September 18, 2024 School Board Meeting

001One tape all welcome. We do all see the commercials. But the participant is because we are now calling him one. Take gable, because. He was. He was that good. Alright. Thank all the meeting of the South Burlington Steering Committee to order on Wednesday, September 18, th 2,024. That's so. One Pm. Agenda. Item, 2. Agenda review additions, deletions, or changes to the agenda. Agenda. Item, 3 comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda. Do we have any comments. From the public for anything related to the agenda. Room. Not seeing any questions. Then that brings us to agenda. Item 4 to school, update. With Councillor Andrew Telnic Board, member. Here! See. We have to make the Mike. So a list will pick yours up for the room, and the one in front of you

002is for Rtn. For streaming. Oh, okay, alright. Great. So yeah. Same. We've been meeting since January or thereabouts. A robust group of folks. So. I'm you know I represent the Council and. Tom has joined other city staff, has joined. Represent the School Board from school staff school principals schools have joined Students have joined members of the community. So a lot of really good and a lot of great interest. In what that committee is doing. The committee has 2 principal tasks. I'm just gonna numerate them and come back. 1st task is develop, safe walking. And biting groups to each of the 5 school campuses. And the second task is to educate. So plan events to encourage and educate this school community to use those rooms. Okay. We've we've done a number of other things also since

003January. So we provide feedback, for instance, on on the Dawson Street project, which I think was well received. By the engineer hopefully, some of that would be incorporated. We spent some time discussing the Market Street Drive intersection, which, as we know, is now being studied by the city and hoping we'll get some some good feedback there to prove the safety and intersection works a little better. We discussed a bit about crossing guards, and we learned, you know how crossing what the employee relationship typically is. We look at various policies around the country for crossing guards. I think we decided to put in the bike rack, I should say, develop our own crossing guard policy. That we may do, but we thought it made more sense, and I'll come back to it first.st Look at the

004roots, identify the choke points. Maybe we'll all come to consensus, and we don't have to go on positive we'll kind of know. Where they should go, and if we can, maybe we'll come back to try to build a policy which I think would be a fair bit of work. So we kind of talked about okay in terms of the the routes. So we are gonna be working with. This fall. They have some very committed folks in it. They've already started thinking about it. And really the hope is that we'll have, you know. Good set of roots. To Chamberlain with them at various events. 3 events over the next Month or 2. And then we'll take what we learned from that. And hopefully expand it to the other school campuses in the spring, with the idea

005to have a full set of rules by spring. Collating that. Will help us identify choke points. Where do we need Where do we need a crosswar? Where do we need a fleshing things like that? We'll then. We'll work with city of public works. Implement those those things, and the idea is by fiscal year 27. We'll have most of that, either planned or in place. So that's the hope for that. In terms of the education piece of this folks may know we did the neighborhood school. Root Greenway right starting on Elsa Parkway, winding its way down to Middle School high School campus. Cross. My fingers are successful. A lot of lot of good work identifying that kind of making that a safer route. We've now set out the survey to folks. So we'll get impressions back.

006What folks like, you know. Do they think that having that room, you know, will help, we'll, you know, incentivize walking, biking to school. So Anxious to get that survey back and see how it all is. Let me see, Tom, do you think you could take a few minutes just to go back to the to the principal task about safe walking. Tom's done amazing work with Gis mapping and has a spreadsheet of all this stuff. I need to do too good to to flash it on the screen, so everyone can kind of really see what we're talking about, and kind of makes it You know you can. The look and feel is very impressive. It's already a panelist, so I can go to share. I just opened. You have my links. Yeah, I can describe the

007other one. I'm sorry before I go. Before I took this Susan Grassa from local motion as chair this committee, and is our treasure at a gem and is without our we would be much further behind. So just for the public. And just, I wanna share my gratitude to Susan. Are we able to make Tom a panelist while he's working out, just in case we need some backup. I'm not logged on. I was afraid to make that terrible noise. Jesse's computer. I think I should be all set. Let me try to share my screen. Andrew, I'd like to echo your appreciation for Susan. It's been an incredible amount of coordination communication. And I appreciate the work that you've done. Elaine has done. I know it's been a huge community effort, and the many, many other people

008who are supporting this so I think it's an awesome example of partnership. Quick job for those who don't know me. Tom Dipro, public Works director for the city of South Baron, and I have been working with Andrew and many others on the Sabres School Committee. So what I wanted to run you through tonight is sort of where we are. It's very much a working draft. But I think it's a good amount of work that we're gonna be able to build on for the future. So what we've done is we've got all the schools right. And we had our volunteers go out and identify issues so they had a paper and pencil, or they did it on their phones. However, all of that feedback got brought into this spreadsheet that Susan has. Maintained, and I'm not

009gonna spend a lot of time here. Just keep scrolling to show you all the great feedback we got. We took that information, and we put it into a map which is much easier to look at and. So, as Andrew said at the moment we are focused on Chamberlain School. That's the 1st place. We're gonna go and ask for some feedback. So what you see on the screen here. Is the sacred. So Chamberlain School in the middle. And the safe routes or the routes to school, I should say route to school identified with the yellow dash line. And so. Obviously, students that are walking to school. Will be coming from neighborhoods. So these are just supposed to be the primary roots in school that were identified, and we work with Susan to get these mapped. Then,

010based on the volunteer and stuff we've seen, we took that giant spreadsheet and put little dots on here about the issue. So I'm gonna click on this one. You can see the issue is there's a missing section. So if somebody were to want to walk to school? Who's attaching road. Like railway. If I zoom in you'll see there's no sidewalk on the south side of the street. It picks up further to the east. Here. So that would be here. It picks up all the way down here, for example, such as one example of right, an issue that would be kind of a barrier to having folks walk to school. We have done. This is on draft form right now. Because we have a whole feedback process we'd like to go through, and we'll add more

011things as we go here. And so at the moment we've been focused on this half mile radius. But we've got also a one mile and a 2 mile radius. And anybody that might wanna play around with this map. I'll just show you very quickly. We got a bunch of other information in there, and I'm actually gonna add more tomorrow morning when I have a few minutes. But you know, safer. You see those blue lines down there. I've got the radii for Chamberlain on the screen and then we've got all kinds of other data that we had available to. Some of our members felt was helpful. Whether it's information about where there's traffic signals or stop signs. Cross. Existing sidewalks and shared use pack, that's all in there. Kind of best of our data. At the

012moment. We update this as we're able to. Also very helpful is the elementary school catchment areas. So you can see Chamberlain catchman. That's what I called it to where students would actually go to Chamberlain from that's in yellow here. Right? So there's nobody that's really gonna be walking to Chamberlain. Presumably from the other side will so Kind of keep that in mind. And you know you do have some overlap. Some of these issues have identified me, actually impact multiple schools. So. Summarize anything else, or that that's perfect, really amazing piece of work. Visuals are very impressive. So that's all. This took a tremendous amount of work, and it was a great student, the High School last Derek who really helped us sort of Put it all. When he gives her. Together, and it's just enormous.

013We have. I I think that's like, probably a year ago or so, and this is just so much information that I feel like crucial and needed. So this is exciting to see it here. And you know, to connect it to the larger work. You know I can get connects neatly with the climate action plan, or find the goals with our shared transportation goals right and supporting so many of the initiatives that we're doing so. Thank you so much, really appreciate the work that everyone has done on this. On the graphics are outstanding, and certainly a better way of collating all of that information. Can I suggest a question? Because I'm curious. From a busing perspective. To buses. Are they within this, the circles that I'm seeing? So we're busing kids within that circle. So. And

014there's so there's I'm just trying to figure out what the overlap might be. And if we're trying to ensure that there's definitely in those areas where we don't bust them. Right? So I'm not sure what. What's the perimeter in which we don't bus kids into school? Yeah, it's interesting. So all of our schools are 2 and a half miles within each other, right? So working within a pretty small area, especially by Vermont standards. Our policy. States that are transportation policy. The district's policy is that we bus students within half a mile. We That's that's a pretty typical state standard. The thing that we, the issue that we're contending with is that, you know, if you look at these maps we've got. In all of our schools very close proximity to extremely busy roads. So take

015the Chamberlain example. You've got Patchen Road, Heinzburg Road right there, and there aren't sidewalks. The infrastructure isn't currently available. So there aren't sidewalks. In order to or effective mechanisms for safe crossing in a lot of these areas. So we had an urbanized area. And yet The distance is, it sounds right like quarter of a mile, half a mile, but when it comes to crossing those like. Children, Poker Road, and there's not sidewalks which, of course, it's hard to imagine. With this lovely weather we've been having. But in the winter months, when the robes are narrowed because of snow, and it's you know it changes the landscape regularly. So by the the mapping is successful. And let's say, we address issues, identify the safe routes and. Maybe we have crossing guard with some of the more

