March 5, 2025 School Board Meeting

001SBSD Owl Camera: Good evening, everyone welcome my name is Violet Nichols, superintendent of the South Burlington School district, and I am calling this meeting to order at 6 0. 4 pm. On Wednesday, March 5.th This is a reorganization meeting, as we are one day out from town, meeting day with a past budget, which is why I am opening the meeting. My 1st order of business is to welcome new School Board members, and then we will elect a chairperson and a co-chair. SBSD Owl Camera: so without further ado, I'd like to welcome Ali Leduc, who is our junior board. Rep. And Gracie Morris, our senior board rep, and they have been exceptional advocates since the moment I met them, but seemingly from birth, before they could walk or talk. Probably I want to thank them for

002their incredible efforts in the budget season. Not just this year, but SBSD Owl Camera: Gracie as well last year as we've endured as a team some really significant changes in our funding due to factors outside of the district's control. But I'm incredibly proud of their advocacy. Great articles in the other paper, wonderful presentations to students at the high School, and then even on their vacation emailing me, you know, the last couple days, you know, spreading the word about SBSD Owl Camera: and wave outside of polls with their posters, and so just SBSD Owl Camera: really proud of you, too, and happy to be at the table with you. Dan Boyer is one of our new board members for about 2 years now we've been talking about board member expansion so that we can have a

003board more representative of our growing community. This is something the board has been really supportive of, and we are finally seeing it in action. Today you'll see that for the 1st time ever we are SBSD Owl Camera: we not me. They are a board of 7 and rather than 5, and we're fortunate to have Dan on the team. Dan, do you mind if I share a bit about your background. We didn't choreograph this. SBSD Owl Camera: Dan has been in the navy, and also served on Svpd for quite some time, where he was a negotiator and we are just really lucky to have him and his expertise on the team. Welcome, Dan and Chelsea. Tillinghast has been on the chair for 3 years now, and she has served SBSD Owl Camera: as chair for the

004past year and a half SBSD Owl Camera: year. Solid year town meeting day. Last year she was elected chair, and Chelsea is a small business owner and entrepreneur, and a student of macrobiology, or is it micro microbiology? And Tim Warren has served on the board? He filled a vacancy. He started SBSD Owl Camera: coming to meetings to get involved. And then it was like the reality TV show that he couldn't stop watching. And so he eventually shifted from the one side to the other side of the room, and we're grateful for it. Tim's done an exceptional job engaging the community throughout the budget process and learning about different issues, and joined us at every one of the budget presentations SBSD Owl Camera: on the Budget roadshow, and Tim has twin daughters at the High school,

005who many of you know and love, and Tim has served as our vice chair. I don't know if I said that so great to have you here, and he has just won a 3 year term, so he'll be here for forever and ever. I'd like to welcome Emily Hoffman. SBSD Owl Camera: Now Emily comes with lots of welcoming names. She's from a family of educators. I, too, family of educators so glad to have a supporter of students, teachers, and staff on the team. Emily was really lovely, a refreshing breath of air for us, because she actually ran as a write-in so initially. SBSD Owl Camera: we didn't have a candidate running for all of the seats so really excited when we saw her front porch Forum post that she was going to join the team

006to complete the 4 to 7 and welcome. Thank you for being here. Laura Williams has just won her 3 year term congratulations. Laura is also an educator, dedicated her life to SBSD Owl Camera: education, and she has been on the board for 2 and a half years. Laura helped out. We had a vacancy, and she stepped in, and it's just been seamless. So really glad to have you back at the table congrats on the Victory and finally, seamus Ashir is our one of our newest board members. It's a 2 year term. Is that right? SBSD Owl Camera: Alright? So Seamus is a parent, a community member, and he's really good in it. So and yeah, and he likes to drink more tea than coffee now. SBSD Owl Camera: So I think I've covered that. And

