May 6, 2026 School Board Meeting

001SBSD Owl Camera: Like, call to order the May 6, 2026. SBSD Owl Camera: regular meeting of the South Burlington School Board. SBSD Owl Camera: The first item on the agenda was a proposed executive session. SBSD Owl Camera: However, we did not need to go into executive section, so we canceled the executive section. SBSD Owl Camera: the next… Item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. SBSD Owl Camera: Right. SBSD Owl Camera: I pledge must be the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. SBSD Owl Camera: The next item on the agenda is announcements. Does the board have any announcements? SBSD Owl Camera: Demo speaker. Okay, demo beaker. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright? SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing

002none, The next item is to review and accept the agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: So, for the rest of the night, we have comments from the public. SBSD Owl Camera: Followed by the Student Representative Report. SBSD Owl Camera: Followed by the superintendent's report, and we have some middle school students here to… SBSD Owl Camera: Give us, their thoughts, which is great. SBSD Owl Camera: Then, around 6.30, we have a community forum to talk about ENDS policy. SBSD Owl Camera: Then, we have a few action items. Authorizing radio ads, friends policy update, charging the Legislative Advocacy Committee, considering transferring money from the general fund to the Food Service Fund for Child Nutrition. SBSD Owl Camera: And an additional employee added to the employee severance plan. SBSD Owl Camera: After that, we have two discussion items. They're both

003second… actually, they're both first readings of policies that need to get updated, so the wellness policy and the student use of cell phone policy. SBSD Owl Camera: And then we have a incentive agenda. Are there any, revisions to the agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, hearing none… The next item on the agenda… SBSD Owl Camera: is comments from the public. So… SBSD Owl Camera: There's 3 times that you can comment to the board. The first is this comment from the public section, and this is about any topic. You could talk about what's on the agenda, you can talk about what's not on the agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: You can also comment before we take action on anything, and if SBSD Owl Camera: a meeting is a specially Warren Community Forum, and this one happens to be

004one of them, you'll be able to talk about the topics that are on the agenda. The special thing about the community forum is that that's the only time when the board can respond to the public. SBSD Owl Camera: And only on the topics, forum, so anything you say during comments from the public, we won't respond to. However, at 6.30 tonight, during the community forum, we will, we would love to go back and forth with anybody in the community who wants to talk about the topic. SBSD Owl Camera: So… Please do not violate anybody's privacy with your public comments. SBSD Owl Camera: Official complaints or grievances cannot be filed during public comment. SBSD Owl Camera: So with that, is there anybody who would like to be a public comment? SBSD Owl Camera: Wait, do we have

005somebody in the room? SBSD Owl Camera: And you may introduce yourself if you'd like. Yes, it's a mentor. SBSD Owl Camera: My name is Brittany Almaski, and I have been an active member of the SP Curriculum Committee since its inception last fall. SBSD Owl Camera: We as a committee have been tasked with identifying specific, actionable improvements for the SBD curriculum. And through our research, we aim to offer constructive feedback that informs and strengthens ongoing curricular development. It is important to note that this committee was not informed of a massive change. SBSD Owl Camera: Rather, at the April 30th Curriculum Committee meeting, led by the Executive Director of Learning, we were told of the elimination of Honors in American Studies. Furthermore. SBSD Owl Camera: This unilateral decision not only eliminated the only honors course we have

006left at SB, but also changed the entire 10th grade curriculum. SBSD Owl Camera: Eliminating all American Studies courses. SBSD Owl Camera: The options presented for next year are English 10, or AP Seminar, and History 10. SBSD Owl Camera: My concern is not merely with this huge curriculum shift, but with the process by which it was handled. SBSD Owl Camera: This decision was made behind closed doors with zero consultation with the high school English department chair or the English faculty. SBSD Owl Camera: This lack of transparency also extended to the students, including the 130 incoming sophomores who had already registered for Honors American Studies. SBSD Owl Camera: HA served as a critical bridge course that gave students time to develop their writing, reasoning, studying, and time management skills in a less pressured situation. SBSD Owl Camera:

007Forcing 10th graders into a high-stakes AP English environment without a proper foundation risks setting them up for academic failure. SBSD Owl Camera: The justifications provided were inconsistent and raised several urgent questions. Some cited teacher deficits as responsible for the shift. SBSD Owl Camera: However, it was confirmed that the high school intends to run 6 to 7 sections of AP seminar to accommodate the 130 enrolled students. If staffing numbers remain the same, this deficit argument is factually unsupported. SBSD Owl Camera: In addition, according to College Board, AP seminar teachers must complete specific summer professional learning before teaching the course. SBSD Owl Camera: I recently had a meeting with the high school principal, and he told me that an AP cybersecurity class could not be run this fall due to lack of time necessary for training. SBSD

008Owl Camera: It's unclear how the district can now guarantee that teachers for the seven sections of AP Seminar will be certified in the same timeframe, or how an entirely new curriculum can be developed in the next few months and fleshed out in a way that benefits the students. SBSD Owl Camera: More alarmingly, when asked clarifying questions, the SB Executive Director of Learning admitted she does not know what Honors American is, because she's new to the district. Yet, in her capacity, she approved its removal based solely on the rigor. SBSD Owl Camera: rigor of the AP label, and the decision from an unknown committee. SBSD Owl Camera: No one seems to be able to tell me who made this decision, I only know who did not. SBSD Owl Camera: A decision that impacts the educational trajectory

009of over 100 students should be collaborative and transparent. SBSD Owl Camera: Not a top-down mandate issued in a vacuum. SBSD Owl Camera: I requested the Board pause its implementation until a formal review, including input from the English department, and the affected families can be conducted. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you for your time. Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there other public comment? SBSD Owl Camera: Big turn. SBSD Owl Camera: But it was shocking, but I wasn't even gonna sleep tonight, and now I'm going to. SBSD Owl Camera: My name's Mark Davin. SBSD Owl Camera: In the district, I have one daughter who's still here, one who's at Barnard College, who's been in South Florida and graduated two years ago. SBSD Owl Camera: I am also very concerned about Honors American Studies. SBSD Owl Camera: I

010think it's probably a dumb… done deal, but… SBSD Owl Camera: I just would like to make you aware of some numbers, if I can. SBSD Owl Camera: So 2 years ago, my second daughter, Libby, took Honors American. SBSD Owl Camera: That year, there were 89 students. SBSD Owl Camera: This class has been running since the 1990s. It's been co-taught for 22 years by Mark Lewis and Mark McFadden… sorry, Greg Lewis and Mark McFadden. SBSD Owl Camera: A long time. SBSD Owl Camera: Last year, There were 100 students who signed up for it. After a group of parents and students SBSD Owl Camera: Raised hell. SBSD Owl Camera: And said, don't cancel it on our list. SBSD Owl Camera: And he didn't. Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: This year, there's 130 students signed up for it,

011all of whom knew the rigor they were signing up for. SBSD Owl Camera: But they still signed up for one of the toughest classes at South Bronzman High School, and also one of the most instrumental. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm gonna keep talking until you guys tell me that somebody is raising their hand online. SBSD Owl Camera: Because there's two alumni that were hoping to call in, but they couldn't find the Zoom link. SBSD Owl Camera: to get online. And I want to make sure they have an opportunity to share your reviews with them. SBSD Owl Camera: Can you see one? Yeah. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there more public comment? And for those who are just joining us, this is an opportunity for public comment about any topic,

012and then also, at 6.30, we'll be talking about the ENTS policy updates. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there anybody online? Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Would you please recognize them? Rama AL Namee: Hi there, can you hear me? SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, we can. Rama AL Namee: Hi, I'm Mary Gable, I'm just sitting on Rama's laptop, actually, but… SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. Rama AL Namee: I'm a rising junior at Barnard College at Columbia University. I was raised in the South Burlington School District, and I graduated in 2024, and I want to talk about my experience with Honors American Studies and its importance to the district. Rama AL Namee: So, Honors American Studies was absolutely the most influential class that I took at SBHS, and it was the only class, including many AP courses, that had any hope

013of preparing me for college-level coursework. Rama AL Namee: Choosing to terminate Honors American Studies in the SBHS curriculum is an absolute insult to any claim by SBHS of supporting or listening to students and families, and to any claim to any investment in academic rigor. Rama AL Namee: As I told an SBHS family who came to tour my campus last week, Honors American was the primary reason that I came into university, with an understanding not only of American history, but of how to properly read a textbook or a primary source, how to take comprehensive notes on those, how to succeed on exams, and most importantly, how to think critically and independently. Rama AL Namee: SPHS's AP courses have historically not met the level of rigor that Honors American has, and have come nowhere near preparing students

014for university. Rama AL Namee: I was informed that the Executive Director of Learning for South Burlington School District approved the decision to replace Honors American with a new AP or a new curriculum under the impression that because it's an AP course, it is therefore a rigorous course. Rama AL Namee: To substitute Honors American with an unsupported, untested AP class which has not been previously run at SPHS is not an adequate solution. Rama AL Namee: The number of students registered in Honors American continues to be high, as well as the interest in the course by younger students, and that's… that interest is echoed by families in the community whose children are as young as elementary school, but who have heard about the importance of the class. Rama AL Namee: Eliminating Honors American doesn't benefit anyone. Rama

015AL Namee: It just removes one of the very few spaces where rigorous interdisciplinary learning is happening at SBHS. Rama AL Namee: I would like to be able to tell the families of the children that I babysit, and the younger siblings of my friends, as well as the greater South Burlington community, that SBHS invests in the academic success of its students, but I feel that the termination of Honors American Studies makes that impossible for it to be the truth. Rama AL Namee: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you very much. SBSD Owl Camera: Are there more comments? SBSD Owl Camera: Don't know any… SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, it's the same. It's the same one, yeah. Okay. But it might be a different person. Is it Rama now? It might be, we should check. Sure. I guess

016we did, yeah. Rama, did you guys? Rama AL Namee: Hello? SBSD Owl Camera: Hi, Rama. Hi, Rama. Rama AL Namee: You can hear me? SBSD Owl Camera: Yes. Rama AL Namee: Yes, this is Rama. I'd just like to introduce myself. My name is Rama Alnemi, and I'm a current sophomore at Columbia University. Rama AL Namee: I started in the South Burlington School District as a preschooler at Orchard School, and I graduated from the high school in 2024, and I'm currently a Questford Scholar, majoring in Anthropology and Astrophysics. I'd like to start by reading the South Burlington School District mission statement. Rama AL Namee: That's listed on the district's website, and it says, the mission of the South Burlington School District, a community committed to excellence in education, is to ensure that each student possesses the

017knowledge, skills, and character to create a successful and responsible life. Rama AL Namee: We will do this by building safe, caring, and challenging learning environments, fostering family and community partnerships, utilizing global resources, and inspiring lifelong learning. Rama AL Namee: So for my comment today, I'd like to focus on the aspect of the mission statement that aims to create challenging learning environments and curating skills that create a successful and responsible life for students. Rama AL Namee: So, for the past few years. Rama AL Namee: from what I've seen, the, like, I've seen a continued degradation of academic rigor at the South Burlington School District, from the policy limiting teachers to giving, like, a lowest possible grade of 50% to any student for any reason, despite performance, despite not even taking exams, and the continued elimination of

018courses that are proven to be rigorous, I think is completely contradictory to that mission statement. Rama AL Namee: This is beyond disappointing and embarrassing to see as someone who grew up in this district and has a lot of love for the people there. Rama AL Namee: The board and the administration have a duty to these students, these families, and these teachers to be making conscientious decisions, and from everything I've seen, those in power at our district have failed on every count. Rama AL Namee: this isn't just about Honors American. I know this course was really important to a lot of people, me being one of them. Rama AL Namee: And those teachers in particular were extremely influential in my academic career, but the overall trend of our district is putting students in a position that

019sets them up to fail. Rama AL Namee: And given how pivotal of a decision this is, I have not heard any valid justification from the board or from the administration. And I'd like to tell the board that Rama AL Namee: and of course, those in power, that what they are doing is harming students, and every action I've seen that they've taken works to undermine the hard work that teachers and parents and students have put in to secure their future. Rama AL Namee: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you very much. SBSD Owl Camera: Are there any other comments in the room? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: The next item in the agenda is the superintendent's report. SBSD Owl Camera: And… SBSD Owl Camera: Suzanne is here in, Joe's place, so are there any

020reports? Let's focus on student learning. Sorry, my mistake. SBSD Owl Camera: So, the next item on the agenda is actually the student representative report. So, these are our student representative. Yeah, on Thursday, May 7th, the high school will be holding the One Act plays in the auditorium at 7pm, so come support student directors. SBSD Owl Camera: And this Friday, I know I mentioned this last time, is Spring Community Service Day for SLAM, so seniors who are SLAM leaders will be going out to non-profit community locations with their freshman advisors for a day of community service and fun. They will then compete in the SLAM Olympics, where we all play team builders on the turf. SBSD Owl Camera: And we hope everyone has a really fun day. SBSD Owl Camera: And then, a bit of a

021student spotlight, the high school robotics team competed at the first robotics world competition in Houston, Texas, which is the world's largest high school robotics competition. SBSD Owl Camera: They were very successful and won the Rookie All-Star Award, which… awarded for being the best rookie team in their division, making them one of the 8 best rookie teams in the world. So, congrats to them. SBSD Owl Camera: And that's all we got. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, thank you. Are there any board questions? Question? Did you say that's the first World Robotics competition? Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Amazing. SBSD Owl Camera: That's great. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, now it really is time for the superintendent report, and Suzanne Grundling, our middle school principal, is here, sitting in place of Joe, our superintendent. Is there anything you'd like

022to report on? SBSD Owl Camera: Great, yes, and then we've got some students here to talk to the board as well, but I'd love to start out by recognizing this is Teacher Appreciation Week, and we take this opportunity to recognize our teachers, all of our staff throughout all of our buildings. SBSD Owl Camera: And also wanted to thank our PTOs that play a really pivotal role in helping us recognize the really, truly inspiring work that all of our staff members do every day. So, thank you, and today is also our… I see Sarah Pineda in the back there. It is also our National Nurses Day today on Wednesday, May 6th. SBSD Owl Camera: And we brought, but I'm just gonna move over, and I'm gonna check in with the students on if they would be

023comfortable standing, or if they would like to bring, chairs over, if that's okay. We want to bring chairs over, we can move a couple chairs up and give you a really comfortable place. See, Dora coming in the room, why grab a couple chairs from that side, Nora? Perfectly. SBSD Owl Camera: But that year, I just, you know. SBSD Owl Camera: 9 now, so we need 9 chairs. SBSD Owl Camera: And we brought a really special group in our school called our peer leadership team, and a little later in the meeting, you'll meet our, our assistant principal that will start July 1st. One of the roles that peer leadership has done at our school is they also interview many of our candidates that we see through, and they'd like to take an opportunity to first tell

024you a little bit about peer leadership and SBSD Owl Camera: the roles that they play in, not only our school, but throughout the South Burlington community and the Greater Tiffany County area. SBSD Owl Camera: Do you guys want to start off, maybe, by introducing yourselves, or is that part of… No, you can introduce how many years you've been doing Fairly on chat, too. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, my name is Gracie, I'm in 7th grade, and this is my second year doing privilege, so… My name is Stella, I'm in 8th grade, and this is my second year. My name is Kayla, I'm in 8th grade, and this is my third degree. My name's Nora, I'm in 7th grade, and this is my second year during COVID. SBSD Owl Camera: My name is Logan, I'm in second

025grade at 7th grade, and this is my first year doing career leadership. My name's Monica, I'm in seventh grade, and this is my second year doing peer leadership. My name's Eloise, I'm in second grade, and this is my second grade. SBSD Owl Camera: My name's Emily, I'm in 7th grade, and this is my first year doing peer leadership. My name's Honda Mirren, I'm in 7th grade, and this is my second year doing peer leadership. SBSD Owl Camera: Should I stand up? Yeah, whatever you like, whatever you want. So, your leadership is a club at FHT that is focused on service for others in our school, the South Burlington community, and just the larger state in the world. SBSD Owl Camera: Peer leadership is for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. To be a peer leader, you

026have to complete an application and write about why leadership is an honor and a responsibility at the same time. SBSD Owl Camera: We also had to give ideas for service projects we might like to do, and have two FHT teachers and staff members sign off to support our application. SBSD Owl Camera: This year, we have over 30 students in peer leadership, and we meet every Friday morning before school. With such a big number of leaders, we decided to split into 5 action groups. SBSD Owl Camera: These action groups are focused on different service projects. We have a representative from each action group, so here we will give a small example of what we are doing at each of our groups. SBSD Owl Camera: But we're in the group that hosted a social to raise money

027for the Humane Society, and we raised, $1,800. SBSD Owl Camera: So, we spent a few months planning and contacting, like, local businesses to, like, get this stuff, and then, that we need to prepare for the social. SBSD Owl Camera: And then when we did, it was a blast, it was really fun, I think most everyone enjoyed it, graders, 8th graders. SBSD Owl Camera: How was it? Okay, and so, on May 12th, during the school day, we will go on a quick field trip to deliver the money for the Humane Society. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so our group is called the Appreciation Nation, and we're gonna go to Cory Hill Residence, and we're gonna go to Breckenhose Seniors Day. So, we've been planning this for a few months. We've been trying to contact the… SBSD Owl

028Camera: Corey Hill residents. We've… we hit a little bumps in the road, but we've managed to contact them, and for right now, we're planning to, visit them on May 14th, and kind of, like, just, like, make their day. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm Central Community Drives, and we are starting a toy drive for the Mama McDonald House. It started on May 1st, and is going until May 15th, and then we're going to deliver it to the kids' families. SBSD Owl Camera: So our… my group, we… we're called the Positive People, and SBSD Owl Camera: We basically, we are… we've been doing… we've done a couple things this year. Kind of, like, small things, but, like, they're small but mighty. And we've, SBSD Owl Camera: we've made little posters for around our schools that, like, have a