016troubling. Processing times a busier. Intersections. Would it then be possible to produce. The the Desktops, so that you know, within a half mile we've included. You know what there are children. We don't need to provide busing within that area is that something that is Yeah. So I mean, so right now, we have an obligation to provide transportation. I think you know the hope of looking to another conversation is, you know, can we get our high school students connected? With GMT. Bus passes? I think the hope is fewer cars on the road, fewer buses on the road. We've gotten. We have a A transportation software that allows us to optimize. So likely what it would look like is fewer buses. Maybe we could have fewer bus stops that are further away from each other. And, you

017know, depending on looking at the data. Who is walking and who is needing to take a bus? But if there are, I mean we we want to be more and walkable right? So if this is effective, I imagine it would reduce number of buses on the road. So that's kind of the North Star here. And then, you know, thinking about Green Mountain transit and. You know, developing that partnership which connects to this conversation? You know, the city of Burlington had a lot of success with offering their high school students. Bus passes. But that's a conversation we're having as well is just looking into. Expanding that partnership as well. Getting cars off the road. Associated with school traffic is a a huge shared interest for everyone at the table in our community. I think particularly about

018the bottleneck that school traffic causes during pickup and drop off times that with Markov and the opening of the new housing. You know the partnership and discussion that some of us in this room had around. Looking at schedules and ensuring that we can get folks to work or to, you know. The hospital, or wherever it is. And how can we make sure that school traffic is minimized? I think these, if you know there are safe routes around mark, for instance, we could certainly, reduce the number of. Of cars on the road. So yeah, I I think I can't imagine how that wouldn't increase walkability. So, while how do you? How do you get people discovering. So if we have so more bus drivers would do it right. So we have fewer cars. Right now we

019have. So right now it's a stack and shortage associated with bus drivers. So we have planned cancellations. So parents are are in a position where most of them are driving their care to school. I think groups to school. GMT are both ways that we're trying to alleviate that. We, the thanks to the Board, has negotiated where we. We have the highest paid bus drivers in the State, and yet we've not been able to attract one single license. Cdl, driver. So it speaks to the pool. Being really limited. We're we have a number in training but there's a long runway for that process. So I I think the issue I I don't believe it's behavioral. I think it's from what I understanding of traffic associated with bus cancellations at each school. And just a few sentences

020about GMT. Because. Something that we hope to touch on with the school board so, and team jump in if I misrepresent something. So the conversation the Council has had around the GMT. Reductions and. Recommendations for moving forward in partnership with Superintendent, and Marie has been a great addition to that conversation, as well. The Council intends, on October 7, th to consider a letter of request to GMT. Outlining what data driven Dreams we have for re envisioning. The connectivity of the city on public transportation buses. Our hope is that once we have drafted that, and the council signs off. We would bring that to you all, and you would consider signing off on that as well. It's been great to have Violet, and we've really tried to integrate in how we reimagine those routes to best.

021Serve primarily our high school and middle school students. So heads up, that may be coming in your direction. With the data that was collected. Do we have an idea for each of the schools what percentage of students or number fall within the half mile radius. We do. Yeah, thank tom and Paul. We shared the school, shared information with students on every bus room who rides the buses for their homes are what age they are. And we shared information on time of school. Start and end times. So it was really intentional and thoughtful again, using software on that as well. So you know, making data driven decision there. So appreciate that that partnership. Been asking in Russell, it's our environmental consult and engineering firm. They did the Js work for us. So they layered in the

022school data where the students lived in aggregate, you know, in mapping very high level bubbles. Where our plan permitted housing development is for that we know of. So where we anticipate ridership growing over the next 10 years in order to recommend routes where we could be driving fair revenue into the system that's not financially sustainable right now. So that's really what's informing the recommendations. The Council will hopefully you all support. Jmt is building those roots around where there's good ridership and where there's ability to get more eyes full of kids onto. And just because some people may have been gym that they were running against a timeline, because by 15th of November they're supposed to give their proposal to the legislature. So that's just so. People know this is. What we're trying to do in

023this timeframe is to add to that. So. And, by the way, I'm Commissioner. For But how do the the bidding cuts? How do they affect this proposal to bring students. So we cut a lot of groups. So that they have recommended cuts. It's posted on our website or Gmts or website in South Burlington. There is some significant reduction in the 11, and then some weekend hours. Our hope is that as they go through this public comment period over the next couple of months. These recommendations to re-envision the roots in Burlington will be integrated before those cuts are made. So our hope is not necessarily to maintain total service in South Burlington. They're basically a 3 million dollars budget Gap, as we all know that's a big challenge, but we're hoping to. Insert ourselves before those

024reductions go into places. Who are the process for GMT. To go forward as mandated by the State. Is that to see a special assessment from. Various municipalities, and obviously the goal would be to sort of leverage that special assessment. To accommodate the reimagining that would Jesse good work and information data provided by the school, as well as the commission we have about how it does the city is to basically, as they make cuts. Also another bus route that would maximize. Opportunity to move high school students to basically join it as well as for people in our community to move from one side of the city together, and then from the people from this city center move primarily to the hospital, which is. Where most of those people are associated with. And this could in theory

025it works out this year. Let me play out this school here this calendar year. But this school. And comments or questions. Just one small, and I guess this is more for the board. Here is you know, we're tracking on quite a bit right now, and as somebody who's not, I haven't directly involved in, say, forwards to school. I guess from the rest of the Board's perspective is what what do you feel we should be tracking on at this point, paying attention to. Just so. I have an idea. Or if if the City Council has a suggestion as well, but they feel we might wanna. Focus on mostly so. But I do have a question which is during that public comment period. So. Yes, that is our hope. Because again, in partners, you know, in partnership

026with your operations team, Marie, they've really been at the table. As we reim these roots with the data, our hope is that as we codify those recommendations and the Council supports the letter of support, that's that's kind of our community's public comment. We would hope that you would consider joining the Council. In in signing on to that letter. And certainly, you know I don't need to speak for a while, but I'm I'm hopeful that she would be supportive of. The recommendations that we've talked about as well. Thank you. Anything else. Any public comment on this matter. Okay. Please. Help. Agenda. Item 5, 26. Budget. Brief discussion. And we have the city first.st Do the 2 of you? Wanna do individual presentations? Yeah. So I am going to be relatively quick. I think. So the Council

027has adopted an Fy. 26 budget schedule, as everyone, I think, knows. But I mean for public watching. The Fy. 26 budget is the budget that will go from July 1, 2,005, through June 32,026. It's the budget that the community will vote on on 10 meeting days. So the Council has adopted a schedule outlining the steps that we'll take between now and then, and has started that process primarily received the 1st Fy. 26 projections on Monday night, and had a conversation among themselves about direction they wanted to provide to the department heads, and to me as we build our Fy 26 budget. All of the materials for that are on the city's website under Mondays Council agenda. And we're building out a specific Fy 26, budget page as well. So to give you a preview of

028what they heard on Monday night again, that that data is all on the website. To maintain our current level of services, so to maintain the current municipal services, public safety, public infrastructure, libraries, recreation, capital investment. And to continue our investment in implementing the city's Climate Action Plan. We project, we would need a 7.3 to the tax rate. Our current tax rate is. 51 cents on a thousand dollars of home value. So on Monday the Council provided some guidance to us, not necessarily a formal vote, but some feedback to us as we developed that process that developed those documents. So what they asked us to do is to present a budget that maintains current operations. Wanting to meet those expectations of the community. They wanted us to review all possible streams. To limit the impact on

029the property taxpayers. We all have heard loud and clear that affordability in our community is a significant issue. So work. We have some options to diversify revenue streams. So they've asked us to really examine those closely and bring forward a set of recommendations again, to limit that impact on the property taxpayers. So to that end they've also asked us to bring forward 3 different budget scenarios, a budget scenario at Cpi, which is currently per our contractual obligation. August to August, northeast Cpi, which is sitting at 3.4 increase. So our first.st Scenario will be at 3.4. Second scenario will be around 4 and a half, and our 3rd scenario will be at 5.3 9 or below, which is the increase we needed this year to continue our commitment. So we're trying to stay under the rate

030of increase that we have seen that we, the good probably taxpayers, saw last year. So just as a reminder, the city's budget makes up about 26% of every property tax bill in the city. And about 60 of the general fund. Budget is made up of property, taxes. So it's a very small percentage of or not very small. It's it's a majority, but not a vast majority of our general fund budget. So the next steps in our process will have a community listening session on October 7th we will see that in the other paper on Yeah. Thursday. Mark. And we, we have sort of pushing out our website and social media channels. We've also built a very short online survey for folks to weigh in on their Fy 26 priorities what they expect from the city.

