001Jennifer Lawrence: This is on there. Perfect. Jennifer Lawrence: I think you'll need to scan it. Jennifer Lawrence: I think… SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, but you know what? We can't. So… Seamus Abshere: Hey, everybody. SBSD Owl Camera: Yep, it's okay. Okay, you are all set to start. I am set. SBSD Owl Camera: Good evening. I call this meeting of the South Burlington School Board to order at 5.03 p.m. SBSD Owl Camera: The board will now… SBSD Owl Camera: Entertain a motion to enter executive session to discuss employment of a public officer or employee, and labor negotiations, as permitted under 1VSA, Section 313, because discussion in open session would place the individuals involved at a substantial disadvantage. SBSD Owl Camera: Second? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, it is moved, it has been moved by Dan. Seamus Abshere: Who
002moved and who seconded? SBSD Owl Camera: It has been moved by Dan and seconded by Michelle, and as we have 4 people present, with Seamus on the line. SBSD Owl Camera: We have a quorum. Is there any discussion? Seamus Abshere: Nope. SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say no. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, the motion carries. The board will now enter Executive Session at 5.04 p.m. Seamus Abshere: Can you all hear me? SBSD Owl Camera: Reporting in progress first. We can hear you, Seamus. Seamus Abshere: Great. Seamus Abshere: I hope that my head doesn't loom over everybody for the whole meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: Done to your thoughts? SBSD Owl Camera: You guys are ready to go whenever you want. SBSD Owl Camera: People were intelligent. SBSD
003Owl Camera: Alright. SBSD Owl Camera: Good evening, everyone. SBSD Owl Camera: My name is Jen Lawrence, and I am the Vice Chair of the South Burlington School Board. I will be chairing this evening in the absence of Acting Chair Seamus, where he just disappeared, but he's online. SBSD Owl Camera: And I call this regular meeting of the South Burlington School Board to order at 6.03 p.m. SBSD Owl Camera: on Wednesday, November the 5th, 2025. Prior to this meeting, the board held an executive session to discuss employment of a public officer or employee, and labor negotiations as permitted under 1 BSA Section 313. SBSD Owl Camera: The board entered into executive session at 5-10 p.m, and returned to open session at 6 p.m. SBSD Owl Camera: o'clock p.m. No action was taken in executive session. Seamus
004Abshere: And… SBSD Owl Camera: No, sir. Seamus Abshere: joined us in Executive Session. SBSD Owl Camera: And Joe, yes, and Joe Clark, joined us in executive session. SBSD Owl Camera: So we recently, voted to adopt the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of board meetings, but since this is the first time in many years that the board has recited the pledge, we would like to welcome scouts that are here from Troop 6110 and PAX… SBSD Owl Camera: 578, right? Act 578? Yeah, 611. And 611. What did I start? 611 at 678. What did I start? 6110. Oh, I didn't mean to say that. I meant to say 611, that's right. 611? I do have a 6110, but that's the girls. Oh, yes, I know. I used to be the Scoutmaster after. Alright, so who is
005here this evening? SBSD Owl Camera: I'm Jacob. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, Jacob? I'm sorry. Sawyer? Hi, Sawyer. SBSD Owl Camera: Hi, what is your name? Hi, Cameron. Well, can you please come up, and we will have you guys lead and pledge of allegiance for us. SBSD Owl Camera: Go on. SBSD Owl Camera: He wants to fight for those… SBSD Owl Camera: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, stands, one nation, under God, visible, liberty, justice for all. SBSD Owl Camera: Nicely done. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you so much! SBSD Owl Camera: All right, so the next item on our agenda is announcements and… Amendments to the agenda? SBSD Owl Camera: May I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? SBSD Owl Camera: I would
006like to make an addition, if it's possible, but… SBSD Owl Camera: Just a brief item, I'm not sure if it's discussion or action after it's been fired, but in the process of working out a new template from the library. SBSD Owl Camera: We, SBSD Owl Camera: have basically a beta version, where we tested that using the equity monitoring, and wanted to have a discussion about SBSD Owl Camera: approach. So, we could either schedule our monitoring report using the beta, or we could schedule a discussion to talk about the template first. SBSD Owl Camera: for… board willing, right? But what would you recommend? SBSD Owl Camera: I would love to beta test. Seamus Abshere: So you're saying we're… SBSD Owl Camera: Monitor and report, yeah. Seamus Abshere: Directly schedule the policy monitoring? SBSD Owl Camera: Yep.
007Seamus Abshere: Cool. SBSD Owl Camera: Huh. SBSD Owl Camera: Sounds good. SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know if… if… Seamus, what were you gonna say? Seamus Abshere: What day were you… were you thinking about doing that at a later date, Michelle? SBSD Owl Camera: [Michelle Boyer] So I… Joe, do correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that, he and Monica will be ready to present on the 19th at our regular scheduled course. Yep, we could do that. SBSD Owl Camera: So we could add it to each other. So we could use it at that time. Correct, to push on it. Right, and it would be an opportunity to complete the monitoring process for equity, but also to SBSD Owl Camera: Start getting feedback on this template using that kind of… SBSD Owl Camera: beta
008process, right? Like, we… the word example that, SBSD Owl Camera: kind of double duties, right? We don't consider it a one and done, and this is the way to go. We want to bring this to all of you for your feedback and improvement. That's right. SBSD Owl Camera: I like it. SBSD Owl Camera: I think… Seamus Abshere: I should add that to the November 19th meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, I've got it working with some parking lots. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, I have a couple of announcements. Joe, Laura, Austin, Michelle, and I, at varying times, attended the VSA, the SBA conference last week, and I thought it was a great opportunity to network with other SBSD Owl Camera: Be school board members and meet folks from other parts of the state. SBSD Owl Camera:
009And we also had a chance to hear from the National Student School Board Association, which I shared with Allie and Roman. That was really cool to hear, from those folks. And, and it was just really great. I mean, some of my key takeaways. SBSD Owl Camera: because we also had the chance to hear from other school boards, and a superintendent that came from Illinois, they spoke about the East Aurora, the turnaround that happened there, which was great. But yeah, some of my key takeaways were the critical importance of a solid board and superintendent relationship. Key… SBSD Owl Camera: One of the, SBSD Owl Camera: phrases that I liked was, connectedness equals effectiveness. And shifting from personal agendas to shared convictions. Go fast, go alone, go far, go together. Community engagement is so important. SBSD Owl
010Camera: And they did a great job showcasing some information, like a report card that they had, where they, would send out flyers to the community that captured, like, attendance, graduation, and engagement, and it was in these really clear, easy-to-digest. SBSD Owl Camera: Format, and the transparency builds both pride and trust. SBSD Owl Camera: And then, I think another key thing for me, takeaway, was that the VSBA is just a tremendous resource, and we will be working more in lockstep with them. SBSD Owl Camera: To, you know, help us to learn everything from, you know, Robert's Rules, open meeting law, policy governance. I think that, you know, they were instrumental SBSD Owl Camera: In helping with our interim superintendent search, and we're now working with them on our permanent superintendent search, which just kicked off this
011week. SBSD Owl Camera: And I actually had a schedule that I could, quickly pop up. If I can. Let me just move this really quick, so I don't have this teed up. But while I'm doing that, did anybody else have any feedback or comments to share from that session? SBSD Owl Camera: [Michele Boyer} Had a similar experience, and for me, being even newer to the board and working with the VSBA, it was just really great to get to know some of the folks. Had a chance to talk to some of the people that you've all been working with over the last several months, and SBSD Owl Camera: I look forward to getting to know them. I saw that we just got our board training, information to do our online training, so we can talk to
012them a little bit about that. But yeah, some really great takeaways about how to SBSD Owl Camera: You know, run good meetings, and, do good work, and… the… SBSD Owl Camera: presentation, the keynote, was really, you know, it was inspirational in the sense that it was truly a turnaround situation, where by all metrics, really, the improvements that they've seen over even just the recent several years have been pretty extraordinary, taking the commitment of SBSD Owl Camera: Everybody in the community. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, it was really… I thought it was… it was fantastic. They did a… they did a great job. SBSD Owl Camera: Overall. And Joe, did you have any… any additional… Sorry. Well, I just say, you know, what I've known for a long time was clarified again, which is the importance of
013a strong school board and how hard the work is. Seamus Abshere: One more second. Sorry to interrupt you. Jen, I just wanted you to know that you're sharing your entire screen, not just a single window, so you. SBSD Owl Camera: What do I have up? Gallant heroes. I got everything up there. All right, the little kids. There's the kids. Sorry. All right, let me start over again. Yeah, so I was just, I was just saying that, SBSD Owl Camera: it's incredibly hard work to be on a school board, and it's even harder work to be a functional school board that understands the role, and how to interact, and how to communicate, and how to represent the community, and I'm really grateful for the school board for having those skills. SBSD Owl Camera: And I think
014it's, vital that we learn there that we always have to continue learning how, how we act… how we… how you act as a school board, how I act as a superintendent, and how our relationships should match. So it's very… SBSD Owl Camera: Glad for the folks that were able to make it, and learned a lot, and looking forward to working with you. SBSD Owl Camera: Fantastic. Well, I was trying to open up my… let's see, I think I can share this. This… can you see my… my screen here? SBSD Owl Camera: Started screen sharing. SBSD Owl Camera: Can you see that? There it is. Okay, so this was just a highlight, and we'll… SBSD Owl Camera: put this in a parking lot to talk about a little bit later, but just wanted to share this
015very briefly. When I said we are working lockstep with the VSBA, this shows here, you know, we signed our contract with VSBA for the permanent superintendent search. SBSD Owl Camera: And this is the schedule that we'll be following here for… for going through that process. But then we also have… SBSD Owl Camera: got some information here with VSBA for some of the training that they have, the New Member Academy. SBSD Owl Camera: The board development, Robert's Rules, we've got different links here for information, open meeting law training, policy governance training. And so, anyway, you know, this is more information that will be coming out here soon to be shared and put out, but just want to share that with folks that, we're trying to align what we're doing. SBSD Owl Camera: A little bit more
