October 15, 2025 School Board Meeting

001SBSD Helpdesk: Are we recording? SBSD Helpdesk: For now. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so I'd like to call into session… the October 15th for 2025, SBSD Helpdesk: school board meeting of the South Burlington School District. SBSD Helpdesk: The first item on the agenda is a projected executive session to discuss SBSD Helpdesk: employment of a public officer, and to receive confidential attorney-client communications, for the purpose of providing legal services to the board. I would entertain a motion that premature general knowledge would clearly place the school district SBSD Helpdesk: At a substantial disadvantage with regard to our confidential attorney-client communications. SBSD Helpdesk: I'll motion. Jen, motions, second. Dan seconds. Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? Aye. SBSD Helpdesk: I would entertain a motion to entertain… I would entertain a motion to enter executive session for the purpose

002of discussing employment of a public officer and to receive confidential attorney-client communications to provide legal services to the board. SBSD Helpdesk: Jen, motions? I'll second. Laura, seconds. Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? Aye. Okay, we're in executive session. Oh, and the people in executive session is going to be the board, plus Joe Clark, our superintendent, Joe McNeil, District Council, McLeady, District Council, and Bill Sorrell, independent, SBSD Helpdesk: Investigation. SBSD Helpdesk: Thanks. Fall back to order. SBSD Helpdesk: the October 15th, 2025, School board meeting of the South Burlington School District. SBSD Helpdesk: The first… Item on the agenda is announcements. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we have any announcements? SBSD Helpdesk: All right, the next item is to review and accept the agenda. This is a slightly different agenda format than we've used in the past.

003Before, we had a single combined item that was called Amendments to the Agenda. SBSD Helpdesk: So in this case, I think we'll just ask people to… to look over the agenda, board members, and if there's anything SBSD Helpdesk: That we want to amend, we should do it now. SBSD Helpdesk: Any amendments? The agenda? SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, so we'll… Take no action on that. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item on the agenda is comments from the public. SBSD Helpdesk: There are two opportunities for the public to comment right now about anything. SBSD Helpdesk: And also. SBSD Helpdesk: Before we take action on an action item, but only comment about the topic that is being actioned. SBSD Helpdesk: The board will not respond to public comments unless this meeting is a specially designated community forum, and the topic

004is warned on the community forum agenda. To clarify, this is not a community forum. SBSD Helpdesk: You'll be given up to 3 minutes. SBSD Helpdesk: And that may be reduced if there are a ton of people wishing to comment. SBSD Helpdesk: We ask that you don't violate anybody's privacy, and official complaints or grievances cannot be filed, during public comment. SBSD Helpdesk: So, are there any, comments from the public? SBSD Helpdesk: Something online. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. SBSD Helpdesk: Our next agenda item is focus on student learning, the student representative report, so I'll turn it over to a moment. Thank you, Seamus. So on Wednesday, we had a testing day at the high school, so students stayed in the SAT, PSAT, and STAR testings. SBSD Helpdesk: And we want to say good luck to all the juniors

005and seniors waiting for their scores back. SBSD Helpdesk: And next Friday, Allie and I, as well as a few other high schoolers, are attending the annual Business Roundtable meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: So it's an opportunity for students to make connections with business people in the community, and hear a keynote speaker, who I believe is, journalist for The Atlantic. And wanted to give a big thank you to Mr. Craig for setting this up for us. SBSD Helpdesk: And… SBSD Helpdesk: On Saturday, the Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams will be hosting this year's annual Cannon 5K walk in honor of beloved South Carolina speaker George Cannon, and hope to see a lot of the community there. SBSD Helpdesk: Similarly, students at Chamberlain were encouraged to find a walk or bike to school to celebrate National Walk or

006Roll School Day, last Wednesday. SBSD Helpdesk: And, on October 23rd and 24th, all SB schools will not be in session because of parental conferences. SBSD Helpdesk: All the families, sign-up links should be sent to your emails. SBSD Helpdesk: And all students are encouraged to accompany their parents to the conferences. SBSD Helpdesk: And lastly, the South Burlington Parks and Recreation is working really hard to set up programs for elementary school students, so tell the family, please check the websites to see all the fun activities that are coming up. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, that's it. SBSD Helpdesk: Board members, any questions for the moment? SBSD Helpdesk: I don't have any questions, but I do have a comment. So on, I think it was Monday, I had a chance to attend the, South Burlington High School Student Council meeting

007with Dr. Clark, and he was there collecting feedback. SBSD Helpdesk: And one of the big things that came up were there a lot of students that were there that were really interested in getting more engaged with the school board. And they were suggesting that, you know, perhaps you and Allie might either participate in one of their meetings, or how they can improve the exchange between what's happening at the school and what's happening with you. So, I just wanted to share that feedback if you haven't heard it yet. SBSD Helpdesk: Me and Allie, we met with Principal Burke today. Okay. We meet with him every week, and we discuss this as well. And if we have time, I could talk about a little bit what we talked about. So, first of all, there was a bit

008of… SBSD Helpdesk: not… we were trying to keep things separate, but a little bit… it's slightly intentional that there is some distinction, and I'm not trying to say that anyone in the student council ended up to be there, but what we were thinking is that at some points along the way, Student Council of their contents. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, while they definitely have some good ideas, we also wanted to not only find a way to listen to them more, but listen to the student body as a whole. So it's not just. SBSD Helpdesk: These few people who have a lot of friends, and then the smaller voice we get canceled out. SBSD Helpdesk: With that being said, we are planning, to work with them to find a SBSD Helpdesk: unique way and creative way to

009reach the whole student count… the whole student body this morning to get the survey. So, over the next few weeks, me and Ali will be working with student council to try and find a way, whether in, like, advisory, where, SBSD Helpdesk: First, we'll send out what our preliminary ideas looks that me and Allie thought about today, is we may send out a survey to the student body, and SBSD Helpdesk: Whatever we see are the most pressing issues, we'll have… we'll find a way that the advisors can facilitate discussions with their students in advisory. SBSD Helpdesk: And that way, it's more of a… if any… for two of you who were at my, interview, I was trying to… I said a lot that the surveys are really easy to ignore. You know, half the time I

010ignore surveys in my email. SBSD Helpdesk: But if students and advisory, they have to be there, and this face-to-face connections, I think we get a lot more, ideas of what they want to see. So we'll first use a survey to figure out the most pressing issues, and then we'll talk to them SBSD Helpdesk: Ideally, the whole student body, to figure out exactly what they want to see, and that will be in conjunction with, the student council. SBSD Helpdesk: And we hope to do this on a more regular basis, not one-off thing, so we were thinking maybe one semester we'll meet with them and SBSD Helpdesk: You know, have it as, like, a longer-lasting thing. SBSD Helpdesk: Right. It's so refreshing that you can't just send it out on social media, because we're not allowed to

011do that anymore. Right. SBSD Helpdesk: And I just had one other question. How is the… how does it feel to have a cell phone van? It's not as bad as expected, honestly. There was… SBSD Helpdesk: people were really, really nervous going into it, but now I don't really notice it, besides, like, checking my schedule, which doesn't really affect me anymore, like. SBSD Helpdesk: checking the time. There's definitely been times where I've been, like, walking the hallways and pull my phone and I check the time. Oh, wait, I can't do that. But it's not been a big deal. It's definitely been helpful. I think if you talk to any future or student in the school, they'll say there's been better connections, and people are kind of more present. SBSD Helpdesk: And it's definitely been easier in

012the classroom as well, that… SBSD Helpdesk: all teachers have had the precedent that if you see your phone, it's gone, and they don't… they don't really get feedback from it, many students. No one's like, oh, this teacher left me, this teacher doesn't. It's pretty standard across the whole, school, which I think also makes it easier for teachers to do. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other questions from the board? SBSD Helpdesk: moment. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you very much. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item, SBSD Helpdesk: On the agenda… oh, that's interesting. The interim superintendent report is after action items and discussion items. So, go, sorry about that. I'll be here. SBSD Helpdesk: Should, should we, should we move it? SBSD Helpdesk: Sure, if you want. Okay, sure. So, the board is okay with removing the… SBSD

013Helpdesk: Superintendent's report up to… to right now. Thank you so much. SBSD Helpdesk: Actually, really, the only things that we're gonna… was going to talk about, since we've had a couple board meetings the last couple of weeks, is the 3Q update. We continue to have the 3Q meetings, and this week, I, had two… first time… Can you clarify what the 3Q update is? Oh, sorry, yes. The three questions. So these are the… I'm going to a variety of community groups and asking three questions. What do you like about South Burlington schools? What can we do better? SBSD Helpdesk: what do you expect from the superintendent? And I've been to 7 or 8 meetings so far, but many more planned. And this week, SBSD Helpdesk: had the opportunity to visit with student groups for the first

014time. I was with the High School Student Council on Monday, and I was with the Tuttle Peer Leadership Group yesterday. And they gave a ton of great feedback, and I… I could not be more impressed with how SBSD Helpdesk: thoughtful of feedback was. I've done this sort of, SBSD Helpdesk: activity everywhere I've been a superintendent, and it had… it was not necessarily always uncommon to get things like, we want better lunches, or we want more recess, or whatever. More snow days. More snow days. The thoughtfulness of the comments that I've… that I heard from SBSD Helpdesk: Students at both places is really, really, SBSD Helpdesk: uplifting to me. They were very concerned about equity of their classmates, about, SBSD Helpdesk: the things that you would hope that they would be excited about. And Jen was

015able to sit in on the meeting on Monday, so I don't know if you want to give any feedback about how you thought of him, but… Oh, I thought it was great. I mean, I was really impressed with, SBSD Helpdesk: you know, everything that they talked about in regards to, access, American, you know, just, people with disabilities being able to access SBSD Helpdesk: the facilities at the school, like the gymnasium, I thought. You know, the feedback regarding the SBSD Helpdesk: condition of the bathrooms, and people having to, like, hold the doors closed with their feet, because they don't have sufficient locks on the doors, and that's not acceptable. SBSD Helpdesk: you know, all the way through, you know, just comments regarding, you know, grading, and how grading can be somewhat inconsistent, depending upon who they're

016working with. So, I mean, obviously there's SBSD Helpdesk: you know, curriculum issues that are coming up, and… but you can tell that people really thought through the topics that they brought up, so I thought it was very good. Yeah, very, very thoughtful, I thought, too, so I thank you for being there. And again, we… I did share with the board the upcoming three-questions meeting, so if you're… you're certainly welcome to come to any that you would like to come to, as long as, of course, there's not a forum there, and I will continue to add those as we schedule them. SBSD Helpdesk: But, I think we're getting… SBSD Helpdesk: good feedback, and what I've been telling all these folks is that we'll use this feedback as at least a big qualitative portion of our, of

017what will be a strategic plan. I hope that we'll work together with, as it would be Joe, making a strategic plan. It's a community effort, led by the board and I, and, SBSD Helpdesk: stakeholders, so… I think it's pretty exciting. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright. SBSD Helpdesk: Are there any questions, from the board? SBSD Helpdesk: To the superintendent. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, you're right ahead. SBSD Helpdesk: And you said you're keeping… you're keeping tabs on everything, and then once you have more information, you're going to update the… what we have online, so that the board can see what the feedback has been. Yeah, thanks for asking that. So, I… I have a note-taker at each meeting, so I can engage with the folks instead of being worried about taking the notes. They take the notes, they send them

018to me, and once I have, like, a critical mass of notes, I'll start to, SBSD Helpdesk: analyze the data with the help of AI, quite frankly, and I will start sharing that with the board, but I don't want to get too far out in front of it. I want to get a few more meetings done before I start. SBSD Helpdesk: do that. SBSD Helpdesk: And you've got… you're calling, because you… I know you've got your schedule that's out there, and, you know, for people to… to sign up if they'd like to attend. SBSD Helpdesk: Now, could student… are the student reps, are they able to see that also, if there's any that you would like to participate in? Any of those community sessions? Where is the calendar of the events that you're going to? SBSD

019Helpdesk: So I… I… that's a Google Sheet that I shared with… with the board. Okay. Do you feel that that should be a public document? Or, I mean, it is a public document. SBSD Helpdesk: But, I mean, is it something that… No, I do not believe that this should be something that's an open call to community groups, because I'm going to specific groups, of, like, PTA, to say, and boosters, and minister groups. SBSD Helpdesk: There will be, SBSD Helpdesk: everybody in the community will have the opportunity to give me feedback if they're not in any of those groups, and that'll be closer to the end of the program when I will send out SBSD Helpdesk: a blanket survey to anybody that did not get an opportunity to participate, and we'll make sure we publicize that

020so people will be able to get feedback if they don't happen to be in any of those groups. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, no, I was asking specifically, like, I don't know if our student reps had access to the calendar. They did not. Okay, so, and if there was an opportunity, if they… if that would be something suitable that, you know, that they could participate in that, because I know we're… we have the chance to attend, so I… I just wanted to put it out there as an awesome… SBSD Helpdesk: Maybe you could consider. I think Emily is our designated student rep coordinator, so maybe… You can find out if there's interest, or when they are, it might be, like, during school, you know. Yeah, some are early, some are late, some are during the school day,

021and SBSD Helpdesk: I don't mind having some folks there, but again, I just want to respect, right. SBSD Helpdesk: B… SBSD Helpdesk: I just want to respect the group that I'm with, because they might have specific concerns about specific things that might… they might feel uncomfortable sharing if there are certain folks out there. And it's kind of a… you're asking to be a part of it, so you don't want to necessarily… SBSD Helpdesk: Bring home, bring a crew with you. Right. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. So… That's good. That's my report. If there's any other question? I have a question for both of you. Was there any, like. SBSD Helpdesk: major thing that you saw across the board, either the high school or the middle school, besides just the student council wanting to interact with us more?