031As a way to increase in participation without having to come to the standout meeting and and give feedback as well. As well as offer an opportunity for community members to sign up for updates. So as we release budget information over the next couple of months. We will be emailing that directly to people who are interested. The leadership city's leadership team had our 1st big kind of budget goal setting and development session this morning. Department heads have all of the forms they are working on, building. Both their personnel budgets, operates, and capital budgets. And we also are really we, as staff, in addition to the Council, are really looking forward to what we hear from the community. On October 7, th and before and after. So that is my summary of where we are as a

032leadership team in council team. Did I miss any. Highlights from our conversation. You're happy to answer any questions we we did talk Jesse, about the October 7.th Community session is new, her council and we talked about potentially anticipating a number of questions on the school funding. So I don't know if we wanna talk here about. You know how what your impact would be. Manage that But we we are anticipating. Get a lot of questions that we'd like to direct folks to the. Council side of it, or the city side of it. However. Under given the publicity on the General Ed Fund. I imagine that a lot of questions will come up. Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that I think it's essential that the Council and the Board work. Closely together this season in particular. The

033school district is in a farmer's position. Then we have ever been in historically without having the opportunity to leverage 2 fiscal years surpluses. So out of the gate. We're looking at 3.2 million dollars that we don't have and Elizabeth, as as you would say back in math. That's about 62 staff members, and the equivalent of, I should say. So. You know, we we in talking about some of our shared priorities, you know, thinking about how we can work together on some of the communications we're seeing from traffic and school. To you know some of the the mental health needs that the community is seeing your same center. You know we we. Discuss with. You know some of you be you know it's an ongoing. Issue where we're seeing sharps playground. So I think it's just

034continuing the partnership on, how are we working together on on some of the issues that impact the community we serve and. You know, we're really trying to pair down where we all can, and to support where we can. Use my general feedback on that, Elizabeth, but if you've got something more specific, I'd be happy to. Can I also just manage expectations, maybe a little for Violet and myself at at an October 7th meeting. I think that our intention for that meeting, I think, is really to hear from the community. I think the reality is we are not going to be prepared to talk about what the Fy 26 budget is in any detail beyond what I just shared. So I think really, it's a listening session more than a question and answer session. Because we

035won't. We won't be there. I think we should talk a little strategically about. No, we will. I will deliver my budget to the Council the 1st Monday in December. Once we get to that point where we have proposed budgets, then how do we do some of these. Perhaps shared. QA. Sessions. On the budget might be a better opportunity. If nothing else. What I'm thinking of Jesse here is that I I assume this will be a recorded meeting, so if if there is feedback, which I expect there would be related to school issues. You know, if nothing else. The Board could review that. After the fact. So it's additional feedback. Were you looking for a board member to be present, or just to hear Did it hit start on what's coming. To that end. The Board

036has been discussing writing letters to the Governor, to the Legislature, and to the Commission for the future public education. And I think, our last meeting we were discussing the contents of that letter. And Councillor Fitzgerald mentioned that the city council might be amenable to like signing a joint letter. Is this a good time to. Think about how we wanna move forward on that or. It's not technically, I think it's it's related to the budget. So we could discuss it now or make a plan to discuss it. Otherwise. I think it would be more impactful if our city council signed on to a letter with us. The Board. In my own feedback. Aside from we can't take any action. Here is. Obviously that. Needs to be something that would be generated by the district. And I

037think there's I can't speak for everybody, but. Similar to the letter that I think Council signed off on last year might be a willingness there, but. You know. Obviously the concern is shared because we share taxpayer. to the extent. Even as taxpayers, urging our legislature to look at. Solutions to general Ed. Funding is important. I think the general tenor of the letter would be similar to the letter that I shared with you all and just trying to really communicate our concerns in our, in our, you know, our communities situation effectively to those who are, you know, making changes, I think. Particularly the members of the future of Ed. Are important for us to address. They're gonna be making an initial recommendation to the Governor. In early December. So it's a pretty quick timeline for us

038it will be public. So their meetings are recorded and I don't I? Last year we were all watching ways and means, and that was the committee. It is. It's absolutely a warned public meeting and looking for you right now. Here, on! Their report is due on December first.st Then their 1st public meeting on July 15, th so they'll be convening again, so we can. I'll share that information as it as I see it. Have have we been providing. Yeah, so no. So so far, they had their 1st meeting on July 15, th and they discussed sort of process and what they're doing. And this the interim. Secretary Zoe Sanders, Secretary of Education, that is. Is conducting listening tours. So on Friday, she has invited some Jarvis, senior Director of Finance and Ops Kristen, Roman Executive

039Director of Education support systems. Holly Rowell, one of our principals, and I will be meeting with the Commission. So it's a it's a number of public engagements. We, as a Vermont Superintendents Association, have a representative on the committee. Who is the mike? Is the left layer? Is the superintendent of Harwood. And Dsa. We shared feedback pretty, overwhelming feedback. To look at act 46, and to develop a committee on school. So one thing we know is the cost is critical, and that we want to maintain and have high quality, education. But the sheer number of buildings with the significant facilities issues that we face, which are so costly from Pcs to lead and everything in between. We are driving quality down and increasing costs with with just the sheer number of facilities that are in operation.

040So it's taken Vsa a while to get to that point. I really interesting discussion. I was sitting at a table with the superintendent, who has the smallest district in the State, and then to my right was the largest. And so it was really good conversation. We all came together as an organization that it would really need to look at if we're gonna be talking about equity, which is the back one so significantly modified and funding. We have to talk about. The number of facilities that we're operating. So. That's a big piece of the engagement there. The committee is gonna continue in these engagement tours, and that feedback will be shared on that December 1st report, so I'll share that with you all when I see it. And if I see a link from where, when

041I see a link where these meetings are, I will send them to you all. I would certainly be tuned in So it's kind of it's like, the hbo. Last year it was ways and means, and this year it'll be. Anything, any questions or comments for the city. So maybe next steps If the account is so, Chelsea could share a draft of a letter, and we could approach it the same way we did with last year's joint letter, and you all could elect to sign on or not, or Perhaps Tim and Chelsea could work together on that providing feedback. I think the contact would largely be what you've already seen, which I've shared so. Yeah, I mean, I think it's intended to be. The letters that we're hoping to draft are intended to be advocacy. So

042it's not necessarily. I don't think there's gonna be specific asks. It's gonna be. This is the the fact of the situation that we're in. And please do something about it. So. Is this same letter gonna be submitted by every other? You know supervisory district as well. I think there's advocacy happening in in district levels that looks really different. So in some communities, there's really effectively organized cohesive advocacy, and others there aren't. And there's also there's districts who. Are not advocating. There's districts advocating, saying, do not change a thing in act 1, 27. So I think we're seeing all over the map. I do think that there's I think you know, we're objective. You know, we're an economic engine of the state. We're experiencing growth. And in order to support our communities, we need strong schools,

043and we city so and one will impact the other here. So I think we have and then given the sheer. You know, magnitude of the number of students that you shouldn't in county Statewide. I think that there's a lot of just by the numbers, the number of people this impacts is significant. And so with that, I think, any sort of communication that we could, you all can do in a joint bodies. Is Because we. Would you like to give your preliminary budget review? Sure. Okay. So I've been hiding a bunch of slides as we've been speaking. But pick your own adventure. If you, if you ask a question, I might unhem. So and I'm looking at the time here. I know we're a little bit okay. So. Very good. And again that the band comes

044up so I can't actually Share the see, see the buttons for us, so pardon me, alright, so I'm going to. Jordan is pretty significantly. This is meant to be I'll I've eliminated the review of where we ended up last year. I think we're sort of caught up to speed on that. And all this information, including the full slide deck, without the slides I've hidden for this conversation is available on our website. We have just today put up our Fy 26 budget web page and we're gonna be tacking that with loads of information. So. The link is in this deck as well. So I I wanted to start off by Sharing some information about and spending her long term weighted average daily membership. That is a factor that used to be. It's been modified, but it

045was what we knew is equalized. People. South Burlington has a historic reputation of low tax rates. And a high quality of education that we tried to keep very modest. This graphic here shows some Chittenden county and spending and I think it's really important to see where we ended up which is about 12,500 per It's it's not a perky bull. It's a long-term daily daily average. So this, it's the impact of the act 1, 27. So it's needed. And we're we're the lowest of our contemporaries, as you can see. And. With the with the 3 mile 1 million dollar surplus. We were the lowest, that is. We are still pretty close to it without that. That you see this number. In in red. Here is where we would have been without the surpluses that we applied

