January 22, 2025 School Board Meeting

001Hi, my name is Sarah Heiss. I moved to South Burlington in 2018 because I believe these were the best schools in our state. And I also have four children, two children in the school district and two to enter next year so i have a lot at stake here. What I want to say tonight is that the school board is incredibly important and it's important to families, students, and our community in general. And I want to thank each one of you for your service because I know this is a lot of time and energy and emotional work, to be honest. Participation on this board should be easy and accessible and participation should be inclusive. I would like to comment today for public record And also to make sure anybody in this room or watching online knows

002that there are six seats open for town meeting today, two seats for one-year terms, two seats for two-year terms, and three seats for three-year terms, according to the city clerk's email to me today. These positions are not posted on this South Burlington School Board's website. They're not posted on the city clerk's website. And as far as I can tell, they were not shared on online community boards and they were not shared via inter-school communication such as email. If you're interested in running for one of these offices, there's still time. A completed consent form and a completed petition with 30 names of South Burlington registered voters is required to be on the ballot. These items are available to you through the city clerk's counter. So you'll have to go in person, which is a barrier to

003accessibility. I could send you a link. And I'll also post on the South Burlington Facebook groups. Once you get those signatures and you complete, it's a very short form. It's like 10 questions You'll have to return them to the city clerk at the library building, City Hall, 5 p.m. This Monday, January 27th. So you have less than a week, but there's so much time and we will support you as a community. I had to email the city clerk to get this information and it's required multiple emails. I still don't have the information that I've requested beyond what seats are open. The links that were provided to me were not to anything that would help me to run for this board. And they sent me all over the place to showing people that were in current

004offices or positions, but nothing to suggest to me how it would actually. Thank you. So as a community member, I'm incredibly disappointed. I think it's unfair, unaccessible, not inclusive. It might be an accident, but the fact that it's not on the school board's website, I can't even put this on myself. And the fact that I had to email two times and I still don't have information about how to actually apply. Is not acceptable. I encourage people to run. I hope you do. I'll post the information for you. I would like you to put it on a future agenda, please. I expect for it to be there. Thank you. Appreciate it. Really do appreciate it. And I do need to make one clarification, Sarah, I apologize. I think you said there were three three-year seats open.

005I don't believe that's true. We have two one-year seats, which are one year finishing out two two year terms We have two two years that are open. We have two three years that are open. Chairman Tilling has seat is not up for contest right now. So I just want to clarify. So then that is like quote from the city clerk. So then the city clerk doesn't even know what openings there are. So there are seven board seats. One is not up for election right now, but the other six are. I think that this information needs lasted in the next 24 hours. It is so unacceptable that it's this hard to figure out how to be up here serving with you. Thank you. Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Laura McBride and

006I'm here to respectfully respectfully request that the board delay Superintendent Nichols contract renewal and implement a process that prioritizes meaningful input from educators, administrators, and community partners. Concerns raised by key stakeholders cannot be ignored. The teachers union's rejection of the proposed budget cuts highlights a potential lack of trust and collaboration with the superintendent. Additionally, the recent completion of the listening tour conducted by the NEA underscores ongoing unease about the superintendent's leadership. While the other paper may contain some factual inaccuracies regarding the superintendent's contract, the central issue is one of transparency between the board and the community. Since the summer, the community has sought information and involvement in this process only for the press to reveal that the board moved forward without public awareness despite continued stakeholder outreach. This lack of transparency raises serious concerns, including

007potential violations of Vermont's open meeting law, which requires discussions about the superintendent's contract to be included on public agendas. The absence of these discussions from recent board minutes and executive agendas undermines the trust and highlights the need for a more inclusive and transparent process. At a time where we are facing budget cuts and teacher contract negotiations, this lack of trust can erode this process. Which will have detrimental impact on our students. Tonight, I urge you to take a step back to slow down the ratification process and commit to engaging with voices of the most affected. Educators, administrators, and community members are asking for a seat at the table in this critical decision. Delaying the renewal process would demonstrate a willingness to listen to rebuild trust, and to ensure that all perspectives are heard and considered.

008I want to thank you for your time and attention, and I trust that you will make a thoughtful decision in the best interest of our schools our staff, and most importantly, our students thank you Thank you. And Laura, do you mind emailing that to me? I would like for all of you to stick around because actually, excuse me. Agenda item A, where we have action items is where a lot of these concerns are going to be addressed. And so I would hate for you to leave and not hear the prepared board statements that address these concerns. And part of that process is compiling all of the feedback that we've heard and systematically addressing it. There's a specific point that you just made that I would like to address. So if you're able to email that,

009that would be great. I have to leave for another job. So when I leave, I'll listen to it the next day. And there's a conflicting high school as well for eighth grade parents. I'm really looking for as well. I'm going to listen to it all. My name is Laura Smith. I am a resident and I have two students, an eighth grader and a current freshman. And I just wanted to echo the request to reconsider the sports reduction as in the budget today. In addition to all the points that were already raised. That reduction will also impact important fundraising that is done by our SB Boosters Club. 118 in those night sports games, which is one of our biggest fundraising areas. And the SV boosters does not only support and supplement requests for our sports teams.

010But we also support all the awesome clubs that are available to all of our students who might not join the sports team so it has a bigger impact than just sports, not to mention the night games are a lot of fun for our students. That's taking away a key event. I also want to echo the request to reconsider the pre-cons. Both of my children either. Went through the pre-k program or access services out that scaffolding. It would not be the successful students that they are today. At that time, the pre-k program was only available in the morning. I worked full-time as does my spouse So we hired a babysitter to take my son to and from those classes and to ask apparent that doesn't have that kind of flexibility to hire a sitter or work

011from home as I do and sometimes bring it myself It's a huge burden to our entire community so i just ask you to really take advantage of their offer to go into those classrooms and see kids they need those services. Removing them is just a huge detriment to this. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comment, comment, and more? Sure. Beth Adrienne, I am one of the co-presidents on the South Bronx Investigators Association. So I wrote a short statement. As representatives in the student-facing faculty and staff of the South Burlington School District. Tonight, we urge the community to get involved and vote yes for the budget. We want to be clear that we see a problem of process and leadership, which cannot be ignored or budgeted away. Involvement in voting yes is the only way we

012see to create a better vision and improve leadership. Thank you. Any other public comment and then My name is Kate Jarvis and what I didn't mention earlier is that I have twins in high school. And I just would like to say that I've heard over several meetings people say that there you know there's money being taken away from education and from teachers and from sort of necessary supports and going to the central office And I just wish to state that I really do not think that the money is being taken away from education and given And given as a fat salary to administrators i think that is really not the case at all. I'm on. Terribly sad to hear about the preschool pets. You know, I have a child with special needs I can't imagine

013what would have been like if we couldn't have had some help when she was in preschool. So, but I don't think you know it's not a case of taking from one pile and giving to another. I just don't think that's how it happens. Furthermore, I just wish to say that I've also heard comments from the public about reducing administrators like assistant principals and things like that and i just think that's absolutely crazy You cannot run a school or school district without administrators. It's just not possible. Finally, I just wish to say that while I may be biased, I really feel that Violet Nichols has done an excellent job as superintendent and I really don't think most people have even the vaguest idea of how complicated and complex and challenging that role is. Thank you. Are

014we allowed to talk multiple times? I'm like, I'm confused. Confident of the day. I want to be sensitive to the public. The public comment here, but this also isn't a public forum. The board's only role tonight is not to solely listen We were supposed to conclude with comments from the public by 619 and it's now 6.30 tomorrow. And we'd like to hear what the board has to say in response to many of these issues. We need to move on. So if there's any comments that have not been represented already that would like to be brought up That's okay. Hi, my name is Sarah Heiss. In the spirit of having dialogue and discussion and inclusivity in these conversations, I like hearing that some of the elementary schools are having PTO meetings with members of the board.

015That's been encouraging and I will be at mine in, I think a week and a half. I was like, you know, host more of those meetings, advertise them more and maybe even like Coffees with the superintendent. So these can actually be dialogues and not just people having their hearts race to get their say in within two minutes. I'd love to have a conversation. And I know I represent a lot of parents just through today's conversations. Thank you. Thank you. As a clarification, board members are invited to all budget presentations and we go based on availability. She's been aware there's something on the Zoom. Yes, we're going to move on next. Anyone else in the room? You mean I'm meaningless. Aaron's other one, please. Hi, can you hear me? Hi, can you hear me? I think

016I'm unmuted. I don't know if you can hear me. Hello? Okay. All right. Sorry. I'm at the JVB basketball game. We can hear you, Aaron. And so it's a little noisy. I'm in the hallway and obviously I'm speaking to this. I have a sophomore that's been on JVB for two years and it's been really such an important way to transition into the high school like everybody has said. But echoing that, I'm literally looking at 16 boys right now Who could be out vaping and destroying property and they're here and they're working with a coach who's getting paid pennies so i really think the $140,000 when I look at how much some of the other salaries are, it really doesn't make sense. That's one. Two is two of my four kids went to the preschool and

017I don't think anybody in the district deserves more support than the preschool. It is such a difficult job. It's hard to get peers to come to these programs. Just a ton of work and I really hope that we open our eyes to that And third of all, I think Kate Jarvis makes a nice point about getting the community involved. Parents aren't allowed into the schools, so we can't actually see how amazing the schools are, which is a huge issue. We're treated like criminals. And while… I do believe getting the community involved is the way to pass this budget. When we see how much administrators are making. That does not sit well with people who are trying to buy groceries. So I really think to get on board we need to get on board to take

018a deep dive in and some people need to be able to say, I'm not taking a raise. Thank you. Please unmute. I'm John Lawrence. Jen, are you there? Sure. Send her a note, Chelsea. Can I… Can you all hear me or not? Now we can jump in. Now you can. Okay, thank you very much. Yes, thanks. My name is Jennifer Lawrence. I live in South Burlington. I just wanted to say I sincerely appreciate all of the work that goes into the budget development and the role of the school board members. But I must also express my concern as a parent of students within the South Burlington School District. I've rallied behind budget increases in the past, including the 2024 budget, which finally passed on the third vote. But must echo the sentiment of many others

019that have spoken tonight. The optics when we're cutting student facing positions and programs to increase administrative salaries is not a good one. And is going to become very difficult to get behind and advocate for. And try to help garner traction within our community. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. Is there any other public comment at this time? Thank you. The Division I indoor Track State Championship is this Saturday, January, or this Sunday, January 26th. Come to the UBM Indoor Craft at 9 a.m. To watch your wolves compete in relays, sprinting, jumping, and distance. And Wednesday, January 29th is a late start for both middle and high school students. And a half day for elementary school students. So the school day at SBHS and Tuttle will begin at 10.35 a.m. And there'll be

020an early dismissal at 1230 p.m. For elementary students. And finally, Ali and I would like to remind students who are going to be 18 by town meeting day that they are able to vote on this year's budget to learn more about voting on town meeting day and registering to vote, please visit the South Burlington City website for more information. Okay. All right, that brings us to agenda item five, discussion items. First, we have finance committee Do you want to pick this one? I want to take it. Sure. Actually part of that, if that's okay. Sure. Or is there a better spot for that. That matters in a better spot. Okay, thank you. So at this point, I don't really have any updates. I did welcome our finance committee members here tonight to introduce them to

021the board. And we're just trying to reframe the best use of the finance committee from this point. Are there finance committee members here who'd like to come up and just introduce yourself? You don't have to, but I thought it would be nice if the board could meet you and Hi, I'm Kate Bailey, a member of the Finance Committee. Good evening once again, Oliver Pearson, also a member of the finance committee Hoping to get more involved. I haven't been as involved as I'd like, but this is a critical time to contribute to the discussion i think my earlier comments notwithstanding Working with the community to support this budget getting to a yes vote is extremely important the big believer in public education coming from a family of school teachers, this is something that I feel strongly

022about Look forward to working with you. Chris, Tim, by the members of the Finance Committee, the chair kate Thank you. I think some student there are some of our student representatives from the finance committee who are here for the steering committee that was earlier. I'm glad that they were here. Any questions from finance committee this time? I mean, we are seeking feedback on the most useful way to spot the finance committees to add them as well. Sorry. Yes, it's been uh It's been a bit of a challenge with everything going on to really get it organized and move it forward. I don't want to make sure I want to make sure we are using everybody's time appropriately. Been a bit of a challenge over the last few weeks. All right, next is the other paper,

