January 14, 2026 School Board Meeting

001SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, great. Good luck. SBSD Helpdesk: Wednesday, my good evening, usually do. SBSD Helpdesk: I would like to call to order the January 14th, 2026, SBSD Helpdesk: regular meeting of the South Burlington School Board. SBSD Helpdesk: The first item on our agenda was a projected executive session, but we didn't have any executive session topics, so we didn't have the executive session. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't know. SBSD Helpdesk: And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item on the agenda is announcements. SBSD Helpdesk: Board members, do you have 8 o'clock? SBSD Helpdesk: And I… SBSD Helpdesk: Board members who are up for re-election, are you planning to

002run again? That's something that people should announce, probably tonight, because if they're not, we need to give people the opportunity to SBSD Helpdesk: Get their positions signed and do all that. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, so my question on that… SBSD Helpdesk: Would the board like to add an agenda item to discuss that, or should we just announce right now? I think we can just announce, so they're running… we shouldn't really… SBSD Helpdesk: So let me say what the terms are. SBSD Helpdesk: The seats that are opening up are a 2-year term, a 3-year term, another 3-year term, and a 2-year remaining of a 3-year term. SBSD Helpdesk: So, there are 4 slots opening up on the school board. SBSD Helpdesk: And, would anybody like to make any personal announcements about whether they're running or not running?

003SBSD Helpdesk: So, at this time, I am planning to run for the remaining two of the SBSD Helpdesk: It's been one for a two-day training. SBSD Helpdesk: I would love to be able to tell you one way or the other, I'm… I've been… SBSD Helpdesk: going back and forth, and I haven't completely made up my mind yet. SBSD Helpdesk: Hello. SBSD Helpdesk: We'll see how this meeting goes. SBSD Helpdesk: being on the board has been so much fun. Like, I… it's not the board, I, you know… SBSD Helpdesk: things that have changed in my life a lot, and so I'm not… I don't have the same availability I did when I first joined, and I want to make sure I have the capacity to do what it takes to be SBSD Helpdesk: the board itself.

004SBSD Helpdesk: that's my only hesitation, and I promise I will have an answer soon. But other people can still run, if anybody's really dying to, I don't think. SBSD Helpdesk: Waiting for me to answer should stop anyone from deciding where they want to run. SBSD Helpdesk: It is my intention to run. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright? SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you, everybody. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item on the agenda is to review and accept the agenda. SBSD Helpdesk: So… Tonight, we have comments from the public. SBSD Helpdesk: About any topic. SBSD Helpdesk: Then, we have the student representative report. SBSD Helpdesk: Then we have… Superintendent's report. SBSD Helpdesk: Where we'll cover the cell phone policy, And trades and Career Education. SBSD Helpdesk: Then we have a community forum about the budget. SBSD Helpdesk: A community forum means that

005it's the only time when, at a board meeting, board members will listen to community comments in forum and also respond to them. SBSD Helpdesk: Normally, we prevent ourselves from responding, in order to keep business flowing. So, in other words, 6.45 is the approximate time the community forum, SBSD Helpdesk: We hope that people who come and comment. SBSD Helpdesk: Then we have action items. The first action item is a vote on various proposals for the 2027 budget. SBSD Helpdesk: It's possible we will approve a budget to go to the voters tonight. It's also possible that we won't. SBSD Helpdesk: There's also an action item on the, EPC Early Retirement Program that was discussed at the last meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: Another action item is a statement from the board about redistricting. SBSD Helpdesk: And another action item

006is the third reading on Policy G8 selection of library materials. SBSD Helpdesk: Then, we will have a discussion item, a second reading of the video surveillance policy, And that's it. SBSD Helpdesk: Board members have any… Great. Great. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item on the agenda is comments from the public. There are three opportunities for the public to comment at this time about any topic. SBSD Helpdesk: Before the board takes action on an action item, but only on the topic being actioned, and during a community forum. SBSD Helpdesk: Only on the topics that are warned in the agenda for the community forum. There's a typo in the schedule in the agenda. SBSD Helpdesk: The board will not respond to public comment unless this meeting is a specially designated community forum, and the comment

007is warned on the agenda. This is a community forum. You will be given up to 3 minutes SBSD Helpdesk: which may be reduced depending on the number of people wishing to comment. I will note that we'll probably enforce this a little more strictly tonight. SBSD Helpdesk: Please do not violate anyone's privacy, and an official complaint or agreements cannot be filed during public comment. And so I will just say that if you have comments about the budget, you may, of course, mention them now. SBSD Helpdesk: But you may also wait until the community forum when there will be another chance for the public to comment. So, is there any public comment? SBSD Helpdesk: And, before you start, I'm going to… SBSD Helpdesk: Sharing my screen, and we're just gonna do this for this meeting. SBSD Helpdesk:

008Nope. SBSD Helpdesk: Down 5 already. That's overdue. SBSD Helpdesk: My name's Park Gable. SBSD Helpdesk: And you can call me a slacker, because I haven't been in the last couple of meetings, but I just found out today that, I guess I should pay closer attention, that originally, the budget was supposed to come in at a 3.49% increase based on, SBSD Helpdesk: That's what you would give them a superintendent. And if I understand it correctly, superintendent came back with a budget that was within those guidelines. SBSD Helpdesk: And then we was told, not good enough, they want a 0% increase. So I'm hoping… I know that this is not where it should be discussed. I just want a yes or no answer. If… is that, in fact, going to happen? SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, come on. Can

009we respond? You'll be honest. Anybody just tell me. Can Joe tell me? No, you have to… point of order, this will happen during the forum, so… SBSD Helpdesk: I'm just trying to follow our own rules for consistency. I appreciate the partners. Give me a good reason to stay. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, that's a little cheek. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there more public comment? SBSD Helpdesk: No, no, Mama. SBSD Helpdesk: Hi, my name is Kate Jarvis, South Burlington resident, mom of Chloe and Juniper, who are in 10th grade. I just wanted to let you all know, for those who don't know, that, we participated in a Christmas tree pickup fundraiser on Saturday, and it's a fantastic event, so much fun. Christina Turner is the head of the music department, and she organizes this every SBSD Helpdesk: career. SBSD

010Helpdesk: We raised at least $17,500. SBSD Helpdesk: That will go towards scholarships, musical instruments, and, you know, various needs of the music department. And I just want to commend her on an absolutely fantastic job, and thanks so much to all the parents and students who came out in force and SBSD Helpdesk: oyster trees and did all sorts of things, so that… that I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you, Amanda. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there more public comment? SBSD Helpdesk: Again, it may… Bridget Burkhart, definition, resident and parent, SBSD Helpdesk: I know there's an action item later, so sorry if I'm talking out of turn about the early retirement program. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm… SBSD Helpdesk: really surprised that we would spend the amount of money that we're talking about to

011try to get folks to retire early. I would just… SBSD Helpdesk: say that we have had these discussions. I know other districts in the state do it, or much less than what we're talking about signing up with an outside consultant to do, and I really hope that the board decides not to take that up, when there's an action item later. Thanks. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there any other public comment? SBSD Helpdesk: He'll be online, okay. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. SBSD Helpdesk: Then, the next item on the agenda is the Student Representative Report. SBSD Helpdesk: We have some short announcements today. There'll be no school for all students in the district on Monday, January 19th, in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Enjoy your three-day weekend in celebrating the great day. SBSD Helpdesk: This Friday

012is the last day of Part 2 and Semester 1 for all the high school students, so to any students, make sure you're aware of the changes to your schedule. SBSD Helpdesk: That's all we got. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report, so I'll start with you, Joe. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, so you asked me to report on two things. The first is another update on the cell phone free school policy, and we didn't talk about that. That must have been November, maybe, or October. And we have two principals here who, if I say anything wrong, you're welcome to come up and say, but my understanding is things are still going well. That kids are adjusting, that the lack of cell phones, SBSD Helpdesk: out in classes is causing

013kids to be more engaged, to interact better with each other. That's not to say that some kids don't try to use their cell phones from time to time, but there's a good follow-through, and it seems like the policies SBSD Helpdesk: Working well. SBSD Helpdesk: We'll come back there in case I was wrong. There we go, I see a suspension. Yeah, I don't know if there's more than three. I thought, you know, the big ones are the middle school and the high school, you know, with the cell phones. Although there might be some elementary kids they have. SBSD Helpdesk: The second item that, one second. Board members, do you have any questions on Dublin policy? SBSD Helpdesk: My only question is, does it seem like its compliance is getting better, getting worse, or staying the same?

014SBSD Helpdesk: I'll throw that to the school principals who deal with it every day. SBSD Helpdesk: I would say from the middle school, this is our second year of… of being a cell phone-free school. We've had great support from our families, from our students, from our staff, and our students have done a really great job, for a year and a half now into this. SBSD Helpdesk: I have similar, and actually, I have the added benefit of, of having all of our grade 9 students come from… not all of them, but many of them come from Huddle, where, SBSD Helpdesk: Zan and your staff have successfully deployed, so they… they're actually… there aren't too many student conduct issues that the 9th graders are the best at. And this is one of them. So, so, and beyond

015that, SBSD Helpdesk: it has been about the same… a little less, actually. I don't know that we'll ever have as many violations as we did the first week of school, because that was obviously the big transition. SBSD Helpdesk: And as you know, our boss is cumulative, so… SBSD Helpdesk: Second offense is different than first offense, and second offense finds, someone from home, parent or guardian, come get the phone, that generates some interesting conversations, well, probably on the ride home, but also at school, and there's a lot of support from, from families and from students. And also. SBSD Helpdesk: We're collecting. SBSD Helpdesk: internal data about the student experience relative to that. And we had some baseline data when we started. We're going to collect that again. I'll work with Valium on that. SBSD Helpdesk: But

016overall, it's been a positive. SBSD Helpdesk: shift for us. Thank you. Allie, Bowman, do you have any… SBSD Helpdesk: Exactly what Burke said. I would say, from my perspective, I've had a great experience with it, and it seems like most of my peers have adjusted well and are agreeing now with the policy. I think the general consensus around the school is, like. SBSD Helpdesk: sometimes it's annoying, but we've seen the value in it. And I… yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. Back to you, Jeff. Thank you. The second thing you asked for a report on was the trades and career education, and so I asked Patrick, and, SBSD Helpdesk: his team to come up and, talk about this, because there's a lot of, as I talked about it a little bit last week, I think we have

017a really great range of opportunities for kids, but I think you'll also hear in the report that, SBSD Helpdesk: having a lot of opportunities doesn't mean a lot of kids get to take advantage of those opportunities because of the, lack of seats. So, thank you guys for being here. So, thanks, Dr. Clark. This is Megan Sweet. She's our Director of School Counseling. SBSD Helpdesk: And we're gonna, tag-team this presentation. SBSD Helpdesk: just to set the stage for how career technical education happens in Vermont, and specifically in our region, there are, I think, 14 regional, there are 14 tech center regions in Vermont. SBSD Helpdesk: And, within those regions, there's typically one center, except for the Northport… except for Chittenden County, which has two tech centers. Those tech centers are co-located at Comprehensive high schools. Our

018two, co-located tech centers in our region, one's at Burlington, and one is, at Essex High School. So… SBSD Helpdesk: By extension, within Chittenden County, Wenooski, Colchester, South Burlington, Champlain Valley, Mount Mansfield, those schools do not have co-located technical centers. If you have a co-located tech center, when it's time to go to Tech, you're a technical center student. SBSD Helpdesk: you, as Lauren knows fully well, you just walk down the hall, go through a different door, and walk into your program. For our students, it means that they come to our school. SBSD Helpdesk: And then they get on a bus, and they go to Essex. SBSD Helpdesk: And then at the end of the day, they come back, or in some cases, Burlington, which was half-day programs, students will be at our school for the morning,

019take a couple classes, go to Burlington, do their tech program, and come back, or if they're in the afternoon, or if they're in the morning program at Burlington, come to us, take a bus to Burlington. SBSD Helpdesk: Back to us, sit through some classes, take a bus home. SBSD Helpdesk: Next slide. SBSD Helpdesk: So, within our… within our region, one of the things that's confusing, and I should just announce this, CTE is a kind of globally accepted acronym for Career Technical Education. SBSD Helpdesk: That is what, when I was younger, we called BOTAC, or Trades Education. So, the problem in our region is that CTE is also the commonly accepted acronym for Center for Technology in Essex. So. SBSD Helpdesk: When I say… I'm going to say Essex Tech. SBSD Helpdesk: Even though they are

020more frequently referred to as CTE, just to make it clear, because I'll start talking about CTD, and when I say the word CTE, I'm talking about the broad application of CTE. So, nonetheless, the programs that exist at these two centers are listed there, and the numbers after each program SBSD Helpdesk: correlate to the number of South Burlington High School co-enrolled students. So, that'll give you an idea of students who are accessing SBSD Helpdesk: those programs. Again, the students who go to, Essex or their tech center, they're at Essex all day. Their entire programming happens there. They're also, like, on our student council, and on our soccer team, and in our school play. They graduated with South Burlington High School the falls. SBSD Helpdesk: And the students who go to Burlington Tech, they're either in a

021morning or afternoon growing. Those are half-day burdens. SBSD Helpdesk: The more traditional trades-related programs, so those typically are programs, whereby students will, articulate into post-secondary experiences that might include, apprenticeships and or right into the workforce. SBSD Helpdesk: Those are, signified by an asterisk. SBSD Helpdesk: And then the other programs, those without asterisks, are pre-professional programs, and students who participate in those programs typically progress towards a 2- or 4-year institution of higher ed, and typically leave the program at the center with SBSD Helpdesk: College credits that they can readily apply to those 2- or 4-year post-secondary professional programs. SBSD Helpdesk: That's another, you know, development that has, happened in… during my career over the last 20 years, is that those embedded post-secondary credits have really, increased, opportunities for students who are engaged in tech. SBSD Helpdesk:

022The other thing that happens in tech programs is a lot of the technical center programming is aligned with industry-level certification. So students, whether they're in… if they graduate from auto tech. SBSD Helpdesk: They will graduate with an industry-recognized certification that will help them as they're moving into, you know, either working for a small business that does auto tech, or working at a car dealership, for example. SBSD Helpdesk: There's a lot of opportunities for students who engage in, technical center education to also engage in work-based learning. So a lot of students who are, SBSD Helpdesk: they might be at Essex Tech junior year, then senior year, they might spend the bulk of their day. We have a student right now, spends the bulk of his day working at Al Martin Volvo. He is just collecting, certs

023for his, SBSD Helpdesk: career aspirations to be a, Bobo-certified mechanic. SBSD Helpdesk: And so that's just one example. There are many other students who are doing that as well. Oh, and they also get paid for it. SBSD Helpdesk: Megan is going to, next slide, please, talk a little bit about the process that South Burlington students go through in order to try and access, CTV technical education programs. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, so I think it's important to understand that we, first of all, we have a fantastic cooperative relationship with both technical centers and SBSD Helpdesk: I think we, together, do a great job in providing an overview and education for every South Burlington student about the opportunities at the tech centers. The way that happens specifically is, in the 10th grade, in about December it happened this

024year, the tech center, counselors come. SBSD Helpdesk: We meet… we bring all the 10th graders to the auditorium. They provide about a 45-minute combined overview of both of the, both of their centers and the opportunities offered within them. SBSD Helpdesk: from that session. At the same time, we are sending home information to families about opportunities at both centers. SBSD Helpdesk: From that, students then sign up, decide, oh, I probably should visit some of these programs and see actually what it's like to be there, in a school day. SBSD Helpdesk: And the visit is a required part of the application process. So students sign up to visit, they get, both programs an opportunity to visit two of the programs, so they don't have to narrow it down to the one they want to do. SBSD Helpdesk:

025I think it's notable this year, in our first visit in December, we had 56 students sign up and visited Essex Tech Center. SBSD Helpdesk: That is an all-time high. SBSD Helpdesk: We… our first BTC visit is coming up at the end of this month, and we already have 25 students signed up to visit BTC. SBSD Helpdesk: From… after that visit, there are open houses where parents and caregivers want to see more, kind of, in person, what the, education is like in the tech centers. They can go to an open house session, learn more about, SBSD Helpdesk: the programs, the credits that are offered, and the support that's offered there. Students then apply for admission into the program that they're interested in. Criteria for admission, the tech centers refer to as the ABCs, attendance, Behavior, and

026credits. SBSD Helpdesk: So they want students who would show evidence that they're attending school, are gonna be good citizens in their community as well. And that they've earned credit at South Burlington High School prior to going to Essex Tech or Burlington Tech, so that SBSD Helpdesk: They know they will stay on track to graduate. SBSD Helpdesk: Then, mid-March, most of the students, not all, who apply, are invited to a step-up day, where they spend a full day in the program that they've applied to. SBSD Helpdesk: That full-day opportunity is somewhat evaluative in that the teacher gets to see the student in the classroom setting and see if it feels like a good fit, and conversely, the student gets to see… confirm whether it's a good fit for them. SBSD Helpdesk: Right after that, admissions decisions

027are communicated, and we can show you what last year's admissions decisions were for South Burlington students. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, next time, please. SBSD Helpdesk: So this is the outcomes for our, SV students at Essex Tech. SBSD Helpdesk: There is the total applications, at… in each program, and the spots available, and total acceptance rate, and then in the last SBSD Helpdesk: Three columns are South Burlington-specific. SBSD Helpdesk: So as you can see. SBSD Helpdesk: We have lots of students interested in the programs at Essex Tech, and unfortunately, not enough students who are able to gain entry into those opportunities. SBSD Helpdesk: HVAC, for example, something that we talk a lot about. We had 4 students interested in the HVAC program. We didn't have a single student admitted to that program. SBSD Helpdesk: That's, you know, as

028Patrick and I talk about it, like, that's life-changing for a kid. That's a kid who, like, sees a pathway for him or herself, is ready to go, and has that door at that time shut on them. SBSD Helpdesk: and then has to come back to South Burlington the next year with English and Social Studies and Math and Science that aren't necessarily feeling as relevant to their future pathway. So that's… that's a real challenge for the student, mostly, and for us, in terms of meeting their needs. SBSD Helpdesk: I just asked a quick question about what's on the screen here. So, you show, total applications and South Burlington applications. So, do other, like, for example, Essex High School, do they apply at a higher rate? SBSD Helpdesk: Like, is there higher awareness? Is there higher… SBSD

029Helpdesk: Do more people get into it? Yeah, I think one of the… our hopes in showing how many of our students are interested is that they don't… we actually, when we… we have access to the, visit sign-ups for every high school, South Burlington students, again, 56 students signed up to visit. We were… SBSD Helpdesk: by far the largest number of students visiting the Tech Center, which is a required step in the application process. So, I would say our students are… SBSD Helpdesk: are probably, if right up there with Essex students in terms of numbers. SBSD Helpdesk: And this is, importantly, this is just the numbers for the Essex Center, that for sure. So the Burlington, numbers were a little trickier to get ahold of, and I didn't feel like I had enough. SBSD Helpdesk: And

030to that end, and adjacent to your question, Chamos, is that… that… I would say. SBSD Helpdesk: this is the… the kind of rapid increase in our student applications to CTE programming at both Essex and Burlington has been a… SBSD Helpdesk: slow roll for, like, the last, I think, 10 years, and we definitely reached the apex of that for us, in terms of, SBSD Helpdesk: applications. SBSD Helpdesk: And in terms of the number of students who go, but conversely, our so-called acceptance rate as is thought. SBSD Helpdesk: Also, you know, increased over that period of time. SBSD Helpdesk: I think that there is a bit of a… it's either an urban myth, or it's one of those things that adults think that isn't actually true about youth. SBSD Helpdesk: Which is that there's all sorts of

