit of semantics to me like finance committee or budget committee
066six and one half a dozen of the other but um you know you say the budget committee is monitoring our finances I'd like can I um say a few words on this yes please I I concur with um Hardy and I understand what Chris is saying as well and I'd like to see that this committee include the finances because I think everybody gets together they do a lot of nice brainstorming but also we need to be um Vigilant about areas that aren't anticipated and we go over budget or we don't even know till till the end so I'd like to keep the finance committee um along with the budget because we have to do budgets um that's my take okay thank you Chris well I would make the argument that a school budget is different
067than if you're running a business or even a nonprofit once you set a budget it's it's set and it's set in motion you've hired people you've got them under contract you you're hiring Services up that you've got to have they they're uh you know it isn't a business where you can say well we'll cut that division next week or you know we'll forget about these three people that we gave contracts to we'll just fire them and even with a nonprofit you can do do that but you can't with a school so once the budget year is in motion I'm sorry Kathy but this is true there's not much you can do you know you cannot buy some pencils but that's kind of about it you know the things that cost a lot of money are
068people and it's they're under contract for the most part so anyway I I just this kind of neither here nor there but I want to clarify that that this committee is not going to be saying oh my God we have to you know not do this or that because all those things are set in motion when you pass your budget and and the fiscal year start I mean I'd say they're set in motion but we've had lots of changes like we've had special Educators who cost way more than what we budgeted for because we're hiring through an outside agency which is costing more or we end up paying much more for other contractual services and so I think it's good to keep an eye on that stuff but there's nothing you can do about it
069that's my point well we can could spend less money right we could say we actually don't want to hire this person if they cost 20,000 more than we budgeted for or yeah yeah and and you know most budgets Personnel by contract uh you know 80% or so our Westminster budget that's actually not true and so when we track it monthly which we like to do we can look to see if we're going to be going over in some area and we can adjust so so I think there's some Middle Ground around all of this and I'd like us to to to move ahead unless there's more go ahead Ken it's just for me that the broader responsibilities here are important and I think it would be for a finance committee to be able to have
070those kinds of conversations about state and local pop you know looking at the broader p is I I I like the way it's written that's on thank you yes so can we you know do some of Chris's points last week is there some way to minimize some of the redundancy of debate and inspection of these so that we aren't hashing over you know like when the finance committee comes to this meeting and reports on what they did last week and we somewhat keep that discussion fairly minimal and not just like rehash and do the same work that they already did that's my experience I mean Chris has made the point that there he wants to make sure that the full board exercises our fiduciary responsibility and understand things on the other hand I I see
071us getting into more depth at the committee level uh personally and that when you report you're quite succinct here unless you want the full board to to be engaged in a topic that's at least my observation let's go ahead and move it ahead though we can put a motion on the floor and then it's either voted up or down so one last is there do we have any specific makeup of the board or is it just like my suggestion here I mean Chris uh thought you know I could appoint people I'd like to have to make sure you did last year Well I couldn't find that in the minutes um but and I remember that we discussed it and if you can show it to me at any rate um I'd like to make sure
072every district has at least one representative and then I can appoint some additional people if we think expertise is missing that would be you know My Prerogative is chair I think this the reorganization April 10ar y Budget Finance those are the people [Music] they had been elected in our local District elections that's why right right so they were we brought you brought them to the district but you brought them to this meeting and then you appointed them after we had elect we did we did locally in westmin Margie but other districts didn't so I mean and I I didn't appoint uh oh I'm sure I I want you appointed all these pieces okay but it may have been based on the input out of ours but I think I definitely think the goal is that
073we have every District represented yeah so with that can we have a motion and then I say you would be moving that we adopt the description of the finance committee I moved thank you Hardy motion on the floor any further discussion okay uh ask for a vote Kathy SI good one I okay and Jamie I'm going to abstain because I can't find the actual document to read it I haven't found it in the links you want to read it on I apologize unless you can read it aloud if it's not long it's just I tried and tried and tried and I I gave up and I I've enjoyed the conversation but the drafts and then the supplementary didn't come to me so I gave up um Jamie I can quickly uh read it the purpose