023and I'd like to use this agenda item to state a correction. So I submitted a request to the OOP editor regarding the article published last week entitled Superintendent Remilster's Concern. And the corrections were accepted and I received receipt from the editor that they would be reflected online in the paper copy this week. I would like to revise a portion of what I stated on from the first forum. I indicated that Superintendent Nichols has taken a 50% reduction in her annual increase, but this figure does not account for the possible performance pay that she may be awarded at the next superintendent performance evaluation, which would change that reduction percentage. Assuming a favorable performance evaluation. I did not jump to post this additional correction to Front Porch Forum since we had already exceeded our monthly posting limit

024and from first forum had already kindly granted us an additional posting in order to Post the corrections that were received and changed by the audit paper. I would also like to, I've added the other paper articles back to our formal agenda because trying to organize who's writing what and get the deadlines in offline has not been effective. I'd like to offer to write the next OP article, and I was thinking about crafting an article that responds to the concerns that we've heard and discusses our governance model and policy governance. If the board is amenable to that and also Open to other ideas about the best use of our next OP vertical solution. I could include also details about running for the board. I have information from the city clerk to share this evening about running

025for our open seats on the board. But I'm looking for feedback from the board about what you like this. When are articles to chelsea? I think people have already missed the submission. This would be our February article. Which would potentially be too late for running for the board because patients have to be in by the 27th, I believe. Yeah, I don't think it could address how to run, but I think issues of accessibility, issues of who can be on the board, which is anyone, and what roles the board is tasked with could be useful information for the community I like the idea of that. Policy governments that's I kind of thought I had an idea when I came on. And i was surprised how constrained ability to effectuate change in the district is through policy

026governance and we really do rely on our superintendent to knock it out of the park again in just a couple of days that awareness and digging into the details and actually reading the policies very informative and changed my outlook on how to approach the work and how to Engage communities and respond to feedback of this isn't a board. This goes to the ceo So I think that would be awesome. Because it won't be too late to start out. And I would recommend that for those of us who are running before seats that we submit an article to the upper paper describing our positions and why we're running. So I don't think having chairman telling gas to write the OP article prevents us from submitting illnesses. That would be my recommendation. Yeah, you went all right

027to the editor and that would be considered campaigning. So I actually think it would be best practice for me to write the February article from the board so that nothing Kind of your views from present is representative. Did go a little rogue and submit a letter to the editor, just on my statement of the budget. I'm not running. See a bunch of advice then. Can we just clarify? I know I asked for our last meeting, but I feel like I got a super clear answer. To board members stating their intentions for this upcoming session. So Chris is not running. Sorry, go ahead. I'm already collecting signatures but still reserving judgment. I'm running. So Karen's collecting signatures so that she has the option, but it's not decided. Laura is definitely running. And Laura, I just want

028to clarify you're running for one of the three-year seats, correct? Because I think we have to specify the seat, one of the seats that we're running. That may be helpful for the community to understand. I left that blank. Because I think when we submit it, we have discussed when you submit it, you have to. Right. Yeah. I just, I don't know if you want to share that I guess, I don't know. I just left it i guess i'll do it later. And I do plan to run for a three-year term so Not that I don't enjoy campaigning, but Yeah, exactly. Thank you, Tim. I know I didn't give it that way. Oh, you can't hear me. I'm sorry. Yes, I'm running. Three-year term. Thank you, Kate, sorry. Anything else about the OPE articles from NOAA?

029I believe this is I'm writing the February article related to the community concerns that we've heard and how they relate back to our governance model. Is that right? Yes. We don't typically do the public comment during this time but I'll ask a question. Can I go back to the point in the finance committee I was thinking about what Tim said about how best to use the finance committee. And I'm happy if you say no, I just had a thought. As you were discussing the other paper about the previous agenda item, it's a number of the finance committee feel free to defer it to the next meeting with people 30. If you don't mind, we can differ and we can make it an agenda item. The point was just maybe there's some lessons learned from the

030citizens budget advisory committee of 2020 that both Chris and I served that Love is the feedback as we gear up This time around in the financing. Okay, we added a third item to this Angela, which is… Hi, I'm directing a board member to sit on the secrets to School Task Force filler holes. I do not have capacity to serve in this role at this time. Yes, that. Do you have a helpful clarification point? As a member of our Safe Roots to School Task Force, please come up and help us. It's also it's a wider column, I'm Kate Bailey, member of the Saintsville School Task Force, sucker for committees. I am an appointed member of the Safe Fruits of Schools Task Force representing the board and the community at large. I don't have students. I don't

031have children and I don't have students in the district. And the position, the appointment that Elaine was filling was for either somebody that is connected to the school district by either being a parent, a staff member, or a student themselves. And so I think that that position would be really critical to rebuild because when you're relying on my voice to represent the school community that my perspective into the district is limited by not being in this world every day the same way that parents and PTO presidents like Elaine and students and staff are so that's My request um fellow member of the San Francisco task force that the position be filled by someone who And you can help me message the important work in the San Francis Wills Task Force. Within this house. So not

032a board member. Preferably not. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so then perhaps the action step there is to share with our community what we're seeking someone from these specific stakeholder groups of parent or I think we have students on the task force, right? Yeah, so possibly a student as well. Would you say that that's the best stakeholder group to target for representation as parents or students? Maybe you can put that in your slide. Awesome. Okay. With that, we'll move to agenda item six superintendent's report And as a note, we added an agenda item between the FY26 budget communication plan with our communications coordinator and the pre-K program information. In between there is a updated Budget presentation. Yes, our five principals and i will um provide a budget presentation as a team Great. Thank you. Great.

033Hi. Thanks for being here, everyone. So Board of Cooperative Educational Services, often referred to as BOCES, are something that Vermont is slowly introducing. And as we are in a position where we're contracting based on financial limitations, I'm really trying to increase partnerships so that we can continue offering programming to students. So as a Champlain Valley Superintendents Association, we've really looked into this and worked with some partners in New York. Based on the way that the Vermont BOCES model is written. It doesn't seem that it's sustainable at this point in time. The Massachusetts model for BOCES is pretty compelling. However, it involves a significant amount of community support and funding with that. So at this time, the Champlain Valley superintendents, and I'm part of that are not Actively moving forward to pursuing any of these. It's

034not a viable use of resources or time. However, we're going to advocate for modification of the bill language to have it be something that can be sustained In Vermont, because I think it's a good idea. And as districts like ours across the state Grapple with changes in funding. I think this is a way that we can work together and to provide resources for our students through regional partnerships. So that concludes my BOCES update. I am… I'm curious because this seemed to be like such a big push from the legislature. There seemed to be such hope around it. And I'm curious if you and the other superintendents plan on putting together some sort of a summary document of your perspectives and what you might submit to the legislature for updates. Or request changes in the legislation

035yeah there's not um a formal push from CVSA to do that at this time, but I'm fortunate to have the ears of some of our legislators. And I was exchanging email correspondence with Senator Ron Hinsdale last night tied to advocating for funding to support Our students in our schools and she invited me to speak at an upcoming ed meeting. And so I think that's a good opportunity for me to open that conversation to the committee who's got some authority and some real actionable space there. Thank you. So that's the next step so far. Thanks. I'd now like to turn it over to our communications coordinator, Julia McGuire, and she is going to talk about the district's plan to communicate about the budget and share information and some of the ways that folks can get involved.

036I want to thank everyone who's reached out asking how to support this and what community efforts we can do. So as a district, Julia's created some resources and I will turn it over to her. She's joining us remotely. Hi, thank you. I think Nick has the slides that I put together to show what I've been working on. Um so Sorry, let me just open it on my so um yeah so this year we've been really trying to find the right avenues to be presenting the budget and really highlighting a lot of great things about the schools. So that's been the focus. But first and foremost. If you go to the next slide, the budget website is available on our website, but there's a button that links directly to it from the homepage. I circled it

037there. And Nick, if you could just click on that link, then that'll open the page just so we can kind of walk through it this has The link to the budget newsletter, which I'll get into in a minute, is linked there as well as Every budget presentation that's been done since November, our timeline, and just all anything related to the budget can be found on this website. Including some information about Vermont school funding. So I think it's a good resource. It's a little bit more on the dry side of information, but if you're looking for Just some explanations about stuff that this is the best place to go. And it also has the button to calculate your tax rate, which was brought up at a board meeting I think the last two board meetings ago

038and just some other great resources there. So then the budget newsletter was posted to Front Porch Forum and facebook And as well to our website. And this is kind of an FAQ, but also just a little bit of more information about what is happening with this budget, as well as information about our schools, I think Someone spoke to about the fact that I think it's about 60% of South Burlington doesn't have any kids in the district. So it's hard for them to know more about them, but there are a lot of great resources which are listed in this newsletter, which links to a lot of great Instagram pages that many of the teachers or principals are running directly from the schools as well as the district's Instagram and Facebook page. Which is always posting great

039information across all the schools. Talking about academic, co-curricular, and just events and things that are happening around the schools on a day-to-day basis. So I think that those are really great resources if people want to get to know the schools a little bit better. I also included some other Instagram accounts that are worth following, including our robotics team, Batteries Not Included. As well as Ben Majors, who's our security officer at the high school who takes really amazing photographs of mostly sports events, but he also takes has taken pictures of other events at the high school those were really pretty exceptional. So I would recommend checking him out. And so if you go to the next slide. Did we go to the next one? Sorry. So that was the newsletter. So that's the newsletter, which will

040also be included in the superintendent's newsletter this And I think principals will also be sharing it. So hopefully we get that out as widely as possible to the community, not just within The school community, but the community at large. Okay, we go to the next slide. So Superintendent Nichols and Tim Jarvis as well, as I think some board members have been attending some of these meetings, they're going to, and some of these meetings have already happened. And many of these are upcoming. They're going to every school staff meeting as well as their PTO and the boosters at the high school. To discuss the budget and talk to them talk to both staff and families about what's included. As well, they'll do a town meeting TV, a presentation And they'll be presenting to the South Burlington

041Rotary and the South Burlington Small Business Association in the coming weeks as well. And all the information for those meetings is there. And then if you go to the next slide. So this is also a flyer that we're working on that would get mailed to every residence in South Burlington, similar to something that we did last year. This design is obviously still in flux. Things are not final there, but that should probably go out sometime in February. And this will include a little bit more of the financial information While still highlighting pictures of students and information about how to vote. So look for that in your mailbox in the coming weeks. And then the next slide. And then so these are a bunch of graphics that I created to kind of highlight some of the

042more detailed or some of the kind of not minutia but like the more specific details about the budget in a little bit more of ingestible information. And these graphics are available to download from our website. Those are also linked on the budget page and they'll also be included in Superintendent Nichol's newsletter this week. And there's a link. So if you just want to run through, these are some of the, so this is just basic voting information. And then you go to the next slide. This is just some highlights of the budget that is what's included there. And then the next one is Some more financial information. This is more the specific breakdown of what the budget is comprised of. And then the next one. Is comparative tax rates across all the districts to show that

043South Burlington has the The second lowest, which is a good statistic to be sharing. And then… And then this one is kind of some information gathered across the schools that's touching more on social emotional learning, just highlights of things that have happened at the schools. I also pulled some just like really interesting courses that are available at the high school. And highlights of highlights some other co-curricular things that have happened in the last year, I would say, just like cover and what's upcoming for sporting events in the next season. So that's just some interesting stuff to have there. And then the next one This is highlights of some alumni. We've got some nice quotes from two past students and then um As well as just like some other highlights of what some current alumni are

044doing now just to show what's possible after you graduate from the district. And then these are just some other Ones that can be used just I found out today that our wolf mascot's name is Wynn. So offering up some some encouragement from him to remember to vote on the fourth. And then we also have Marky the moose who's another mascot at Rick Marcotte. So there's one for him as well if people want to use those. And i think So all of those are, again, available for download. I'll probably be adding a few more in the next few weeks, but those will all live at the same link. So it'll just now be We'll be posting to our social media. We'll be just trying to get out into the community as much information as possible And

045obviously any support from families, from staff, from students would be obviously wonderful. So please reach out to me if you Have any questions or want to help in any way. Thank you so much, Julia. I just want to make one note. I do plan Violet on attending the rest of the sessions that you have scheduled. My schedule, compared to other board members is probably more flexible. But again, if there are other board members who want to attend any of those, you're absolutely welcome to. We just need to be careful, I guess, not to have three of us show up because then that becomes a quorum. But I do plan on attending them just so there is representation from the board at these particular meetings. I also want to just mention, I think it's Sarah Heiss.