031stigma affiliated with, technical education, and the reality… and I know that, I felt like that existed in my youth, and I can say that that… that those sigmas, if they do still exist, South Bruins and high school students have no problem overcoming them. SBSD Helpdesk: And I should also mention that, like, probably this… they're not stigmas, but the hurdles that continue to exist for SBHS students, I already talked a little bit about, which is, imagine you're a Georgia kid, or you live in South Burlington. You get on the bus in the morning, you're on the bus for an hour, you get to school. SBSD Helpdesk: Maybe you see your friends in the lobby for 15 minutes, get back on the bus. SBSD Helpdesk: You're at another school, you'll probably spend a good SBSD Helpdesk: hour

032and a half in transportation, either between the center and your home school, or between your home and your home school. And then also, you know, the normal kind of social-emotional things, like my girlfriend's in my lunch class, and now I'm gone all day, and things like that, so… SBSD Helpdesk: And honestly, like, at sophomore High School, we spend a lot of time in freshman and sophomore year really, like, making students feel welcome, making students feel at home, and then at some point, we're kind of like, oh, by the way, best thing for you is… SBSD Helpdesk: to lead. And, you know, that's not… like, we're not saying that in… to them, but they're kind of figuring that out, and so there is… they are these students, and… SBSD Helpdesk: I have a lot of respect

033for all of our, Technical Center students, all of the students who apply, because just by way of applying, they've overcome those, social hurdles and those logistical hurdles, because it's important to them. SBSD Helpdesk: Next slide, please. Do we know anything about, the rate sort of acceptance for other states? Are they… are we comparable? That probably exists, but we… they didn't, when we asked the centers for the information, they didn't… they just shared us the aggregate, and then the rate, and then hourly. But I'm… I'm… SBSD Helpdesk: That… I'm certain that they could have created that slide for every school. SBSD Helpdesk: So what happens to students who don't get into SBHS? As Ms. Sweet said, they… or don't, I'm sorry, don't get into career technical education. They come back to SBHS, and we create schedules

034for them. SBSD Helpdesk: Based with the academic program that we have available. And in general, they successfully graduate from South Burlington High School. They meet our academic proficiency requirements. SBSD Helpdesk: They, And we know that, they have, by way of participating in the application process, expressed SBSD Helpdesk: an interest that… SBSD Helpdesk: They would like to be engaged in either a different program in terms of content area, or a different program in terms of the how SBSD Helpdesk: the hands-on level of the work that you're doing. When this concept was conceived, this, like, tech center's SBSD Helpdesk: have… are co-located, and some high schools are… are… don't have tech centers. These so-called comprehensive high schools, Essex… I'm sorry, South Burlington, CBU, Winooski. SBSD Helpdesk: Gold We were, SBSD Helpdesk: comprehensive high schools would have some

035degree of technical center programming in their schools. So, at South Burlington High School in the 70s, we had auto tech, we had wood shop, we had, and in my time there, we had a metal shop. SBSD Helpdesk: We had some, woodshop, we had a, a computer networking program, and, those, those programs were intended to serve students in our school building with, CTE SBSD Helpdesk: focus. That was the model that existed. SBSD Helpdesk: Those programs have, over the years, kind of one by one, gone away. SBSD Helpdesk: And so… and a lot of people are surprised to learn that, you know, we don't have a wood shop in the high school. I had a person ask me just recently, as recently as last week, to say, like, hey, at the school, it's alternative school, and we'd

036like to access your wood shop, and I'm like, that's great, we don't have one. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, SBSD Helpdesk: I just think that that's a little bit of a flaw in the model, in that it did rely on the comprehensive icicles holding onto that program, and SBSD Helpdesk: Unfortunately, we have not been able to do that. I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in a second. Megan referred to this, and I just want to amplify the HVAC example. It's a great example. If you know anyone who's in, HVAC or, SBSD Helpdesk: mechanical engineering. It's a massive need in our region and in Vermont, and if you walk out of an HVAC program with a certificate from a high school, you are making between $42,000 and $60,000 and get a truck. SBSD

037Helpdesk: And, and those numbers are from ZipRecruiter and from VHV, which is a Chittenden County mechanical contractor. And so, SBSD Helpdesk: Those four students who wanted that, Are… are not, you know… SBSD Helpdesk: I don't, I don't, I couldn't tell you exactly who they were, but, that, door has unfortunately closed for them. That's the point. SBSD Helpdesk: So… This… SBSD Helpdesk: is kind of, like, hopeful going forward. Overall, from Essex, we had 23 students not accepted, SBSD Helpdesk: The Burlington numbers were a little harder to get from the center. SBSD Helpdesk: My recollection is that we had 7 students rejected from, programs at Burlington Tech. SBSD Helpdesk: We actually had more students reject previous year from, the technical center programs. SBSD Helpdesk: And again, with the exception of 5 sections of computer science that we

038have at the high school, there are no, SBSD Helpdesk: career technical education-aligned programs at SBHS anymore, and that's a result of, kind of, the slow elimination over time, with the, final SBSD Helpdesk: shoe dropping when we eliminated the Big Picture program last year. We, at times, could use the Big Picture program as a fail-safe for students who didn't… either didn't want to leave campus to access tech or hadn't been admitted to tech because SBSD Helpdesk: the Big Picture program, and you can research it if you don't already know. It's a… it's an internationally recognized network of schools that allow students to follow and pursue their passions within a SBSD Helpdesk: proficiency-based environment, so we could use Big Picture as a way to have students participate in apprenticeships and or internships outside of the schoolhouse while

039continuing to earn SBSD Helpdesk: credit towards graduation. And, unfortunately, we don't have, that program anymore. In fact, that program, also SBSD Helpdesk: We were hoping that that could become a regional technical program. In many states, big picture schools are regional technical centers. SBSD Helpdesk: Including the flagship school in Providence, Rhode Island. SBSD Helpdesk: And we were starting down that road with a partnership with Mount Mansfield, where Mount Mansfield students would actually… same problem for those students, they would actually come to Big Picture at Burlington, and then pursue their interests and or passions with an academic embedded element, and… SBSD Helpdesk: the MMUSD would pay us for each kid who came in. SBSD Helpdesk: And obviously that partnership has been sunset since we eliminated the program last year. We are exploring CTE satellite programming, so… SBSD

040Helpdesk: Hvac is one that I'm going after right now, given that there's a shortage in the region, and also the CTE, you know, in a side conversation with CTE leadership, was, you know, we don't have the space. SBSD Helpdesk: We don't have the staff, but if you wanted to host that program at your school, there, you know, there are pretty strict limits on numbers your students are allowed to take into it, but SBSD Helpdesk: That's a possibility, so… SBSD Helpdesk: I would say those conversations are preliminary at best, and there's some hurdles to get over that, but I'm hoping that someday we can start to host our own CTE programming, even if technically it's managed by, one of the… one of the centers. So maybe relieve some of their, SBSD Helpdesk: Challenges with, space. SBSD

041Helpdesk: And… and also access some of the resources that they have by way of federal and state funds that… that don't flow to the comprehensive Place Suites. SBSD Helpdesk: And, the last thing I'll say is that, you know, technical education is widely supported by our students and families, as these numbers show. SBSD Helpdesk: And also, I would just offer that, for one reason or another, these are not students and families who, you probably hear from. SBSD Helpdesk: And I would just ask the board to ask yourself that if there were 30 students who did not get into AP English, or Honors American Studies, or who did not get into, Advanced Placement Biology, do you think you would have heard about it? SBSD Helpdesk: And if the answer is yes, then we just have to remember

042that our roles and responsibilities is for all of the students, regardless of their privilege and or social capital that they carry into these conversations, I think. SBSD Helpdesk: Working with… with, an amazing guidance department to that end has been helpful, but this is a… SBSD Helpdesk: A pretty frustrating, situation for us, because quite obviously, you know, we get all of our students, and it's not a situation where, SBSD Helpdesk: We feel like we have all the tools in our toolbox to actually address it. SBSD Helpdesk: And it is a situation where we couldn't meet everyone's needs. It just… if we start doing a better job meeting students' needs in the CTV area, it doesn't mean that we're gonna suddenly not do the excellent job that we've been doing for students who are of college-bound, typically

043knowledge-bound. SBSD Helpdesk: So, you can… this was a little longer than Joe thought it might be, so that's kind of my style, sorry. But, I would… I would love to take questions, like, offline and let you all continue with your agenda, so… so thanks for that. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. Okay, well, Ford, is there any questions that we have just right now? I don't have a ton, and I'll… Yeah, I was gonna say, just to not drag this, because we've got lots of… Yeah, and I'll come back, too, so if you feel like it's important to have a Q&A in the public session, I'm happy to. SBSD Helpdesk: Does anybody have any board comment on what we just heard? SBSD Helpdesk: I appreciate the update. SBSD Helpdesk: I really like hearing about it, and I

044like knowing that there's, you know, potentially an opportunity here to SBSD Helpdesk: to fill in for our students is good. I think it's clear that something has to be done. I mean, just the mental image of the four students who couldn't get HVAC, even though SBSD Helpdesk: you know, they had identified that for themselves, and they had support, and they applied for it. It's like. SBSD Helpdesk: It's a filtering process happening in high school, it's just… SBSD Helpdesk: Well, you have to remember, it's one program. It's only 500 kids at the tech center at Essex. Plenty of the kids at Essex don't get it either. It's a small program, so it's not anything we're going to solve right now, but it is… it's only 500 students. SBSD Helpdesk: So, it's small. Just in terms of

045what I would like to build community support for funding, it sure seems like that would be a good, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other board comments? SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you, Joe. Any other thoughts from you? No, thank you, for the presentation. Patrick, Megan. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. SBSD Helpdesk: Then the next item on the agenda is a community forum to talk about the, budget. SBSD Helpdesk: And at a community forum, these are special events where we, respond… the board responds, which is not something that we normally do at our meetings. SBSD Helpdesk: And we will be… SBSD Helpdesk: Using a timer today, and the rule will be that everybody can speak once before anybody speaks twice. SBSD Helpdesk: But you are allowed to speak twice, as long as everybody else who wants to speak

046is available. SBSD Helpdesk: So, would we… would the board, should we start with… SBSD Helpdesk: Can you rearrange my cities? No, no, no. SBSD Helpdesk: So my question is, Joe, do you want to bring us up to date on… I have a question prepared I'd like to give, and then I think that goes for some discussion. Okay, yeah, and if we go a little long in the community forum, I think that's fine. SBSD Helpdesk: So, for context, the board, and this will answer, your question, the board SBSD Helpdesk: in November requested a budget based on inflation SBSD Helpdesk: increase in spending. So we basically said spend, spend is… increase spending by as much as inflation. SBSD Helpdesk: That took a while to prepare, and when we got it back, and when the state gave the

047central office all the information necessary to calculate the tax rate, it turned out that if we wanted to increase by inflation, that would increase the SBSD Helpdesk: tax rate by 3 times inflation. And so the board asked the superintendent to go back and prepare another option at a 0% increased level. SBSD Helpdesk: And with that, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Okay, so… SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, I did, last Wednesday, January 7th, brought the first proposal you asked for, back, and that was a 3.4% increase that would have put us, at a budget of just over, almost $74 million, $73,939. SBSD Helpdesk: And it would have been a 3.4% budget increase. Even with that, because, SBSD Helpdesk: because of our rising costs, we still would have had to make some reductions. And working with

048my team, we were able to come up with $1.8 million in reductions at the district level, and an additional $130,000 of reductions at the building. SBSD Helpdesk: level. As you mentioned, that tax increase… that projected tax increase, was 8.76%. Now, we know that the city tax increase is about 3.5%, and we… we know that the… the… SBSD Helpdesk: School pays, SBSD Helpdesk: the school portion of the tax is about 75%, and the city's about 25%. So the blended rate, what the rate would look like potentially for homeowners would be about 7.45%. SBSD Helpdesk: Nonetheless, we were asked to come back with a zero. I want to show you on the right-hand side what those reductions are before we move forward to the next proposal. SBSD Helpdesk: So… SBSD Helpdesk: Those $1.85 million in reductions that

049we made at the district level was the elimination of several administrative positions. We have a communications director who started the year, and he's no longer with us, and we're not going to replace that. We have a technology director, SBSD Helpdesk: who actually was on leave to start the year, and he's been now off of our roles, and we're not replacing him. We are going to eliminate one additional central office leadership team position. SBSD Helpdesk: And that is… that's to be determined. SBSD Helpdesk: But in short, like, on August 1, if I had been here on August 1, there would have been 8 administrators sitting around the central office leadership table, and now there will be 5. SBSD Helpdesk: Most of the rest of the money was stuff that was budgeted but unspent. SBSD Helpdesk: So

050it was… we found places where money had been budgeted, and maybe year after year it had been budgeted, but it wasn't spent. So we… we, we cut it. I mean, it's not necessarily a cut, we're not reducing any services, but that was able to, SBSD Helpdesk: give us some cost savings, and we are reducing two nurses, and I claim one of those as a district reduction, because that's the district lead nurse position that is housed at the central office. SBSD Helpdesk: And the other is a single nursing position, but it's split through two buildings, Tuttle and the high school, with a .65 nurse reduction at Tuttle and a .35 nurse reduction at the high school. SBSD Helpdesk: So, when you saw the budget that I presented last week, SBSD Helpdesk: It was a, you know,

051last year, or this current year, we were at 26, we have a $71.5 million budget. Adding 3.4% is $73.9 million, and the tax rate, you see, the homestead rate for South Burlington projected as 8.67. Now, we know that that SBSD Helpdesk: what I'm hearing, being new to Vermont, is that number is, constantly changing depending on lots of factors, but that's what it came in when we made this, adjustment. And by the way, the biggest reason that we're seeing a, SBSD Helpdesk: some changes as our weighted pupil count, goes down. So we're 80, 143 fewer weighted pupils, and that, that, that is what's really, costing us. SBSD Helpdesk: So… SBSD Helpdesk: the board asked me last week to come back then with a 0% increase, and that's what I've done. Here is the, the budget amount

052is $71.5 million, exactly what we have budgeted for this year, so that's a 0% SBSD Helpdesk: increase. We've been able to, increase the district reductions to $2.5 million. SBSD Helpdesk: But that's as far as we can go at the building level. That means, with this budget, we will have significant reductions at the building level, to the tune of $1.8 million. SBSD Helpdesk: Now, that brings us to a school tax… a projected school tax of 4.25%. If you take the city's tax and you blend it, it's just over 4% that the taxpayers, again, today, at this point, knowing what we know, could see, but we know that changes. SBSD Helpdesk: So the additional district reductions, $725,000 of that came from a facility stewardship budget, and I want to SBSD Helpdesk: make sure people are clear on

053that. When we created the 3.4% budget increase, and we gave each of the buildings the money they had to spend, and we made our reductions at central office, we came in about $725,000 under SBSD Helpdesk: what that 3.4% indicated. So we took that money and put it into, or budgeted, SBSD Helpdesk: put it into a budget for facility stewardship, because we know we have some facility needs. So when we remove that $725,000, it's not anything that we had earmarked for something, it's not real money that was there, it was a surplus on the 3.4% that won't be there. SBSD Helpdesk: So it's not, it wouldn't be a cut, per se, compared to what we're doing this year. SBSD Helpdesk: These are cuts, though. These are building reductions at the building level. SBSD Helpdesk: And we

054based this on the student count, and we divided by the average cost of a certified employee, a teacher. We have it about $130,000, which includes salary and benefits. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, when we take the amount of students in each building, these are all numbers that are a proportion of what that student count is. So, at the high school, of course, the biggest building, their reduction would be $584,000, SBSD Helpdesk: Which is the equivalent of 4.5 full-time equivalent teachers. SBSD Helpdesk: Now, I want to be clear that that does not mean that the reduction has to be in teachers, nor does it have to be 4.5. We are still giving principals the ownership to do with their budget, as they choose. So, the principals have all been charged, and you'll see the numbers as I

055go through them here, with SBSD Helpdesk: Taking the budget that they had prepared, and now reducing this much from it. SBSD Helpdesk: So, maybe it is teachers, but maybe it's some more, some, classified staff. Maybe it's more, in, SBSD Helpdesk: you know, supplies. I doubt that it's that, because the real savings always comes in staff, but you can see that what the equivalent is that they have to work with. Quick clarifying question? Yeah. So the, the FTE estimates, and those are not necessarily when people SBSD Helpdesk: are… Are those based on physical students, or the weighted students? Physical students. SBSD Helpdesk: Do you typically have, pretty even distribution of weights for your weighted pupil count over swims? I'm wondering if that, like, if that actually played out in whatever resources that are important for students

056that get more weight, if that… SBSD Helpdesk: differentially impacts how that money is distributed across the school? No, the answer to that is… is no, it's not. If there was… if we went by weighted pupil, you would have seen one building taking the brunt of the cut. And I… I was very uncomfortable doing that, because it would have been maybe 20 teachers in one building that I thought was SBSD Helpdesk: I was not comfortable doing it, quite frankly. SBSD Helpdesk: So I thought the best, because of the time we had and the, SBSD Helpdesk: in this process, I just took the total student counts and made a proportion and came up with the high school having to make $584,000 in cuts. SBSD Helpdesk: Tuttle, $410,000, Orchard, $275, Marcotte, $262, and Chamberlain, $175. So those FTE

057equivalents, those are the dollar amounts divided by 130, right? 584,643 divided by 130 is 4.5 FTE. SBSD Helpdesk: So, you can see here what the budget is. This year, it's $71,500. Next year, on this proposal, it'd be $71,500. 0% increase. You still see that the student count is what's costing us the, the funding from the state. SBSD Helpdesk: And you see the tax rate, 4.25… 4.25% down at the bottom, and that is, again, estimated, and we know that that number will change constantly as, different numbers come out from the state. I'm sorry, can you put the weight of people's back up there? I can, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: We can do talking, I just need the number. Yep, $4,063 down to 3920. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: And I guess I can… I'll talk just a

058little bit about this. We believe that some of that is due to free and reduced lunch population. We provide free lunch to all of our students, and they're… and we don't have student fees, really. SBSD Helpdesk: So there's a… there's not a huge, incentive for people to fill out their free and reduced lunch forms. SBSD Helpdesk: However, it has a big role in how much funding we get, so we do what we can to get people to fill out their free and reduced lunch form, even if you're getting a free lunch. When you qualify, that gives us more savings, because the weighted pupil goes up. SBSD Helpdesk: So, there's some other considerations I'd ask you to consider as you make your decision tonight. The first is this. We've seen this, we've seen that the governor

059has talked about, putting, $75 million in surplus revenue SBSD Helpdesk: towards a buy-down of the tax rate. It's the talk of the state. The folks and leaders in both parties are talking about this. It is not official yet, and I don't know when it will be official. SBSD Helpdesk: We did not include any of that in our projection for our tax rate. I can tell you that I know of at least one district, contiguous with us who has, and when they have, when SBSD Helpdesk: And I talked to the superintendent today, and was told, we just kind of made a projection what it might be, and the estimate at that district was that maybe it reduces their tax rate by half. SBSD Helpdesk: I thought it would be, SBSD Helpdesk: That would be way too

060risky for my blood to project what might happen. However, it seems as if everything that we're hearing is that there will be a buy-down from state funds, we just don't know when it's coming or how much that would be. So I'd like you to just at least consider that. SBSD Helpdesk: I'd also like you to consider this. We have a $2.5 million unassigned fund balance from fiscal year 25. Now, the audit that was completed recently for fiscal year 25 showed us what that amount is, and you have SBSD Helpdesk: really 3 options of things you can do with that money, and all require you to make some sort of decision. One is. SBSD Helpdesk: you can ask the voters to put that money into some sort of reserve fund, like a capital improvement reserve fund.