016closely and transparently for folks to see. SBSD Owl Camera: Let's see, let's see. Also, one other thing I wanted to mention. SBSD Owl Camera: This is going to come up again as part of the announcement, but there is a community forum that will happen next Monday on November the 10th at 6 p.m, right here at this location, and the school board is going to be voting on the 2026-2027 school budget, and we encourage everyone to please come and provide your comments via either Zoom or in person. Seamus Abshere: And to clarify that we're setting the budget number, like, the limit of the budget, but we won't be voting on, like, the final budget package, or something like that. So, we're gonna be… we're gonna be drawing the box Seamus Abshere: That the staff has to
017fill in. SBSD Owl Camera: Right. SBSD Owl Camera: Nope. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so we'll now move on to item number 3, which is comments from the public. So this is an opportunity for community members to address the board. Sorry, did the board vote to approve the agenda? SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, did we not? I thought we did. Sorry, you're right, because you know what? There was a motion in a second, but I didn't… You're right, thank you. All because, Michelle added something. You're right. And thank you for that, Michelle. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so… yeah, can I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Someone? SBSD Owl Camera: Nope. SBSD Owl Camera: So, my Michelle, do we have a second? SBSD Owl Camera: I'll second. SBSD Owl Camera: And seconded by Laura.
018SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any discussion? Seamus Abshere: No. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Emilee Hoffman: Aye. SBSD Owl Camera: Any opposition? SBSD Owl Camera: This includes you guys, did you say? Let's make sure that Omen and Ali, they've got the non-binding opportunity there. Okay, thank you for that, Joan. All right, so now we are moving on to comments from the public. This is an opportunity for community members to address the board on any topic. SBSD Owl Camera: whether or not it is on tonight's agenda. Please state your name for the record. You will have up to 3 minutes to speak. SBSD Owl Camera: The board will listen to all comments, but will not respond directly, because this meeting has not been warned as a community forum.
019SBSD Owl Camera: Are there any comments? SBSD Owl Camera: Anybody online? One person online. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: That wants to make a comment? SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, Jerry, she's actually going to allow attendees. SBSD Owl Camera: So is he… Yes, please do. Yeah, if you can please unmute. Gerry Silverstein: Can you hear me? SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, we can. Gerry Silverstein: So, I just want to say, I think it's a bad idea to allow the district Gerry Silverstein: To make decisions on how the budget will be affected. Gerry Silverstein: And the reason I say that is because over the years, the district has made some, what I consider, terrible decisions in terms of facilitating quality learning outcomes. Gerry Silverstein: And I'm confident they will make the same mistakes over and over
020again, because they're locked into a certain mentality, which I believe is the antithesis of quality learning. Gerry Silverstein: So, in my opinion, you're putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen house, and I think that's gonna turn out to be a very bad decision. Gerry Silverstein: That's all I wanted to say. SBSD Owl Camera: Mayor, thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Are there any other comments? SBSD Owl Camera: So, thank you. Your input is appreciated, and will be considered as we move forward. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, so now we will move on to item number 4, focus on student learning, and hear from our student reps in the moment. Thank you, Jen. Psat and SAT score results will be available, I think, tomorrow for high school students who took the test on October 14th.
021We wish good luck to all the test takers. SBSD Owl Camera: The High School Student Council is hosting Spirit Week this week. SBSD Owl Camera: Where students and teachers engage in themed dress-up days. So today was where teachers dress up as students, and students dress up as teachers, and tomorrow is class color day. SBSD Owl Camera: Student Council will also be holding a pep rally tomorrow, filled with a lot of exciting events, so, all high school students can find the alternate schedule posted on the blue-grade calendar or in your email. SBSD Owl Camera: And I believe that our superintendent is going to participate in the pep rally, is that right? I'm going to be there, but they have not assigned me a role yet. They might have not had space for them, but I will
022be there carrying on. We are super appreciative of it. SBSD Owl Camera: Momin and I are planning to meet with student council. We believe it's going to be Monday the 17th. That kind of depends on the superintendent committee dates. We would like to further discuss with them how we can work together to better represent the student voice. SBSD Owl Camera: We're excited to engage in a meaningful discussion and plan to bring back some of our main takeaways to share with the board at the next meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: On November 12th, we have a late start day for the middle and high school, and an early weekday for the elementary schools. Families can check their individual school's website for start and end times. SBSD Owl Camera: The high school will also be hosting a fall
023ball this Friday, the 7th, at 7pm. This is a great opportunity for students to connect and have fun with their peers, and we hope to see many students there. SBSD Owl Camera: Chamberlain's PTO will be holding their first PTO Movie of the movie night of the year. Students have voted for the movie Elio, which will begin at 6pm, and donation and seating information can be found on the school's website. SBSD Owl Camera: And as fall sports come to an end, we wanted to celebrate all the wonderful athletes who worked hard all season. Congrats to the boys and girls' middle school soccer teams who went undefeated, as well as the middle school boys cross-country team, who placed first at the Vermont State Championship meet. SBSD Owl Camera: Good luck to all the winter sport athletes who
024will be starting their season soon. SBSD Owl Camera: And that is all we have today, right? Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, the next item is number 5, action items. SBSD Owl Camera: And before the board discusses or acts on any action item, we will invite public comments specific to that item. Speakers will have up to 3 minutes to share any remarks related to the item under consideration. SBSD Owl Camera: And I just wanted… and then we will take a vote on each of these, and again, as we already said, Hallie and Moment, now have an opportunity to cast a non-binding vote, so we've got to make sure you guys weigh in on us. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, so the first item is, Charge Permanent Superintendent Search Committee. SBSD Owl Camera: Both, let's see,
025would any members of the public like to speak to this item before the board discusses and considers action? SBSD Owl Camera: Is there anybody online? No. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Great. SBSD Owl Camera: So, Seamus shared with me earlier today… Seamus, I didn't know if you wanted to read it, or do you want me to read out this motion here? Seamus Abshere: Since you're chairing, I can read the motion, or… Seamus Abshere: I can make the motion right now if you want me to. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, go for it. Seamus Abshere: Okay, so this, similar to the interim superintendent search, is intended to create a committee Seamus Abshere: to assist in the superintendent's search. So, that's the context for what we're talking about right now. So… Seamus Abshere: I move that a permanent superintendent
026search committee be created as follows. I'm actually going to share my screen so people can read along if they want to. Seamus Abshere: I move that a permanent superintendent search committee be created as follows. Seamus Abshere: It would have 3 voting members, namely Chair Seamus Abshur, Clerk Laura Williams, and Vice Chair Jennifer Lawrence. The committee's responsibilities would be Seamus Abshere: Work in collaboration with Vermont School Boards Association consultant Elaine Pinckney, review candidates, select candidates for interviews, perform first-round interviews, determine finalists, recommend finalists to the board, or recommend reposting the position. Seamus Abshere: In addition to the 3 voting members, there would be 9 non-voting members composed of community representative, a legislator, city manager. Seamus Abshere: District HR director, parent representative, school board representative, a principal representative chosen by the administrators union, a teacher representative chosen
027by the teachers union, a support staff representative chosen by the support staff union, a central office representative chosen by the central office staff. Seamus Abshere: And the three voting members, in consultation with consultant Elaine Pinckney, would pick the non-voting members. Seamus Abshere: The screening committee's service is completed when it makes its recommendation to the South Burlington School Board. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: So, I will now, entertain a motion to charge the Superintendent Search Committee as presented. Seamus Abshere: I move. SBSD Owl Camera: Second. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay? It was moved by Seamus and seconded by Michelle. I have a hand up front. SBSD Owl Camera: We already… point of order, we already asked for comment before, so… Yep. Yeah, we had already asked for comment prior to… prior to this, so… SBSD
028Owl Camera: Is there any discussion beyond… SBSD Owl Camera: With this? Can the eye bring something up? SBSD Owl Camera: progress. SBSD Owl Camera: I was wondering at the last board meeting, Jen, I watched it, and you had brought up having two student representatives on the board. Was there any further discussion about that? Yes. SBSD Owl Camera: And so we went back and we spoke with Elaine, Laura and I spoke with Elaine about it, and there's a reservation for keeping it at the same number as what we had had before, so we can do the one student rep, and so the question would be, you know, whether you guys wanted to swap. SBSD Owl Camera: And have Mom and take an opportunity to sit and be part of that, you know, conversation, or how you
029guys want to proceed. But yeah, we're only going to be able to do one. SBSD Owl Camera: Just because, again, you know, the point is we want to try to keep it SBSD Owl Camera: You know, a smaller group, that we don't want it to get too big. Seamus Abshere: And also, I think the consideration was there's one principal representative, there's one teacher representative. SBSD Owl Camera: Yep, okay, attention. SBSD Owl Camera: Sure. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so… Any other discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, hearing none, all those in favor? SBSD Owl Camera: Stay on? I am. SBSD Owl Camera: Aye. SBSD Owl Camera: Any, any opposition? SBSD Owl Camera: No, okay, so the motion passes. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, next up is nominating Board Representative to the Safer Routes Task Force, the SRTS.