046She was up speaking and you had mentioned, you know, could somebody If you have a meeting going on or something, could a board member attend or show up? And I will certainly offer myself up for that. Again, my schedule is flexible. I did speak with another parent not too long ago who was potentially organizing sort of a neighborhood forum and we may not be aware of those and such. So if you do have something going on and would like to extend an invitation in the calendar permits, I'd be happy to attend. Or perhaps myself and another board member if they're available. So absolutely, we do try to organize meetings. Sometimes they're well attended. Sometimes they're not. So it becomes challenging giving schedules and such. We wanted to invite someone from the board to a community

047forum how would we go about doing that? Email us or come to an open meeting and invite us and start a comment. I just haven't thought. I just would clarify that if it is just a single board member showing up or two board members, we typically would be very careful about not speaking for the board because it is not an official board meeting, but we certainly be willing to share what we can and We tend to really be careful about differentiating what's our opinion versus what the board represents. The other thing I just want, I think your question brings up a great point, which is that best ways to reach the school board are to come to our community engagement sessions, whether that be listening sessions at the library. Or to email us directly. And

048I would advise emailing the SB school board account as well as each individual board member email, which is listed on our school board page on the website. And I would love to emphasize that I do not check social media accounts related to school board, and I would not advise my fellow members to do that either. And that is not an effective way to have your voice heard. So public meetings, emails directly to the board, community engagement sessions, not social media. Thank you. Thanks, Julia. And so now something I'm really excited about. I would like to welcome my team, our five principals, and I'm going to join them. And we are going to And physically side by side. I know. So John Craig, who's our acting, I'll just shift the chairs here. John Craig is our

049acting high school principal And he had emailed me. He said, you know, you just have to leave it this time. To be at the high school. But he worked on the slide deck and he's here in spirit and intended to share these So we'll fill in for him. Let's shift these around so we can face the audience. There you go. All right. I'm still in here. Can you move the owl over as well? That cord long enough. That's easier. So then we'll see the slides too. Starting with me. So, you know, during this budget process um We have the central office administrators have provided budget presentations and our principals felt it important to, now that we no longer have to fulfill the statutory requirements around sharing of financials so that we get up here and

050talk about the heart of our schools, which is our students. And so that's what this is. This is a celebrations presentation and it is us as a team saying, this is why we support the budget and it's for our kids. And so that's the That's the sentiment of this. So I hope you'll enjoy it. It's certainly the budget presentation that I've been most excited about. So without further ado, we will advance to the first slide. And these are, I don't know what happened to these sides somehow And they turned dark. But they're not. They're light and bright. So some of the successes of this budget features really important equity issue is increasing bus drivers. So we know that our kids can't learn when they're not in school. And we have expanded the number of bus

051drivers so that our kids are in school. We know that the students whose parents can't Get them to school or who can't take off time from work or who take off work to be with their younger siblings have missing out. So this is a point of pride. At an additional special education supports, maintain nursing services for students. And we have moved our multilingual supports that are required, equity supports into local funding from grant funding. Which we understand may no longer be available for fiscal year 26. That in paraeducators to our kindergartner classrooms in order to support that early childhood focus. We know that early literacy and early childhood is when students have the greatest opportunity to acquire literacy skills, which is the single most skill for success as students matriculate through our system. So maintaining

052those literacy and math specialists that we added a few years ago, as well as continuing with our structured literacy program. We've restructured departments to try to find as many cost savings as possible. Off the back of three straight years of significant reductions beginning with the the phasing out of ESSER funds. This has been really difficult, but we've implemented a new financial software and really tried to scrub budgets and cut line items in order to preserve programming and staffing. So it's been a priority. Leadership reductions, I want to provide some clarity on this. Not only are our administrators incredibly important and literally run our schools without people by my sides and the rest of our admin team. But I do want to just point out clarity. The administrators are unionized and their contract and their negotiated

053agreement with the board does specify that leadership reductions cannot occur in the absence of budget fails. We just wanted to provide that information. There's clarity there. So we have some leadership reductions. Here, but really trying to focus on supporting our schools given the limited resources that we have associated with the funding changes that are outside of this team's control. So we're here to support kids and we can advance to the next step. Next slide, please, Meg. This one, I apologize if this is hard to see with the change here. So this is your tax rate. It's about 7.93%, which is about a 15.58 increase over last year. And we'll advance to the next slide because after this graph, it's going to be super fun. This is showing our expenses. We're here for people, right? We're

054here for students and our staff and most of our budget is to support salaries and benefits. So you see that represented here with that 75%. Of our salary. And now I have the pleasure of turning the mic over to Gertrude Chamberlain, Principal Holly Rowell. And before we start that, Melissa has something she wants to read. Hi, John Craig was going to be the person to read, but he's off at eighth grade step up tonight. And then Mike Shavour is off at wrestling tonight. We all can hear me better. This is the interim mic, and the other one is for the tiny little TV. All right. So you usually see us sitting in the bath working on our intentions, multitasking as usual. And we wanted to get in front of you so that you could see

055your building leaders because when we come up here and talk, we usually talk to the board, you see the backs of our heads. So here we are. And we hope you had something to read before we talk about some slides. We already do get behind a budget that passes on the first try and we want to really talk to you about why we want to do that. So as building leaders of the South Bloomington School District. We are unwavering in our commitment to supporting our students. Down and community. This includes our support of the newly approved fiscal year 26 budget. As a team, we've confronted fiscal challenges recognizing the profound impact on our community. We recognize the difficult and painful decisions this process has required. Including reductions to valuable staff. Programs and resources that have

056been integral to the success of our schools. Our focus remains steadfast. Passing the board approved budget that prioritizes the needs of our students given the constraints and ensures continued success. Now is the time for all of us. To come together and rally behind this budget that will go to vote on March or mark your calendars. We stand united in this purpose as you're building leaders. Together, we will continue to prioritize the well-being of our community and do all we can to help our students thrive. Let's move forward with strength, unity, and a shared commitment to our schools and the future of our community. Thank you. This was from John Craig, our high school acting principal. Suzanne Glen, our middle school principal, Mike Jabor, Director of Student Activities. Olivia Kane, butcher Prince Lone. Russell. Holly Russell

057Vulgar. She just got married. You didn't even catch the typo. I know how to hop. Yeah, so we just want to reiterate that we're here tonight as a unified group to say that we do support this budget. It was exciting to hear Beth read earlier too that The SBEA is also in support of passing this budget as well. So we're ready to move ahead and have that be our focus. Passive name. Good evening. So we wanted to, with our slides, Julia McGuire helped us put together some slides of snapshots of things happening in our schools and we wanted to take the opportunity to honor the hard work of our staff, the partnership with our families, the students that we are proud of every day, and have our slides be available for our community to interact

058with, to take. And Nick, if you could just do a slow roll through the slides that Our staff and our families and our students inside and out of our school buildings every day, their energy, their commitment, their creativity, the inspiration that they bring to our community. And so we just want to take a little time for everybody to see that as we go through. And that is just a snippet of a moment in time. And these moment in times happen throughout our day, every day, and they couldn't happen without the dedicated staff every day. The commitment from our community to our schools, our partnerships with our families that do a whole lot of hard work every day that our students walk through the door Ready and engaged for the day and the creativity that goes

059into just making school an inspirational place to be. We want to thank them with our slides. Question by your talk. I'll also swear. Since I am not, I don't have a child in the school district, I don't necessarily get the district-wide information and I wonder, I haven't seen the city announce why Dattilio Drive was named Detilio Drive. And I'm wondering if Greg Marquardt School could present just a little paragraph or something or work with the city to announce to the folks who don't have connection to the school district about the name change of the student. Thank you. Did you want me to answer that alert? Sure. So, yeah. We presented to the school board, we presented to the city council our students When I say we, I'm saying me and our students our second third

060fourth and fifth graders. I believe there was something in the other paper as well But I can still be in touch with the city and ask them. They put some things on their website because I know I created some pictures. For them. But sure, we can talk more about the Tillio Drive, our street that goes from Market Street to our school parking lot in our school Students got together after a year of learning about how to name streets And they recommended to the city that the street be named Detilio drive Dedicate the name of the street after a long time main office assistant. To show you who we love very much. So the street sign is up. If you're driving past, you will see it. And we're really proud of the voice and choice of

061our students working on that year long program. Okay. That's good. If I'm committed to asking another question, I just wondered if some of these amazing things that you've achieved with the kids, if there's a way to share that with the community more directly. Because I really feel like that would be a way to help people care. About education and care about educating the kids in our community You know, I mean, it's wonderful. I mean, you know, for grandparents, for anybody to be able to open something and see like this is what the kids are doing at each of your schools I think would be absolutely fantastic. And definitely a step towards bringing people in to understand like why is it important to support this budget or any budget or any of the activities. So, yeah.

062Thank you very much. The tricky part is I know that we do send things to the other plate paper and they pick and choose what they decide to put in. So that is a challenge. But I do know that many of us have weekly newsletters that go out. I've got a couple of parents here, like we spent a lot of time highlighting the incredible things. We all use a platform called Samore, which Violet also uses to send out to community members. And I know like mine is posted on the Chamberlain website every week. So anybody that wants to take that step of going in can look and see here's what happened at Chamberlain in a week. So that's another good place you can check out our websites. Fair. And, you know, it's tricky. The other

063paper has limited space. I know Julia does send in quite frequently articles We do try and reach out to the press and depending on what's going on in our community, whether they'll come in and highlight our schools is up to them as well. But we do control our websites and try and put I was messing things up as we can. Sorry. Samantha Ayers, I am a parent. I have two kiddos in this district, one at GCS and one at Tuttle. I also work in the pre-K program, but Violet, I was just curious if you could maybe elaborate a little bit more On one of the slides, you are highlighting the addition of paraeducators to kindergarten and you were talking about the importance of the extra support in those early childhood years. And speaking for as

064a parent who had two kiddos go through our pre-K program, one who was identified as needing extra support and getting on an IEP, And I think that would have been done much later. Just curious how you're differentiating between Like adding the money or taking the money away from pre-k and prioritizing well i kindergarten is really challenging and it's good to have those supports. Just kind of curious about your wording specifically around early ed support and the decisions that were made. So our next agenda item is dedicated to this. So we'll go into a greater length, but thank you for the question, Samantha. I mean, full disclosure, my first master's is a double in elementary and early childhood education. Me as an individual, I actually have a pre-K student at home right now. We as a

065district have had to make a ton of really difficult decisions. And this is, you know, the work of no one individual here. Across the board we heard testimony tonight on folks who all have extremely valid points on painful reductions. So I will, because that is our next agenda item, I want to make sure there's opportunity to speak to that more fully. But I thank you for your question um and i think we'll continue to take questions on this budget generally as well or the presentations Exciting. It's just an opportunity for public comment on the budget. I'm going to defer to the chair. I mean, and say we are taking questions on the budget early so like If the chair permits, I'd say permits come on down. We've had other questions on the budget so It's

066not a question, it's a comment. I was driving kids to sleepy balloons. Yeah, yes. Don't start in my three minutes. Yeah. But I didn't think we'd be this close. Oh, come on. We did, yeah. Which makes it that much harder to read this. My name is Mark Gable. I'm a resident of South Burlington. We bought a home on Bird Parkway in 2001 in part because of the community upset for education for the best schools in the state of Maryland. We moved to Canada in 2015. And return three years later. With a middle schooler and an elementary school. An elementary student. We bought a house across the street Again, because we love this community. And we knew that our kids would go back to Orchard Elementary. In all those years, I've never once voted against a

067South Burlington school budget. Until now. That decision to vote against the budget is not because of the burden it will put on our citizens to our fixed incomes. Although I appreciate the burden that it places on me. I don't base that decision on the elimination. What many view as critical services Provider learners who don't fit into a traditional educational model which learns which the current administration has chosen to cut specifically the big picture program that has been life-changing If not, life-saving. For many students, including our neighbor's daughter, Alan. It is valued because of the three-year contract that's about to be awarded behind closed doors to a superintendent who some would say which suggests was originally placed to have permanent position without proper community involvement for proper search. Same person receiving a $37,000 increase in pay