061So to do that, the board would need to act to say, we would like to put this $2.5 million into it, or a portion of it. SBSD Helpdesk: Into a capital reserve fund, it would go on the ballot, and then the community would get to vote on it. SBSD Helpdesk: The other thing you could do is you could use some of that money to buy down the tax rate. I've heard lots of discussions here that I know the board is not keen on that idea, and I understand why that could cause problems, because it delays, you know, it delays decisions for a year. SBSD Helpdesk: Or you can do both. You can do a combination of both, right? SBSD Helpdesk: However, SBSD Helpdesk: doing nothing is not a good choice. If you do nothing, that

062money sits there, and it will sit there indefinitely until the board does do something. So I would ask the board to consider doing something with that fund balance, and SBSD Helpdesk: And getting it on the ballot so the voters can decide what to do with it. SBSD Helpdesk: Joe, can I just ask a question about how you and the team handle SBSD Helpdesk: excess funds and cash balance. Do we keep… do we have any sort of money market funds, or high-yielding, or instruments where we keep our cash balance? SBSD Helpdesk: In the, like, the current budget, yeah, some money is invested, and there are a certain number of different investments you can put it in, and we do get interest. I can't tell you what the amount is, but yeah, any… SBSD Helpdesk: Any cash

063we have, we do have short-term investments for it. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, and here's the one thing, the other thing I want you to consider is that, this, that there is a Vermont Homeowner Property Tax Credit, and that is based, that it's income-sensitive, SBSD Helpdesk: credit. So, currently, I'm going to share some numbers that are not. SBSD Helpdesk: up to date as of today. But currently, a household that makes $115,400 or less qualifies for a property tax credit. Those folks fill out a homestead declaration form, file it. SBSD Helpdesk: And they can get a credit up to a maximum of $8,000. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm using Tim Jarvis's numbers from a year ago, because I don't have the most updated, but a year ago, in January 2025, 5,197 taxable homesteads were here in

064South Burlington. Of those, 5,197 SBSD Helpdesk: 52.7% received a credit. SBSD Helpdesk: And that average credit was $1,970. So what that means is roughly half of our, SBSD Helpdesk: Homesteads received a credit, SBSD Helpdesk: And it gives… I mean, it gives meaningful relief to folks who are in their homes. So as you're… as you're looking at a tax rate, please consider the, those factors. The governor might be putting some money in, we do have some cash fund carryover, and that there's a significant portion of our population gets this credit. SBSD Helpdesk: So I'm gonna… I will tell you what my recommendation would be, and then I'll leave it to you to have your discussion. This is my recommendation. SBSD Helpdesk: My recommendation is that, we… we ask the voters to consider that 3.4% budget. When

065we, when we made that decision, it was clear that the board was, SBSD Helpdesk: was okay with the idea of spending 3.4% more money, which still would have caused us to have some reductions, which we were able to find. It was the tax rate that caused some concern, and I understand nobody wants to pay more taxes. SBSD Helpdesk: But I also think that it would be good to give the voters the opportunity to decide whether that is too much tax instead of us deciding SBSD Helpdesk: for them. So, I would like to see us put that 3.4% budget, number on the ballot for Town Meeting Day. SBSD Helpdesk: I would recommend that you allocate the entire fund balance to capital improvement reserve funds, because we absolutely do have capital improvements that we need to make.

066SBSD Helpdesk: And then I would say this. I would say we give the voters the opportunity to give their voice on Election Day, and if that budget's reduced, then we're already prepared with the 0% budget, and I think that if the voters tell us, no, that 3.4% budget is too much, then we go back with the 00. SBSD Helpdesk: Incidentally, the cuts that I've asked the principals to make, I've given them… we don't know what those positions are yet, right? I've given them until the end of January to give me specific lists, so at… SBSD Helpdesk: whether it's the 0.0% budget on the first time, or if that comes later after a 3.4% has been rejected, we will know after January 30th what specifically those cuts will be, so people will be able to make

067decisions based on what those might be. SBSD Helpdesk: That's my, that's my recommendation, and I'll take questions, but also it's your community forum, so I would… SBSD Helpdesk: All right. Thank you, Jen. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there any initial board comment before we move into a community forum? SBSD Helpdesk: I wanted to make a comment. Regrettably, I couldn't be here last board meeting. I did watch the whole thing, and wished that I had been here to share my opinions, which I'll do now. SBSD Helpdesk: I wrote them down so I wouldn't forget. SBSD Helpdesk: So I want to say that one thing I truly value about this board is that we respect each other, even though we disagree, and I often find myself as an outlier in discussions like this, but I

068never feel disrespected, and that means a lot. SBSD Helpdesk: But, I would like to be more than respected, I'd like to be heard. SBSD Helpdesk: And I've also heard from a lot of community members, students, and teachers who share deep concerns about continued cuts and what that means for our schools. Their voices matter, and they echo what I feel. We cannot build the schools our community wants by reducing resources. SBSD Helpdesk: Many of us join this board to make school funding more sustainable, and that matters. SBSD Helpdesk: I joined this board to support our schools full stop. SBSD Helpdesk: If we aren't doing that, I don't know what we're here for. Holding the line at 0% increase might feel safe, but it lacks creativity, and it ignores our mission, which is to connect the community

069and the schools, and to use the resources effectively to meet student needs and achieve community goals, like more river and better test scores. SBSD Helpdesk: And we cannot do that with less money. SBSD Helpdesk: I feel like this is our moment. We have a new superintendent who's ready to build trust and community with the faculty and staff. SBSD Helpdesk: And handcuffing him with inadequate funding will undermine his ability to lead us out of this dysfunction that we have had for the past 3 years. And I feel like we need to give him the tools to succeed. SBSD Helpdesk: And also, I'd like to have us remember that a 0% increase comes on top of an existing deficit. Last year's cuts eliminated programs like Big Picture and vital supports like guidance counselors and the 9th grade

070dean of students. Continuing down this path only deepens the damage. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, sustainability matters, but I feel we're moving too quickly after years of turmoil. SBSD Helpdesk: We need to stabilize before we start cutting deeper. A 0% increase may sound reasonable. SBSD Helpdesk: and responsible, but it means losing 13 full-time positions, or other things like that, that are not just numbers, it's teachers, it's programs, it's opportunities for students. Meanwhile, the community is asking for more rigor and better test scores, and those goals can just not be met by reducing resources. SBSD Helpdesk: So our job is not just about setting numbers to help the community understand how their investment creates the schools they want. Strong schools make strong communities, they attract families, raise property values, and create pride. Even if you don't have a

071child in the school, you benefit from well-supported districts every single day. SBSD Helpdesk: So we're not just balancing a budget, we're shaping the future of the community, and I feel like we should aim higher than zero. I want to be creative and courageous and clear about why investing in our schools matters, not just for the students, but for everyone. And I want to give our superintendent the tools to succeed and to give our community the schools they deserve. And I'm greeting with Joe's. SBSD Helpdesk: recommendation. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you, Nikki. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, we also… thank you, Emily, and I was the only person that voted against that 0%. I feel pretty strongly about that. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't have anything beautiful written about it, but I know part of our mission is to give

072a budget that the community will support while maintaining the integrity of our schools. And we'll say it again, you cannot have it both ways. SBSD Helpdesk: have to… we all… we… and my children are no longer in the school, but we have to invest in our schools. So, I… I'm in full agreement. SBSD Helpdesk: Are there other board comments? So, one of the… I appreciate your comments, and I will say, I wholeheartedly agree with much… with much of what you have said. I think one of the things that is striking me is the fact that we have declining student enrollment. SBSD Helpdesk: Also, and I think that that is an important factor to consider in all of this, that, you know, we've built something for a specific size, and I understand all of it with

073the deficit. SBSD Helpdesk: But I mean, and the questions that I'm asking is because I am trying to think about this critically. SBSD Helpdesk: And we have to look at this critically, because we are representing the community, and not everyone that's here and is in the room SBSD Helpdesk: You know, necessarily has children in the schools. SBSD Helpdesk: And I'm also thinking about the fact that, you know, food shelves, the issue with, you know, food insecurity in our community, and SBSD Helpdesk: rising healthcare costs, and people are getting pinched so tightly right now, so I think it's really important that we're having this discussion, and I think, you know, I welcome everybody to provide their comments on this so that we can arrive at something that makes sense. But I do think it is difficult

074when we do have declining student enrollment as well, and how can we calibrate to consider that? Because do we still need SBSD Helpdesk: the same size of what we had before in light of that. So anyway, I just wanted to add that. SBSD Helpdesk: Board Government? SBSD Helpdesk: Then, Michelle? Sure, sure. I also read a little bit. I also very much appreciate your comments. I have a similar stance to Jen. SBSD Helpdesk: And that is, as we make difficult decisions in the coming weeks, months, and years, decisions that affect students, families, the community, and staff. We need to be clear about the difference between what we think we know. SBSD Helpdesk: And what we actually know based on evidence. So, what we have right now are three problems. We have historical spending increases that have

075led to, an infrastructure in South Burlington that's not sustainable. SBSD Helpdesk: no matter how passionate we are about not making changes, I think that we can make changes that are strategic and purposeful, SBSD Helpdesk: And, that will take some pretty strong partnerships to do that. SBSD Helpdesk: The state ed finance system doesn't work, and I personally have very little hope that our legislature is going to address those problems substantively anytime soon to get us out. SBSD Helpdesk: We're not satisfied with our achievement trends, because they're showing us really the opposite of what we expect. SBSD Helpdesk: The local solution for the first two is to scale back spending, knowing that even at a 0% increase, many community members are still going to struggle. SBSD Helpdesk: based on the cumulative effect of past spending and state

076financing law. It is especially important to contain spending because there are drivers that influence that final tax rate that we've been talking about that are outside of our control. So we have to prepare for the worst case scenario and the effect of what we decide. SBSD Helpdesk: Over time. SBSD Helpdesk: As a cumulative effect. SBSD Helpdesk: So the solution for the second issue is only partly related to the first. Yes, quality education has a cost. SBSD Helpdesk: And where there are cuts, there will be disruptions, there's no question about that. But if we are true to our often-stated mantra, it's all about the kids, then we will figure out how to focus and partner on how to serve their needs, given our financial pressure. SBSD Helpdesk: Our persistent focus needs to be on student foundational

077learning needs identified through rigorous processes, with efficacious methods, and monitored for improvement. Let's please use evidence to understand where we're at, what our strengths are, and what our opportunities are. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Lastly, the roads. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: I will just, for myself, say that We are elected representatives of SBSD Helpdesk: the whole city of South Burlington. SBSD Helpdesk: Many of our constituents are not represented SBSD Helpdesk: At school board meetings in general. SBSD Helpdesk: But we still have to, you know, weight their interests in our decisions. And so, as I listen to the discussion tonight, I'm gonna be listening for, you know, how… how can we… SBSD Helpdesk: How can we rebuild the connection and the trust and legitimacy of a school district SBSD Helpdesk: In this community, in the context

078of declining enrollment, but also, some very challenging property tax increases over the last 5 years. SBSD Helpdesk: I'd also like to say, I'm in schools every day, and I don't think what people understand is that a lot of money, $30 million a year, goes to feed children. I'm not going to raise my hand and say, I don't want to do that. SBSD Helpdesk: Certainly mental health and well-being, that's over a million dollars to the Howard Center, for Howard Center Clinicians. SBSD Helpdesk: here, and I see the Essex High School, the number of special educators that we need are… is super high, higher than it's ever been. So, maybe there's some declining enrollment at the high school. Orchard, I think, is a little capacity. SBSD Helpdesk: The thing is, the needs are greater, and I think…

079I just don't think the person who is not in schools SBSD Helpdesk: quite understands what we are up against every single day. We are… we have to be a child's parents, caregiver, I mean, you know, school counselor, therapist, social worker. SBSD Helpdesk: It's… it's, it's a huge… and so what we pay for in these schools, it's not… is… is very different than… than… than what we used to. SBSD Helpdesk: And in other… and also infrastructure. If you look at other states, they're not paying for infrastructure. They're not paying for children to eat. They are not paying for mental health. SBSD Helpdesk: They're not. SBSD Helpdesk: So, we have to decide what kind of SBSD Helpdesk: What kind of district we want to be. SBSD Helpdesk: And I just believe that there is a social contract.

080Even if you don't have children in the district who did. SBSD Helpdesk: You probably rented it, and you also were a child in a district senator. So I do think that we are… I think everybody needs to be invested in this. SBSD Helpdesk: So, that's mine. SBSD Helpdesk: I'd just like to say that I agree with Dr. Clark's proposal of what we should do. I think… SBSD Helpdesk: if taxpayers don't want to see a 3.4% increase, they'll go out on voting day, and they'll say no to our proposal, and that will be our feedback, that we need to go back and do the 0%. I agree that I don't think SBSD Helpdesk: that is something the board should say we should immediately cut down to. I think the taxpayer voice will be represented in the

081discussion right then when they vote no or vote yes. SBSD Helpdesk: to the budget. So, that's just my perspective, and I think that, cutting 13 FTs, even if that's not just teachers, is… SBSD Helpdesk: An unreasonable ask for, admin and students to have to deal with that shift. SBSD Helpdesk: Just, you know, I can say so much about tax, not really, but I can talk a lot about what it's like to be a student in high school. Ali and I, we've been reaching out to students, the whole student population, to kind of see what do they want to see. SBSD Helpdesk: And what we're… so far is only… we only have junior and senior data, but what we're seeing is there's a lot of students are saying. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm, like, I really enjoy the

082clubs, or I really enjoy my teachers who are able to make connection with me. And we're also seeing students saying, I miss when my classes are smaller, like, our class size is getting way too big now. SBSD Helpdesk: And, you know, we're not going to be able to deal with the smaller budget and less teachers. And, you know, last week we were saying that we want to be competing with the top schools in Massachusetts. That's not going to happen with less teachers, less connection, bigger class sizes, less time so the student feels engaged. SBSD Helpdesk: And when we really boil it down, we're trading tax dollars for student education, and I think a 3.4% is a good balance between the two. SBSD Helpdesk: Sweet. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, thank you for being patient with us. Would

083you let me share my screen here, and now we'll open it up for our community forum, and we will probably go over the SBSD Helpdesk: The time here, so we're not rushed, and everybody can have their say. SBSD Helpdesk: So, is there any, public comment to kick us off? SBSD Helpdesk: Do you want us all to go rotate through, or do you want us to stand up and project? What do you want us to do before we… Probably there so the people online can hear, thank you. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: I have… well, I have a lot to say, but I'm going to limit it to a couple of things. One, with regard to making decisions based on data. SBSD Helpdesk: One question that I asked staff last week, there wasn't an opportunity to comment because

084this wasn't warm for action, so we couldn't comment on it. SBSD Helpdesk: was, in terms of the decline in student population, how much of that is an actual decline in students who are in seats? How much of it is a decline in tuition students? And how much of it is a change in weights? SBSD Helpdesk: In terms of weighted students. SBSD Helpdesk: Because that's a really big difference. If it's a change in weighted students, there's so many potential changes coming, at the state level that SBSD Helpdesk: I would hate to see us make draconian cuts to our programming based on the way the student's changing. And in relation to that, I also have a question, do you want a response, and then ask her to respond to your question now? No, no, not yet. And

085then… SBSD Helpdesk: Is our weighted pupil count certified yet? We were told by the Agency of Education today, literally, in testimony, that 99% of districts have an actual certified equalized… not equalized, that's the old language. SBSD Helpdesk: long-term weighted average daily membership, which is part of the tax rate calculation that has been certified by the superintendent and the business manager. I was kind of surprised to hear that that many people had certified it already. So that's… that's sort of a series of questions about the data we're actually using to make SBSD Helpdesk: Decisions, because that factors into the tax rate. SBSD Helpdesk: The other one is more of a comment, and I… utmost respect for how hard you guys are working, and knowing that you're, newer to the role. SBSD Helpdesk: I am really astonished

086that the board is going to vote on a budget to take to the community without any of the usual discussion about what that actually means for programming. SBSD Helpdesk: like, what program is working, what programming is not working, where some of those trade-offs are, I feel like you're voting blind as a board to what this actual impact is, because 14 FTEs, based on $130,000 for FTE quickly becomes a lot more FTEs and a lot more changes to programming once you realize that, based on contracts, you're going to have to let go of the lower-paid teachers SBSD Helpdesk: first, if it's teachers, and you are going to end up having to, with a lot of support staff, if it's support staff that end up being let go, to get to those kinds of numbers, to get

087to a, zero increase budget. And so. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm just… I think it's astonishing that we're not going to know until late January, after this has to have been warned for town meeting, what the impact of your vote on warning the budget is actually going to be. And, I just find that very challenging, and I hope that SBSD Helpdesk: Next year we're going to be on a better track and earlier process so that the community and the board can really have this discussion about what we want for our schools. Thanks. Just a quick question, could you provide me with a reference of any time in the past when the budgeting decision has been made based on that specific SBSD Helpdesk: Level of information about what's working and heads out. SBSD Helpdesk: Every year, we have

088had a discussion, even last year, when it was at a much higher level than it had been in previous years. SBSD Helpdesk: even last year, there were at least A, B, and C categories that said if you take A, which is the biggest cut to the… or the least increase to the budget, for example, I can't remember if it was backwards, it might have been C was the most, SBSD Helpdesk: cuts to programming and A-list… I can't remember which direction I went, but there were these categories that said, if you choose this budget, roughly, here are the programs that are gonna go away. SBSD Helpdesk: And there was a big discussion about that. And… SBSD Helpdesk: whether that meant that they were working or not working, at least there was a discussion with the… But

089that was my part of the question. I know that those scenarios are presented, and I know that we've considered other scenarios, but I'm very interested in what's working or not working, because I completely agree, and I would love to have a reference for how that's been done. SBSD Helpdesk: At least during my time on the board, every single FTE that we were talking about cutting or adding, there was a very detailed discussion. SBSD Helpdesk: And I specifically remember being… Elizabeth Fitzgerald being the sort of name-checking Elizabeth, if she's listening, being the person who… every single FTE, do you need this half FTE, and why do you need it, and what is the impact? SBSD Helpdesk: And hey, this… for example, just a few years ago, behavioral interventionists were not even a thing in school districts

090in Vermont. And I remember when we first started bringing them in as part of multi-tiered systems of support, and the whole, you know, law that was brought in to provide those systems. SBSD Helpdesk: And they were meant to be brought in as a pilot, and I do remember us as a board saying, hey, that doesn't have to be a pilot program, how is that working? And can you give us numbers on… SBSD Helpdesk: reduced instances or increased instances, as the case may be, of behavioral, you know, situations that have been elevated to the principal as a result of, you know, having the staff person in one of the elementary schools, and therefore, is that a good program to expand? Like, those discussions used to be had, and to the point where we even, you know.