046as revenue to reduce the tax rate for our community for this current fiscal year. And and I think it's important to draw our attention to just again. You are consistently ranked. The best district in the State number one high School. And we're not at a point where we can continue programming. To maintain the quality of education. With the current predictions of fiscally. So the some of the initial factors and I will. Be brief on these, because I can go on and on. There, I did ask the interim secretary several weeks ago the direct point of question. What level of certainty can you provide that there won't be significant modifications to the ed funding formula. Lead in the game after we've warned Budget. And the answer is, we we don't know. So there could be significant

047change. Even after we've warned our budget. We have the the future of the Commission on the future of public education. This is an 18 month study. That's that is. That puts us out multiple years and so that we can't count on them being a Calgary that's coming to save us. Now. One hope. Last year after our advocacy, was act 84, which provided these penny's discounts for the change from equalized people to Ltw. Adm. Of which South Burlington was significantly impacted. So when we started saying, Hey, state of Vermont, we're in a crisis here. They said, okay, great. We will give you a penny's Kind of support which will be phased out with a reduction of 20 year until fiscal year and 30. So at that which is the association of business officials. We have learned

048for the 1st time that just on Friday, and I've seen nothing in running yet, but it is the under. It's our understanding that that is going to be adjusted with the new rules of Act 1 83. So that that puts us in even more dire situation, and that we don't have the provisions of acting for that. We thought. Were cushions to 1 27. Pack for us. And also with this was discussion of using in the end funding formula the Cla of 76 as an average. Which would cause significant for our community, as I'll share later with some modeling. Some of you have read Governor Scott's letter on education. Take a look at it. If you hadn't, it's a it's a, it's a warning of a challenging budget season. So this is gonna be highly publicized

049once again. Which is good. You know, we want our community to be well informed. We're anticipating inflation anywhere from 2 to 2.3 based on the Federal reserve so modest inflation, which is positive. So you know, what are we looking at here as a district when we talk about black modeling? If we were to have a 0% increase in the Cla remain the same. We'd be at an over 7 homestead tax rate increase. And that's not feasible. Even given that we know the we're in. We have teachers, and support staff negotiations. We know that we're looking at. Likely a 22% cost in health insurance paid by contributions from the district. We have. We don't have the surplus available anyplace available to allocate. This real estate that we know is the Cla is going to be significant.

050We've had 2 back to back drops 11 and 9 and that directly impacts the tax rate. So when the Cla is lowered, the higher the tax rate. So the further we are from a reappraisal year which we are yet another, even though it's calculated on the 3 year rolling average is going to have another significant impact on the communities tax rate. We've gone down the final 5 million dollars associated with the passage of the bond. That passed in March of 2,003 and so we'll have debt services on that as well. The the bond was inclusive of the Zem 6 million zems, and then the remaining pieces were to support our other schools. So some examples. We just did roofing projects, heat pumps, things of that nature. And as a reminder, it's an estimated 92% of

051the exams cost will be recuperated through impact fees. So we that will be shown as a revenue in our modeling. A. This is where we could get really in the in the weeks. But I'm gonna keep it pretty high level. I'm gonna show you a few scenarios. Where we are looking at No surplus. We are looking at varied levels of Clas. We don't have any hard figures here. But again, with a 0 increase in spending which we know we cannot achieve between the fixed costs of our committed to Cbas and health insurance, not even to mention inflation. We'd be at 7.1. That also assumes the Cla of 82, which. We is I. I do not see any reality where that is happening. For about 6 min. Sure I can. I think I can do this. So

052this graphic shows tax increases with increases and expenses with no change in Cla. So again, I I cannot state enough that this is. There. This will not happen, but we know it's our current cla, so I want to share with you modeling here. So if we have a percent increase along the bottom, you see what those would be and what the corresponding tax increase would be. This one is looking at. Budget cuts over the the fiscal year 25, which is the current budget we're living in. And what would be needed to achieve a 5% tax increase. And so if you see the Cla factor here, as I discussed, this is massive. So right now on the far left, this 1st bar. We have the Cla of 82. The last few years it's been 9, 11.

053So if we are to go down another 10% which. But it's that is a realistic assumption that one could make. We could go to, you know, 72, which is the furthest part on the right. And you see, the reductions that we would need to cut. This would be 7.6 million dollars. And. I truthfully don't know how we could operate schools at this. Great. So for those interested, you know. Please check out the links in this presentation. There's more information on on. Some bottling here. This is the link to our budget website. We're going to be putting our budget timeline, which will be discussed at the October 9th Board meeting. It'll be finalized, I can tell you, from that timeline. A few initial factors here. We are looking at A so community engagement as well. To

054sort of share some of the pieces. Jesse did. The we're really excited about the Finance Committee that the Board has commissioned. And really, that committee is focusing on education, advocacy and budget. We need a lot of engagement on this extremely difficult. That's and we want to hear from our community about where that should be, where it should be. In November. We're looking at a community forum hosted by the Finance Committee. We're thrown around a couple of dates. We're gonna have that published for the October 9 meeting, where we share our budget timeline. We'll also do a survey on December 6, th but I'll be presenting with Tim Jarvis. Our initial fiscal year 26 budget recommendations. This will include some budget numbers. So that's a big date for folks to know. Our 3rd and final budgetation

055again on the draft timeline would be January 8th that it would be the final date by statute for the Board to adopt the budget and approve it for our annual meeting morning. So those are 2 big dates right there. And appreciate the above. The finance Committee will discuss that more in the the meeting today. But really meeting a lot of the engagement community forums and I'll send another survey as well in partnership with the committee will work on what that looks like. So I think I have by the skin of my teeth made the timeline here. And those who know me are going to be impressive by this. So, Chelsea, I will I'm happy to answer questions or comments, or anything as well. But I'm I've concluded my speaking time, and there. Here we'll have

056sort of the studying picture, because understanding presentation. On the budget the 1st Monday or December second. I think the School Board would be on December 6.th So basically, on December 6, th we would have. The public would have a picture of both the city budget. First, st because I'm speaking. And you said your deadline for the board to adopt the budget was January. Hey! What is it for the city. You will adopt on your January 13, th January 13.th And Violet. I don't. I don't. Just so. We're public. December 6th is a Friday, do you mean? December 4.th Well, we draft it in December 6, th but that could absolutely be an error. And I'm gonna flag that now. Thank you. I was like. We don't those those would not drop. And the intent is

057very much engagement. So yeah, I think, Jesse, that's helpful. December. Yeah. But to your point. On the 1st week of December the picture will be closer. Yeah. December 4, th please, confirmed. I've officially modified the Google, Doc. No one would come on Friday. There'd be fun. Things going on in the city likes to look at mood to eat snow angels to make. And how many questions. Worrying about this agenda items from the public. Agenda. Item 6, overview of city center development and upcoming capital projects. Great. Thank you. So I me. In partnership with Melissa and Violet. We scheduled Scoop on city center event. At the at the during in service this year. August 26, th I think. To try specifically for sorry. It's hard to do this in talking. Specifically for City Hall staff and

058Mark staff to try and ensure that the professionals who work at City Center could really be champions for city center and know what was going on in their neighborhood and ask questions. And Get the information they needed to respond to parents or guests or library patrons or folks coming in to vote whatnot so we didn't, because I think it was in service in a really busy time for teachers. We didn't get a lot of participation. So I asked Violet to run through this presentation with you tonight as a way to share the information with the public. Like Violet, I have hidden some slides in the interest of time. I'm going to walk through this quite quickly, but I'm happy to pause on any information that folks might want additional information on. And of course this

059presentation is attached to the agenda for tonight, so members of the public can view it in detail. So I want to start by saying, City Center has been a vision of this community since the 70 S. It was in the 1st city plan back in the 70 S. And has continued through every city plan since we adopted a new city plan last year. And of course, significant goal is that to build out our developing downtown. I think it's important to talk about what is city center. A lot of people think of city Center as Garden Street and street, which it certainly is. And that is where a lot of the changes happening. But city center is actually through state designations and community boats significantly bigger than that, and stretches. Stretches as Defined by the State

