2025 05 27 Cabot School Board Special Board Meeting Zoom Recording

001to not single. uh but just to be uh positive but clear and also just to take no more than a couple minutes speaking on your own so we can move along and then uh when you're done uh we will basically say thanks for giving us your perspective we'll probably make some notes and um in most meetings uh we will go on with the meeting as scheduled but I think because I have a sense that a lot of you are here to talk about the fiveflying bullet But we're going to shift right in from public comment into climate blind discussion here. That make sense? So, um I'm glad to have you here and uh we sometimes are wishing we would hear more from the community and school school staff. So, we're hearing it in full voice

002tonight. So, thank you for coming and happy to have you. Yeah, definitely. Um so, we are all ears. Uh I don't know whether you all want to speak uh individually or you have a few people but uh I guess I'm going to cut this off maybe at uh we'll give buddy two minutes. Okay, take it away. You could just introduce yourself so we can know who's speaking and uh we will listen to you. Thank you. Count of residents. Sure. Or can I start with just a question actually just like about an agenda item because that will drive how I use my public comment time. Um potentially kind of depends on what the question is. The question is the minutes from that you approved from the last meeting were really unclear as to what your flag

003discussion was going to be. So right now it simply says flag discussion based on the reading of the last um meeting minutes. It seems like that is simply focused on discussion of a poll. though since I can answer that things have come up that have made us question like what is this discussion so I think driving my comments or questions in public comment time is really based on what your discussion is actually about and that hasn't been really clearly framed to the public so that I leave that to you before answer that um we just had a discussion about uh the need to make minutes clear so that uh people know the full uh range the discussion. So to answer your question, Lauren, at our last meeting, we had two sort of questions among board

004members that we decided to postpone till this meeting. One is, do we need to have two flag poles to continue to fly the US flag and the rainbow and BLM flags? The second question that was uh tabled because we wanted to get some more information was should we as a school continue to fly the rainbow and BLM flags at all? So those two things are both under discussion tonight. It turns out that based on some research we did between last meeting and this one the uh question of one flow one flag pole or two has been uh determined. We only need one and so I think u we'll get that out there but most of the discussion I think is an opportunity for us as board members to hear um each other's perspectives. It was

005five years ago that those flags were determined uh by a previous student body and previous board to fly. And obviously uh this is an opportunity for us to hear the perspectives of the current board and the current school community. Make sense? Okay. Um so we're we're ready to hear comments. I'm happy to speak again. My name is Johnny Flood. Yeah. uh performing arts teacher at CABIT. It's my second year. Um I think a lot of the reason I wanted to come tonight and and hear from the board, but also speak briefly. Um is actually related to sort of what happened la at the end of last week with the roll out of a survey that was sent um to teachers on Thursday. And I'm not a classroom teacher, so I didn't um for whatever reason,

006I wasn't included on this email, but an email was sent to classroom teachers fifth through 12th grade on Thursday morning saying that an urgent something was urgent and needed to be completed before noon. Um, and it was a survey about the flags and whether or not both of them should fly with a sort of a brief summary of each flag. Um, and a yes or no option. This was sent to, you know, these are students as young as 11 up through 12th grade. um with urgency and like as a teacher it feels that to me felt really irresponsible and it felt like a really big missed opportunity like these these are flags where almost you know reasonable adults can disagree about how they how they are interpreted and what they mean. um and to send

007it to children with no um you know, we're a school, we teach and we educate. And this is a really great opportunity to actually have lessons and learning about what led to this and the history of it and and where we're headed next. And what a great door. What a great door to open. And we really didn't get that with this survey and the way it was rolled out. And I think um I just I think it put a lot of unfair pressure on certain students to have that put in front of them without a lot of discussion. Um and I think it made a lot of staff members feel really concerned and frustrated and and like is is this a conversation we be we should be having as a whole? is this it almost

008felt like policy um for a workplace to have a discussion and a conversation about it. So a lot of my feeling and a lot of what I want to express is coming from the place of an educator and just to say this is something actually we should be working on more and these are conversations we should be having more as communities and with our children and the way that it was presented to our student body felt really concerning and irresponsible from an educational perspective. That's my comment. Thank you. I just want to follow up on that. Sorry. Again, Kyla Carrian and I work on the elementary side of things, so we were not privy to this survey. Um, which also felt kind of exclusionary. Um, I remember being interviewed for a job here and being

009asked specifically, what will you do if first and second graders ask about these flags? And my answer was there is no no early enough age to start having these conversations at a developmentally appropriate way. Um and so the fact that preK even through fourth was sort of left out of that conversation felt kind of confusing to me because in the past we've been a school that has encouraged student voice in that way um and encouraged those conversations. So I was really disappointed by that. Thank you. It's been a while. I forget how public that could come around. We can all see you. Sorry, we're sort of in a bunker over here. Uh it occurs to me that only Chris, I believe, on the board um was around, but I was the student who spearheaded the

010initiative to raise these items. Um, and I have come with quite a few materials, but and I kind of wanted to start with going off of what what you said is that when we were raising these flags, like when we were going through this year-long procedure of making our curriculums, doing our research, writing our essays, getting all of this approved, and then going to the student body and the faculty and getting their approval, and only then going to the school board. We did, I believe, four presentations to each the faculty K through 12 and to the students. We had after each of those uh after each each of those presentations, we had an opportunity for faculty and students alike to voice their opinions. We had anonymous surveys so that people could send in their opinions

011without fear of it being connected to their name. And what we found was overwhelming support. And I think it's to me very telling that that survey happened the way um sorry the most recent survey happened the way that it did and I defin agree that that there there is a procedure like myself and the students that I worked with we set that procedure it is in the schoolboard policies uh that any student wishing to raise any flag can do so by following that procedure. And I personally feel as the person who spearheaded this that the lowering of the flag should be the same. And I should also note that there is a uh in that referendum that the school board approved in 2020. The whether or not the flag should be kept up is an

012item that should be or should have been voted on at the town meeting every year. That's part of that policy. I have been in college out of town so I don't know if that is the case or not. But regardless, there is already a procedure in place to take these flags down. So I'm I can't wrap my head around why a survey like that would have been sent out in the first place. Let me let me just interject. I'm going to let all the public comment come through and I think I might take a couple of comments that might be clarifying. I don't want to get into a lot of back and forth, but I think couple of uh uh you raised a couple of points that I think might be quickly clarified, but I

013want to let you guys continue. Sean, go ahead. Um yeah, I for for starters, I just want to clarify because I think language here, especially with what we're dealing with, is super important. It's not just a rainbow flag. It's it's a a pride flag. And so to call it a rainbow flag. We've got rainbow stickers, we've got rainbow everything, but it's a pride flag because of what it stands for. So, not not to point fingers, it's minimizing to call it anything but a pride flag. Like it it erases the the work that we've done to get here. We're proud of it because it's something to be proud of. So, that's just right off the bat where I'm headed. I also just want to highlight that food for thought. offer it up as you move through

014this next piece. You started your meeting with let's not single out individuals and what we're doing. What we are here for like what my batch of folks is here for is because there have been individuals who have been singled out in a harmful up kind of way. And that is what we're we're trying to avoid. Pause. Let's not think about the the Black Lives Matter flag and the pride flag as anything other than what it is. it it might not represent the vast majority of folks here. We have individual students here who have been harmed by your this process and and the talk of removing something that makes folks feel seen. So, I want to just mention that it it was it was wildly important to us to start this meeting by saying let's not