091SBSD Helpdesk: 2016 to 2022, we were even doing down to the line item, you know? This is what this line item was last year, this is what you're proposing it to be. SBSD Helpdesk: David Young and principals, and why is it increasing, or why do you think you don't need this amount in a different line item? And so those discussions used to be much, much deeper. I gave feedback to the former superintendent that I felt like they were way too high level last year, and that the community didn't have great insight, but at least there were buckets. I feel like I don't have any sense. SBSD Helpdesk: of, like, what program is potentially on the chopping block, and what… because the other thing is, not just on the chopping block… excuse me, stop you there?

092Thank you for that question. We, Jean Marie, I saw you walking up. Are you able to answer the question about, real student enrollment? SBSD Helpdesk: Versus weighted student enrollment difference? SBSD Helpdesk: maybe I'm confused, but I can't really give specifics, because… SBSD Helpdesk: You can't identify people in the… SBSD Helpdesk: Well, let's let Jean Marie answer the factual question, which I think is very interesting, is how to put a real student… Yeah, so real… so you asked me that question last week, and the answer, and I went back to the team, and the answer is… is both literal student, you know, one by one student count, as well as the… didn't… and the issue is SBSD Helpdesk: For the last… this year and last year, for 2 years, our number is down over the long-term

093rate. So, we're sort of being doubly affected by that. By how much in terms of… so… Well, hold on, I'm sorry. So, what's the… what is the real… SBSD Helpdesk: student decrease from last year to this year. I don't have that number in my fingertips, but yeah, maybe Joe does. I… though I can also tell you, and Joe and I talked a little bit about this earlier this evening. SBSD Helpdesk: One of the things that our IT team does is really look at what our literal student count is, our actual student count is, for our incoming freshman class as they're preparing to buy, additional, pieces of technology equipment for that student population at our incoming freshman classes. SBSD Helpdesk: is very small. It's a lot smaller than it's ever been in this time. So that…

094so our number of students is down, and our long-term weighted EVM is down. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, so I have the… I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. I have the latest, enrollment projection, presented to us by NESDAQ. SBSD Helpdesk: And this year, we have 20… these are actual bodies, these are not weighted bodies. We have 25 fewer bodies than we did last year. Next year, we're projecting 7 more, and then 10 more the year after that. Now, the long-range term is 247 fewer kids by school year 24-2035, which is a 10% decrease. This… the problem with making reductions based on student count is this… SBSD Helpdesk: You know, I'm the youngest of 11 kids, right? I have 10 older brothers and sisters, and so we would never get pizza, but when we did. SBSD Helpdesk: We got 4

095large pizzas, and when my oldest brother moved out, we still needed 4 large pizzas, right? We couldn't go down to 3 until a couple more people moved. So when you look at SBSD Helpdesk: you know, we have 35 kids who are supposed to be leaving in 29-30. Well, 35 kids, if you expect that they're spread through 12 grades, that's 3 kids a grade. That's not enough to… SBSD Helpdesk: cut a teacher unless they are more condensed in a certain grade, or if our school, if our schools were combined, those are where you can make those reductions. So, and again, a projection is only as good as the day it's made, but right now we're looking at SBSD Helpdesk: Well, between now and 2035, losing 10% of our student body. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, and then, SBSD

096Helpdesk: Okay, so thank you very much, Jean-Marie, and we'll move on to our next contour, and certainly you can feel free to comment again if there's nobody else. I just wanted to make a quick reaction to why we're not doing line item, why we're not doing certain FTEs. SBSD Helpdesk: at least my understanding is that, and my proposal to the board is that we are not educational experts, we're laypeople. We're just… SBSD Helpdesk: Pat, we're just voters. SBSD Helpdesk: You know, who have stepped up here, and I think that it can be very dangerous if we think that we can make a call. Like, we certainly should ask questions, and I think maybe that's what you already have. Let's ask questions, but at the end of the day. SBSD Helpdesk: It's up to Joe and

097his team to decide how any amount of money is spent, and so I would feel very inappropriate SBSD Helpdesk: going in and, and advocating for particular FDEs or particular programs, you know, that's really the job of the community, to talk to Joe and help him identify what the right thing is, to continue. You know, as… SBSD Helpdesk: So I just wanted to say that. I don't want to dominate either. I'll just say also. SBSD Helpdesk: We absolutely are behind, and we're behind because we had massive turnover in administrative need, and not only… I mean, I had not set foot in the state of Vermont until September 8th. SBSD Helpdesk: And on the 12th, I'm the superintendent learning a new system, and then we have a administrator go on leave, and we have another administrator on

098leave, and we're trying to pick this up. We are absolutely behind, and I know we will be ahead next year. I know that's an excuse, but it's reality. I also just quickly… sorry, I wanted to say about what Joe's saying about the reduction and the number of students declining. SBSD Helpdesk: And… I'm not trying to say anything political other than this world is… is a… is a… SBSD Helpdesk: scary place right now, and I think these kids are not the same kids. One kid doesn't equal what one kid was when I graduated in 1998 from South Burlington. The supports that we all need, including me, are much different than they were, and I feel like SBSD Helpdesk: I don't want to take supports away from anybody at this moment, and I don't see it getting

099any better and easier and less stressful for our students anytime soon. SBSD Helpdesk: And I'd be very scared to reduce things based on just numbers of body and not taking into account who those bodies are. SBSD Helpdesk: We have more comment. I'm gonna… can I start with, Daisy? Okay, thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you, Daisy Braden, and I serve as your Human Resources Director. I wanted to point out one thing, that when we came… when we were originally given instruction by the board to come with a proposal last week, we did that with explicit detail. So, we came… SBSD Helpdesk: Identifying specifically the positions, and again, there were 5 positions that we are cutting, and additional 2 positions that were in the budget that were not filled. SBSD Helpdesk: So, and then, again, two, two

100nurses. So, in that proposal, we had the time and the ability to give you that amount of detail of what was going to be cut. SBSD Helpdesk: Last week, we were told to take it down to zero. SBSD Helpdesk: That was very difficult. We could come up with a number of what that meant, and we had to decide how to, break that down in between the different buildings and the different schools, but we certainly did not have the time to get to the detail of the positions. SBSD Helpdesk: And I very much appreciate, Seamus, what you just said about the board taking, taking the approach that SBSD Helpdesk: You are looking to… balance… SBSD Helpdesk: cuts and taxes and being responsive to both the schools and being responsive to your constituents. I think that's a

101very hard job, and thank you for doing that, but at the same time, I am very supportive, and one of the reasons I wanted to talk was to say I am very supportive of what Dr. Clark put forward. SBSD Helpdesk: I do feel that the original work that we did on getting to the 3.4 was very, appropriate, and we were still cutting 7 positions. SBSD Helpdesk: To ask for an additional 13, I believe, will have a very negative impact. SBSD Helpdesk: With the, the ability of our schools to be successful. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: This is… Can we take somebody online first? SBSD Helpdesk: Do you know how he is. SBSD Helpdesk: Can you tell me who's over on top? Whoever is on, yeah, whoever is on top. Jerry. Gerry Silverstein: I have

102lots of things that I want. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, we can't hear you. Gerry Silverstein: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: One sec. Gerry Silverstein: Ready? Nope. SBSD Helpdesk: Nope. We have to turn you up, Terry, just one moment. Gerry Silverstein: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: And Jerry, can you see my screen? Gerry Silverstein: I can see the little screen. SBSD Helpdesk: Can you see the timer? Gerry Silverstein: Now I can just… I can see the little screen. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, I just wanted to make sure that you could see the timer. Gerry Silverstein: Yeah, I can see the timer. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, Brett. Okay, go ahead. Gerry Silverstein: Okay, if you want real numbers on the reductions, I have the spreadsheet in front of me, but why don't you come back to me on that, if that's information you want,

103because I have a lot of other things to say. With regard to, the buy-down… Previously on Heartland. Oh. How is that going on? Gerry Silverstein: It's gamma. Gerry Silverstein: Can you still hear me? SBSD Helpdesk: Yes. Gerry Silverstein: Let me see what's going on here. Where is… sorry. Why don't you go to somebody else and come back to me while I fix this? SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. Gerry Silverstein: whether Miranda's. SBSD Helpdesk: So, Mark. Gerry Silverstein: All cases are warranted to the mother. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, so would you mute for Jerry, just for a moment? Gerry Silverstein: of their history. SBSD Helpdesk: Hate to talk over Jerry in a little bit. So here's my concern, and maybe it's just my little brain that's not taking this in, but we've got a declining enrollment in a growing

104city with a growing population. SBSD Helpdesk: And so I can tell you for a fact where some of those students are going. SBSD Helpdesk: Some of them are going to other schools, because the families are not getting the education that they want for their kids in South Burlington schools. For a fact, 4 of them off of bus number three. Three of them, siblings, with a parent who's a teacher at South Burlington schools. SBSD Helpdesk: Gotta pay attention to where your declining enrollment's going. We need to improve things, not make them worse, if you want to hang on to those kids. So what's happening right now is families that can afford to send their kids to Rice, or Mount Christie, or Christ the King, are pulling them out. SBSD Helpdesk: So they can go and get

105the education that they want for their children, because they're not getting limited. SBSD Helpdesk: And… SBSD Helpdesk: Joe, I'm so glad you're here, and I'm so glad that we have a functional board that's making tough decisions. I'm looking at this through fresh eyes. We are a thousand times better off right now than we were a year ago. SBSD Helpdesk: But keep moving forward, don't step backwards. SBSD Helpdesk: Something that I wanted to respond to… SBSD Helpdesk: in what you said, is that I think that SBSD Helpdesk: In my mind, the biggest issue here, and the most important risk to our schools. SBSD Helpdesk: Is the declining legitimacy of public education. SBSD Helpdesk: And I had one of my daughter's friends left school, and it was really sad. SBSD Helpdesk: And it was for that reason

106that you said. And the answer to that is not… SBSD Helpdesk: to explore other options, and in my opinion, I'm speaking for myself, not for the board, it's not school vouchers, it's not school choice, it's not all this stuff. It is, let's reestablish a basis of trust with our community. SBSD Helpdesk: that they can rely on us to spend wisely and to cut when it's necessary. I also, in private business, I've had to do that. So I just want… the threat to public education right now is real. SBSD Helpdesk: And we… the short-term pain… May help with that. SBSD Helpdesk: Anyway, so I'm gonna… may I answer that? SBSD Helpdesk: Quickly, because I sat in Megan Sweet's office with my daughter, saying, if things don't get better, we're leaving. SBSD Helpdesk: And then I got

107reprimanded by Megan. Actually, I did. But to say, you know, you can either stay and work on this and make it better for everyone. SBSD Helpdesk: or because you can afford to pull your kid out of school and send her to a private school, you can do that. We opted to stay. We want to make it better. SBSD Helpdesk: But my point being is if you eliminate another 13 full-time equivalents, you're not doing it. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Who's the next person? My name is Kate Jarvis, in Montauk Twins and 10th Brave. SBSD Helpdesk: And I just… I just wanted to, challenge you on something that you said, Seamus. SBSD Helpdesk: earlier you said… you talked about the board being, elected representatives from… of the community. So… SBSD Helpdesk: I wanted to say

108that you and the school board are the democratically elected representatives of the community, so I feel like you do need to discuss specific line items with teachers and principals and Joe. The community at large does have the opportunity to come to these board meetings, but they don't. SBSD Helpdesk: That's just the reality. So that leaves the board to examine these line items. Not because you are necessarily the experts, but because you need to know what the schools are proposing. SBSD Helpdesk: And my second comment is just about the, the class sizes, and I don't know the answer to this, but, what happened to that class where we had to build the ZANs because we couldn't fit all the students in? SBSD Helpdesk: school. Did that not result in a… in a large, class size? I

109think it was maybe… maybe 7th grade this year? I'm not quite sure at total. But, suzette, it's got some type in the back. SBSD Helpdesk: So, does that not… how does that figure in with the declining moment? That's what I wanted to say. Thank you very much. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: I also… we're just… I don't… please, board members, if you want to respond. On the line item thing, it also… it goes back to, SBSD Helpdesk: Well, actually, no, I'm not gonna talk about that. SBSD Helpdesk: I'll just share, I think maybe what you were going to say as it relates to our approach on policy governance and the way by which this board has, you know, defers operations and operational decisions to the superintendent. So, structurally, the way that this board has

110chosen to operate it is not due to an application of duty or a lack of interest. SBSD Helpdesk: And I've run into that myself, frankly, as I've asked for some things, and then realized that I'm overstepping what we've agreed upon as a board and had my wrists slapped, and I appreciate being held accountable to that, so… SBSD Helpdesk: That's just a result of how we have chosen to govern as a board. SBSD Helpdesk: But it is… but it is important to understand what's working and not working. That is squarely within our responsibility, and I think that was the point that I was trying to pick up from. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. Somebody online, I think the next person was Sereni. Sriram Srinivasan: Hi, good evening, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to comment. Sriram Srinivasan:

111So, I… I'm going to start with some clarifying comments. Sriram Srinivasan: And, if I don't finish now, hopefully I can come back. Sriram Srinivasan: If I add up the district building and the facility stewardship reductions that Dr. Klopp shared. Sriram Srinivasan: That's, roughly 5.2 million. Sriram Srinivasan: That corresponds to 7.2% of 71.5. Sriram Srinivasan: And then the FDA reduction is $1.7 million. Sriram Srinivasan: that's the makeup… make up the difference. That's an additional 2.4. Sriram Srinivasan: So, a total reduction of 9.6%. Sriram Srinivasan: or $6.85 million is what I add up. Sriram Srinivasan: Word documents who are, presented. Sriram Srinivasan: Two more things that I just wanted to note. In the December 7th meeting, there was a recognition of a $1.35 million contingency for salary negotiations in fiscal year 26. Sriram Srinivasan: And then the

112district has acknowledged that there are 7 positions. Sriram Srinivasan: That will come off of the baseline of fiscal year 26. Sriram Srinivasan: That corresponds to $900,000. Sriram Srinivasan: So 1.35 plus, the 9, so that's $2.4 million, so… Sriram Srinivasan: So I just wanted to start off with those high-level numbers. Sriram Srinivasan: I… I have exchanged a number of emails Sriram Srinivasan: Over the last 10 or 12 days, and I apologize for the frequency of the emails. Sriram Srinivasan: But I do think that… Sriram Srinivasan: A high-level reconciliation of these numbers. Sriram Srinivasan: Will lead to a different answer. Sriram Srinivasan: And I have shared that analysis and perspective with the school board and the school district. Sriram Srinivasan: And I'm not sure, how… Sriram Srinivasan: We review that, or deliberate on that. Sriram Srinivasan: But.

113SBSD Helpdesk: Good. Sriram Srinivasan: Pardon me? SBSD Helpdesk: We did get some more answers on that, and I think that Joe will be able to answer the main question behind your question. Sriram Srinivasan: Okay, and I think the way I read the high-level math. Sriram Srinivasan: is the following, and I… I presented that as a bridge. Sriram Srinivasan: From fiscal year 26 to fiscal year 27. Sriram Srinivasan: So, this is my high-level summary. Sriram Srinivasan: Fiscal year 26 reserved for… was 1.35 for salary negotiations, that needs to come off of the baseline. Sriram Srinivasan: The salary increase for the paraeducators and teachers in fiscal year 26 is $1.4 million. I shared the math two meetings prior to this. SBSD Helpdesk: Can I stop you for a second? So, we're doing the strict 3-minute, and I

114hate to interrupt you right now, but I do know that you sent the budget fridge SBSD Helpdesk: to us, and we sent it on to the superintendent, and I just want to give the superintendent, SBSD Helpdesk: A moment to, fill you in on what he told us. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, thank you. The, the placeholder for negotiations, sir, that… that has been removed from all of our budget scenarios. There is now a, like, a $56,000 placeholder, because we are going through negotiations with our administrative, team this year, our principal group. SBSD Helpdesk: But the $1.3 million in all of our proposals has already been accounted for. SBSD Helpdesk: So, and Serena, I would love for you to take another slot, another 3-minute slot, after everybody's talking. Sriram Srinivasan: Okay, thank you. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank

115you. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. Now we have somebody in the room? Go ahead, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Hi! SBSD Helpdesk: I'm Sarah Pineda. I have the best job in the world, I'm the district nurse leader, and I'm also a mom of three South Burlington students. SBSD Helpdesk: I want to speak, about the real operational impact of the proposed reduction of two nurse FPE. SBSD Helpdesk: Our current nursing model is not excessive. We are not overstaffed. SBSD Helpdesk: I also want to clarify… Good to be muted. Mute, everybody. Thanks. SBSD Helpdesk: Go ahead, sorry to interrupt. SBSD Helpdesk: Do you want to start over? No. I mean, unless you want me to. Okay. I also want to clarify that while many of the proposed reduction, in the conversation has been described as central office cuts. SBSD Helpdesk: School

116nursing, including the district nurse leader, provides direct services to students and schools every day. SBSD Helpdesk: These are not removed, from classroom roles. Reductions in school nursing have immediate invisible impacts inside buildings, affecting students, staff, and daily operations. SBSD Helpdesk: In several buildings, health offices are extremely busy, and even under our current staffing model, nurses are operating at the edge of capacity. School nurses are managing increasing student acuity. SBSD Helpdesk: Chronic health conditions, mental health needs, daily medication administration, mandated screenings, documentation, compliance. SBSD Helpdesk: Emergency response, so much more, all while working largely independently. SBSD Helpdesk: To make this concrete, a typical day in a school health office may include assessing a student with shortness of breath, responding to a major injury, requiring immediate care, monitoring or responding to blood glucose levels, administering more than

11710 scheduled medications. SBSD Helpdesk: And managing constant calls and follow-ups with families and medical providers, often all at the same time. SBSD Helpdesk: Just this week alone, this work has included identifying and safely managing an acute episode of SVT using trained nursing assessment and Valsalva maneuvers, as well as supporting a newly arrived American family by coordinating vaccinations, connecting them with the health department, and, helping establish primary SBSD Helpdesk: And vision care through the use of an interpreter. SBSD Helpdesk: It can feel a bit like Jumanji, with multiple urgent needs emerging at once, and only one, nurse managing the entire board in some cases. SBSD Helpdesk: The district nurse leader role is a critical part of keeping the system functional. It provides district-wide clinical leadership, ensures compliance with state health requirements, coordinates emergency preparedness, and fills

118coverage gaps when nurses are absent. SBSD Helpdesk: Three days a week, the district nurse leader also works in elementary schools as a second nurse, so the solo nurses can attend by the… 22nd time? And IEP meetings, complete mandated screenings, coordinate care, and provide sexual health education. Responsibilities nurses absorbed after the health educator position was eliminated. SBSD Helpdesk: was… can I have, like, 10 extra seconds? Because… okay. I probably have much more than that to say, but… SBSD Helpdesk: What is being proposed is the elimination of the 1.0 district nurse leader and district-wide flow position, along with a reduction of one FTE between the middle school and high school. While there is an expectation that the remaining nurses would absorb the district-wide leadership, coordination, and compliance work currently carried by the SBSD Helpdesk: District nurse Leader

119is not yet clear how that work would be assigned or supported. Regardless of how it's distributed. SBSD Helpdesk: the work doesn't disappear. I want to be clear what this represents. Eliminating two nurse FTE is not a minor adjustment. While these positions represent a small portion of the overall budget, they provide significant direct value in our schools every day. SBSD Helpdesk: A reduction of two positions equals approximately 25% of our nursing staff. Any reduction in nursing staff is impactful and difficult, but a reduction of this size fundamentally changes our ability to provide consistent nursing coverage. With two positions eliminated. SBSD Helpdesk: There will be days when health offices do not have a nurse available. This is not a hypothetical concern, it is a predictable outcome of the map, and consistent with what we have seen when