068Wow, other clubs are being diverted and away from the academics. In specific needs. It's none of those things specifically. It's because the South Burlington School Board continues to lack transparency honesty and follow through. It's because our school board continues to claim to want public input but ignores concerns from the community students, teachers, and support staff who are brave enough to come in person and give voice to their concerns. It's because the administration posts students first who repeatedly acts in a manner that does not reflect that value. Is because of all of those things. And if I'm honest with myself and with all of you. All the things that I've listed above as well. It's because it's finally time for our community Teachers, support staff, parents, and students to stand up and stand up is enough

069frankly, it's pastime. South Burlington School Board and South Burlington administration significantly changed the way they do business I will not support any budget proposed. And urging others to do the same. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion on this budget presentation with the administration before you I suppose for being here and caring. I'm going to put another one here. Thank you. And then I think we can Right. So our next agenda item is the pre-K program information update. Hi. Are you able to, there she is. All right. So I'd like to welcome Kristen Romick. She is our executive director of education support systems to talk about pre-K information tonight and continue the community conversation. Welcome, Kristen. Great. Thank you. So I wanted to share a little information that I've shared with our pre-K team most

070recently. Actually, most recently our middle school team and our pre-K team last week. And again, in how we've come to some of the decision making, I think it's really important to note that as everyone has spoken. None of this is easy. We've had to make decisions that are pre-K through 12. Decisions. So as an administrative and central office team with support from pre-k leadership A decision was made to propose cutting two teachers from pre-K. The rules and regulations around pre-K are different from those in the elementary grades and configurations are vastly different from district to district. However, what we do know is that South Burlington has one of the best, if not the best pre-K program currently. With a classroom teacher, a special educator, a speech and language pathologist, and a paraeducator in each of

071the three classrooms. Additionally, we have a special educator and a speech and language pathologist committed to our pre-K outreach. This program was something that my predecessor worked really hard to develop. However, with the knowledge that we as a district were going to need to propose deep cuts, we had to look pre K through 12. And it hasn't been an easy decision. So with that said, we will need to restructure our pre-K and final decisions around what it will look like won't be decided until we have a budget. Excuse me. We're committed to working together to develop a pre-K that will continue to meet the needs of our youngest learners while still working with that requires cuts. Legally, we're required to have two adults to support our license number, but that doesn't include students who require

072a higher level of adult support based on their special education and service needs. I just want to make sure that folks are clear on that. So we'll need to make IEP team decisions. In regards to our students. Additionally, other districts are also interested in ways to support our youngest learners. While also being in the same position we are to make hard decisions regarding budgets. I will be working closely with them. On working on what that will look like across the other districts as well. One of the questions that came to me was, will we look exactly like other districts and we won't. We'll be working within the regulations and we'll be working with the needs of our students. And that's just a quick update for you all. Yeah, thanks. What I'm hearing, I think a

073really prevalent public comment that I've heard on this is that the district would be out of compliance. And what I'm hearing from you is that It will not be out of compliance and what our pre-K leads are. It's… We will not be out of compliance at this time and there isn't any intention of being out of compliance. I think the concern is that we have we have increased needs of students with intensive special needs. And as you heard from some of our pre-K educators. We have students who have pretty intensive needs and it's going to be important that we continue to look at those on a case-by-case basis and ensure that we're meeting their educational educational plans. Their individual, I'm sorry, individual educational plans And so there isn't any intent to be out of compliance.

074We're being incredibly mindful of that while also having to make budget cuts, pre-K through 12. And so, and in regards to restructuring, until we had a on what that looked like. It's hard to restructure and have that conversation now that we know what we're working with and hopefully with a budget that will pass. We can work together to come up with what that will look like. And folks have some great ideas that they'll be sharing at the table. Again, it's not easy. It's super, super hard. And, uh. I appreciate the the advocacy and the support and want folks to understand that I too understand that this is really challenging work. Really challenging. I want to clarify that. Being in compliance is not taking into account that we have a very high number of children who

075do have special needs. And I hear Kristen saying that we're not going to you know count those in our numbers or whatever but We're also not saying we're going to give these children interventionists. So as of this point, unless we're going to add in extra support for these children to access their communication devices, decatheterize twice ahead. Have their social emotional needs met when they're experiencing severe trauma. Having their speech and language needs met, having their academics needs met with two adults in the classroom and somebody coming in and out, there's no way that we're ever going to be able to meet the needs of Many children who cannot function on their own. You would never say to a kindergarten teacher, hey, you got two people in here. Here's five kids that can't speak, walk. Feed

076themselves or be safe in their classroom and say, oh, we're in compliance. It's just, it blows my mind as somebody who teaches at UVM teach us the people who are going to be in your school district teaching hopefully someday has been here for 20 years has to sit there and look at a program and say, gee, I used to give the kids good programs. Here we are now. That kid can't get what he needs. That kid can't get what he needs. And that kid doesn't get what he needs. It's mind-blowing to me that we would ever take away If you think about cell phone 10 as a business, which sometimes I feel like it is. Why would you not front load your investment? To be able to save on the other end. It's just bad

077business And if I was a parent here, I would be concerned about my heavily special, if I have a child with special needs that required all these supports. And they're not happening, I would be so concerned. And I did speak, and I appreciate that there is a budget constraint and I understand that. But I don't understand how people who have not actually been in this program and seen what these kids are doing or were doing or in the community are doing can sit here and make decisions about things. I don't care if you have a degree in early childhood or you have a child like that. Who the baby is an early childhood unless you come and spend 20 years in this community, in the pre-K community and seeing the needs, you cannot be making

078decisions And I want to know who we're talking to in other districts, because when we speak with other districts, and it is a small community, let me tell you, we know every early childhood educator and When they hear what we're doing in South Burlington, they're appalled. And also, I'm going to say like, I think that it's embarrassing right now what our pre-K is going to look like and you know i just hope that we can make it work. I hope we don't lose some really wonderful staff. Because they don't want to work here anymore. And I just hope that you guys could really take it to heart. And I want one of you or all of you, or some of you. To contact me and say, Kara, can I come with you during the day?

079Or can I come in the classroom? Because I don't think you understand until you see it. I don't plan to know what was happening in Tina's class and kindergarten. I'm not in there all the time. I don't go to sim services and say, oh, I know what Cindy's doing because I've heard about it. I would never do that. I go in. We're at about time. Thank you. Kara, would you mind just stating your name just for the record again so we have that? Kara McDonough. Thank you, Kara. So I'm wondering if there was any sort of conversation about hiring interventionists in pre-K. It has to happen. We have at least four children who need interventionists. You're putting two teachers hiring four interventionists. Were these conversations had has the budget like is there any money allocated

080towards these individuals that have to be hired Do you want me to answer? Yeah. Sorry. Do you rehearsed? Yeah, so Sure. And that's okay. You could hear me. Did you want me to go ahead? Okay, sorry. It's hard. Sure. On Zoom, I'm not typically on Zoom. So, Arielle, in answer to your question, part of what we're what and what we've talked about as a group is that we're going to be working on on what that what pre-K is going to be looking like in February. And if students have needs that require any student who has a need In particular for their IEP, those are areas we're going to be looking at. Again, our idea isn't to not serve our students. Our plan is to serve our students. And I hear what you're saying and I

081hear the concerns that you have. And going forward, those are the conversations that we now are going to be able to have. But I don't anticipate not serving our students. Our goal is is obviously to ensure that we're serving all of our students. And I am aware of the students who have intensive needs And so we'll continue to have that conversation. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to have specific IEP conversations in this meeting, but in regards to has that been a consideration? It absolutely has been a consideration. And we do know, as we do every year, that we have to hire staff to support our IEP needs. So there are three interventionists added in the budget. And we're struggling to hire special educators, paraeducators, and interventionists. And, you know, that's us. It's a problem

082across the state. And so there are three in the budget and, you know, IEPs drive one-on-one interventionist staffing so um whenever there's a student who requires say a one-on-one interventionist, that's something by law the district has to provide. Any other questions about That concludes our superintendent's report. Next, we have a brief recess with more like five or ten minutes. Excellent. So we are going to take a brief reassessment and we'll reconvene at 7.50. First, we have our FY26 public high school choice capacity title 16 section 822A Has everyone had an opportunity to review the overview and the recommendations of the administration regarding the FY26 public high school choice capacity? Yes, sir. Any questions? Do I have a motion to approve that obligation that the FY26 school choice capacity should be one So moved. And moved.

083Any discussion? The motion passes when I listen. Most of we have appointments principal as our trans lead officer for the remainder of FY 2025. Some are having questions about this. I can pull up an email just citing The statute of this, if you'd like. While you're doing that, I can say Suzanne has a wealth of experience in this area. She was the truancy officer at the Essex Westford School District. She has a lot of experience in leading professional development to reduce chronic absenteeism. And we know that when our students are not in schools, they can't learn. So this is critically important. And she also served for five years on the Chittenden County Chronicle Absenteeism Council. So she's got a lot of knowledge in this area and appreciate you supporting here, Suzanne. Thank you. So the

084statute stipulates that a school board shall annually appoint one or more truant officers and record their appointments with the clerk of the school district on or before July 3rd. State Police, sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables, and police officers shall be touring officers. Excellent. Does that mean in that sense? It doesn't matter. That is what the statute says. Do I have a motion to go through an officer for the rest of effort Let's time a second. Second. Second. Any discussion? Motion passes unanimously. All right, so our next action item is to ratify and confirm the school board chair's execution of the extension of the superintendent's employment contract as per its terms and conditions. As the only school board member who was on the board at the time that the superintendent was hired. Time to do most of

085the talking on this action item. And my objective is to address the concerns. Can everybody hear me? Address all of the concerns that I've heard, answer the questions, and also invite other board members to share their perspectives on this issue. And I have a lot, so please bear with me. There's a lot of feedback to respond to, and I have a lot to share. And my thoughts on this matter are I'm going to do my best to have it be cohesive, but a lot of the issues interconnect so I'm going to do my best to address all of them. So different questions or assertions, comments that I've heard, and I'm just going to list them all out so that if you feel like your feedback has not been represented, you have the opportunity to add.

086I wish that more people who had commented were able to stay, but I'm also hoping to summarize all of the points that are about to share into written document to share with our community. So the questions or comments to address, how will you gather and include stakeholder feedback from the district, school, and community level as part of this review? How will the board ensure the process is transparent, fair, and inclusive? The board has, this is a comment, the board has already decided to remove the superintendent's contract without a clear transparent process. The community was not, this is another comment. The community was not informed or involved in any meaningful way regarding this decision. What is the current status of the superintendent's contract review? Has the decision been made? And if so, what process was followed

087to arrive at it? How can the increases to the superintendent's salary be justified? How and who did the board gather necessary information and data to respond to the above? Did they survey or hold meetings with district employees Was feedback requested from parents, guardians, superintendents and district's performance. Was academic performance, financial data, or other measurables provided and reviewed. Did building administrators provide feedback on the effectiveness of the superintendent's leadership? I also want to address the NEA listening tour. I want to address the contract process and how it relates to open meeting law. I tried to make a comment of somebody who read, and I think it will be addressed, but the way that they worded it, I wish I could remember exactly. Anyway, policy governance trainings and accessibility to the board work. What is the real

088perspective of the superintendent's job? Pre-k info session at a board meeting and how that's shared with district staff the big picture program and the superintendent search. So these are all things that I'm going to attempt to address So I would like to start by saying that I think a lot of these questions and concerns at the root of it is a lack of understanding of our governance model, which is policy governance. And I cannot think of a more important time for an elected body to follow the agreements and the policies that they committed to, the governance model, not to do so as to represent individual interests. And to break the contract that we have with our community about how we will operate. So I want to start by reading from this book. Oh, getting started

089with policy covenants, and it's written by Caroline Oliver, and it is endorsed by John Carver. He's the creator of the policy governance model. I am allowed to share portions of this book for educational purposes, so I'm not violating any copyright law to the best of my knowledge. Policy governance is touted amongst government model experts as the single most influential model of governance in the world. And one of the benefits of policy governance is it so clearly delineates whose role is what responsibility and creates a framework for a large community with varying opinions and values about the best way to do something It seeks to make that very clear as to whose role is what so that things can't get missed or not addressed properly based on The governmental framework. So in Chapter 7 of this

090book. We have CEO evaluation. There's a session. And in policy governance, the CEO in our governments would be our superintendent The two areas of monitoring that we have looked at so far, ends and executive limitations, provide the basic information that the board needs to evaluate the CEO, in this case our superintendent. Thus, using policy governance, annual superintendent evaluation becomes simply a matter of summarizing the results of the previous year's monitoring. As we have seen, noncompliance does not necessarily mean fault, so the board needs to review the conclusions of its monitoring report assessments rather than the superintendent's compliance conclusions. Under policy governance, superintendent evaluation becomes a short process based on clear criteria. A marked contrast with the long and torturous process that most superintendents or CEOs must endure. Words that are used to other kinds of

091superintendent evaluations may get dragged off task by people who try to introduce evaluation criteria that have not been expressed in the board's policies. Certainly, the board can agree to discuss any additional concerns for future inclusion in policy, but to assess the superintendent against unstated criteria would be to break the social contract between the board and the superintendent. So with that in mind, I go to power, policy, governance this is our School board policies. That were originally adopted in 2009. And this is the board's commitment to our community about how we will govern the school board and achieve the ends of our community. In 3.0, word management relegation. The global statement of this section is The words souls official connection to the operational organization, its achievements, and its conduct will be through the superintendent of schools.