015single individuals out because we know that that's not a productive method. It's not how we communicate. It's not what we're up to, especially as a school of this size. But we're here because there have been individuals, myself included, singled out. And and when you when this conversation comes up, you have to understand if you're on the if you're on the opposite end of this, imagine a group of folks talking about taking down your American flag and just feel how that messes with you and you you feel like that's my pride. That's my individual sense of self. Like that's how I'm trying to be represented here. And and then the way that this was so nonchalantly sort of thrown in people's faces. I just want you to know I work with these kids every day. You

016don't. And I and I want to be very clear that this isn't just like we don't just say it's harmful because that's sort of how we've learned to soften the blow for you guys. It's it's harmful. These these students are real people. They're young and they've got a lot of time ahead of themselves to sort of like evaluate like what is important in life? What do we think other what does our community think about us? And so maybe, you know, we're not saying we're not saying that I'm not I'm not trying to load too much on the the act of removing it, but the fact that that part existed is harmful. I grew up here, been black and queer always. And I grew up in, you know, the Takeback Vermont where my bus drivers and

017my teachers, my principal had Take Back Vermont plaques on their barns and on their houses, stickers on their cars, and those were people that I loved and trusted and believed in and I thought believed in me until I learned what that meant. And then I realized that folks are actually here to take it's not it wasn't about me anymore. It wasn't about being loved and cared for. You know, I'm in this space where it it it introduced a certain level of distrust which then tainted the way I went to school and and tried to be a part of a community that I knew did not root for me or show up for me in that way. It was a different conversation then for sure. They were allowed to do that. It was on their homes.

018It was on their their their their own personal cars. And and that part I did understand. But it doesn't make it hurtless. It doesn't make it any less harmful to show up in this space as a black or brown person, as a queer person, and think like, boy, I belong here. and and that it's it it really is that simple. Which is why it's also that frustrating to sort of recognize that this madeup rule about a flag pole is so concerning to folks that we're going to ruin the way that people show up to educate themselves because sometimes that's what they're doing. They're educating themselves. They're not showing up to learn from the masses because they've learned that the masses aren't here for them, you know, and this is just I really worry about the

019way that that impacts our students. We we work with them every day. Every second of every day we spend here is thinking like, you know, what are we what are we doing if not if not that? Sometimes it's not even about the material. It's about do you feel safe here? We talk a lot about community. We talk a lot about moving forward and having conversations. We do restorative circles. The work that we do is meant to like sit together and communicate. Whether or not you agree the sitting together and the communicating if a school not this small, if we can't do that, my worry is that no one can and I'm not interested in being a part of that kind of community in any way, shape, or form. So simply put, I just want to

020to put that forward as you move forward with your decision-m and as members of the board, you recognize, it was the first thing you said, you recognize that it's not helpful to single out individuals. What if those individuals were children? What if those individuals were 12 years old, 10, seven, right? Think about whatever life you came from, maybe as a cisgender white person surrounded by cisgender white people. Were people telling you that the very simplest part of your life was wrong or to be hidden? No. I'm just gonna sit here and tell you no. If you grew up here in Vermont like I did, no one was walting into your classroom spaces and saying, you know, trying to take down your American flag. God forbid. You know, they wouldn't have done that. They didn't do

021it because that's not what we're up to. It it it's not it's not productive to our learning. It's not productive to our classroom spaces. It's not productive to the way that we can sit in a space and like agree to disagree, but we agree to disagree in a way that's not harmful for folks. We don't say agree to disagree and then let a bunch of folks get because of it. That's not what we're up to. So, I just want to present that to you guys and just think like you say let's not single out individuals. Do you mean it? Hey y'all. Um, I was a student here uh several years ago. I grew up in Vermont my whole life in Kat. And the thing I loved about Cab most growing up and I think the

022thing that we're most proud of is that we always support our neighbors and that's part of our ethos here. And we aren't supporting our neighbors if we're not protecting the most marginalized groups in our community. I was not here. I just graduated and Lewis uh worked towards putting these flags up and I was in my first year of college and I was getting text messages from all my friends back home saying, "Isn't this great? Isn't this wonderful?" And I was talking to my friends in New York uh where I was at college and they were all saying, "Oh my gosh, I wish that I could have felt like that in my community. I wish that my community was able to empower students to support other students that way because this was a studentled, you know,

023process. And I just also got to say real quick because I don't want to take up too much of your time. Taking down the flags isn't a neutral act. It's an active act of taking something away. It's not just restoring it back to how it was before. It's actively tearing down the work that community members have put forward to support marginalized groups. Black students exist. Queer students exist. And it's totally spitting in the face of them to say we don't support you enough to stand for something even if it's a little uncomfortable or a little divisive. And I think it would be really weak to go through with it. But um thank you so much for your support and your time and all the effort you put into the school. I really do appreciate it.

024But I'm also so happy to see that all y'all are showing up to support uh public commerce tonight. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Cheers. Thank um thanks so much for all your work and your time and for the conversation here for just a sec. I want to speak kind of narrowly because of the time just sort of to the removal aspect and context um a little bit because I think the removal is sort of the biggest piece there. I think having bigger conversation and broader conversation about what goes on with the flags is just necessary for the community, you know. But just real quick, like context wise, right? 2020, right? Majority of Republicans were kind of down with the statement, the hashtag that was Black Lives Matter, of course, has turned into organization.

025And I think I just want to address what I think are some of the actual worries, right, like of the thing, the polit politization of things and the like the right of this on the move excessive thing in the moment of 2020 and what that means, right? Um, I get it that there is some level of worry about ideologically where is this all going right in that moment, but we're in a different context now. And I just want to speak to the context as we think about removing this and just as you know um with all of what has already been said at the table, right? Like right now, even though our kids are, you know, born with a black president, you know, or afterwards, right? And I know that they get it. They think

026that we're posting or whatnot. Right now, I'm I'm in four or five different schools doing racial literacy intervention work. Two of the schools I'm in, it's admitted that there isn't a male child that doesn't use the N wording back and forth. And I get that that that's in these kids' minds. They're not trying outwardly to be the most harmful kids in the world. You know what I mean? It's that um there's a different level of license and what's okay and and what humor means and and whether they've got an understanding of the pain and history. But contextually right now there actually is still a widening wealth gap between the races. Right? That's actually so Nazis are in the street in Ohio and Florida. Like right now they're not being met with opposition by the police,

027right? And in Florida and in Ohio there are efforts to get books off the shelves including by Julianne Moore who wants to write about what it is to be a freckle-faced kid like I was and to be able to feel okay about yourself. That you know if we run too hard with a worry about what it is to celebrate each other's identities, we really not only potentially have to deal with but are currently right now dealing with what it is to be chased into corners about identity and you can't even talk about being different within the context of being white. These are things to worry about to me and I think that removing the flag in context of these things actually mean something. It means something that the first act of business of this newest

028administration was to pardon unconditionally 1600 people who we all have evidence did a thing. If that stood alone, right, it was a part of a principled effort. I get that it's mixed also with a congresswoman last week being arrested for with felony assault with federal agents because she was trying to get access to a building. Those things happening at the same time tell a story, right? Like of of intent, not just of actual fact of what's on the matter and what the actual written law is, but what is the intent behind it? Do we expect to celebrate each other as neighbors or do we expect to tear each other down and chase each other into corners or not? And I think that people who want to see these flags down have reasonable reasons for doing