060across Willis to the umal property, and of course our tiff district. Our hope is over the next couple of decades that and these entire blocks would become the downtown that the community has envisioned. I'm not gonna go into great detail tonight in tax increment, because while I think it's really cool and interesting, it does tend to have people glaze over happy to answer questions about tiff. If folks want. Tiff funding tip projects are projects that have been voted on multiple times by the community and really are meant to build out this walkable, bikable downtown. So here you see the 4 key projects left on that list, city hall and Library, of course, being the most visible one that's already done. So, for to increase the connectivity of our downtown, we have the walk bike bridge

061over the Interstate. We have the Streetcape Improvement project on Willest Road. We have building up Garden Street and improving the garden and white street. Intersection. And of course, then, the boardwalk project that will bring increase of connectivity between Goose Park, a Market Street City Center Park, and very excitingly provide some better access to the middle school and High School campus. So there's a slide here outlining each of these projects. So Wilson Road, streetscape and improving that the Al's French intersection, which we refer to as the White Street intersection. But most people think of as fries up makes a complete, an actual 4 way stop there, improved. Like in pedestrian infrastructure, trees, etc. City Center Park again. This is the Boardwalk project. You can see the connectivity here from the Markov School, from Goose Park on

062a shared, use path that will be maintained year-round back to the rear of the element of the kudal and high school campus. We're really excited about this one. This one is the next one to kick off we are looking to bid out this project in the next few weeks for construction next. This winter and next summer. Our biggest project, of course, is the walk Bike Bridge over the Interstate. We've received 19 million dollars in Federal funding to complete this project. So again, to limit that impact on the taxpayers and really create that sense of connectivity between our neighbors in Burlington and South Burlington, as well as our South Burlington neighbors in the Bory Hill neighborhood, to their downtown as well. So I'm gonna sorry to jump right? I'm gonna show you another graphic of all

063these projects and timing in just a minute. We do want to highlight what has happened as a result of the Tip district and the success we've seen in the city. So we've added almost 70 million dollars to the tax base. These are folks who are paying. Property owners were paying their full rate of property tax dollars. We've added 58,000 square feet of new commercial space to grow that vibrant downtown. Of course hundreds of new homes for our neighbors. So, and of, and. Often we get questions about. Well, there's just housing. This isn't really a downtown, that is true. At the moment. Along Bark Street, although surrounding marketing garden. There's a enormous amount of commercial spaces we all know through University Mall, the Blue Mall Street. There. But on Market Street and Garden Street the 1st

064floors will all be commercial. There's about 50,000 square feet of new commercial space. I will share that. We've had our 1st commercial permit hold for a restaurant that will go in on the block on Market Street that's currently occupied closest to on the corner by the plaza and block. What's exciting to know that whole. Be happening. Do you know of any small businesses that would like to open in City Center? They are open for business. So the question we most get is what's happening next and what isn't happening. So on this slide, we give an overview of. What the timing of welcoming neighbors. This, of course, was a presentation we did in August. So you still see August 24th move in dates up there, but then you see the building behind. The one on the

065Market and Garden Street will open in October next summer, June and August 25. The other 2 buildings across the street on Market Street will open. And then in June of 26, you'll see the building next to the sort of water pond open. And then similar map for our street improvement projects, and the timing associated with those. So you know, completed in August 24, th through September 26, th over the Garden Street, and then, of course, by the end of next summer's construction, we will have the new signalization of the Heins Market Street into a section as well. New traffic light going on going in there. So there are, as in addition to infrastructure, there is a lot we are doing programmatically and anticipating the policy to ensure that city center is the vibrant downtown that

066the community has envisioned. So I want to mention that we are developing a paid parking system that's actually farther. So I will pause on that and talk about it then. Also, of course, thinking about other additional track improvements. Considering a city green that we'll also talk about more in the South Burlington City Center Collaborative. Huge thanks to Melissa for participating in that that collaborative spin to events, or seen events put on by Marcilla live or downtown this collaborative is meant to be an incubator, to become one of those kind of community dri community. Development organizations that run events and community and support the and commercial district. And then, of course, there are lots of other fun programs. Our library and recreation. So I will leave it there again, happy to answer any questions about City

067Center. That folks have, and this resources in your packet. If you. Would like to share it with your neighbors, or get questions over time. Just for clarity, for questions and public comment. The next agenda items about the city green and city parking. So any questions or comments at this time. You wanna save them? They're related to that next agenda item. Any comments or questions. I think this is great, and I have to say, as biker. I invite all that much this summer. The the connector over the Interstate is going to be phenomenal. I think that's you know you have so much from happening up there coming down. It's a very dangerous way, you know. I'm very excited to see that come in a lot of times. I bike up towards you. Yeah. But then you

068cannot come back down. So it's just gonna be free. Great thing for the city. Yeah, that exit. Like, on and off bridge, whatever. I'm the one driving either to get onto the interstate or off. And I like every time I remember that they're across there, and I think if I had to stop for a pedestrian right now, it would be like. You know, like cause I'm trying to like move with the traffic that's moving and not be. It's very. So. I'm excited about this also. Thanks for the time. Yeah, really, professional effect. Tires. Thank you for. Thank you for working closely with Martha and for sharing this with Staff, and for the opportunity to to do that I appreciate that connection. So. Could be relief. Okay, there's no further discussion at this time. You can

069actually make a quick comment. I didn't have a chance to tour the elementary schools this morning. And Melissa. Commented on, you know, with all of the new residents coming into City center. There's really not signage at Marcos School that. Would indicate that the green areas are really not available during school hours. So she did talk about that is going to be some improvements, the school districts making. To sort of provide that guidance to folks that maybe haven't had the experience of living close to a school before, and It. It's clear, you know, that people. Probably wandered onto the property that. Are new to the area. So I thought that was important. Does that mean that information will be available inside the buildings as well in the lobbies, or distributed by the landlords to the tenants?

070And when they start their leases. So that's a good idea. If we could help get the elizabeth is referring to 2 different signage efforts. One is that. On the side of the Zems. We're literally going to put them to school right? So we're gonna have a sign ethics to the building. And then we're also acting signs at our schools that say, this is school property. It's not accessible to the public during school hours list. The school hours. That's not a concern that we've had until until now. So we'll have those at our schools and It would be great to share some. We'll we'll should I shoot that directly to you, Jesse. Information on Yeah. So we want to go to residents when they're welcomed to their new homes. So you're welcome to share with me,

071Andy. Our communications coordinator is the one who builds that connection. So Julia wants to send him yeah information whenever or he can just connect Julia to the property owners as well. If we wanna if you wanna do any additional. Can I ask? Do you know if those buildings are. I'm just thinking about like how important it would be for residents to know that that's a school, and kids might be out there if they have dogs. Immediately. Think of dogs that are not kid friendly. That would be a real hazard. So I'm just curious. That makes me think of dog ways from the school. Yeah, that school will be that green space will be enticing for folks in that area, because it's literally their front yard. So that's a that's a good point. Yes. Okay. Agenda.

072Item 7. Overview of other shared priorities. 1st is the Charter Committee discussion on all residents. I think I'm gonna do a bit more talking to all of you. So and again Council feel free to add. On September 3rd the Council adopted. So, as you all know, I think we have a standing charter committee, but they only convene when the Council directs them to work on something. So on September 3rd the Council approved a resolution. Asking the Charter Committee to convene a look at the possibility of allowing all residents to vote in local elections. In South Burlington, in addition, on that resolution, they codify the School Board, having 2 appointees onto the Charter Committee for rotate 3 year terms. So we really appreciate that partnership through the last Charter Committee and wanted to make sure it

073would continue into the future. I just wanna be clear that all resident voting the soonest that all resident voting. Charter change could get to a ballot would be town meeting day 25. That is a very aggressive schedule. That means the Council needs to start considering ballot language in November and December, and have a series of public meetings and move forward. With any chart change. Our charter is our city constitution. It's State statute. If approved by the voters, it then has to go to the legislature for consideration, and then to the Governor, is passed 1st signatory, or allowed to pass into the law. So we're hoping to have a fairly robust conversation community conversation about this over the next. Few months, and See what the will of the community is. So just wanted to provide that.