029little, like, positive message on them. And, that took a… that didn't… that took, like, a little while, and we just finished that, like, 2 weeks ago, I think, and right now, we're, like, we're making… we're, like, painting rocks. SBSD Owl Camera: And we, they're going to Cory Hill, like, one group's going to Cory Hill, and sort of paint… we're, like, we make little painted rocks, and we are going to, like, they have little messages on them, and we haven't figured out the full details yet. We might be going with them to deliver the rocks and just say hello, and yeah, like Amir said, like, make their day. SBSD Owl Camera: And, yeah, that's kind of redone this year. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: So one of our groups is called, the Appreciation Group, and every year

030we choose, a staff group to highlight. SBSD Owl Camera: In years past, we've done… we've recognized the custodians and the recess monitors, and this year, we recognize the cafeteria staff, and we highlight them and show our appreciation. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you for inviting us here tonight to learn more about FHTMS Peer Leadership. We are happy to tell you more or answer any questions you may have for us. Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, thanks. SBSD Owl Camera: So they all were going to tell you a little bit about, what they… what experiences they would want to have at South Burlington schools by the end of their 12th grade year, but I did want to pause to see if you have some questions for them around peer leadership. I'm just reflecting on, the people here

031who also interviewed Dr. Clark. That was one of the stops through, was to be interviewed by the middle school peer leadership while he's part of the rotation and tour through SBSD Owl Camera: is a building. SBSD Owl Camera: So, does anyone have questions about any of the projects? SBSD Owl Camera: For peer leadership's role in our community. SBSD Owl Camera: I have a question. How many peer leaders are there? SBSD Owl Camera: We have, like, furniture. SBSD Owl Camera: 5 groups, and probably, like, six to eight people in them. SBSD Owl Camera: Like, did you choose? SBSD Owl Camera: like, the different groups, priorities, like, you guys are going to be a society, you guys regard as… We had some say into it. It was mostly, like, we had, we had, like, wrote down what,

032like, on our application, we wrote down, like, some things that we want to do for… SBSD Owl Camera: during peer leadership, like, I wrote down a couple things, like the Senior Center that I thought that'd be really cool to go to. I wrote down just some other things, and, based on that, the two, Ms. Brasford and Ms. Amblo, they're all, like, our peer leader, like, they're, like, they're runners, I guess, and they, like, read our application, and they kind of, like, put, like, had, like, a couple groups, and then, based on that, we, like, had, like, filled out a survey. SBSD Owl Camera: And, SBSD Owl Camera: They fill out the survey, and then they put us into groups with, like, the information that they got from our application and from our survey. SBSD Owl

033Camera: How often do you meet? And also, how often are, SBSD Owl Camera: How often do you meet, and how… you make decisions about what activities you want to move forward with? How do you make those decisions? We meet every Friday in the morning, from 8 tickets every week from today. SBSD Owl Camera: we just kind of, like, compromised with our group talked about ideas. Most of the ideas happened at the beginning of the year, closer to the beginning of the year, where we brain-tilmed all of the things that we wanted to do, and then we narrowed it down to, like, one or two things. SBSD Owl Camera: And some of the projects are smaller so that you can do more, and then some, like the Humane Society or the Senior Citizens, like, Center, SBSD

034Owl Camera: take longer, so those would probably be it for everybody to meet up. SBSD Owl Camera: I think I noticed that everybody's a 7th or 8th grader, and I was curious about… but some of you have been on for 2 years, so how… what's the process for a 6th grader to join, and is there a way to, like, get people who don't really know about it and are new to the school to know what they… the opportunity is? We do peer leadership, we do, like, it's like, it's kind of like… not like a meet and greet, but, like, we basically, like. SBSD Owl Camera: We are kind of, like. SBSD Owl Camera: we help the 6th graders, like, 6th grade families, like, tour the school. We help them with their walkers, and we, like,

035inform them… I, like, at least what I did, as I said, I told them, like, I had Parker Leadership, which is, like, a club in our school, and SBSD Owl Camera: that kind of, like, there's not… and we also have, like, daily announcements, and the peer leadership doesn't start, like, right as the school year starts. It's kind of, like, a couple weeks into it, and, like, on the announcements, which everyone, like, every TA reads in the morning, and, SBSD Owl Camera: And that has, like, peer leadership will be starting this year. It kind of does, like, a brief overview of, like, what it does, and, like, kind of has, like, some projects that we did last year. SBSD Owl Camera: We do have some 6th graders, they just can… Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: And do

036you guys know about the student reps on the school board? SBSD Owl Camera: There we went to one other meeting with either of you. Awesome. Was it… were either of you peer leaders when you were at that? SBSD Owl Camera: When I was in middle school, I think it was just starting up, and I think I was there in 8th grade. Yeah, yeah, I think my group, we did the backpacks for Ukraine when I was the API leadership, so… Ali, you were on for a few years ago. SBSD Owl Camera: We're both funding. SBSD Owl Camera: So would any of you like to be student representatives on school board in a few years? SBSD Owl Camera: This is a training place for this. I do want to acknowledge, the dedication of our two peer leader

037advisor teachers at our school, Carly Bressorne, who's our technology education teacher, and Yvette Amplo, who is one of our… SBSD Owl Camera: counselors. They alluded to it, but, you know, some really important things they do are welcoming of our 5th grade class into 6th grade. Not only at our 5th grade parent night, our peer leaders will be back on the ground helping with one of the big, stressful transitions to middle school. It's how to get your locker to open, and our peer leaders cover 200 students learning how to open their lockers and SBSD Owl Camera: For our orientation activities at the beginning of the school year as well. SBSD Owl Camera: If you guys are good, we'll transition to… we talked a little bit about what an ENS policy is, what a school board's role

038in an ENDS policy is, and give a little bit of time as middle schoolers to think about what skills SBSD Owl Camera: and, skills and courses and opportunities they would want from the South Burlington School District before they graduate high school. SBSD Owl Camera: And if I could say, so we're perfectly on time, and so I think that at this point, we should transition to the community forum with the students involved, and what that does is it lets the board, you know, go back and forth with anybody. SBSD Owl Camera: So… She could stay right there. Absolutely, stay right here, and to give a little bit of context, SBSD Owl Camera: 10 years ago, the school board wrote down our ends, which are kind of like our goals for our priorities. And I think, actually,

039one of the public commenters read from that a little bit earlier today. And so it's basically, like, what are schools supposed to do SBSD Owl Camera: for the… for the community, and specifically for the kids, for you guys. So, I would love to hear what you want from the schools, and… and what you thought about. Take it away. SBSD Owl Camera: I know that one really valuable skill I've learned in peer leadership is how to talk to adults and writing emails and making phone calls, and I feel like for a lot of kids, even me, that's a SBSD Owl Camera: to struggle, and I don't really know what to say in that kind of length, but with peer leadership, we've had, you know, difficulty reaching out to the senior home. We've had to be persistent

040with our communication to them. We've had to write some really thoughtful emails and make a lot of phone calls, and I think that's such a valuable skill to be able to talk to adults and be able to make your points clear. SBSD Owl Camera: I think it'd be great if everybody got to learn. SBSD Owl Camera: Great start. Something I think is a lot of times when you're learning things, hopefully, like, why am I learning this? Like, I don't feel like I'll use this in the real world. So I feel like, it would be interesting to know SBSD Owl Camera: when will I actually use this? Like, why are we learning this? And kind of, like, get a sense of, like, what it will be like after school. I was also, like, I'm only in

0417th grade, so probably more in, like, high school, but, SBSD Owl Camera: Like, a more real-world situation. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, kind of what Eloise said there, maybe more about the news and what's actually going on in the world, because, like, sometimes adults are just, like, they'll be like, you might see something on the news, and you're like, oh my gosh, what's going on? And then, like, the adults might say, like. SBSD Owl Camera: It's nothing, nothing to worry about, and yeah, we are… Yeah, but yeah, we, like, I feel like we should have the right to know what's going on in the world, and, to kind of prepare ourselves from, yeah, when we are adults and after we've graduated. SBSD Owl Camera: And to realize, like, how we can be good people and, make

042a good and active result. SBSD Owl Camera: for me, something that I would like to know, like, when I'm starting is to, like, go into the real world is how to problem solve and how to… SBSD Owl Camera: Learn from my mistakes. SBSD Owl Camera: Because I think that that's really important when you're just learning, like, when you're just starting off in school. I think it's important to know how to fix your mistakes, know how to learn from your mistakes, so you can do better next time. SBSD Owl Camera: And I feel like, like, learning from your mistakes is kind of like a, like a… not like a quote. Like, I don't, like, growing up, I didn't really know what that meant, like, learning from your mistakes, and, like, I'm kind of, like, starting just

043to learn about what it kind of means, and, like. SBSD Owl Camera: like, mistakes, like, I didn't know, like, what that meant and how to, like, like, quote-unquote, like, learn from your mistakes, and so I think that, like, yeah, going on to that, like, not only, like, the… SBSD Owl Camera: like… learning from your mistakes, stuff like that. But, like, also, like. SBSD Owl Camera: I just… it's just like that. It's, like, kind of just, like, learning, like, learning about what it means and, like, how… SBSD Owl Camera: How it affects you. SBSD Owl Camera: I would want to know, like, one thing I've learned from kids. SBSD Owl Camera: Sorry. One thing I've learned from peer leadership is how to, like, collaborate with peers that you, like, don't know, or people that you haven't

044talked to before, and kind of what Gracie said, like, communicating with adults that are outside of our schools, or in our schools, even. SBSD Owl Camera: One thing that I found really useful and from peer leadership is kind of, like, being able to SBSD Owl Camera: like, talk with others. Like, you get these, like, communication skills. SBSD Owl Camera: And it's, like, easier for you to, like, come up here and, like, talk to all of you guys, and, like, public speaking. And so, for others, it's, like, a lot harder. And for me, it was a lot harder, but now that we have, like, the gist of it. SBSD Owl Camera: And then, I feel like, like, doing all of this, like, helps a lot of people, like, be able to come up and, like, talk

045to all of you guys. SBSD Owl Camera: Please say something about the landmill? SBSD Owl Camera: I think it would be fun to learn, like, more about, like, business classes, so we can, like, improve, like, our skills on, like, finance and, like, budgets and stuff in the future. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, that's a great question. Like, do you have the classes in your school that you want to take, or are there classes that you wish you had? SBSD Owl Camera: very classics about language that we had, like, for me at least, like, I really wanted to get into, like, switch offices, and, like, in, like, the real world, I knew that SBSD Owl Camera: to… So… SBSD Owl Camera: in language school, there's not many opportunities for, like, electives that there's been for a student,

046and then you can choose a language, but that's, like, pretty much the extent of it. So I feel like if there was time to feel more when SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know, it would probably have to be, like, a club, but, like, it was less like a club and more like a class. SBSD Owl Camera: Because I don't think there is time during this… during the school day. SBSD Owl Camera: Like, sort of like that, because we don't really have opportunities to, like, take boxes. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you for Christmas. SBSD Owl Camera: I agree with Elise. I think that it's more of, like, a high school thing, but I think that, like. SBSD Owl Camera: we should make it more of, like, a middle school thing, because I think that the thing

047that, most teachers have trouble with is getting kids ready for, like, the future, getting kids ready for, like. SBSD Owl Camera: Once in high school, you know, like, because right now, this might just be me that's bothered by this, but we're using, like, 1, 2, 3, 4 as a grading scale, and I'm fine with that, but I think that it might be… SBSD Owl Camera: more easier and more relevant now to this time, if we use, like, maybe percentages or something. And some of the teachers have been switching over to percentages, at least on my team. SBSD Owl Camera: like, my ELA teacher and my math teacher have started using percentages, and I feel like that is a lot more informative than just 1, 2, 3, 4, because it tells me, like, what exactly I

048got wrong, what exactly I can work on, or what I might need to read it. SBSD Owl Camera: Definitely, like, getting this prep for high school, because I know in some countries use percentages and some teachers use, like, A's, B's, like, in minus 6. I think there's, like, a lot of, like, you can, like, there's a lot of, like, variety, SBSD Owl Camera: I feel like there's a, I don't know how to say it, but, like, using the 1, 2, 3, 4, like, grading scale, I think that if we had more, like, the percentages or, like, letter grades, I think it would, allow for us to, like, be more specific on what we need to, like, improve on, and kind of give us more of a variety for, like, what we do, because it… SBSD

049Owl Camera: Doesn't, like, if one page, it doesn't allow us to kind of, like, you can kind of get one grade and there's a lot that falls in any of those grade lines. SBSD Owl Camera: So, I think that, like, a bit of different grades over the last, like, you know, I think it would include us, like, working harder on what we work for. SBSD Owl Camera: Because I think, like, you can get… SBSD Owl Camera: a higher grade. And I have another question. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, just a clarification question. The 1, 2, 3, 4, do those have definitions? Are those, like, speaking, approaching, advanced? SBSD Owl Camera: emerging, 2 is developing, Rhea's proficient, and 4 is expanding. And so 4 is, like. SBSD Owl Camera: what… above what they want. It's like an

050extra… Yeah, it's like extra credit. You also never know, like, what the… what the 4 is going to be in, like, high school, so that's kind of the trouble with using the numbers, right, the difference, yes. Yeah. And for a lot of classes, like, a 3 can be, like, a 75% to a 99. SBSD Owl Camera: And it's like, you see a 3, and you think, okay, I'm good, but then… I mean, I haven't been out in the real world, but I'm guessing, like, a 75% is mostly… SBSD Owl Camera: Like, I feel like if we had a different smooth scale, it'd be better. SBSD Owl Camera: So I had a question. If you think about the kids who don't join Leadership Council, and maybe we're not thinking about SBSD Owl Camera: like, grades as

051much, like, what do you think they need to like school more and want to be there? I feel like a lot of the time, like, when we go to school, like, I feel like teachers are talking at us. SBSD Owl Camera: instead of talking, like, instead of, like, explaining, and, like, I kind of, like, sometimes, like, don't like going to classes because I feel like the teacher is just, like, talking at us instead of telling, instead of, like, explaining it, like, hands-on stuff. Like, some teachers do that. SBSD Owl Camera: But I think it's important for, like, at least for me, like, growing up, I think it's important to not only, like, to know why that teachers do this, like, instead of, like, to know why the teacher was trying to, like, help us. SBSD

052Owl Camera: Or not only help us, but, like, for what… how… just how to make it easier for us to understand, and how to, like, make it more fun and engaging, and also bringing back to, like, the teachers talking at us kind of stuff, but, like. SBSD Owl Camera: And, like, how's not, like, as, like, fun, I guess. And, like, same with, like, tests. Like, I, like, don't… I, like, read tests. Like, I really, like, get, like, in my head about tests and anxiety and stuff like that. SBSD Owl Camera: And I feel like if… if there's, like. SBSD Owl Camera: get, like, for the state testing, and just, like, like, we do, like, star testing now, and I feel like that… those tests are, like, I can get in my head a little bit,

053like I said, and I think those tests, SBSD Owl Camera: don't really show how you do in school. Like, I feel like I'm… I, like, like doing good in school, and I like to, like, prove myself, like, that I'm doing good. And, I think… SBSD Owl Camera: that… SBSD Owl Camera: like, we have an SLE, which is, like, a student learning… expectation, and that's kind of, like, how you do overall in, like, in your… in that class. But I think it's important to also look at how, you do outside of, like, the big tests, and how you do outside of, like, the big summatives. SBSD Owl Camera: outside of, like, the big summitives, and, just, like, outside of those, I think it's important. SBSD Owl Camera: I love, like, the test system. I know, personally,

054I like more, like, projects more than tests, because I feel like it shows what you know better, because the tests, like, it's… SBSD Owl Camera: You could memorize it the night before and then forget it the next day. Whereas projects, it's more practicing and learning and, SBSD Owl Camera: like, I feel like it shows you, what you know better. SBSD Owl Camera: And back to kind of what you were saying about, like, how can we make it better for, like, students, or more… what was the question again? Well, I was wondering, for kids who didn't join the leadership, maybe they're not… SBSD Owl Camera: they don't think about grades as much, like, how can they like school more? I feel like teachers have, like, tried, like, I have… I know, like, I can think of

055a couple people who, like, I know they could probably do better that they, as, like. SBSD Owl Camera: do better than they aren't, like, doing, but I think it's also, like, there's some incentives also that could, like, be played in there, and there are incentives, but I feel like it shouldn't just be incent… like, it… SBSD Owl Camera: not… there shouldn't be just incentives, but there should be some, like, there are some teachers that I know are really helpful. SBSD Owl Camera: To helping, like, other kids. But… SBSD Owl Camera: I, I, I didn't know that anybody else said. SBSD Owl Camera: I think that something that's probably, like, helped me engage more in classes is knowing that grades, like, don't define who I am, and, like, like, other activities, like sports, and… SBSD Owl

056Camera: groups like Peer Leadership helped me, like, know that, like, I'm not more than just, like, a number or a grade. SBSD Owl Camera: And I feel like if there was more ungraded work, it would, put less pressure on SBSD Owl Camera: Tests and summitives, but also, SBSD Owl Camera: like, makes school not just about grades, make school more about learning, and… SBSD Owl Camera: I'm being encouraged to share a story that happened to me recently. So, a couple days ago, I was sitting across from this guy in my class, and he wasn't doing any of the work, so I decided to ask him, I was like, why aren't… Can you just start, can you slow down? Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. And he wasn't doing… so I decided to ask him, I was like, what's