029so. I think that being worried about politics and a whole bunch of other things are part of the conversation. It's worth having that conversation. I think removing flags that celebrate the identities of minority and minoritized identity children in our community is dangerous because of the context that we're in. Lives of Tik Tok right now is highlighting the lives of individual youth on a national platform and getting them attacked physically. Right. if there were more of an effort to try to shut that down, right? Like I could then maybe have a little bit of more room for trying to figure out, right? Like the other end of things, but that's not what's going on, right? In terms of context, right? BLM as a as a large organization and as one with a lot of clout. What's

030BLM right now? It's a fairly defunct or the leadership has been found to be corrupt or at least members of it, right? They're not a powerful thing, right? in terms of the worry of of Black Lives Matter being some organizationally big thing, right? Like get it back to the hashtag, get it back to the idea, the idea, get it back to the sentiment of are we able to recognize folks in our community or not, right? context right now to the renaming of military installations after veterans. Again, the removing of plaques that celebrate black and brown and quer identifying and women patriots because of the fact of the matter of their skin color or I know this is not what was hoped for in this moment by people who support the policies that got us here,

031but this is where we are, right? the intent um in the policy makers is clear and and so for me it kind of comes down to the flag being there it's up there the process that it w was through was a rigorous process and I kind of like what I was hear like like let's have such a rigorous process you know when we're thinking about what else to do with it but I actually want to put my voice behind to say like I I absolutely support the flags up there regardless and that part of that is because of this contextual piece because it really feels like a low our um effort that signals honestly I hate to say it to have to say it but it signals to people coming from the outside here we

032will not kill you when you stop here that to me if that's a political statement that's actually okay political statement for me because it is a piece of cloth it hangs there or doesn't the decisions that made it go up there are there and we're making decisions to remove it within these contexts without within renaming things after confederate monument right within all of the context of that for us to remove it, I think really is to say that not only are we a community that is just not interested in putting any effort into courting the business or the employees or the uh students or or the money of people from away. We're actually interested in actively chasing you away from us. And and I think that that to me is a big difference in the

033context, right? the potential power behind BLM in the moment that was 2020 and the moment that is now, right? It's proven that like it is not the position against this is not a weakened position. It's not as though the voice that says get rid of this. Let's stop hearing from women. Let's stop hearing from identifying folks. Let's stop hearing from black people. That that's not a minority position anymore. It's the it's the articulated position of the federal government that says, "I no longer want to see your face on this plaque. I no longer want to celebrate you. And it's just actually being done and happening. And I don't think that any one of us in this community, no matter where we stand, that that's where we're at. Do you know what I'm saying? That that's

034how we feel. Absolutely not. I absolutely know that my neighbors I have more in common with every single one of you across all of our ideological divides than I have. That's different between us. You know what I'm saying? And yet, I think it's a moment we really should watch out um and move slowly and see what it means to be having our actions interpreted what kind of way. And I'll swing back to that. Like our kids are right now perpetrating racist and homophobic harm against each other in a way that I've never seen. I don't mean this school necessarily, although I wouldn't be surprised, but like absolutely in a way that I've never seen. And at the same time, even though I remember being in these schools in the 1980s and '90s and we heard

035it a lot less, I feel like there actually was possibly more frequently venom right behind those words and that ideology, but just because everything is now a joke doesn't mean that everything is without harm. And there actually are Nazis in Ohio, there are actually Nazis in Florida who like to wear masks. They like to get online with our children and have them perpetrate the harm in a matter of jokes. I've heard the most disgusting and horrific jokes in our schools this year than I've ever heard in my life. I left the school the other day and went home and cried because I couldn't imagine that seventh graders were thinking about human bodies in that way. And so anyway, I just wanted to offer up all those things and say that removing it is removing it.

036It's not a neutral act. And whatever got us here to have it, I really respect dissented voices, all dissident voices. And I hope to be like a part of any and all conversations that are resistant to keeping those flags up and having them there. I really caution against what it signals and what it means for our marginalized identity students and also what it means for us as a community. Um, sorry, one quickest last thing. I just feel like I got to say I'm I'm the parent of a white and male student. I think he's probably even heterosexual. Okay, my kid and myself, right? Like kids who are not heterosexual, kids who are not white, you know, those kids are expected every single day to be able to learn from people who have different racial experiences

037than they do, different gendered identities that they do, right? Like when I'm a queer identifying kid, if I'm learning from a cis and person about cis and hat things, I'm expected to just have that be a part of it. So, I want to flip this whole conversation on its head just real quick in terms of whether or not like my kid is missing out on anything or whether or not, right, they're being limited or he's being made to feel bad for being white or any of that stuff, right? Like for me, my kid is equal to a black or brownkinned child and not less than. He's equal to and not less than a queer identifying child in this way. especially he's absolutely capable of learning from people who have different experiences than him without losing

038any of his own experiences, without shrinking and without coming small. That actually part of his power, part of my power, part of our ability is to know that all my stories and all my identities still exist when I've made room for yours and that we're hanging and growing toward collaborative solutions and stuff. So, thank you for that extra, but I guess definitely wanted to put that in there that um I'm having an abundance mindset about what it is to share space with folks. And um I'm happy to be me, not despite being white, but also not because I'm white. And I hope that we're not confusing things in this moment in our nation. And I'm glad that we get to have these conversations as a community, make sure that we don't confuse those things among

039each other, you know, as we hang out. Thanks a lot for the time. Thank you. Thank you. other folks like to share in cabinet. I'm not going to speak long because a I've got a whole bunch of teenager boys at my house and they're probably need to go need to go make sure that that's all all right. And second because everybody here has already been like much more eloquent than I could be. And I just want to add my voice to to express my support for these flags. They know as people have noted it's it was a process to get them up. It's a negative act to pull them down. And I would specifically want to reject the idea that those flags are divisive. They are not divisive. If we had a society and a

040country where there is inclusiveness and that was the basic respect for other people, then great. Why would you why would you single out black lives mattering? Why would you have a flag that says these people are okay? But that's not the society we live in. Those flags are a lifeline, a symbol to say to people this is a safe community to live in. And if we take them down, it is saying it is not a safe. That's it. That's what you're telling me. Thank you very much. Yeah, sure. Other folks, I just like to add um you know, from the perspective of of someone who has served on school boards before in my playing field and currently, you know, works here as a um counselor. I just want to remind like school boards that your

041job is not to to monitor dayto-day operations at the school, right? to provide oversight and helpful like policy support. And in this case to me like this is one of those times where when you really think about why these flags are there that was about like a dayto-day school project, you know, put forward by students doing the thing that they like set out to do like year-long project and here we are. And so I just think again, you know, it's reiterating that like whatever effort went into getting those flags up there should be equally and as like honored because the policy states it. So just like that, it's just important for me to remind school boards like what what are our jobs when we serve on the board. Um and I hope that we can

042attend to um to like this issue in the same way we would be attending to any like policy issue. Thank you. So quick. So quick. I want to make anybody that has not spoken speak your hand if you want to speak. Y'all done great. So quick. But I just want to I just want to know just because I'm I'm not going to not going to be here all night. And I think the the one of the issues has been communication. So I'm just and if I'm not allowed to do this, let me know. I just think my job as a teacher and an educator in this space is like safety. And I have queer students. have black and brown students. So, if you're on the school board and you want our flags taken down, if