007he's got some good TV recommendations. So here we are. This is your board. Welcome? Thank you for being here, I'm you know, really looking forward to having stability and consistency and more hands to support our our students, staff, and communities. SBSD Owl Camera: So with that I will begin a reorganization or organization process of the board, and I will now entertain a motion for election of a chairperson. SBSD Owl Camera: and we do elect Chelsea Tillinghast, as our orchard SBSD Owl Camera: are there. I'm sorry. Give me a second. There are there other nominations SBSD Owl Camera: hearing none? Is there a second SBSD Owl Camera: second. Thank you, Laura. Sorry I will now entertain discussion. SBSD Owl Camera: I just want to say I think Chelsea's done a great job this past year has

008kept us on the straight and narrow, has put a lot of time and effort into putting together agendas, making sure we're prepared all kinds of stuff. There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that most of us don't see, and I really appreciate all the effort she's put in so, especially from a continuities perspective. As we have a lot of new board members, I think it's really important that we continue having her as chair as we move forward this year. SBSD Owl Camera: 2 mic system. Green button is the local mic in the room, although these are shoddy, so speak loudly. And then the microphone with numbers on. It is through Ratn and so just talk loudly. Is the key to being heard in person and on the recording cool SBSD Owl

009Camera: Chelsea. What are the important things about the board chair? SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah. The important things about the Board chair are helping board members to know their roles and responsibilities being available to answer questions, being the spokesperson for the board, because the Board speaks as one voice. SBSD Owl Camera: and in the last year I've done so much art. And I'm looking forward to putting that into piece. SBSD Owl Camera: Let's look at basically any further discussion. SBSD Owl Camera: Hearing none, I will now take a roll call vote, beginning with Seamus. SBSD Owl Camera: what do I just say, yes, yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Yay, okay, yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: And the the eyes have it. Chelsea congratulations. And it is now your meeting. Thank you. SBSD Owl

010Camera: I appreciate the support. And, as I said last year, I don't believe in leading without the support of the team, so if at any time you have feedback, or you'd like for something to change, I'm always open to feedback. I want to do what's best for the team. So, thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: We now need to elect a clerk. The clerk is responsible for chairing meetings. If the chair is unable to attend, and being prepared to take over the role of chair in the event that the chair cannot be present. Nominations are now in order for the office of the clerk. SBSD Owl Camera: Perfect Tim Warren is nominated, are there bringing in admissions with this SBSD Owl Camera: second, if not, nominations are closed. I have a motion to elect Tim Warren

011for clerk of the Sacramento School Board. SBSD Owl Camera: Stay in a second, then I don't share any discussion. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, Tim, what are the important things about, partner? SBSD Owl Camera: You sign a lot of papers. SBSD Owl Camera: and basically what what Chelsea said, as you would assume the same role where she not present. SBSD Owl Camera: I served as clerk for 2 years before chair, and I think the clerk role as it's currently defined in our policies can be pretty flexible. It's up to, I think, the chair to delegate, and the clerk is the kind of the 1st person to delegate tasks to, and I really enjoyed working with him last year, and he's been so helpful and dedicated and shows up and does everything he says he's going to

012do so. Any further discussion. SBSD Owl Camera: all right. All in favor signify by saying, aye, and there's no answer. SBSD Owl Camera: I agree. SBSD Owl Camera: The motion passes unanimously until it has been elected clerk of the South Building School Board. SBSD Owl Camera: All right. So up next we have agenda. Item, 4 announcements and amendments to the agenda. Are there any announcements or amendments to the agenda? I have one. I'd like to move. Item 6. A. To be the new item 5, so that we can hear from our students who are here this evening for our students spotlight SBSD Owl Camera: issue with that. SBSD Owl Camera: Would that be so that the public can comment on. SBSD Owl Camera: No, that would be so. The students don't have to stand SBSD

013Owl Camera: any other announcements or amendments to the agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: Nothing for me. I would like to just ask if we could make items 8 and 9. 1 item right now they're separated out. But they're both training and reviewing policy. And so I think conversation will flow more naturally if we just make it one agenda. Item. SBSD Owl Camera: No, but you also just want to know that it looks like right now. We only have 35 min warrange from policy training. But that's an error. SBSD Owl Camera: With that, then we will move to our new agenda. Item, 5, focus on student learning student spotlight representatives from judge of each Tuttle Middle School Science Fair. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. I'd like to welcome Principal Suzanne brundling. And she is here with students and