074Just some clarification, so legal presence. Good, good. And and I've only had one person give me feedback on the proposal. And they were not well educated on the issue, and when I told them what it was all about, they said. So there will be a huge, but there will be an education. You know, elementary. Because some people say it's a sanctuary city. No, no, it's not Senior city, Burlington. He's already done this. It's a very simple thing we live here, we pay taxes here or otherwise. We give you the. You know, possibly to vote on. Budgets. That's the proposal. Anything you need from our end. Just really thankful that you have participants in that conversation with us. Things for related update on Expansion of the city Council. Any updates on that. So the Council has

075decided for the time being not to move that forward this fiscal year. It's on their fiscal year 26 by rack or parking lot of ideas. The Council just had their. Second retreat on the policies and strategies. And a work plan process and and Monday night adopted that Fy 26 work plan. Just super exciting for their manager. And decided to move that extension to places. Or discussion. Please. Next item is the city green. So me so. As I think folks know, the Council is interested in a city green and city center, a gathering place for neighbors to come together and connect and. Meet so we have hired questions to be our landscape. Architect consultant to do high level scoping of the possibilities for that they will present their findings at the October 21st Council meeting and

076then the Council will decide how to move forward again. That's very high, level scoping of. Where such a location could go and amenities the community is interested in and. High Level cost estimates for such a project. We had a number of community engagement around that visioning and we're pretty pleased with the participation. And we'll we'll see how. So again could impact. Any further discussion or questions about the city. The cutter. We do have a question and answer. Typically what the School Board is trying to hold as practice is the chat and the question and answer are for tech issues only. We would ask people to raise their hands, comment. I didn't state that at the beginning of this meeting. So we have a question for the constituent that says wanted to mention that we consider

077affordability and access. If we are implementing. Okay, yeah, please come on up. State your name for the record. Hey! Bailey. What else do I have to say. I wanted to point out that in the initial appointment of the Charter Committee from the School Board, we had a student representative. And then the student representative and replaced by a non zoom. And so that got me thinking about whether there is space to add a student representative to the Charter Committee. At this point, and also. In terms of the city green. Could you speak a little bit to the effort of reaching out to our younger. And youngest residents, and has there been any intentional engagement. For students and young people in your city, planning. Thanks. As you're prepared to answer. Okay, that's a those are great questions.

078I'll let the School Board talk about their appointments. I don't think we have done any intentional outreach to. The school community other than kind of co-promoting it in our. In Superintendent's Newsletter, in the City News. Letter. I don't know if we have done any more potential outreach. And have given us lots of examples. And the age ranges of people that enjoy those spaces and that functionality of those spaces. So they are. They're thinking about different age groups, you know, for hide, that space would be configured. Can I ask a follow-up? Other consultants, considering like, are you saying they have experience with. Younger smaller people. Implement this inquiry I think of. I don't know if you've been double in Burlington since they did their kind of redesign, but they're they grab this incredible. It's so accessible.

079And things that they've considered like. The slide doesn't get hot, even if it's in direct sun all day and it's huge, so families can go down altogether and The slide is built into a hill, so you can't fall off the ladder when you're climbing up the ladder to go down the slide. There's a lot of. Thoughtful, intentional. Design, and it's really nice. So. Yes, I think webinar options has experience in. I don't know if they did a gludge. I know they did. City Center Park in Burlington that has some kind of younger folks oriented amenities. So I think they have that kind of experience. We're 2 still. This is how we save money. As some of the climate action planning here. With a budget year. Okay. Any further discussion questions, comments. Okay? And now we

080can move to agenda. City center parking, which the statement I just read out would be applicable here. Last one for me, I promise so paid. Parking is really critical to like to supporting a commercial, vibrant downtown. We need to ensure that there's parking to ensure that there are spaces for the to support the commercial spaces. So we received a grant from Agenda County regional planning. Commissioner, PC. To support our work in hiring a consultant to build a parking management plan and strategy for City Center. This year we are finalizing that contract hopefully by the end of this week. And kicking off that work. That contract includes. Intentional conversations with the school administration and the rick. Teachers and families around. What they, how they would want to integrate into a parking solution, or how the parking

081spaces at Marcot would be integrated or not into such. Program. I anticipate that the parking management work will take between 6 and 9 months, and to be followed by ordinance and other policy work, that the Council will need to do to set up a park, paid parking system and a parking enforcement system in South Burlington. That's really all I have to share. At this point I did just want you to know what's happening and want you to know that we know that addressing. The Rick Mark parking lot is going to be integral. To the success of any. Paid parking system or parking management system. And to Dan's point. We are also built into that consulted contract is. An awareness that City Hall in the library and senior are public buildings, and we want to ensure

082that they remain publicly accessible, and people have access and are not limited to access because of paid parking requirements. So I don't know what that looks like yet, but we are we will build out a system that has structures. Christine. I have had conversation years around. Just the uptake of community members had in the parking lot. And so in our preliminary discussions, you know, Jesse decided, the city is gonna find a way in this plan to. Whatever the mechanism ensure that the school parking lot is accessible for those who need it and not part of the game planning, and not then just like a parking lot where folks can park for free. So whatever that mechanism looks like. So that's Great for our school staff and community members who are impacted by that parking lot.

083And I will. We have. We have. Yes, thank you. By the way, we have had those initial conversations. I will. I will float just for back of mine and obviously many more conversations to come. The so product is the only community I've worked with without a paypal. Parking enforcement is really lovely, and part of me doesn't want to get anywhere near it. But. We wanna have a vibrant. The trick of vibrant downtowns and parking is to maximize the use of parking spaces, so to make sure, as many hours a day they are used for appropriate uses, whether it's. Overnight being used for folks at home or during the day being used for folks at work or going to restaurants and bars. That really is how you keep a parking network, healthy and vibrant and affordable.

084So it the Ca, the school would have the option to think over time about how we limit public. On the school parking lot during hours which it is absolutely needed for school operations, and make revenue on those spaces, for in the hours, where it is not necessary for critical operations. We are also talking with private property. We will be talking with private property owners about. Similar Parking agreements, parking management properties. So that is something that we will come and talk to you about. If it's a hard. No, you don't want to consider that that's fine. Just wanted to throw it out that it might be an option in the future. I don't think we'll be anywhere near a situation where we can just pass. An option to bring revenue into our budget. So, without even

085considering actors, obviously with our entire. Just another quick observation on parking. And this is, I think, I'm sure this is directly a reflection of. The congestion and time it takes for dropout, largest per pickup. But I'm at Rickmark on almost every day, and. There are a lot of families who use the cities. Parking area or a brief period of time, but it allows. You know them to skip the line and wait for the buses, and it is taking up spots that Library and senior center might otherwise use again. It's a trade off and a function of the congestion. But on the observation I see every day. It's a great point. Yeah. And I I. As we try to, you know, address this together in partnership. We always think about, think about the trade offs like,

086okay? So then they're not in those spots. So then it's just, you know, it's like for the traffic on market. And what does that look like? So I don't know the answer. But it's it's an important piece of information to be considered. Who knows? Maybe folks will park there, and the city can get revenue, for you know, half an hour, and is 6 min usage. I don't know. Any further discussion about City Center parking. Alright. So agenda. Item 8 is under business. Any other business to come to evening. I am a motion to adjourn the Standing Committee meeting. That's. So merit minutes. Wait a second. Probably one second. I'll leave that. I need a session. All in favor signify by saying the string committee is adjourned. The School Board regular meeting will begin. Do we want

087to start early, or yes, so let's say we'll be in at 7 30. I think. Found out. It's a long while. So no problem. It's I think we're good. We're on. We're live. Okay. Alright. I call the regular meeting of the Software School Board to order on Wednesday, September 18, th 2,024, at 7, 33 Pm. Are there any announcements or amendments. Yes, I have one, and I'm just trying to get to it. My apologies. We're ahead of schedule time. So. Gonna add that to. 11 a month. Edward. I can add it as long as you're. As long as you want to. That's why I'm asking. I'll I'll do. You have an announcement you want to make this evening. Okay, so why don't we do that during agenda. Yeah, mine actually wrote and porched there. Better

088so. Okay, do you have like a topic where. Is it? We're in the Finance Committee at that point, or is that on the agenda the Finance Committee is more discussion. Item. Okay. And we're good. There. Alright. Yes. Okay. Do you need is you're doing. You want to add an update about the finance committee. Is the Finance Committee on Jennifer. I was looking at an old. So yeah, if we could just maybe add just, I'll do a quick update on it. I'm looking actually. Now, I guess. Can we add an agenda? Item? Let's call it 8, and it will be reports by the board. Or maybe call it 7 reports by the board, and then we'll do our regular agenda planning and consent. Agenda following. Sure, and reports by the board would be an update on

089the Finance Committee from Tim, and announcement. Okay. Any other announcements or amendments to the agenda. Okay. Alright. Agenda. Item, 4. Comments from the public. This is the community's opportunity to share feedback and concerns with the board. We ask that you keep your comments concise, 2 to 3 min, and that you refrain from using any information that would identify a specific person. Please raise your hand or use the zoom raised hand feature. We will only use the online chat to manage any tech issues. We are not able to take action on any issues brought to us during public comment. However, any board member may suggest tonight the issue or question be added to a future agenda for discussion. We may also delegate addressing issues to our superintendent's, and it is always helpful if you can email us

090a copy of your comments for follow up. So with that, said, There's nobody in the room. Any public comment. Nobody. Online. Okay. Moving on agenda. Item, 5, focus on student learning, representative report. Yeah. Ti. Spain students have officially arrived. High school students be on the lookout for presentations in their foreign language classes this week. And this past weekend Ti students took a trip to like class it for the day and had more of a lot adventures to come, and we're super excited to have them here. Today, elementary schools and the host for elementary schools, their 1st early release and the high school experience their first, st like late start this marks the changing scheduling from last year as late start really stays from Fridays this year. They're on Wednesdays. So this is just a reminder

091to students and parents to keep checking the calendar. And the orchard fun is scheduled for September 27, th and we'll start at 12 Pm. So families are welcome to volunteer students as they participate in this event. And then the last announcement is just a brief update about the finance committee and participation in that. So I just talked to Tim, and we got 4 applications from students. And I heard a lot of interest. Which is really exciting I don't wanna say anything that Like you guys, even Chris, haven't totally decided upon yet, but I know there are discussions. And including 2 students instead of one. I think this would be really helpful. To have 2 students that they could kind of figure out the complex topic of and funding and the school budget together. Yeah. So.