120capacity is reduced in the past. SBSD Helpdesk: When nursing capacity is reduced, work falls through the cracks, nurses who are already stretched thin are asked to do more, and health needs shift to principals, teachers, and school staff who are not trained to manage them. I think, SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you for your comment. I think that… and there'll be another opportunity, once we've gone all around the road. Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: Right? SBSD Helpdesk: Hey folks, I'm Andy Samara, community member, teacher. I wanted to share support for Dr. Joe's proposal. And really, I'm just here to try to SBSD Helpdesk: Say as clearly as possible, I think that voting tonight SBSD Helpdesk: After warning a vote on a potential 0% budget, after it was only asked for last week. SBSD Helpdesk: is actually voting blind. And to

121quote what Daisy mentioned, that the 3.4% budget was prepared and presented, SBSD Helpdesk: And I don't really know how the board could feel like they're in a responsible position SBSD Helpdesk: voting for a 0% increase, given that we know we won't really even have all the information to put in front of the committee until the end of January, was, like, when principals would SBSD Helpdesk: be able to identify things. So, where I, like, think there's really probably a middle between the line item approach and the approach the board wants to take, which is certainly, like, your prerogative around policy governance. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't think there's a rationalizable way to put 0% out to the community with no other option, given what you know. SBSD Helpdesk: at this point, about what that would mean for

122our educational program. And that's really my appeal. In addition to that, I support the recommendation. SBSD Helpdesk: Should I go back? I'll go back. You think God's his keymaker. SBSD Helpdesk: Let's actually go to someone online. SBSD Helpdesk: Kate12. Yeah, there's Kate and Jerry. So let's go to Kate. Oh, whoever the next rep is. Sophie. I think Kate… SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, what's next? I don't see Kate's name, but… Hello. Sophie Lee: Can you hear me? SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. Yes. Sophie Lee: Hi, I'm Sophie Lee, I'm a science teacher at the high school, and I just want to first start by thanking the board for your work on this, and for holding this community forum this evening. Sophie Lee: I really want to express my agreement with the comments made by our student reps, Allie and

123Momin. As the most important stakeholders in this are students, I certainly hope that their comments are being taken into account. Sophie Lee: While I no longer live in SB, and can no longer vote on our budget, I've always been willing to continue voting as many times as necessary to pass a budget that supports the schools and community of my home district. Sophie Lee: Your staff cannot do more with less. Quality of education in our district will fall with this decision. If we are using test scores as a metric, they will not improve by-level funding. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Then let's go to somebody here. SBSD Helpdesk: Thanks. As you know, I'm a South Burlington educator, but I'm also a community member, a taxpayer. And I just wanted to say a couple

124things. First, we all know ed funding is broken in Vermont, but I'm… SBSD Helpdesk: at a loss as to why we in South Burlington feel we need to fix that on the backs of our kids. As I take a quick survey of other local districts, no other district is taking that tactic. SBSD Helpdesk: you are, democratically elected, but I feel time and again, listening to one small portion of our community, I would urge you to let the community speak and vote on the budget as proposed at 3.4%. SBSD Helpdesk: Secondly, I want to make a correction. The incoming 9th grade class is 200 students, the same as the outgoing senior class. It is not the most small class we've ever had. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Can I respond to one part? I just

125want to say, I don't think it's… speaking for myself, I am not thinking of one part of the community. I am… SBSD Helpdesk: I consider my role here to balance SBSD Helpdesk: the responsibilities of meeting the needs of the taxpayer and the needs of the student per policy governance. Trying to keep a really laser lens. I appreciate that, and I appreciate this is a community forum, and anytime someone has said something that contradicts your beliefs, you're defending yourselves, so it doesn't feel open. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, I think I would want to respond to that. SBSD Helpdesk: In… in a room where… A lot of the community is not represented. SBSD Helpdesk: It is the job of us to represent those people. SBSD Helpdesk: And so I think that's where a lot of the… You know,

126the… SBSD Helpdesk: the defensiveness, perhaps, comes from. Bye-bye. SBSD Helpdesk: I apologize if that's taken as defensive. That was not my intent. I wanted to clarify that I don't feel that's correct. I absolutely appreciate the engagement here. This is… we're learning a lot. But I just… SBSD Helpdesk: See? SBSD Helpdesk: So now can we go to some of the online… irritant? SBSD Helpdesk: Wait, has everybody else who wants to speak in here spoken yet? I'm just going back and forth. Yeah, but Jerry's already talked once. Gerry Silverstein: Okay, ready? SBSD Helpdesk: Yep. Gerry Silverstein: Okay, so the first point. You talked about the buy-down, Superintendent Clark. Let's look at it this year, this year's buy-down. It reduced the expected South Berth and Education tax rate Gerry Silverstein: from 7.93% to 7.64%. That's not an assumption,

127that's a cold, hard fact. A very small decrease. Nobody in the state of Vermont can explain how the buy-down worked. It was supposed to reduce a 5% increase to a 1% increase, and I haven't spoken to anybody who has seen that reality come to pass. Gerry Silverstein: If you approve… if that 8.67% increase did go into effect for the education tax rate, the 4-year education tax rate in South Burlington would be about 30%, which would be 150% greater than inflation. Gerry Silverstein: This school board is doing the same thing past school boards have done in terms of their mindset, and that is, if you can justify every dollar spent in every position in the budget, then the economic impact on the community, on the state, is irrelevant. Let me tell you the impact of that

128mindset. Look at the federal government budget… federal government deficit. In the year 2000, it was $5.7 trillion. You know what it is today? It's $38.2 trillion. Gerry Silverstein: You have a homework assignment. Tell me what percent increase that has occurred over 25 years. Gerry Silverstein: for the two students who want to maintain the status quo, who originally advocated for no cuts 6%, I want to tell you that current interest on the federal debt is in excess of $1 trillion. By the time you graduate and become wage earners, the interest on the federal debt is going to be $2 trillion. SBSD Helpdesk: If you're talking to children right now, you need to bring your… your bigger down. SBSD Helpdesk: Do not address the students on this board with that kind of tone. Gerry Silverstein: Well, thank

129you very much for that. Okay, let's move on then. Gerry Silverstein: Laura Williams says we're not spending enough, or we should just be happy with what we're spending. We're now spending, according to the latest recommendations for the Joint Fiscal Office, $30,000 per student. That's twice as much as 16 other students. And don't tell me other states are not addressing mental health. That's a false statement! It's a false statement, Laura Williams. Let me tell you that in Massachusetts, 20% of students there Gerry Silverstein: are listed as IDEA or 504. It's absurd to say other students are not… other states are not adjusting mental health. Gerry Silverstein: Let's move on. Gerry Silverstein: The board does not understand how the Ed Fund works. Let me say that again. The school board does not understand how the Ed Fund

130works. It doesn't matter what the inflation rate is, Seamus. It doesn't matter at all. What matters is how much money is in the education fund. If the education fund is short, why would it be short? Because schools like South Burlington are advocating budgets and passed by the voters Gerry Silverstein: which there's not enough money to fund. And so the ed fund must drop the yield. When it drops the yield, it increases the tax rate. So every time a school district, whether it's South Burlington or other one, puts forth a budget to the voters and they improve it, which is more than the state can fund, they have to drop the yield, which increases the tax rates. It's a vicious… it's a vicious cycle. The state is in a fiscal death spiral. SBSD Helpdesk: If you'd

131like to come back again later, please let us know. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: I'd also like to say he's not supposed to really mention people by any? Jerry, I'm not sure if you can hear us, but please refrain from referring to people on the board by name. SBSD Helpdesk: Any future comments? SBSD Helpdesk: I think we, for what it's worth, I think we were told by our lawyer that… he's allowed to do that? In general, yeah, you're allowed to, like, that affect people finance. SBSD Helpdesk: Can we request refrain from personal character tax, though? Yeah, that is not… Well, let me rephrase what I was saying, yes. Yeah. If you're going to address people by name, please do… Yeah, don't, don't be insulting. SBSD Helpdesk: Bottom line, be civil. If you can't come on and

132be civil, then don't make a comment. Submit it in writing, because we've heard enough. We do not need to hear it again. Mr. Silverstein, I'm sure you can hear us. SBSD Helpdesk: You do not need to be reminded. I certainly will not tolerate that kind of behavior. Period. And if you want to talk to us one-on-one, we're more than happy to do so. But I'm not going to sit here. If it happens again, I'm leaving. We've made ourselves doubtless. Mr. Silverstein hasn't chosen to spoken with. But to clarify, he has a right to speak at every meeting. Do not disrespect me. He does have a First Amendment SBSD Helpdesk: I'm just… I'm going to say we're using the community's time. Yeah, for sure. Thank you, Michelle. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, okay. Do you have anybody else

133here who would like to speak? SBSD Helpdesk: So, when it happens to you, Michelle, let's see how you're going. SBSD Helpdesk: Hi, I'm Jen Merkin. I am an SB High School Behavior Interventionist, and also a parent of a 2022 grad, and a 26 grad coming up, so I'm real excited. It's been great to hear all these viewpoints tonight. I don't have a lot of hard data, I just have a couple stories. SBSD Helpdesk: So, my daughters do come home with, well, actually, first off, we moved to South Burlington about 8 years ago because of the schools. SBSD Helpdesk: That's why I came here. And, in the 8 years we've been here, we have seen a define in the student experience, and, my daughter does come home with discussions, as a senior about the increase in

134class size and the decreasing in classes that can serve all kinds of students. SBSD Helpdesk: That said, my students will be fine. But I do work with students who, and a lot of you have referred to, that need to come to school. They need these services, and I see them every day, and when they don't come to school for whatever reason, they're hurting. So we are providing a huge need. SBSD Helpdesk: for both our students that are college-bound, but also our students who really need the structure, the predictability, and for all of us to learn what it is to live with people who are very different from us. So we provide excellent service to the school, but I'm… if we go with the zero budget or anything else that SBSD Helpdesk: we've talked about that

135will not happen. So I'm glad to hear that we're giving the community a voice to vote for at least a slight increase in our budget, so weekends are kids that want to go to college, but also kids that just need to be in our community. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Hi, I'm Brian Cannon. Commenting on the zero or 3.4 budget, I would say any organization, school district, or business in these times that's looking at zero is, SBSD Helpdesk: really endangering their future. And in a school district, you are not going to go out of business, but I would say that the service you provide to students, as well as the mission that you're trying to accomplish, would be greatly impacted. SBSD Helpdesk: I would suggest this. You've got a $2.5 million surplus. SBSD Helpdesk: And unless

136you have that money earmarked right now for capital projects. SBSD Helpdesk: For every $500,000 you take of that money, and don't commit it to a capital improvement, but put it into your budget, you'll knock down your increase by 7 tenths of a point. So if you took a million dollars, your increase would now be 2%. SBSD Helpdesk: Which, in today's times, is pretty palatable, when you think about it. Now, I understand SBSD Helpdesk: There's some folks, 2% is fine, others… I walk the Chamberlain District 5 miles a day and interact with a lot of people. Not so many in the winter, but there's still them. But it's interesting. They ask the… they comment on cost and everything. SBSD Helpdesk: And it's very noticeable to some of these folks that their houses and properties are SBSD

137Helpdesk: I'll say falling into disrepair. Whether it's they can't afford it or can't find a contractor, I don't know. But I would think a hybrid approach SBSD Helpdesk: Where you say to the people, we had $2.5 million of your money for a year. SBSD Helpdesk: you're not going to get rich holding $2.5 million in that fund, but you're going to say to them, we're going to take some of that and apply it here. And the 2% increase sounds much more palpable. SBSD Helpdesk: And you've still got a million and a half to do projects, reserve fund, emergencies, and whatever. So that hybrid approach may gain you some goodwill, as well as make it a more palatable one. Then I have two questions. I looked at your SBSD Helpdesk: Budget modeling dated 1-7-26, and noted that

138there's about $280,000 increase in co-curriculars. SBSD Helpdesk: I'd like someone to explain why 200… why we're going up 22% there, and what we're actually going to be offering. And then my other one is on a comment… question is on academics. SBSD Helpdesk: Have we put some resources in so our middle school can begin teaching Algebra 1 to our students who are not challenged by the curriculum that we're offering? And if you take a good look at neighboring districts, and I'm gonna… I don't have any timeouts left, so I'll get done by 23 seconds. If you look at other districts. SBSD Helpdesk: You look at the Catholic schools in the area, they offer Algebra 1 to their students. We don't have anything like that, which is kind of shocking. Thank you for your time. Suzanne, did

139you have a… SBSD Helpdesk: I just thought I saw you. No. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there someone online? Okay, go ahead. Kate Goodwin: Hi, sorry, I'm in the middle of… yes, can you hear me? SBSD Helpdesk: Yep. Kate Goodwin: Sorry, in the middle of bedtime, so try to… My name's Kate Goodwin, I'm a nurse practitioner who serves children in the Burlington area, and I also have kids, and I'm a taxpayer here. I just wanted to comment on my concern about the consideration of reducing the nurse workforce, in the school district. The school nurses are an incredibly, incredibly important, part of our schools. Kate Goodwin: And I feel like they're already really spread quite thin, even with the quote-unquote extra nurse in the district nurse leader. Kate Goodwin: Echoing some concerns I've heard from other folks, stuff

140that's happening politically and some of the policy changes that we're seeing. Kate Goodwin: are already expected by experts to be really, negative impacts on pediatric health, and I'm really concerned about then taking school nurses out of our schools and having fewer trained people who are able to really take care of healthcare problems in the schools. In addition, there is going to be, Kate Goodwin: some Medicaid, reimbursement for school health services that's starting in the fall. Kate Goodwin: And I think it's really short-sighted to say, you know, let's get rid of school nurses when we are going to potentially be having some income from that Medicaid reimbursement. And I think it's really short-sighted not to, like, kind of see what happens with that before we reduce the school nursing Kate Goodwin: workforce. So, thanks for taking

141my comment. SBSD Helpdesk: I just wanted to make a quick comment about advocating for the particular SBSD Helpdesk: FTEs. I think that the approach the board seems to be taking is that we're leaving that in the superintendent's hands, and so, certainly we, you know, we encourage any and all advocacy, SBSD Helpdesk: In terms of operations, to go SBSD Helpdesk: to him, and we also, I think, if we're… if we hear from the community, if we hear from teachers, you know, we do have a new… SBSD Helpdesk: Policy 2.9, you know, a superintendent shall not prevent staff from addressing the board on matters of public concern. If there is a concern that the advocacy that is happening is not SBSD Helpdesk: being properly handled. Of course, we're happy to hear that, but I just wanted to

142say that the board, in this case, is probably not going to be making a decision about, SBSD Helpdesk: For example, the nursing thing. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we have any other comments? So… Please pray. SBSD Helpdesk: Good evening. SBSD Helpdesk: Jarvis resident, parent of two 10th graders. SBSD Helpdesk: When I was leaving the parking lot to come in this evening, I spoke to my wife, and I said. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm so glad that I'm not in the position I was in last year before this meeting started, because this is so… this is so hard. This is, like, terrifyingly hard for people. SBSD Helpdesk: I will say that, I do support Dr. Clark's recommendation for the first round vote. SBSD Helpdesk: And I would also refer back to something that Bridget said, is that using $130,000 as

143a proxy for 13 or 14 FTEs, whatever it was. SBSD Helpdesk: due to the way that the, that the beauty contract works. SBSD Helpdesk: It would definitely result in needing to more than 13 or 14 people. SBSD Helpdesk: As opposed to using an average FTV. I think the, you know, Jerry has made a lot of SBSD Helpdesk: a lot of comments in the various Facebook forums that, SBSD Helpdesk: That I think has, in many respects, have been very informative. SBSD Helpdesk: But at the same time, I think that… SBSD Helpdesk: proposing for the first vote in March. SBSD Helpdesk: A 3.4% increase is, is, I think it's appropriate. I think that it's fiscally responsible. SBSD Helpdesk: And see what the voters think, right? But the important part is. SBSD Helpdesk: If that vote does not

144pass, you have to be ready for the second one, like, instantly. So, it sounds like Dr. Clark has taken the approach of, like, lining up all of the information that we could quickly revert to a second vote. I hadn't really considered about moving that surplus to the, SBSD Helpdesk: to pay down the FY27 budget, because I thought SBSD Helpdesk: When I was hearing rumors of the surplus, I thought you were talking about fiscal year 26. I didn't think that the fiscal year 25 budget had been finalized, and that these were funds that you could actually use in fiscal year 27. SBSD Helpdesk: So, whether you do that at the first go. SBSD Helpdesk: or the second, it certainly gives you some flexibility. That if the first vote does not pass. SBSD Helpdesk: You can almost

145immediately apply some or all of that surplus to a second vote, and virtually ensure a successful second vote. SBSD Helpdesk: If you recall, that's what we ended up doing with the third vote a couple of years ago, that we were carrying it forward as the capital reserve fund until we had no other choice but to put it against the tax rate. So, I do support the 3.4% proposal, and I hope the board passes that. SBSD Helpdesk: There'll be a lot more discussion afterwards. SBSD Helpdesk: Once you get some more information from Principles. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: I wanted to respond to the concept of putting up a 3.4 and seeing if that fails, and then going to a zero. I think SBSD Helpdesk: My opinion is that we are not here to negotiate with the

146voters. This is not a situation where we're gonna come in with a, you know, an offer and anchor them on a higher number, and then get them to, you know, they said, well, you know, they came in at 3.4, so I guess 0% is a pretty good deal. I think that, SBSD Helpdesk: What could very easily happen if this board SBSD Helpdesk: comes in with a number that's going to result in a 3 times inflation, or maybe a 2.5 times inflation, tax rate increase, is that SBSD Helpdesk: The ballot will pass on the strength of votes from SBSD Helpdesk: School community members who come out SBSD Helpdesk: For those kinds of votes. SBSD Helpdesk: But then the effect will be felt down the line when, you know, there are statewide elections, when, you know… I

147think it's a situation where you want to be careful what you wish for. And like I said in response to SBSD Helpdesk: a community member earlier, I think the real big elephant in the room here is the legitimacy and sustainability of public education as a whole, and I think that SBSD Helpdesk: the actions, for example, of the Burlington School District, where it proposed, you know, something that would result in a 9.5% tax rate increase, but then they're counting on it being bought down to 4.5%, that's profoundly irresponsible. SBSD Helpdesk: It's, SBSD Helpdesk: You know, it just does not address the alpha in the room, which is, there's gonna come a time when people say, enough is enough. SBSD Helpdesk: And a treasured institution like public education is going to start getting nickel and dimed by

148SBSD Helpdesk: school choice, voucher programs, you know, all the things that can happen when all legitimacy is gone. So, I don't think we're negotiating with voters. I don't think it's a matter of coming in with our, you know, a higher offer, and then, you know, coming in with something later. SBSD Helpdesk: Can I ever support that? Yeah, I think you earn legitimacy by limiting student programming. Right now, you have support of people who, like you said, are coming out and voting for schools. As soon as you take the other approach, you lose legitimacy of the bad group. It's not… SBSD Helpdesk: You just turn the coins. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I don't know, I get what you're saying, everyone needs to be listened to and responded to, and that's fine, but we are making cuts, and