092So to interpret that further, the board is responsible to addressing community concerns And his sole connection to the school district is the superintendent of schools. It would be inappropriate for the school board to be interviewing staff or parents or community members because that is not our governance model. Further, 3.4 monitoring superintendent performance Systematic and rigorous monitoring of superintendent job performance will be solely against the expected superintendent job outputs. Organizational accomplishment with word policies on ends and organizational operation within the boundaries established in board policies on executive invitations. Accordingly. Monitoring is simply to determine the degree to which word policies are being met. Information that does not do this will not be considered to be monitoring information. So I would like to then go to our superintendent contract, the one that has already been approved, and

093I don't mean 25 to 28, I mean 22 to 25. And this contract in many ways is almost a carbon copy to the predecessor, Mr. Young's contract. With very small changes. So I would like to read out um Section 4B of the contract that discusses performance evaluation. So performance goals for each fiscal year shall be mutually set by the school board and Nichols no later than October 15th of that fiscal year. By May 15th of each such fiscal year, the board shall complete a performance evaluation of needles. The evaluation process shall include a meeting with Nichols prior to May 15th. As part of the evaluation process, Nichols shall have the right to present written materials to the board regarding her performance with respect to the established performance goals. And then the rest of the section

094goes on to delineate how performance pay would be awarded based on the board's findings of how well the performance goals have been met. I share all of this to first ground the community in what the school board's task is in terms of evaluating our superintendent. The community would not be well served by evaluating the superintendent based on how popular her decisions are. This superintendent has had incredible messes to clean up and often cleaning up messes require decisions that are not popular. I'd like to illustrate why this evaluation as a function of our government model is beneficial to our ends and to our community. Last spring, Superintendent Nichols notified the school board that she was officially making a recommendation to non-renew the probationary contract of an administrator. Under policy governance, it is the CEO, aka superintendent's

095role to make employment action decisions. However, the school board is the final arbiter of employee contracts. The public optics of this decision could not have tested the integrity of our superintendent more. Accusations that this employment action was due to the fact that the administrator being non-renewed was the direct supervisor of the partner of the school board chair, that's me. Ms. Nichols and the school board are bound by policy and employment law not to disclose personnel matters, including the details of the decision to non-renew. The other parties engaged in this matter, by contrast, are free to share as much or as little information as they would like, thereby controlling the majority of the narrative. The superintendent's recommendation was unanimously upheld by the board. Following a request from the administrator to be heard by the board in

096executive session, as well as a recusal by me. A new board member present. So what I'm trying to describe is The decision to not renew was unanimously upheld by the board that included me. The administrator who was not being renewed requested the opportunity to be heard by the board in the executive session and has that right. The administrator was met with a different board. And what I mean by different is I'm recused in that executive session and we had the replacement of a new board member. So this is an essential like two different constitution supports. The second formation of the board that did not include me had the opportunity to hear from the administrator who is not renewed to address all of the concerns that were related to the employment action. And… They unanimously upheld

097the decision to non-renew. If the board included community feedback in her performance evaluation, it would be incentive for the superintendent to make employment decisions that are popular Instead of decisions that are required and morally correct by policy. Through this round of public comment. What's clicking for me is that policy governance and how to use it is not well understood by our community and often it's not well understood by board members. Our scoreboard is a reflection of our community, and with the lens that public governance is not well understood at large, I now recognize criticisms of the superintendent that used to baffle me. As indications that the board has much work to do and proactively and efficiently communicating with our constituents. All of the feedback that I've heard about transparency up until I would say a

098week ago, I have been completely confused by. Because from my view, all of the questions and concerns that community members have are adequately addressed in The presentations that the board hears in our open meetings. And I've been thinking a lot Why is it that the community has this feedback for our superintendent when I can so clearly see the answers that she's providing and I think that they're reasonable? And um I realized that the chain of command and communication is muddled. The community at large is not clear about who's responsible for what. I'm proud of what I have accomplished as board chair in less than a year. When I accepted the responsibility less than a year ago, I had two main goals for my first year as board chair. First, to foster a positive board work

099environment where board members felt supported to get their questions answered and encouraged to share differing viewpoints. From my perspective, a board that unanimously agrees on every topic is not a good reflection of our community where opinions and values vary widely. My second goal was to offer predictability and stability to our superintendent who in less than three years into her employment here, has partnered with four different board chairs. And I accepted the responsibility, I promised my fellow board members that I would be open to feedback and welcome questions for different opinions and perspectives and committed to them that if they saw a need for change, that I would support that change. Having served as a board member who had experienced board leadership that left the power of the seat more than the responsibility of the job.

100I share all of this to say that I am proud of this team and I'm proud of what we've managed to accomplish, but I also think that I have not As the spokesperson of the board effectively communicated with our community and not proactively either. And that we have work to do. I would like to point out that I've spent a significant portion of my board chair time in the last year onboarding three new members. And I've stuck by and continued to do the work even when it gets hard. And I think that if our community is to be served by a board that is being transparent and proactive and efficient with communications. We need a board that retains that team for a long period of time so that board members can be trained and learn

101about policy governance and answer these questions in a well-informed way. I spend most of my time trying to support my fellow board members to understand how they can achieve the things that they're trying to achieve. And a way that we have, in my opinion, disturbed our superintendent is by not sharing widely from the board perspective, the accomplishments of the ends that we have achieved. And I think that due to the newness of many of our board members, when community members tune into our board meetings. They usually are seeing board members who are learning what sorts of questions need to be asked of our administration in real time. And I can understand how that wouldn't understand how wouldn't create a lot of confidence that the board knows what questions to ask. But I think that more

102often than not, what's actually happening is board members are asking like they're reviewing the information ahead of time and getting their questions answered And then we're not kind of going through the process of re-asking those questions in open session where community members can hear them. I also think sometimes community members raise concerns And frequently, in my effort to maintain our governance model, I direct their concern back to the superintendent and she directly answers them. The board is privy to all of Superintendent Nichols. Community communications, except where privacy of students or staff is necessary And I cannot think of a single community concern or the request that has gone unanswered. And I want to be clear, unanswered doesn't mean that the person who got an answer from Superintendent Nichols was pleased with the answer. But an

103answer was given nonetheless. I'd like to say that in my current capacity as board chair. I have spent so much time trying to offer stability to our superintendent. And I think that at this time it's clear that the school board has not well served our superintendent in her role. I think she's being unfairly blamed for Decisions and feedback that are not, it makes it seem as though it's her fault What I also would like to comment on is that The superintendent's evaluation, and I'm going to go through the document that we do for the formal evaluation But is constantly monitored through policy monitoring. We have a schedule that we follow. Our policies are monitored. We have a policy that we monitor almost monthly. That is the opportunity toward the board and in collaboration with the

104community to make sure that our ends are actually being met, to fact check, to review to review the data, ask the questions, get them answered, and ask what the plan is if it's insufficient. That is the metrics by which our superintendent is evaluated. And to evaluate her based on the temperature of the climate at the time is not our board policy. It's not our governance model. And it would set our community up for failure. Um so to the questions, how will you gather and include stakeholder feedback or did you interview staff? Are you going to go into see how things are actually working? That's not the governance model. No, it would be completely inappropriate for board members to just to go to campus and introduce staff about how they feel. I… I'm going to share

105my screen for a moment. So that I can show you that i can show you official performance evaluation form that we used this year and that we've used in previous years and it's my understanding that we've used And it's my understanding this is a form that's been used in the district for a long time. So each board member is given this form And they're to put their name and the date. And the chair is responsible for giving these forms to board members I would say two weeks ahead of when it's due would be reasonable. Both board members are certainly At liberty to request more time but this is the form that is used. So there's directions and then it collects quantitative and qualitative data so what happens is, and I'll just speak from my experiences,

106I've chaired this for the last evaluation I gave this form to each of my board members and they submitted it back to me and I was able to take the scores from one to five. And make one average number that is the board's reflected qualitative analysis on how the superintendent has performed. And then I went through and copied and pasted all of the comments that board members made into one cohesive document that went section by section and redacted any identifying information if necessary, although I don't believe it was. This document is shared with our superintendent, but it's also shared with the whole board so that there's transparency between board chair and board members to make sure that board members comments were completely inclusive of what they said. Since I'm the one who's preparing it. And

107part of the reason for that is so that board members aren't necessarily influenced by what their other board members are saying on the evaluation. So it seeks information about board communication, provision for the district, leadership. Strategy management communications and state and federal regulations in terms of compliance And to those ends, this is board members experiences observing our superintendent at work whether that's Responding to community concerns or how effectively she seeks to Communicate with our community about Any concerns, not just budget. There's also a place where board members can suggest performance goals that they would like the superintendent to consider. And there is space here for additional comments if board members have additional comments that they would like to make. So once all the board members have completed this evaluation. And it's compiled into one document.

108It's shared with Superintendent Nichols and then the board and Superintendent Nichols have the opportunity to meet an executive session where we can go over all of this information. I think another place where at times transparency in my role as a leader on the board hasn't been adequately addressed is that I'm still learning where the line is between protected and privileged information and I err on the side of caution because once something is shared or said, it can't be taken back. But I really see all of these comments that we've heard and that we've been gathering as Feedback for the board and feedback for how the board has communicated with our community about our superintendent's performance. I've been thinking about like the pre-K programming information And saying like the staff wasn't informed that this would be

109updated at the school board The school board meeting is not where staff should expect to get updates about their programming. They should expect to get those updates from their building-based leadership, not from the school board meeting. And thinking about the frustrations that we heard from from kara i think what she's actually getting at is our compliance standards actually good enough and quality enough for what our students deserve? Because the school board is obligated to stop at compliance. And what we hear is our community cares about the quality of our programming and our education. But that's a bigger conversation than the school board or the superintendent. That's education policy. That's not to say that I don't understand the frustration and passion and that is where we are absolutely united. I think there's just confusion about where

110all of this energy and passion should be placed. I'm just going to take a minute to review my notes and make sure that and covered all of the points that I was hoping to make. In terms of the NEA listening tour. The union is absolutely union is absolutely at liberty to do something like that and should. Um but I believe that listening tour kicked off after the non-renewal and the administrator that I just cited as an example of why policy governance is efficient. And I would also like to say that in an effort to trying to communicate to our staff from the board level, which is highly irregular communication, but was my effort to let staff know that the board is listening to their concerns. The email communication from the SBA EA co-presidents was derogatory

111toward the superintendent and will certainly impact listening to her responses. We would be concerned about the validity of data being presented during the budget crisis after communication like this. We are also aware that listening tours, this is what I've written in response to the SBA and I'm just trying to organize all my thoughts. So that's why I'm bouncing between candid free-flowing language and more prepared language. We are also aware that listening tours were conducted at Orchard after a principle was placed on leave and at FHT as a direct response to staff concerns over the non-renewal of principal. A decision in which two different constitutions of school board members supported unanimously following the review of evidence in executive session. Due to these factors, the validity and process of the listening tours should be heavily scrutinized. So

112in terms of the contracted open meeting law. Contract negotiations are always done in executive session and the contract terms were settled in November. And we are obligated by statute to publicly ratify that contract prior to the contract taking effect. So between the contract being executed in executive session. And the open ratification and the public process that just needs to take place before the contract would take effect, which is July 1st, 2025. So there are no open meeting law violations in that sense. I've heard much from the community about reducing administrators and This year, our central office has seen more administrators and executive assistants on leave than I think has happened in a long time. And one of the most valuable members of the team, I would say is our executive assistant. I shouldn't say most