092Thank you. The student. Agenda item, 6 action items. This evening we have our 2.0 global executive constraint policy for policy monitoring. And are any questions about the report that we received. You know. Are you looking for questions or just comments? Yeah, questions or comments at this time? I don't think we need to have a full presentation. So any questions about the report, and if there are no questions we will. Do our monitoring report. I'll just. Okay, I I did review it. I just want to. Say to Violet is a very great report. Very thorough. I dove down into a number of the links that were there. And as I was going through this You know, I work for a large multinational that is highly regulated, and as I was reading your report, it made me

093think how regulated and and how much attention to detail we have to pay on at the school level as well, because a lot of what I saw here I was familiar with to some extent through the multinational. Not that we're multinational, but it did remind me of that a lot, and I I. It's just very impressed with. The structure that I'm seeing, and and again diving into some of the stuff I looked at the actually went into the staff handbook and looked at that for a little bit and some of the other stuff, and there's a tremendous amount there. And if there's a community members. Listening to this, I would encourage. Them to take a look at that stuff. And and I'm not sure if this is available to the public it must be, and

094to take a look at it, because I I think it's an eye opener. To see what it is that has to be handled from a from this particular. Topic here. So just wanna say, I'm impressed. Thank you very much for this wonderful. And I totally concur. Thanks. Now, I just like, I know, all these trainings. Yeah, I take like 4 to 6 h to do anything. And So much goes into this, and when I feel this into a report. Tremendous amount of work, and then it's a few pages, so share it, and thanks for the. call center is great information, and I'd love for you know folks to dig into these. And now what we do now do it more. Right? Are we ready to take action on this report? Alright 2 global executive constraint. The

095superintendent shall not allow any practice, activity, decision, or organizational circumstance that is unlawful, unsafe, or in violation of commonly accepted educational and professional ethics and practices. The superintendent shall not fail to provide a continuous improvement process, including a complaint process. Is there a reasonable interpretation. Adequate data. Yes. Yes, in combining. The 2.0 global constraint monitor is hereby approved. Thank you. Always good to be in compliance. But I mean the worst things to be known for. Especially for a school official. Okay. So our new agenda. Item 7 is going to be reports by the board. Any preference. Let me do it first.st I can go first.st just as far as the Finance Committee. I want to apologize. It's taking a little bit longer to get off the ground than we had. So at this point got

096a couple of draft going forward. So the meetings are in the planning stage right now. Putting together like a list of the topics we want to cover from an informational perspective, to get all members of the board up to speed. So we're all on the same playing field. I wanna make sure that the members of the committee are able to speak you know, eloquently, but have a good grasp of the concepts that we're going to have to present throughout the coming months here. So that's in progress. Along with that, I've been working on the quote unquote education series. I think it's gonna kind of dovetail with that as been working through a lot of those topics. I do have a couple almost done, I will send out for review again if there takes a little

097while, but the the goal, my goal will be before we begin our listening event in early November to have the majority of those published so they can backup the listening event right? So we can provide a list out, and people can go look at those along with other materials. So hopefully when we'll start to see some of the stuff in here. I know we don't have a lot of time between now, and when we do start the listening sessions in November, so I'll have to confirm with Chris what our schedule will be for those meetings. But I certainly not anticipating 3 h meetings. I mean, I'm thinking. You know, we're we're talking maybe a 90 min meetings as we go forward, but it'll really be very. So that said, I, do have a number of logistical questions

098around this, since I've never run a public advisory board before, and I'm not sure if I just need to send those to you, Violet, or if I can ask them now. Get some feedback, but tell me how we'd like to handle it. Didn't think enough questions now. I think we answered them great and. So I just logistically, as we look at posting our 1st do I send those to? How do they get posted. How does that work. They don't need to adhere to Mom. I read open meetings on I. We're an Advisory Board Public Advisory Board. I think we. I may be wrong, but maybe we need to revisit this. It's a committee of the Board doesn't open meeting. It was written so open meeting one doesn't apply. We won't and it won't be a

099quorum of the board, so Okay, good. So. So when you say you wrote it so that open what? What in the but we didn't write it any of the board, and so it's not a It's it's it's a committee. It's not a body with. It's a the committee will make recommendations and share information, but they're not a decision. And we we did that very intentionally, because open meeting law can be kind of. Heavy in terms of being able to get your members to meet and having it be accessible to everyone. Because if you have to Good to, and hear my open meeting, while you have to broadcast your meeting, or record your meeting, or broadcast. That just adds a whole bunch of extra challenges to workload. And I I yeah, no, no, I'm I'm fine

100with that, because then that would. That would mean we don't have to necessarily publish minutes, and we don't have to pay someone to. Have a role of that team. Might have a facilitator, a timekeeper a minute taker sort of a thing. But we don't have the fun. I wish that this, you know, we don't have the funding to allocate for Nick to come in, and, you know, assist with this. Educating the community, and those are. By the nature of the work going to be open to the public right? Because you're gonna have your listening sessions, or you're gonna have. If you decide to do some sort of canvassing. That's like you'll be raising awareness, but not because you have to comply with open meeting, because that's the point of the work. So when when we

101meet. We're not necessarily having public It's not open to the public. I actually would say it's not open to the public unless it's a listening session or a community such. Okay? Because I was, I was. You know, we wanted to consider a listening sessions. For the Finance Committee, because this committee isn't making decisions on behalf of the Board. It's doing a heavy load of work that the board needs done, and that's just one piece of it, right? But. You like. There's no decision that will be made in the Finance Committee that. The public would need to weigh in on because it wouldn't. There's no like official action. We might, the committee might make recommendations to the Board, and that would be done. With a report. Given an open session, it would be more on our

102agenda as the Board, and that's how the community can listen into what the Finance Committee is. Okay, that that answers quite a few questions, then. So thank you. As I was reading through open meeting, while I assume we would be an advisory board. But we're not. We're just committing. And it gives you flexibility when you want to convene, when you want to have you know. You can update emails if you wanted to that for this meeting. And then in a short timeline. And just as long as the community is aware of that. You know, this isn't. Because you could, you get to communicate and you get and text. So I think you'll join. You can share everything at anyhow. Yeah, and we're happy. From a district side. You can reach out to the lineup or

103Julia, and we're happy to post information. Oh, that's the only thing. Yeah, that was really good. Yeah, Julie is really good at sending out agendas. Okay. So once we get our agendas ready. I can ask Julia, or I can be. I could just announce garb. We're happy to help. We want this. You know, the district supports this going to be. It's a district sanction committee. We want significant engagement on budget. I do have one or 2 topics. I've identified where I may need some help from Tim Jarvis. And if that's yeah, okay, to reach out for some information on the email. Any questions you have, you can always email me or call me, and then I can kind of do the right person if I can answer it, and you have the folder of resources

104for the committee as well. Yes, I'm gonna share it with you right now. But I I think Let's hit a Google drive. It's a folder. I'm gonna just share alright. Okay, I'm good. Thank you. Appreciate the feedback. Talking about. Can't think of anything. So former board Member Kate really was just in the room, and she said, she said, I recognize that energy. When you came out with the budget there is, I mean, it's an important topic, and it comes with passion. And it's exciting, you know, to hear from our engagement community around it. People. I feel the same way when I talk about the other fund, or you can see the eyes start to close a little bit. I did chat with a reporter from the other paper last. On Monday. And she asked a

105lot of questions about the finance, and hoping there'll be some visibility, and coming out. From her. Okay, colleen, would you like to share an announcement. Yeah. I am. Going to have to resign my position on the board. Because. My sister had heart surgery. The end of August. And 2 min, 4 and a half hours away from me, and I really need to be with her at this time. And my daughter needs to be with her, and. It was decision to make. I want to be absolutely clear that. I so admire every single. So much, and You have. The backs of the community. You have the backs of the students. Your hearts are still in the right place, and. I value that so much I can't. I can't tell you how much. I'm getting emotional. I should

106not. But I am. This has been my daughter's home for. Some years, and she went to breakfast and. Is now at Hms. And. It's a huge time for all of us. It's huge. But I sort of looked at all the circumstances, and this is what I have to do, and how. My husband, and we're love my sister to pieces. And She is one of the most important people in the world to me. And that's Fran. I'm so sorry. We are too. Yeah, I think that you bring. Remember when you 1st joined the Board, and I was telling you about what I felt the different Board members were, and I feel like we bring a really specific skill set of a. A wonderful lens for our students. And I think you have a really great community.