057up? Like, why aren't you doing the work? SBSD Owl Camera: And he said, well, it's not like I'm going to college, it's not like I'm gonna do well in high school, why should I even try middle school? SBSD Owl Camera: And it made me so upset, because it's like, obviously, graduation is so far away, and, like. SBSD Owl Camera: it is something you should think about, but it shouldn't be so stressful that, like, I'm not even going to start in middle school, like, that someone felt like their path was already so predetermined at such a young age, and it's like. SBSD Owl Camera: I feel like kids just, like, think, you know, I'm not getting fours, I'm not even getting 3s, like, why should I even try? I don't really know how the application of

058this would work out, but… SBSD Owl Camera: I just feel like a lot of them in my grade feel so unprepared for high school that they feel like they shouldn't even try middle school, and that's why things might not be going well in high school, so… Yeah, I feel like teachers are, like, they try to, like, they, like, they're saying a lot of the time, like, this is preparing for high school, like, the amount of homework that we're giving you is for high school. But also, it's, like, like what Gracie was saying, that there should… SBSD Owl Camera: Like, just boundaries. SBSD Owl Camera: I think that maybe, like, giving kids more, like. SBSD Owl Camera: an idea of, like, what different career paths are, I think that could, like. SBSD Owl Camera: kind of

059is, like, an incentive to, like, do better and try harder, because I think that sometimes it… some of the work can kind of seem pointless, because you can't really see, like, the benefits of it, so I think, like. SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know, trying to include, like, this is something that would help you with these different career paths could, like, kind of push someone to, like, work harder. I agree with that. Like, for example, I'm not the best at math, I've never really liked math. SBSD Owl Camera: I know it's important, and I still try, but… so that kind of just, like, makes me think that… SBSD Owl Camera: I don't really want to go into a career that has a lot of math involved, and some people, like, leave for any class, like,

060SBSD Owl Camera: if we were doing something, and the teacher was like, especially if you want to go into, like, something in… SBSD Owl Camera: this thing, it would be, good to focus on this. Or, like, if you're good at this, you might want to consider this group. SBSD Owl Camera: And, kind of what everyone said so far, maybe, like, people aren't buying as much, or, SBSD Owl Camera: don't really feel like they're enjoying school as much, like, because of, like, pressurized tests and grades, and you, like, you're like, so if I'm not gonna fit this, like, how am I gonna get this career? And, like, maybe sometimes over-planning too much for the future. SBSD Owl Camera: And so, yeah, I feel like, switching back to, what Elise originally said about the projects, like, we

061could, like, do more stuff that's about learning and, like, about creating stuff, rather than just, like, having a standardized test, and then, like, like, kind of, like. SBSD Owl Camera: I know sometimes, like, when a tense is coming up, and I kind of, like, like, oh my gosh, like, I gotta study, like. SBSD Owl Camera: if I don't do good, like. SBSD Owl Camera: it's going to be that, so… it is, like, very pressurized, so maybe we could, like, ease off the pressure a little bit, and yeah, like, more creative and learning activities. I kind of said this before, but, like, a lot of times I'll study the really regular test, and then I'll forget it all the next day, so that's why I've been… SBSD Owl Camera: Some of those projects with them. SBSD

062Owl Camera: I also think that, like, when… SBSD Owl Camera: teachers teach something, they're, like, really good at that certain thing, but when we're not good at one certain thing, then we are considered a bad student. And I just don't think that that's fair. SBSD Owl Camera: Like, they're targeting us on one thing, or they're teaching us a broader spectrum of things, and when we don't grasp that concept that they want us to grasp. SBSD Owl Camera: Bye. SBSD Owl Camera: They punch us for it, but it's not really fair, because some people, like, don't get it, and some people do. SBSD Owl Camera: like, for example, like, I'm not the best at math, but I'm really good at ELA, then, I'm just based off of that one bad grade that I got, then, like,

063I just think, like, really badly of myself, like. SBSD Owl Camera: what if I don't do well on the next test? What is my teacher gonna think of me then? Then, like, I don't think that it's fair if you just get based off of one grade that you got. SBSD Owl Camera: And I think, kind of, like, going back, there has to be, like, a balance of both, like, their… like… like, someone said something earlier about, having, like, tests, and, like, there shouldn't be as many tests, like, not, like, not so much as someone said, but, like, I think that SBSD Owl Camera: going back to that, I think that there should still be work, and there should still be projects and tests. SBSD Owl Camera: But, but there needs to be a balance, and,

064like, what if someone… what if someone's like, oh yeah, we're, like, learning this subject, but there's not going to test? Oh, well, like, I probably know, like, a lot of the students at our school will be like, oh, then I don't have to track. So there has to be some sort of balance between, SBSD Owl Camera: Like, there… this is gonna be… this is gonna impact your grade, but it shouldn't be as, like, straightforward, like, it's gonna… SBSD Owl Camera: like, I… a lot of my teachers are really, really, really good at what they're doing. And, just kind of going back, there should be a balance, and there should be, SBSD Owl Camera: Not should, but they're, like, there's, like, I think there should be some, like, reasons. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, I can't imagine

065a better way to start our discussion of the ends that the school is trying to achieve. SBSD Owl Camera: So, do you have any final thoughts? SBSD Owl Camera: No, I just really want to thank just how articulate our peer leadership group is coming… coming here and sharing their thoughts about the authentic experience through school, and highlighting their peer leadership activities. They're a really special part of our school at all of our clubs and activities, as well as what happens all during the school day is just a really important, important piece. SBSD Owl Camera: Let me add, and I think what you did here tonight not only really helps us think about this EMS policy, SBSD Owl Camera: But I want you to know that what you're doing is hard for all of the adults

066in the room, too, and you came anyway, so… Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to say, like, I know you sat here and you told us a lot of stuff, and I didn't want you to think we weren't taking it in, and I wanted to let you know from what I heard, I heard a lot about wanting to SBSD Owl Camera: Have hands-on learning, have agency, and, like, a partnership and a balance with your teachers, and, like, understanding SBSD Owl Camera: how… what you're learning, and how it's gonna, work in the future, and how it's gonna benefit you, and maybe pivoting to different types of learning that works better for the way you are as a student, so… SBSD Owl Camera: those are all really interesting things to think about adding to the ends, I

067really appreciate you guys coming down. But I've been, I've been here since 6th grade, and we've been doing a lot of, like, the same things, like, a lot of the time, and I kind of, like, in the start, I was like, oh, this is really, really fun, like, I'm super excited. And, like, but at the end of, like, kind of, like, throughout the year, I'm like, oh, we've kind of been doing this a lot. SBSD Owl Camera: I know it's, like, fun for, like, all the 6th graders and 7th graders, but, like, the 8th graders, there should be a little bit more, like, not there's sh… I don't… I shouldn't be saying should. They're, like. SBSD Owl Camera: could be some sort of, like, more activities and stuff like that. And, like, overall, like, our

068school is a really, really good school, and we have a lot of, like, really good teachers and really good students, and a lot of actual helpers for, like, students who also need extra help, so… SBSD Owl Camera: I also wanted to say I'm really impressed that you said something to your peer who was not working, and… SBSD Owl Camera: I… because you weren't calling him out, but you were actually interested in what he's doing, and maybe he thinks no one cares if he's doing his work or not doing his work. So, that kind of an interaction is super important, and also ties back to what you guys were talking about in the beginning, about what it means to be a good person, and what it means to be a person in the world growing up,

069and I think that's something that's really important for us to help shape SBSD Owl Camera: good people who want to support each other, especially, you know, moving into the future and hoping that we can come to a place where people can have conversations that might be difficult or have different opinions on, but can still have conversations about it. So, we don't even threats. SBSD Owl Camera: I know that there's, like, there's so many different kinds of learners. Everybody learns so differently, and I feel like the school does a pretty good job of, like, accommodating everyone and, making sure that everybody learns the best that, like, they can. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you guys what's reviewing. SBSD Owl Camera: And going back to something that I think one of you said at the beginning about talking

070to adults and, like, the importance of, like, being able to talk to adults, now I think the adults are going to talk, and you're definitely welcome to stick around and listen to how I think some of the adults are going to respond. SBSD Owl Camera: some of your comments and their own comments. Thank you very much. Sure, sure. So now, we're still in the community forum, and at this point, we welcome other public comments. SBSD Owl Camera: I think maybe we can start with somebody online. SBSD Owl Camera: Does that work as a… if you're online and you want to make a public comment for the, SBSD Owl Camera: For this discussion, would you raise your hand? SBSD Owl Camera: I see a few people that are invited. SBSD Owl Camera: Bob or Jason? SBSD

071Owl Camera: Lauren, Mary, Tim, any… Elizabeth, anybody online? SBSD Owl Camera: I think they may have… they may just be figuring out how to raise their hands. So maybe we'll take a comment from in the room. Please, okay. SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know if there's a Naomi online, but, Megan Emery, resident of South Burlington, I have a 9th grader at the high school, I have two graduates. SBSD Owl Camera: And, I unfortunately wasn't able to get Naomi online, when everyone was talking about SBSD Owl Camera: Honors American Studies. She's also, just wanted to let you know, she's also very much disappointed, that this class, and she's heard her brothers talk about it. SBSD Owl Camera: Class of 2017, class of 2018. And what she says is, I know its content is super interesting and

072really prepares us for all our high school years, and it's a favorite for people who are taking it. So I just wanted to pass this along. SBSD Owl Camera: Mmm. SBSD Owl Camera: what I'd like to say, in response to what I heard the middle schoolers say, is that SBSD Owl Camera: It is, super young to be wanting to think about what career you're going to be doing, when you are 11, 12, 13 years old. SBSD Owl Camera: I know that my own daughter was very concerned about that, and as someone who's a university professor, I don't know if they're still here, I have always reassured her, you have time. SBSD Owl Camera: you have time. And also something to embrace when you're in the middle school is that your mind is completely, re… developing

073new circuitry. SBSD Owl Camera: And so, we all develop at different speeds and at different times in our lives. There's a blossoming, right? And if you feel like you're somehow lagging, no, your blossoming is coming, and I just want to take that SBSD Owl Camera: pressure off of all of these young people. We all get there. And, and there are tests along the way, and sometimes we do well, and sometimes we do less well. But we know that SBSD Owl Camera: Right? This is something that, is preparing us one way or another for what's ahead, whether that be SBSD Owl Camera: you know, university study, whether that be going directly into the workforce, whether that be doing something service-related, you know, here or somewhere else. There's so many options, so I, I just, I just

074wanted… SBSD Owl Camera: to say that, because my heart was just kind of hurting for all of them, all talking about not knowing what they want to do for Korean yet, when they're 12 and 13 years old. SBSD Owl Camera: And I didn't know what I wanted to do yet when I was 12 or 13 years old. So what I wanted to say was what I also heard them say, and what my daughter has been texting me about, is, word about engagement. SBSD Owl Camera: wanting to have classes that actually engage the students, having connection with the teachers. Something that I heard in the discussion prior, when there was discussion about American Studies, is the desire to be more challenged in classes. SBSD Owl Camera: So, there… there is a real concern, in my household

075about, how the high school SBSD Owl Camera: has changed, over the past decade, and the loss of honors is something to do with it. I think also, the… it's more difficult to, kind of… SBSD Owl Camera: to take those classes, that you are really interested in, and that really push you. I understand that there's a big push for equity right now, having talked to administrators there. And equity, I am fully on board. SBSD Owl Camera: But I am concerned to see the level of… Frustration. SBSD Owl Camera: And not being challenged. So I just wanted to put, a word in there about that. And… SBSD Owl Camera: I am 100% on board with public education. SBSD Owl Camera: I know that the school system is teaching SBSD Owl Camera: everyone, and that's what I wanted

076to be, and I wanted us all to live in society, and that's also what my daughter said, that group activities, having those discussions. SBSD Owl Camera: having that interaction in class with people who are different from you, that those are really, really key learning experiences. So I just wanted to add that. SBSD Owl Camera: As well. And I'll probably hear all kinds of wonderful things, so I'll leave it there. Thank you. And maybe I should take it… go ahead, take it to a higher level for a minute, just to remind us why we're all here again. So. SBSD Owl Camera: We are a policy governance board. What that means is that we have a document that's almost like a constitution SBSD Owl Camera: for the school district. It says, like, what the goals of the

077school district is. And so, when the middle schoolers came in and told us about SBSD Owl Camera: you know, their concerns, their hopes, what they want to see at the schools. SBSD Owl Camera: that's part of a broader conversation we're having this year, with the goal of updating our priorities document, our ENDS document, in September, after a whole process of community input, like everybody showed up to give today. So, SBSD Owl Camera: at least personally, what I was hearing from the students was a wide spectrum of everything, and from the public comment earlier, was a wide spectrum from concerns about academics. SBSD Owl Camera: to concerns about, you know, well, what if you're not so much into academics, and how can the, you know, how can the school system really work for you, in both…

078in both ways? So, SBSD Owl Camera: that's the question for all of you here at our community forum, is how can we… how can we both, you know, improve academic rigor, and also make sure that academics isn't the only way to succeed at our school district? So… SBSD Owl Camera: Is there anybody else in the audience who'd like to give any… give any comment? SBSD Owl Camera: Should I hand rolls, 10 jarvis. SBSD Owl Camera: Tim, could you recognize Tim? Tim Jarvis: Hi, can you hear me? SBSD Owl Camera: Yes. Alright. Tim Jarvis: I just wanted to chip in some personal comments about the Honors American, discussion, which was really prompted Tim Jarvis: Not only by the, conversation that we had earlier in the program, but also with the students, peer leaders, and Tim Jarvis:

079Recognizing that taking away the opportunity for these outstanding middle schoolers to take Tim Jarvis: A course that is of such high reputation, high student popularity. Tim Jarvis: Is really a shame, and I think it needs to be reconsidered. Tim Jarvis: I remember, very well a couple of years ago when this topic was raised at the board meetings and the parade of Tim Jarvis: of parents and students who were very disappointed that it was being contemplated to be cut. Fortunately, it was not. Tim Jarvis: Because I have a daughter who is taking the course right now as a sophomore. Tim Jarvis: And before the school year started, I made a commitment to my daughter that I would essentially audit the course myself. Tim Jarvis: So Mr. Lewis was nice enough to give me the American Pageant

080textbook, which is, I think, of certainly college-level reading. Tim Jarvis: And challenging, beyond most textbooks, I'm sure, that are used in other courses at the high school. Tim Jarvis: I have been diligently following the syllabus throughout the course of the year. I've done all the assigned reading. I have also been doing all of the reading on the American literature side of the course, because those of you Tim Jarvis: who may not be familiar with the course, it's really an English course and a history course, and Mr. Lewis and Mr. McFadden do an incredible job of connecting the dots between Tim Jarvis: what American literature was at various points in our history with the actual, history lessons, and… Tim Jarvis: further connecting the dots to what's happening today. It is something that I have found challenging

081and very enjoyable, and my… Tim Jarvis: My daughter reminds me, Tim Jarvis: as the weekend is approaching, whether… where I might be falling behind in some of the readings, so I do my best to catch up, but I am caught up. It's an outstanding course, and I feel like I'm kind of in the weeds of it, because I'm essentially auditing the course myself. Tim Jarvis: When I went to parent-teacher conferences, Mr. Lewis asked me if I intended to take any of the exams, and I politely declined, saying that I already had my master's degree and I wasn't going to be doing any more exams. Tim Jarvis: But the course is outstanding, and just to think of the direction that we would be taking by eliminating Tim Jarvis: what has been spoken about for years as

082the best course at the high school, is very disappointing. You know, when I picked up my daughter last week from school, and they told me about this. Tim Jarvis: They were distraught. I mean, they only have another month and a half left of school, and it's wrapping up, but, they felt compelled to immediately write to Mr. Burke to express their disappointment about this, and to try to understand Tim Jarvis: what was the rationale behind the, cancellation of the course, and whatnot. And it's really for, so my daughter is virtually done, but it's the freshmen who won't be able to take it next year. It's the 8th graders that won't be able to take it in two years' time. Tim Jarvis: And I just wanted to voice my great disappointment that this decision is being contemplated.