113valuable, that's not fair, but most valuable to the board. As our executive assistant, Delina Gilroy, who has this institutional knowledge, she served the district for 38 years. And I will frequently check with her about bureaucratic process. Because like many community members and any community member who might like to join the board, I'm not an expert in policy governance and I'm not an expert in open meeting law or the statutes, but I am responsible for following them. Which means I'm responsible for seeking guidance about the appropriate way to do things. I will systematically check that the things that we're doing are in compliance and I did not have an opportunity to check with any of the mentorship in terms of when I needed to But the stratification on awarded agenda. But it's not not following open

114meeting law. And I feel confident that It so happens that trying to answer a reporter's question is what helped me to uncover that we needed to ratify it in open session. Sooner, but there's no like violation of open meeting law. I would also like to address assertion that the superintendent's salary is not the increases are not justified I have not heard any suggestions from the administration or otherwise that any group in the district whatsoever should be considering a fee freeze. So I don't know why that would apply to the leader of the district who is responsible for every action that takes place in our district and is the face Of all of the district operations and accomplishments. I don't believe that how much money you make should be indicative of how hard you work. Because

115I think that all of our district staff work very hard. I believe that the money that you make indicates your relation to power and responsibility. And if any teacher in our district violates any sort of, I'm trying to think of an example that teacher is responsible for themselves and themselves only. Anything that goes on in our district, our superintendent's license is on the line and she is She is the person where the buck is supposed to stop with. And that is an enormous amount of responsibility. Not to mention the harsh public scrutiny that I feel is the result of a board that is not well practiced at communicating with our community and does have actionable space to approve. I also think that the perception of what the superintendent's job is not accurate. Violet Nichols has

116answered absolutely every text call or email from me in a timely manner. I have two kids. I own and operate a small business and I'm often doing more work at early morning hours or the late morning hours. And frequently, if I send something to Violet, I'll get a response from her. I would also like to point out that if any of our employees were experiencing an unsafe working environment, Violet is the one who's responsible for responding to that and making sure that that's addressed in a timely manner by by the legal requirements that are necessary. But what happens when our superintendent's working environment is unsafe? Who is responsible for rectifying that? Superintendent Nichols was literally placed under protective orders and had to temporarily relocate her family in response to a disgruntled community member. And I

117literally had to email the governor to get this matter resolved in a timely fashion. This is not an easy job and it's the perception that it is is It's not okay with me because it's not an easy job. She's available. All the time. I just sent her an email at like 5 a.m. Yesterday morning and she got right back to me. I have not I can't think of how someone could possibly work harder not open no i mean yeah let's just be done. Could demonstrate more willingness to do the work. So that's my first attempt to try to give a real idea of a real idea or a broader perspective of the responsibilities of the superintendent is responsible for. I also would like to say that I frequently have come by central office and so

118many of our central office team are here for 12 and 14 hour days. Their time is not protected by union agreements and they work incredibly hard to try to provide accurate and helpful information. And frequently i The community has questions, public records requests for is seeking information and our central office team is tasked with all of the responsibilities that they have to do and also Addressing the request from the community in a timely manner. So… I hope that that helps. I would now like to highlight some of the Organizational achievements that have come about as a result of the hard work of our superintendent. I sat in a board meeting where community raised concerns about the learning conditions and school safety around needing to have windows open to keep classrooms from being too hot and

119they were still too hot even with the windows open. And our superintendent has made sure that Heat pumps have been installed in those schools so now the learning environment and learning conditions are hospitable. And improves school safety. Receive the refugee grant and adhere to multilingual liaisons We've been featured in the New York Times for e-bus and Superintendent Nichols has competitively gone after grant funding and funding from the EPA to help fund our eBuses, which is also a climate friendly She'll be featured in Business Bee magazine and has completed the Harvard Harvard course, Harvard Business School's leading change course She's contracted with Abundant Sun to continue work in our anti-racist training. Digitized time and attendance systems for employees. We're fully compliant with Act 29, which relates to school safety CMD improvements in schools have been updated,

120like new badge scanners and change safety protocols a literacy curriculum Act, Act 139. She's brought the district into compliance with that. For a long time, we were hearing about transportation loans that were a real issue and as Our superintendent has hired an operations manager and a dispatcher. There's a side letter to increase pay for bus drivers to be the highest in the state. Advertising efforts reinstated routes and our transportation department has much improved Previously, we have five schools on four campuses And we have four schools that did not have school zones. We have school zones implemented now. Just this year, she implemented cell phone restrictions K through 12 to try to improve student outcomes These are just things that have been accomplished. Within the last year. When she started, one of the biggest heavy lifts

121that she was to address enrollment concerns and overcrowding in the elementary schools. Zems from binning and permitting all the way to completion. Was a project was a project directed and carefully managed by our superintendent to address those enrollment concerns and she got impact fees off the ground to pay for 91% of the zones. This is just a few of the things that our superintendent has accomplished. In less than three years, I have a lot more things, but for the sake of not being redundant. Perhaps I can… include them in my written summary to the community My effort here is to address the concerns that I've heard and interpret them. And… I do see actionable space where the board can improve communications with the community. That feedback is really well taken and well received. And we

122do have openings on the school board and we need people who are passionate about serving our community and not their individual interests passionate about understanding what policy governance is and helping us with our learning. We've heard some incredible recommendations from community members and I would really love for community members to join us on this team. And what I see as the most important thing for our district to thrive as a whole Is a consistent school board So that the superintendent and the school board can partner together for all stakeholders How much. I think for now That is… My response to the concerns that I've heard around this action item in my effort to commit to better board communication. I need more community feedback about what sorts of communications are useful. Because up until this point,

123I have felt like the board is responding to community feedback in a timely manner, but clearly that is not the case. If you have ideas for ideas If you know you could do it better, please run for this cohort. At this time, I'd like to invite any of my fellow board members to share their comments or feedback relating to this action item. I'd be happy to speak. I actually have a statement. I'm sorry. I'll turn this on. It kind of blends the budget discussion and i think with what you said, Chelsea so i Okay, I'd like to read this. Okay. So just for everybody's understanding, this sort of blends in the whole budget discussion along with what we've just heard from uh from from Chelsea so we're navigating challenging times as a district facing significant

124economic pressures and another difficult budget season. It's natural to feel frustration or anger, especially when cherished positions or programs are impacted. I deeply understand those feelings from listening to board meetings as a community member, serving as a board member for the past year, and as a parent of children in the district. The challenges before us are complex and there are no simple solutions. Every decision we make is part of a delicate dance and involves disruption. If the budget passes a result I personally hope for because I believe it strongly supports our students. Families and community members, particularly those already experiencing economic strain, will feel the weight of the decision. We know there are families just getting by, including those with children in our schools who will struggle with the financial ask. Over the past months,

125we've received and heard heartfelt messages from parents sharing how specific budget cuts and programming and staff would directly impact their children's education and the support they count on. These stories remind us what is at stake, not just numbers, but real students and families. Our staff, dedicated teachers and professionals face their own uncertainties. They are passionate advocates for our young people whether the budget passes or not, many will experience disruptions that will affect their ability to serve our students. For some, this may even mean losing their jobs, a reality that does not go unnoticed or unconsidered. We also recognize the interconnectedness of our budget with those across the state. As we draw from a shared pool of resources, Vermont's communal funding system distributes resources across districts. Meaning our budget decisions affect other districts. Likewise, changes in

126other districts can impact us. Creating a shared responsibility to balance the needs of our students with the sustainability of the broader educational community. Over the past two years, I've devoted considerable time and energy to understanding the challenges before us. Through this and my time on the board, I've come to recognize how fortunate we are to have Superintendent Nichols leading our district. While it may seem easy to direct frustration toward leadership, I can personally attest that Superintendent Nichols is one of the most caring. Compassionate and committed professionals I have ever worked with. I am proud to serve on the board with her and want to recognize her for the many hours she has given up with her family in support of ours. Our board members too are deeply committed. We are your neighbors. Fellow taxpayers, and

127for many of us, parents of students or former students. We feel the impact of these decisions alongside you. I'm hopeful. I believe in our community's passion and dedication to ensure our district remains one of the best in the state. These are challenging times. But I'm confident we can rise to meet them united in our commitment to our students and our shared future. Thank you. I don't have anything prepared because was exam week last week. Anyway, but I Yeah, I have been thinking about this nonstop and I live it too. I am a teacher. So I do. I do understand the public fear and anger in schools and At the same time. Yeah, this has been really difficult. And thank you, Chelsea, for your statement and also our communication Yeah, I have tried and I've stumbled

128more than once trying to do listening sessions where no one comes and you know i mean i you know i so clearly that's i have i've done something That's just not working. So I'm definitely open to that. Yeah, so I do appreciate all the communication i feel like Yeah, I mean… You and Tim have put together a budget and under like the most really, really. Technical circumstances. So thank you for that basically taking the heat. I know it's not easy to sit here and absorb that kind of anger. So even though it's I get it. It's justified. People are losing jobs. Yes, that's a reasonable response. It's still very hard to sit here and trying to make the best decision possible. Knowing that it's hurting the people that don't mind. To themselves. Well, we're so

129happy to have you. Thank you for prayer that you're doing. The school district since the school district since I joined the school where I had an opportunity to see you in action Not just in committee work and or like I choke at like a coffee and donut and, you know. That's kind of like your superpower is just But being able to see you operationalize that work, like it's not just talk, but it's following up and getting the work done um I've been very impressed with the skills that you bring to the school district. And the community at large. Oh my goodness. I think about you every time I see some emails. I'm like, oh, this is like, how do you… How do you bear that? I would struggle like so Thank you, Andy, for them.

130It's um I don't know, just going through what the school district is experiencing in the state and at the national level it's just like this compounding stack. Just… our action tonight. I'm very appreciable. Thank you. Are there any further board discussion at this time? I'm just going to say that because I wasn't part of the board. When this executive session took place, then I am going to abstain from a vote on ratifying the contract. So I don't feel like i have really enough information and sort of unfinished business that I wasn't part of the beginning of the business. And… Did I… appreciating the comments about the potential for improvement about. Communication and communication and Yeah, I guess I'll just say that. I think that is… That is the space that I would like to see

131the board most actively look to improve our performance on But we also need to I'm just thinking about how I've been trying to prepare as chair to either prepare the next chair for chairing the board of seven. Or myself doing the work of becoming the Board of Summon and I'm wondering if in a future agenda the board would like to consider scheduling a retreat where we could do another self-assessment. I know it's usually annual, but I think it's called for sooner. Self-assessment, especially since our board composition has changed since we had our last self-assessment and identify goals about where we'd like to better our learning in our governance model, but also really improve in effectively communicating with our I just think that this is all Evidence that we have not been effective at communicating with

132our community in a proactive and efficient in an advocacy manner. Are you thinking of my retreat in the near future. I mean, we have an election coming up that will potentially have a different board. I would think maybe after After the election, we normally have a work meeting for training purpose Maybe we could look at having training either be a part of a retreat or I don't know, certainly something to discuss but I think waiting until July to do an extra treat would be way too long. Agreed, especially if there are new board members. I haven't have that happen sooner. Okay, the other comment, I was asking about this time. And then I would like to open it up for public comment on this agenda item. We'll start just for clarity's sake, we'll start within

133the room and then we'll do online comment to comment in your online visions of the raised hand feature. Not only monitoring the chat for Yeah, Daniel Boyd. My comments concern, the three-year contract extension. The superintendent who had no prior experience as a school superintendent was hired two years ago and immediately paid approximately $5,500 more per year than her predecessor who had 12 years experience. Now the school board has offered superintendent a 21 raise increasing your salary to over $216,000 a year. Contract also has annual raises of 3.5% plus additional two to four percent depending on positive annual performance evaluations. A 21% raise in one year while remaining in the same job plus annual raises that could amount to an additional 15% over two years is successive Especially when the burden falls entirely. Taxpayers. Given the

134guaranteed raises and adding in the low percentage of 2% on the performance evaluations. Superintendent will be paid approximately $241,000 in the last year of the contract. And if you go with high. The superintendent will be making over a quarter of a million dollars a year. Please consider this. In the first year of the contract, the superintendent will be making approximately $50,000 more than the city manager of soundproar would do. 40,000 more than the Vermont educational secretary it'll be $2,000 less than the governor. And in the first with the first rays of three and a half percent in all likelihood superintendent will be making more than that. My opinion, no school superintendent should be making more than the governor based on the sheer responsibility of the office. I'm suggesting we give the governor a raise suggesting