149we have been. SBSD Helpdesk: And because they're needed. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't understand this argument, really, that we earn legitimacy by making our experience worse for kids. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, and I… yeah, you… I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on that, Seamus, and I understand what… where you're coming from. I don't… I guess I don't see it as me trying to earn anything. This is the money I want to spend on the school, so I'm not trying to, like, negotiate with anyone or pull a trick. I just want to spend this money on the school, so… SBSD Helpdesk: from where I'm sitting, that's why I am suggesting this. And I also just want to say about spending down, and I know why people don't want to do that, and how it can be irresponsible, but

150I think I want to tag it back to something I said about where we are as a district, and how we're rebuilding, and how we have SBSD Helpdesk: this opportunity now to get to a better place. And so, if sending SBSD Helpdesk: down now, so that we can support the students and get to a place… and the teachers, and the whole district, to get to a place where we can be more creative, we can be more flexible, and we maybe don't have to repeat that practice in the future. It just… it seems like it… it could be a good idea. SBSD Helpdesk: I would also point out, you know, our staff just do the ratios. SBSD Helpdesk: are extreme. SBSD Helpdesk: when we use national benchmarks, and I've done the work to do that, South

151Burlington shakes out SBSD Helpdesk: Compared to all other states as having a staff-to-student ratio that is extremely much SBSD Helpdesk: smaller. What is ranging? It's… it came out with the numbers that I had from the district, 4.6. SBSD Helpdesk: That's not teacher ratio, that's not classroom size, that's staff to student ratio. 509 FTDs. SBSD Helpdesk: 2347 students as they unlocked. SBSD Helpdesk: just straight up, do the math, 4 to 6, or 4.6. I don't know what that means. I'm confused about that. SBSD Helpdesk: It's not the… it's the context for my front. SBSD Helpdesk: My point being that when we look at the evidence, at the data nationally, achievement… SBSD Helpdesk: is not guaranteed by that ratio, nor is it guaranteed by money. And when you run the correlations, the strength of that relationship when

152it comes to the student… the ratios, is negative, about negative 0.2. SBSD Helpdesk: When you run it on the money for people? SBSD Helpdesk: It's positive about .07. SBSD Helpdesk: That's a really… SBSD Helpdesk: weak relationship, and so the… I guess the context point that I want to make is that I am not convinced SBSD Helpdesk: by… I am not convinced that cutting anything. SBSD Helpdesk: Is going to necessarily mean The destruction of education doesn't speak. SBSD Helpdesk: Right? I don't think that… let me say what I do think. What I think is I trust our superintendent, I trust his team, and I trust all of the teachers and support staff SBSD Helpdesk: to… SBSD Helpdesk: create that high-quality education. And I know that having more students in a classroom makes that job harder, and

153I know that there are things SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so are you saying, like, if, like, 23 kids in the class, and then, so let's just say in Ohio there's 33, that the kids are going to get the same, that that's… that's… that the data is showing that the outcome is better, or the same? I'm saying there's no relationship. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't agree. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, I mean, it's… I'm not asking anybody to agree. I'm… I'm… you know, the data are the data. They come from the National Center for the Edu… National Center of Education. SBSD Helpdesk: and me. Those are two pretty rigorous data collection sources. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, what I'm saying is there's room for excellence with a reduced budget. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we have other board comments? SBSD Helpdesk: Cheers. SBSD

154Helpdesk: And I think, by the way, I think we'll probably stop at 820 and move into action items, if that makes sense? Go ahead. SBSD Helpdesk: I just wanted to make one comment that SBSD Helpdesk: We worked really hard over the last many months SBSD Helpdesk: In building a really open and transparent, budget-building process with our community, and with our building administrators, and with, you folks, and SBSD Helpdesk: That felt like a really long and difficult… not difficult, but different process for us and for our community. We solicited a lot of feedback from folks. SBSD Helpdesk: As you well know, sometimes you don't get feedback until you're there with bad news, like, so we didn't get a ton of feedback in the avenues that we tried, but we tried really, really hard. And… SBSD Helpdesk:

155It just felt to me personally last week, when we went through and proposed that budget to you. You asked us to give you 3.4, we came back with 3.4. That felt really responsible, and we worked hard to get to that number. SBSD Helpdesk: that… SBSD Helpdesk: When you asked us to bring you a 0.0, it felt like we just blew that whole process up, and it felt really disrespectful to our partners here, inside and outside of these buildings, that we put so much time and effort into that, and then we were in one week. SBSD Helpdesk: to come back with a new number. And there was a variety of reasons of why the timeline is that way, but that felt like a real big bummer to me that we've worked so hard through that process

156for us to suddenly go, holy mackerel, we have to come up with this new number. And, you know, the team has talked through how can we SBSD Helpdesk: align our process and, you know, your thoughts as board members so that we aren't in this position next year, so that we don't have to do that. But I am concerned that we would, approve a budget tonight SBSD Helpdesk: With, you know, 25 people online, and 25 people here in the room, and… SBSD Helpdesk: the team last year really got beat up a lot about not being transparent, not giving folks the opportunity to make comment, and so I just don't want that to happen again, because we've worked so hard for that to not be the case this time, so that's all. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Whoa.

157SBSD Helpdesk: Board Constitution. SBSD Helpdesk: Excuse me. SBSD Helpdesk: I just wanted to take a quick minute to add just a little bit of statewide context. I won't go on and on about it. I did just want to say… Would you mind stepping up just so that we can capture it so that people won't mind? I just wanted to add a little bit of statewide context, because I spent a lot of the summer looking at numbers about how staffing ratios have changed across the state. SBSD Helpdesk: And… SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, the 4.6 number is unacceptable, but it is actually on the higher end of the state. We range all the way from, like, 2.9, and there aren't many that have SBSD Helpdesk: more students per staff than we do in South Burlington right now. To

158put it in context, since 20… fiscal year 2020, we have lost 5,500 students out of our public education system through FY25, so in those 5 years, we lost 5,500 students. SBSD Helpdesk: We added 814 student support Staff across state. SBSD Helpdesk: And a lot of that comes from poor decisions that have been made at the state level, unfunded mandates. So, the state level makes a new law and says you have to implement it SBSD Helpdesk: And it takes more resources, but there are no funding sources, like, helping fund those resources, so it comes on the back of property taxpayers. And we are aware of this situation. A lot of folks are talking about it, we're trying to work SBSD Helpdesk: toward a better system. But I just wanted to say that, like, in context, a

159lot of this is a statewide issue. For example, Act 173 of 2018 put in multi-tiered systems of support. We made it really easy to identify kids, for extra support without putting in programs that would help us actually provide that SBSD Helpdesk: extra support efficiently, and implementation just kind of got dropped. The Agency of Education was gutted, the staff that would have provided technical support to help implement that across the state went away. SBSD Helpdesk: And so we did half of it, where we got more students in that situation, and we didn't do the other half, which is providing better services for them, and we're paying for that now. And that's not something that we can necessarily solve just in South Burlington. SBSD Helpdesk: Another point that was made earlier, yes, every state has to provide

160some mental health support for students. What I see in Vermont is that we have underfunded adult mental health. SBSD Helpdesk: and other systems that support all of our citizens, and that results in adverse childhood experiences that result in kids with higher needs in our system. So we're paying for this lack of investment in our healthcare system, and trying to solve that SBSD Helpdesk: during these hours that we have the kids in school, and that is not fair to ask our school system to do, and it's extremely… it's an extremely expensive way to do it, and there is a real debate this year about, do we pull out some of those things that are not purely K-12 education, and find someplace other than property tax to fund them, and other ways of doing them, because SBSD

161Helpdesk: Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: the overall increase over the last 5 years, obviously, is unacceptable. Thanks. SBSD Helpdesk: A new person online. Okay, so I think we'll take one more comment from online. She hasn't spoken. SBSD Helpdesk: Go ahead, in Europe. Lila: Hi, Lila: Thank you. Oh, that's my daughter's name, Lila. She's… she's, she uses my computer. My name's Julie Baer, and I have two students in the school. One is a fourth grader, and one is in high school. Thank you for having me. Lila: And thank you for all of your work. I would just like to respond to Ms. Boyer's comment about the, Lila: class sizes. Lila: And, say two things. One is, that I would like to say that I have a 9th grader who, started at the high school this year, and… Lila:

162She is so ex… was so excited about high school and wanting to take all the classes, and, she's stuck taking, spending an hour and a half, three days a week in study hall, because, there aren't enough teachers to Lila: teach the… to teach the classes because of budget cuts. That's what the principal said, you know, she… she would love to take an elective, but because of budget cuts, they have to basically have freshmen, and sometimes sophomores, take study halls because, they can put a lot of kids in the cafeteria for study halls with one proctor babysitting them. Lila: Because they have too many students and not enough teachers to teach the extracurriculars. So, my daughter spends, an hour and a half, three days a week, doing nothing, because she doesn't have homework to do, because

163they don't really give much homework, and she gets it done during class, doing nothing in high school. Lila: Because of the budget cuts. And this is true for a lot of motivated students. So… yeah, I mean, that's one reason. If you cut more… if you cut more teachers in the high school, there'll be more kids being… doing nothing. Lila: For, you know, sitting in study hall, or… because they don't have enough teachers to teach them. Lila: The other thing about having bigger class sizes for my daughter in elementary school, when she's on the other end, she needs special education. You know, it might not affect Lila: the typical student to have larger class sizes, but it definitely would affect her. She is lucky, she's in a class of 18 students, and you know, she doesn't

164have a para, but she Lila: She gets pulled out. Lila: 4 days a week for reading, 4 days a week for math, but when she's in the class, she can't keep up with the other kids, so luckily, her teacher can sit with her and help her when she can't keep up. But if she had bigger class sizes, I am sure that it would impact her. So I would love to see what the research says about larger class sizes for kids who are on IEPs, and how that would affect them. Lila: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, so thank you all very much for all the comments. I think at this point, we're gonna move on to the next section if the board is amenable. Otherwise, if the board wants to stay in community forum, that's also

165fine. SBSD Helpdesk: If there's time for that, I would… I would suggest… I think we should take a comment from someone that we haven't heard from again, or from already. I just have a question, but I would love to do your comment. SBSD Helpdesk: Connect. Listen. SBSD Helpdesk: And Board, think about whether you want to keep going with this, and we'll ask again after we… Okay, mine should be quick. My name is Liz Hassler, I have 3 kids down at Rick Marcotte. I support Joe's plan for putting the 3.4% in front of the voters. SBSD Helpdesk: I know myself today, being a mom, my text stream was flooded with other friends texting about this and trying to figure out SBSD Helpdesk: How to get here, how to be online? SBSD Helpdesk: So I think the

166voters and the community does want to have a voice in this, and unfortunately, we're kind of… SBSD Helpdesk: behind the gun of it, and getting here. But I will say, I… before coming here today, I was, a little shocked by the 0% that Joe was asked to put forward, and was… SBSD Helpdesk: frustrated by it, but I actually, coming here today and listening to all of you, really appreciate it, because now… SBSD Helpdesk: we're able to see both options, right? Whereas I feel like in previous years, we were kind of doing these votes on the budget and not SBSD Helpdesk: we had line items for, like, what the budget was gonna be, but we didn't know what would happen if it didn't pass. Whereas now, as a mom, as a community member, I'm now able

167to go talk to friends and other community people to say, okay, if we don't get this passed, this is what's gonna happen. It's much easier. I do agree with what's been said about it would be really helpful to see exact positions, you know what I mean? SBSD Helpdesk: That said, so I have 3 kids in elementary school, one is in second grade. Last year, there were cuts, so instead of having, in first grade, she had 15 kids in her class, and now she has almost 20. And she also has a grade that just happens to be, like, 75% boys. My oldest son is a boy, I will tell you. SBSD Helpdesk: that many boys in the classroom is just, like, wild times. SBSD Helpdesk: thank goodness the two second grade teachers are so phenomenal, and

168they handle that, but I will say, she's not learning as much as she could. We're doing stuff at home, we're doing workbooks. I also know friends are now hiring tutors. Many of my fifth grade son's friends all have math tutoring after school. It's just… SBSD Helpdesk: it's part of reality, but I also am concerned with, what Mark was saying a second about the community members and students leaving are the ones who have money and access, so we've considered it, and I think if we pass this 0%, more people are going to leave. I know a lot of SBSD Helpdesk: Family members love the schools, want to keep those kids in their school and with their community members and friends, but SBSD Helpdesk: can't support them, and being within the school, just volunteering, doing this and

169that, like, the teachers are so amazing, but they're strengths. We've cut, we've cut, we've cut, we've cut everything, and I hear you on… SBSD Helpdesk: our relationship as Vermont ratios to nationwide. The tricky thing is, Vermont, I think, is one of two states who doesn't… all 48 states fund it a different way. We don't. Also, I think districts are different in different states. Like, a district-wide admin might support multiple towns and cities, where we kind of are siloed, and it… SBSD Helpdesk: shifts it. The last thing I'd say, decreasing population of students. We do have a lot of new developments coming in, right? Like, off of Kennedy, off of Dorset, around city center. I'm just wondering, in a year or two, are we gonna just influx in, and then we're gonna have this… we've cut

170so many people SBSD Helpdesk: So that's the last thing. Oh, and just one last thing for safety. I do have a daughter in kindergarten who has asthma, and what Sarah was saying about the nurses not being available, one day she had an asthma attack, and I had to bring in an inhaler, because it was September, and I forgot to bring it in. SBSD Helpdesk: the nurse was not available, and luckily, Alyssa, our principal, was there, but Sheeley wasn't legally able to take the inhaler for me. She cannot take the medication. SBSD Helpdesk: So I'm just wondering, if we're gonna have nurses, we need a plan. They actually legally can't take these medicines and administer them to students when the nurses can, so if my daughter's having an asthma attack and can't breathe, we're gonna call,

171like, the ambulance instead of, I don't know, just something to think about. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Does the board want to keep going with the community forum section? SBSD Helpdesk: So anybody who hasn't spoken who wants to speak? Is there anyone online who hasn't spoken yet? No. SBSD Helpdesk: No. You had a question? I just wanted to clarify, because I thought this was a community forum, so just your comment about, Seamus, about, not… SBSD Helpdesk: like… SBSD Helpdesk: you know, you don't feel that you're going to make any changes to specific FTE, and I appreciate that, because I feel that our superintendent shouldn't necessarily be micromanaged, but I think, like, I… SBSD Helpdesk: from what I understood, this was an opportunity to show… to inform the public about positions and roles and things that will

172affect our students and their children. So it just felt dismissive when somebody is calling in, and then the follow-up is, you know, we're not gonna… SBSD Helpdesk: well, you can talk about specific FTE, but we're not really doing anything about it, basically. I just think, like, most people, the community probably SBSD Helpdesk: Doesn't necessarily know how much depth the school nurse role has, or what the, like, district nurse leader role SBSD Helpdesk: that's recommended by the state actually manages or does, so… so… SBSD Helpdesk: Do you not want to hear about, like, specific SBSD Helpdesk: I just… I know I'm… I'll respond since you asked. SBSD Helpdesk: What we do is confusing enough, and one of the big problems that we have as a district right now, and lead up to, you know, a couple

173years with multiple failed budget votes, is SBSD Helpdesk: A lot… the 80% of the population of this community that is not affiliated with the school district SBSD Helpdesk: use us sometimes as a conspiracy, sometimes, like… and so it's like, if there's an opportunity for this board to say, look, that is something we, SBSD Helpdesk: you know, we want you to talk to the superintendent about, or that's something that we take care of ourselves. It's just like a… it's just a point of clarification. I'm sorry if I seem dismissive. But I think part of that is being transparent. Like, the… my role isn't… SBSD Helpdesk: like a central office cut. Like, I see kids all day long, I support school nurses in the buildings, so I think that's important to be transparent about what these positions

174actually mean. SBSD Helpdesk: So… And I totally… personally, I totally support you. I very much respect our superintendent. I… SBSD Helpdesk: I think he's great, and I love all of these people in the back of this room. SBSD Helpdesk: But I just think it's important to make the community aware of what we're losing, because it's impactful. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, and I… and I just… I… I'm very glad that you kept me… One question I would have is, is it… SBSD Helpdesk: in violation of any laws when we look at FTE reductions, right? Like, is there, like, a specific requirement per the state that you need to have SBSD Helpdesk: X many number of nurses per student population, and if we're looking… because this was obviously not a cut that we had proposed, it was something

175that I know your team was working with, but when you bring that forth, I would imagine you're looking at it through the lens of what the state requirements are, correct? Yes. Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: And… and other districts. And other districts, okay. SBSD Helpdesk: And can we go to Sereni online? SBSD Helpdesk: the mic. Yes, ma'am. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so we'll do, Srini and then Diane, and then we'll be… we'll be done. But again, we're about to have an action item on the budget where there's another opportunity for public comment. Sriram Srinivasan: Okay, can I start? SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. Sriram Srinivasan: Yeah, so here, I'm realizing that, you know, I'm not gonna spend a significant amount of time Sriram Srinivasan: Reviewing numbers here. Sriram Srinivasan: I would like the opportunity for a different forum or a

176different process. Sriram Srinivasan: with the district to clarify some of the issues that I have brought up. Sriram Srinivasan: But all I will say is. Sriram Srinivasan: For the benefit of everyone listening in. Sriram Srinivasan: What I am pointing to is not around cuts of staff. Sriram Srinivasan: What I'm pointing to is the budget process. Sriram Srinivasan: How the district plans The fiscal year 26 baseline. Sriram Srinivasan: And then how they cashed the fiscal year 27 budget. Sriram Srinivasan: And I have identified a number of areas of opportunities for improvement. Sriram Srinivasan: since December. Sriram Srinivasan: And the district has responded. Sriram Srinivasan: But I cannot reconcile the numbers. Sriram Srinivasan: That have been presented over the last, three meetings. Sriram Srinivasan: And, for example, my… the bridge that I keep referring to, Sriram Srinivasan:

177Doesn't even include the 7 positions. Sriram Srinivasan: That the district is, taking out of fiscal year 26 baseline. Sriram Srinivasan: So it just makes my alternative analysis even much stronger. Sriram Srinivasan: And I would just say that I would appreciate an opportunity outside of this meeting Sriram Srinivasan: To sit down with someone, I think the issues that I'm bringing up are pretty significant. Sriram Srinivasan: And lastly, I would just say that Sriram Srinivasan: I think the community, the district, students, all will benefit from what I'm proposing. Sriram Srinivasan: The alternative analysis does not involve any cuts. Sriram Srinivasan: And it gets to a lower percentage increase. Sriram Srinivasan: So, please, consider this. Sriram Srinivasan: And, you know, think about… Sriram Srinivasan: How you can facilitate an appropriate conversation. Sriram Srinivasan: With the district or the

178board member. Sriram Srinivasan: Thank you for your time. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you very much. And now we'll go to our last. Diane Bugbee: Hi there, can you hear me? SBSD Helpdesk: Yes? Yes. Diane Bugbee: Hi, thanks for, having the forum. Diane Bugbee: And, allowing people to make comments. I would just like to say, I have lived in South Burlington for almost 36 years, and I supported school budgets before I had children in the district. Diane Bugbee: I supported children, 3 adults now, as they were going through the district. I supported school budgets, and no longer have students in the school district, and I still support schools. Diane Bugbee: and school budgets. So, that 80% that you were referring to, Seamus, we all don't think, and I don't know where that came from, that the school

179board or conspiracy, there's some conspiracy that… I don't know where that came from. Diane Bugbee: Anyway, I… I do not, support a 0% increase. I just… I don't think that will meet the needs of our students. I… I… you know, as a board, you have a responsibility to the community, yes, but your… your responsibility primarily is to develop a budget Diane Bugbee: That will meet the needs of students. Diane Bugbee: at a, budget that the community will support, and I just do not believe 0% will meet those needs. I also think it would be really wise to, Dr. Clark's point, earlier about Diane Bugbee: bringing… putting some money into the, community in a… and I don't know the right amount, for the capital improvement plan, we have aging buildings in the district. I'm… and I

180don't have the capital Diane Bugbee: improvement plan in front of me, but I think it would be wise just to invest in that, as we need to make changes to buildings. Lastly, regarding budgets, I really like to know what I'm voting for. I like the details, I like the rationale. Diane Bugbee: And know why certain things are being changed, and recommended. For example, the school nurses. I'm not sure I heard exactly why, the nurse leader position would be cut. Diane Bugbee: I think that, I think it was Kate Goodwin, and there was another person that spoke about the need for school nurses and all that they're responsible for. Diane Bugbee: So yeah, that's my feedback, and thanks for all you do, and I appreciate the opportunity to comment. Thanks. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you very much.