030SBSD Owl Camera: So before we get to that, would any members of the public like to speak to this item before the board discusses and considers action? SBSD Owl Camera: So, she'll probably have a hand up online. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: So, now let's get his hands up. Oh, we do have a hand up online? Yeah. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Can we unmute? Who remember that? Lisa Elizabeth? Elizabeth: Hi, Jen, it's Elizabeth Fitzgerald. I just wanted to, Elizabeth: make the comment and ask the board to… Elizabeth: maybe reconsider. It's difficult for the community to comment on a topic before it understands what the board is actually going to discuss or make a motion on. And that happened with the previous, Elizabeth: topic, and I'll send an email, since my comments weren't
031allowed. But I don't know if that was explicitly intended or not, but it's very difficult to, Elizabeth: To comment ahead of time when we don't know what the discussion or the motion might be. Elizabeth: I'll just register that right now. Thank you for hearing me. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you for that. SBSD Owl Camera: Do we have any other comments? SBSD Owl Camera: I just wanted to comment about the Safer Routes to School. Is that what you're taking comments on? Yes. SBSD Owl Camera: Hi, I'm Jean Marie Clark, I'm the Director of Operations and Finance for the District, and I am one of the district representatives on that Safer Routes to School Committee, so I just wanted to SBSD Owl Camera: answer any questions that maybe you had. Joe is on the committee with me.
032There are invites that are sent to the principals, and they, as they are able, also attend that. Holly's been involved, or someone, a representative from her school, Alyssa, has spent quite a bit of time working with that committee, and so… SBSD Owl Camera: I just wanted to say that it's… they've been really great work. I'm happy to be a member of that committee. We meet remotely every time now, and we meet once a month for an hour or an hour and a half, so… Oh, I just want to put that out there. That's great. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, so I think this had come up also during the previous meeting, is that there is a space on the SRS… SRTS for a board member, and I know that… I think
033Kate Bailey has been… has been serving in the capacity as a board member, but it would be nice… She works in and lays the side, so… Okay, to open that up for any… SBSD Owl Camera: current members that would be interested in participating. So, did we have a nomination for that? SBSD Owl Camera: someone interested? SBSD Owl Camera: I will volunteer to help out. SBSD Owl Camera: I believe that we nominate Dan Boyer to be the school board's representative on the Safer Routes to School Task Force. SBSD Owl Camera: I've sucked. SBSD Owl Camera: So, Seamus? SBSD Owl Camera: as… SBSD Owl Camera: All right, so, okay, so I would say I will now entertain a motion to nominate Dan Boyer to the Safer Routes Task Force. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, it sounds like… I'll
034move to nominate. Okay, so, Laura moves to nominate. SBSD Owl Camera: And… do we have a second? SBSD Owl Camera: Second. By Michelle, and seconded by Michelle, to proceed with naming Dan Boyer to the Safer Worlds Task Force. Is there any discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Seamus Abshere: I… SBSD Owl Camera: Those opposed, Sega. SBSD Owl Camera: None. All right, the motion passes. Congratulations, and thank you, Mr. Board. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, item number 3 is nominating board representatives to the Superintendent's Curriculum Advisory Committee. SBSD Owl Camera: And so, I guess maybe I can provide a preview of this before we jump into it, but it is, SBSD Owl Camera: looking at the committee that Joe, Dr. Clark has put together, to talk about SBSD
035Owl Camera: curriculum matters in the district. SBSD Owl Camera: Would any members of the public like to speak to this item before the board discusses and considers action? SBSD Owl Camera: Are any hands up online? No, he hands up online. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, hearing no comments. SBSD Owl Camera: We'll proceed with discussion. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, so we, nicole Carter is leading this charge, and it is the… SBSD Owl Camera: we talked at length about superintendent committees. We decided that the first two would be the Curriculum Advisory Committee and the Finance Committee, which Jean Marie is still working on, knowing that it's also budget season and audit season, so… but the Curriculum Advisory Committee is ready to go. First meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, the 11th. SBSD Owl Camera: 4 to 5.30 p.m.
036in this room. SBSD Owl Camera: The committee, currently has about 17, members. SBSD Owl Camera: The plan is to meet quarterly. The committee will… the role of the committee will be really to, at the first meeting, come up with a list of topics that they want to investigate, and then the rest of the time will be investigating specific topics. SBSD Owl Camera: to make recommendations if needed, to me, to bring to the board if we decide to do that. It is an advisory committee, it is not a decision-making committee, and we would like, board members to also be on the committee. So what I'm asking for is the board… you can have up to three, SBSD Owl Camera: So, one, two, or three board members interested in serving on a curriculum advisory committee, we would
037love to have you. SBSD Owl Camera: And I'm sorry, the first meeting is November 11th, which is next Tuesday at what time? Next Tuesday, 4 p.m, 4 to 5.30 p.m. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, and then you're going to meet beyond the quarterly. The quarterly… the future dates are not second. Okay, where are you meeting here? Right here in this room. SBSD Owl Camera: So, I have a question, and I guess… so, as a parent whose children have attended South Burlington High School, the schools, I think they're… it's such a great school. SBSD Owl Camera: A key observation that I've had is whether there are opportunities to strengthen academic rigor. SBSD Owl Camera: And extend learning beyond the classroom. SBSD Owl Camera: And, you know, whether it's through more challenging coursework or more assessments, I hate
038to say tests, I'm sure there's people that are kind of… SBSD Owl Camera: roll their eyes at that, but thinking about that and how we're preparing the students, and I know I've spoken with you before about this, like, concerns that I've had, I have a senior in high school, and because of the free block system, there's some days he doesn't go to school until 12 o'clock, and he's home at, like, 2. SBSD Owl Camera: I know he thinks it's great, but for me, as a parent, I feel like, you know, you want your kids to be at school getting some kind of education during that… during that time, whether they're in classes or internships or whatnot. So I guess, would this… SBSD Owl Camera: committee. SBSD Owl Camera: Be able to discuss and explore options
039like that, and think about how we could ensure that all students SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, I mean, the role of the committee, the first meeting will be specifically, brainstorming lists of topics, and then prioritizing those topics that we want to look at in the future. And if those, specific topics come up and are prioritized, yeah, we would look into those. Okay. Again, it would be, SBSD Owl Camera: You know, we're a learning institution, so what we're going to do is research and data-based decision-making on whatever we're going to do, and that would… frankly, it's a slow-moving process, but it is one that the committee will SBSD Owl Camera: do their research, they'll have discussions, they'll give some recommendations to me, and at that point, I would take recommendations to the board if I felt they
040were SBSD Owl Camera: appropriate to take to the work, or if they needed to be taken to the work. That's great. SBSD Owl Camera: So, any other discussion or comments on this? I got one thing. Just to think about when you guys are meeting, is the way the processes… the processes that are in place for getting ahead in mainly going into high school. SBSD Owl Camera: I know, at least for math, that's what I've experienced, is that in 8th grade, if your teacher thinks… if your math teacher thinks that you're at the level where you can skip a year, they'll let you know, like, 2 months in advance, they'll tell you the curriculum for the freshman year math, and you can test out of it. SBSD Owl Camera: Then after that, after that, if you
041want to go ahead a year, you'd have to… SBSD Owl Camera: Go online and pay, you know. SBSD Owl Camera: $600-ish for a course that would get you the credit for that, and there's no way to really test out of it, which obviously puts a lot of students who can't afford a $600 course at a disadvantage. So that's one thing to think about. I know people have brought it forward at public forums, and SBSD Owl Camera: Well, I mean, honestly, we are still looking for some student representatives on the Curriculum Advisory Committee, so if you guys know anybody, please have them reach out to myself or Visar. I was about to ask, it's not a conflict of interest, though. SBSD Owl Camera: students to be on it, right? Absolutely. I mean, you are the first
042line of receivers of the British loan, so we absolutely important. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, so… Yeah, did you… can you repeat, Joe, the composition of the committee? Like, who… who do we see on it? SBSD Owl Camera: I can't, because, Nicole has those names. SBSD Owl Camera: It is a… it is, central office folks, it's some principals, it's some teachers, it's a couple community members. Our ideal, and again, it's our first meeting, and I want to get it rolling. I don't want to wait for perfect to have a meeting, I want to get the… get it moving. SBSD Owl Camera: Ideally, I would love to see an administrator from each building, a teacher from each building, students at least from the high school, maybe the middle school, a couple board members, and some community members