022I wasn't at the middle school, but… No, I, I, I think the, SBSD Helpdesk: I think everything's major. I think that the concerns of high school facilities was very, very clear to me. Concerns about, access to, like, the gymnasium. There was a fire… there was a fire drill, or maybe even a fire alarm, and we had a student in a wheelchair who was not able to exit the gym because it's on the second floor, and you can't use elevators. SBSD Helpdesk: During that time. So those are real issues. A lot of talk in both groups about SBSD Helpdesk: equity for the students that are less advantaged than they are. Talk about, for instance, at the middle school, students are not taking their Chromebooks home anymore, and students brought up. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, that's not an

023impact for us, because we have technology at home, but there are some students who do not have access to that, so they expressed a lot of those concerns. SBSD Helpdesk: what I promise every group that I meet is I'm not solving problems today, so I want to gather it so we can put it in. SBSD Helpdesk: in a format where we can determine what our priorities are going to be. But they're very, very thoughtful. And I have not said this at any meeting yet, but I'll tell you, and maybe I should start saying, I won't solve any problems today unless there is something SBSD Helpdesk: that is causing somebody imminent harm, danger. I will act on this, right? I'm not going to ignore something, but… SBSD Helpdesk: Basically, it's getting feedback, and we'll find out,

024what people's priorities are by the responses. Great. I appreciate you doing all that. It's a really big lift, but I think it's really important to do. SBSD Helpdesk: I enjoyed it. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, the next, set of items on our agenda are action items. There's four of them. SBSD Helpdesk: For public comment purposes, SBSD Helpdesk: How do we… you know, that's fairly new, that we're kind of talking about, or do people want to hear public comment before or after our discussion of, the topic? SBSD Helpdesk: Does anybody have any strong preferences? SBSD Helpdesk: I tend to think we should hear it before. Michelle Boyer: The tradition is after, during the… so when you move seconds. SBSD Helpdesk: you know. Michelle Boyer: Any discussion? Board discussion? Public discussion. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, I'm great with that.

025SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, so the first item on the agenda for the action item is the superintendent search. SBSD Helpdesk: So… This year, when we were faced SBSD Helpdesk: With the need for a superintendent, We took a three-part approach. SBSD Helpdesk: A short term, a medium term, and a long term. SBSD Helpdesk: The short-term approach was to put the succession plan into action. SBSD Helpdesk: And, that was in effect for about a month. SBSD Helpdesk: Now we're on the medium-term part of the plan, which is an interim superintendent, and so, SBSD Helpdesk: Superintendent Clark has been so good as to join us. And then, we're also having… we have an eye for the long term, a permanent superintendent search, because my understanding is that the board wanted to be sure that we had SBSD Helpdesk: Given

026ourselves the time to do due diligence for hiring a superintendent, which is one of our most important duties. SBSD Helpdesk: So, this action item is to talk about the permanent superintendent search. SBSD Helpdesk: And I… and… and the, specific… SBSD Helpdesk: idea right now, I believe, is that we would hire the Vermont School Board Association again. SBSD Helpdesk: to run the permanent superintendent search. They were the ones who ran the interim superintendent search that selected, Superintendent Clark. SBSD Helpdesk: So I'll open that up for the board to… SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, and we received a contract this week. I don't know if Laura has it. SBSD Helpdesk: Yep, it's, SBSD Helpdesk: We would be working with Elaine again, and the fee would be our $12,000, and the search will be much more comprehensive, because we were

027on a tight timeline. We're not as tight this time, so that would all be… be worked out. SBSD Helpdesk: I would advocate strongly for this, since we have the relationship with them, SBSD Helpdesk: And I don't know if anybody has any questions. It's a fairly standard contract, $6,000 in advance, and then the other half at the end. I mean, the price is right, and I think that, I think it's quality. SBSD Helpdesk: That I'm really looking forward to it. SBSD Helpdesk: So, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: So… SBSD Helpdesk: One additional consideration is that it would be respectable to Superintendent Clark to have a sense of his status as soon as possible, you know, sometime in, you know, mid-December, just have a sense, SBSD Helpdesk: of… because I believe, I don't want to speak for you, but

028I believe you have said that you're gonna run for the permanent superintendent spot. SBSD Helpdesk: Soap. SBSD Helpdesk: I am. I told you at my interview, I would love to be here long-term, and right now, I'm getting emails from places around the country saying, we have a position open, there's one open that's due tomorrow. And I talked to my wife about it, and she said, no, don't apply for it, be patient. But quite frankly, there's going to be a point in time where I need to SBSD Helpdesk: make a decision on what I want to do. I would love to be part of this district, but you've only known me for a month. I might be snowing you so bad. I'm not. It's in everything, but, you know, you absolutely owe it to the public

029to do due diligence and to do a search. SBSD Helpdesk: And if I don't come out on top, I wish all the best. I love working here, and if I do. SBSD Helpdesk: I'll keep doing the things I'm doing. SBSD Helpdesk: I guess one question I have is, what is our timing? Do we have a schedule for that? I mean, I know Dr. Clark's contract goes through September 11th of next year, but… I think that's something that we would work out. I thought about that, too. I don't think that we can solve tonight, but… I don't think it's… it's going to be fast, but not… SBSD Helpdesk: Not like the… I think we should be… the manual. Start as soon as possible, and have… have a goal, I think, of, SBSD Helpdesk: I think December

0301st, to have But, you know, final candidates. SBSD Helpdesk: would be a good goal for us to shoot for. Yeah, okay. Michelle Boyer: I totally agree, yeah. I think that's a good timeline, because I… yeah. It's… Michelle Boyer: I really appreciate, you know, our consideration of Dr. Clark in this case, too, but, when we think about the candidate pool. Michelle Boyer: there are many superintendents that are in the same position as Dr. Clark, and so we really, if we operate on that timeline, we kind of maximize the opportunity Michelle Boyer: for folks to consider us, and for us to consider them. And then, if we are able to make a decision by sometime in January, that gives all due, lead time. Michelle Boyer: for… Michelle Boyer: All superintendents, right, in the search process, to be

031able to notify their current, and to, make progress towards accepting their positions and Michelle Boyer: So, I think that's a really good timeline. SBSD Helpdesk: So the action item for tonight, though, was just whether or not we want to accept the contract. Nothing else is going to have to be worked out. SBSD Helpdesk: So I would entertain a motion to approve the contract and authorize me to sign the contract with the Vermont School Board Association to conduct a permanent superintendent search. SBSD Helpdesk: I'll make that motion. I'll second. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so now we have discussion, and at this point, I'd like to open the floor for public discussion. Michelle Boyer: Can I ask one question first? SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, we're in the discussion section, so you can ask questions, you can talk about it,

032but also the public can register. Michelle Boyer: Yeah, so I recall from the interim superintendent search that there was a specified limitation about the reach of the search. Michelle Boyer: I just want to verify that that is no longer the case. I understand that, you know, the places we post can be viewed nationally, but there was a specific limitation in that interim search Michelle Boyer: conversation, I don't know about the contract because I didn't read it, that the VSBA would not be going out nationally, specifically targeting folks. Is this the same? Is it more of a passive application, or is it more of a, Michelle Boyer: You know, where the VSBA would go out and look at candidates. SBSD Helpdesk: That's not accurate information. That, as far… I mean, that's the first side of it.

033Well, so, Daisy, HR Director, stepping up, SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, thank you. I, I know exactly what you're talking about, Michelle. They, they indicated, because I, I specifically asked them the question if they had, if they had sourcing that went national, like the other individual, the other vendor that, that, that we were considering, and they said they did not. So, yeah, so they, they… SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, and I will say, obviously, that… well, you don't know that, but the candidates that we received were national. SBSD Helpdesk: We hired an individual from Ohio. So yes, we definitely reached a national audience, but at the same time, I completely agree with Michelle, and yes, so the permanent position needs SBSD Helpdesk: the broadest net that we can… that we can put out, and completely national. And I'm very

034excited to be working with them again. I thought Elaine was great, and thanks for moving it forward. So to clarify on that point. SBSD Helpdesk: the reason that you think that it should be a national search, but you're okay working with the VSBA that doesn't have SBSD Helpdesk: what you call sourcing, where they actually go out… Yeah, so they don't have… they don't have the databases that the other vendor had. That's really the difference. SBSD Helpdesk: They're gonna have to work with, and we are gonna work with them to make sure that we reach those audiences, and that we have to go out and collect SBSD Helpdesk: as much of those, I'm not going to say the database, the people that are in those databases, so that we can… that we can go national. I'm

035not nervous at all about us being able to handle a national search. Michelle Boyer: Thank you, Daisy, that's really helpful. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, and I think also the… the… information that I think Joe, Superintendent Clark. SBSD Helpdesk: provided to me was that superintendents have a couple, kind of, usual suspects, sites that they go to to look for jobs, and so we're not locking ourselves out of using those sites by SBSD Helpdesk: by using the BSBA or something like that. I'm sorry to interrupt, but there… some of these national search groups, on their websites, they will advertise jobs that they are doing, but they will also advertise jobs that other… that are not their searches, but their positions that exist. So, somebody like me who's looking for a job typically would go to whatever the state

036school board association SBSD Helpdesk: is where you'd like to work, or you go to one of these national sites that'll list all the jobs they're doing. SBSD Helpdesk: which will be all over the country, so you might, you might get that. So I'm sure the SBA would have the ability to advertise their job on some of these, private vendor sites without… SBSD Helpdesk: any issues. So, does any… does any other board member have any other concerns, with SBSD Helpdesk: The action item. And is there any… thank you, Daisy. Is there any other public comment? SBSD Helpdesk: You know what I mean, here's… SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, well then, all those in favor? SBSD Helpdesk: Aye. Aye. Okay, so the vote… Michelle Boyer: Aye. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, okay. The vote's unanimous, so the motion passes. SBSD Helpdesk:

037the next… Action item is policy governance training for the board. SBSD Helpdesk: So this is, again, related to the Vermont School Board Association. I believe we have a contract from them to provide policy governance training for the board in different forms at our option, and so that is something that we can talk about and possibly action. SBSD Helpdesk: Is that what you're like, Doug? SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, so Jen and I met with the SBA SBSD Helpdesk: Is it this week? Oh my gosh, it was last week. It was last week, sorry, okay, last week, and… SBSD Helpdesk: They, and they talked about, a timeline, which, so I'm not gonna… I'm not gonna go… SBSD Helpdesk: Over here. SBSD Helpdesk: So, well, October, November, December, board development are roles and responsibilities, SBSD Helpdesk: Jen, did we