083I don't think it's consistent with what we're trying to do with academic rigor, as many people have already said tonight, so thank you for allowing me to express my comments. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you very much. Do you have any other comment from the room? Please. SBSD Owl Camera: Good evening, everybody. SBSD Owl Camera: My name is Ben Keith, and I'm here tonight to bring up the subject of tech schools, and bringing tech into the school program. SBSD Owl Camera: I currently serve on the advisory board for three tech schools in the state, Middlebury, Essex, and St. Albans, and I also work with a number of other schools, like Euniceburg and Barron, to provide them with SBSD Owl Camera: I work for a construction and engineering company, and we go and do presentations on not

084only to advocate to them for the company that we work for is trying to get some employees, but also to help them understand some of the options that are out there for them once school's done. And when I went to high school, what I understood was that if I… SBSD Owl Camera: I could either go to college, or I could work for minimum wage the rest of my life. SBSD Owl Camera: And that might not have been true at the time, but it's definitely less true now than it was then. And so, one of the things that we've been finding is that there's this… this society has a real need for people with tech skills, bombers. SBSD Owl Camera: Heating specialists, automotive specialists, carpenters, people who know how to run equipment, people who know how

085to fix things. SBSD Owl Camera: And the number of people in society that can do that has gone way down, and the need for it has gone way up. SBSD Owl Camera: And I'm working with a number of schools, and these schools are… what they're finding is that there is a huge surge and spike in the number of students that want to get into the tech fields, but the opportunities at these schools are sometimes isn't there. Some of these schools have massive waiting lists, and there are a number of students who really have a desire to get into a tech program at the high school level, and then they can't, or maybe they have to go to a neighboring school SBSD Owl Camera: if that school will accept them. And there's all kinds of problems

086with that, with where the money comes from, and how the school deals with that. And so… SBSD Owl Camera: what I would suggest to this board is that they consider bringing a robust tech program to this school. We have an opportunity here to take what's happening in society and what's happening with students, and SBSD Owl Camera: Bring the two together to provide not only opportunity for the students, but to give society what it desperately needs, which is more people who can do this work. SBSD Owl Camera: The other… I'm not going to advocate against going to college. I have two bachelor's degrees with minors, and I'm very fortunate that I got to do that, and I wouldn't take it back. SBSD Owl Camera: But in today's world, you're gonna end up in a, you know,

087$1,000, $2,000, $300,000, $400,000 worth of debt. SBSD Owl Camera: And if you go into even a mildly lucrative program, then maybe it's worth doing that. But if you don't, and you don't go into a very specific field that has a good end game, you could end up with some debt that's insurmountable, and you end up paying this for the rest of your life. SBSD Owl Camera: You go to tech school, like high school, and you graduate, you go work for, some kind of SBSD Owl Camera: somebody who's in tech, but maybe it's an automotive shop, or maybe it's a construction company, or maybe they build homes. It's not unusual for these people right out of high school, within a couple years, to be making upwards into $100,000 a year. SBSD Owl Camera: And, the opportunity

088is there for that, and I think the school should be taking full advantage of that, and providing that as a service to students in the community. SBSD Owl Camera: And, inevitably, providing that as a service to the people in the community who need people to be able to do what's fun. SBSD Owl Camera: The beauty of this is it's a forum, so we can ask questions. Sure. I do have a question. So, I do think that our system is heavily geared towards college prep. SBSD Owl Camera: My question is, in providing opportunities to go along a tech path, whether that eventually goes to four-year schooling or beyond, what are, in a probably a very general sense. SBSD Owl Camera: you should think about this, because I know it's probably different for different, different fields, but

089thinking about the foundational academics. SBSD Owl Camera: there must be, right, a certain level of academic skills that are necessary for any tech program. And I'm kind of curious about that, right? Like, we have, I think, probably a better sense of what those skills are like for going into college, those of us who've been there. SBSD Owl Camera: But maybe not as good a sense about what strengths are required to go into SBSD Owl Camera: tech programs, generally. Again, acknowledging, I know you can't answer for every single tech program. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, before I answer that question, I think what I would say is I would turn it around the exact opposite. How many… how much tech schooling or tech information do you need to be successful in life? SBSD Owl Camera: Should you

090be able to fix your own, you know, should you be able to replace the battery in your car? Do some basic mechanical things? Should you be able to, you know, tighten a screw or a nut on a faucet if it's leaking? SBSD Owl Camera: Those are some basic things that people should know how to do if they want to be successful in their own life. And so. SBSD Owl Camera: I would turn it around and say, well, shouldn't that be part of the discussion already? And it doesn't sound like it really is. But to answer your question specifically, I think the ability to be able to do format and to have reading comprehension and some writing skills SBSD Owl Camera: is obviously paramount to them being successful no matter what they do. And the better

091they are at those things, the more advanced an opportunity there probably is to get in some kind of leadership position within the field. But that doesn't mean that you can be, deficient in those things and still not provide yourself with a very good income right out of high school. SBSD Owl Camera: Maybe this would be a good time. So, I know online we've got the directors of both the Essex and also the Burlington Tech Centers, so Bob Travers and Jason Reed. SBSD Owl Camera: If… would you recognize Bob? And then, Jason, if you want to say anything, you know, to add to this discussion that Ben brought up, okay, great, yeah, so would you enable both of them to speak, and then we can keep the discussion going? SBSD Owl Camera: So, Bob, why don't

092you go ahead? Bob Travers: Yeah, hi, my name's Bob Travers, I'm the Director for Center for Technology, Essex. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. Bob Travers: I think it's an important conversation, and what I'm hearing is typical of what I've heard for decades. I've been in career and technical education for 35 years. I've done it at the post-secondary level and at the secondary level. I've been at Essex for 22 years. Bob Travers: So I think you can imagine I'm pretty committed to the idea. What I want to say is the conversation is really about how does… Bob Travers: Career and technical education, it sounds like, how does it fit into the broader mission and vision of any high school? And it sounds like South Burlington, with their ENS policy, is really starting to

093try to question that. SBSD Owl Camera: And it's even interrupt you in any… in the whole district, not only the high school, but maybe also the middle school. Bob Travers: Well, I think that's an important, I think that's an important element of it, but as one of your speakers noted earlier, is it a good thing for a 7th and 8th grader to be worried about, what their career might be, at this particular point in time? I would say I wouldn't want them to… Bob Travers: spend a lot of energy on it, but I would want them to be aware of what the purpose of education is. I think we're getting into this concept of Bob Travers: What is the purpose of a high school degree versus what is the purpose of, experience at a career

094and tech ed center? To speak to the question of one of your board members about what are the base skills, academic skills, that any career and tech ed student needs. Bob Travers: What I tell all of our applicants and all of our students is, my job is to make sure that I keep doors open for you for your future. I don't think there are many of us in this meeting today who Bob Travers: studied for a particular degree, which led to a particular career and remained in that career for entire lives. I think the common experiences is that people have 2 or 3 careers over their lifetime. Bob Travers: So, what I encourage high school students to understand is that career in tech ed makes no sense at all unless they're going to graduate from

095high school. And so, our jobs, Jason's and mine. Bob Travers: are to make sure our programming prepares students for career, and post-secondary readiness upon completion from high school. We are part of that pathway for students. We have up to 13 different sending high schools that are Bob Travers: represented at our center this year, and one of my jobs, along with my staff, is to make sure that those seniors graduate from their high school, meet their high school graduation requirements, and leave with certifications that prepare them for the industry. Ben, it's really nice to see you. I appreciate that you're sitting in on this conversation. I agree with you that it feels like we're at a tipping point right now. Bob Travers: 12 years ago, I used to have conversations with Pat Burke about the cost

096of career in tech ed, and how we can keep it down, and now I'm having conversations with Pat and a number of other high school principals about how can we get tech Bob Travers: more available to all of our students. I really appreciate the conversation. I'm fully engaged in the process. Jason and I meet regularly. We talk about how we can improve access for students. Bob Travers: But, you know, it's… it's a… it's tricky business right now. How can we co-locate a career and tech ed program at a high school while meeting the requirements of the federal government that funds our Perkins grants and the AOE, which, verifies the… Bob Travers: Size, scope, and quality of our programs, so that we, are in compliance with their expectations. SBSD Owl Camera: Jason, did you have anything

097that you wanted to add to that discussion? Jason Reed BTC: Yeah, sure, thank you. Jason Reed BTC: Pardon me if I'm off cadence here, it's challenging talking to a black screen with just my name on it with no audience feedback. But just for the audience and for the record, my name's Jason Reed, I'm a 20-year employee of the Burlington School District, 4 years at Burlington Tech Center. Jason Reed BTC: And started my career in career and tech education, had two different positions, went into the humanities in the high school, and Jason Reed BTC: found my way back to career and technical education. So, I echo a little bit of what Bob said, that I am committed to it, and I believe in it, and what I often preface a lot of conversations with is we

098are part of a well-rounded pre-K through 12 education. Jason Reed BTC: With that said, we have the unique ability to partner with schools like South Burlington. South Burlington's been a long-time partner with Burlington Tech Center. Jason Reed BTC: To help students major, if you will. If you want to think about a college parallel, and I know that conversation is trying to steer away from college. Jason Reed BTC: But really, today's career in tech ed, as Bob said, as it's governed by federal legislation, the Vermont's AOE's plan to meet that federal legislation. Jason Reed BTC: We have multiple pathways. We have dual enrollment college built into our programs, for students who see themselves as college-bound. We also get students who say, I'm not college-bound, they take dual enrollment with us, and all of a sudden they're

099college-bound. Jason Reed BTC: We also have, students who thought they were college prep who discover that they can go into the workforce, and as Mr. Heath said, work their way up with the foundational skills they have. So it's really a multiple Jason Reed BTC: pronged pathway, and what I would just, Jason Reed BTC: caution the group about both the community and the board is not to think of it as an either-or. I think that career and tech ed has multiple pathways. I think part of the either-or has stigmatized it and has prevented a lot of students from thinking it is for them. Jason Reed BTC: On the other hand, I think we have to do a better job of reaching the students. One of your students talked about the young man who had already been

100defeated in middle school. We have to do a better job of reaching those students and finding ways that do engage them, that do excite them. Your question, Jason Reed BTC: chair was great about how do we kind of stimulate that at the younger grades. We live in an exciting area. Jason Reed BTC: You have two regional tech centers, we have an international airport, we have a new electric aircraft company, we have… Jason Reed BTC: building trades companies that are doing all kinds of impressive work. We build world-class rally cars in this region. Jason Reed BTC: There's a lot for young people to experience, and I think exposing them to those things so that they can maybe discover an interest, maybe discover a strength they didn't know they had. Jason Reed BTC: But what I will

101say to Commissioner Boyer's question is, to access these things, to make yourself recession-proof, to make yourself, have Jason Reed BTC: opportunities Jason Reed BTC: there is a level of academic skill that needs to go along with that. The systems that folks are working with today are complex. They're computerized. Cars are evolving, you need to be able to go to Jason Reed BTC: training programs, if… if Carr comes out with a new type of motor, CNC machining has reached into all… not just metal fabrication, wood fabrication, all kinds of things. Jason Reed BTC: So students do need to have those skills, and we also need to provide students with skills to work in a multi-generational workforce as well. I think those skills serve students in college, they serve students in the workplace, so Jason Reed BTC:

102It's a real effort, I think, between CTE centers and our sending districts, to provide students with these opportunities. So, I'm kind of rambling here. I get excited about the topic, so I'll pause to see if there's questions, or if you have some other specific questions. SBSD Owl Camera: I have a question, and it's probably for Bob, but either or. I'll start out with a statement. South Burlington is one of the biggest municipalities in the state, and this municipality should have its own tech program. Now, some schools choose SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know why, maybe they believe they don't have enough people that will be engaged in it, but they make the decision to… SBSD Owl Camera: if there are students that want to be in this tech program, to send them to another established

103program. And I guess my question would be… we'll start with Bob, as to what are… if you can explain to the board what some of the challenges are with that, and why… SBSD Owl Camera: why maybe… I don't believe that would be the best approach for South Burlington, but, you know, what are your thoughts on a municipality of this size choosing to go to another program in another municipality as opposed to building their own? Bob Travers: Yeah, so, I think that that's a good question, Ben. Bob Travers: you know, the state decided in, 1972, I believe, to take a regional tech center approach. Bob Travers: whereby they were able to, co-locate tech centers at high schools and really kind of concentrate the investment in career and tech ed. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been

104invested in career and tech ed over these, decades, where, Bob Travers: you know. Bob Travers: We are able to serve students from within our region, in their interests, and really leverage the… leverage the value of the investment, leverage the money it takes to buy the equipment, to train the staff, to have the facilities. Bob Travers: There are a lot of… states that have different delivery models from us. Bob Travers: I would encourage South Burlington to… I guess I want to ask a question about your question, Ben. Is your question, why would I convince South Burlington not to go seek Bob Travers: Partnership in another tech center within the state? SBSD Owl Camera: That's one way to characterize it, or another way to characterize it is SBSD Owl Camera: Why wouldn't a municipality of this size

105SBSD Owl Camera: what are some of the… what are some of the reasons why it would be important for a program like this to be successful for the community, for a municipality of this size, to build it within their own program, as opposed to sending the students to a different… Gotcha. Bob Travers: Yep, yep, I understand that question now. Yeah, so that really goes to the idea of, of, philosophy for me. Bob Travers: you know, what is the purpose of… what is the purpose of a high school, and how do you serve the multiple interests? There is no function right now within the state for Burlington to build a Bob Travers: tech center, without meeting all of the requirements of a tech center. So, I think I would much rather, in the short term, explore

106ways in which the existing structures can expand, rather than Bob Travers: build other structures. There's no… there's no matching funds for buildings in the state anymore. Anything that's built, I know South Burlington knows this well, has to go to bond vote. The cost of facilities are enormous. Bob Travers: And any approved tech center right now, following current legislation. Bob Travers: has to meet regional requirements. In other words, it has to serve the students that are within the region that is defined by state board rule. So, in our region, it's all of the Chittenden County high schools. Bob Travers: Plus, BFA Fairfax. So a lot of things would have to change in order for any high school to try to meet the current rules. Bob Travers: Of definitions of career in tech ed. But I… I

107understand the… I understand the interest in it. Bob Travers: the… the… The costs that are really Bob Travers: challenges, or the questions that are really challenges for any career and tech ed center or any high school that wants to offer career and tech ed-like programming, is finding qualified instructors Bob Travers: of a pathway who also hold a teacher's license and a CTE endorsement. Bob Travers: So it's, it's, it's tricky. Bob Travers: Jason? Jason Reed BTC: Yeah, I mean, I don't think Bob was really thorough with that. I don't have a lot to offer there, but I think, yeah, part of it is… is really understanding what the requirements are for career and tech ed now, to really understand what… what building and providing those programs Jason Reed BTC: would be. That's not to say that,

108schools cannot Jason Reed BTC: Schools can create electives, they can create classes, that may introduce students to the skills, that may have, you know, similar, processes, project-based. Jason Reed BTC: maybe even work-based learning components, which can be really effective in career and tech ed. There's some legalities around work-based learning and safety requirements around those things, but there is a little freedom there, but I think Bob did a nice job of talking about some of the Jason Reed BTC: the constraints in Vermont right now, and if you follow the news at all in Burlington High School and Burlington Tech Center back in 2020, Jason Reed BTC: It… it was Burlington on its own, essentially, to just… to determine how to rebuild a tech center. There was… there was no external support from that outside of the

109Burlington community. SBSD Owl Camera: Can I say one thing for the middle school in tech education. I wanted to thank, Center for Technology Essex and Burlington Technical Center. They are partnering with our school counseling program at the middle school, and over the next two weeks, they are coming for four workshops. SBSD Owl Camera: So that all, almost 200 of our 8th graders can experience and have some hands-on learning and reflective activities to learn about, different careers and fields, that they could access through, technology education. Sure. I also want to give a chance to other people who have other topics of concern, to give a talk. So thank you very much, Ben. SBSD Owl Camera: Bob, Jason, thank you very much for your comments. Jason Reed BTC: Yeah, Chair, what I would just add in closing

110is, you know, we had some limited time tonight in an online format. I'm available for follow-ups. Burlington… South Burlington's been a good partner, and I'm happy to partner with you on Jason Reed BTC: on anything that can be helpful, you know, within the scope of my work. So, we can continue this conversation as needed. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, and my understanding is that you're in close contact with our superintendent, so I thank you for that, for those efforts. Jason Reed BTC: Yeah, it's just a chain of command thing that we follow in Burlington between school boards and principals and so on, and so, you know, whatever we're comfortable with and can agree upon, happy to work through that chain of command. SBSD Owl Camera: Thanks. Bob Travers: I also… I just wanted to add very

111quickly, to Ben's question. I am… I have already gotten on the books with… with, Bob Travers: with the South Burlington superintendent and Principal ongoing conversation about how to bring a specific current Tech Ed program to South Burlington, and we have agreed Bob Travers: To, include seed money in our Perkins funds to try to make that happen over the next year and a half or two years. So, we'll continue to work with South Burlington as well. SBSD Owl Camera: Basic variation. SBSD Owl Camera: Please go ahead, comment in the room. SBSD Owl Camera: I just wanted to comment about our conversation on trying to engage SBSD Owl Camera: Students who are maybe not as academic. SBSD Owl Camera: And thinking that's more outside the box. We're trying to get them engaged. SBSD Owl Camera: Before they're

112even thinking about necessarily careers, how do you get them interested in, in a career? SBSD Owl Camera: Because, you know, I think some people have been talking about, well, you don't really want them necessarily to think about careers in middle school. SBSD Owl Camera: that's maybe not the right approach. How do we get children engaged, right? How do we get them passionate? SBSD Owl Camera: Let's not just think about SBSD Owl Camera: I think, you know, when you're losing funding, right, you have to cut all these extra things, but… SBSD Owl Camera: That can be a mistake, because those other things are what keep those kids engaged, and what keeps them interested in coming to school. SBSD Owl Camera: And, you know, the arts and reading the STEM class and things like that, those are

113what would be the hook to get them engaged, and maybe that's going to lead them to that career that keeps them engaged. SBSD Owl Camera: So, I'm just gonna throw some, like, outside-the-box thinking here. One thing… one thing that, if I could, SBSD Owl Camera: like, take my magic mark with a pen and re… like, create the wheel for school. What I would love to do is… SBSD Owl Camera: Change our schedule so that we, instead of having this early release, late start thing, we did what other school districts do, but have an hour, like, hour early release on one day a week. SBSD Owl Camera: Because what that allows other schools to do is they have all these community partners that have SBSD Owl Camera: They have programs going on that day, and then

114buses can drop kids off to those programs. So, it allows, first of all, it makes it a lot easier for parents, because, they don't, you know. SBSD Owl Camera: Because of childcare. So there's a lot more going on in the community for parents to… for their kids to go to, which just opens up opportunities for children to try new things in the community. SBSD Owl Camera: And the other thing is that the communities partner with their, their local rec department, and then there's a coordinated after-school program at a discounted cost. SBSD Owl Camera: That children can try. And there's so many things they can try just for 6-week periods. You know, there's a robotics class, there's a Legos program, there's all these things. SBSD Owl Camera: after school, through the rec department on those, you

115know, every day of the week, but also on that short, on that short day, that SBSD Owl Camera: is, like, it's… that's after school, so your kids, that's not necessarily is in the after-school program, but they can do, through the rec department on, like, that early release day, they can try something. So, I mean, and we're one of the only towns that doesn't have that. SBSD Owl Camera: And I'm just… I know that you might think this is… SBSD Owl Camera: I actually think it's actually an equity issue, because it really does allow people who don't have as much money to try through the Rec Department, these are much at a discounted cost. All these programs. SBSD Owl Camera: And, they can try, like, a writing, you know, it could be a writing thing. It

116could be, like I said, like, archery, or tennis, or pickleball. The kids at a young age, get to experience a wide range of things. And who knows, maybe it could be an, you know, errand for animals. The prep department has been offered tons of things. But then, you know, I have a child who SBSD Owl Camera: as a learning disability, I had to think about, like, letting her try to experience a lot of things, because maybe that's going to be something that she becomes passionate about, and then later that's something that has been, you know, develops, and that's what she goes to tech school for. But… so it isn't, like… but when we… SBSD Owl Camera: You know, because she… it's really hard to get her into an after-school program, because she did a lot

117of tutoring, but if she had something, if there was a program like that, that she could do for the rec department, it would give her a chance to develop something that could become her passion. SBSD Owl Camera: But… SBSD Owl Camera: And so, anyways, I… it's just… and the other thing is because of our school… our school buses, and it's… a lot of kids are into sports, and our… and our transportation has gotten better, I'll say, but it also makes it very hard for kids who don't have a parent SBSD Owl Camera: provide transportation to engage in sports, because the sports schedules are… if you're taking… I don't know if you know this, but if your kid is on a sports team, the practices are, like, all over the place, so if you don't have

118someone who can drop your kid… bring your kid back to school for their SBSD Owl Camera: their sports practice, you really can't participate in sports. So there's any way to, like, helped. SBSD Owl Camera: Stick to that so that kids, all kids, who participate in sports. SBSD Owl Camera: These are things that… SBSD Owl Camera: You think aren't related to academics, but they really keep kids engaged, and they would help. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. That makes me think of, like, ALOC at the high school that we had for a while, and how, like, making sure we're designating time SBSD Owl Camera: in school for kids to move stable up and change it. Small things like that make a big difference for kids who don't have the access to a parent they can drive home.