043or parents, and SBSD Owl Camera: frankly, would prefer some that have maybe a background in education, maybe there's some college professors in the community, folks that are, you know… and it's not limited to that, but we would love somebody that has some, perspective that they could bring to, to making curricular kind of recommendations. Okay, that's a great. Seamus Abshere: Ben, I had a question. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes. Seamus Abshere: So… I have concerns about, achievement… about… Seamus Abshere: You know, whether students are being held to high expectations, Seamus Abshere: I would anticipate bringing those up in a normal board meeting, like, say, in December or January or something like that. So then, Seamus Abshere: you know, like, I can… I can do that in the board meeting, and then the curriculum committee is an operational
044committee that will then, you know, you'll take the input that you get from the board. Seamus Abshere: and do something with it, but I'm… I would… I don't have to be on the curriculum committee in order to express those concerns, right? SBSD Owl Camera: No, you don't. SBSD Owl Camera: So, can I bring it back to… does any… is anybody interested in serving on the committee? Yeah, that's the next question. I'm interested. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there anyone else interested? SBSD Owl Camera: I'd be interested in serving on it. SBSD Owl Camera: Perfect. Can… can I nominate you two? SBSD Owl Camera: That would be great. SBSD Owl Camera: I would like to accommodate Michelle and Jen to be on the Curriculum Committee. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay? So, it has been… SBSD Owl Camera: moved
045by Laura to nominate Jen. I'm just making notes here, too, with some directness, and Michelle to serve on the committee. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, do we have anyone, we… SBSD Owl Camera: You need a second? Okay, what was that? I was just waiting for you to get the first. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm getting there, I'm getting there. All right, okay, is there any other discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Seamus Abshere: Aye. SBSD Owl Camera: Right. SBSD Owl Camera: All those opposed? SBSD Owl Camera: No opposition? All right. Motion passes. So, thank you, and again, I just said, it's a brand new committee. We're going to be learning as we go, so please don't expect perfection at our first meeting, but we're going to… I think it's a good…
046I've had committees like this in the past, and they are very, very helpful. SBSD Owl Camera: There will be a Zoom option. There'll be a Zoom option? There will not, no. Oh, there will not, sorry. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, item number 4 is, hiring the SBA to review policy governance policies. SBSD Owl Camera: And so… SBSD Owl Camera: as we had… as I had spoken with, above, and when I briefly shared the, calendar I've been putting together, is we have been talking with the VSBA about having a… SBSD Owl Camera: review of our district policies, and also the end policies, and ensuring alignment with the SBA. And so we want to be lockstep with them, and this would include this thorough review and refresh of, like I said, both the school board, district policies,
047and the end policies. Some of them are quite outdated. SBSD Owl Camera: So, I will entertain a motion to authorize the Chair to sign a contract with the SBA to review policy governance policies. SBSD Owl Camera: I will move to authorize the chair. Okay? It has been moved by Laura. Do we have a second? Second. And it has been seconded by Michelle. SBSD Owl Camera: And is there any discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, the motion passes. Seamus Abshere: Sorry, sorry, if you wouldn't mind, I think we should… I don't… we didn't take public comment at the beginning of this. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, sorry, yep, and then… Seamus Abshere: Maybe we should, yeah, so let's maybe take public comment
048now, and if it's very… SBSD Owl Camera: Thanks, Jameis. And, okay, so would any members of the public like to speak on this item? SBSD Owl Camera: There's nothing online. SBSD Owl Camera: Gotcha. SBSD Owl Camera: So… Yep, there's nothing online. SBSD Owl Camera: So do we need to build the plot again, or can we just move forward since nothing has changed? Seamus Abshere: Yeah, I think we can probably move forward. I just… I think, the… the amount is $1,000. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, do you want me to make the motion again? No, I don't think we need to. The emotionary is $2,000, is it not? Seamus Abshere: The contract is for $1,000. Seamus Abshere: Yeah, that's up front, and then I think there's a… I thought it was 2,000 total for them to review
049district policies. I know, I thought so too, but it's, Seamus Abshere: They must have given us a discount. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, wonderful. Great, thank you. Good. Thank you for that, Jan. This is the greatest film. Seamus Abshere: And I believe that we need another, potentially we need to make another, decision here, because, Seamus Abshere: We'll attend one meeting of the policy committee. So they're kind of expecting us to have a policy committee, and so I would recommend that we at this point now, Seamus Abshere: create a policy committee that will work with the VSBA during the time that they're doing this assessment, and then will disband, after making a recommendation to the board. Seamus Abshere: So I can… SBSD Owl Camera: Possibly nominate board members to work with the SBA. Okay. Possibly. SBSD Owl
050Camera: All right, well, why don't we, just in case we need them? And then… Okay. If we don't need them, then we don't have to have them, but that way it's covered. SBSD Owl Camera: When's the work going to begin? Yeah, we don't have any information what this work's going to look like, so I would… I would say to a boss, because… If it's not going to begin right away, I don't think there's harm in waiting for the committee to be appointed on the 19th, and then people can figure out if they want to do it, if the work's going to start right away at the end of the committee. Yeah, I think we just got everything today. I don't even know exactly what we're in for, so… No, that's a good point. SBSD Owl
051Camera: like to look at it first. Yeah, and Seamus, actually, when thinking of that, when I looked at the information the other day, I thought that they were not proposing starting this from the sequence that they had for the different activities that they would be doing. SBSD Owl Camera: It wasn't until… SBSD Owl Camera: the district policy review, they were looking at possibly starting it in the summer, in, like, May. SBSD Owl Camera: My comment was, is it possible to actually move that sooner? SBSD Owl Camera: I could volunteer to get in touch with them to ask… get some more information on that, because I feel like it's really hard to make this decision without… and you've never done this before, so… Okay. I've learned the hard way that… SBSD Owl Camera: it's good to
052get information before. All right. So, I think at this point, it seems that the best thing to do is just authorizing the chair to sign the contract with the SBA to review policy governance policies. SBSD Owl Camera: And then we will circle back with the SBA, figure out what is needed for the committee, and align on the schedule for when that's going to happen. SBSD Owl Camera: And then we can vote on who would be on that committee from the board separately. Does that sound okay? SBSD Owl Camera: So with that in mind, do we need to change anything, or can we say that we're… we're going to move forward because it's been moved by Laura, seconded by Michelle, that we have the authorization from the chair to sign the contract and move forward? SBSD
053Owl Camera: Unless there's any other discussion. Seamus Abshere: Yeah, I think the motion was valid. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so I think we're… the motion passes. SBSD Owl Camera: And Laura will follow up? SBSD Owl Camera: Yep. Okay, the next… SBSD Owl Camera: item is discussion items. So, first up is budget, and as we noted during the announcements, there will be a community forum next Monday, November the 10th, at 6 p.m, same place here, to discuss the 2026-2027 budget. SBSD Owl Camera: Please let your voices be heard. Please show up. You can call in, you can Zoom, you can be here for public comment in person. SBSD Owl Camera: And, those options, just to recap, we talked about an option one, which is a 0% increase to the budget. It would remain the same as
054it was on the 2025 ballot, $71.5 million. SBSD Owl Camera: Option 2 was an increase that parallels inflation, which could be around 3-4%. SBSD Owl Camera: Option 3 is no cuts to any roles or programming which could add 10% or more to the existing budget. And then option 4 was midway between the inflation and no cuts. SBSD Owl Camera: So, that's just mentioning that. Is there any other… SBSD Owl Camera: comment or discussion on that? I would just like to clarify, if I may, that those are the four options that we will have prepared for you, but that's not… the board is not, committed to having to choose one of those four options. Yes. After we have the discussion, you might choose to do something else. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you, I think that's a
055really good clarification, for us and for the community, because my assumption all along has been, with this many options, I mean, it gives us a scale for what we're looking at, right? From… from zero to… SBSD Owl Camera: 7, 8, whatever it is, is that top number. And if we know, kind of, what the moving parts are at those benchmarks, we can kind of interpolate them in between. Yes. SBSD Owl Camera: Yep, exactly right. SBSD Owl Camera: And to clarify. Seamus Abshere: Is now a good time? Sorry, it's hard to… SBSD Owl Camera: Pardon. Seamus Abshere: I've never been… SBSD Owl Camera: Go ahead, yeah. Seamus Abshere: I've never been remote before, and this is very difficult. But, Jen, you're doing a great job. So, Seamus Abshere: we are not going to vote on the