043you feel comfortable just like raising your hand. Thank you. I'll take I'll I'll raise my hand. Okay. Thank you. Not forget. No, no, no, no. Not for any other reason other than you want those flags taken down. And I think it's important for for me and the students that I protect, teach, and take care of to know that. Thank you. other folks that like to speak. Okay. Uh, thank you for your contributions. Um, we have somebody on Luna. Oh, somebody on here. Okay. Go ahead. I think you might have to do it, John. Oh, sorry. I was trying to figure out. Um, I just want to echo what everyone else said. Um I agree with the other guy. They said it very eloquently and um I don't have much more to add other than um

044as the leader of the GSA, you know, I have heard from my students that this really upsets them and it makes them feel less safe knowing that those flags might come down and they were all quite unhappy about the way the whole thing went down with it basically being kind of a sneak attack vote. They did not like that. So, yep, that's all I wanted to add. Thank you. I'd like a chance um if I could just reiterate um and it's it's been said but the uh context that we're living in. It's really important to be thinking about and it's really important to be supporting our citizens and our students right now. Thank you. uh because at the very end of public comment I do want to mention I have printouts of the work that

045I did uh alongside the other students. I don't know what the procedure is for handing out like papers and stuff but at the very least I would love for the schoolboard members who were not here when that happened to be able to the way that was done. So thank you. Those are on this table. Appreciate it. Anybody else like to speak? I think Lena, you can mute yourself. I got it. Okay. So, we're going to start our discussion and what I hope is that uh from what um from what you hear from our discussion, it'll clear up some of the questions that remain in your in your minds about how we're going to deal with this. Um I guess I will um go first just by saying that at the end of last meeting uh

046we had those two questions that the board had raised. One is do we need two polls? Second was do we need to have um a general discussion about whether we should keep these slides in place. And so I did some research looking back at uh board minutes from 2020 and also conversations with our superintendent. And the first thing that became clear was that we did not indeed need two polls. It was a mistake. uh it was a different sort of set of regulations that Matt Foster looked at when we first talked last meeting and it turned out that under federal regulation uh you can certainly have any number of flags that are not the US flag on the same pole as long as they're beneath the US flag. Um, so the second thing that I

047and I was basically uh uh spending a bit of time between then and now just trying to track down what we did the last time we get these flags up and the process that went forward towards uh the students uh petitioning the board to have that happen. Um, and so what happened back in 2020 was uh Louie uh did a basically I think a most of the year independent study uh researching putting these flags up and the value of it and made a couple presentations for a board about uh his interest in doing that, their interest in doing that. And at the same time, uh, we as a board were looking around at other schools to see how they were handling that issue. And so throughout the winter and spring of 2019 and 2020, I

048think we had at least two communitywide forums where um, the students who had been involved coming up with a pro proposal were able to talk to community members about it. uh try to go over their reasons as to why those flags were important for a school to have fly and also the process that we could have to have them fly and I think uh that process was really powerful and u thoughtful. I think uh students even at town meeting had a table up where they could talk to the community as a whole about their proposal and why they were making it. The two things that I determined that I found in my research, I put a few copies on the back of that as a board, I think in the spring of 2020, we made

049two uh unanimous decisions to approve. And if you haven't gotten one, there's a few extra up here. One of them is an addendum to a policy and the other one staple to it is a resolution. And without reading these in full, uh my takeaway from reading those two uh documents is that the school board uh with this policy said it's perfectly reasonable and proper for students to petition the school board to fly a flag that has a particular meaning to them. Um and the key at the bottom here it says student expression uh must rationally and substantially relate to educational goals developed through the following means. An independent course of study approved and supervised by cabin school faculty or a studentled faculty or staff facilitated effort to advance the goals of the cabin school district's

050diversity equity and inclusion policy or continuous improvement plan. goes on to say, "A student, student group, or administration official acting on behalf of a student or student group may petition the school board to approve the flying of a flag on the school flag pole or placement of a temporary installation display on campus. So that's in the policy. The second page talks about a little more of the procedure and there are some questions earlier about, you know, uh how long these flags fly and who determines whether they continue to fly. And so there's several paragraphs u and most of the first page is just a resolution that the school board approved saying this is an important thing that we should have um representing our school and its values. But at this back page, there's a few

051paragraphs that just talked about, you know, how will we organize this? How will we either decide to keep this going or not? And so there the first paragraph in the back side says, "Therefore, be it resolved in support of the Cav School's commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity that the school administration be authorized to apply the Black Lives Matter and rainbow pride flags on the school flag pole through March 2nd, 2021. So this was ratified I think in April of 2020. So it was almost a full year and I just say as a member of the school board at that time a major discussion that we were having was how do we know you know we're making this a broad policy. We want to make a policy where if somebody you know next year comes

052into school and says you know I've learned a lot about this organization. I've done some research. I think it's important that we fly their flag. We wanted to make sure that these flags that were agreed to be flown for a year from 2020 2021 were not necessarily going to be there forever but would have to be in some way reaffirmed as important by the school. And so the next paragraph talks about that says, "Be it further resolved that after March 2nd, 2021, the Cap school board of directors shall vote on whether to reauthorize the flying of the flags to the next town meeting day to hold such reauthorization votes each year thereafter during board reorganization, which typically takes place, you know, the first March meeting we have after town meeting day. The issue was that

053last year and this year uh we didn't get to that vote uh until where we are now. And going back to some of the minutes that I haven't printed off, but basically in 2021, 2022, and 2023, um, a student or group of students came to our school board soon after town meeting day, I think two months, it was April, and they said, "We have in accordance with the procedure and policy, we've surveyed the students and the staff in one case, and they are in complete support of us continuing to fly these flags. So, it brings us back to this year, brings us here to this year. And when the whole question of whether or not we need two flags proposals or one came up, I went back and looked at, you know, the the minutes

054that I was a partner to five years ago and I realized that in order to continue to as a board reauthorize the flying of these flags, we needed to have a check-in or a representation from the student body to say whether that was important to continue or not. that was the practice that had been established and I wanted to keep with that practice. And so, um, once we found that out, I contacted Jennifer, our principal, and I said, ideally, we would like to get a sense from the students at this point in the year, even though it's late, to uh try to survey the students to see whether in some way to see whether they are still in support of this. And so clearly as one schoolboard member, I was trying to both honor the

055procedure and practice, but also knowing that it would be very challenging to get enough context to the students in the month before school ended to have them uh get the fullest idea possible what these flags meant. And so I contacted Jennifer and said, you know, this is where we are. If it's possible to get um the student body surveyed, um that would be great. This is what we know we have to do. And so, um, she worked with the student council and and talked to the student council and had a discussion around, you know, which number one, which grades should we have, uh, being surveyed on this question and determined from her conversation with student council that it should be grades 5 through 12. And so the upshot of that is that with a month

056left of school, uh, Jennifer made the decision to issue a very brief survey that u answered that asked that question. She also included in it an overview of what the Black Lives Matter um flag and movement represented and also an overview of what the rainbow pride flag represented. And so I guess as um clearly if this uh if this practice continues, I think it's a responsibility, our responsibility as a board and a school to make sure that the kids that are involved in the survey in the future have a much more full idea of what the flags represent that was offered to them this year. But uh that's where we are now. And so the survey that was issued I think last week came up with I think uh 58 60% of the kids saying