038talk about… yes, oh, here he is, sorry, the Policy Governance Board Accelerator. I brought this to the board in March, also. Okay. And this is, so this is an option. It's $300, $350 per person, and there are modules. SBSD Helpdesk: And they estimate they take about 40 minutes to do, so I would… Each module, each module. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I forget how many… how many there are, and so what you do, in between meetings, we would do one of these modules, and then we would have maybe a 20-minute discussion. The idea behind it is that we're learning together. SBSD Helpdesk: Which is something… the three and a half years I've been on this board, I've yet to see happen. Usually, it's, like, two people go, three people go, one person goes, so this… I think,

039SBSD Helpdesk: So it is also self-paced, too. So, like, when we get to budget season, and people are like, I can't handle doing this, fine, just… just move it to the… to the… to… to the next… next month. But we're… but we're all getting the same training at the same time. SBSD Helpdesk: with the superintendent. And the other… I think what would be really great about this is going to be part of the onboarding process, too, so for new people coming on the board, then they can do it, so then we all know, like, we're all… SBSD Helpdesk: They're getting up to speed by getting the same information that… that we have. And then we… then there's, at the end of it, there is a half an hour SBSD Helpdesk: Where, BSB would come work

040with us. It's part… that's part of the fee. It's either 30 minutes to 60 minutes, I can't remember which one it is, and then for us to ask them questions, and… SBSD Helpdesk: After we do all the online stuff. 8. Eight, yes. Eight modules, and they said it takes between 5 to 7 hours. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. So that's the recommendation from you, that we take the self-paced… SBSD Helpdesk: Accelerator program at $300 per board member, as opposed to, for example, hiring one of their trainers to come to a board training and, SBSD Helpdesk: give a training SBSD Helpdesk: It's a full day, that's a full day session. Yeah, a full-day session, and I just think with scheduling and everything, it would be… it would be really, really hard, and this way, it gets all eight

041of us. SBSD Helpdesk: including Dr. Jones. I mean, I had some logistics… I'm having questions now regarding the logistics. Like, if we have the module, is it just a one-and-done, or do we have the opportunity to go back and watch it again if we had any questions? That's just one of the questions that I have. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, I'm sure… oh, I… I'm sure you can. I can ask. I'm trying to ask. Check on that. Yeah, yeah, SBSD Helpdesk: So, I would entertain a motion to… SBSD Helpdesk: you know, I don't know if we actually need a motion, but, I think that the value of emotion might be to commit all of ourselves to do this training. We're gonna be spending money, so… Yeah. Right. SBSD Helpdesk: It's $300 per. We get a discount. I

042don't know if, Laura, you mentioned that. It's $350 normally, but because there's more than 5 that would be going for the training, it would be $350. And unfortunately, they would charge us if we have the student reps. SBSD Helpdesk: do the training also, so we may just have to teach you what we learn. And Joe, do you have any recommendations about the kind of training we should do? Should we do it in this, kind of, self-paced, together, as opposed to, like, a one-day SBSD Helpdesk: you know, multi-hour training? I think as long as we're still planning on having a retreat, that is moderated by the BSPA, I think the training's a good idea, because that will help, I think, give some background for the things we'll discuss in the retreat. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, I would

043under… oh, go ahead. Michelle Boyer: Just… Michelle Boyer: My general thought is, so long as we have the opportunity for questions, I think this is a great idea. I think it's probably a huge money saver. I'm sure there's substantive content in those training videos. Michelle Boyer: just so long… I feel like this board is going to have a lot of questions, including… I speak for myself, but I'm suspecting that others are going to have questions, too. So as long as we have the opportunity. Michelle Boyer: Through a single or multiple forms that's sufficient. Like, 30 minutes sounds a little light, so I'm curious, Laura, if you have the contract in front of you, is it 30 minutes or is it 60? . SBSD Helpdesk: Picture. Michelle Boyer: Or is it something we can negotiate? SBSD

044Helpdesk: Yeah, it's at the end, and I… yeah, I can, I can ask her. I'll ask her. And I'm guessing they'd be pretty generous with her. I think so. Michelle Boyer: Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: And these are online modules? So, but would we be taking them all together here, like, it was a board meeting? SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, I don't want to do that. No, I just wanted to add… Yeah, yeah. So you do want… you said it's like, 15, 20 minutes to discuss, and then you move on to the next one. You can do them all on a weekend if you want. SBSD Helpdesk: then we would just discuss them as we go. And I think what I had heard was the modules take around 7 hours to complete, and if there's 8, SBSD Helpdesk: you

045know, each of the modules, I mean, could be, you know, if it's self-paced, it might take you a little bit longer, but, you know, it could take you 45 minutes to an hour. SBSD Helpdesk: To go through it. SBSD Helpdesk: I mean, when we took the training, when Emily, Laura, and I took the training, Policy Governance Training, it was a full day. I mean, it was from, like, 8 or so in the morning until, I don't know, 4 or so in the afternoon, 5 in the afternoon. So I think we should… I think we should action this. I think I would entertain a motion to… SBSD Helpdesk: engage with the VSBA, authorize me to sign a contract with them, if that's necessary, to get us all this accelerator training, and to commit the board to,

046participate in this training, each one of us. SBSD Helpdesk: I would move to authorize you to sold. Or, moves? I'll second. Jen seconds. Do we have any discussion? And the public can comment. SBSD Helpdesk: There's something wrong. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. The motion? SBSD Helpdesk: Passes. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, the next item on the agenda is Pledge of Allegiance. SBSD Helpdesk: This refers specifically to… the board meetings. It does not refer to SBSD Helpdesk: Anything in schools or anything like that. SBSD Helpdesk: So, does anybody want to talk about, I believe we talked about it last week also, about… does anybody want to talk about SBSD Helpdesk: Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of school board meetings? Yeah, so me and Allie and Principal Burke talked

047about this today as well. We didn't have strong feelings either way, but one thing that we were, talking about is that SBSD Helpdesk: for the future, if it's a student in two years, or me next week, and one of us didn't feel comfortable with doing legislative leaders, and we were expected to lead it, we thought that would put SBSD Helpdesk: student in, like, a really uncomfortable position, so we were wondering if it might be better for someone else to lead it that's not student rep, because they might feel pressure to be, like, you know, for example, it's my first week here, Allie's not there, and I'm just expecting to leave the SBSD Helpdesk: Pledge of Allegiance, but for whatever philosophical reasons, I don't feel that I'm comfortable doing that. I might still do it, just

048because, you know, I feel like I'm supposed to, but we didn't want to put anyone in that type of position, and we felt that as a student, there might be slightly more pressure on them to go along with flow. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't think anybody would be forced to lead it, and I don't think anybody's going to be forced to actually SBSD Helpdesk: So, yeah, yeah. I think maybe to Mullen's point, though, we might just want to make sure we know it's the optional. Whenever it's listed on the gender, however we address it, it is explicitly called out as optional, right, so that everybody knows they have the flexibility to participate, or… SBSD Helpdesk: And I would say, and I appreciate that point, Norman, and I think that we would just need to, you know,

049have the conversation. If the student rep feels comfortable leading it, then that would be something that you could do, and if you don't… SBSD Helpdesk: I mean, I would just say, just align with, although, then if you set a precedent, and then the next student rep doesn't want to do it, and they can't guilt prep into it… I don't see a… I would imagine maybe the chair would just… SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, I was just thinking, because, like, on the original, like, draft sent out, like, oh, spheres might leave this. In places I've been that have done this Pledge of Allegiance, nobody really leaves it. It's, please, if you'd like to stand for the pledge, please stand, and then there's an awkward silence, and then somebody starts to say it. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't think anybody…

050But yeah, I noticed that note, too. I'm glad you noticed it, and… SBSD Helpdesk: They barely thought that's attention. Michelle Boyer: Right, and I think the option would apply, right, to any portion of the pledge, because I think one of the most objectionable pieces is the expression, under God. So, it's… Michelle Boyer: Under optional, it's completely acceptable to not say those words. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, and. Michelle Boyer: Or any others, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: And we can't compelled speech. SBSD Helpdesk: Just to clarify. SBSD Helpdesk: I think specifically what Mom was asking about being asked to leave it, so… Yeah. We're not asking anybody to read it of any… SBSD Helpdesk: So… My personal feeling is that it's a unifying… reminder… SBSD Helpdesk: That we're all in this together, and that there are institutions that we

051have to protect. SBSD Helpdesk: In the U.S, including public education, and so I think that it's a… a good SBSD Helpdesk: moment for us to come together, so I would support doing the Pledge of Allegiance. It's also in line with, SBSD Helpdesk: maybe roughly half of the school districts around us, and the South Burlington City Council does it at the beginning of their meetings. SBSD Helpdesk: So, would anybody on the board like to express any, Mmm. SBSD Helpdesk: Any disagreement with… Moving forward, or has any other considerations that maybe we should talk about? SBSD Helpdesk: I think the fact that it is optional pretty much evades that. SBSD Helpdesk: In my opinion. SBSD Helpdesk: So I would entertain a motion to specify that in future board meetings, we have SBSD Helpdesk: an optional Pledge of

052Allegiance section. SBSD Helpdesk: Near the beginning of the meeting. And I'll look at the City Council, as a reference for when they do it, whether it's before or after announcements. SBSD Helpdesk: I'll make that motion. SBSD Helpdesk: Dad knows. SBSD Helpdesk: I'll do a second. Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: So this is another opportunity for the community to comment. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, would they comment before everybody voted, or… SBSD Helpdesk: No. Oh, we're in discussion. We're in discussion. Oh, okay, okay. Michelle Boyer: It's before a vote, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, I thought it just started very open, so… SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? Aye. So the motion passes. SBSD Helpdesk: Michelle. We keep hitting quorums. But there's a lag, Michelle. So we hit quorum, and then… Michelle Boyer: Oh, so I'm saying I all by

053myself? SBSD Helpdesk: No, no. No, no, no. Michelle Boyer: It's fine. One more… this is my… I'll be back in person next meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, the next item on our agenda is student representative… student representative non-binding vote opportunity. SBSD Helpdesk: So, can, a board member talk to this action item? SBSD Helpdesk: So, I mean, what I have heard for a moment in the alley, and feel free to jump into this, but what I have heard is that, you would like the opportunity to vote. SBSD Helpdesk: And it's a non-binding vote, but just so that you have the chance to weigh in and cite your position on something, and also so that the community can see where you see it. Is there something else to add? That's… SBSD Helpdesk: Pretty much it, yeah. That

054was what… I think one of the first things Ali said to me when I… SBSD Helpdesk: first met with her, and, like, she was like, we can't vote right now, but we're working on it, so… SBSD Helpdesk: So it would be non-binding, you know, it wouldn't count for, obviously, your corn and olives for majority vote, but I think it would be… I think it would be great to, yeah. Completely agree. Well, I would entertain a… Oh, go ahead. Michelle Boyer: Can I just… I just want to ask Momin a question. I'm curious, Momin, if you have a sense of around the country, and not that this… Michelle Boyer: is vote deciding at all. But around the country, our, Michelle Boyer: do you… do you know whether or not boards are headed in this direction? And

055the reason I ask is because a close personal friend's son, she just announced that her son is a, can vote. Michelle Boyer: And it's a binding vote. So, I don't know, I don't have the knowledge or expertise, or I haven't really looked at this nationally, but I'm curious if you have a sense of what's happening nationally with this. SBSD Helpdesk: Not certain nationally. I know in Vermont, I don't believe in any schools that have a binding vote, but yeah, yeah, I thought, yeah. But I believe on the… SBSD Helpdesk: I think it's the Board of Education, or some… it's, like, one of the, like, higher government ones. There's a student rep who can have a binding vote. SBSD Helpdesk: But on school boards in Vermont, at least, I think there may be a few that