056budget next week. What we're going to vote on is picking a limit to how big the budget can get. Seamus Abshere: And, the… Seamus Abshere: The superintendent and his staff are going to tell us what these four limits would look like in terms of losses of programming, losses of staff. Seamus Abshere: All those things. So, it's very important that, the community Seamus Abshere: is represented by us, first of all, were representatives of the whole community, not just the school community, not just the parent community, but also the, you know, the non-school community. Seamus Abshere: And it's also very important that if there are community members who feel like they, want to make their voice heard, that they show up next week. Next week is a community forum. What that means is that the room is
057actually organized differently. Like, instead of sitting around in a circle. Seamus Abshere: and having the community and the audience, we actually move the desks up so that the community can sit at the table with us and offer their feedback. So, it's very important that if you feel that your voice is not being heard. Seamus Abshere: If you feel that there's a voice that you need to represent that's not being heard, that you come and talk about it next week, because we are making a big decision next week. It is not the final budget, because that's… Seamus Abshere: a whole package of complicated, you know, that takes months to prepare, and so we're trying to give the superintendent as much time as possible to produce a good budget based on the limit that we're going to
058set next week. SBSD Owl Camera: Good clarification, shutting a ceiling. Shutting a ceiling, yes. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Very good. Any other… comments? SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, so the next topic here under discussion items is budget for informing the public. How much money should we spend informing the public about the budget? What channels, TV, radio, yard signs, should we use, an outside agency to develop these materials? SBSD Owl Camera: I have a comment on that. I mean, I understand the importance of having impactful material cascaded to the community to garner support. SBSD Owl Camera: But I was… I guess I'm hoping that we can leverage our internal folks instead of hiring an outside firm to help with that, with the communication. And, you know, maybe looking at what's worked well for other
059districts when they're communicating and sending information out, and perhaps we… SBSD Owl Camera: R&D revolve Duplicate, something similar for ourselves that, SBSD Owl Camera: You know, how we can effectively market the good that our school SBSD Owl Camera: district is doing, and crazy property values, and that's… that's what this is important for. This is what you're investing in. Seamus Abshere: Right. SBSD Owl Camera: So, yeah. Seamus Abshere: I added this, agenda item, or I suggested that it be added, so maybe I can provide a little bit of context. According to Vermont law, one of the responsibilities of the school board is to, inform the community about the budget. Seamus Abshere: And so, we are allowed to spend money to inform the community about the budget. Seamus Abshere: In years past, this has meant a mailer
060going out to the community, Seamus Abshere: in, you know, sometime in the fall. Last year, I remember it was a big blue document that had, pictures of kids on the front, and then there was a big yellow box that said, you know, $71 million or something like that, and then it was also full of all kinds of different financial terms. Seamus Abshere: Graphs, charts, totals, all that stuff. Seamus Abshere: And so. Seamus Abshere: what I want to discuss is that I think we should consider hiring a professional, to design that so that it will be accessible, because, you know, I have… Seamus Abshere: a lot of… let's just put it this way. It was very hard for me to read that material. Seamus Abshere: And so, I think that it's very important that we communicate
061the value of the schools as an asset to all members of the community. Somebody said to me recently, you know, the schools are the most valuable asset Seamus Abshere: that South Burlington owns. And so, Seamus Abshere: presenting the budget and explaining it in a way that is understandable to the widest variety of people is not easy. That is, you know, as… Seamus Abshere: as anybody who works in marketing or communication knows, you, you know, it's not common sense. You know, you have to really, be very… Seamus Abshere: judicious about, how you, what information you choose to put in, in the mailer, and how it's presented, and all that. So I was gonna suggest Seamus Abshere: That maybe in a future board meeting, we could all agree on a number, on a budget, for not only
062sending out the mailers, but also perhaps for actually having the mailers, be designed by an outside firm. SBSD Owl Camera: Bye. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, I mean, I think if we're going to consider that, it would be good to have information regarding how much that could potentially cost. It's going to be a lot of money. Yeah. So that would be very hard for me to swallow. Would the board like me to hold… SBSD Owl Camera: area districts to see what they do in terms of marketing materials? Yeah, usually, like, Essex, I know it's internal. SBSD Owl Camera: And they send out a small number. I'd be happy to check with the Champlain Valley Superintendents Association, just to get a sense of what other people do. Yeah, that would be great. And if we could, like,
063jump in on any standardized, accessible formats, like, I do really appreciate focusing on accessibility. SBSD Owl Camera: not to the detriment of providing the detail to those community members that want the detail, right? Like, you still have to be… we still have to be transparent about that. But in terms of, you know, creating simple but meaningful presentations, it's important. SBSD Owl Camera: And if there's already work that's been done in our communities, it would be great to SBSD Owl Camera: Piggyback on some of that. Seamus Abshere: That's so nice. SBSD Owl Camera: For a bigger budget, I like that. Seamus Abshere: I just… in terms of the cost of it, I think that… Seamus Abshere: I think that something that we should consider is that… Seamus Abshere: Like, putting the school budget in the context
064of Seamus Abshere: Protecting property values. Putting the school budget in terms of, you know, making… Seamus Abshere: South Burlington a place where people want to move, and a place where people want to create businesses. Seamus Abshere: The, the, the return on investment Of, spending to have Seamus Abshere: you know, professionals do this, or whoever we want to do, is probably greater than the cost of the actual, you know, whatever we might spend on it. And I also want to say, I am thankful that Joe Clark will go and ask other districts and superintendents what they're doing. Seamus Abshere: But I also want to point out that it is the responsibility of the school board Seamus Abshere: To, inform the public, and so we have to… Seamus Abshere: You know, it is our job, not the
065staff's job, to inform the public about Seamus Abshere: What the budget… what the district needs, and and so it is really our responsibility to come up with the right budget number, and then pass that budget number. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, I would like to eat. Seamus Abshere: Didn't delegate that. SBSD Owl Camera: I would like to hear what Joe comes up with, and if you want to do some research, but outside consultant, but… SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know. I'd have to see some numbers. I mean, we're going to be cutting SBSD Owl Camera: positions, like, I don't know. I would have to really see what that looks like. We are having community forums, you know, we'll be writing letters, you know, to the other paper. We are doing… that is our job. SBSD Owl
066Camera: Right. Yeah, I mean, there are ways in this day and age to get the information out without spending mailing out to other household. Yeah, so those mailers, like, I remember that line item discussion, and it was a big number. It's very expensive. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, it is. SBSD Owl Camera: Sorry. I just wanted to, SBSD Owl Camera: offer a couple things. First, I think that one of the things that happened last year was SBSD Owl Camera: We heard that the community wanted more information about the budget, so I think to that end, that mailer was like a dumping of information, so it was like, it was more information, but it was so much, it was utterly confusing. So, but to your point, Michelle, we need it to be simple and understandable. SBSD Owl
067Camera: So that folks can grasp it, but the minutiae, if folks do want to dig into it, does also need to be available. Does it need to be, you know, mailed home on a large postcard? Probably not. That actually felt like, as a community member watching that, paying attention, I felt like the more people SBSD Owl Camera: objected to… SBSD Owl Camera: any particular aspect of the budget proposal, up to and including the top-line number, that the response was continually, you just don't understand. So let me increase the complexity of what I'm giving you, so that you do understand. And SBSD Owl Camera: I'm not sure that was effective or the way to go, right? So, again, just adding emphasis to the point, yeah, simple. Simple is better. Honest. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Make the
068nitty-gritty details available for those that can consume it. SBSD Owl Camera: and interpret it the way it's intended, right? And the way, you know… I also just wanted to say that we're continuing to partner with Tousant to do this, for all of us to get through this first round of a new version of the budget creation, and so part of that work is they're working with our communications person to create a variety of documents that we'll use and can replicate SBSD Owl Camera: years to come, so I want to make sure that whatever, like, you folks are asking for isn't duplicating the efforts that we're already working on with Tacent. So, by we, I mean Ken, not me, but, so, maybe the direction is more, you know. SBSD Owl Camera: if those collateral materials are