057yes and about 40% of the kids saying no. So I want as one school member for us to just sort of uh that's the facts that I have to present to you guys. Um, I think the conversation we have to have at this point is to say, uh, based on what we know from past practice, uh, from what we've heard from PE folks who came to the meeting tonight about their perspectives as well as our own perspectives, uh, how do we want to move forward with continuing the policy? Okay, second. Let me just finish. All right. Uh question is we have warned on the agenda for tonight on this matter discussion and potential action. Um potential is key word. You know we may or may not decide we need to take any action at this

058point. We could postpone it to a subsequent meeting. I think it's important to take it soon. But I'll honor any uh anything you guys to have that that offers. Can I ask you a question uh going forward? Yep. This does not need to be done by survey, right? This this is the gay straight alliance could come and say we want to fly the black lives matter lives matter flag and we want to fly the pride flag. we are asking you to approve that for this year and we approve it or don't but we do um not a survey right I think I think because I think the survey is dangerous I think that if those that information is shared with the kids it sends a message to my kid in particular it sends a message

059that just about half the school doesn't support saying your family's okay here I think like I don't think that's how this was done in the first place there was no survey involved so I'm not sure that That should be the process going forward. From from what I've found from the um minutes that I read, yeah, is that um I think there were actually I think one of the speakers tonight referenced, you know, sort of an anonymous survey. I think those were done with high school students and staff members in the past. Yeah. Doesn't doesn't mean that it wasn't a vote a vote. Yes. No. It was a survey getting people's Can you Can we allow Lewis to weigh in on what that was? Sure. Louis, go ahead. Yeah, if I could clarify, um, there was

060a survey, uh, I believe it was sent out, if I'm remembering correctly, it was sent out to 3 through 12, um, because those were the students that we had given our presentation to. That uh, 312, I believe. Okay. Um, that survey in addition to having a yes and no option, it had an unsure option. It had an other option. Um, and it was not required. Yeah. It was not labeled as urgent. students did not need to complete it. However, before that survey was ever sent out, um there were four different presentations and forums that we had with faculty and with students alike to educate um educate everyone and really get everyone up to speed on what this was, what we're trying to do, the benefits, uh how it all affects our community. Um and only

061after that had taken place was the survey sent out. And even then it was an optional survey and uh what we had gotten then was uh from across the board faculty and uh rather faculty was 100% in uh in agreement I believe and students was 90% in agreement 5% opposed and 5% unsure or um or no opinion just from grades 3 through 12 to 11. 3 to 12. Okay. Yeah. It was it was basically everyone. um including faculty and staff. Thank you. So Frank, you had a question. Go ahead. Actually, I don't have a question. I have some history from when I was on the board. Um when Rory was chair um I was on the board when the students were still coming to the board and given there's petitioning the board to apply the

062fact for the follow. Yeah. And then I believe I get the impression that this the students that were that were involved with the original effort had graduated out in the following years. Students didn't come to the board and principal kind of presented um what she thought was their opinion and Rory made a motion that from that point going forward that the board would instead of having annual votes um leave it up to the administration because they better understood the pulse of the students and to make the decision from there on and that's when the board stopped having the votes. That was a few years ago. Yeah. I the last thing I can find that when Rory was chair was that in 2023 they heard from a student uh I think maybe one of our student

063reps and she was representing um a survey or some sort of student repres and they were going to do it for one more year and so 2024 last spring we did not last student I remember representing was by herself as camp and then we had students show up the following year but I do remember making that resolution anniversally turn it over to I didn't see that in live review but I'll check into it Frank I think I remember that happen yeah I think that's a really important piece because I think we have so much that we need to do as a community to keep things moving forward for our students and to have to revisit this and then put the burden on the individuals who care the most who are most likely the ones most

064vulnerable in these positions to make them have to come and plead the case annually seems really um not productive and and harmful. Absolutely. Um I think that would be that's how I would prefer for things to move forward is and is the administration's call. I also remember that which is why I never brought it up when I was the chair last year because I thought that it was just sort of the status quo will remain until you know unless for some reason the school community says this is not representing uh the way that they wanted to do. So that I didn't think it needed to be brought to a vote. I think I said that last year. I just also want to be really clear because I do feel like there was a big misunderstanding.

065The fact of all your comments tonight, which are very appreciated and actually very heartwarming and in the scary times that we live in that so many people would come out and um represent what can sometimes feel like a scary position to take. Um, it seems like you all felt like we we were saying we wanted to take the flags down and that was not what this board was saying. I understand that the notes maybe were not clear, but there is always a um a recording of the minutes too. So, it seems like that misunderstanding and then somehow the survey maybe got interpreted like Chris had emailed Jen to ask her to do the survey and she was sort of following the directions of this board to try to get that and and again maybe could

066have been handled should have been handled differently. Um maybe a misunderstanding of the research of what the history was. So, um, just I I feel like Jen was put in a very bad position of having of like now like, oh, Jen sent out this survey and I just want it to be really known that like she that was a request that was made of her. So I on behalf of myself anyway and just want to say like I'm sorry that that was misunderstood and misinterpreted and that was never intended to say like we we want to take down the flags because that I never wanted that. I don't think the majority of us do or meant to have that come across in that way. Other comments from board members? My points were the same as

067before. I do feel that the flags are clearly divisive just based on all the emotion that has been presented already. Um and the the opinions of people that have spoken already. Sounds like if you are in favor of removing what I think of as I I believe that the flags are divisive and they are political flags. Um and I don't believe that the removal is anti any person. Um so anybody that would come to try to speak against that be it another student that you know 42% of students said they don't want the flags. So if any of those students were to come, I feel like they, you know, that would create even more division between the group. So that's that's my position. I'd like to circle back to what Johnny said. I think with

068the opportunity to educate here because I think I I disagree on the polit political aspect of it. I see them as symbols of equality, unity, support. I think you have to look at yourself and ask why you feel differently about that. And I think for people who are students who might feel a negative thing about that, I think we should explore that. What is that? How can we educate and not dismiss what their concerns are, but educate and bridge that gap so we are all in support of everyone? It's not I don't I guess I my position was that I didn't feel like I wouldn't support people. It wasn't about people. It was about the specific flags themselves and the way that it's just been I don't know feeling like it's so division within the

069community. Yeah, I have to say diversity, equity, inclusion are all positive things. And it's the it's one party in particular who is trying to politicize diversity, equity, inclusion by saying that's a bad thing. Well, I believe I agree that they're a good thing. Just yeah, not sewing the two of them together. So, they mean a good thing, but you still feel comfortable with it? I'm not saying I disagree. I It's I just felt like they are divisive. How? just by the difference in people that will like them or don't like them up on the pole at the school. That's I don't know. It seems pretty simple to me. I think for a lot of people it's a s symbol of being welcome and and if anybody finds it a symbol of being unwelcome again that's

070like check where that feeling is coming from because it's not saying to anybody that they're not wanted here or feel included you know saying that feel like there's more in depth about it agree it's an education opportunity for people who might look at it as a as a negative to say, you know, why do you feel that way? And let's have a conversation about what this means to these certain people in our community to feel like this is a safe place for them. You know, I would say too, I know that with our students, there's a lot of the inappropriate jokes, the inappropriate comments. So, I want to make sure regardless of whether that flag is up there or not that our that we're not being performative in any way like we need to be

071true true allies and advocates and educate our kids um and what it means to be a community member in this day and age. So, I just want to drive that point home. I don't see it just as a flag as being a flag and a symbol. I I it's so much more than that and I can't see how that's political. I'm sorry, Jason. Where would you guys like to go from here with this? I'll make a motion to approve the remaining keeping the flags. And should we say that it with the understanding that we find out a resolution from 2021 that says that this does not have to be an annual re-uping, but that is sort of until the school admin up until if ever the school administration comes to present a different Can we

072just do that first? Can we just do what she said? you said find out if we even should be bothering to vote on this. If we had that discussion and we made that motion and I thought the policy should have been amended by what Frank had said that we weren't the ones that were supposed to be in charge of this anyway. Well, right now we have a motion on the table. So, I'm going to second Alicia's motion as motioned and then I think we could come next time and put it on the agenda to then see if this is something that would need that we could then do another motion for ongoing. I feel like right now to leave it hanging from that. So, I second Delicious motion and then so discussion on the motion.