119Yeah, so our accessibility, and I think… SBSD Owl Camera: Like, when I think about this year at school, with… not that A block is the end-all, the be-all, but the idea of, like, that's a chance for kids to go out into the community and find things they're interested in, like. SBSD Owl Camera: I was doing some research before this, and Burlington has a, like, Burlington City and Lake Semester program, and they, like, go out into the city, and they spend that class period, like, with adults in the community, learning about SBSD Owl Camera: Burlington. So, like, I think things like that… within the school ethical. SBSD Owl Camera: Let me say one more thing. Like, other towns have their clubs within the school that SBSD Owl Camera: So then, kids, who I'm being clubbed, it's

120not, again. SBSD Owl Camera: a challenge to be in a club. You know, it works, yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any other comment in the room? SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, are you moving on to the next… No, no, please, we'll just… while we're here. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: I was having a little trouble, SBSD Owl Camera: understanding the specific question we were asked as the, you know, as members of the community, because it was sort of vague, you know, what do you think we should do? Which is a lot of, you know, there are a lot of categories of things there, so I'll just start with that. But I just wanted to, give feedback on the proficiency grading system, as we heard a lot about that from the students who were in the room.

121SBSD Owl Camera: I've gotten feedback from my, high school student. I had… I've got one in college now who went through, cell phones in schools, and another who's now in high school, SBSD Owl Camera: who also, thought that that was really hard to grapple with. It was kind of hard to understand, you know, exactly where they stood on that scale. And just to give my personal feedback as an educator of adults in a, you know, in a, SBSD Owl Camera: you know, highly, highly educated adults. I've had to use a proficiency SBSD Owl Camera: evaluation system, and I find it very difficult to avoid SBSD Owl Camera: a large degree of subjectivity in my evaluations, and I just… I'm throwing that out there because I don't know if that's something that, educators in South Burlington

122struggle with, but to use that sort of grading system, I find it very, very difficult not to sort of veer into my own personal biases. SBSD Owl Camera: about that particular student. So, I just wanted to throw that out there since someone mentioned it. And another, another thing along the same lines, and again, I'm not really sure if this is one of the, one of the areas that you were asking about, but the… SBSD Owl Camera: the grading rubrics that are used, where you're kind of, like, going down the checklist, and then you get 2 points for this, and 3 points for that, and 5 points for this. There was a discussion about this in a lecture I attended over at UBM, just last week, in fact, and one of the professors who was speaking,

123mentioned that, SBSD Owl Camera: she thought it might be time to start moving away from that, because it sort of… it gives the students kind of this false impression that they're… and I've seen this among the, you know, now… SBSD Owl Camera: several generations of students who I have taught in my profession, adult students who, you know, are in a postgraduate setting, I've seen an evolution where they're not, you know, they're not really… SBSD Owl Camera: able to think on their feet as well, because they're used to being told, check this box, check this box, check this box, check this box, and you're gonna do great. SBSD Owl Camera: Because life doesn't work that way, professional life doesn't work that way. I'm sure the tech fields don't work that way. You know, you're not going

124to have somebody there dictating to you the steps that you go through. SBSD Owl Camera: To get from A to B. So just throwing that out there. I don't know if this is the forum where we make those types of observations and suggestions. I'm just, putting that out there as a, you know, something that I'm… I see this young man nodding. SBSD Owl Camera: So, SBSD Owl Camera: And, and then I have one more thought, and this one is of particular interest to me, because I have two kids who are never interested in sports. They're very artistic, they're very creative, they like to write, they like to draw. But what that means is that they don't have the opportunity to be in a situation where they're SBSD Owl Camera: You know, finding, SBSD Owl Camera:

125reasons not to be on their devices, and on their computers, and in their rooms by themselves. And in all the years that my kids have been in the school system here, and in our previous, SBSD Owl Camera: you know, where we used to live. We've been here since 2019, so, you know, they were both in school for quite a while before we got here. It always seemed that there was this very big emphasis on sports. SBSD Owl Camera: And the kids who were doing sports had lots of stuff to do after school. And the other kids were sort of, like, spinning in the wind, you know? I mean, they're, you know, the writing club would sort of fall apart in no time, and then this club SBSD Owl Camera: you know, the art club would

126have, like, 3 students who would kind of fall apart at the time. So I don't know what the solution to that is, I'm just putting that out there, because I don't know what percentage of kids SBSD Owl Camera: Don't participate in sports. SBSD Owl Camera: And don't participate in another type of extracurricular activity, and it seems to me that there's an opportunity there to explore what the reasons might be that those other types of extracurriculars don't attract SBSD Owl Camera: lots and lots of students to win the sports soon. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Thank you. Thank you very much. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any other comment in the room? SBSD Owl Camera: All right. Well, thanks to the community for, bringing your perspectives. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any other board comment on

127what we heard today? This is it for Brian for organizing the students. Yeah. That was awesome. SBSD Owl Camera: Absolutely. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, well, the, SBSD Owl Camera: Next item on the agenda is a few action items, but maybe we'll just take a 2-minute break. SBSD Owl Camera: So… reset here a little bit. SBSD Owl Camera: Everybody's looking at me like they don't want to take a break. I don't… I don't… Two minutes. Alright, we'll be back at 7.39. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, staring at them. We did. But, you know, I'm not… SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. Alright, the next item on the agenda is authorized radio ads for ENS Policy Update. So, SBSD Owl Camera: the ENS Policy Committee has been SBSD Owl Camera: working on organizing the ENS

128Policy Update. We have a new website for it that we can direct web traffic to. The website has a form where people can RSVP to both focus groups and to community forums. It's kind of a commitment to come and be reminded of it. SBSD Owl Camera: We also have signed a contract with the consultant to help us with the ENS policy update this year, so I would say that operationally, we're moving forward. Any other comments from SBSD Owl Camera: Well, is there a Michelle on the committee? SBSD Owl Camera: There's been really great progress in the setup, and now it'll be really… the rubber hits the road. We've had now our second forum. It was wonderful to see so many people come and share their thoughts with the more. SBSD Owl Camera: But yeah, next

129step, I think, really, is to start getting some invitations out for those focus groups, and get them on the calendar… get them on the calendar, and then send the invitations out. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Felicity, do you have any files? No. SBSD Owl Camera: So… SBSD Owl Camera: on that… on that note, we have to recruit for focus groups. And also, I think, as you can see, it's… SBSD Owl Camera: a lot of work to get people to these meetings. And so, in that vein, the ENTS Committee is, proposing that we, spend money to get people out here. And so the… SBSD Owl Camera: Proposal that's in the board materials for this week. SBSD Owl Camera: I'll bring it up on my screen here. SBSD Owl Camera: So… The proposal is to spend about $5,000

130on radio ads over the next 2 months. SBSD Owl Camera: to maximize participation in the early part of our ENS policy update. I hope that if we spend the money now, that will also make sure that people show up SBSD Owl Camera: in July, August, September, when we have more community forums, when people are actually going to have a chance to respond to the changes that we are proposing. SBSD Owl Camera: So, I believe that this is a wise investment in getting people engaged with the schools. SBSD Owl Camera: I think it'll, probably help get the public informed about why they should support the schools. SBSD Owl Camera: during the budgeting season, so, this is the proposal that we have. We talked to a couple different, radio networks, Paul, and also Vox. SBSD Owl Camera:

131And so, these are, everything from an AM station to Pool 105, which is what my family listens to. And, SBSD Owl Camera: Here are all the details, but the big picture is that we'd like to spend a couple thousand dollars, bringing people out for these, and trying to drive participation. SBSD Owl Camera: So I have some comments. SBSD Owl Camera: I do think you identify a real problem. I think that the school board cares disproportionately from people who have children in the schools, and… and I think that, and from people who are highly engaged, and I do think that it's important to have broader community input. SBSD Owl Camera: But I think that with us operating in a visibly financially constrained environment, I don't feel that $5,100 is a very big use of resources. And

132there's a couple of things, SBSD Owl Camera: I think, one, that there's an assumption that it's going to materially improve the engagement. SBSD Owl Camera: You know, like, how do we know that this is actually going to work? And I bring this up because, similarly, we had a… SBSD Owl Camera: You know, we're all involved with the Rotary Club, and we reached out to the Rotary Club recent… or to NPR, and to a couple of different radio stations for some advertisements. SBSD Owl Camera: And the comment back from them was, these advertisements are so fast, and a lot of times people are not picking them up, so it is a big expense that people may not hear very quickly. The other thing is, you know, what kind of measurable success criteria? SBSD Owl Camera: you

133know, how many additional participants are expected, or what constitutes success, and do radio audiences overlap with the civic participants that we want, and how will effectiveness be evaluated? So, my thought is. SBSD Owl Camera: Separately, we're also looking at potentially revamping the website. SBSD Owl Camera: And I would think that money would better be spent there, that we can direct somebody to… people to a source. SBSD Owl Camera: and have information there, that is also going to be something that's going to maintain, you know, remain after we get through this, you know, ENS policy evaluation, is my opinion. SBSD Owl Camera: So… That's… Yeah, piggyback off of that, I do think that there is a real problem. SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know if radio will… SBSD Owl Camera: So, like, I work in, like.

134SBSD Owl Camera: Employment recruitment, so, like, when you're driving in the car, like, you hear something, and, like, you're not gonna go to a link to SBSD Owl Camera: do that. Did box… have any there? My question is about, like, SBSD Owl Camera: digital ad, almost. Like, so, like, when people are watching YouTube, or listening to Spotify, or Pandora, even, like, might be, I don't know if it's Pandora, but maybe, like, has regional SBSD Owl Camera: geofencing ads. SBSD Owl Camera: like, for living in South Burlington, which I definitely want. Which might be a better way to spend money if we did one. That way, someone can click on a link or, you know, follow, like. SBSD Owl Camera: the link to our website, to our ads policy website, or something like that. There's real

135actionable SBSD Owl Camera: Quicken, versus just… We did also get a quote from, SBSD Owl Camera: box to do digital. But that's not included in it. It's not on this one, I can pull it up. But it was around about $1,300. I mean, obviously, you can kind of tune it up or down. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, just to respond to Jen's comment, I think that SBSD Owl Camera: When you have a really good website. SBSD Owl Camera: But you don't have a way to drive people to it. It's like… SBSD Owl Camera: If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody bear it? And, you know, I think that we… SBSD Owl Camera: when we went and looked for consultants for this process, and, you know, we asked Joe, like, you know, do you

136think it makes sense for us to spend $20,000, $30,000 on a consultant? SBSD Owl Camera: And he said, well, you know, yeah, you're doing this for the first time in 10 years, you know, it's an important thing. And so I think what we've managed to do on the EDS Committee is we've, we've stayed on the low end of our consultant costs, and so I think that this is, you know, you could almost imagine this as being money that we didn't spend on the consultant. SBSD Owl Camera: Rolling it into helping the consultant to bring people in for our focus groups. SBSD Owl Camera: So I don't… I don't think we can directly say it's going to result in 3 more people. SBSD Owl Camera: Which, you know, 51 divided by 3, that's the cost per…

137Something like that, great. No, and, and… SBSD Owl Camera: So, I will say, another project that I worked on. SBSD Owl Camera: I expressed the exact same skepticism. SBSD Owl Camera: The reality was, is that the reach of radio around here is substantial. SBSD Owl Camera: And it does to, I think, to Seamus's point, we have a school community that goes to our school website. SBSD Owl Camera: non-school community, I think, is probably far less likely to go to the website, unless accessed through some other means. Front Porch Forum is another way, because lots of non-school community are on there, and that doesn't cost us anything, and that is definitely a part of SBSD Owl Camera: You know, what's going on. Our individual outreach. SBSD Owl Camera: I do support it. I think it's, SBSD

138Owl Camera: It's… it's one way to help us SBSD Owl Camera: Attempt another way to break out of this box, of garnering broader interests. SBSD Owl Camera: And that interest is really actually quite critical to how our ends are defined within policy governance. You know, it speaks of the moral ownership, which is the entire community. And we don't tap into the entire community. SBSD Owl Camera: But I can't… I also can't offer Jen, any assurance that we'll get one more person. It's my experience that it did work for the context that I was in at the time. SBSD Owl Camera: It… a lot of people that came in said they heard about us. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, and can I, like, what about, what about Facebook? We are supposed to be writing articles for the

139other paper. We can't, I mean… SBSD Owl Camera: You know, it's a school board. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, I don't think this is all that unusual. And, we… I mean, we are supposed to be writing, people can't come, that's fine, but we could be writing, which we don't. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, we did. Well, but we don't regularly. I've been on this board for 3 and a half years, you're really supposed to do it once a month, and we're not. SBSD Owl Camera: And… SBSD Owl Camera: So that… that's a really key thing that we're… that we're missing. They do expect it from us every one. And then, there's Facebook. Everybody's on Facebook. My mother's 88. They're all on Facebook. So that's… that's gen… generations outside the school, so I think there are plenty

140of things we could do. SBSD Owl Camera: I am curious about what BC has to say. I appreciate that, thank you. I have to completely… Alyssa almost stole my thunder when she said, when you work… when we are in recruitment, and we are looking to… to hire people, and we want to get to the broadest SBSD Owl Camera: spread the broadest net that we possibly can. It is not radio. Your cost that you just said for $5,100, and I'm sorry, I don't know why this has gone in now, is extremely cheap. SBSD Owl Camera: I… we recently went through and tried to… tried to get, and went to several different locations. It was $10,000. SBSD Owl Camera: And then went out to other organizations, or other, excuse me, other school districts that tried radio ads,

141failed miserably. And the cost that they spent on that, they should have, and they said, you know what got us really good? These were for also people that were trying to recruit police officers. SBSD Owl Camera: When, yeah, the city, we had a dire need to do that, and we were… everybody was trying to steal one from other people, and everybody was trying to offer, sign-on bonuses, and even $10,000 wasn't bringing… wasn't bringing people in. But I will say. SBSD Owl Camera: One of the things I might suggest is your superintendent just went out to, like… I don't even know how many groups it was, 50 groups? 3Qs. Yeah. He had… his 3Qs was so highly successful, and now that we have those contacts and that relationship with those groups, we gotta go to the…

142SBSD Owl Camera: We need to… those are folks that, I mean, it's not just… it's the community, it's not just individuals that have students in our… SBSD Owl Camera: In our, our schools. So, yes, I was completely agreeing. SBSD Owl Camera: Sorry, I agree with Jen, rodeo's not it. SBSD Owl Camera: But you have… oh, I should say, too, one of the school districts said movies. SBSD Owl Camera: advertising at the movie theater was extremely cheap, and hits a lot of people. So, anyway. SBSD Owl Camera: That's awesome. I mean, I… if I can just add, you know, so Mike, I was making notes. Yeah, thank you, Daisy. And I think… SBSD Owl Camera: you know, maybe a lower-cost phased approach, paired with targeted community engagement, and I did write down, Daisy, Joe's 3Q groups.