135this contract is not physically responsible. Educational costs and the burden it places on Vermonters has been a recent news topic where my families are struggling financially to support education. With no relief in sight. The stored recently submitted its fiscal year 26 budget with a projected tax increase of 8.1%. At a 15.76 increase in per pupil spending. Inflation over the last two years. There's a 3.1% in 2023. 2.9% in 2024. This board must start acting responsibly in fiscal matters. You can't keep outpacing inflation. Without serious consequences. I urge the board to withdraw the superintendent's contract offer and replace it with one that is more aligned with current inflation place less of a burden on the taxpayer. And I'd like to close the question to the board What is the superintendent accomplish to warrant this exorbitant increase

136in salary? And simply doing one's job does not justify this contract. Thank you. Why don't we move on to the next comment and then we'll come back. I think issues with the side. Can we unmute Brian, please? Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, thank you. This is Brian Companion, and I will be very brief. I want to read something that talks about the Vermont Standards for a superintendent evaluation, because I believe that you have not complied with it. Despite what you've said this evening, the Vermont Standards for Superintendent evaluations. These are standards based on the Interstate School Leaders Licenser Consortium. God, that's a mouthful. I'm going to skip right down to superintendent evaluation process. The school board evaluates the superintendent. Okay, thumbs up you did that The school board solicits input

137from teachers, staff, and other community members. The school board provides specific examples, a narrative format to explain the rating. I don't believe that has been done. Earlier, Chelsea, you talked about the superintendent's leadership and i would agree you are all in a position to adjudge her leadership with the school board. In fact, I went through this process with you in 23. I don't think you can measure that leadership Unless you go into the schools. In fact, in 23, we talked about it, and Kate Bailey recommended the VSBA be brought in But timing did not allow. It's interesting that other boards like Burlington bring in professionals who do this. And I'm not saying that we're looking to find fault. But an evaluation process is to give you the state of the education in South Burlington. And

138also help the superintendent. And as you've said, the board with issues that may be addressed because the community has concerns. So right now, I don't believe you've complied with state standards on your review. And that is my comment. Thank you for the time. Can I ask you some clarifying questions? He's there and Martell Simpler. I mean, he's there. I didn't mean to just… Thanks, Brian. Hello? Could you clarify what state like where is this information that you just read from? All I did was Google, does Vermont have standards for superintendent evaluations And it came up. I didn't go to the Agency of Education site. Because you could get lost in that for weeks. But you know what? I am going to call them tomorrow. I would like to know too, but it makes all the

139sense in the world. And if you look at the process from the VSBA, They do do surveys. So bye. They get shareholder input. Let's face it, the state of education is best judged by the people on the front lines. Brian, I'm hoping to actually see what you're reading from, and I'm not clear. Because what I'm saying on is the board policy that was adopted by this board in 2009, the policy governance book that we are that we say we follow and learn from and the superintendent contract that has been a standard practice in this district for a long time. So I want to consider the feedback that you've shared and the information that you're sharing. But just Googling something that is not standard practice by contract, by policy, or by law. That's not surprising. I

140don't think is appropriate. That said… Additionally, I contacted the VSBA to ask them how many districts participate in their VSBA superintendent evaluation and at the time, out of all the districts in the state, there were six. That use the BSBA. And there's a cost associated with using their evaluation, which I don't want to overstate, but I think at a minimum was $2,000. Which might be money well spent. And I would be interested in hearing that and considering that. But we can't move the goalposts on how we evaluate the superintendent after she's done the work. If that's something we'd like to look to in the future, we need to be discussing it now and incorporating it into a contract negotiation. I understand all that. Let me just make this statement. And then I'll get off. It's

141impossible for you to gauge the effect of her leadership on the morale, the culture, the educational setting in the schools without talking to those people, surveying them. Correct. Response to that is that is not the standard by which the superintendent is evaluated by the school board by our policy governance model. So while I appreciate the feedback that leadership about culture and morale cannot be adequately assessed by the school board, that is not the standard by which the superintendent is evaluated. The superintendent is solely evaluated By her compliance with our executive limitations and her evidence about the organizational achievements by policy. So can we unmute Christie, please? Hi. My name is Christine Old. Thanks so much for taking my comment. I'm unprepared. I have been listening tonight and fast forwarding a bit through so I could

142catch up. Unfortunately, bath time, bedtime lines up with public comment. What I mostly wanted to respond to was how disheartened I'm feeling at the idea that the listening tour that's been conducted and is in process across five schools is already being named as something that you imagine to be invalid and heavily biased. That listening tour is an opportunity for educators to share honestly and openly their experiences in our schools. And to me, though I hear that that might not be a part of what this particular decision is in regard to, I do think it is important that the board have an understanding of how our teachers are feeling and the general sense of What is happening in our schools. And to me, the listening tour was an opportunity to honestly share. And so hearing your

143comments tonight, Chelsea, I have to say, was really disheartening. I hope that people can go into that feedback with an open mind and with a desire to hear from staff about their experiences. Thanks so much. In response to that, I would say that all of the evidence or comments that are found from that should be carefully evaluated by our superintendent so that she can use it as a part of her self-reflection and her leadership. That is, again, I will say not the standard by which the superintendents evaluate performance is evaluated. And that is our policy governance. And I hear time and again And I understand where this frustration is coming from. I just have to emphasize that the school board does not evaluate our superintendent based on culture or popular decisions. It's based on deliverables

144from our policies. I think that if the community at large would like to see a change in that you need to run for the board and make a case for changing our governance model. Yeah, think of a more important time in recent history where an elected body needs to follow the policies and the governance model that they're committed to. To change it was to change it was to to follow personal interests. Well, it looks like Christy is reading right now. Or Christy, I think you have the ability to I just wanted to be clear that I understood what you were saying about policy and governance. I don't think that negates my prior comment that I think it is disheartening to hear you name that the listening to our data might be seen as invalid or

145biased. I was solely trying to speak to that portion of your comments and not to the connection to policy and government. Thanks. Let me try and see if… Cindy is able to Posted a question. That's where Mike was having issues. The question is, can we please ask my questions as to the total compensation package including retirement? Also could consider an alternative to a one-year contract instead. Given that I tried to address the contract percentages from Birch Forum recently, I'm And there are so many percentages floating around. I know I'm kind of on this week. And I haven't asked Superintendent Post to have anyone prepared to speak on the percentages of the contract. I'm happy to pull up the contract and Three minutes. If that would address the questions. Are we talking about her current contract

146or the one we're about to ratify? I would assume the contract that we're about to take a vote on that phone um Should we vote first to I guess just from a process perspective It's not public at this point without ratification or Should we vote first? And if it isn't ratified There shouldn't be something we still share. I think because it's executed And now can share it with the public prior to that page. Just wanted to make sure. She says, how about going? Cindy, can you clarify exactly what information you'd like for us to address? Good questions as to the total compensation package including retirement. I'm not sure what your question about total compensation is. Question is, what is her current wage? Any raises for the new contract and what her retirement package is. So

147her current wage for $24.25. His pay is $209,365.95. The new contract has language that alters her performance pay from 3% to a range of 2% to 4%. And reduces her base increase from 5% to 3.5%. And pull up a contract. Please bring that last card. So for your 24-25, $209,365.95. The proposed increase for FY26 is to $216,693, which includes language that alters performance pay from 3% to a range of 2% to 4%. And language that reduces base increase from 5% to 3.5%. So reduction. Thank you. I'm trying to answer the questions. That's awesome. Okay. So current wage, if any raises the raises for the new contract are three and a half percent annually. And retirement package. I'm not sure exactly which aspects of the timeline. They would like to know about. Relevant sections of the

148contract to share. Taking into account all performance adjustments and cost of living adjustments to date. That was the proposed contract that we would be seeking to ratify the city. Is there any type of questions that you've asked? I would just suggest that. She could follow up email too. No. I'd just like to clarify something. I base my numbers on the only contract I could find, which was the original contract when she was hired. I'm sorry, Daniel Boyer. My numbers are based on the only contract I could find, which was the original contract of $179,000. I didn't realize that. You'd already received a $30,000 raise in two years. And is that correct? No, no, $30,000 raise in two years. What I found was correct and it was correct The superintendent was hired at 179,000. And you

149just stated. This year the salary is 209 000 $30,000 raise already in two years. So my 21% increase is wrong, but I mean, where do you draw the line 30,000 in two years and now another raise and with built and braces it's what remembers aren't wrong. With the annual races and the performance races his salary has the potential to be over a quarter of a million dollars. At the end of it and that's giving money out like this is not sustainable. But I apologize for having the wrong numbers, like I just said. All I could find online was the original contract which stated 179,000. I didn't realize that. There already been a substantial increase today. So I guess my my justification of where we draw the line is in line with cpi inflation I'm sorry.

150It is in line with CPI inflation. It is marked a great for this job description. We have to stay competitive in the market if the community is wanting to attract high quality professionals to this role, we have to pay for the role. It's in line with market. It is in line with if you put this into a cpi inflation calculator, which I would encourage you to do, you would see that it is consistent. What the current offer is possibly but not spend the $30,000 increase over the last two years, I don't think that's. Again, you know, the line has to be drawn somewhere. Absolutely. Because the taxpayers are on the phone for all of it. Let me see if I can share my screen. Chelsea or not? Okay. She's a saffron who has been with

151two children going through this bulls from K through 12. And then we're considered only a one-year contract while you consider comments from the community regarding Smash. So I'm going to go back to the CPI invasion and then I'll come back and answer your question. Thank you for clarifying for the record. So this is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inclusion Calculator. Her predecessor in 2009's wages were 173 over 98 for the first year of his last contract. So that would be 2019. 2019 and I believe December of 2024 is as like current as we can go even though it's january 2025. So that would be 213. Which the composed. First year would be 216 of the contract that we have. If we change this to change this Children. 217 was just the numbers that

152I cited initially. So this is the evidence of the CPI inflation and how We are staying competitive within the market. Board member questions about this? So to get back to get back to Sure. Can the Horn consider a one-year contract? I would be interested in what the board has to say. I would say no, because that would not be fair to the negotiations that have already been other board members about the program. Yeah, I'm in agreement. I think we've heard negotiated a three-year and it would be an appropriate tune back away from that. I support that. It just, you know. When they asked are there any questions We've kind of talked about this like internally like for me i don't have any questions i've had time to process this like kind of old news like

153i just i don't have any new questions because i've already Got there. I appreciate the gentlemen, in the back you know he's just like it's it's fair feedback um it's just um We did go through an evaluation process, so this received a lot of critical vibe. I hear it. And the frustration of him I'm going to stop somewhere. Personally, I'm fascinated. Very lucky to have the level of executive level executive skill sets that's brought to a moment. The largest district or one of the largest districts in the state. A lot of employees, a lot of students it's having an opportunity to work with other executive level folks both in for-profit finance and nonprofit, both in government level We're very lucky. I don't ever vote for the argument. This is what we negotiated. And if we

154want to pay the money to the VSBA to do evaluation next time. Can do that. I'm in… I would like to continue taking all of my family that they're asking for me. Can we unmute, please? Hello, I hope you can still hear me. Just in regards to superintendent salaries i mean i would echo again what I'm hearing in the room in regards to some concern Just with the salary that's being presented. And there's a lot of information, again, just online looking Their salary is as high as $163,000 depending upon where they are. The average is around 153,000. So I think the point being that when the superintendent came in and had a starting salary. That was 5,000 above the prior superintendent starting at a level that was above that is a little bit questionable. In

155business, that's typically not what we would do if In other lines of work, if we were hiring someone, you want to bring them in and make sure that they can do the job and then Their increases are commensurate with that. But I did also take kind of had a a surprise reaction to see that, you know, starting at 179, increasing to 209 with, you know. I understand COLA and looking at Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers and seeing all of that and how those rates could increase. But it just doesn't seem justifiable, again, in this constrained environment where people are struggling to buy homes And to put food on their table that this is being passed right down to taxpayers. It just seems like it's a tough pill to swallow. Thank you again for the opportunity