181Okay, so this concludes the community forum part. We're going to take a 2-minute break, and then we'll be back for, SBSD Helpdesk: action on… The money. SBSD Helpdesk: Thanks, Mark. SBSD Helpdesk: So, board members, I have a proposal SBSD Helpdesk: We have 4 action items. I… 3 of them, I think we'll get through very quickly, and I might propose we do those 3 real quick, so that we're not feeling rushed on SBSD Helpdesk: on anything. What do you think about inverting the order of the voting? SBSD Helpdesk: Dealing with the other action item first. SBSD Helpdesk: Totally fine if they know what makes sense. Okay, great. First item, okay, so… I'm just thinking… Beautiful. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I think what… We can do this. We can do it. We can get through it. We have

182a ton of business, so let's begin with. So, Policy G8, this is a very strange segue. Selection of library materials. SBSD Helpdesk: This is our third reading. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, it has been posted to the school board website, both this, this meeting and also in the last meeting. We read it in the first meeting out loud. Is there any board comment on Policy G8 selection of library materials? SBSD Helpdesk: No. Okay. I would entertain a motion to approve Policy G8 selection of library materials as presented in the board materials today. I move to approve. Ms. Laura moves. Jen seconds. Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: Since this is an action item, we do allow public comment on… SBSD Helpdesk: The selection of library materials policy. SBSD Helpdesk: Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. The motion

183passes. SBSD Helpdesk: The next, item, I think, in terms of, Well… SBSD Helpdesk: So let's talk about the Early Retirement Program. SBSD Helpdesk: Next. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there any board… discussion about… SBSD Helpdesk: the concept of moving forward with a vendor that Joe has worked with in the past. SBSD Helpdesk: However, we don't have, for example, a second bid on. SBSD Helpdesk: That's a good one. Yeah, I also, I didn't, I watched the meeting from last week, but I feel like I still wouldn't feel comfortable voting on this tonight, for the reasons of… SBSD Helpdesk: what Bridget brought up about, I don't know if there's other options, and so it seems like it would be a good idea to learn more, and I don't… since this can't really affect this year, I don't know if

184it… we can wait a little bit on that, so… SBSD Helpdesk: And just a clarification, anything under a certain amount does not have to go out for bid. SBSD Helpdesk: And is this under Lebanon? This is… well, actually, no. SBSD Helpdesk: You're entering into a service. SBSD Helpdesk: Gina Marie would… or Tim would be able to help me with this answer better, but my belief is that this is a service that we're entering into, we're purchasing, we're not buying a boiler or a roof or whatnot, so we can use a vendor that SBSD Helpdesk: It's providing that service to us without going out for a bit. I just wanted to make sure that… SBSD Helpdesk: Third question. SBSD Helpdesk: I would just say, I think it would be helpful to have a little bit more

185clarity specifically as to what the cost would be. SBSD Helpdesk: for the district. I know there was some discussion about it last week, and a little bit of confusion, but I think having more clarity on that would be… would be very helpful. I will try and move swiftly through this, because we're already way late, and I know there's a lot on the plate here. If I recall some of the discussion that we had. SBSD Helpdesk: Joe had spoken highly of this prior group, and while I personally would like to prefer multiple bids on all of these. SBSD Helpdesk: Joe's prior experience goes a long way with me personally, so to speak for the whole board. And in part of the discussion, there was a recognition of the fact that we were meeting relatively quickly and

186making a decision in order to be able to offer the retirement SBSD Helpdesk: under the timelines that we would need to in order to then also know which roles we had to fill, and if we unnecessarily delay that process, we may lose our window this year. Joe, if I've misrepresented that, please let me know. SBSD Helpdesk: you've not misrepresented that. I got a timeline from them today that I could share with you. If the board were to approve this tonight. SBSD Helpdesk: Sure. SBSD Helpdesk: If the board were to approve this tonight, we would get data to them by the end of this week. SBSD Helpdesk: The time frame would make April 10th the last day of the window. So the window would close for people to opt in on April 3rd. There's a 7-day,

187SBSD Helpdesk: revocation period, so it would be April 10th, which would give you April and May to figure out what you're doing. If we go out… and I'm not… I do not want to pressure the board. You need to be comfortable with what you're going into. SBSD Helpdesk: I can say confidently, if you ask me to find another vendor, it will not happen this year. It will, I mean, I will get busy on it this year, but if we… SBSD Helpdesk: even if we go back to this other vendor, by the time we get somebody coming in, and we give them all the data, and they come up with their plan, that… that ship will sail. Doesn't mean you can't do it in the future, but that ship will sail for this year. SBSD Helpdesk:

188For my part, I would vote on it tonight. I think that the argument for me is that it's likely that a bid that we would get for it would be cost-competitive, and so then I think really what you're comparing to is whether we would do it in-house versus having a service do it. SBSD Helpdesk: And the advice that I got from Joe, who, after all, we didn't hire for educational administration expertise, is that, it is SBSD Helpdesk: really useful to have this be implemented by an outside vendor. So, for my part, I would feel comfortable voting on it tonight. I also think that it's a, potentially a very… SBSD Helpdesk: hand-in-hand thing to do with our budget. It gives people and employees optionality. SBSD Helpdesk: just at a time when we might be facing some

189severe cuts, and I think that that might be, the right time to do it. So, as much as I would like to have two bids on absolutely everything, I personally would be comfortable voting for it tonight. SBSD Helpdesk: So I think we've heard… not comfortable… The goal voting on… voting on it tonight for those same reasons, and the belief that, just given all the commentary for today, and how tight our budget is, and the pressure that the district is under, that this is a procedure… this is a process that we would like to start earlier than later. SBSD Helpdesk: And going with the vendor that we've already met with allows us to do that. And I'm not looking for a vote yet. I'm just asking, are you comfortable voting? That is why I'm comfortable voting,

190and I'm comfortable voting it this year. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. Yeah, I would be, but I just think that just for clarity, and again, for transparency, and for anybody who may have missed it, you know, to go through what these costs are, I think would be very important. SBSD Helpdesk: And, I mean, I took some notes last week. What I had is, you know, $85,000 over 60 months is paid to the employee that is placed into this 403B plan. SBSD Helpdesk: And then I also had, you know, $15,000 for cost of the proposal. You know, there were some numbers that were put out, but I just feel like having some clarity on that, that we can share and say, this is what we're… just a reminder, this is what we're looking at. SBSD Helpdesk: And this

191is what the cost to… for having this consulting service implement the plan would actually be. I mean, is that a number you can tell us right now? Would you recall what it is? SBSD Helpdesk: Which number… yeah. Well, the number 4, you know, you've got the… well, yeah, but that was just… that was the employee. What is the cost for the service? 220 times 5. 220 times 5. Is that right? Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: So you're not comfortable tonight? And are you comfortable tonight? Okay, so that's 5 comfortable. Oh, you are comfortable moving. I'm just saying, I would like to have that… SBSD Helpdesk: that clear for… Well, yeah, I'll remind the board that you… you ultimately have the option, after people have had a chance to opt in, to determine whether you want to move

192forward with it or not. So, if the cost savings is not there, then you can SBSD Helpdesk: who are not obligated to care workers? So, I would entertain a motion to approve the early buyout program as described in the last meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: James One second. Michelle moves. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura seconds. Now it's time for discussions. This is an action item, so the community is welcome to comment on this action. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we have anybody online? Is there somebody online? SBSD Helpdesk: So… iPhone 4. iPhone 4. Please recognize iPhone 4. SBSD Helpdesk: And I will keep time on my computer even though. iPhone (4): Hi, hi, sorry, I see Elizabeth Fitzgerald calling in, by phone. I was in another committee meeting prior to the school board meeting. I just wanted to, iPhone (4): say

193this… this commitment to an outside vendor to manage an early retirement incentive happened very, very quickly. As a community member, I would… iPhone (4): appreciate more information on the total cost of the program and have it compared and contrasted with what it would be in-house. As it was discussed at the other, at the previous meeting, their iPhone (4): There's… there's a history of districts around the state offering these now and then. iPhone (4): But, I don't know that the board had an opportunity to hear, Vermont's experience with early retirement and programs and the impact on, the programming and, you know, what the challenges might be in terms of getting contracts out on time and hiring and so forth, that may be unique to the state that Dr. Clark hasn't iPhone (4): had the experience of

194working with yet, so I would caution the board to iPhone (4): maybe slow down a little bit on this one, and again, I know it's a tough budget year, but this opportunity will be available again. Thank you for allowing me to share. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there any board discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: I mean, one suggestion that I might have is if this is not… and I'm sorry, I've been completely swamped this week, but maybe there could be an update or something that could be posted SBSD Helpdesk: to the website regarding what this is and the numbers surrounding it, just in a little snapshot for people to see, so that there is some clarity around it. I guess that's the point I was trying to get at. Sure. SBSD Helpdesk: You know what

195I mean? Like, what is… what is the buyout, and then what is the cost for the implementation of the program? I do recall what it is, but I just am… Right, and again, we wouldn't be doing this if there was a net loss to us, right? This is a… this is a money-saving opportunity for us, and also just to, SBSD Helpdesk: the speaker's point that… Elizabeth's point, that we, SBSD Helpdesk: We have the ability to require a participant to work one more year if we can't find somebody to fill the job. SBSD Helpdesk: So, there's some… He just did this at SX 4 years ago. SBSD Helpdesk: Districts do it. SBSD Helpdesk: Can I clarify one thing quickly? If we choose… if we go through it, and then we don't get enough people that want

196to do it, and we opt out, is the only loss, the, like, down payment we put for the… $15,000. Yep. Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: Good question. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. SBSD Helpdesk: One thing… I listened in to the meeting last week. Sorry. When I was listening to the discussion last week online and tonight, SBSD Helpdesk: the question I had was, doesn't… wouldn't this need to be cleared for the unions to whatever criteria SBSD Helpdesk: is decided upon as eligibility is concerned. Doesn't this requirement and side letters, and all sorts of other stuff with the union first? There is. There's an MOU, and I've met with the union, and they're on board. Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: Great, thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Babies. SBSD Helpdesk: I just wanted to mention, as your HR director, that currently, your HR department does

197not have the capacity to do this type of venture. I have also been and had experience with doing this, doing the early buyout using vendors, and I would strongly recommend that we use the SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, you answered the question leading that? Yeah, this one, that would be great to myself today, just to finish. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other board comment? SBSD Helpdesk: I think maybe we should move to a vote. So… SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor, say aye. Aye. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm just gonna… Okay, so Emily abstains. Okay, and the aye. So the motion passes. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item before the vote is redistricting statement. We talked about this last week. SBSD Helpdesk: And my proposal, to make it brief. SBSD Helpdesk: is… I would like to pass a motion along the lines

198of, SBSD Helpdesk: I move to state publicly that the South Burlington School Board supports frank discussion and prompt action to address cost and academic proficiency concerns, and specifically is open to the idea of consolidation with other school districts, and authorize the chair to release a press release to this effect. SBSD Helpdesk: So… what I'm proposing here is, I think. SBSD Helpdesk: that this school board could take action at a critical time in the legislative calendar, at a critical time in the history of this district, to say, you know, we're not afraid to join with other Vermonters and make bigger, stronger districts. SBSD Helpdesk: So that's a proposal that we discussed last week, and that's my… SBSD Helpdesk: That's the kind of motion that I would try to put forth. SBSD Helpdesk: And just to be

199clear, we're not… SBSD Helpdesk: Agreeing to do anything except have an open mind, basically. SBSD Helpdesk: it… I would say that the thing that it does… a lot of other districts have come out against. Right, this is what I'm thinking. And so, we're coming out and saying… I mean, I think it's more like… SBSD Helpdesk: Please, more. It's more like sharing resources, correct? Like, I think big picture is a great, great example, like, we can… we partner with Burlington, we can have this, we can have that program. SBSD Helpdesk: That's kind of how I see this happening. I haven't been in a district that did consolidate, that is, like, a very big deal, but, it is, SBSD Helpdesk: Right, so finding out these kinds of things, like, what is there to gain? So, like, what…

200if they have that, we want that, but we can't have it, so… but we can work with that? Is that… is that… So I guess, I think for context, I understand. SBSD Helpdesk: Dr. Jeff actually read a letter, which we had, put forth as a board, to our neighboring districts, expressing that we were open to working together, we were open to conversations, we specifically called out BOCES as a potential solution, sort of come one, come all, open arms. It's my understanding that there was no positive response from our surrounding communities. So nobody answered? Well, not in it, but, you know, again, please… Yeah, you're mixing up just a little bit. Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: The statement was one that I read at one of the Midtown forums, and then later the board asked me to reach

201out, and I reached out, not in writing, but in a superintendent's association, and then I reached out specifically to a district that you're familiar with, and there's not really designed. Right. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I think what we have seen SBSD Helpdesk: in our early outreach has so far been no open suitors, so if we are to approve this motion, I think that we should SBSD Helpdesk: be a lot more, clear in our language and what we are saying, and not simply, hey, we are open for business, since that message has already been received. SBSD Helpdesk: by our surrounding districts, and it should be, if this is the way the board feels, we actually would like to move forward, and it's, you know, if that is the message that the board wants to express, if we're

202not ready to express that, I think we should push this conversation to another meeting. So, I think that the… SBSD Helpdesk: the message that I think this board should make in the context of the legislative session kicking off, in the context of the SBSD Helpdesk: the treasurer is saying that we're going to hit, you know, average of 12% property taxes across the state, the academic proficiency concerns in terms of, in terms of the whole state of Vermont. I think that this board SBSD Helpdesk: should make a statement saying that we are open to consolidation, instead of, like, other districts, saying that we are closed to consolidation. And I think that that SBSD Helpdesk: You know, puts us in the driver's seat for something that may be inevitable anyway, and… SBSD Helpdesk: I go back to

203what, you know, I think Vermonters are stronger. SBSD Helpdesk: together, and a bigger district would be stronger. And there are lots of short-term discomfiture that will result from that, but, if we make a statement now. SBSD Helpdesk: That would be, perhaps a good time to send that message to the State House. SBSD Helpdesk: to the agency of education, to the Governor, that we're a district that's ready to move into the future with bigger districts. SBSD Helpdesk: So, yeah, so that's different than what Austin said. I just want to make sure that we're talking about… we know what we're saying. Yeah. Yes, I think we're open to it. We're not… we're not saying, like. SBSD Helpdesk: we want to consolidate with Winooski. We're saying we're open to it instead of SBSD Helpdesk: other districts in our

204district have said we're against it. Seamus, may I just reply, while I personally support that, I think we as a board should SBSD Helpdesk: have one voice for that message, and I don't believe that we've had enough discussion as a board to say, how do we personally feel about this, or how do we collectively feel as a board. I can tell you I personally might agree with your statement, but I don't think as a board SBSD Helpdesk: We have come to that conclusion together, and then we should give this board time to arrive at that conclusion in a future meeting or in some other format to decide what message they want to put out there. SBSD Helpdesk: And I would… my… I would suggest that we move this conversation to a future meeting for that

205reason, so we as a board can agree and have more discussion when SBSD Helpdesk: At 9 p.m, after we are happy with that. Yes, and I would also add, is it possible that that could be added to a parking lot for a future home tour? Because it would be nice to hear from the community also. Yeah, we should have the community's voice there as well as alert, because anyway… That's great. Great. Excellent feedback. There's no rush since… SBSD Helpdesk: Well, there is a rush in the sense that SBSD Helpdesk: But not a rush that should control our actions. SBSD Helpdesk: But there is a rush in the sense that it is… SBSD Helpdesk: you know, the whole State of the Union was spent on it, the, you know, Zoe Sanders has been popping up in

206our other paper, writing editorials about it, and so somebody's gonna… SBSD Helpdesk: Lead the way on this. SBSD Helpdesk: And if we want to have proportionally more voice, we might want to, you know, the early bird takes the worm kind of thing. SBSD Helpdesk: If we can find time to talk about this quickly, I support that. I think, yes, we should move quickly, but maybe not implicitly my suggestion. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, well, we've arrived at the moment of truth. I just want to say that we have talked to the city SBSD Helpdesk: And if we don't pass a budget tonight, we do have contingency plans, and, we will probably have a special meeting to do that. So, that's the first note, is that we should not, as a board, feel pressured to vote SBSD

207Helpdesk: We should all vote our conscience, and if we're not ready to vote, or if we want to vote something down, that's okay. SBSD Helpdesk: The other thing is, I think we're actually voting on multiple things here. I think we're voting on a budget level. SBSD Helpdesk: And we're… we're also voting on what to do with, the surplus. SBSD Helpdesk: And… Options that have been talked about for the surplus are buying down the tax rate. SBSD Helpdesk: There's another option to use it to preserve FTEs for another year, and the option that was recommended by the superintendent, which is to, put another thing on the ballot where voters could say, take that money and put it into a capital reserve fund. SBSD Helpdesk: So… With that, I'll open it up to general board discussion about

208the budget, how you're feeling. SBSD Helpdesk: ask a question first, so I don't understand. Yes. Yeah. Can you explain a little bit more what buying down the sur… like, using the surplus to buy down would mean? Like. SBSD Helpdesk: Wouldn't have any, like, Presumably, like, negative impacts. SBSD Helpdesk: future, like, what… what does that look like? Can you explain that one to me? I did not go ahead. I… I would ask Seamus or somebody else, because they lived in Vermont longer, I can tell you… I'll give you what I think is right, and then you can say what I'm saying is right. SBSD Helpdesk: If you buy down the tax rate, right, we'll still be asking for the same budget level. SBSD Helpdesk: But the tax rate would be lower because we would have another

209source of income, so we would not need to raise taxes to, SBSD Helpdesk: increase what we're asking for to that level. Would the tax rate look higher the next year, then? Yes, because you wouldn't have made the cuts this year. That would be the argument that's there. You would delay the cuts that you may have to make inevitably. SBSD Helpdesk: Not to mention, there's nothing in capital. There's nothing in the capital. And there's nothing in Capital. Well, there's very little in capital, so we couldn't do it again, and nor should we expect to do that. Thank you. Yeah, very good. SBSD Helpdesk: And one more clarification question. So, if we were to vote to put it in a capital reserve fund, or to put it on the ballot for it to be considered for a

210capital… what… what happens if that's defeated? Where does the money go? It just keeps sitting there? SBSD Helpdesk: My understanding is it sits there until, SBSD Helpdesk: Until there is affirmative action to do something with it. SBSD Helpdesk: So maybe we'll… And it can be used, sorry. And it can be used. So, say something goes terribly wrong in one of the schools, and we need SBSD Helpdesk: maintenance. We need to pay for it with something. That can be used for that money. Yes, that's why it's so important. And my… and I'm gonna add one other thing, and I'm gonna hope Ian Marie is listening when I say this. I think that I heard that when… if the board puts this money into a capital reserve fund. SBSD Helpdesk: even in the future, when we wanted

211to use that fund, we would need board approval to use that fund. So, it wouldn't be just in a capital reserve that Joe could spend on, you know, nice clean water fountains. It would be, hey, we need a roof, and the board would vote on that to use specifically that fund. SBSD Helpdesk: So, what I'm gonna propose is that we go around, starting with Emily, and we say where we're at. SBSD Helpdesk: On the… on the budget, and we'll kind of see where we're at when we've gone around. SBSD Helpdesk: And see if we're ready to vote, or if we want to keep talking, or… I am ready to vote for both. SBSD Helpdesk: Joe's suggestion, the 3.4%. SBSD Helpdesk: And I would vote no on a 0% increase. SBSD Helpdesk: And I should have

212mentioned this before, I also think… I also think if you want to advocate. SBSD Helpdesk: For what you're saying. Any further, feel free. SBSD Helpdesk: I mean, I think we heard a lot of great voices tonight. Everybody on, you know, there's a lot of passion about it, and SBSD Helpdesk: I guess I just… reju hit that. SBSD Helpdesk: We can't do better with less. SBSD Helpdesk: And I think… SBSD Helpdesk: I think it just makes sense to put this in front of the voters and let them decide if they… if they want to vote yes on it, or if they want us to come back with something else. SBSD Helpdesk: I support Joe's proposal. SBSD Helpdesk: or 3.4% initial budget, and then being prepared to come back with 0%, although I will state that it

213makes me uncomfortable as a taxpayer and as a citizen of the community, knowing that we are SBSD Helpdesk: putting forth something that has the potential to raise taxes 9%. But we do represent the community, and the community has come up in force this evening to express, almost uniformly one view, that they would like to at least try for the 3.4% budget. So, I support JL's plan to present that first, see what the rest of the community says. SBSD Helpdesk: And then, be prepared to come back with another one if we have to. SBSD Helpdesk: Are you doing the chemical reserve thing as well? Oh, maybe… maybe wait on that. Okay. I respect… SBSD Helpdesk: what Joe wants to do. SBSD Helpdesk: the queue. SBSD Helpdesk: support and other… Double or triple the pace of inflation.