073The motion is to continue to to authorize as a board to continue flying the flags that are there on the pole now and to continue to research whether there is um whether it was a change in that policy as to what causes them to be refflown in the future. Yeah. And double checking, forgive me what you had mentioned. No. Um, our former student who put this together. The procedure that the procedure, forgive me, I name the procedure you said that was in there for removing like so that there's a procedure in case there's the larger body want the students wanted to change something. I guess what I'm saying is it it's inhouse, right? Like the students um unfortunately it seems like that was an oversight um when we were originally putting this together. As it

074stands now, the issue that we were running into was that the board did not want to have these flags flying in perpetuity. They wanted to have a clause in place that would allow those flags to be taken down should they be challenged. And the way that we decided uh to do that was to say every year after town meeting uh the school board in whichever way they see fit will hold the community and figure out if they should reauthorize it for another year. that we did not have uh any sort of stipulations in place for going to the community and finding out that information is an oversight that I'm just now seeing uh unfortunately. But I do think that it is very much in the spirit of this original project to have that authorization be

075in the hands of the administration as opposed to the hands of the school board considering that they are interfacing with students dayto-day and they have a better bead on the community as a whole. Thank you. Any other discussion on the motion? Are we still looking into if we already made that motion for that to be up for the vote to be just up to the school administration so that the board doesn't have to hold on again? Well, the motion is to continue to fly the flags and to at the same time research whether there's been a change in the policy on to how they're reflown. Um, so one is the very fiscal act of keeping the flags up. The second is to do some research on whether the policy has been changed and we could

076certainly circle back at a subsequent meeting and ourselves make a change in the policy. Any other discussion on the motion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. I opposed. Abstain. The eyes have it. The motion passes. Thanks for the discussion. Thank you folks for coming and participating all your work. No problem. Okay, we're moving on to back to the top of the agenda, right? Okay. For the future. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so we're going to superend reports. Ready for me? Yeah. Thanks both. Wow. It's kind of interesting to uh look at this report now that it's a month old because it's so much so much has changed. Um I think as you know uh or if you don't know H454 did move out of the Senate last Friday, right? Friday evening.

077Um so there is u some new versions of the side like some sideby-side comparisons and what um what they're looking to do around timelines, school consolidation, the uh foundation formula. Um, so, um, another another key thing that I noticed in there was the, um, class size minimums for the different grade bands, right? So, they're back in they're back. Yep. Um, that's back in with the Senate. Yeah. Yeah. Senate section. Yeah. So, if I remember correctly, it's like K to K to three is around 10 to 12, right? and then uh progressively gets increases. So high school class sizes of 18, a minimum of 18. Uh middle school minimum of 15, I want to say something like that. It's a minimum. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So we're not out of the woods with that. No. No.

078So, um, so yeah, we'll we'll we can definitely talk more about that as more information comes to light, but yeah, it it was interesting that was it Thursday that they weren't moving moving the bill out of the Senate. They were going to they were going to try and kill it there and then Friday evening they they had passed in big compromise. Yeah, the big comp. [Music] Um, so yeah, always a moving moving conversation. Um, teacher negotiations, I know they met last week, right, Ellen? You were part of that. Um, 27th time. Um, getting closer though on some resolutions, right? There were still a fair number to work through. Um, so still, how many are you going to meet one more time? I can't remember at least one more time. June 4th. Yeah, June 4th. Yeah.

079Okay. Um we have that uh the SE facility director position has been filled. Um so gentleman uh moving from I think he's in Wisconsin right now. Um so Brandon did not want to take that position. Did not. No, it's a loss. Yep. Yeah, sure is. Um so but we are excited with uh his first name is Tommy. I mean his his last name is blank. Trimmer's last name. Um but wealth of experience um you know as a facilities director in a you know a much larger district. Um but he's going to I'm sorry to interrupt. He's going to do the job of two people right now pretty much right. Uh so he'll start July 1st. Um, and so the way that we're going to move our model is that, um, you know, we'll have people

080on site, your typical maintenance custodian folks. Um, Tommy will oversee all of those people, uh, on the day-to-day, but he'll he'll obviously do day-to-day stuff as as needed. Um, he does have that skill set as well. So, he's he's not just an administrator, he does have um, technical skills as well. So, uh, definitely looking forward to having him come on. [Music] Um, we, uh, we've been we've been, uh, for the curriculum director position. I know Dez Dez is moving on, uh, moving to Kingdom East to be their curriculum director. So, we did interviews last week. Um, and it looks like we've made an offer to a candidate and they've, uh, tenatively accepted. So, um not sure on uh if they've signed a letter of intent uh yet or not. Um that happened late Friday as

081well. So, uh more decent candidates. Yes. Yeah. We had we had a very decand. So, uh very happy with you know um folks that will uh the the person that will step into that role. Um, and myself having done that job for many years, um, will help in the transition, take on some of the the federal grant, uh, application process to help on board that that new person. Um, so, uh, let's see. Uh, we I talked to you a little bit about the strategic plan earlier at the the, um, retreat. [Music] Um, and let's see. We're just we're wrapping up our spring uh spring assessment window. So, our STAR assessment, our final progress monitoring um that closed today, right, Jen? No, the end of the week. End of the week. Thank you. June 30. June.

082No, May 30th. May 30th. Oh, yes. Yes. Not June 30th. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of snow days this year. I'll say that. Um, and then yeah, we have some some updates from uh our technology department there from from Scott. Don't know if you have any specific questions about that, but we're planning on rolling out some new communication tools for next year. Um hopefully get us to communicate with more people in a variety of different ways. And uh also looking at um the substitute teacher tracking and scheduling which um will be really nice to be able to just get that more digitized and systematic as opposed to the system that we have now. Um so any other questions about the the general report? Thank you. All right, Jennifer. Yeah. So, my principal report, I did

083a little bit about communication on the top here talking about our PBL, our project based learning exhibition is June 3rd. I just got the updated schedule of events from the leadership team. So, I'll be sending that out tomorrow morning to parents and to our community. Um, so we're very excited. We have a lot of great events that will be happening all day, really from 9:00 till 6 PM. Uh we will be having some snacks as well for that evening. Um then we have June turn coming up. There are a plethora of different options that students are going to be able to partake from 9th to 12th grade and there's a like I said there's a bunch of them. You can look at those. Um so very practical things like basic car maintenance to learning how

084to do stained glass. So just like intriguing pieces. Uh the newsletter again is very popular is still doing really well in the community. We have at least 180 uh views of it still in today in in May, which is amazing for our weekly updates. Uh celebrations, we had an amazing prom last weekend. Eric and I attended the prom along with about 10 other staff and we had about we had 29 out of 38 of our students attend and it was an amazing night of lots of dancing and everyone was wonderful. So, it was really fun. Um there's some pictures of Jacob Tid who is one of our seniors. He was inducted into the National Technical Honor Society on May 15th. I believe he is the first student in a very few many or many years,