156to speak. You hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Oh, okay. Sorry. Just wanted an acknowledgement. So I think what you have to understand is I'm looking at an inflation calculator uh Right now, right? I can tell you over the years, let me just bring it up here. In 2022, inflation rate was 6.5. 2023 was 3.4. In 2024, it was 2.9. So my just rough juxtaposition of the inflation rates from the inflation calculator I'm looking at gives me a different number than the one you got. But that's really not particularly important in the grand scheme of things. What is important is the following. Vermont has the lowest ratio I've employed public school individuals to students of all 50 states 4.4 to 1. As opposed to the national

157average of 7.45 to 1. Those numbers from the Joint Fiscal Committee of the Vermont legislature Vermont has the second highest spending per pupil of all 50 states. And if you ask why is it so high, the answer is. High salaries and what I consider to be a Rolls Royce of health insurance policies. And I want you to understand just how good their policy is. I am enrolled in a Medicare Advantage program. If you look at my health insurance premiums. For that program, plus my maximum out of pocket Expenses. For one individual My total health care compensation package is basically the same As an individual in the South Brunson School District who is part of a family of four. That is one individual, a partner, and two children. They're paying the same exact thing as I

158am for one person. They have this incredible health insurance policy which has no incentive for maintaining their own health. And once they go past 56 to $6,000, there's no upper limit to the amount of healthcare costs they can generate. And if you want to know why healthcare premiums are so expensive in this state and we're number one. In terms of the highest healthcare premium increases of all 50 states this year. It's because the packages that we offer to people are so extraordinarily expensive because they cover so much. So Ms. Nichols salary may be high, but the real problem is across the board. Salaries have gotten so high and compensation packages have gotten so high that the state in Montpelier is in a process of imploding and that's why they have to come up with another

159program because current spending on public schools statewide is simply non-sustainable. And those of you who have listened to me know I've said this over and over and over again. It's the same thing with the federal budget. Here's the calculation. Here's a homework assignment for everybody in the room. In the year 2000, the aggregate federal deficit was $5.7 trillion. Today, 24 years later, it's now $36.1 trillion. It's up almost 1,000% in a period of 24 years. Everybody knows that's not sustainable, but nobody's doing anything about it. It's the same thing with public school spending in the state of Vermont. The cost of spending are simply too high to be sustainable over the long time. So when the head of the Vermont NEA says we have to raise more money, he's really out to lunch. The problem

160is not raising more money. The problem is controlling the spending we're already doing. Very… carry on with the period. Yeah, Tim, you always do that. I want to say one thing to you, Tim. Listen, I paid more than $5,000 in education taxes. Do you think I should be entitled for $5,000 to speak for more than two to three minutes? Thank you. You people talk for almost an hour on vial and nickel celery. Shouldn't you let the public for the thousands of dollars they contribute have a say to educate you as to the reality of public school spending in the state of Vermont. Is that too much to ask? You have children in the school system. I don't. So I'm paying for the education of your children. Shouldn't I have a right to comment for that?

161Thank you, Jared. Hi there. So I was at the meeting earlier and had to leave to head home, but I just had a couple of thoughts as I was just listening to this. First of all, I appreciate that you cited the CPI calculator. However. Cpi calculator is just one indicator. And I guess my question is more around How are we utilizing actual comparables within the state of Vermont and specifically within Chittenden County to actually look at salary ranges? So as someone in the HR field. When I look at comps, I think about the area, so Chittenden County, I think about the industry. And I also think about like similar sized um businesses or in this case, school systems that look or maybe feel similar. So to cite a CPI calculator as the only form of

162metrics to determine someone's salary just seems to be a little… Misguided and without like actual like actually digging into like, how do you look at compensation holistically The other question I have is, so if we utilize this and we utilize the CPI calculator as our indicator. Are we also going to be having our educators like being held to that same standard of utilizing the CPI calculator to determine what inflation is for their salary? Because again, this is if we're if, you know. If the superintendent is going to go along and say that she shouldn't have to take a freeze if nobody else is, then our educators should be held to similar standards, which would then increase our budget and we'd be in a very different position. And then the other only thing I want to

163comment on is to hear someone say the comment that these negotiations are old news is actually incredibly insulting to the community because we have been asking since June to be part of these conversations. And have been left to our own device and not heard and not responded to. So please don't belittle and say that it's old news for you because it has not been old news for us. Thank you. I hope that you actually do take into consideration the comments of the community, which it seems like you're moving in a place that you're not. And I worry about that moving into the budget negotiations. And teacher negotiations. I'm just worried by what the precedent is you're setting setting for those upcoming things. I'm going to be very careful not to commit the board to any

164sort of negotiation strategy our legal counsel was here who would advise me very strongly not to make any sort of commitments. What I can say is the superintendent's salary in relation to other superintendent salaries in the state Is consistent with teacher salaries in relation to other teacher salaries in the state and support staff salaries in relation to other support staff salaries in the state. It is in alignment with where our other collective bargaining agreements lie. I disagree. Goodbye. As for… Actually, as to who negotiation commitments. I'm not going to comment about that. I'm a resident, but I have a grandson that's been harassed and carried on. And Violet has known for months I give her performance an F. And, you know, you people, it's all about money, money, money, money. And then you cry, there's

165not enough for this or that Teachers don't work any harder than the rest of us, and neither does Violet. Do you think the rest of the population gets all these bennies? And top of the line health insurance plans and retirement. I mean, you want more and more and more And 30% of South Burlington is living in poverty. So the rest of them have to pick it all up. It's got to end somewhere. And I have been talking to her for months about the racism the bullying, the attacks. And she doesn't even follow your own policies. Do you have an answer for that? Over the weekend, there was a basketball game between South Burlington and cvu South Burlington students attacked a CBU students to beat him up, several ones. You need to open your eyes. To

166other than dollar sign. And she doesn't deserve all these races. Yes, I'm emotional. When I know what's going on over there You need people from the outside to come in and investigate. From her right down. And how many assistants does she have in this building? Does South Burlington really need all these people? My guess is no. The spending has to stop. You need to start doing common sense and protect these children's lives. I talked to other students when there was a gathering for a girl that was a previous student that committed suicide they were standing in a circle, some of her friends. I asked, how many of you have been bullied at South Burlington schools? Every single one raised their hands. So you better stop thinking about dollars And follow your own policy. And the

167ones that attack We need to be out of the school. They're not one of them is not even a South Burlington resident and you know it Thank you. Would you mind stating your name for the record, Lisa? Michelle Steady. Thank you. Yeah, and in an effort to be transparent with the community i want provides feedback that the board is aware of the incidents cited by professional study and is absolutely not at liberty to disclose any of the details to the community. Highly privileged. It's more than just what I know about. Is what I'm saying. To answer the question, there's one assistant in this central office one system, one executive assistant. The day i came they all came rolling out. There was more than one. I think the staff is overpaid for what they do. We

168need to start the cuts from the top. And her race is not warranted. You're welcome. Is there any other public comment on this topic? My name is Christina Brown and I am a resident of South Burlington I'm just i'm just Following up on, I think it was Cindy's question about retirement And I want to know if the district makes contributions directly to Violet Nichols Retirement Fund. When will the community have sort of that bottom line of what her total compensation package is likely to be? I think I can answer that really right now. I just want to make, what I'm afraid of doing is misrepresenting the factual information. So I want to make sure I'm very clearly understanding what you're asking. So when I sign in about retirement, I'm happy to read that again. Okay.

169Okay. Every time I click this, it does look better and I have to go back to the process. Email the contact that we are talking about? Yes. Back to retirement contribution to the district's 403b equal to 8% of nickels than an effective annual salary, taking into account all performance adjustments and cost of adjustments. So are you saying an additional 80%? An additional 8%. To the retirement account. So she gets her salary her benefits. Her performance potential performance increases and a lump sum into her retirement fund. You just don't want to misstate this. Yes, I believe that what you're asking that is correct. Or what you just stated is correct okay And so it seems as though the taxpayers should be entitled to know down to the penny how much that's going to be. So when

170will that information be shared I could share that information. I just want to make sure it's completely accurate okay And also, I think it's fantastic to hear that the board has a good working relationship with violet But obviously that's not her entire job. And as someone who worked for this district for 35 years, I remember being surveyed about previous superintendents and about building level administrators and our feedback was always sought out now whether that feedback them guided any kind of contract negotiations? I'm not sure. But we were always asked And that has not happened for several years now. Can you tell me what years that was happening? It happened during David Young's administration. Because another piece to this, as I think about the board's approach to communicate effectively with the community Other boards I've operated

171under modified policy governance and modified policy governance means that certain aspects of the governance model are modified by the board. To operate differently. Which is not what we are currently operating under, but that may have been under the previous superintendent. But didn't you say that started in 2009? So these policies were adopted by the board in 2009, and they are policy governance policies, but that doesn't mean that a board wasn't operating under a modified policy governance. And this is where the community and the board need to be really clear on what the community expects of the board. Okay, one more thing as I've been sitting here. I've been thinking about the preschool situation And I think I understood that currently what's in the budget to lose two preschool teachers lose to preschool teachers but add

172three interventionist positions. Is that correct? Do you know how many unfilled interventionist positions the district currently has? Not off the top of my head. But there are There are several. So the chances of being able to add three more seem to be three pretty slim. So we're going to be leaving those preschoolers and their families and all the teachers thereafter in kind of a bind if those kids are underserved. And the way that the board would monitor that is through our monitoring reports. And I think that one of the places where I can see the board improving our communication is to provide scaffolding and information about monitoring reports. And before we review them at the board meeting so that community members can understand what we are going to be monitoring and offer their perspective and

173questions about the data that's presented and give us opportunities before we are Seeking to take action on our monitoring report to address community concerns. Have I mentioned that we have open word seats if you have policy governance and communications experience, it would be really valuable. And even if you don't. Bye. Kelsey, this is Kristen. I just wanted to step in real quick to clarify Tina's question. That isn't what's being suggested. The three interventionists are because we know that there are going to be needs across our district, that that is not what we're suggesting for pre-K. So what we're suggesting for pre-K is that is that As we define the needs of our IEP students, we'll need to make those plans as we do for all of our IEP students. But the three interventionists are not

174specific to pre-K. That we've addressed all the concerns that we've heard. I acknowledge that I've never been satisfactorily addressed in not at all. Some instances. It doesn't change as an individual board member. It does not change my opinion about what action should be taken. And I would like to hear from other board members if you're prepared to Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, sorry. Karen isn't standing since she was not part of the contract negotiations. Let me check my name. I believe we executed this contract if you were on November 7th. Seven. To be effective as of July 1, 2025. As per its terms and conditions. So moved. I moved. Do I have a second? Second. Let's do it all in all of them. Aye. Bye. Oh, my God. Thank you. So up next, we have agenda

175item nine, agenda planning to set the agenda for February 5th. Any… agenda items that board members want to add. I think… Sure. I don't know how we're going to go about this, but I wonder if we have some type of legislative update as far as what's happening in the legislature. Vsga is sending something out. I just looked at all the slides just multitasking and they're going to send out a synopsis this may be all for nothing. It sounds like the overhaul that is about to happen I'm not going to start spewing right here, spouting what he says. Spring it's going to be. So radically different that If I'm sitting in action, yeah. Right. Very little to say about it. So yeah, so VSPA update. Maybe we could just review that as part of the pub

176that way the public's aware i'm sure they may be aware but it may be a good thing to make sure that everybody knows. Throughout the day. So it's going to be… It's going to be something. Sure. Okay. Other than that, I have nothing. I'm wondering not for February 5th I'm just thinking about upcoming meetings and creating time for board education and governance training and for communication that incorporate the feedback that we've heard and find significant ways to increase our transparency with the community. I'm not sure exactly when would be the best time to have that conversation. I feel like We're going to be losing some board members and thus losing Actually, maybe. Losing some experience and then we'll be gaining new members with new experience and new perspectives so Let's just maybe we put it

177on our future agenda items and try to start to develop what will be our time process to improving our performance in this respect? So that would be the agenda item Yeah, yeah. I just, I also realistically want to I'm thinking about my capacity to prepare this kind of information between now and February 5th. Right, and we still have quite a bit going on. Maybe we leave this agendas. Life as possible. Okay, anything else for agenda item nine, agenda planning? Agenda item 10, please send an agenda. So everyone has an opportunity to review all of the subject. Yes. Any questions? The consigned agenda items are approved. Which brings us to a gem that item 11. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Lauren moves, do I have a second? Second. 10 seconds in the discussion. On

178favor signifying by saying aye. Aye. Aye. The meeting is