143SBSD Owl Camera: Which I think feels more proportional and defensible publicly, while still addressing the engagement concerns. So I had thought, written down, like, senior centers, libraries, faith communities, recreation leagues, apartment community associations, local employers, city newspapers, civic organizations. SBSD Owl Camera: outreach through social media, front page forums, other community partners, so all of that. But I think at the end of it all. SBSD Owl Camera: having an improved website and leaving, like, QR codes around town and driving people to that could be helpful, is… SBSD Owl Camera: what I was thinking, because I… at the end of that, I do want to come out of this year, hopefully, with an improved website for the school. SBSD Owl Camera: Jim, are you jump up? I just wanted to… first, I feel like we've popped Seamus'

144balloon. He looks very delighted. Oh, no, I have more to say, I have more to say, don't worry about me. SBSD Owl Camera: I just wanted to share that, about Front Porch Forum, like, you guys have a pretty short runway on, like, so doing some, like, print ad, like. SBSD Owl Camera: We've been advertising our RFPs in the other paper, and just recently, I saw some folks posting online about how dreadful the mail service is. I've experienced that. I know some of my colleagues in other towns are experiencing that. SBSD Owl Camera: So… SBSD Owl Camera: and that's affecting that print, those print ads that we're putting out that we're just not receiving… being received in folks' mailboxes in a timely fashion. So, I think you have that quick turnaround working against you, and… SBSD

145Owl Camera: I hate to say this, but, like, your topic isn't, like, super sexy, right? SBSD Owl Camera: like, people came tonight because they're fired up about something that they really, you know, believe in and are concerned about, and so this, I think, doesn't light that big of a fire for folks. I think even people are still, you know, as we are, all kind of like, well, what is this? I mean, this 10 years ago, people are still sort of struggling, like, even if you did radio ads, would they even understand what you were talking about, right? SBSD Owl Camera: So, to that end, I did want to say that I think that the Front Forge Forum really does work. It does, get so many folks that aren't, connected to the school community, and the

146turnaround is so quick on that. SBSD Owl Camera: Joe put out, a call for folks to… who were interested in joining the SB Foundation Board. SBSD Owl Camera: And he got 16 people that responded that were really interested in being a member of that board, and that board doesn't… has, like, 2 members right now. So, like, I was amazed by that. Unfortunately, I will share also that I put out… some of you may have seen, please join my Finance and Facilities Committee, also not a super sexy topic. I… my dear friend Tim Jarvis. SBSD Owl Camera: is the one and only person in the entirety of South Burlington that has responded. But, nonetheless, I do think that that's a really good avenue that we hadn't, pursued in the past, and also, I just want to

147share that I think that might be a good offer for you. Well, I'll just put in, you know, a final plug here. I think SBSD Owl Camera: the… SBSD Owl Camera: the big picture in the state is that maybe everything's gonna change, right? That's what we keep hearing, is like, well, maybe everything's gonna change, but then we hear from our legislators, well, actually, nothing's gonna change, and it's gonna be voluntary, and it's gonna be in 5 years, and so what that means for us as a board is that every year, we're gonna have to come to the voters with a budget and maybe a bond vote. SBSD Owl Camera: Right? And we barely squeak by, right? We get 51.8% of the vote, whereas in Burlington, they get 70%, right? So, if we ever want to

148have nice things for our kids, in terms of SBSD Owl Camera: you know, getting a community that actually feels like the school board is listening to them and is, you know, going in the direction that they want. I think that we have to really massify our outreach to them. And, you know, the conversion rate on radio, maybe it's only SBSD Owl Camera: 0.1% or something like that. But it does reach a lot of people, and if we craft the message to say, listen, this is the school board saying, you own the schools. SBSD Owl Camera: you have a say. I think that that might help us with our overall legitimacy. And I gotta say, you know, like, in terms of targeted outreach, it's something that we've mentioned we only have a couple weeks before the

149focus groups start. And… SBSD Owl Camera: I have personally reached out to all of the HOAs, All of the major employers. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, and you guys have also reached out to a lot. It is… the conversion rate is really low on targeted, too. The list that Jed… SBSD Owl Camera: I'm sure that we could, like, pick through that list and, like, really reach out to a lot of people, but I think between 3 and last week reached out to a lot of employers, a lot of SBSD Owl Camera: This meeting was announced at the Senior Center's lunch today. You know, we have a very targeted approach, but at the end of the day. SBSD Owl Camera: I think you just have to hit a big audience if you have such a low

150conversion rate. And also, even if they don't come, they still heard the message that the board is listening. And that could be, you know, that's the thing. If we go down on a school budget, we're not talking $5,000, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? And the community has to believe it, and if they don't think that we're listening to them. SBSD Owl Camera: Why should they vote for us? SBSD Owl Camera: Radio can capture non-traditional school, like… SBSD Owl Camera: even Front Porch Forum, right? There's… SBSD Owl Camera: a certain demographic that goes to that. There's a certain… there are certain demographics that don't go to that. SBSD Owl Camera: I, I like her, the wide reach, because it… it is… SBSD Owl Camera: remarkable to me, you know, in the age of

151Spotify. I listen to a lot of Spotify, too, but, SBSD Owl Camera: How many people still listen to radio? SBSD Owl Camera: Hi, Jen. SBSD Owl Camera: Would we… did anybody want to make a motion on this? You gotta call for the orders of the day, we are quite few degrees. Can I ask just a quick question, though? I mean, has there been… would local media perhaps provide coverage in interviews rather than paid advertising? Like, did you go to… SBSD Owl Camera: Have we considered that? We could cert… we should… it is incumbent on us to do that, no matter what. But I don't think… the issue here is that we've got SBSD Owl Camera: focus groups coming up just in a few weeks, and we have been, for the last few weeks, being very

152targeted, and we're not getting… you know, we gotta fill these things up, so I'm not sure… SBSD Owl Camera: again, and we're not talking about that much money in the scope of a community that spends $73 million on its schools, you know, giving the… reminding the community that they're in charge and that they should have some input. It's a… I think it's a small… it's a small dollar amount. SBSD Owl Camera: But I'm also happy to move on. I would entertain a motion to approve spending SBSD Owl Camera: $5,000 on radio ad, or $5,000 on ads, like, we could also reallocate some of it to digital, but, I would entertain a motion to spend $5,000 on ads for the policy update. I'll make the motion. SBSD Owl Camera: full process. Right. SBSD Owl Camera: Michelle

153moves. SBSD Owl Camera: That's it. All seconds, we can talk about it. SBSD Owl Camera: Emily, seconds? Any discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: So when you say ads, I really… I mean, we got them. SBSD Owl Camera: what you sent, but now it sounds like you're pivoting to say maybe we'll be looking into different… I don't want to slow the process down. I don't want to just squash the conversation. I do understand that money could be spent. SBSD Owl Camera: And it could possibly lead to people coming. I don't think it's a bad idea to spend money to try to get more community involvement. I understand… I like the idea of it. I also like the idea of what Daisy mentioned and what Alyssa mentioned, and I'm wondering if SBSD Owl Camera: We were to approve

154the committee, too. SBSD Owl Camera: Among with, SBSD Owl Camera: their idea of where to spend it, now that we've had this conversation, instead of saying, yes, spend it right on that… what you told us in that piece of paper. Right. I think the motion is designed to be for SBSD Owl Camera: specifically for that, based on the feedback we got from Daisy and Alyssa around, like, focusing on digital more than radio. So the motion as it stands on the table is just to set a $5,000 limit, for ad spending. SBSD Owl Camera: For the best. SBSD Owl Camera: So, any discussion, any further discussion? And this is an action item, so we're open for public comment. SBSD Owl Camera: I just think that still feels a little hot to make. SBSD Owl Camera: Can

155I comment? Yes. I just… one thing that I was thinking of is we're not reaching any multilingual SBSD Owl Camera: families with radio ads, likely, and I mean, I… I personally don't think they're gonna get many people SBSD Owl Camera: just from throwing radio ads up there. I think it's a… SBSD Owl Camera: good idea, but I'm wondering if we're not really doing the things, like the newspaper ads or the front porch Forum thing, like, are we doing those consistently? We're doing those things. I do want to kind of be clear that we're not sitting here saying radio is the answer. SBSD Owl Camera: to all things, and that's all we're gonna do. We've already been doing those. But Laura said that we're not really doing… We're not writing the articles. We are not. But

156there was an article about this in the other paper. One month ago? We're not writing articles. We're not writing articles, you're writing letters to the other articles. But we did write an article about this one month ago. One month ago. SBSD Owl Camera: So, yeah, I agree. And I think this is part of it. It's hard to hear what you're not doing. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, you can dismiss… No, go ahead, Laura. I'm saying that we don't do a regular scheduled, monthly article. In fact, articles appear, and I don't even know, like, there's no communication among us about who's going to be writing. Things just appear. I'm as surprised as anybody readings the paper. That's really not how it's supposed to work. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, we're supposed to have a topic once a

157month we write on. That's how people hear from us, that's what our state legislators sit. SBSD Owl Camera: And then we're not. And I, you know, I see things from all of you, you're all collaborating, and I'm… Well, to be clear, we have to collaborate in the context of an open meeting while. But you could let me know that you're doing that, and you don't, so I… I don't know. SBSD Owl Camera: So I actually do have a problem with that, too. I think a good agenda item would be to bring up this topic again in the context of restarting that regular communication. Yeah, we interrupted you, you didn't get a chance to share your point. Yeah, I just… what I was hearing was that we're not really doing the ads. SBSD Owl Camera: in

158the paper. SBSD Owl Camera: So, my point was, maybe we should just, like, do the things that are already on our list better first. SBSD Owl Camera: And see if that's helpful. I also think, like. SBSD Owl Camera: it sounds like you're really trying to connect with people, like, through the city, and I think the rep department would be a good place to go, and all those events. And what about sending out a survey to ask people how they would SBSD Owl Camera: like to be reached, or, like, what would work? My colleague mentioned maybe a QR code, you know, like a printout that we could hang in different businesses that people could SBSD Owl Camera: take the survey, or email it out, or something, but I think, honestly, people don't like to come to

159these meetings because they get, like, people get worked up, like, even just about ads in the paper, like. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm, like, all anxious right now, and just for… about asking, like, are we or are we not putting ads in the paper? So, I think we just need to have, like, make it a welcoming… SBSD Owl Camera: environment, and what if you use the money for, like, incentives to get people to come to your focus groups, like childcare, or… SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, one other thing, too, to add, because you're bringing up, like, we've got such a great partnership with Jesse Baker and the City of South Burlington, and now they're doing all these incredible things. They're having the Run in the Dark, you know, the Glow

160Run, and they just had the Illuminate Vermont. I mean, they have all these things. SBSD Owl Camera: we could be at these things, and set up a table, and say, hey, you know… I think a lot of those people already don't put it through a budget, and I think that a lot of the people already… Well, like, for music at the park, I mean, there's thousands of people that show up at those things, and so I'm just saying, like. SBSD Owl Camera: being out there and, you know, kind of to Laura's point, too, being a consistent presence in the community and showing up at things like that, I think we've got to think outside of the box. Connecting with people. Could we recognize Jerry online? SBSD Owl Camera: And also, just before Jerry speaks, I

161do think we should move on, because we're spending a lot of time talking about this, and we actually have things that this district is depending on us to do, and we're just not getting to it. We're sitting around admiring this problem. SBSD Owl Camera: And I do would like to call for the orders of the day and get us back on track, because we're a half an hour behind. SBSD Owl Camera: Jerry's live. Okay, Jerry, can you hear us? Gerry Silverstein: I rarely agree with Laura Williams, but I agree there. Gerry Silverstein: Sorry, I have to run out and help an elderly neighbor with a project, and I did want to ask one very short question about item number 9. You have lots of new hires, which are set to be for one year only

162for 2025-26. Does that mean they're being hired for 5 or 6 weeks? Gerry Silverstein: Because that's all that's left for the rest of the semester. Do I understand that correctly? SBSD Owl Camera: Got it. I don't… I don't think so. Gerry Silverstein: Is that not correct? SBSD Owl Camera: Gary, thank you for your question. I think that the board will, in our consent agenda, we will, be sure to clarify that at the time, at the right time. Gerry Silverstein: Okay, I just listed as you are gonna do that. Thanks very much. SBSD Owl Camera: Thanks, Jared. Gerry Silverstein: Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Did you have any other comments? Like, just operational, Jammer and I were discussing, we are right now in budget freeze time because it's the end of the fiscal year, meaning that if

163you haven't already… our purchasing requirements and spending deadlines have already passed. SBSD Owl Camera: Meaning that if you did not submit a purchase order just to do your, SBSD Owl Camera: Purchasing something, and you… it's too late for this fiscal year. SBSD Owl Camera: Could it be added in the… so you're saying that the school board can't spend SBSD Owl Camera: From the budget. I am saying that right now, the rest of the school district is on a budget… we're at the budget freeze time, meaning that, we had to submit anything that we were going to purchase for the rest of the school year. This fiscal year. We had to do that by the 10th of last month. SBSD Owl Camera: Sure. And we just, two weeks ago, we had to purchase those things. SBSD

164Owl Camera: So now we are in a point where we're not supposed to spend money unless we already have submitted the purchase. SBSD Owl Camera: I think that… I think that's an operational question for Joe to figure out. SBSD Owl Camera: I think it's… I think we should vote. SBSD Owl Camera: All those in favor, say aye. SBSD Owl Camera: Aye. Aye. Aye. SBSD Owl Camera: So that's 3 votes. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, the motion fails. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, the next item on the agenda is the Legislative Advocacy Committee. Jen, I think this had been SBSD Owl Camera: a suggestion of yours. Can you give us an update on that? Yes, so during our March 18th meeting, it was discussed that we form or explore a legislative advocacy committee, and the thought here

165is that, SBSD Owl Camera: We would stay focused, coordinated on issues that impact our schools. It would be a small group, maybe two, probably three board members, the superintendent, that keeps in touch with our legislators, tracks key bills, and brings any recommendations back to the board. SBSD Owl Camera: It would also… it would be great to include community voices in an advisory way, so we're hearing different perspectives without complicating any decision making. One of the questions is whether it would start now or during, you know, during this session, or during the next session. SBSD Owl Camera: And so that would be it. So the first question is, do we want to have a small group focused on legislative actions, issues that are going on in this session? And I believe the current session ends in

166June, I think? Yes. Okay, so that's one of the first ones. SBSD Owl Camera: And then who would be on it? You know, board only versus perhaps advisory voices from the community? SBSD Owl Camera: Any, must-follow topics we would want to be focused on, such as education funding, foundation formula, redistricting, healthcare cost pressures, special education funding, property tax impacts. SBSD Owl Camera: Some core work that we might do is checking in with legislators, tracking priority bills, bringing recommended positions to board. I mean, there's a lot here, you know? Yep, I already do all of that with the VSBA, because I'm on… and I get the weekly, updates from the State House. SBSD Owl Camera: So, and I'm going… I'm going to the… I'm gonna have our meeting on Paleo next… next Wednesday. Okay. So I

167get all of that. I can forward that stuff, forward that information to you if you'd like. Yeah. Or you can join me on the SBA, they can… SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, there's also space for this board to have it. Right, to have it, but I think the thought is, at the end, like, having some kind of summary that could come back, and a recommendation, so it would actually be, you know, that we could communicate that. That's what I used to do. I used to do that. Okay. I used to be on the agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so… So that was it. That was the thought. And since we're a policy governance district, SBSD Owl Camera: I think what we had talked about with Joe SBSD Owl Camera: his advice

168had been if we tied it… if we basically tied the committee to the legislative session, which I think what you were saying is basically say, you know, form a committee that's for this session, it dissolves, and then when the next one starts, form a committee for that session, and then it dissolves. Yeah, because, you know, so often, I mean, what I hear is, oh, we need to go and talk to, you know, make our voices heard, and it's like, what does that mean? SBSD Owl Camera: I think we need to galvanize around a topic and say, this is important, this is, you know, where we're going to advocate. And to whether it's folks on the board, or… and I hear what you're saying also, Laura, with VSBA, but SBSD Owl Camera: you know, I think

169it would be a little bit more tangible for people within South Burlington to perhaps be, you know, if they're interested in it. Well, they ask us as the SBA members how they should lobby. SBSD Owl Camera: So, like, I'm already in that, in that way now. So we… we… we have meetings once a month, and they'll say, these are the… these are the bills that are coming up, how do you want us to lobby? So we do have a lot of say. I think that, SBSD Owl Camera: what I've heard is that the legislative committees SBSD Owl Camera: like to hear testimony from, like, normal people. You know, and, like, people… so, like, South Burlington residents would be very effective SBSD Owl Camera: advocates for South Burlington issues, and so there was a committee whose

170job, of course, was to talk to legislators, but also to get community members to go and testify for things that we care about in the State House. SBSD Owl Camera: that could be very effective. And I think part of the problem in terms of communication, which goes back to our previous topic, is that I think that if there are few people who engage with our school board, there are probably even fewer people who engage with the VSBA. It's kind of one level above. SBSD Owl Camera: It's kind of a… All hands on deck. SBSD Owl Camera: suggestion here is to have the… our school board organizing South Burlington people to advocate on the, in the legislature, and also have, like you're saying, the BSBA, which has, I think, a lot of sway, also advocating. So

171I don't think they're mutually exclusive. Right. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, I mean, so that was it, and I think it's the opportunity to do more engagement for people within the community. SBSD Owl Camera: That otherwise would not be engaged with the SPA. Do we have anybody besides Jen who'd be interested in being on this committee? SBSD Owl Camera: student reps? I would have been unbelievable. So it is interesting, I get the weekly BSB updates, and I do read the… SBSD Owl Camera: like, what, like, what's happening in Lock Hill? Like, I forget exactly, like, what's happening in Longfield, like, here are the bills. Like, they're gonna start hearing testimony from House by that time this week, like… And they, yeah, and they do ask us to come. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, yeah, so that's awesome.