069being created in-house already, maybe the direction we look for from the board is, what is the best way, do you… would you like us to disseminate that information? Like, do you… SBSD Owl Camera: Think that your constituents are going to be more receptive of getting that information through social media avenues, or through a mailer, or through… SBSD Owl Camera: more community… you know, radio ads, whatever your thoughts are on that, so maybe that's helpful. Well, I think that's a great point, because we're hiring… we've hired this consultant to advise us, and based on that, yeah, I think an understanding of what's the best way to distill and communicate this. Yeah. I mean, I've heard also the opportunity of, you know, setting up pop-up stations and SBSD Owl Camera: Starbucks or wherever, like, you're out, and
070you have the opportunity for people that are out just to be available to pop in. If you have tables at sporting events or whatever to talk about. SBSD Owl Camera: And I would say that this isn't Tasten's first rodeo, and it's definitely not their first rodeo in the state of Vermont, so, they have a methodology that they've used that's worked for them in other districts, so really following their cue there, may be to our best interest, so… Oh, that's great. Seamus Abshere: I agree with everything that was just said about simplicity, about leveraging the resources that we have in the district, leveraging the consultants that we've already hired, and all of that builds to Seamus Abshere: the buck stops with the board to… to pass an appropriate budget. And so, Seamus Abshere: you know, when
071it comes to the final design of the messages that are sent to the community, that is the board's choice as politicians. And I think that there's a difference between what a staff Seamus Abshere: person might create as a professional, as an expert in an area, and what a politician might say about, you know, the value of schools to communities. SBSD Owl Camera: We sign on the dotted line. I mean, we don't… I think this is getting into territory that we don't do. I mean, I think we need to hear from Joe, and we speak as one voice, and we basically sign on the dotted line, but we are governments, and so we're not. Seamus Abshere: I'm sorry, Laura, I don't… I don't agree. I think that we're elect… like, according to Vermont law, we operate
072as a legislate… as the… as a legislative body of a municipality, and legislative bodies have political responsibilities in terms of building consent Seamus Abshere: you know, representing all members of a community, and that is inherently a political process that means, you know, we cannot delegate it to experts. We are… Seamus Abshere: common people, we are not educational administration experts, but that's our, you know, it's… we are the representation that makes the taxation Seamus Abshere: acceptable or not acceptable. So, I just want to say that as much as I appreciate the help of any experts, consultants, or staff people, ultimately it is our job to make the case Seamus Abshere: And then, if we screwed up. Seamus Abshere: We lose our elections, and that's as it should be. SBSD Owl Camera: I move that we table
073this item, and that, Seamus, if you'd like to get some quotes. SBSD Owl Camera: And, Joe, if you could check in, I mean, I can… I know how Essex does it, and… SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, this item is not up for action, so I think that there's still time, we don't even know the number yet, but I think I can get… I can find out from the area superintendents what they do. SBSD Owl Camera: Seamus can look into what he wants to look into. We can talk to Tassen and get a sense of what they're going to do. And ultimately, I appreciate the board doing this instead of the superintendent doing the marketing or whatever, but I will do my best to give you whatever kind of SBSD Owl Camera: research I can to
074help you make the best decision that you guys want to make. Great, thank you. Seamus Abshere: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Perfect. SBSD Owl Camera: I am capturing notes for our parking lot. SBSD Owl Camera: Right, if no other discussion on these topics, we can now move to, let's see, the interim superintendent Report. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, thank you. So the first item is the Rick Marcotte safety update, and it's changed since I wrote my update. This is great. A permit has been submitted by the city for installation of an 8-foot fence between McDonald's and school property. Installation started today. Ground was broke, and that fence is going up, so we're really happy about that. Motion detection lighting has been installed on the ZEM SBSD Owl Camera: structures to eliminate the playground area during nighttime
075hours. We are still doing morning sweeps. SBSD Owl Camera: Daily, despite these efforts, maintenance staff continue to find used hypodermic needles, vape devices, and empty alcohol containers on school grounds. Typically, Monday is the day that we find those. It seems to be a weekend, weekend party, and there's a cleanup on Monday. SBSD Owl Camera: We had, we have had great, collaboration with law enforcement. Deputy Chief Sean Briscoe attended, the PTO meeting at, Marcotte on October 14th to provide updates and answer questions. Principal Alyssa McDonald, along with, parents Whitney Kersinger and Heather Mayo, met with City Manager Jesse Baker and New Chief, New Police Chief Breaux to review the City Safety Report. SBSD Owl Camera: Marcotte staff have increased calls to the South Burlington Police Department to report daytime activity, and that was at their invitation.
076We're really grateful for them, asking us to call them when we had some issues. And the police and community outreach teams have responded properly and appropriately. SBSD Owl Camera: The police department conducts active patrols on Marco campus to enforce the existing laws SBSD Owl Camera: And they've also partnered with McDonald's to clean up adjacent areas and increase patrol presence in the restaurant parking lot. Also, McDonald's has changed their bathroom lights to blue lights, which makes it harder for people using hypodermic needles to find a vein. So that will hopefully cause them to maybe not go there to use, use their drugs. SBSD Owl Camera: With campus maintenance, the brush hogging along the fence lines has been completed to clear overgrown areas and remove debris, and staff are still reminding students never to touch unsafe items
077such as needles, vape devices, bottles, or cans, and also to report immediately to an adult if they find anything. SBSD Owl Camera: That's the Marcotte safety update, a lot, a lot going on, and we'll continue those efforts. We can… we will never be able to guarantee that we… something won't happen again, but we're going to do everything in our power to prevent it. SBSD Owl Camera: My second item is the cell phone policy compliance. The board asked me to report on this. At the middle school, our students continue to do a great job embracing the cell phone free environment, and that's fostered a more engaged and respectful school culture. SBSD Owl Camera: School is partnering with their PTO to host a special showing of the documentary Screen Agers to raise awareness about the effects of
078screen time and social media on youth, and they are now in their second year of being self-program free. They are seeing increased positive student-to-student interactions throughout the day. SBSD Owl Camera: Landline phones are available in the main office for any student who needs to contact home, and the middle school was featured in Scholastic Magazine last year for its leadership at creating a cell phone-free learning environment. Their data from Quarter 1 showed that the cell phone policy has improved focus, engagement, and overall classroom climate. SBSD Owl Camera: At the high school, the high school just surveyed their students SBSD Owl Camera: and staff a week or so ago. And student feedback was mixed. Many do appreciate the fewer distractions, while others miss the convenience of phone access. Students cited benefits such as better concentration, more in-person
079socializing, and fewer classroom interruptions. SBSD Owl Camera: But some common student frustrations included difficulty contacting parents for rides, or loss of tools like QR codes and calculators, and anxiety about emergencies. SBSD Owl Camera: Several students have requested more flexibility during lunch, study halls, or for seniors, and noted even unenforcement among the staff. SBSD Owl Camera: Staff responses were overwhelmingly positive, reporting calmer classrooms, stronger peer relationships, and clearer administrative follow-through. SBSD Owl Camera: Teachers have observed fewer conflicts, more on-time attendance, and students developing healthier phone habits. A few concerns remain about inconsistent consequences, some distractions shifting to laptops. SBSD Owl Camera: And intermittent bathroom phone use. SBSD Owl Camera: Infractions data shows compliance is generally strong, though violations cluster in hallways and restrooms. Overall, the policy is meeting its goals of promoting focus and connection with
080continued monitoring and consistent reinforcement recommending. So, pretty, pretty well, as you might expect for a change. SBSD Owl Camera: The Redistricting committee task force meeting, I did go to Winooski High School last… SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah. Time flies. I think it was last week I was at Winooski when the State Redistricting Committee Task Force had a meeting, and I spent the day there listening to the presentations, and they had, SBSD Owl Camera: three different models that they had worked on, and they were going to… at the end of the day, they voted to continue looking into all three models. They didn't throw out any of them, and they didn't select any of them, and so we know that they're supposed to come up with a model, I think, by the end of December. SBSD Owl
081Camera: There was an opportunity for public comment. I did speak on behalf of the board. We talked about this at one of the last board meetings, where the board gave me feedback on what we wanted to say, and I was happy to say that, which was, basically, we're not committed… we are, SBSD Owl Camera: we are not against the idea, and we're not for the idea. We want to learn more. I did talk about my own personal experience being a district, SBSD Owl Camera: having been a superintendent in a really, really small district, 750 students in one building, and how our students, because the district was so small, didn't have opportunities for things like advanced placement classes, or music, or physics class, all those kinds of things. I made that statement, and then was followed