014wonderful veteran science. Teacher, Lauren Bartley. Come on, Lauren. I know you're a little shy, but the credit is important with our students who have been quite successful, and are here to share with us some of their conclusions about their research. SBSD Owl Camera: So without further ado, welcome, Suzanne, great Hi, Suzanne Gremly, a Tuttle Middle School principal welcome to our new Board members, and thank you for having us here tonight. When our students get an opportunity to come and showcase our program. It is certainly a highlight in our week, and we will, without a doubt, Ms. Bartle. Right? We will invite the board next SBSD Owl Camera: year to come. Watch our science fair live. So to give you a little snippet of Science fair at Tuttle Middle School. We have 600 students at Tuttle,

015about 200 of them in 8th grade, and they all did impressive science fair projects that over the course of 8 weeks developed a testable question. I bet you, remembering science fair right now developed their testable question. SBSD Owl Camera: developed their procedure for their experiment, conducted their research, and really grappled with what their findings were and developed their conclusions. And Science fair doesn't happen without our dedicated staff that wrap around our students across all of our 8th grade core classes and led by our 2 science teachers, Aaron Weiselmerski and Lauren Bartlett. SBSD Owl Camera: here to help students go all the way through the scientific process really come up with things that are of interest to our students and drive that learning forward. And our science teachers find 60 community members who are scientists and

016interested in our scientists to come and be. I think we're on the Thursday before February SBSD Owl Camera: break we had all 200 product projects set up our students all there, and they all developed a presentation to go, and they're going to give you just a little snippet of it to look at. And these are our first, st second, and 3rd place, winners out of the entire science fair, and they will. We have Molly Pels, Elena Gomez, Aerodonnis. SBSD Owl Camera: and Maddie Roy, and they're going to each tell you a little bit about their science fair experiments, you'll find that they are eloquent scientists who are able to draw conclusions and really informative ones that are affecting our world today, Molly, you want to start us out. Sure. Thank you. So my name is

017Molly Palace, and my project was natural defenders. How common plants can help protect against journal. SBSD Owl Camera: And I tested the question, does the concentration of fertilizer and water affects the Nano conductance in cycling plants? SBSD Owl Camera: Runoff is from farms and gardens is a huge problem, because it can reach bodies of water and harm the aquatic life and cause algae growth, which is what we've seen in Lake Champlain, causing the beach closures SBSD Owl Camera: a way to fight. This is with vegetative buffers, which are plots of soil and plants that don't get touched. Don't get driven on, and these can soak up the runoff before it reaches the water. SBSD Owl Camera: and I wanted to test if the supplement, which is a common blooming plant can be a plant that

018we would want to plant in one of those buffers. SBSD Owl Camera: I added different concentrations of fertilizer to each plant to see if the plants could stay healthy in a runoff situation with added levels of fertilizer. SBSD Owl Camera: I was using stomato conductance as a general measure of the plant's health. SBSD Owl Camera: Somatal conductance is the rate at which Co. 2 enters. A water vapor exits through the somata, which are small pores on the plant leaves through which gases can flow. SBSD Owl Camera: I tested my project with a barometer which I got from the Keller Lab at Uvm, and SBSD Owl Camera: with my project all the plants remained healthy, meaning that the supplement could be possibly used as a function. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Hi. My

019name's Elena, and the title of my project is, you've messed up my DNA. SBSD Owl Camera: The testable question is, how does the amount of time under UV light affect DNA damage? My hypothesis was that the more time the yeast was exposed to UV light, the more damage its DNA would be SBSD Owl Camera: for my procedure. I grew the yeast on a guard plate, and then exposed them to UV light. SBSD Owl Camera: I then extracted the DNA, using a Lysis bumper, which is made of soap, salt, and distilled water. SBSD Owl Camera: and after that I ran a gel electrophoresis to see the results, and this is a technique used to separate molecules by size and charge. SBSD Owl Camera: The expected results were these, where DNA should have been broken up. SBSD