085I'm not sure what to get this honor. So that's really wonderful. We also have a lot of our educational field trips that are in full swing right now and kind of culminating their experiences of some parts of their PBL learning. Um we are of course hiring three positions right now. a librarian, a five sixth grade teacher, and a kindergarten slashfirst grade teacher. So, those uh we have plenty of applicants. So, we're going to hopefully be able to put those together and get some scheduled interviews for next week. We're very excited for that. And then, of course, the last aes school is not running this year. Um but our after school program will have the carnival on May 30th, so again, this Friday. And then hopefully we'll be able to get that up and running at

086a much faster capacity next year starting up. So questions for me have more chance to get interest drumed up ideally for the summer school program. Yeah, I'm hoping definitely we'll be working on some pieces of that over the summer. Sounds like you had staff ready to go if you had enough kids. Yes. Yeah. Yep. But I think just being the newness of having a a summer program is probably probably other probably families already made other plans or different arrangements. But hopefully next year we'll be able to do that. I know it was going to be about five weeks part day. Um yes, I think it was four days a week for six hours. Yep. Um Jennifer, you mentioned that um our kids might be able to go to Twinfield for their summer program. would be

087possible to have transportation provided for those kids or as far as I've been told um through Bethany Hail who she's after school program director um she has reached out with also Kylie as well um to figure out if students can attend over there they do have the option to but I believe transportation is on right now just because of the distance any other questions for us thanks Jennifer I had something I wanted to share with you. I didn't know how to present it, but I felt like observing the school, working in the school for one year was first of all a great experience. So, I want to thank all of you for for having me here, so to speak. Thanks for being here. I will probably come back to CAT because I made many friends

088and it's kind of like, you know, I traveled all over the world and there are three or four spots where I'll always go back. Some of them could be as far as Macedonia, but some of them could be as close as cab, but since I would be in Canada, I made I made a lot of friends here. But I felt like I I wanted to share with you and we're not going to do it right now in the interest of time because at least was supposed to go in the in the board packet, but I didn't prepare it on time. So I'm just these are just basically my observation. They only involve me. They what you know imagine me as an outside observer coming to cab being here one year and see what's going well

089and what needs a lot of help. And what you want to do with this is whatever you can put in the next board package. We can discuss it. But because we already had a you know lengthy discussion, I would just give you the paper and and and you decide what to do with it and if we discuss this on the board meeting in June. Um and again Finland and my goal is to see if I can participate somehow in the positive continuation I would say of camp and I had to try to make it short. I have like four pages but I made two I think there's two there maybe one point thank you Eric for being here this year thank you so student service report that's just in our packet is that right yep

090okay anything we should highlight there um not not particularly know, uh, you know, obviously prek enrollment is Beth's been working really hard on getting that uh that work done. Um, there's some AOE updates. Talked a little bit about after school and summer at the board retreat. So, okay. Yep. So, Jennifer student representative report. Uh, nothing this time because they're working on other pieces. Okay, we're busy with prom. Yeah, very very busy with prom. Okay, so going out of board discussion, we are the TAN note. And so some does everybody know what the TAN note is all about? A couple people, it's kind of part of our school board vocabulary, but um Mike, you want to go into it? So yeah, tax anticipation note. So this is um um a way for you as an organization

091to bridge the gap before uh tax revenue starts coming in. So essentially borrowing money uh from a bank um and something that you need to do every year since you know not I can't remember exactly when that first revenue comes in from the town till July early August from the town right so you have a little from that that July one date you when the fiscal year starts um you have a little bit of time so the purpose of the tax anticipation note is to cover your costs uh while you're waiting for that that tax revenue. So, um Pumps is the Pisumic Bank is the the one that has been winning out on a regular basis. They have the best rates. Um and uh Kessi, Mikey, our business manager, just thinks that they're the best

092one to work with. you went out for, you know, obviously compared with multiple other uh organizations and um you recommend Pumpk be the one that uh you approved to cover your Do you know what the interest rate is? I can't remember what he told me after, but it's it's a really good interest rate in comparison to the other ones. Yeah, he said they it consistently uh outperform. So, I can get that information for you though. That's fine. Yeah. Okay. So, you we need a motion to approve the TAN note. Y so uh that process can go forward. Yeah. You hear a motion? So moved. Second. Well, those are in favor of approving the TAN note so we can uh get some money to pay bills before the taxes of of the summer come in. Please

093say I. I oppose. I'm saying it's done. It's approved. Uh, hey Jennifer, new hire recommendation, high school social study. Yeah, so Daniel Pella, um, so let's take a step back. We actually were able to have students in eighth grade to 11th grade be a part of some interviews. Um, not only as an interviewing committee, but we also invited two candidates, which we didn't pick, but they came they came and did a mock a lesson in front of the students and they really enjoyed that. He we did have to move forward with a different candidate because this this gentleman has a lot of experience in the humanities department and he's already taught some of the classes we're already working with and his PBL knowledge is immense. Um so I'd really love to see him as a

094part of our community. So, excuse me, just to back up. You had uh you had several candidates, but only uh and they all they all participated with the students, but um this was the best one. This one was and we did sit down with that group of students who were in those mock interviews and the lesson and say we this gentleman did not have enough time to get Oh, gotcha. to finish the process. we would like to have had him come in and we did talk to two students about that as well and they did understand the reasoning behind this but they did not know we picked this person as a candidate yet. Okay. We wanted to wait for of course board approval before we move forward. Gotcha. And so he wasn't able to go

095through the whole process issues but he felt he's the strongest candidate. Absolutely. And then we would like to also once he's approved be able to have a little facetime with the students with him. Um, and he's already, well, he's kind of already workingish with Ian to see what he has taught in the past this year and also working with the team to see where they're going for next year. Where is he coming from? He's actually in Barton. So, that's where he is and his kids will be going to Barton school. So, he's very excited. He did come here, of course, and had a great teaching in Enisbury this year. Oh, he's where he was. So, was he teaching in Vermont? Sorry. Yes. So you're you're happy with him. Closer to him. We are. We're very

096happy with him. His knowledge and experience is vast. Cool. Motion to approve hiring Daniel Pereella as our new social studies teacher. I'll second it. Further discussion. All those in favor of Daniel coming on as our new teacher for social studies say I. Opposed. The eyes have it. Uh new school nurse. Yes. So, with the termination of the contract between the Planefield Health Center and Kabitt, uh because um Christine resigned from that position, um Christine does still want to stay with us as a school nurse. Um we did go through an interview with her and other candidates as well. Um and the team really would like to keep her with again her vast knowledge and already familiarity with um our students and their their needs. So I would like to get you'd like approval for Christine

097or Chris to say this. You have a motion to do so. Second. Second. All those in favor of hiring Chris Decker back as our school nurse discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. So this is I think we heard before this will this is like a budgetary increase that we hadn't really budgeted for, right? Correct. How will this impact the budget? Yeah. Um, I know Michael and Sasi has looked into that. I'm not sure what the numbers look like. We can get to you for that for sure. Um, if we had known previous to making a budget, we would have been able to put her in there. Um, but we will have to budget for the position for future use time because half of the stuff that Playfield was trying to work with us is we don't