082by a teacher from an area district who said. SBSD Owl Camera: That wasn't a concern for them. They didn't mind if the students didn't have the opportunities, because they really liked the relationships that they were building with their students, and SBSD Owl Camera: So I think that not everybody is on the same page about wanting to consolidate, to offer more SBSD Owl Camera: Opportunities for students. SBSD Owl Camera: Nonetheless, it was a good meeting, I learned a lot, and they… the task force continues to meet. SBSD Owl Camera: The new Vermont AOE District Quality Standards, you know, those were adopted or upgraded, I think September was the last time that they did that, and they're trying to do a beta test now, where they're asking superintendents to complete a rubric SBSD Owl Camera: about all
083of the new standards. I'm new to the district, as you know, and I think I might have got lost in the shuffle, quite honestly, so I have reached out to the AOE to figure out, what do you need me to do? There's nothing formal this year for the board to do, other than they're asking for superintendents SBSD Owl Camera: To fill out, like, a sample survey, so they can look at the results and make whatever tweaks they need to before it becomes an item in the 26-27 school year. SBSD Owl Camera: And finally, the best use proposal. I've spoken about this, and I had it in a board update. We are a member of the New England School Development Council, NESDAQ. SBSD Owl Camera: And they offer a service called the Best Use Study, and
084I would like for the board to consider allowing us to enter into an agreement with them to do a Best Use Study. We get a discount, because we're a member. It's still about $16,000, I think. SBSD Owl Camera: But I think it might be well worth it. So what they would do in this best use study is they would come in and look at… I'm specifically… I'm specifically interested in them looking at the middle school, our three elementary schools, the South Point, program, and this building. SBSD Owl Camera: Here, to see if we are, in fact, using our facilities in the best, most efficient, most educationally sound way possible. I think you probably know we spend SBSD Owl Camera: close to $400,000 a year renting facilities, and I'm not convinced that that is in the
085best interest of the district, but I'm also… I'm new here, so I would love to get some feedback from this group doing a study to say. SBSD Owl Camera: To see if… can we arrange our, schools better? Can we do, SBSD Owl Camera: Could we shut a building down? Now, I know when you say words like that, people's hair goes up on their arms right away. We're not committing to anything. SBSD Owl Camera: All I'm asking is for them to come in and do a study, which would then give us, the board, and my administrative team, data to make a wise decision about what's the best way to move forward. SBSD Owl Camera: The study would take several months to do, and they would do it over the summer, so… SBSD Owl Camera: even if
086they, even if they came back with some suggestions that were terrifying to the community, nothing would be implemented until the 27-28 school year at the earliest. So I don't want people to be concerned about the fact that I would like people to come in and just take a look at what we have and give us some thoughts on that, so… SBSD Owl Camera: I know we… I had talked to the board about this, or I emailed the board about this, and we put it on here for discussion. At some point, I would like to get some feedback from the board, whether this would be something you might be supportive of, so I can bring a contract to you for approval, so we can start getting the work done. SBSD Owl Camera: Do we have any
087examples of where they've done this, and kind of outcomes from it? I do not, but I could get those, I'm sure. Seamus Abshere: I have a thought. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes. Seamus Abshere: So first of all, thanks for all those updates. I'm so glad to hear that action's being taken on safety. I'm so glad to hear that the cell phone policy is having its desired effect. I'm supportive of you Seamus Abshere: you know, I'm personally supportive of a best-use analysis being conducted, and I just wanted to say that any discussion of… Seamus Abshere: you know, changing buildings around, you know, consolidating. That is, an example of, definitely a political decision that is the board's decision. And so, Seamus Abshere: That's something that we need to be well-informed on, but at the end of the day,
088since it affects so many constituents, you know, both positively and negatively, we have to be the ones making the decision and also associated with the decision to do something difficult if it has to be done. SBSD Owl Camera: I absolutely agree with that. These are huge decisions, and I think they're decisions also where you'd want some feedback. And the other thing I think I would mention is this, I… again. SBSD Owl Camera: I always couch everything with, I've only been here 8 weeks or whatever. I don't… this will not be a solution, to our facility's issues. When you walk through our buildings, our buildings are old, they're outdated, our maintenance folks do the best they can to keep them clean and safe and dry. SBSD Owl Camera: But they are not buildings that are set
089up for 21st century education, right? And just consolidating a couple grade levels is not going to fix that. So this would be, if anything were to be done, it would be in the name of cost savings so that we could pursue a longer-term goal of getting some facilities that students in this district deserve. SBSD Owl Camera: One of the sessions that I sat in on last week at ESPA was the Truex Collins, and I was surprised there was, they provided a case study that was done in the southern part of the state where they looked at three different schools. SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know if anybody else sat in on that session, but anyway, what they recognized is on one of the particular… one particular district, there was a $750 million cost savings over
090the next 30 years. SBSD Owl Camera: by building a new facility. $750 million, because what they're looking at is deferred maintenance, and all of this work that is having to go into getting the schools where they can be SBSD Owl Camera: You know, when people can be in there. SBSD Owl Camera: versus actually saying, we're going to start over and do this, because there's a trickle-down effect, too. When you're looking at schools that… buildings that are 50, 60 years old, before you upgrade this, you have to take care of this first, and oh, by the way, that's not up to code, so now you have… I mean, it just starts… it starts to snowball. So, I would be interested in looking at that as well, down the road, like, possibly bringing in a group to
091SBSD Owl Camera: evaluate. SBSD Owl Camera: You know, that consideration. So not just best use, but then also doing an overall study to see SBSD Owl Camera: you know, what would that look like? And I think some of it is going to be contingent on what happens with this redistricting right now, so… I agree with all of that. And whether or not we get construction funds. I went to that 2 years ago when I went to the conference, and I have extensive notes on that. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, I do think, they are, I mean, advocating hard for… SBSD Owl Camera: Construction funds, which may or may not happen. SBSD Owl Camera: But I do think we have to wait until redistricting that decision. I mean, maybe it won't happen. Seamus Abshere: And… I have
092a thought. Seamus Abshere: I can't tell if anybody else… Dan, if you wanted to go before me, or Michelle, if you want to go before me. SBSD Owl Camera: Go ahead, James. Seamus Abshere: What I like about… the idea of going to NESDAQ to get a proposal. Seamus Abshere: What I like about that approach in general is that we have to put all the options on the table. You know, for example, it may turn out that the best and most cost-effective thing to do is remodeling schools. Seamus Abshere: And so I, you know, I don't want to have any discussion of… Seamus Abshere: you know, construction funds or, you know, planning studies from Truex College or something like that to be taken Seamus Abshere: as the board saying that we're gonna build new schools right
093now. Like, there's no consensus in the community around that, and so we're far from a discussion of that, but we are… Seamus Abshere: I think… Seamus Abshere: I am personally very thankful for all the information we can get about how to maximally utilize what we have, and how to make cost-conscious upgrades to those things in the most targeted way possible. SBSD Owl Camera: I think it'd be irresponsible of us not to look into any of those ways that we might be able to operate more efficiently and still provide a great program for our kids. SBSD Owl Camera: I really appreciate that aspect of it, too, because we are, you know, I think we dance around it a lot, but we're at a critical point. SBSD Owl Camera: In the ability to sustain our budgets. SBSD
094Owl Camera: And we need to start being very careful about understanding what works and what we think works less well, and really start making strategic decisions about what we fund and what we let go. SBSD Owl Camera: knowing that that's always going to involve some paint, right? It's going to involve some… SBSD Owl Camera: You know, just frustrations and anxieties, but we have a responsibility to do that because we cannot keep moving forward the way that we've been moving forward in funding our schools. SBSD Owl Camera: And not seeing the results that we expect. SBSD Owl Camera: And that's the royal way, not just South Burlington, the state. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: I speak for myself only, obviously, as an individual, and I assume that there's some level of consensus, although I'm sure it's not