020Owl Camera: and this is the result of single strand and double strand breaks in the double helix of the DNA. SBSD Owl Camera: But my results were that all the DNA bands were approximately the same size, showing that no visible results. SBSD Owl Camera: the of DNA damage were caused. SBSD Owl Camera: This could have happened for several reasons, like maybe the DNA strands were too long, because I did not use a technique called Pcr. SBSD Owl Camera: And the homemade Lysis buffer had no proteinase pay. SBSD Owl Camera: Also it could have been that they were not exposed to UV light for enough time to cause single and double strand breaks. SBSD Owl Camera: There are also other kinds of DNA damage that are not visible in the gel that could have been present,

021such as Thyman Dimers and Cpds. These are not visible in the gel, but there are other techniques used to see these like the comment assay. SBSD Owl Camera: Despite my inconclusive results, I found that there are many researches on UV light and SBSD Owl Camera: and entirely product is impacting aftermath. Studying the lasting effect of the SBSD Owl Camera: the question I was trying to answer was, how do concussions affect verbal memory, visual memory and training skills? 3 to 4 months after the initial recruitment. SBSD Owl Camera: I tested this SBSD Owl Camera: by having mostly participants with no concussion exposure, and a group of participants with recent concussion exposure in the last 3 to 4 months, and they are asked to complete SBSD Owl Camera: an online test that SBSD Owl Camera: tested their

022verbal memory and their visual memory, and then their typing. These are 3 separate tests, and each person completed each test 3 times, and SBSD Owl Camera: my hypothesis was that people who had concussion exposure would score slightly lower on the tests due to the lasting effects it has on the brain, and I was proving mostly correct. SBSD Owl Camera: but not all the way around, because one of my participants, who had a concussion, had a very mild concussion, which did not leave any lasting effects, but the second 2, with more severe concussions, did have lasting effects. So what I found out was that people with severe concussions do have lasting effects on their brain. But people who don't and have more mild concussions do not. SBSD Owl Camera: and out of our 200 science fair

023projects. Elena was our 1st place, Finisher SBSD Owl Camera: and Molly. SBSD Owl Camera: You saw how eloquent they they speak. We are so excited that you consider coming to Science Fair next year is the 200 projects that students had that students had their verbal presentation to go with, and we had a little a little twist to it this year that our science teachers also invited Wptz and Wptz in the middle of a 200 SBSD Owl Camera: student. Science Fair came and broadcasted. The weather clips live on the 5 and 6 o'clock news. SBSD Owl Camera: So we had many students who found themselves in a situation of presenting, live no second, take no 3.rd Take no editors to do this, and came and presented on those little short clips that were before the the

024weather came on as well. So thank you very much, and thank you to our students and our staff for their hard work and dedication, and for our families for supporting us. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Would you all entertain a few questions? I'm sure they're just really these were fantastic. Thank you so much SBSD Owl Camera: I'll start with. SBSD Owl Camera: So how did you select the plant that you chose. SBSD Owl Camera: So I wanted to test a plant that was commonly found in gardens, and something that people would be able to find at a local garden store, and I found that Sickleman was a common blooming plant, and also to test the leaves needed to be a certain size, and I found that these leaves fit the instrument. Well.

025SBSD Owl Camera: thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Do you mind if I ask how many gels you have? Well, the 1st time I ran the gels I did not get any results. And then I ran 2 gels, one of which is here. And today. I ran another gel this morning, and it was using Lemur DNA, that was already previously extracted. But the results were very slim. So yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: it's not fun. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Did you use a microphone like that. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: I just want to add about that that Elena continues her work when our science fair is done. Yeah. So that's just speaks volumes about this work that they're doing. So can I ask what your sample size was for your concussion exposure? I tested 15 different people. 3

026of them had concussions? 3 and 12. SBSD Owl Camera: Any other questions. SBSD Owl Camera: I guess. What is it? Is it a gel? What is that? Sorry? It's like this technique that you put DNA in the wells, and then you, the DNA has a negatively charged. So it goes to the positively charged current. SBSD Owl Camera: and you can see, like the longer the strands are, and then the shorter strands they're supposed to separate. So you can see how damaged the DNA is. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, what is the current, native? Or what is the current plant that they use in these barriers? Usually you'll find like shrubs or trees. I know milkweed is a commonly used one. Yeah, just like shrubs, bushes. SBSD Owl Camera: Thanks so much.