056have non-biting boats, but… Burlington. Burlington District definitely does. Yeah, and I'm certain that not in Vermont, but I'm not sure outside. SBSD Helpdesk: much outside of fun. Yeah, you have. Michelle Boyer: Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: run. Michelle Boyer: My example is from California, so… Central Coast, California. SBSD Helpdesk: So… SBSD Helpdesk: If it's okay. Yeah, please. Jean Marie Clark, Director of Operations Finance at the district. Thank you. I just wanted to say that kudos to you, Moment, and to your predecessors. I think, having been a board member myself. SBSD Helpdesk: I think it's just incredibly valuable to have a student who's so committed, students that are so committed to be a part of the board, so… SBSD Helpdesk: I wanted to say that to you, but I also just think that, like. SBSD Helpdesk: If

057there's other ways that you as a board can help them feel included and valued as a part… like, just having their opinions is… SBSD Helpdesk: is amazing. So, I just personally want to say, as an employee, as a parent, and as a former board member, I 100% support, you and, you know, future students and past students who've done this work, and I'd like to just, you know, give my confidence in that boat. So, yeah, of course. SBSD Helpdesk: So I would entertain a motion to… Request that student representatives SBSD Helpdesk: Cast a non-binding vote, when appropriate, on… school board actions. SBSD Helpdesk: I… I move. SBSD Helpdesk: Second. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura moves. Jen seconds. Any discussion? And this is another opportunity for the public to comment. Michelle Boyer: A question, what do you mean by

058when appropriate? SBSD Helpdesk: I think that there are probably votes that it wouldn't be appropriate to ask for a student vote on. SBSD Helpdesk: all sorts of certain things that we just, like, AT orders, for example. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, not mine. Michelle Boyer: Sure, why not? SBSD Helpdesk: We were talking about it today, we're like, yeah, half the time we might be abstaining, but… SBSD Helpdesk: Overall. Okay. Michelle Boyer: So is that board disc… or chair discretion? I just want to be clear. I'm not questioning or, you know, like, judging. I just want to be clear. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes. I think it should be, that's a good point. SBSD Helpdesk: So maybe we'll let the… oh, yes, Elizabeth. SBSD Helpdesk: I think if they're a boarding member, then they can agree with me on anything.

059Elizabeth: Hi, Seamus. No, I was just gonna say I concur Elizabeth: with the board's recommendation, and I think the students that preceded the current Ali and Momar did a great job setting the stage. I think it's a move in the right direction. Congratulations if… assuming this passes. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I think, Michelle, thank you for that, Elizabeth. I think that… Michelle makes a good point. SBSD Helpdesk: Is it up to the chair to decide in every case whether the student should vote? SBSD Helpdesk: Or how do we… or is it that the student votes by default, and the chair says, no, don't vote on this one, or do we just… SBSD Helpdesk: not have any sort of control like that, and assume that they'll vote on everything they don't expect. What are you gonna do,

060another vote to see if they can vote? It's either your discretion. I'd say you either invite their vote, or an F1 path, if it's you invite their vote based on every vote, or they just vote on everything, and we'll pick one of those as the cleanest path. Right. SBSD Helpdesk: It isn't. SBSD Helpdesk: One thing we… Sorry. Oh, one thing we talked about today is just that, like, there's obviously some things SBSD Helpdesk: that me and Ali may not have, like, the most knowledge about, especially, like, earlier on when it's a new student rep and they're still getting the hang of things. So… SBSD Helpdesk: Well, because we weren't certain on how it would play out, on whether or not it'd be, like, someone about who's to vote, or whether by default we're voting, so…

061You can abstain. Yeah, I think that, Principal Burke was saying that, you know, it's very important that you guys vote on the thing that you're knowledgeable of, and not just follow the crowds, and if you're not knowledgeable, say, abstain, or, SBSD Helpdesk: you know, don't feel about in that situation, so I think… SBSD Helpdesk: In my opinion, I would like it if we had the option to vote, and, you know, we'll state if it's something that, you know, makes sense for us to, and… or if we don't have the knowledge. Michelle Boyer: Excellent. I think that's real-world training, right? Like, if you want the full experience of being on the board, making that decision is not easy. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: I agree, so you guys have the option to vote on everything, and… SBSD Helpdesk:

062And abstain at your discretion. Okay, so I think the motion fails. SBSD Helpdesk: and do it again. So I would entertain a motion. SBSD Helpdesk: to invite the student representatives to vote on all board action items, and note that the votes are non-binding. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura move? I circle. SBSD Helpdesk: Austin seconds. Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: This is another opportunity for the public to comment. SBSD Helpdesk: No heat. SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? Aye. SBSD Helpdesk: The motion passes. Michelle Boyer: Well done, student rep. SBSD Helpdesk: You should have done that first, in the… I will need some kind of a reminder. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So… SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so at this point, it's, we've been in session for 2 hours. We are caught up, we're about 10 minutes early. Do we want to

063take a quick SBSD Helpdesk: Recess, or keep moving? SBSD Helpdesk: Let's just keep moving. Okay, great. So we're done with action items. The next section are discussion items. I will note that we do not currently take public comment during discussion item items. So the first item is SBSD Helpdesk: advice to the superintendent on the October 28th redistricting community meeting. So… SBSD Helpdesk: This item is about a meeting that the Redistricting Task Force will have in Winooski on October 28th. SBSD Helpdesk: And, the idea is that the superintendent would attend this SBSD Helpdesk: task force meeting and make a public comment on behalf of the South Burlington School District. SBSD Helpdesk: If you don't know, the Redistricting Task Force SBSD Helpdesk: is legally required to produce a set of maps redistricting school districts in the whole

064state by sometime in December, and having a voice in how that happens is valuable for the community. SBSD Helpdesk: So, this discussion item is what kind of advice we would like to give the superintendent, for his presumed, presentation to that committee. SBSD Helpdesk: Austin, do you want to start with any just big, broad strokes? Sure. Seamus and I had a conversation with a representative last week that was informative and SBSD Helpdesk: introduced some good information to us, and I've had some subsequent conversations with additional reps, about the… When you say reps, what do you mean? Who are on every different committee to learn more about the process and ways in which boards can participate, should communicate, what would be helpful. SBSD Helpdesk: Out of those conversations, one of the things that has come up multiple

065times is a… SBSD Helpdesk: there are some districts that are opposing the redistricting, very vocally, and then there are some proposals that there might be, like, a BOCI map, which is, stands for, for those who are unaware, which is a Boards of Cooperative Education, which is similar to something Dr. Clark experienced in Ohio called Educational Service Centers, which are shared regionalized services for behavioral intervention. SBSD Helpdesk: So it seems like there will be a… SBSD Helpdesk: map that is a bit of a middle ground or a halfway point to redistricting that will be largely closely focused, and that seems to have some more support as a interim step to, like, a full redistricting. So at least one of the maps that we come along, we should expect will be along those… that framework. SBSD Helpdesk:

066Okay, so, you're saying that… SBSD Helpdesk: what you've heard from people on the task force, and others, is that some school districts are simply going up and saying, we don't want to do this, don't merge us with anybody. SBSD Helpdesk: And then there's other school boards that are making more nuanced SBSD Helpdesk: comments about what should happen. Yes, and there's a early opinion that this is SBSD Helpdesk: the redistricting more disproportionately impacts the rural communities in Vermont, so they're spending a little bit more time focusing on those aspects of the map, where there are larger communities with longer commutes, and what the implications are there. Chittenden County, being that it is, you know, more densely populated, there will be fewer sort of collapsing SBSD Helpdesk: You know, redistricting impacts. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I'm happy to

067share my opinion with the board so far, based on what we've learned. SBSD Helpdesk: It would be my recommendation that there is still so much that we do not know about the impacts of this, and so much is still in flight. SBSD Helpdesk: that we express that we do not yet… we do not oppose redistricting based on the information we have available today, right? And maybe we'd be a little more resistant if we knew more, we would be a little more embracing of it, we'd do more, but there's still so little that we know about this, I would… I would suggest that we express that SBSD Helpdesk: We are not in opposition to redistricting. Based on what we know today, we have not yet found a suitable partner for redistricting. SBSD Helpdesk: But that we

068would be open to having conversations with our surrounding districts, and I'd like to, you know, invite other districts to communicate with us if they think we would be good partners. And I'd like to express that we have heard about BOCES, and based on, you know, some early conversations with Dr. Clark that you and I participated in, and other conversations, since we are supportive of a BOCES model. SBSD Helpdesk: And whether that ends up being an interim to a full redistricting, or a halfway point to a full redistricting, or a alternative to full redistricting, who knows? SBSD Helpdesk: But that we are in support of that model, which sets up regional centers to serve students of the highest need, and takes some of the burden off of each individual school. It also, as SBSD Helpdesk: some

069pretty effective cost-saving measures, and we find ourselves in an environment where, like, the costs of special education are running so high, we need to be open to programs like BOCES to mitigate those costs while still serving those students. SBSD Helpdesk: Can you just remind everybody what BOC stands for? Boards of Cooperative Education, and Dr. Clark experienced a similar model in Ohio called Educational Service Centers. Dr. Clark, if I can put you on the spot a little bit… Yeah, I think now we should, like… so that's our first suggestion from a board member. I think it'd be a great time for Dr. Clark to SBSD Helpdesk: Kind of paint the big picture for us. SBSD Helpdesk: What he thinks he should accomplish, what he can accomplish, what advice he needs from us, and then we can

070come back to board discussion. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, so, as I've said a few times, I'm new to Vermont, I'm new to this district, and I'm an interim superintendent, so I don't think it would be responsible of me to go to a meeting and say that this is what is best for South Burlington. That's why I would love the board, as representatives of the people who elected you, to let me know how you would like me to lobby on your behalf. Austin did talk about where I came from in Ohio. SBSD Helpdesk: There was, each county had an educational service center, so there were 88 educational service centers across the state. They have, since SBSD Helpdesk: consolidated… I don't know how many there are now, but they're more regional educational service centers, and those would be

071played… it gives me the impression it's very similar to what these BOCES are talking about. SBSD Helpdesk: So, for example, I worked in a district that, we had a need for occupational therapy and physical therapy, but we didn't have a need to have somebody on staff full-time, so we would buy those services through the Educational Service Center. So, a lot of special education needs SBSD Helpdesk: Particularly for the higher, SBSD Helpdesk: less frequent incident, but the higher, disability, kind of, students we would purchase through NESC. They would also do, like, group, SBSD Helpdesk: Professional development, they had a lot of other services they would offer, but that was kind of the model, and it seemed to work really well, particularly for smaller districts and more rural districts. SBSD Helpdesk: I, I, I don't know if…

072SBSD Helpdesk: I know what Act 73 is, I don't know if it'll come to pass or not. I think that people are always in favor of saving money, until you start talking about, okay, but you're going to be combined with another school, and whose logo's going to go on the side of your football home? And I think there's a lot of, SBSD Helpdesk: A lot of romanticism about traditional school districts that will probably rear its head after the list of SBSD Helpdesk: proposed mergers come, so I… I don't know. SBSD Helpdesk: But if this, if this board, SBSD Helpdesk: like Austin said, we may be in favor, we may not be. We don't know enough now, but if it were going to happen, these might be some districts that we think would be a good

073partner for us, or would seem to fit more naturally. SBSD Helpdesk: I also have concern, I mean, I think you've probably heard me say that I think our facilities are, not adequate for our kids, they're not 21st century kind of buildings, and I think that that adds a really… a unique wrinkle to anybody that we might merge with, because SBSD Helpdesk: for instance, if they merge this with Burlington, they're going to have a brand new high school, and how does that impact… if we were to merge with them with our old high school and their new high school, how do you… how do communities, SBSD Helpdesk: come to terms with that kind of inequity. So, I think it's a really admirable thing that the state's trying to do. I think it's really, really big. I