074of the Wu finance committee I'm just not gonna vote is to review consider and make recommendations concerning issues affecting the finances of the WSU specific responsibilities include annual budget development review and recommendations to the wnesu board for Action oversight of monthly quarterly and annual expenses review of and annual audit findings broader responsibilities include review of state and local population and economic Trends affecting School finances consideration of potential impacts of changes in Vermont School Finance models the committee's purpose is to be reviewed annually the responsibilities of the committee in no way are intended to supplant the leadership and responsibilities of the superintendent and staff members of the committee are elected school board members within the districts of the wnesu with the chair of the committee to be a w nesu board member because it's an Su
075uh committee ideally all school districts and the high school are represented the committee is advisory and makes recommendations to the full Board of the wnesu that's the charge as drafted great thank you um then yes I vote yes all right thank you and those in uh you you get Hardy yes I did I thought I did all right thank you everybody and thank you Andy all right and uh those in the room all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed all right thanks we'll move ahead then uh in the agenda yes absolutely thank you so much Ed it's great to have you yes thanks did the Wu bylaws discussion and these Nicole sent out today the ones that we revised in 2023 and signed in 2024 and Andy I think you had
076suggested we have these on for some reason well there was Somewhere In My Memory Bank that said that the governance said that and this is how it came up was that the Su meeting had to be on the third Wednesday of every month and so we went back and pulled the bylaws and and and looked at them and the ones I have that I attached here I don't see that but I don't know if there's been um in this um I don't remember and and and again that could have been somewhere someone told me that so um I just kind of swirled that away in my memory the first version that Nicole sent out was 2010 it was not the revised version and this is definitely the one that we worked on in yeah no
077the draft is something that it's a work that Nicole is trying to figure out why these documents have draft on them they're not there the new one doesn't all the thing is that what happened is all the so I don't think it all yeah so um so the only reason I I think when I made that statement and I said I believe it's in your bylaws and and I think you had said oh we should look at those anyway and so we threw it on there um but as far as setting the suu meeting and all that stuff I do apologize it can be at a different date and now so and when we still kept it at when at 6 o' but I think it's just so you have that information and bu I
078think actually it would be good to put it in the board members yep we can do that got did you have a question or a comment no I wasn't I'm just wanting to make sure that we're not voting on this just because I've seen them before right no and they were signed in a yes than so the next topic is the rural School Community Alliance and this was just an update uh we're uh yes sorry we're just getting her the agenda so she can very good it's how do I open that um let's see if you got it for me keep going Cheryl all right fine so you don't want this you want to get it online the just gonna move ahead the the as you all know the Su voted to be a part
079of the rur school Community Alliance so did Westminster so did Athens and Grafton and so did Rockingham this this last week the high school uh takes a look at it on on Monday and you know it's it's interesting um there uh are such concerns about the degree to which major changes in the public education system in Vermont are being discussed uh and so uh the alliance is growing quickly there are now 70 Ts that have voted to join the alliance uh and I think it's 88 different either school boards or select boards or or parent groups and there and and and the group is still uh growing we have one representative from each of the districts to receive communication but I'd just like to uh encourage everybody to stay on top of it there is
080a website it's just VT rural schools.org VTR rural schools.org and so there's quite a bit of information there uh and will it may be the case that I end up testifying either this week or next week and the topic would be on governance Andy and I had some brief emails about this today but the Vermont superintendent Association has taken the position that supervised reunions are not needed uh they're advocating for the dissolution who has said that again Vermont superintendent Association oh the VSA and uh and and and and yet there are members of the association that certainly strongly support the continued role of supervisory unions um I'll share with you the testimony that I've been working on it it has so much to do with if we all become school districts and are merged that
081a school district is so different than a supervisory Union once again it takes away a discussion of the budget from town meeting you know we we do it as a merged District we don't and we went through that in Westminster Athens and Grafton when we were merged and we had to have our budget discussions with a smaller group of people uh to vote on it each year uh and to see the renewed Vitality at town meeting at least in Westminster when it comes to the budget issue is pretty exciting uh to see so we'll see these These are there are many different things that are being involved with it but I think it's it's um kind of it it's actually inspiring to me to see this many independ at towns throughout the state warning an