107And do you care a lot about equity and. We are sensitive to different viewpoints. And here one of my favorite things that you'll say all the time is, oh, it's not the Elain show, which basically means that even if you have a different perspective, you don't think that your perspective matters more than anyone else, and. I just think you have a lot of attributes and policies that made. Such as a wonderful board member. And we're gonna miss you. But also you're not replaceable in your family. And if the board is functioning, someone else can step up and do the work and. Maybe that'd be an important role in your family that you need to be. So appreciate that. I just wanna be absolutely clear. This, has absolutely never. Might add to the work or the

108people. Because you're amazing. All of you are amazing. A tremendous amount of respect for you and is in. My absolute pleasure to serve alongside you on. I feel like in here forever, and your onboarding seems. The time and attention and effort that you put into forward never ceases me. You are so thorough and prepared, and you meet with constituents, and you provide time. And always kindness and students first, st and I have. Really really enjoy working with you to serve our schools, and I I think our board. I am not I, you know I I think you've been a big part of creating a positive you know this awesome word culture where we can sit here today, and none of us are having a panic attack about this. But we have the understanding that we're

109appreciative of your time with us, and. Understanding that you need to. So what your family and I also admire that decision also be in touch. Cell phone number. And I was like chatted with Elaine, and she's indicated that she thinks her last meeting will be October 9.th And it's a unique position where we have. Time to look to fill board vacancy while we still have a board member. On. So we're very familiar with that process. We'll get that rolling. Honestly, I'm just gonna dust off the last process. Alright. Agenda. Item 8. Planning. Set agenda for October 9, th meeting As a reminder. We're hoping to keep this meeting pretty light. Just based on. Our schedules that week. I would like to add the board vacancy for the discussion on that today. Perfect, so that on.

110Wait a second. The next meeting is your last meeting. That looks so fast. Yes, it did. Okay. Do you have that timeline pulled up now, if they're while we're in this meeting now. Yep, if we can. Decide like to post. Could we have Julia post applications on the website? We decide on. On a day where we'd like to close applications. I don't know. Maybe. Do we want to just talk about this at the next meeting? Does that feel. Better. I don't want to be in a position of discussing something. Yeah, yeah, let's forward it. Okay? So it's on for the night. That's so soon. Okay, so soon as I'm not prepared, emotionally prepared, we are as a team prepared to onboard a number and. I feel confident in you all, Laura. You're the Bsa expert.

111Say goodbye to my name. I know that that that was where I was going with that cause. I said that October 9th was your last meeting 3 more meetings before she has somebody. Nobody has a heart. Sessions. Okay? Anything else for October 9.th Is everyone looking at our draft agenda? I'm just wondering. We don't have executive session for that time. I just didn't. Oh, contract negotiations! You're going to believe that I think you were Support staff, right, so. Should we meet to discuss the state of contract negotiations. I think that there's in terms of allocating those teams. I don't know how much of this has to remain confidential. I've been in contact with the Spa I don't know, Violet. You're away on the night conference. So I'm gonna be at a business official superintendent meeting.

112There's I was hoping to have some other business officials and colleagues, as we did last year. At this, on the 9th of the 9, th so. I'm enjoying virtually And they're Wednesday and Thursday, and like morning, so I can't back to attend. They'll be unremote. And so, I'm thinking, an executive session that night. Not may not be well timed just because I would like to have another executive session, where, as a board, we discuss what our. That's reflective of the budget. Yeah. The printers. Yeah, I have no, no problem with that. I'm I'm just we definitely need to have another one. I'm not sure if. Won't be like a productive. Yep, I'm just looking at it. Dates and some of the prior notes, and just want to make sure that. From a time, perspective and

113perspective. Kind of, you know, we're kind of moving forward with what we need to. Okay. Oh, the system is, I just was looking at this planning set agenda for October 30.th And I'm like what is happening. So if we're looking at the 9th agenda. Is there anything else? If you see, we have discussion items, some finance committee, school tours, listening sessions. We have a transportation update. We're monitoring 2.8 compensation benefits. So I've updated the Google Doc of this, it looks like, this is not updated. But so I think we had. Some of these items we've carried down. I I may or may not have a transportation. That stuff can be, I guess, from the. It's easy for you to connect with From the board perspectives. Anything else we need to add to the add just.

114Update after listening sessions. Very brief. That's on for discussion items. Okay? What about the phones? Is that something you wanna discuss. Sorry. In terms of the like, continuing like a cell phone ban or. Yeah, I guess that discussion I had also put in our timeline potentially putting out a survey to our community this month. That's realistically not gonna happen. Mostly because I really feel like I need back from the board about the scope of the survey. I think I can collect that information. I'm working with the high school team on that Thought we had talked about me having a deadline date of the 1st staff and staff and potentially student perspective. I'm talking about a survey to community members which. I was actually thinking. Probably one of the questions on the survey should be, do

115you have students in the district to know who's who's answering the questions in the community? Is it families, or is it. Other people who may or may not have perspective on. Like. I don't want to get too much into the discussion. I guess I'm just asking. Does the Board want to discuss. We're trying to do anything in the process of cell phones meeting. I can share them operationally. It's going, really, really problems. And I'm hearing teachers and students are I'm behind nothing negative feedback. Just in case that informs your discussion. I I'm like, I'm happy to provide that update with you. But I'm finding out having the discussion like I'm finding to see how this plays out operationally. But. I think that's that's built into our timeline is to see how is. It's also built

116into the timeline to make the decision. Are we moving forward with. Looking at a policy. Are we decent with just operational changes? The State legislature is picking this up again in January. That's another reason. I think maybe we should just leave it alone, because, depending on what they do, we. Did not have a choice. If we have operational issues, I will let the team know. For sure, but that's a great one in the legislative piece. Maybe we just want to add it as an update, so that the communities where I already have a formal announcement to the community. Because I think there's a tremendous amount of Interest in the top there, and if we don't have it on the agenda items, I'm afraid they may wonder. No, I don't think we're ignoring it just kind

117of where we're after. If you want to be prepared like between now and then, if you want to try to get some anecdotal evidence about how things are going in the high School. Students are looking forward to that. Whatever I trust you did. So, yeah, yeah, it's And I talked to Principal John Craig at the High School today. And he told me that he's seeing decreased usage of cell phones in hallways and during lunchtime as well. And so that was interesting. So. Reviewing these updates. Okay, are we ready to move on to Demo. Review agenda, item 8. Consent agenda. Does that mean? Has everyone had a chance to review the September. Any questions or changes. I'm sorry I do not see the September 4th minutes in the document. I miss them because I did not

118review them. I I did not see them post on the website. I thought that I was missing something and requested them via email. If the Board hasn't. Well, they're they're not here, that's true. So Yeah. Approval of ap orders, and I just wanna note for the record. On the warm agenda ap order 1,000. That's a typo. It's agenda. I mean, it's ap order 1,058. Has everyone had an opportunity to review Ap. Orders. 1,058. 1,061 to 1,062 and 1,002. Yes. Any questions. No, I was gonna ask a question, and I I looked it up myself. Yes. State insurance. Responsible for any kind of disruption, or, you know, accidents all of these things. Otherwise. Thank you. No questions or concerns the Ap. Orders. 1,046, 1,008, 1,000, 61,002, and 1,072 are approved. Agenda. Item 9 adjourned. Do I

119have a motion to adjourn the regular meeting of the soft phone support. Move, to adjourn. 11 seconds. Any discussion. All in favor signify by saying, Aye. Meeting this journey. Thank you.