074don't know if it'll happen, but right now, it's on a path to happen. So, I would love to be able to know, when I go to this meeting on the 28th, and they open it up for comments from superintendent, for anybody in the public. SBSD Helpdesk: You know, how, how would you… SBSD Helpdesk: like me to, represent Harvester. SBSD Helpdesk: I think it would be reckless if we were to express that we were… we resisted this movement based on what we know today. I think it would be productive and proactive for us to say, based on what we know today. SBSD Helpdesk: Where we… we vaguely support this. SBSD Helpdesk: We support BOCES as a middle ground, and a lot of people are talking about that as an HR map that will be proposed, and

075I would love to raise our hand to say if there are districts who believe that we would be good partners together, we would love to talk to you. There are some districts around the state that are resisting this, and that's their right. I think that would be unproductive for us to do at this time, and I would love for us to at least SBSD Helpdesk: be open to other districts having… having conversations with adjacent districts, and seeing, like, ways that we could work together. Is there… are there combinations where maybe a regional tech center could make a lot of sense, right? As Dr. Clark mentioned, our facilities do need a lot of money and care and upkeep, and is there a world where, you know, we can SBSD Helpdesk: Rehabilitate our locations and also benefit

076our surrounding adjacent, you know, districts who partner with us. SBSD Helpdesk: Anybody else have any initial thoughts? Michelle Boyer: I want to support that approach. I think having the conversations, opening it up, talking to other districts. Michelle Boyer: I think that is the exact right… Michelle Boyer: Response and action to take, because putting a stake in the ground as… Michelle Boyer: you know, with limited information, and with no community input to this point, I think would be exactly as Austin said, it would just be irresponsible to do at this point. SBSD Helpdesk: I agree, so… I do, but I also think… SBSD Helpdesk: the wording of it, you know, saying we're not resistant, but we're not… we're also not like, yeah, just throw us wherever, you know, like, we need more information. It's basically the

077bottom line, and we want… we want to have more information, we want to have conversations, and we want to learn about SBSD Helpdesk: all the… all the opportunities. Yeah, right, and you… I think… didn't you… SBSD Helpdesk: Usually, you know, have, input, and, like, if we were to… if we had to combine, like, we would have to… SBSD Helpdesk: the opportunity to give our opinion. Absolutely, yeah. You have to talk to people. The best marriages are where everybody's a willing suitor at times. We should find districts who actually want to partner with us. Yeah, I think, yeah, the proactive approach, I think, is definitely the way to go. There are some districts who are already doing it. Right. There are some rural districts who are, like, we're doing it now. I think the Upper Valley

078has a great valley. Yeah, so… SBSD Helpdesk: I have 3 thoughts, first of all, Why are they all gonna… SBSD Helpdesk: leaf from my mind. Oh, so the first thing is I think that SBSD Helpdesk: I would like it if your message SBSD Helpdesk: was about addressing the true cost drivers, right? And so, BOSIS is one solution to one of the true cost drivers around special ed costs, SBSD Helpdesk: So I think that just to mention that if what the goal is, is to… SBSD Helpdesk: you know, save money, then we should be looking strongly at what the cost drivers are, and that we're a district that I think is open to SBSD Helpdesk: Doing creative things and leading the way. SBSD Helpdesk: Second, I had a question to the board and to the superintendent

079if… when the conversation comes up, like, well, should we merge? Like, is that a super… is that a superintendent to superintendent conversation, or is that a board-to-board conversation? SBSD Helpdesk: My opinion, with decisions this large, it's a board. I mean, the community owns the schools. I'm the steward of the schools. I don't think it's the superintendent's discretion to decide who we're going to merge with, or those sorts. I guess, let me rephrase the question. SBSD Helpdesk: In order to prepare the board for that kind of discussion, it would seem to me SBSD Helpdesk: that maybe superintendents should all meet each other, and then maybe make some recommendations about which board should meet each other, as opposed to the other way around. I don't disagree with that, and superintendents have… we've started those conversations already. I'm

080part of the Champlain Valley Superintendents Association. We've had two meetings, so this has been a topic at both meetings, and what Austin said is accurate. There are some superintendents there who want no part of this. SBSD Helpdesk: There are some that think, let's be proactive, because if we can give them a, a… SBSD Helpdesk: a solution, instead of them forcing a solution on us, that would be better. And then there are others who think, it's not even going to happen. Why? Don't spend the time. You know, it's really a wide range of opinions. But yes, I agree that it would, SBSD Helpdesk: I'm confident enough that I could learn what I think might be a good solution for us and share it with you. I'm not right now, before I go to that meeting on

081the 28th. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, and do you feel like you have a coherent message and a complete message from just that basic discussion that we just had? Or what else… how else can we, you know, put our… SBSD Helpdesk: Make it so that it's our message, not your message. No, I do. I'm gonna go there, I'm gonna take my shoe off, slam it on the table, and say… SBSD Helpdesk: I'm kidding, I shouldn't just like that. No, I do, I absolutely do. I think what I'm hearing you say, I'll rephrase it, is that we're not opposed to it, but we're not necessarily in favor of it either. We are absolutely open to creative ideas. We are interested in saving, in saving money. SBSD Helpdesk: We would like to know if there are any folks in

082our area that might be interested in doing some sort of consolidation with us. SBSD Helpdesk: And we would really love to learn more, but we're not going to come out and say, alright, no, we're not going to do this. We think that, it's likely, good for the state, particularly rural districts, and districts with poverty, smaller districts. SBSD Helpdesk: So, that's kind of my message. Joe, can you share a little bit of the conversation you've had with Laura and I when we met with you this week? And you were telling us about some of the schools that you had worked with. SBSD Helpdesk: Before in Ohio, and one that stuck out was you were saying it was like a K-12, and very similar to Winooski, but I had heard you say there was, I mean, just

083the opportunity for what was present at that school, the rec center, and I mean, speaking, I mean, speaking of creative solutions, like, can you just… There's that, yeah, so, SBSD Helpdesk: you're combining two of the schools that I was referencing, but the last school district that I worked at was 750 students all under one building, or under one group, K-12. And because it was so small. SBSD Helpdesk: We could not offer things like… we didn't have physics, we had zero AP classes, we did not have elementary music, because SBSD Helpdesk: We just couldn't justify hiring staff to teach three kids physics, etc, etc. So that's exactly the kind of district that I think consolidation, similar districts in Vermont would SBSD Helpdesk: It would be great for, because when you have more students together, you can

084offer more programs. It's really that simple. SBSD Helpdesk: Now, the district that my own children went to was a larger district, and I was talking about their facilities, and they built a high school SBSD Helpdesk: My older son was a senior when it opened, so he got one year of it, and my younger son got all four years of it. But that high school that they built in Wadsworth, Ohio, they want to search it, it was a community and school collaboration, where it's a high school. SBSD Helpdesk: But the high school also had a YMCA in it that was open to the public. It had a branch of the library in it. It had a… I want to call it a hospital, but the hospital had a presence in there with, like, a, SBSD Helpdesk:

085emergency care and those kinds of things. It had a senior center, in it, and it was jointly man… I mean, that section of the, of the building was jointly managed by the schools. SBSD Helpdesk: and the community, so there'd be times when the community couldn't come in and use the field house because PE classes were doing it, but after 3 o'clock, it was open for youth sports, for a community to walk the track, up above the field house, and it had a pool that was open to the community. It was… it was really, SBSD Helpdesk: it was something that, again, my kids had, and I worked in a district that I wish we could have… I mean, like, we went out and we visited it, and it just didn't come to pass where I work,

086but it was… SBSD Helpdesk: To me, it was the ideal, partnership between a city and a school district. That's awesome. SBSD Helpdesk: So, does, does everybody on the board feel that our views were represented by what Joe said a couple minutes ago? SBSD Helpdesk: In terms of that rundown? Yes. I will draft, a statement, and I'll put it in the board update this week, so if there's anything that you have a gut reaction to, like, do not say that. Feel free to let me know. Yeah, and I think you should probably just go straight to Joe with that feedback, not the whole board. Yeah, the board should have this discussion. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. So the next item is confirmation on the board retrieve date. SBSD Helpdesk: And so this one, we scheduled it as a

087discussion item, I imagine, so that we'd actually SBSD Helpdesk: Make a decision. So, I'm gonna share my screen. Apologies for all of the ads on Doodle.com that try to make you pay for it by literally loading with so many ads that you can't use it. But… SBSD Helpdesk: Here is what… People have provided. SBSD Helpdesk: So… Across the top are all the days. SBSD Helpdesk: And we basically offer times from December 1st until December 6th… 17th. December 17th, we have a board meeting. No, December 16th. So we have a board meeting at the end of this, and also at the beginning. The board meeting on the 3rd, there is already a board meeting on the 3rd, and it is a community forum. SBSD Helpdesk: So, according to the number of people who can attend, the

088best day is December 3rd. SBSD Helpdesk: For the retreat. For the retreat. So now we're talking about the retreat. So the best day is… SBSD Helpdesk: December 3rd. Now, Dan, Emily… Are not available on that day. SBSD Helpdesk: And Laura probably won't be there, you know, it's on a weekday, I cannot. Okay, right. So I think I included Saturday and Sunday. So Saturday and Sunday, we are pretty… SBSD Helpdesk: not available. SBSD Helpdesk: And also Saturday. Oh, well, this Saturday… Saturday the 13th. SBSD Helpdesk: Has higher attempt, has higher possibilities than SBSD Helpdesk: the other ones. School board members. Yes, it looks like we would lose staff, but we would have school board members. SBSD Helpdesk: Joe, can you talk to how… we should view… SBSD Helpdesk: the presence of staff at the retreat? I

089would love for them to be there, but I think it's… SBSD Helpdesk: quite frankly, more important for the superintendent and the board to be together on that day. SBSD Helpdesk: I could… I would… if we did a meeting on that Saturday, I would absolutely speak with the staff to get whatever their concerns are. And what my hope is, is that we'll have a nice discussion about how do we communicate, what do we… SBSD Helpdesk: You know, who… SBSD Helpdesk: which staff members are responsible for what, so if you have a question, who might you reach out to, etc. We can… we can do that without, staff being there, but I also think it's important for staff to get some face time with the board, so maybe there'll be other opportunities. SBSD Helpdesk: What I'm saying

090is I would not, not choose the 13th. If all the board members can be there, and I could be there, I would not, not choose that date, because some of the staff are unable. SBSD Helpdesk: Board member feelings, December 13th, it's a Saturday. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, funny, right? SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, well then, we will confirm December 13th as our retreat day. What about our student groups? Are they going to be participating in this? SBSD Helpdesk: You're invited. I'm sorry that I didn't send you a doodle for this. Oh, good. Could you move this Saturday? December 13th. I can talk with Allie and get back to you, but I feel. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm sure both of us would be interesting, going to check our schedule and make sure nothing's going on.

091Thank you so much. And are we talking about, like, a half-day kind of 4-hour thing in the morning meet? What's your advice? My advice is a half-day 4-hour. SBSD Helpdesk: 8 in the noon, or 9 to 1 or something to have some light snacks, and just… SBSD Helpdesk: I think we… beyond that, I think we'd lose… SBSD Helpdesk: And this is gonna be a warned meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: So that… It's a public meeting, so people can come and watch us retreat, and I think we get the DSBA that moderate it with their expertise in doing this. Okay, so I think that, Joe, would you provide a list of topics that we should warn? SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, and then also, board members, if you have specific things you want to talk about at the board retreat.

092SBSD Helpdesk: Please send them to me. Or you can send them to the whole board at Scheduling, so… Well, have you talked to the VSBA about the retreat? No, not… I did not mention the retreat, so I should ask them. You can, I'm comfortable doing, too. So, in that context, it wasn't warrant for action, but we can amend if two-thirds of us agree. SBSD Helpdesk: should, so, would it be okay if we… SBSD Helpdesk: Consider a motion to authorize me to… SBSD Helpdesk: negotiate with the SBA to get them to be present at the meeting? SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so two-thirds of us would be okay with changing the schedule. Okay, so then, I would entertain a motion to authorize the chair to negotiate with the VSBA to moderate the retreat. SBSD Helpdesk: I think this

093is something they can… Hold on, hold on, wait a minute, sorry. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura moves, Austin seconds, discussion. Okay, I'm sorry. I think that this is something they do often, and if they probably have a set fee, quite honestly, then they will come out and do it for this, and they probably even have listened to the topics that we would go through, but I'll give you some feedback. And this is an opportunity for public comment. Apologies that it wasn't on the agenda, as SBSD Helpdesk: possible action, but I just don't want to… SBSD Helpdesk: Say that we are gonna have a… SBSD Helpdesk: VSB a moderator, but then not have the authority to actually sign them up. So, any public comment on this idea? SBSD Helpdesk: Beautiful. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so all those in favor?