082item on their board meeting or their select board meeting to uh consider joining they have this many join so um means a lot of people are interested so that's where we are with that anything you want to add um no we are looking at um how we might be able to have a link uh on on our website um there some emails around that asking um districts that had um joined on if they could have that link so people can get that easy so I'm working with Ricky on how we can get that um I think the there's a lot of um conflicting um proposals out there and a lot of them are are you know they're ranging anywhere from um five districts right that's the governor's proposal corre 29 which is maintained the current
083you know it runs the gamut um but there's a lot of uncertainty and I think um one of the things that we found out the other day I think I I said last month we I got appointed to a Sprint team it was for special education it was I found out last Friday it was dissolved and we never met I don't know why we didn't even get an email that was through a meeting I was in and someone said oh yeah they well it was supposed to help with developing some of the plans around the governor's plan and there was a budget one there was a there was a special ed one there was one on curriculum and so superintendant were assigned to different ones and as I said all we haven't even officially been
084told it's been U dissolved but I was in a meeting on Friday where it was like oh yeah those were just dissolved and so there's not we are not getting a lot of um information out of um Mount pliar as to even the plan and how things are going so U it's frustrating in that sense uh we continue to advocate for what is best for our kids absolutely that we don't you know yes are there ways to save money and all that stuff that shouldn't be our driver our driver is what is best for our students in our community and then throughout Vermont so um and I think that should be the direction of any proposal that are coming forward so yeah absolutely one other thing that I would add uh as a point of
085information the collaborative under the offices of the Vermont um rural education collaborative the rec it's called Uh has hired a lobbyist to help us carry the the voices and the concerns of this uh New Alliance to the committee meetings so this person Nick Sherman who works for for um uh leonine public affairs uh is making appointments for us with the chairs of the various committees and that's a big help to have somebody who can be there uh I've never worked directly with a lobbying firm a public affairs firm before and I'm finding this uh this helpful we the alliance entered into an agreement uh at a level of $40,000 between now and the of the legislative session and donations would be tax deductible to the extent uh Allowed by law I don't recommend that the
086Su uh contribute financially because we're looking at a potential deficit but but I do encourage each of the local school boards uh to consider uh some kind of donation and uh and we have had legal guidance that that can be done a year and a half or so ago uh when we participated in the work to get the reweighting formula done in the State uh we were a part of an alliance and actually we as a school district did contribute at that time and we so I'm just saying other districts are Lincoln has just contributed $2,000 from their school district individuals are contributing I will do that I haven't done that yet but that's all part of what this effort is to do what's best for kids back to that you know so we shall
087see but that's it and and anytime if there additional uh questions you might have just let me know yeah so uh no bill made crossover right and related to this none did right I hadn't heard that song sorry no it's correct yeah so but I don't think people should be complacent about this I mean I'm encouraging people to contact their legislators keeping telling them no no no that you know you're going to lose so much through this Foundation formula I had Cheryl if we get some sort of a form letter that's we could that we could use I tried I used chat GPT and everything and I couldn't get one that seemed concise enough and hit everything that kind of wanted to hit we'll have it in about a week Dr Jeanie Albert who's a
088retired mathematician and shars the Lincoln School Board has been working on the numbers piece of it uh and uh and she's working with a superintendent of schools uh Ryan uh maybe he's from Stow uh but at any rate there are people working on it and then it'll be reviewed yeah that's right uh and so I think we'll have I think we'll have a statement on about a week to 10 days and it's my understanding that uh you know we have legislation being crafted in the House Education committee right now um the Senate is supposed to come out with something tomorrow it's supposed to go to Ways and Means where the money discussion will occur in the next two weeks so we'll you know I'm getting briefings and I'll keep everybody as posted as you want
089to well i' also heard the way main committee is drafting legislation to support the they are in support of the foundation for that's corrects and means em that is correct um but Al Piggy and Rick's Point like and I read stuff I mean it's kind of wordy but you know like to circulate on social media like bullet a list of bullet points would be really handy okay yeah something to send out to friends and colleagues and people saying can you please reach out here's here's a you know here's a letter you can use here's things we want makes it EAS people people that I talk to about want to know why I mean they understand I'm opposed but they want to know why they should be opposed too and and they're not going to read