172So, I think maybe it would be helpful if you have the time to, like, write a monthly summary, and, like… I used to, like, pretty cap it out between the ends and everything that I don't have right now, but it is of interest. SBSD Owl Camera: I guess I would say. And I think… I agree, because that's the thing, like, I like the idea of it. Can I be a part of this and lead this? I don't know, but I feel like there's more that we need to do in this space, and maybe it's just a matter of providing a summary and having some kind of an update. SBSD Owl Camera: to the board more frequently than just seeing the updates that come out through the SBA. I don't know. It is, it is… I

173mean, I definitely think… SBSD Owl Camera: As a board member, it's of interest, but… SBSD Owl Camera: maybe we should, bring this back up after Ann's policy is updated, so maybe back in the fall. SBSD Owl Camera: Let me take this back up. SBSD Owl Camera: Works for me. Does that make sense? Does anybody want to entertain further action on this right now? I guess my only additional comment is in terms of SBSD Owl Camera: The current push and the potential extension of the legislative session over. SBSD Owl Camera: the education parts. SBSD Owl Camera: That would be a call to do something now, but with the rest of you, I have no bandwidth. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah? To, to, to… SBSD Owl Camera: spend a lot of time in Montpelier. Yeah, I… I mean,

174my personal opinion is that SBSD Owl Camera: Advocates of public schools. SBSD Owl Camera: are… Putting themselves in a position where They're resisting change, and… SBSD Owl Camera: it's looking like another season of no reform to education, and I think that that's going to be SBSD Owl Camera: it's gonna be a risk, and I don't think there's anything… I think this board has already taken action saying that we're open to, you know, big… SBSD Owl Camera: Big changes as a way to, SBSD Owl Camera: you know, ensure the future of our public schools, but I think that that… the direction this legislative session is going in, I think, is a pretty… Status status quo, and so I'm not sure there's much we can do, more than we've already done, by passing that resolution a couple

175of months ago. SBSD Owl Camera: Can I ask a clarifying question that I don't know is… For right now. SBSD Owl Camera: You just said that this board has made a statement about something, but this… SBSD Owl Camera: Technically, this board hasn't been a statement about anything, because this is a new board. Oh, this is a new board going, that's right. So that statement still stands for South Burlington? Like, like, that board made that statement. Right, the South Burlington School Board with a pre… with a different set of members. Like, so, like, that statement still stands at that time? We've taken it off our website, because it just felt like it had aged out. SBSD Owl Camera: So… Yeah, and ultimately it does happen. SBSD Owl Camera: And a new board, technically. I mean, it's

176a signal of something, but it doesn't obligate anybody to anything. Not individually, it's a board choice, so even if you weren't on it, you don't support it, you're vocally opposed to it. SBSD Owl Camera: It's to kind of also that bored voice, but it doesn't matter, because it's not there. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, shall we move on to child nutrition, or maybe? SBSD Owl Camera: The next item on the agenda. So we're considering transferring from the General Fund to the Food Service Fund. SBSD Owl Camera: Jean Maria, would you like to… SBSD Owl Camera: So, at our last meeting, you heard from my colleague, the Director of Nutrition Services, Ron Kettner, and, she's sort of explaining the situation, and I wanted to give you folks an opportunity to sort of sit on that before

177we made any decisions. SBSD Owl Camera: I do want to reiterate a couple things. First of all, it's incredibly unusual for school districts in the state of Vermont for their nutritional service programs to be self-funded. SBSD Owl Camera: We are unique in that position, and that really is all a credit to Rhonda and the work that she's done in her tenure here, which is somewhere between 10 and 14 years, I think. SBSD Owl Camera: We were in a large deficit when she got here. So, the crux of the problem, is a little bit of a change in accounting, and then additionally, our expenses are outweighing, our income and our staffing costs. SBSD Owl Camera: And our food costs, which I'm sure all of you are also recognizing. Again, want to give credit to Rhonda for

178the adjustments that she's made, in her bi… in her menu planning and recipes. She shared with me today that, like, she's taken the… SBSD Owl Camera: salad bar offline at the middle school, and we're really, unfortunately, have very low participation in that. It requires a staff person to sort of manage it, and the expenses. Like, right now, a case of tomatoes costs $90. SBSD Owl Camera: So, that is exponentially higher than it was normal. SBSD Owl Camera: So, for that reason, we are asking… we are in a situation right now where we have some funds in our general fund that we would like to transfer over. We think that we're gonna clear this year in, essentially break even. That's Rhonda's goal. She… SBSD Owl Camera: to say she despises being in a deficit is putting

179it lightly. So our request is that we move $350,000 out of the general fund into the special… I want to get the wording right so I can tell you. SBSD Owl Camera: what her wine is called. SBSD Owl Camera: She is called a Special Revenue Fund, and so we'd like to make that change now, because we did not allocate any SBSD Owl Camera: adjustments to the nutritional services line for the next school year, and that's where we really are concerned that we will be in a deficit. So, because we are not in a deficit now, we'd like to move that money for her for next year. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any board discussion on this, or, Just a question. Sure. What's the risk to the general fund? I mean, generally, you said you think

180there's enough money to cover this deficit. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any risk associated with that trial? No, we have, to Daisy's point earlier, we, need to close our books as quickly as we can, and so we stop… we ask to stop spending, by… the last POs go in April 10th, and purchasing ends by May 1st. SBSD Owl Camera: So now we have a good picture of where… where we are coming in. Additionally, in the current budget year, there was an assumption made around what the union contracts were going to end at, so there was some excess funds in there, just as a wild guess when they… an educated guess when they put those funds up. And that was back to last July. Yeah, I guess. SBSD Owl Camera: they're constantly pre-planning way in

181advance. So, so gratefully, we are in a situation this year where we can very, you know, we can comfortably move those funds for next year. SBSD Owl Camera: And do you still expect an excess, then, out of the gene? SBSD Owl Camera: I don't want to answer that. I don't… I'm not in a place where I can answer that for you. April would know that, and I know that she just ran. I will be presenting for you my, one of my monitoring reports. I forget which one it is, but we'll have some more direct documents for you for the May 20th. SBSD Owl Camera: Phoenix. So if you wanted to. SBSD Owl Camera: we could wait until then, for you to make the motion. I don't have any concerns. No, I'm not. Personally, I'm not

182expressing concern about it, I just wanted to verify that transferring to a status pipeline deficit isn't creating an issue anywhere else. No. So, when we create these early PO and purchasing deadlines, it allows us to have a good idea of what our ending balance is going to be. SBSD Owl Camera: So that we can make any adjustments. So part of what they're doing is when somebody looks at their balance and realizes they are in a deficit, they can move it from one line to another. So some of that work has already been done, and I don't have any concerns about any issues. SBSD Owl Camera: with decimals. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, I would, is there any more board discussion on the… SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, I don't have any specific concerns. I think it

183goes back to just the transparency and understanding, like, okay, what was the general fund, and if there's monies that now can comfortably move this, and there isn't a risk. SBSD Owl Camera: being able to clearly see that, I think, would be really helpful. Yeah. That's my only, you know, hey, this is… this is what we were supposed to have, we didn't allocate for that, we now have this deficit. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, just, you know, whether it's a concise memo or something that we can put out, just to kind of clarify it, but then also when you're doing your monitoring. SBSD Owl Camera: down the road, and we're looking at these, I think being able to speak to this would be helpful. Like, hey, we moved money from here to here, and this is

184where it came from, remember that discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: So that we're tracking the… tracking the money, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is… I refer to the budget as the gigantic amoeba, because it is just constantly changing, so it's hard to really pinpoint, like. SBSD Owl Camera: we can run a report for you that's accurate for that moment in time, but things are constantly changing, so I get that. So yeah, we'll… I'll have, like I said, super high level. Yeah. Like, just a higher level. I mean, I know people are going to get into the hands-on things and be able to see it, and that's obviously very important, but just for the community to understand, because SBSD Owl Camera: You know, that's a pretty significant sum, so to be able to say we can comfortably

185move it because SBSD Owl Camera: we were, you know, over here or over-projected, this or that, but again, it comes back to accountability and how well we're… we're stewarding that. Yeah. That's… that's… SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, our biggest piece of the pie is salary and… the salary and benefits line, right? So when we were projecting that in the previous fiscal year, they were trying to plot what the health insurance rate will be, and how many employees will be, and what they'll be hired at. One of the things that I think you've heard Daisy talk about earlier is the struggle for hiring paraeducators. Like, I don't even… there's, like, at least 20, because it have been over the course of the year, so SBSD Owl Camera: we have to budget for those, anticipating that we will

186fill them, but then as they don't get filled, you know, that adds, and that's a pretty sizable part, can be a pretty sizable number, so… Right. SBSD Owl Camera: No, it all makes sense. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: So yeah, I guess that would be my comment. Those two things. One, just to… if you have it, some kind of concise summary of what happened, where the money's coming from, and how we can account for it, I think would be helpful to have in our minutes, however that shows up, because I know you talked about it before, but it's more concise. SBSD Owl Camera: And then, just looking forward, having more visuals on how some of these things are moving. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you, Mike, for blasting. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. Well, I would entertain a

187motion to… SBSD Owl Camera: Transfer $350,000 from the general fund to the food service fund. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, merchant. SBSD Owl Camera: Second. Jen, motions. Second, Commission at all. Seconds. Is there any discussion? And this is an action item, so there's room for public comment. SBSD Owl Camera: Nobody? No one. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. The motion passes. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, the next item on the agenda is, additional employee added to the employee severance plan. SBSD Owl Camera: Do you have information about that, Regina Marie? SBSD Owl Camera: I do not. SBSD Owl Camera: Crazy, dude. SBSD Owl Camera: We had an individual that had an unusual, unusual situation happen that they did not meet the definition deadline to, to apply the Senate. SBSD Owl Camera: it resulted in some, SBSD

188Owl Camera: legal, how do I say, our attorneys talking back and forth, and we agreed to add that individual, SBSD Owl Camera: And allow them to sign up for the subject package after the deadline. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so the board is being asked whether it's okay with us that, in spite of this having happened after the official deadline for the Employee Severance Plan, we're okay with, that arrangement that you've made to move forward. Okay. Is there any board discussion on that? SBSD Owl Camera: I would entertain a motion to, allow the additional employee to be added to the employee severance plan as negotiated by the SBSD Owl Camera: school district. SBSD Owl Camera: Almost… SBSD Owl Camera: Michelle moves. I'll second. Alyssa seconds. Is there any discussion? And this is an action item, so

189public comment is welcome. SBSD Owl Camera: I very much appreciate you, having that discussion and accepting this. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. The motion passes. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, the next item on the agenda, there's a couple of, first readings of SBSD Owl Camera: of district policies, one on wellness and one on student use of cell phones. My understanding is that these are due to state requirements changing. SBSD Owl Camera: And so, I believe that the wellness policy, which is the first one on the agenda, we already have a wellness policy, and there are updates to it based on the state. And then, so let's start with that one. Do we have any comments from staff about what in particular is new here, or why we should

190be considering this? SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, besides the state law aspect. SBSD Owl Camera: Do you have any information about, that you think would be relevant to the board about what's different in this wellness policy and why it's important? SBSD Owl Camera: And would you, if you're… would you step up so we can get you on the recording? SBSD Owl Camera: Nope. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Welcome. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm Sarah Pineda, District Nurse and Wellness Policy SBSD Owl Camera: And this is Jess LeClair. Jess is our… SBSD Owl Camera: school health liaison from the Vermont Department of Health. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, I'm one of your community partners, and I support all of the Chittenden County schools, and I've worked on wellness policy and helped schools pass their new

191wellness policy in line with the new recommendations for four other districts prior to SBSD Owl Camera: Coming to help with South Burlington, I know a lot about wellness policy, so just kind of hear us back up on that. SBSD Owl Camera: Great. SBSD Owl Camera: And so a wellness policy is kind of our district's commitments to, nutrition, health education, physical activity, and other things that keep our students and staff and community well. SBSD Owl Camera: Our previous policy was last updated in 2016, and SBSD Owl Camera: With the wellness policy, you have to do a triennial assessment. SBSD Owl Camera: And the China Field Assessment was great at the time of COVID, so every school district kind of got behind with this, their policies being updated. So, we were tasked with updating this policy, last

192spring. SBSD Owl Camera: And… the state? SBSD Owl Camera: did make… a couple of… SBSD Owl Camera: adjustments, but not many. Right. Well, there were a few… whoops, oh, sorry. Yeah, so essentially, for the wellness policy, what's changed is that health education is now a part of wellness policy in Vermont, and that's not true at the federal level. So, most of the categories that you'll see on that wellness policy are what's required at the federal level. But Vermont added the health education SBSD Owl Camera: component, and we also did the other school-based activities to promote wellness. SBSD Owl Camera: Those are both Vermont requirements that were added to the wellness policy when they revised. SBSD Owl Camera: Wellness policy dates back to, the time of World War II, when they were recruiting, forces for military,

193and I want to say… SBSD Owl Camera: It was a… it was a higher number than I think. It was either 9 or 11%, I'd have to look it up. Of the people that were being drafted. SBSD Owl Camera: We're not able to serve because of malnutrition. SBSD Owl Camera: And that kind of was like, whoa, and that's kind of where the school lunch program started. Later, they added the school breakfast program, but a lot of that was around, like, having just healthier people. So it used to be really food-focused, but it's expanded, kind of, what's involved every time the, SBSD Owl Camera: The WIC is part of the Authorization Act that WIC does, too, but we're in that same thing, and that's when our wellness policy gets updated at the federal level. But like

194I said, Vermont added a few things. SBSD Owl Camera: And then the BSBA did produce a model policy, and the AOE produced a wellness policy guide, and a lot of what you'll see in there is stuff based on those two documents. SBSD Owl Camera: We also, as Sarah said, did a triennial assessment, so the other part of, like, under the other school-based wellness activities, a lot of that is based on what we were seeing in our schools, and from talking to… we were interviewing administrators, school counselors, PE teachers, health educators, really all the folks that kind of touched on the different pieces of our current wellness policy. SBSD Owl Camera: to look at, you know, how well are we following our wellness policy now? What do we feel like is missing from wellness policy? And

195then just kind of put that all together to create, a stronger document. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so it's more than just state required. It sounds like this was a holistic effort to really bring this up to date with the latest. Absolutely, right. Absolutely. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, it was great. We put a lot of work into this, and I… when we were first asked to update it, having Jess as a consultant, since it hadn't been updated in a bit, was… SBSD Owl Camera: absolutely, just, we were super lucky to have her guiding us through this process, and I think we really dove in and, collected a lot of information from staff about what was actually happening, before we made the changes. SBSD Owl Camera: So the big question is, will kids get longer recesses? Our

196students have pretty long recesses now. That's one of the things we found out in the assessment. SBSD Owl Camera: Are there other board questions? Are there some direct impacts on… Teacher responsibilities, does this increase? SBSD Owl Camera: Was it teacher responsibilities in anyone? It's a great question. It doesn't really increase responsibilities so much as, create guidelines for different things that may impact communities. For example, using food as a reward is not best practice with kids. It's, you know, kids, part of that whole disordered eating thing where SBSD Owl Camera: you know, our rewards shouldn't be based on food, just like food is something we eat when we're hungry. But there's a lot of other ways to reward students that is… that is better for them. Physical activity is important for learning and being active, and

197so there's, like, here are some just suggested things you could do if you are a person who gives food as a reward. Here are some other possible, things you could do. So it's more a matter of, like, perhaps SBSD Owl Camera: shifting mindset for some folks, but it isn't really a different responsibility. Is there training that comes with that? SBSD Owl Camera: There is. We're… as… as part of our policy is to, inform staff of what our policy is, and the changes we made, and, SBSD Owl Camera: What our procedures will be, one of the things that I… I actually think it will, SBSD Owl Camera: help with time for teachers, because I think people spend a lot of time trying to figure out what our guidelines are. And because this policy touches so many

198different pieces of our schools, I think it will actually be really helpful to streamline things, and people can SBSD Owl Camera: the, our goal was to really make it a guide for teachers and staff, that that's the answer. It's, like, just really easy, and, SBSD Owl Camera: So they can use it as a reference as well. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, I would like to say, I think it was very… SBSD Owl Camera: It's good. I enjoyed reading it, I appreciate that. There were a lot of things I didn't know. A couple comments I had was, consider possibly adding some measurable outcome or metrics, like participation rates, wellness indicators, or compliance targets. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, and that actually comes out in the assessment. It does. So, yeah, so every time the assessment is done,

199we are measuring those pieces. So the way that we do the assessment, we use the WellSaff, which is a national tool that was developed by UConn's Res Center for Food Policy, and we had to add a few sections, because they don't do health that as part of theirs, they don't do the stuff that Vermont does, so we SBSD Owl Camera: We had to kind of add those, but other than that, based on it. SBSD Owl Camera: And in that, we look at two things. We look at the current policy, how strong is it, by just, like, even if you don't know if people are doing this at all, just looking at it as a policy, how strong is it? And we were able to assess our current policy. SBSD Owl Camera: Then we look at,

200the practical, like, like you're getting at. So there's four categories things can be in. There's strong policy and aligned practice, so that's… we say we're doing it, and we are doing it. And that's like a bucket that some of the work is in. Then there's, SBSD Owl Camera: It's in our policy, but it's not in our practice, and so that tends to be like, hmm, we need to think about our procedures, because if we're… do we believe in this? Is this a value that we have in the district and want to do? And if so, we need to have… be stronger with our procedures. SBSD Owl Camera: Then there's great work we might find that we're doing, but it's not recognized in our policy, and that's another opportunity to, write the policy to reflect who