094Aye. Michelle Boyer: Bye. SBSD Helpdesk: The motion passed. You're about right. SBSD Helpdesk: Nice to get on. SBSD Helpdesk: Gotta be here. Okay, so now… so the motion passes, and I think that we can then… let's let… we'll… we'll work with Joe to schedule where it is. We don't have to do… scheduling is not an open meeting, please. SBSD Helpdesk: Right. Okay, the next item on the agenda is a confirmation of the community forum date, location, topics. So, community forum is December 3rd. It is a regular school board meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: And Joe has already reached out to the Senior Center to get it scheduled there. SBSD Helpdesk: possible topics are, as I understand it, Budget, redistricting, Superintendent search. SBSD Helpdesk: SOI, excellent schedule. SBSD Helpdesk: And I'm… and of course, anybody can suggest other

095topics. We have quite a while before we have to warn it. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other discussion on the community forum? SBSD Helpdesk: So, another discussion item is, what are other opportunities to partner with city police to strengthen safety around schools? Does any school board member want to speak to that? SBSD Helpdesk: No, this was just something that came up following the session last week, and Joe, I don't know if you have any other updates on that. Just that last Thursday, so we met last Wednesday, last Thursday, I went and, SBSD Helpdesk: with Alyssa McDonald, and we did a walking tour of City Center with, Jesse Baker and, NBC Pro, and a couple other folks, from their office, just to look at SBSD Helpdesk: really the concerns of, around Marcotte, not… this is not the needle

096issue, this is the, all the apartments there where we have kids that are walking into school, who, SBSD Helpdesk: It became really clear that there's… there are… there's ample, sidewalks, there's ample, crosswalks. SBSD Helpdesk: But people aren't used to driving that area yet, so there are still some reckless driving, some speeding, some running stop signs, some stopping too far into the intersection to allow buses to turn, and that kind of thing. SBSD Helpdesk: I think the, SBSD Helpdesk: honestly, the feeling I had after we left is that this is a problem that will, SBSD Helpdesk: that will get better as they open up more streets, and as people get more used to it, and as more traffic is there. Right now, we only have one, crossing guard, in that area. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm not sure

097if this is… SBSD Helpdesk: I don't have enough, information to determine whether we would need additional crossing guards or not. SBSD Helpdesk: But, I mean, that was, that was the, the, SBSD Helpdesk: That's the only update I have. Well, speaking of that, that crying kid. SBSD Helpdesk: Just get a sense that we have kids coming from all of those apartments. SBSD Helpdesk: And they do… and they cross some streets, but, I mean, it's… their crosswalks are very clearly marked, and, you know, they're all four-way stops. SBSD Helpdesk: And, in theory, that should be pretty safe for them. And the kids know the appropriate places to cross. Yep. Yeah, because the one thing that worries me whenever I drive in that area is there's so many cars that are parked along the side of the roads

098that if there was ever a little person there that jarg, you know. SBSD Helpdesk: jolt it out, but you may not… you may not see them. That… that would be my concern. So I'm just wondering, like, what kind of… if there's been communications with the students to, like, reinforce some of safe behaviors? I… I… I know that the teachers and administration over there talk about safety, and I also know that there are staff members that go out… SBSD Helpdesk: And, SBSD Helpdesk: out into that area to help kids and direct them where to go. I'll tell you what else was just very, very impressive to me as we were walking around, with Lissa. SBSD Helpdesk: kids were coming out of their apartments to shout, hey, this is McDonald. It was… it was very, very impressive

099how much love they had for her, and that was really warming to see. SBSD Helpdesk: The chair recognizes Jean Marie Clark, Director of Finance and Operations. I love that you share my title every time. SBSD Helpdesk: I just wanted to tag on to what Joe said, SBSD Helpdesk: One of the big things that I did last fall, or that we did as an organization, was add a variety of bus drivers to our staff of bus drivers. Once we did that, we were able to add… sort of turn on all of our bus routes. We did have buses SBSD Helpdesk: we were doing rolling cancellations, but we were not running all of our buses and bus routes at that time. SBSD Helpdesk: having all those buses running then alleviated some of the issues that we had

100at Rick Marcotte, and, has added some other, challenges there. But, SBSD Helpdesk: One of the issues that we do continue to have in that area is, a lot… there is one crossing guard there now. That crossing guard is not a district employee, that's a crossing guard that's employed by another business, the Snyder-Braerman Company, just down the road from us, and SBSD Helpdesk: They pay a lot of money for their crossing guard, a lot more than we do, so we have really struggled in SBSD Helpdesk: in hiring, crossing guards for, any and all of our, campus locations for students to have that. I've investigated… haven't had a ton of time to investigate how they are able to hire crossing guards at the… they're very successful with that in the Essex Westford School District, where they don't

101bus all of their students. SBSD Helpdesk: I believe that those employees are part of the public works, their city employees. SBSD Helpdesk: So anyhow, that's something that potentially we could investigate. Pay, finding the right person. We've had, folks that have volunteered in that position in the past and have had some real concerns about SBSD Helpdesk: Not, just because you have a yellow vest on doesn't necessarily mean that the drivers are going to pay attention to what you are doing, or that you're trained. SBSD Helpdesk: to direct traffic. Like, I was helping direct traffic, at the orchard School earlier this fall when we were dealing with some, paving issues in that lot, and I had my safety vest on because my husband wouldn't let me out the door without it. But… SBSD Helpdesk: still, people are,

102like, driving by me. So, it's kind of a dangerous position, and we haven't found a good solution to that yet. So… so there's that piece I wanted to share. The other thing that I don't know if Alyss pointed out to you, Joe, is SBSD Helpdesk: with all the development that's happened, sort of up against the Rick Marcotte School, there previously was a path SBSD Helpdesk: a pathway, like, along the playground over to the big apartment complex on that same side of the street as the central school. With the development that's happened, that pathway is gone, and so there's no clear, for the students that are in that housing area, there's no sort of clear pathway for them to get into the school campus, so… SBSD Helpdesk: Last week, while I was out of town. SBSD

103Helpdesk: the city had, convened a traffic study of the Rick Marcotte School, and the turning radius of that intersection for the buses, and all of the things that impact folks that are trying to get in and out of that campus. SBSD Helpdesk: They presented their findings and their recommendations to the Bike and Ped Committee meeting on Wednesday, and we were talking a little bit about this earlier. SBSD Helpdesk: And there were 5 recommendations that came out of that study. One was, to… to reinstall that… some sort of a pathway from that, housing organization over to… because it really was… SBSD Helpdesk: Well utilized by the students, and also sort of guided by some of our staff that are sort of helping to direct the pedestrian traffic. So, SBSD Helpdesk: It does feel like more to

104come as it relates to that campus, because SBSD Helpdesk: It's an adorable school with a city that has grown up around it, and so there's just growing pains with that, and how we manage that, how we partner with the city to manage SBSD Helpdesk: good traffic behavior in that area, and, like, to your point, Jen, around, you know, students, even though we may do our very best as parents and as our educators in SBSD Helpdesk: telling and instructing our students how to use crosswalks, that doesn't mean that they aren't leaping out in between, you know. I've seen teenagers and children, I'm sure you know as well. So, you know, more work to be done there in all of those avenues. So, I just wanted to share that. So, yeah. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: I guess

105the one other thing that I would share, as sort of it relates to, encouraging more folks to walk and bike to school, Joe and I were in our Safe Routes to School Committee meeting earlier today, and we were discussing the, SBSD Helpdesk: additional things that we could do on the Orchard School campus, and I just wanted to share that. SBSD Helpdesk: I know this happens a lot at the Gertrude Chamberlain School, but having spent several mornings at the Orchard School watching the number of students and families that walk and bike to school, it's really, really cool. Like, I have grown up and lived my whole life in a very rural area. I did walk to school as an elementary kid, but it was, like, me and the other three neighbor kids all by ourselves. Walking

106was not the thing to do, but… SBSD Helpdesk: It just was really lovely, and I hope that we can continue to, as a board and as a district, partner with our city and our police department to continue to have these safe SBSD Helpdesk: communities and neighborhoods where our students can walk to school together. So, to that end, one of the suggestions we got from the family about a month ago was to try to install, covered bike parking at the Orchard School, so that you can year-round ride your bike, as some of you, I know, do ride your bikes, and have a place to have that. And we actually today got a, SBSD Helpdesk: one of the members of the committee said… was willing to donate an additional bike rack to that campus, which is great,

107so… so good stuff. I was just having this conversation. I live in the Orchards neighborhood, and my son bikes to school every day, all year long. I mean, he never wants to even walk in, so I will be biking. SBSD Helpdesk: And I was just thinking he's in fourth grade, and I'm really… I'm thinking, how am I going to get him to bike to middle school? I want him to bike there, too, and I want it to start out, like, that's what you do in sixth grade, so it just kind of is a habit. So, I'm really curious, and I'd love to think of other ways we could get SBSD Helpdesk: more people… I know it's a longer bike, right? Yeah. A little more dangerous, but it's totally doable. Yeah. I think that… SBSD Helpdesk:

108it'd be great to try to get… The bike bus is really cool, and I know I participated in a session with City Council before, and they spoke about it, and I think that's what it's called, the bike bus, and I'm not familiar. It leaves at a certain time, and there's adults that go, and then the kids kind of fall… Oh, they all go together, they all go together, which is kind of neat. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, and the other thing I would… Yeah, and also what? I would also share that the Safe Routes to School Committee, I've been on it since I've been here, but it existed long before I got here, and SBSD Helpdesk: what they've been doing is sort of going campus by campus to work with the pinch points and address things that

109the school can address and that Safe Routes to School, the Local Motion folks can help us address. SBSD Helpdesk: And, that the city can address in making things safer for our bikers and walkers, and so… SBSD Helpdesk: We've really focused a lot of time on Rick Marcotte because, you know, obvious reasons there, but, the next one for… that we're working towards is the high middle one. So, hopefully that'll incentivize your student to continue to… it's definitely, it's doable. It's doable. That hill that's the main problem. You can grade that hill. SBSD Helpdesk: And one of the… Nick Anderson is a really vibrant member of our community and of the Bike Ped Committee. He and his family bike absolutely everywhere, from what I can tell. And, he is really passionate about making sure that we have

110those, safe avenues for all of us to use, and so I'm hopeful that, there's gonna be… and the city's been a great partner, like, even today. SBSD Helpdesk: the Director of Public Works was like, well, we have… SBSD Helpdesk: in our, sort of, supply, additional, those flashing yellow crosswalk lights that, like, we… they're, like, 20,000 bucks a piece, and, like, they're ready to just be installed somewhere, so we just have to work together on prioritizing the list of what's most important, what are the best places to install them, so… Thank you. I would also share publicly that the work that they did on Dorset Street this summer, as a person who spends a lot of time crossing Dorset Street SBSD Helpdesk: get to those buildings on the other side. That new crosswalk is like… SBSD

111Helpdesk: people actually stop, which is… I'm very grateful for. SBSD Helpdesk: it's… I'm… not everyone stops. Exactly. Joe, do you know if… SBSD Helpdesk: the board should send a representative to the Safer Routes Task Force. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, MG, Marie, and I are there, so… Okay. I get emails about it, and I wasn't sure if we were… Kate Bailey, and we used to have an, laying society around it. Yeah, I think that, there is a position for a… there's a slot for a board member to be named as a representative to the Safe Routes to School Committee, and I think that I reminded Violet of that, at the end of the school SBSD Helpdesk: the air, what, and… SBSD Helpdesk: when it was a busy time, but, Joe and I definitely go. I go regularly,