090three pages okay very yeah text to all right explain the term that you're using that they want to use the foundation yeah that means nothing to it I don't understand Foundation formula basically is a way of funding education that's it's based on a a certain amount per student okay and then that's adjusted somewhat based on you know whether they're more expensive to educate El or poverty or okay and many states have this uh and in those state so basically you know let's if your district has a 100 kids in it and and you're going to get $18,000 a kid you know boom I tried to make it simple for myself to you know you're going to get $18,000 times however many kids you have and that's it okay uh pretty much uh as opposed to
091what we get and it doesn't it doesn't cover everything it doesn't uh go up with the more expensive kids to well it will yes but but there it's it's a set amount but but there's also it's more complicated that because even what they're talking about it may actually be more expensive than we're currently pay for the things they're proposing transportation for one in my mind right and all the pro programming they're talking about I mean after school all I think of as a first grader is on a bus for like an hour and 45 minutes one way I mean if this is part of the you know they live over here you know it just this whole thing that it's less expensive we've got to cut that off at the at the legs of the
092table so to speak if if I could just add one I I did hear Zoe Saunders the Secretary of bed speaking on Vermont uh public radio I forget what day it was um that she was invited she was talking about the foundational formula and and there were some good questions asked and her take on it is okay you get this $188,000 you know there's after school programs all this well each Community will decide then what's the best way to expend those dollars mhm of course but when you got a five district Regional where you have elected people I don't see how that that individual Community but really what that means is do you want to have five teachers or do you want to have two teachers in an after school program it's not enough to
093pay for everything that a community may want and then what happens in a foundational formula um is that if the community wants that then that's an additional tax that the community would raise on top of everything so and Vermont Public did not cover any of the demonstrations that happened all over Vermont they didn't oh yeah I called them and they said you know we may we just didn't do it right let's let's move ahead okay thank you so the next item is the superintendent's contract and going into that in public session I think we can talk just a little bit about the second year of the superintendent survey uh that was conducted and I again late in the day uh was that when I sent out anyway it was today I sent you all uh
094a summary of what the survey found and that was that is a part of the Su board's responsibility to do an evaluation of the superintendent's work each year and as one part of that a year ago we sent out a survey in December Karen was a part of that committee as was the executive committee as was jigs actually a year ago December so we got the first results a year ago what I sent you in a memo and what the chairs of the boards discussed yesterday was a comparison of last year's result and this year's results and we're seeing um some improvement in terms of the public in all categories um uh appreciation for the leadership and the the attention to um all the aspects of being a superintendent in the one area where we
095still have slightly more people disagreeing with the leadership in this area than agreeing is fiscal it's the fiscal management and accountability and we know that that's tied to all kinds of things around our business office uh and and and budgets and so that leads to everybody doesn't understand the authority of the superintendent what he can and what he can't do as one aspect of that but overall as with any of us there are areas for improvement but there were um improvements in terms of the public U response to that and last year we shared a a a brief summary of that to the with a thanks to those who completed uh the survey and I'll draft that again this year and we'll run it by at least the chairs of the Committees and if I'll
096share with everybody if you want to take a look at that as well and so with that I think we need to go into uh executive session we need a motion to do so to dis to discuss a contract which is a contractual matter which therefore premature knowledge of that could um jeopardize the interests of the people involved I move we went to Executive session Karen okay to discuss contractual matter premature knowledge of which could place either the individual or the board y right so jointly made by Karen and Chris wants the whole right so there is that motion and um for fact TV I can't predict how long we'll be but we will go into executive oh I didn't take a vote I'm sorry so there's a motion on the floor to go into
097executive session Hardy Mir y thank you Kathy yes thank you Jamie yes I see not those in the room all those in favor of going into executive session opposed all right so we'll go into executive session at 7:31 and we'll keep you