214Tax rate increase. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I would prefer to have the zero. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm supporting 3.4%. SBSD Helpdesk: So… as… you know, I have two kids. SBSD Helpdesk: in elementary school in this district, and so I have a lot of skin in this game. SBSD Helpdesk: And they've been watching me as I, you know, learn how to, you know, stumble through being school board chair. SBSD Helpdesk: And… This is a very difficult time. SBSD Helpdesk: in public education, and hopefully they don't know too much about that. But… SBSD Helpdesk: if I wanted my kids to take something away from this moment. SBSD Helpdesk: It's that sometimes… It's better to do… To do more with less. SBSD Helpdesk: And sometimes it's necessary to… Take the short-term pain in order to… SBSD Helpdesk: preserve the long-term

215future of something, and like Dan said, I'm not comfortable with coming to our voters, even in a first round, with a double inflation tax increase, given that we've done that for years now, and SBSD Helpdesk: I just think that, it's… it's time to… SBSD Helpdesk: correct the course, and I know that we can't do it alone, and I'm not proposing we do it alone. There's a whole set of things we need to do, like… SBSD Helpdesk: redistricting, like, you know, a buyout program, but, I would support the 0% budget. That's where I'm at. SBSD Helpdesk: I would like to trade spots with Tim Jarvis. You're right, because it is very difficult, and I do think that we have a fiscal responsibility SBSD Helpdesk: to steward what our community can afford, and I also agree that

216it is very difficult to go back with another, you know, triple inflation property tax increase. But that said, I also am very… SBSD Helpdesk: compelled to… SBSD Helpdesk: want to invest in our schools, and I really feel that, you know, Joe, I support your recommendation to go to the taxpayers. I think we need to let SBSD Helpdesk: folks have a voice in this. More than… although we say the community showed up in force, I think we've got a very small percentage, obviously, of the folks that are here, but I really feel like I would like to have the community weigh in on this as well, and SBSD Helpdesk: you know, I think that we've made some great progress this year. I think we're doing a fine job. We're making a lot of good SBSD Helpdesk:

217changes and some good improvements, and I'm really excited to see what's coming down the pike with some of these opportunities with potential early, you know, early retirement, and… SBSD Helpdesk: you know, modifications that we're making for, you know, footprints of buildings, and how we could reduce footprints or change things. So I'm really optimistic about that, and I just… SBSD Helpdesk: I'm not… I'm not there yet to go to 0% unless we hear loudly from the community that we cannot do this. So that's my… my position. SBSD Helpdesk: I support the 3.4% increase. I, have full confidence in Dr. Joe Hart's proposal. SBSD Helpdesk: Yep. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, I also support Bitcoin for work. SBSD Helpdesk: I think it's important that we listen to SBSD Helpdesk: I guess the people, like, goose on the ground, you

218know, Laura, students, you know, the people, the parents and the students, SBSD Helpdesk: And it's also important that we let, you know, the rest of the community get their voice in, and the only way we can get the full picture is by letting it go to vote. SBSD Helpdesk: And… SBSD Helpdesk: if we are… I guess it's not our job to worry about who's voting or who's not voting, because, you know, it's out of our control. It comes down to, why'd you pass this 9% budget? We can say, you know, we gave you the chance to vote on it. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm in favor of Bill Zero. SBSD Helpdesk: The reason I'm in favor of a dessert is that SBSD Helpdesk: when I go to the polls, I wouldn't vote yes. I haven't voted yes,

219or why? Because the increases are so extreme, right? And the reality is, for some of us. SBSD Helpdesk: And largely, I would… well, actually, I'm not going to make that speculation, because I don't know. SBSD Helpdesk: There's a differential impact of that. SBSD Helpdesk: Most of us in this room don't feel it. It's a, you know, it's a weekend getaway that we could afford still after we pay that hip. But for other people, that's their medication. That's their gas for 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, like, half a house payment or a whole house payment. SBSD Helpdesk: And I think that we have perpetually, over many years. SBSD Helpdesk: ignored that consideration when we look at these really high tax increases. They're… they're extraordinary, right? Like, it's not… it's not fair. And I do think

220that we can achieve excellence with less. SBSD Helpdesk: So that's where I stand. SBSD Helpdesk: What other thoughts? Maybe you want to respond to each other on any of those things? SBSD Helpdesk: The only thing I have… the only thing I have to say, I'll try and do it real quick. Last year, I think it was about the same percent tax increase. SBSD Helpdesk: I want to say it was about an 8%, and it barely passed. SBSD Helpdesk: With less than 21% of the people voted. SBSD Helpdesk: That was lower. And I'm one of those people that qualifies for income sensitivity. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't take weekend getaways. SBSD Helpdesk: And… SBSD Helpdesk: Teachers will do… I just want to say, teachers will do their level best, but the wear and tear that we would

221ask people to be doing SBSD Helpdesk: I mean, teachers across the country are, like, more and more students, and they're doing the very, very best they can. I just literally think, like, this is, like, the human beings are in that room, doing the very best that they can, but the classroom of 30, 35 kids with really high needs. SBSD Helpdesk: I think it's an unreasonable offense. I don't care what the data shows, I just know, as a human being, what it is like for me in that room. And I will continue to give my best, and at what cost to my physical health? SBSD Helpdesk: I… which I guess, you know, I'm feeling that Guess doesn't matter. SBSD Helpdesk: But, I would wholeheartedly vote for this bill, and my mother's in her 80s, and as

222social and wide variety of friends, they're all… they always vote for this. SBSD Helpdesk: So, it's expensive. It's also a state problem. State needs to get SAC together. Problem wrong. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm not gonna ask, you know, the people in these buildings, children, students, all of us. SBSD Helpdesk: To pay that price. SBSD Helpdesk: The only other thing I would like to ask, and I'll pose this to you, Joe, is I know we've heard someone from Sereni many times, and would you address his recommendation or request to maybe have a small SBSD Helpdesk: get together and go through. What is your thought there? We would be happy to sit with them. We have two, I would consider them geniuses in Jean Marie's office who know school finance and budgeting. SBSD Helpdesk: Better than anyone I

223know, and they've been, they're knee-needed in it, and I'm sure that they can explain SBSD Helpdesk: The decisions that they've… that they've, SBSD Helpdesk: The numbers that they've come up with. I, I, I… SBSD Helpdesk: I have no reason to believe that they are not 100% accurate and legitimate what they… what they put in the box. SBSD Helpdesk: So I want to, you know, I think the only two people's votes that I could potentially swing on this… on this board right now are… are Austin and Jen. And, you know, I… I am concerned about SBSD Helpdesk: how we lose control of the narrative. We put forth, as Michelle has said, a SBSD Helpdesk: A tax rate increase that doubles inflation, at least. SBSD Helpdesk: Which is the same thing we've done for the last couple

224years. And… and we're basically expecting it to pass SBSD Helpdesk: Through the strength of the school voting, block. SBSD Helpdesk: And I think that even if we get it passed, we haven't… SBSD Helpdesk: won. We have maybe won the battle, but I think we will lose the war. The job of this board, in my opinion, is to rebuild the legitimacy of public education one tiny step at a time. And coming forward with a double budget, a double inflation budget. SBSD Helpdesk: is, would really put that in jeopardy. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, that would be my… SBSD Helpdesk: Seamus, I just wanted to, I wrote down pain, because you said short-term pain is sometimes something we need, and I believe you were referring to our children need to have the short-term pain, and that just made

225me feel… SBSD Helpdesk: Really, uncomfortable that they need to be taking our pain, because we can't figure out how to do this. SBSD Helpdesk: the right way. So, I would rather that they don't feel the pain, but that I'll take on the pain, and I actually… I was… SBSD Helpdesk: interviewed by the news maybe 10 years ago on a voting day, when we were having a hard time passing the budget, and I was just a parent, and I don't make a lot of money, and my taxes are hard for me to pay. And then I told the reporter. SBSD Helpdesk: My tax money is the best money I spend all year. Better than my vacations, better than my facials, better than whatever kind of treat I might get, because it's not just about me, it's

226for the whole community, and being able to give that SBSD Helpdesk: means the world to me. So, that's why I live here, and that's why I take on some pain to pay my taxes, so that the children, the future of this country. SBSD Helpdesk: Doesn't have to feel that pain. SBSD Helpdesk: I suppose. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, alright, well… I think we're ready to move to the… so, SBSD Helpdesk: Do we want to vote on the budget number? SBSD Helpdesk: Before talking about the capital, what we do with the surplus, or do you want to talk about the surplus now? Can we go around real quick on the surplus? SBSD Helpdesk: Sure. Okay, so maybe start with Emily again, surplus? I'll follow Joe's suggestion, surplus. Which is to put the money into a capital reserve fund

227if the voters approve it. Same. Money in the reserve fund. Yep, same. Same. SBSD Helpdesk: Same. Same. SBSD Helpdesk: I just don't feel like I fully understand it enough to tell you right now that I stay safe. Yeah. We have to use the money, and we have facility needs, and we could put it there, and that will SBSD Helpdesk: That will prevent us from having to tap into the general fund to pay for our facilities, because we'll have money that was put into our accounts. And I guess the crucial point is that we're not returning it to taxpayers, right? SBSD Helpdesk: I know people. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. Is everybody ready to vote on the budget? SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: So, yeah, yeah, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: It's a very simple project for… Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk:

228Just how many want to make a motion? SBSD Helpdesk: I'm moving that we vote on the budget that we're going to present to the community. 3.4%. Do you need comments, public comment, before that? SBSD Helpdesk: Once we go into the… once we move second to demonstration. Okay, okay. SBSD Helpdesk: So, it's been moving? Yes, I moved that. So, to clarify, would you clarify your motion? I move that we vote, on the 3.4% budget. SBSD Helpdesk: For a second. SBSD Helpdesk: Emily moves. Laura seconds. SBSD Helpdesk: Any discussion? And this is a action item, so we do take public comment on the action item. SBSD Helpdesk: Say something really quick. I know it's a late Wednesday night, if I may. Everybody, my name's Thomas Chitton, and I served on City Council in this very room for

2298 years, and I just want to compliment the board. You guys are doing great. We had a very civil, transparent, tough discussion that I've been in. I've had these conversations, and I hope you're all proud of being here on a Wednesday night, having this very civil discussion, for the community. So, I just remember SBSD Helpdesk: sitting there and not feeling thanked enough, so I just want to offer a thank you, and also applaud. This was a great conversation. It's a tough conversation, and it's going to continue in the next couple of months, so thanks for all you do. SBSD Helpdesk: You have an online? SBSD Helpdesk: And an online comment? Christie (she/her): Did you hear me? SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. Yep. Christie (she/her): Thanks. My name is Christy Nold. I'm an employee in the district, resident

230outside of district. I simply want to name that in discussing class size and student numbers, a lot can be said about the number of students you have in your room. There is also an impact outside of that space. Christie (she/her): I teach 35 more students this year than I taught 2 years ago due to budget cuts at the high school. If I give just 5 minutes of my time per student essay, that means I'm spending nearly 3 hours Christie (she/her): more than I did 2 years ago to give feedback on an essay. Christie (she/her): And I just have to say that that will absolutely impact the quality of feedback and instruction that our students receive, despite my best efforts. So when you consider class size increases, it doesn't stop at the moment that students leave

231our door. Thanks so much. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there any other comment in the room? SBSD Helpdesk: Go ahead, Jim Marie, and then… SBSD Helpdesk: I just wanted one last comment. SBSD Helpdesk: It feels like this year, more than any other year, there is this sort of groundswell around how convoluted and backwards SBSD Helpdesk: funding for education is in the state of Vermont. It's this groundswell of, like, we have to change it. It's not sustainable. So… SBSD Helpdesk: you know, when we brought you the budget last week, we were showing you, here are all of these levers that the state pulls that impact our number that we don't have any control over. So I feel like SBSD Helpdesk: this spring, more than any other spring, there are all these other levers that the governor's threatening to

232pull, that the state legislative folks may pull, that will… may impact our tax rate outside of what we do here. So… SBSD Helpdesk: So just remember that, like, what you're voting on tonight, what we're proposing tonight, may change 6 times between now and town meeting day, and now… between now and when those tax bills go out, so… SBSD Helpdesk: Just keep that in mind, that there are pieces of this puzzle we have no control over that may impact this number to the benefit of our voters and our taxpay, so… SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Sarah Pineda, speaking as a parent now in the community. I sent this message to Joe after a meeting last week, and I just… I think we're not… SBSD Helpdesk: I think we're just assuming that people are gonna vote

233this budget down, you know, like, but last year, on the first try, we passed the budget that was, like, a similar increase in taxes. Sure. I… SBSD Helpdesk: pay our taxes, and it's painful, but I would also rather give up something else and pay more taxes, because there is no better investment to me SBSD Helpdesk: Than my children's education. I have the privilege of being in all of our buildings and see how hard our teachers are working with less. SBSD Helpdesk: And I, like, honestly, I don't know how much longer they can do that, and we're seeing people leave our district that were very active members of our schools. Like, parents that were PTO presidents are fooling their kids, and, after years, it's… SBSD Helpdesk: interesting, and I feel like it's causing this vicious cycle,

234so I'm going to pay more anyway, and it makes me really uncomfortable to, like, think about our kids getting less. SBSD Helpdesk: So I would rather play… SBSD Helpdesk: even more, and not experience further cuts in our schools. I feel like until the state sort of gets a handle on this, we're just… SBSD Helpdesk: kind of… we, as the community members and adults and parents, need to feel the pain, so our kids can… SBSD Helpdesk: Learn, and our teachers can do their jobs. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't remember your dog, for sure. I remember doing it very hard. SBSD Helpdesk: I just want to make one last comment from a state perspective. You said you were very open to working with other districts and sharing resources. SBSD Helpdesk: we're hoarding resources if we keep that $2.5

235million on reserve for South Burlington. That is money that we took out of the Ed Fund in a different year, we did not use. SBSD Helpdesk: it's a minute amount, but everyone else's taxes are going to be just that tiny bit higher, because we're not putting those resources, essentially, back into the Ed Fund, because they would come out before we took an ask from the Ed Fund. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, it's just another perspective, if you're really being completely state-minded, those resources really should be used, and then all of our fates are tied together. SBSD Helpdesk: With regard to what happens at the state level of those who will report, so… SBSD Helpdesk: Just my last two cents for the night. SBSD Helpdesk: Is the board ready to vote on the… SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so

236let's just start with a roll call. SBSD Helpdesk: So this is, again, on the motion to approve the budget at the 3.4% level, as proposed by the superintendent. SBSD Helpdesk: Emily? No, aye. SBSD Helpdesk: Austin? SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, aye. Dan? No. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura? Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes. Oh, I'm sorry, wait a place, let me say your name out loud. Jen? Yes. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, wait, and then we're gonna go Allie? Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes moment? Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: Michelle? No. SBSD Helpdesk: And I don't know. So that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4. So the motion passes. SBSD Helpdesk: So we'll turn the ballots. SBSD Helpdesk: I would entertain a motion to place the… surplus. SBSD Helpdesk: Approximately $2.5 million from this year into a capital reserve fund, if that's approved by the

237voters. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura moves. Second. Jen seconds. SBSD Helpdesk: Any discussion? So this is an action item, so… No, this is important, just that's the final piece, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: It's an action, so we can… Yeah, but it's in the budget. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, we took a separate… factor on its own thing. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there any comment on, the, placement of the… SBSD Helpdesk: surplus into the capital reserve funds. SBSD Helpdesk: putting it to the voters. Putting it to the voters, putting it to the votes. That's what the motion is, is to put it on the ballot. The motion, yes, let's clarify the motion. The motion is to put… SBSD Helpdesk: a valid item that places the approximately $2.5 million surplus into a capital reserve fund for the district. SBSD Helpdesk: Hearing a discussion,

238we'll do a voice vote. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. SBSD Helpdesk: The motion passes. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, the next item on the agenda is a discussion item. It is the second reading of the video surveillance policy. SBSD Helpdesk: So… It is in our… It's the only place. SBSD Helpdesk: So, the, video surveillance policy is in the materials for today's meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: Is there any board discussion on the video surveillance policy? SBSD Helpdesk: So, and to remind everybody. SBSD Helpdesk: The video surveillance policy is a fairly sensitive policy. SBSD Helpdesk: We've now announced… this is the fourth meeting in a row that we've been talking about it and announcing that we're going to be talking about it. It does involve the way that video footage is used in schools, so, if there's any

239concern about that, it would be good to talk about that. SBSD Helpdesk: And if you have any further questions about it, community members, board members, please forward those questions to Joe so that we can get those answered by the time we take action on it at the next meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, hearing no discussion, I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: I moved children. Laura moves. SBSD Helpdesk: Second. Jen seconds. SBSD Helpdesk: Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All in favor? Aye. All right. SBSD Helpdesk: Not really, ever.