095absolute. Right. Yeah, but thank you, good point. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, well, thank you, Joe. Appreciate that. My pleasure. SBSD Owl Camera: Great, so, next is moving on to consent agenda and planning. SBSD Owl Camera: And for the consent agenda, we have the approval of the hiring report for the following individuals. Angela Buchanan, full-time special educator at Tuttle, and Molly Landsman. SBSD Owl Camera: French teacher at Tuttle. SBSD Owl Camera: Too shy of full-time? I mean? SBSD Owl Camera: And then also the approval of prior meeting minutes from October 1st, 8th, and the 15th. SBSD Owl Camera: Are there any items a board member would like to remove from the consent agenda for a separate discussion or action? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve
096the consent agenda as presented. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm going to accept the… Consent agenda. It has been moved by Laura. SBSD Owl Camera: You have a second? SBSD Owl Camera: And seconded by Michelle to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there any discussion? SBSD Owl Camera: Nos… Okay, hearing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. SBSD Owl Camera: Any opposition? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, the consent agenda is approved. SBSD Owl Camera: Welcome to the South Burlington School District, to our new hires, Dr. Buchanan and Ms. Lansman. SBSD Owl Camera: All right, next is setting the agenda for November 19th. I had a couple of items here, just captured from today. One was updating and possibly posting the calendar. We can look at that again for, that I'd start to put together, and
097then also circling back and looking at what we have on, Seamus, your project management list. SBSD Owl Camera: and start formalizing some of these items, and when we're going to advance items, like the development of a strategic plan. I mean, I think even if it's going to be a ways out, I would like to at least capture some of these things in the parking lot, and say, we will do this in… SBSD Owl Camera: you know, second quarter 2026, or whenever that may be, but that would be one item I would… I would think would be good to have on there. SBSD Owl Camera: And then I also have a beta template, for the beta testing for the template for the monitoring report on the 19th, and outreach from Joe to the community on budget,
098and what you have seen from other districts. SBSD Owl Camera: And do you have that as an… yeah, that's an action item, right? So we are technically doing the beta, but we're using the beta template, so there will be… That would be an action. Yep. SBSD Owl Camera: And then I would say that the discussion would be Joe's outreach to the community, or, you know, outreach to… for the budget, and then the other would be, the discussing the calendar and project management kind of tool that we're… we've started using. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there anything else that needs to be brought up? Is the board comfortable with me bringing the contract for the NESDAQ best use setting at the 19th? Or would you like more time to discuss and think about it? SBSD Owl Camera:
099I would like to know, I mean, if possible, you know, and perhaps this is something that you bring forward at that time, but, like, where it has been done, and what some outcomes have been, I think it would be good to see something like that. Like, what would our output look like, potentially? If they could provide, like, an example of what they've done in the past, or… I could do that, and again, it's… I mean, they wouldn't start until the spring anyway, so we do not have to put this as an SBSD Owl Camera: action item, yeah, I can get that. SBSD Owl Camera: stuff for you. We can do it in my opinion. I'm not in a hurry to get pumped. SBSD Owl Camera: Yep, sounds good to me. SBSD Owl Camera: One other
100possible thing, and I work to Joe for this as well, because, so… SBSD Owl Camera: In thinking about monitoring, we were working on two tracks. One is the template, and the other is, getting ourselves back on schedule. SBSD Owl Camera: And that… that… that has two parts. That has, you know, kind of setting what this should look like from a reasonability perspective, right? And reasonability as determined. SBSD Owl Camera: By a number of factors that Joe and his leadership team are closest to. So, you know, like, when data comes in, and to… so basically what he's done is proposed SBSD Owl Camera: the longer-term schedule, and I know you're working on the shorter term, I'm wondering if the 19th, or maybe it's later, but I'm just… because we're talking about it now. SBSD Owl Camera:
101would that be a good time to start putting… so we're looking at two. One, how do we get caught up for this fiscal year? And two, what does our monitoring schedule proposal look like for, for out years, starting in FY27? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: So, looking at the schedule. All right, so is that, more of a discussion item, do you think? Or do you see that as an action? I feel like it's discussion. I think it's discussion. Yeah, you might have a lot of opinions about that that we want to incorporate, and come back with an action item at some point. Perfect. Just set the schedule. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh. SBSD Owl Camera: For ourselves. And I think we might actually be ahead for the next fiscal year, because that… if we're
102doing the next fiscal year schedule already, that… Yeah. Seamus Abshere: Jen, did you notice behind you the schedule, or the agenda? Is there anything that I missed that you have in your notes? SBSD Owl Camera: No, I don't think so. So I've got, yeah, you've got the project management list, beta template for the monitoring report, Joe Clark outreach to community on the budget, what's been done in other districts. SBSD Owl Camera: That's, that's the outreach. So I remember when we were talking about your, your comment that you had? SBSD Owl Camera: or what we're going to spend on the budget, so Joe is going to bring forward some examples on what's been done in other districts. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, for… For information, yeah, informing community in advance. SBSD Owl Camera: Budget. Seamus Abshere: You
103know, maybe I'm gonna put that as a discussion item again. SBSD Owl Camera: Yum. SBSD Owl Camera: Boom. Seamus Abshere: In the episode I'm budgeting, was this, I thought I heard you say, from community engagement. SBSD Owl Camera: No, actually, that was a separate, but if you want to provide an update also on your… I don't know if you're talking about the community engagement sessions that Joe has been having? SBSD Owl Camera: The 3Q meetings? The 3Q meetings? Yeah, we can talk about that. Yeah, it's like the three question meetings, not 3Q, like, three-quarter. Right, yeah, three-question meetings. SBSD Owl Camera: Update on three questions. Seamus Abshere: What, what do you li- what is it? What do you like? SBSD Owl Camera: What do you like? Do better? What do you expect of the superintendent?
104Seamus Abshere: Do you expect of the superintendent? Seamus Abshere: What should we… what do you like about… SBSD Owl Camera: South Burlington Schools. Seamus Abshere: What do you wish we did better? Is that right? SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah. Seamus Abshere: Any other, do… Seamus Abshere: do we want to ask the superintendent to report on any other things? I thought today's report was fantastic, in terms of content and brevity. So, is there any other topics that the board want to hear about? SBSD Owl Camera: Is there anything you think we need to know? No, you know, how… SBSD Owl Camera: I think maybe a report back on our first Curriculum Advisory Council meeting might be a good thing to give you at least, hey, we had one, and this is how it went. Seamus Abshere: What
105is the official name? SBSD Owl Camera: I don't know, I, I, yeah, we called it, where I came from, Curriculum Advisory Council, CAC for short. I, I don't care, I'm just used to saying that word, or that phrase. Council Committee? Yeah. Curriculum Advisory Committee, yeah. Yeah, Curriculum Advisory Committee. Fine. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: Is it right? SBSD Owl Camera: No. Okay. Seamus Abshere: Alright. SBSD Owl Camera: And some other things may come up. You can… SBSD Owl Camera: discussed. One thing, I mean, I think that there was a good point that was brought up tonight in regards to when the public has the opportunity to comment on action items, and if that's something that we need to circle back, because we had it at the beginning, and I understand what the point
106was. It generally is after we have discussion. That is generally how it's done, so we can… SBSD Owl Camera: We can just, like, just reverse things… Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, but before I wanted to make a comment on something we haven't discussed yet, is… SBSD Owl Camera: We're gonna get on a plane, but we're not going to tell you where it's going until it pushes back from the gate. And Jen, you're doing a great job, and we're allowed to course correct, so… Okay, good. Yeah, we'll just course correct and do it the different… SBSD Owl Camera: No, that's fine, that's good. All right, so is there any further discussion or items for a consent agenda we need to… or planning, I'm sorry, that we need to discuss? SBSD Owl Camera:
107Bye. SBSD Owl Camera: So, there being no further business, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. SBSD Owl Camera: I move to adjourn. SBSD Owl Camera: Laura, and seconded by… also, by Dan. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any discussion? Seamus Abshere: Before we adjourn, just a reminder to everybody that, the November 10th meeting is in just 5 days from now, and we're gonna be, talking about how much money we should spend. SBSD Owl Camera: Exactly, very important. SBSD Owl Camera: And then we also have our next regular meeting that's going to be here Wednesday, November 19th, at the district office, and all the meeting materials and agendas will be available on the district website. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright, any… any other discussion, Floyd? Okay. Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Emilee Hoffman: I don't.
108SBSD Owl Camera: All right, thank you, everybody. Meeting is adjourned.