112frequently, our principals of the schools that are… we're really focusing on are in attendance as well, so it's probably good for… SBSD Helpdesk: For one of you to be named as the person, but I don't know that you would need to attend on regularly. I mean, if I did participate a couple of times, and then I've just had a conflict, I haven't been able to go back during the work, because it's during the work week, and I haven't been able to… Yeah, maybe what we should do is ask Joe to make a recommend… like, if you think that that seat SBSD Helpdesk: should be filled, would you let us know? Yeah, I'll let you know. Because I know Kate Daly was showing up as a rep, but I think it would be helpful to have

113an actual board person participate, because then they could feed… Well, that's the other option. We could either… Yeah, anybody could do it. Yes, and I think Chelsea was named… SBSD Helpdesk: as the rep before she stepped down. I know I've seen her name on there before, so… SBSD Helpdesk: I don't know if she volunteered or… They just have moved them, and, now they're Wednesday afternoons. They were thirst… it's, like, at 1.30. Yeah. So why don't we allow you to Zoom? If you think that the board should be present. SBSD Helpdesk: And also the, you know, please do send us a note in there, or send me a note, and then also we can schedule a discussion of adding… of choosing somebody to be on that, if we think it's… SBSD Helpdesk: wise SBSD Helpdesk: And

114January, last year, the focus was on Chamberlain, so they started with Chamberlain and have lots of recommendations, to the city about… SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, it's good work. Yeah, and I… I will do that. I think it's… it is never a bad thing, for the… for school and city to work together, so I… SBSD Helpdesk: if somebody wanted to do it and was available to do it, I think it'd be a great idea to be on there. Does anybody want to be on the Wednesdays, safe routes, pastors? SBSD Helpdesk: I can… SBSD Helpdesk: What is timing? I think we should… It's 1.30, they just have changed it, it's 1.30 on Wednesdays, and it's almost exclusively remote now. We were meeting at City Hall, but now it's remote. Okay, so we'll take it up in a future

115meeting. I'm sorry, once a month. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. Okay. Okay. We'll take it up if we can. SBSD Helpdesk: A couple other things you could do. SBSD Helpdesk: So the safety is, ask the police to put the speed card. SBSD Helpdesk: you know, It's a mobile thing, they pop up, gives you the speed, that slows people down, but nothing… SBSD Helpdesk: improves people's driving, like a marked police car in the area. Yeah. And they can… SBSD Helpdesk: You know, if you're noticing problems, or you can just ask them to… SBSD Helpdesk: you know, because I know Chamberlain's also a problem, you know, with White Street. Just the speed can get up really big there. And, you know, Market Street. SBSD Helpdesk: What? SBSD Helpdesk: Speedcourt, Long Cruiser. SBSD Helpdesk: does wonders. And we went half

116of… all of last year without a morning crossing guard, because we just couldn't tell the position. Thankfully, someone is in this position in here, so we have no one to cross between. Would you introduce… it's a staff member making a comment. SBSD Helpdesk: Berlin School. SBSD Helpdesk: Are we good on, on this one for now? Yeah. All right, thank you. The next item is, project management tracker update. I think since we started doing this a couple board meetings ago, it's just meant to kind of be a reminder of what individual board members are pursuing. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, for example, I am continuing to do research, with help from Joe on IEPs. SBSD Helpdesk: At this point, I think, SBSD Helpdesk: But would it be okay, Michelle and Jen, if I added you to this?

117SBSD Helpdesk: We're kind of just independently researching this. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, it is from you, Sean. SBSD Helpdesk: Wanna speak there? SBSD Helpdesk: So, we just want to be transparent with the public that we're looking into that. We don't have a committee, we're not meeting about it, but we have been doing research about it. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm also, asking questions SBSD Helpdesk: to Joe about, support staff, and, the… SBSD Helpdesk: difficulty of hiring support staff. That's just a personal topic that I'm researching. SBSD Helpdesk: Does anybody want to talk about any other work that they're doing? SBSD Helpdesk: Oops. SBSD Helpdesk: I… I mean, my name is next to the superintendent committee, so I'm not 100% sure what that means… sorry, I don't know what that means. SBSD Helpdesk: So, back a couple meetings ago,

118we talked about SBSD Helpdesk: superintendent committees as being a good open meeting law compatible way for… Yes, I agree with that, yep. Right. I remember that. And so, the two that we said, there were many ideas during the community forum, we talked about probably a dozen different committee ideas, and Joe recommended that the ones we start with be, I believe it was you, curriculum and finance. Yeah, and the curriculum one is, SBSD Helpdesk: nearly formed and ready to have their first meeting, and I think, SBSD Helpdesk: Nicole, if she has not already, will be reaching out to see which board members would like to be on that. I think a board member or two should be. Finance, Jean Marie, is working on, but quite frankly, it's a little behind because of audit and budget and

119all of those, sorts of things, so she'll be, SBSD Helpdesk: Getting that together, but… SBSD Helpdesk: there will be a better time of year to start doing that. Okay, so Jen, do you… I can strike this, and you can… and we can all wait for… because the idea is that we want to delete things as we've been… Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say delete it. I would say, you know, I would say we want to keep it on there, and I think that as we're looking forward, there's… SBSD Helpdesk: Well, there's going to be a separate committee, which is not a superintendent, but it's the interim, or the superintendent search committee. That's going to be a separate thing, so I would actually add SBSD Helpdesk: maybe another line item, that we're going to have the

120superintendent search committee, now that we've approved, or will be approving the contract, we're going to need to pull that together. SBSD Helpdesk: And I think I would just list, I think, each of the… each committee separately, so you could have a couple of people who put their names next to them. Instead of superintendent committees in general, it's Curriculum Advisory Committee, and who's going to be on it, and compliance committee who's going to be on it. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so… I'm hearing a few things here, SBSD Helpdesk: We did just take action to, SBSD Helpdesk: to approve the contract with the VSBA, SBSD Helpdesk: And I realized that we did not nominate a search committee. SBSD Helpdesk: And that is going to come up almost immediately, once we start that. And so I might… SBSD Helpdesk:

121Proposed that we… SBSD Helpdesk: Go back, we amend the agenda right now, two-thirds vote of the board, sorry about that, that we nominate a committee. SBSD Helpdesk: To attend those, SBSD Helpdesk: permanent superintendent, sorry. Is that something that's going to be suggested by Elaine, like, who's going to make up the committee, and how many people are on it? People from the board, if we want to have people that want to be a part of it, like, what would we… So just board members. Yeah, it would just be board members. Well, our next… when is our next meeting? SBSD Helpdesk: November. November 5th. Yeah. So that would be 2 weeks. So I think we probably want to have nominated board members before… Who would like to participate in the permanent superintendent search? I mean, last time

122it was… SBSD Helpdesk: Seamus, Laura, and I. I would like to. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, well, let's, let's wait for Dan to get back, then we'll amend the agenda. Apologies for doing that, to… I mean, this… and I think we gotta specify, this is strictly for the board to say who wants to be a part of that. Yes. One reason I'm… SBSD Helpdesk: I would like to talk to… SBSD Helpdesk: Elaine to see how many members she wants. Last time it was 3, and maybe she wants 4 people, there's two and a half. I think it's a little premature. Well, why don't we… why don't we nominate 4, then we just say. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, 3 people plus. Well, anyway, let's… would it be… is she out of line, since you have a relationship with Elaine,

123and we've already voted to move forward working with them, to just email her and ask those questions now, and then we can also have a short list of people that we've assembled tonight. SBSD Helpdesk: To fit whatever number she gives us. SBSD Helpdesk: Right, if she gives us 2 or 3 or 4… SBSD Helpdesk: who's interested? Yeah, let's just get… I feel like, given the urgency, the time urgency, we should not fail to… SBSD Helpdesk: Dominate 4 people now. SBSD Helpdesk: So that when the time comes, we have, ready… SBSD Helpdesk: committee that can be with us for… Do you like to have more? SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, yeah, so it's gotta be three, it's gotta be three. Yeah. Let's comment. So the proposal here, apologies for doing this a second time. SBSD Helpdesk: is to

124amend the agenda by a two-thirds vote of the board to, SBSD Helpdesk: say who on the board, would go on to the permanent superintendent search committee that is presumably going to be almost immediately born after we start the permanent superintendent search process, given that if we don't do it tonight, we would have to wait until November 10th. SBSD Helpdesk: So, is two-thirds of the board amenable? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, so, does any… can anybody… does anybody not want to be… SBSD Helpdesk: on the permanent superintendent search committee. SBSD Helpdesk: simply don't want to if it… it's… SBSD Helpdesk: Modern Monday at the fighting time. SBSD Helpdesk: Don't worry about it. SBSD Helpdesk: It's difficult. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing. I don't have a… I don't need to be. If some

125other people are more… SBSD Helpdesk: fired up to do it, I can just step back. Of course. I think, with a permanent superintendent search, there absolutely should be a round or two where all board members are involved, where you have a board meeting, an executive session, where you're interviewing the candidates. And we did that, yeah, yeah, we did that. I just want to make sure that people know that everybody will have a say. So, yes, to clarify, the reason that we're doing this right now is because we SBSD Helpdesk: just went through this process with the same organization, the BSBA, for our interim sewerge, and in that SBSD Helpdesk: effort, we needed 3 board members to be present from the beginning of the process to get it even kicked off. SBSD Helpdesk: And then, as

126the… SBSD Helpdesk: search progresses, then it will come to the back to the full board. But this is just to ensure that we can actually do something with the VSBA once we sign the contract with them. SBSD Helpdesk: So, Emily, Dan, Michelle, do you have, interest in being on the board? I'm sorry, being on the search committee? Michelle Boyer: Yes, please. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so I think at this point. SBSD Helpdesk: We have 1, 2, 3, or 5 people who are interested. SBSD Helpdesk: Does anybody have any suggestions about how we've picked from the 5 people who are interested on the… SBSD Helpdesk: Search committee. I like to do it randomly. SBSD Helpdesk: I would rather somebody else. I think you guys have more experience in this than having just done the search. I would…

127I don't think I'm the best person. Okay, so we're down… Given the experience that you guys have, having just gone through it. So we're down to poor people. SBSD Helpdesk: Which is still one more that we can have. SBSD Helpdesk: Any suggestions? SBSD Helpdesk: God. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, I'm available if I'm needed. If somebody else would like to do it, I'm happy to step back, whichever. SBSD Helpdesk: Shall I do a random selection? SBSD Helpdesk: I'll do a round of selection. SBSD Helpdesk: One thing I would suggest this time around is that I know both you and Allie had wanted to be on it before. I think it would be great if you both could participate this time around, yeah. Are we really going to choose this committee with this? SBSD Helpdesk: Is that what

128we're doing? SBSD Helpdesk: We're just picking the person who doesn't, yeah, okay, I'd just like the record to show. SBSD Helpdesk: Don't use this club, okay. SBSD Helpdesk: So, Michelle, your name, unfortunately, was randomly picked as the SBSD Helpdesk: the… you got the… the odd person out. So, is the board comfortable with the… SBSD Helpdesk: three members to work with the… so, and also, I did not include myself in this, because I assumed, and I perhaps should not have done that, that the board chair should be on the superintendent search committee. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so I randomly picked between Jen, Laura, and Michelle, and Michelle, it's, you unfortunately got picked as the person who wasn't going to be on it, so is the board comfortable with Jen, Laura, and Seamus being on the permanent superintendent

129search committee? SBSD Helpdesk: I will note that that is the same three people that did it last time. Yes. It's also the chair of… SBSD Helpdesk: I feel like you guys. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. Already took on X… said you would take on more, so this is it. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, SBSD Helpdesk: I don't remember whether months ago we took an action on this, or just in case we're going to take an action on it, so I would entertain a motion to name Jen, Laura, and Seamus to work with the permanent superintendent search, process. SBSD Helpdesk: There's a hand about the discussion, so… Well, but is that… but we amended to make it an action item. SBSD Helpdesk: So it is sort of public discussion. Don't we move in first, and then there's discussion. Yeah, yeah,