098do like the community piece and all those pieces. So, yeah. I'm just wondering if if anything else will have to be cut or if that will just be a deficit for next year that we'll have to cover. Just curious. I'm not sure. I did try to budget a little money in places like maintenance. There might have to be a little bit of cutting in some areas, but again, my assessment will work in July um to look at those numbers and see where we can kind of go through the process a little more. So, thank you. Absolutely. Okay. So, it's it's extra, but it's unclear how damaging it's going to be. Correct. Okay. Um, hey, we have two policies to look at. Jennifer, go to vote. Oh, I'm sorry. All those in favor of voting on

099having Chris continue on his school nurse, please say I. I have it. Okay. Uh, policy C29 coming up. And this is um is it we're going to potentially approve this because it's already been read once, right? This is not in this packet, but it's in your I think digital packet. Um please there was one in the back. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's there. There we go. You want to take a look at it if you haven't already and see if we're ready to approve it. That's [Music] all. So, we do have to approve this one even though the CCSU board approved it. Apparently, it talks about what the CCSU board will develop and implement. Okay, it's on the agenda, so it must be we mean need to approve it. Yeah. So, that that reads a

100little funny as as I look at it, too. So, you know, we're required to have continuous improvement plans that we submit to the agency of education and it's not um the Calonia Central Supervisory Union is not working with you to develop it. So, we we develop the plans, you approve of the plans. Um obviously you can give recommendations and things things like that, provide feedback, but um but we're the ones that do that planning work. Um, and you know, we obviously need to make sure that it's aligned to the Vermont Education Quality Standards, which makes reference to there. Um, the new version of the EQS, the acronym, um, is is uh, coming um, out July 1st. So, there'll be a new version. There's a lot of equity language in the new uh, standards. So I

101move that we approve policy C29. I'll second. All those in favor of proven C29, please say I. I. I. Anybody have discussion? Oh, sorry. Rushing through it. Any discussion beyond we've already heard? Now we can go to a vote. Anybody uh who is in favor of C-29 approval say I I post eyes have it. Next one is D23 selection of access to instructional materials. It's on the last page I think from the uh CCSU meeting that we talked about this. This is kind of a the short version is the CCSU is going to have some guidelines for um choice of instructional materials. Um superintendent designate will develop procedures too. So you know a librarian or a classroom teacher will have these guidelines uh as they choose their curriculum or materials that go with it. All

102concerns regarding the selection will be directed to the superintendent. So if somebody has a beef about something, uh this policy will say the teacher followed the guidelines, they're good to go, you have trouble with the guidelines, you can talk to me. But um this is good and we have those guidelines. Very current piece of policy given what's happening around the country. Um motion to approve this policy. Got to discuss it. Do I hear a motion to approve? Yeah, a motion to approve. I hear a second. D23. I'll second it. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor of approving uh D23, selection of access to instructional materials, please say I. I. The eyes have it. Okay. We're down to the last one, legislative update. Um, we had a conversation around this earlier. Um, I guess what

103I can tell you from what I've been reading the last couple days is it's going to be kind of a crunch week in terms of um the Senate passed a bill. Um and there there's something called a conference committee that tries to uh fashion the best bill possible from the House and Senate's input and then that bill will go to the full House and Senate for a vote. And the only issue is once the conference committee gets done with their bill and gives it to the two houses, it can't be amended. It's all done. And so the next couple days when the conference committee is um trying to figure out what to put in this final bill is kind of a crucial one. And so um I sent out a message to the school staff

104and to on front porch forum that um the group that our school board signed on to rural schools command collaboration is um asking that this conference committee add several things that are not already in the bill. One of which is to get rid of the uh class size minimums. Another one is to insert language that says if a school is going to be closed, you need an affirmative vote of the community that it's being closed in. And a couple other more sort of um they eventually they're going to have if this goes through there's going to have a statewide effort to figure out what the new districts are. And the um the position of the rural schools collaboration is to have make sure those are staffed by legislators who are answering to the public and

105also take input from the regions that they're planning for before they make any decisions. There's multiple bodies, right? Or multiple represent representatives from different organizations. And well, the idea was to try to get the people who are drawing these districts to not just be representatives of the superintendent association or school board association that people that are actually answerable to voters, right? So anyway, um it could be that there I I I'm really not clear what's going to happen because I think the bill that came out of the Senate last Friday, the governor came out proactively and said what's in the bill now, I would not approve on or veto it. Uh, and so I'm it's up in the air as to what will happen. Um, I think the there's been since January a lot of

106uh questions raised about how fast this change is moving and how um whether it's really been thought out well enough to put into law. And so I guess the question is whether enough legislators will say we need more time to figure this out or we'll say we've got to do something so let's pick this one. I think there's starting to be a lot more people saying this is to to rush into such a big change is pretty pretty questionable. So we'll see. Anybody else have input on that? So basically it will go back to zero if if he vetos it. If he vetos it, it means that uh they would well he he Bill Hill Scott has vowed to bring the legislature back into session this summer to until they come up with something that

107is acceptable to him. Um remains to be seen whether that's going to happen. Um anyway, it's going to be an interesting week or so. They're already probably two three weeks later in session. May we definitely try to get out there by my, you know, May 10th or so. Did see something about how much that costs us for every extra week they're in session, which I've never really thought about, but yeah, that's expensive. Yeah. Anyway, anybody else? Thank you for um for the retreat this afternoon and u thanks for participating in this meeting and uh I want to apologize if I have suggested having a survey and that was in in an error. I was going on what I could find from the minutes I could find but I will due diligence on trying to figure

108out whether it could have been done. Well, you also sent it to us about here's the, you know, here's the history and yeah, so I don't think you're the the sole owner of it, you know. It's the kids did respond and gave the opinion. So, you know, I mean, you don't have to beat yourself up. That's what I mean. I think I mean, I think the survey got misinterpreted or that was difficult for a lot of people. Yeah. But I also have the impression that you know either one group or the other wanted to influence sometimes I think it's healthy. I mean these kids can ask a lot of questions. They can do research. I mean they they should be able to do research. You present it they vote and sometimes I have the feeling

109that that's then their true opinion. But if it gets too much of a discussion especially when adults get involved then it's not the kids anymore that decide then it's the the school the parents we want the kids to have the vote. And I think it was a really easy and and fair way to do that. That's good to have that viewoint that but I guess the the staff just somehow right like timing wise I get it like we'd like to have this by this meeting. So the fact that it was sort of like urging please do it today. it maybe felt like uh oh the board is wanting to take this away from us that we haven't necessarily I think Johnny made a really good point that anything can be a learning opportunity or teaching

110opportunity and with something that felt rushed to them like that I think they didn't feel like it could be maybe but I think that it's a good it's a good takeaway right y and we it's not our clear probably not our responsibility in the future on that one anyway so well I I look into the second part of our motion there. See what I can find. Get back to you. Okay. And it's also okay future agenda item. It's okay to put things back on the table. I mean, we can't say now the flag is going to be there forever, right? I mean, that wouldn't make sense. So, it's nice. It creates a discussion about something. Well, and the way that the policyy's written that a kid could come into the school tomorrow and say, "Hey,

111I want to fly this flag." And start this whole process all over again. Right. And then, Right. Yeah. Yeah, as as Luca said, Louis said, that was that was the intention is not to have the is to have a process where something else or something different can be in the future uh on the flight pole. Anyway, thank you everybody. Thank you. Oh, I motion to adjurnn. Thank you. Discussion. No discussion. No discussion. All those in favor? Bye. Thanks again for spending so much time together.