201we are. SBSD Owl Camera: And then there are the things that are either non-policy, and we're also not doing them yet, but maybe it's a good idea, and especially it's a good idea if they're a federal requirement or a state requirement, and so we focus on those ones first. But then we also look at, like, what the community says. You know, it may not have been brought up in policy before, but our community might be saying, hey, this is a need that we have, and then we look at evidence-based best practice and build SBSD Owl Camera: Policy around that. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, so then the other, other comment was, if it would be helpful to clarify, perhaps, how students, parents, or community input could be gathered and incorporated in an ongoing basis, rather than

202just during the annual and the triangle assessments. SBSD Owl Camera: Absolutely, and the intention is to invite community members and students to our committee moving forward, and then have set meetings. Once the policy and procedures are in place. SBSD Owl Camera: They recommend, I think, just twice a year. That's the minimum requirement? So we haven't set that schedule yet, but the intention is to have set meetings with SBSD Owl Camera: Our committee, which will include students, and… SBSD Owl Camera: community members or parents. And then also, we are developing our website to have all this information on it, and the trinatal assessment will be public. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, and on the website, there is a, SBSD Owl Camera: like a PowerPoint that's been created that's still kind of in the works, but it essentially

203kind of talks people through, like, the basics of what is wellness policy and how can you get involved. SBSD Owl Camera: And then there would be Sarah's email at the end, like, please reach out if you're interested. And so that's… I mean, it's one of several ways, but it's one of the ways, to try to drive folks in, to feel like, hey, this is about you and your community. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, that's, I think, a great first reading. To the members of the public, the… SBSD Owl Camera: The draft of the policy, F5 Wellness, is in the school board materials for today, and we will be having more readings of this. But yeah, thank you very much for the update, and thanks for your helping our district. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, no, it's my

204pleasure, it's what my job is. If any of you have other questions about wellness policy in general, or anything to do with the stuff that we came up with, both of us are happy to answer those, and you could reach out anytime. Great. Thank you very much. SBSD Owl Camera: The next item on the agenda is Policy F20, Student Use of Cell Phones. SBSD Owl Camera: I believe this one is mandated by the state. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, so it is, available in the board, materials, if anybody wants to read it. We have had a number… we had an update on cell phone use in schools and policy compliance earlier this year. SBSD Owl Camera: And then we… I recently asked the superintendent about it, so… is there any board comment on the policy? I

205don't think we need to read it. SBSD Owl Camera: But just a clarification, the distinction between this and what we have is that starting FY26-27, SBSD Owl Camera: it has to be in place. What we have now is the travel app. Yes, please. We also, at least at the high school, we don't have a policy about non-school issued devices right now. A lot of students… SBSD Owl Camera: use their personal laptops, so… Oh, that's a change. That would be a change for people, and, like, watches. Yeah. So you can't bring your MacBook. It's, like, it lists, like, AirPods and things, like, people use those. SBSD Owl Camera: That will do too, unless it's in your IMP. SBSD Owl Camera: I did have a few comments. I read through this one, too. I think it would

206be helpful to clarify whether the policy prohibits device SBSD Owl Camera: Use, access, or procession during the school day? SBSD Owl Camera: And whether it applies during lunch. SBSD Owl Camera: You know, periods as people are going back and forth through classes. SBSD Owl Camera: Buses, extracurricular. I mean, I didn't feel like it was particularly clear, like, it was… it felt a little bit vague to me, and… SBSD Owl Camera: So that was one comment. I mean, if it… if it could explicitly state when that would be appropriate… Well, that's actually maybe a great opportunity for clarification. So I think that this SBSD Owl Camera: is the policy, and it's… and it says, first of all, it is the policy of the South Burlington School District to maintain a cell phone-free school environment to promote

207focus and increase social cohesion among our students. And then it says the goal. And then down below, it says. SBSD Owl Camera: the superintendent shall establish procedures. So, I think that the answer to that question would live in the procedures. Lives with the procedure. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: And we don't have to review or accept the superintendent's procedures as long as they fulfill whatever SBSD Owl Camera: high-level requirements around this. Okay. The state law does say from arrival to dismissal, your policy has to be from arrival to dismissal. Yeah, and I think perhaps that needs to be clarified, because it just… it just, again, it did… did it say that in there? I don't recall seeing that. SBSD Owl Camera: So yeah, I talked about exceptions from the… SBSD Owl Camera:

208I hear you. During the academic day of an arrival to this sometime. SBSD Owl Camera: And that prohibits use, access, and possession. SBSD Owl Camera: Learned by prohibiting student use of and access to. SBSD Owl Camera: during academic arrival to dismissal. That they could be in possession of. SBSD Owl Camera: Right, that is what it says here. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, when I took my high school tour, I was over at the high school last week. SBSD Owl Camera: Patrick Burger almost took my phone away. I took it out, and he said, don't take my way, and I said, sorry, I didn't know, I didn't know the rule, but, like, so… so, I think you could be in possession of it, and maybe Allie or Roman can correct me, like, I think it could be

209in your backpack, you're not gonna turn it away, but… In theory, it can't be in your car. It should be in your car. Like, if someone SBSD Owl Camera: has a vehicle, they say leave your… put all that home or stuff, but as long as it's not seen. SBSD Owl Camera: Like, it needs to not be visible during excluded. SBSD Owl Camera: Sorry. SBSD Owl Camera: And then another point is under family and guardian communication, I think it would be helpful to clarify there that SBSD Owl Camera: you know, as I was reading this, I thought, you know, families may contact students during the school day through established school office procedures, except in emergency situations. And then I was thinking, you know, there could be something explicitly mentioned that the district shall maintain procedures for

210timely communication with families, etc, during the agencies. SBSD Owl Camera: But, you know, to kind of… SBSD Owl Camera: clarify that, because I also didn't feel like that was very robust, that particular statement. Families may contact students during the day through established school office procedures. SBSD Owl Camera: Right? Like, just to clarify that. Because it's like, well, what do I need to get in touch with my kid? Because you may be looking at the policy, but you may not be then combing through to find the specific procedure. So I think as much of that upfront information that you can have as people are looking through it. SBSD Owl Camera: If it's concise, that, like, oh, you know… Would you send that feedback to Job? Sure. SBSD Owl Camera: I will. I appreciate also that you're

211writing it down, but I think, Jen, if you could provide just that point of feedback there, I could go. And then I also think there's one last thing, the administrative responsibility section, I think it could be a little bit easier to digest. SBSD Owl Camera: And that section might also benefit from emphasizing that there will be progressive, developmentally appropriate responsibility to violations. So… SBSD Owl Camera: You know, it just… I just think that could be streamlined. SBSD Owl Camera: So, you know, consider emphasizing there might be restorative or corrective approaches before it gets to punitive, like, that's it, right? Sure. Right, and I do remember hearing about the progressive discipline when Pat Burke presented with the… I remember that, too. SBSD Owl Camera: Yup. Although by us putting it into the… if… SBSD Owl Camera:

212the superintendent accepted the suggestion and put that in here, that would be us mandating something that might go above and beyond state law. Well, I mean, I'm just saying… I mean, he's… the actual procedure, I mean, that's obviously going to be up to, like, administration. Like, I'm just saying for the policy, like, some of the SBSD Owl Camera: language that could be clarified for the purpose of the public that's reviewing it. Right. That's all important. Although, and your comments do remind me… SBSD Owl Camera: of the earlier situation we had this year with the video surveillance policy, where the school board had gone out of its way to add additional restrictions on the school district's actions above and beyond state law, and so I think that we should always be asking when we do make

213SBSD Owl Camera: propose, you know, make policies like this, just to make sure that we're aware if we're restricting the district to more than state law. Right. SBSD Owl Camera: Which we have the right to do, I think, on basis, but we should just be aware of it. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, well, I think that was a great first reading of F20, student use of cell phones. Is there any other board comments or questions on that? SBSD Owl Camera: Alright. SBSD Owl Camera: Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: Do I have any objections to the minutes of the April 15th meeting? SBSD Owl Camera: The accounts payables, the payroll warrants. SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing none, those… the… April 15th, 2026 minutes, the accounts payables. SBSD Owl Camera: And payroll

214warrants are approved by consent. SBSD Owl Camera: The next item on the agenda is to approve an AP voucher check to Essex Westford School District in the amount of $88,916.81. SBSD Owl Camera: and also to Vermont Mechanical in the amount of $177,305.91. I would entertain a motion to, approve That? SBSD Owl Camera: a month. SBSD Owl Camera: Laura moved. SBSD Owl Camera: Emily Seconds, any discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: So again, this is a voucher check to Essex Westfielders for the amount of $88,916, and to Vermont Mechanical in the amount of $177,385. SBSD Owl Camera: Any questions? SBSD Owl Camera: All those in favor? Aye. Aye. The motion passes. SBSD Owl Camera: The next item on the agenda is, any objections to, the bids for snow removal, air handlers, or laptops? SBSD Owl Camera: No objection,

215but I had a question. Sure, of course. So, regarding the, equipment, so it looked like the first Bobcat bid I saw was, you know, 131. Can I stop you and explain, maybe? Okay, please do. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: And be sure to clarify the question for the community if you know which one is. Okay, well, it was… it was in regard to… it looked like the first bid came in, the second bid was $7,000 less, and I was curious, or $7,500 less, and I was curious why that was. That's the first part of the question. SBSD Owl Camera: And then I… the second part was clarifying whether the revised proposal reflects the same equipment specifications and attachments of the original bid. If not, what changed? And then the third piece was, briefly summarizing the rationale

216for recommending a Bobcat over a lower-cost. Happy to answer all of those. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: The… when we put an RFP out, we ask the bidders to maintain their quote for 60 days. Yeah, that's hard for folks to do these days, particularly now around the, technological equity. SBSD Owl Camera: The bidder was awarded the bid and, came back to us and said, oh, sorry, the price went up by… SBSD Owl Camera: $3,500. SBSD Owl Camera: So, on second thought, we decided that we had to go back, and that was against policy, we had to go back out again, so we sent it all out again, and… SBSD Owl Camera: that bidder, same bidder, came back with a lower price than the very… so we had the first price, the amended price, and now we

217have the second official bid. It's now the third price, and that is lower… $7,500. It is $7,500 lower. I have asked my team to SBSD Owl Camera: line by line, make sure that this is exactly the piece of equipment that they want, exactly the same item that they were, offered the first time. There's a change in the radio. SBSD Owl Camera: everything. It's a sign we could spend that money on radio. There's no radio in it, right? I think it went from a digital to a Bluetooth radio, or vice versa, I don't know. I wish I had a better explanation for you on why it's lower the third time. I can explain to you why we would like to proceed with the Bobcat, and that is because SBSD Owl Camera: the other equipment that we

218have is in that same… is also Bobcat equipment, and so the accessories are all interchangeable. Got it. Yeah. Understandable. I wish I had a more logical… Well, one of them, it said, was the L95, and then the other one, it didn't say that, so I was like, I wonder if it's, like, it's the P95, or the… SBSD Owl Camera: And before, didn't know. Okay. And I included that… SBSD Owl Camera: first letter, and I added to it into one, and was like, what in the heck is this? And I was like, I'll have to explain it to them, so I apologize. Yeah. All right, well, thank you for your diligence, Jen. Are there any other, questions or objections to the bids on the snow removal equipment, the air handlers, the laptops? SBSD Owl Camera: Then

219those passed by consent. And now we'll move on to the higher section. SBSD Owl Camera: Would you like to say anything, Dr. Hires? I would like to say something about the hires. All of the individuals that were hired, mid-year for a teacher position are hired for a one-year contract only. SBSD Owl Camera: That is every single person, or everyone on the list where it says to fill an open position that is one year only for the 25-26 school year, those individuals were hired mid-year, and they were on a one-year-only contract. We are now requesting to hire them SBSD Owl Camera: Permanently. SBSD Owl Camera: So, they are moving from a one-year contract to a… SBSD Owl Camera: even though all the other teachers are one year, this… these individuals were only hired for that school

220year, and they don't have any future year, correct, which is this current year, right? Correct. So they're… SBSD Owl Camera: We always have to rehire, the one-year contract-only people, into the next school year, which is also why those folks usually can… they… even though they're a new teacher being hired, they could be brought in at a Step 11 instead of a Step 10. SBSD Owl Camera: We had a question about the math… Correct, they are non-technical, meaning they've been with us for a year, so they are getting that credit. Okay, so just for an example, so Angela Buchanan, she… it says 25-26 school year to fill an open position that is one year only. SBSD Owl Camera: But she's been in that one-year-only position, and now she's being offered the position full-time, permanent labs. SBSD

221Owl Camera: Okay, yeah, I had that same question that Mr. Silverstick had, because I was thinking, that says, like, that's how many weeks? So all of the folks that have that statement, they are currently one-year-only contracts, because they were hired near you. SBSD Owl Camera: Are the FTEs? SBSD Owl Camera: Are those the same for last year? Everything else in the position is the same. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm curious, not a part of a problem. SBSD Owl Camera: the FTE, the type of the same… it is the exact same position. Yeah, I don't remember seeing this many last year. Do we… does the board have to approve the temporary positions for both? I don't recall seeing them now. SBSD Owl Camera: That's why they're so… You don't approve one-year contracts. Got it, okay. You do

222approve when you're taking a one-year contract to approve. Got it. Okay. This is everybody after July 15th. That is the mid-year, but this is everybody that's hired after July 15th of the 21st year. So if you're hired in August, you're… you're… SBSD Owl Camera: Only on a one-year contract. Wait, but the board doesn't approve teacher one-year-old contracts? SBSD Owl Camera: They're a temporary position on them. SBSD Owl Camera: And one other thing, just to confirm, so the folks also, the FTE percentage or account that's on here, that is what they will become in their full-time position. So if you have, for example, somebody that's a .20 FTE school psychologist, will they be hired at a full-time? No, they will not. They're being hired at this… SBSD Owl Camera: Well, so… Okay, so for, yeah, Allie

223West, she is currently a 1.0, she's being hired for a 1.0. Katerina, currently a .2, is being hired for . They're being hired for the exact same position they are, and I'll tell you. SBSD Owl Camera: Are there any questions or objections to the hires? SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing none, then they pass by consent. So, the final item on the agenda is for the review of the May 20th. SBSD Owl Camera: Agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: So, I will put that on my screen. SBSD Owl Camera: So, post-executive session… Third Community Forum. SBSD Owl Camera: I would appreciate everybody's help getting people out for that. It's a slog. SBSD Owl Camera: The only thing I would say is, I did happen to, while we were talking, and I may have just missed it because I've been

224traveling and out of town, but I happened to look at the letter that went to the other paper, and the schools belong to you, and that's a very good article. The one thing that I would say is, if we're putting another one out, I would specifically put in there when the forms are planned. SBSD Owl Camera: Because we're saying for April and June, or for April to May, so I put in the dates and where they're going to be, so it's one less thing that people then have to go look up. They can… SBSD Owl Camera: plug it in their phone and put it in instead of, oh, now I gotta go to the website. Absolutely, that one was before we had dates, that was the heads up, start looking for this information. SBSD Owl

225Camera: Yeah, yeah, okay. Okay, so Community Forum on ENS Policy. SBSD Owl Camera: Second reading of the two policies that we heard tonight, wellness and, cell phones. 2.2 treatment of staff. SBSD Owl Camera: 1.0… ends. SBSD Owl Camera: So, two monitoring reports, treatment of staff and ends. SBSD Owl Camera: And then the continuous improvement plans that were required to have, I think, by federal law. SBSD Owl Camera: And then a superintendent report on viewpoint discrimination. SBSD Owl Camera: And then, consent agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: I requested viewpoint discrimination. We could probably give an update on student representative, including that, if you just want to update that as separate. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm checking that out, actually. SBSD Owl Camera: And one thing you may have seen, I've been sending information to Joe regarding the board

226website, and I know we had talked about SBSD Owl Camera: I will work with Joe on a couple of things here and there, and I've put a lot more time and thought into that, and I think it is something that… it's a bigger priority item that we need to possibly look at bringing someone in to help with SBSD Owl Camera: you know, updating the website. We want Joe's capacity to do that with all the other things that he has. So, I would say perhaps putting some time on it to look at… and this is only the school board website component. It's not the district. It's only what we have, what is outward facing. SBSD Owl Camera: I think I added that to the agenda, if you want me to take the background. SBSD Owl Camera:

227Anything else that I think we should have on the agenda for our May 20th meeting? SBSD Owl Camera: I would have a couple big awards for you, some roof replacements, hopefully some people can get our hands on them, there… SBSD Owl Camera: Something else I'm forgetting. Additionally… SBSD Owl Camera: I thought there was some other stuff. Oh, my fiscal monitoring department. SBSD Owl Camera: Fiscal Monitoring Report, is that the one that… SBSD Owl Camera: I'm not sure if it's 2.4 or 2.5. Is that the one where it's a quarterly thing? SBSD Owl Camera: and we're doing it quarterly, or is it one… is it a preview of the thing that's going to be done monthly, so that we don't have to do the quarterly thing, or something? It's… we're still on the same cadence, but

228we have not changed the original cadence yet, so… SBSD Owl Camera: Well, we will not. I think we tagged on these… Never mind, Jerry. SBSD Owl Camera: Sorry, I can't read it. We're supposed to… I know, I can't read it back as well. Yeah, that's what I was just thinking. Yeah, and I couldn't see it, yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. Alright. SBSD Owl Camera: I would entertain a motion to adjourn. SBSD Owl Camera: Emily. Emily Woods? Secondly. SBSD Owl Camera: Jen seconds. Any discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: All is in favor? SBSD Owl Camera: Aye. SBSD Owl Camera: Thanks, everybody. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh yeah, we probably have science equals 113.