130so… Okay, because I'd like to call for the orders of the day. We are approaching the party. So do I have a motion? Motion. SBSD Helpdesk: Do I have a second? Second. SBSD Helpdesk: Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: Elizabeth, do you… would you like to speak? SBSD Helpdesk: No, just muted. Elizabeth: Seamus, I just wondered if, you had any idea of what kind of, process would be needed with, other than board members on that selection committee at this point. SBSD Helpdesk: I think not yet. I think that we probably can't scope that tonight. We should not be responding to the public, so this… that's something that we are going to be working out. It's not a give and take on public comment. Right, I'm not respond… I'm not responding to all of this year. I think

131it is a consideration that we don't have, SBSD Helpdesk: In the last… Superintendent search process. SBSD Helpdesk: We decided as a board who was gonna be on the, SBSD Helpdesk: So how many community members, how many staff members, how many administrators are going to be on it. So what I might propose at this point is that we allow the motion to… we approve the motion. SBSD Helpdesk: And then we make another motion just to… for the avoidance of doubt, that we use the same committee composition that we did last time. SBSD Helpdesk: Although we probably don't have… No, Elaine would be talking us through this. That's why we're paying them the money. So, no, these decisions we should not be making tonight. Yep. If not tonight. We're actually gonna have to come up with a

132conversation, so maybe we put this for… Yes, when we… Can I finish? SBSD Helpdesk: Maybe we put this to discuss at the next meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: That will be November 5th. So, is the board okay with the SBSD Helpdesk: committee forming before our next board meeting with a composition that is recommended by the BSBA? Yes. Yes, yes. Okay, so I think that, SBSD Helpdesk: I think that what we should do is, first, we should approve the motion that's currently on the table, which is to name Jen, Laura, and Seamus to work with the permanent superintendent search process led by the BSBA. We've had discussion on it. SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. And then I think we should also, again, amend the agenda to, again, an action item, just for the avoidance

133of doubt, that, SBSD Helpdesk: The board… something along the lines of the board is going to be okay with the committee composition that is SBSD Helpdesk: Recommended by the BSBA and agreed to by the other members of the committee. Yeah, we're, like, we're delegating you three to make those decisions. Make the committee decision. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Make those decisions. So all I want now is whether we're okay talking about that now. That's the general… so is two-thirds of the board okay with talking about that right now? Yes. Okay, so I would entertain a motion to… SBSD Helpdesk: To allow the… SBSD Helpdesk: people named on the committee to decide the composition… the board members named in the committee just now, to decide the composition of the search committee, as recommended by the BSPA, and in

134light of the urgency of, SBSD Helpdesk: starting that process before November 5th. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, with the caveat that when we did the interim search, we did talk about that in public. SBSD Helpdesk: And that was where the composition of the search committee changed, and it went from, like, 7 to 14. And so, I think we definitely need to hear what Elaine has to say, and we will bring that back, and we will discuss it, but then I think we will need to, you know, confirm and vote on that. Like, this is going to be our committee, because that's what we did before, and that's what I would suggest. SBSD Helpdesk: that we do. At this point, just to be efficient, we've got our committee, and I would say any next steps are going to

135be after we hear from Elaine what she recommends. I don't think we need… my opinion, I don't think we need another motion to… to go further. Okay, so the motion fails. I do want to point out, though, that SBSD Helpdesk: So, our next regular meeting is November 5th, so that's in more than 2 weeks, and… SBSD Helpdesk: one of the first things that Elaine did with us last time was, create the committee. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, if we… if we tonight do not agree to SBSD Helpdesk: Take the recommendation that she provides. SBSD Helpdesk: that means that the committee cannot start its work until at least November 5th. Well, we couldn't start until at least November 5th anyway, because there's going to have to be community members and school people and others that are going

136to be on that committee, and we're not going to be positioned… We won't be able to send out a survey until that happens. Until… exactly. So that's why I'm saying… But I'm saying, if we take an action tonight to allow the SBSD Helpdesk: Composition to be formed like it was last time. SBSD Helpdesk: we could send out a survey next week, but otherwise we have to wait two weeks. I think it's premature. I say we wait until November 5th, and let's just go November 5th. When we're in our next session, that's when we talk about it, and we go forward. Yeah, because the contract still needs to be signed, and the committee needs to meet by the lane, and she's going to give instructions. And this needs to be held in public, and this is…

137this needs to be a public discussion. We can't be doing that to stop off on the side. SBSD Helpdesk: You guys meet with the SBA, how they feel the committee should be composed, then, as Jen just stated, we need to have an open discussion with the public. Okay. But you can put it for an action item on the November 5th. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so on the November… so the motion fails, there was no motion to begin with, and on November 5th, we will talk about, forming the superintendent search party. SBSD Helpdesk: Correct. SBSD Helpdesk: That's correct. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, so… Any other… Comments on the… SBSD Helpdesk: discussion item that we've worked off from? Well, I mean, we just… I would just suggest add it onto your… add it onto the project management tracker, that

138we've got the superintendent SBSD Helpdesk: Permanent superintendent search committee. SBSD Helpdesk: and next steps that are going to come out of that. There's definitely some of these that we… I think you've already followed up on this. So, anyway, we'll do that. I know which ones are done here. And the only other thing that I would add to that project management tracker is I think that… SBSD Helpdesk: Having a space on there for articles to the other paper is also good. SBSD Helpdesk: And figuring out, you know, if people have topics or things that they would like to be able to present, etc, just to kind of have that on our radar, that we are providing, you know. SBSD Helpdesk: Output to the community, because not everybody SBSD Helpdesk: from the community comes to board meetings,

139or probably watches board meetings, but they may read the paper. It might have a larger audience, and I think that's important. So I would just put that on the track as something that we're dealing with. So I think we should add a discussion item at a future meeting that talks about what our approach is going to be to other paper stuff. SBSD Helpdesk: So we've already done the interim superintendent's report. SBSD Helpdesk: Earlier in the meeting, so at this point, we're at Consent Agenda. SBSD Helpdesk: So, the first item is to approve the minutes for October 1st. So, I have a couple comments on the minutes, and so I recommend that the board, not approve the minutes yet. SBSD Helpdesk: But let me work with Joe to add a few more details, and then we'll

140look at them again at a future board meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: I didn't have a problem with that. SBSD Helpdesk: And then at this point, I would entertain a motion SBSD Helpdesk: to approve the accounts payable AP orders. SBSD Helpdesk: 1196, 1197, $11.98, 1200, and 1201. SBSD Helpdesk: Fairly. SBSD Helpdesk: Emily, whoops. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, I can. Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: Dan, seconds. So, is there any discussion of these… Before we approve them. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, all those in favor? SBSD Helpdesk: Aye. Aye. Michelle Boyer: Bye. SBSD Helpdesk: Student Moment update. SBSD Helpdesk: So, setting the agenda for the November 5th meeting, I'm gonna propose that we skip this and do this over email. SBSD Helpdesk: Is that fine? We just have that superintendent search will be on. Superintendent search will be on there, yes. SBSD Helpdesk:

141And you'll also have the project management and things like the other paper articles. SBSD Helpdesk: Yep. SBSD Helpdesk: Hopefully, you'll have some, preliminary budget, stuff from the finance office. Okay, that's awesome. And an update on the redistricting. SBSD Helpdesk: So, we have approved the accounts payables. SBSD Helpdesk: Were there any other… anything else that we needed to approve? SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so the next… SBSD Helpdesk: Item on the agenda is a new item that was introduced with the new agenda, and it is a link to a board meeting evaluation survey that members of the public may click on and fill out. SBSD Helpdesk: Members of the public? I thought it was members of the public could also do it. No, Board self-reflection is just for us. And you do it after adjournment. Yeah, it is

142synonymous. This was not intended to… yeah, and this, I think, was an error. SBSD Helpdesk: On my behalf, when we sent the draft template, because this was supposed to be, like, a discussion item. SBSD Helpdesk: But it was something when Emily… Wait, but we shouldn't talk about it. It's not… No, no, I mean, just… I'm giving context to it. When Emily and Laura and I participated in the SBA training, this was something that was shared as a best practice, that at the end of a meeting, you would have a board reflection. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, this was created, and the thought would be that at the conclusion of each meeting, we, the board members, would have an opportunity to go through and kind of score themselves on their preparedness coming into the meeting, how efficient

143we worked through things. If we ventured into SBSD Helpdesk: you know, operational topics, etc. So, I would say that this may need a little bit of refinement, and thinking about how we want to do it, that it adds value to our process, and it's not just SBSD Helpdesk: You know, aware. SBSD Helpdesk: And then, you know, you could give yourself a scale of 1 to 10. So it… it's not… this is not, like, feedback from the community. This is feedback for the board to help drive continuous improvement for us. Yeah, exactly. And it's to be done after a german is. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, exactly. So, I think this needs a little… a little bit more… Well, since we have it on the agenda, why don't I just pull it up so people can see

144it, and then we won't fill it out, but for example… Davis, are we doing this in the public format? I mean, if this is an inter… if this is a workspace evaluation… Well, we should… So part of it is there is actually a form SBSD Helpdesk: And we're not allowed to collaboratively edit things like forms, so I was just thinking that maybe we should just all look at the support and say, oh, are we okay with SBSD Helpdesk: at the… at the end of next meeting, filling this out, I think… And it would be one person, perhaps, that would fill it out. It wouldn't be everybody. I was just gonna ask, is the expectation that somebody fill it out after every meeting, or that everybody fill it out? Sorry, Laura. It is to be completed.

145SBSD Helpdesk: to be completed anonymously by all board members immediately upon adjournance. That's the expectation. It wasn't a collaborative thing. No, no, it should not be collaborative, and it's anonymous, and so I… SBSD Helpdesk: So let's just… let's just, what's the word? SBSD Helpdesk: grip through this. Laura and Jennifer, is… are the results of this something that we discuss in the public, or is this an internal board-facing where we can… No, this is something I… I don't know, actually, so I… SBSD Helpdesk: I'm not entirely comfortable, like, because I don't know, I don't know, but I don't know what you do, I think. It's… board members are given SBSD Helpdesk: I don't know if it's the same thing, and I have read? Is that… this is different. Yeah, and then a hybrid agenda? So this

146is more assessment, so this is… SBSD Helpdesk: I'd go back and use something SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, the SBA one is what I would suggest, and let's just follow that process. And maybe it's the kind of thing that we shelf it until we do our policy governance module training, and we talk with people. That's excellent. And let's just find out how do we do it, instead of… I'd rather do it right, you know? Exactly. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: So, at this point, we don't talk about how SBSD Helpdesk: model this meeting was? No. Nobody fell at that point didn't say that. We made progress, we voted on it. You wouldn't be anonymous for that. Nobody for discussion. Put that right out there. But, you know, keep it in our parking lot. SBSD Helpdesk: This… so, for members

147of the public, this agenda item was… SBSD Helpdesk: Accidentally added to the end of the board meeting. SBSD Helpdesk: Because we have been revising the agenda template, hopefully be more, explanatory of what's going on in each section, and the conclusion the board just came to is that we are going to SBSD Helpdesk: re-evaluate The concept of these self-evaluations after we've had more policy governance training. SBSD Helpdesk: And we know how to properly… so, yeah. One thing, SBSD Helpdesk: just however you guys end up doing it, you might want to, like, change the way to access it, because I think anyone from the public can get it right now. Yeah, we don't want that. We don't want to do that. We don't want that. It would need to be something that we would have, and we

148would say this is… SBSD Helpdesk: It would be public information no matter what. SBSD Helpdesk: the question is mostly… I think we have the VSBA, right? That is a question that we need to ask. I think the VSBA needs to help us understand if there's an internal-facing-only evaluation. But there's no such thing as any material received or created by the board if it doesn't fall under the SBSD Helpdesk: exceptions, it's public, so this would… I would love to explain that to… that is probably the case, but I would love to know that before we unleash a survey out there. Yep, I agree. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. SBSD Helpdesk: I move! SBSD Helpdesk: Second. Emily moves. Austin seconds. Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? Aye. Michelle Boyer:

149Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: Right now.