027Thank you. Thank you so much SBSD Owl Camera: for the new board members just joining us. We the board performs monitoring reports, and one of them is treatment of students. And this is an ongoing way and staff. And this is an ongoing way, showcasing some of that work in real life action. It's it's also just important that we center students in our discussions and our business. So this is a reminder. We do it once a month. So thank you for that. SBSD Owl Camera: With that, let's move to our supervisor. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. Chelsea, Sb. High school students were in for a surprise during lunch today over, break the high school updated cafeteria seating arrangements based on a request from the Student Council. So instead of long rows, students have seen in the

028past. They are now in tables grouped together in squares which will help create a more social and comfortable environment, though. SBSD Owl Camera: Next Friday and Saturday, March 14, th and 15, th at 6 Pm. The Sbhs Talent Night will occur. Talent Night is an annual Sb. Tradition, where each grade puts on a student directed. Skit. This friendly competition between grades, benefits. Key Club. The High School's Primary Community Service club tickets are $10 and students can bring them during lunches next week, or families can buy them at the door, and we encourage all community members to watch this fun event. SBSD Owl Camera: and South Burlington High School will also have their annual winter carnival next Friday, March 14.th So one advisory in each grade will come together to form a wolf den where students

029have been bonding and collaborating to build sleds for the highly anticipated sled race, and students will also have the ability to choose 2 other activities they'd like to participate in. So some of those include, like small SBSD Owl Camera: or bonfire winter. Carnival is a great way for the high school to come together, and we can't wait for this bonding event. SBSD Owl Camera: And lastly, Ali and I would just like to thank those who took part in passing this year's budget. This budget upholds many opportunities for students that likely would not have, or would have been lost if a second budget were to have been proposed. And today many students came up to us, saying that they voted, and whatever way they voted, we just think it's really awesome that students are getting involved

030in the civic process. So that's what we wanted to add. SBSD Owl Camera: thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: 5, 6 comments for the public. SBSD Owl Camera: This is the community's opportunity to share feedback and concerns with the board. SBSD Owl Camera: We ask that you keep your comments concise, 2 to 3 min, and that you refrain from using any information that would identify a specific person. Please raise your hand in the room and use the zoom raised hand feature. We will only use the online chat to manage any tech issues. We are not able to take action on any issues brought to us during public comment. However, an important member may suggest tonight SBSD Owl Camera: that the issue or question be added to a future agenda for discussion. We may also delegate addressing issues

031to our superintendent is always helpful. If you can email us a copy of your comments for follow up. SBSD Owl Camera: is there any public comment. SBSD Owl Camera: Appreciate it SBSD Owl Camera: it's on is the repress of the button on the one that has a button. There you go! SBSD Owl Camera: Perfect. SBSD Owl Camera: My name is Aquilas Lukosu. I am a school counselor at high school. SBSD Owl Camera: A school counselor is a vital role in a resource within a student's life. In the public school system SBSD Owl Camera: currently at the High School. You have a black male school counselor who you're cutting. SBSD Owl Camera: going through the Brookton School district and having been on the Brookton School Board myself these last 2 years. I can tell you how

032truly imperative it is that we hire staff that represents the student population. SBSD Owl Camera: the office of equity and anti-racism. Page on our schools. District website writes that there'd be more than I quote action planning on current hiring processes that support and impede the hiring and retention of bipoc educators, staff and administrators. SBSD Owl Camera: Retention means ability to keep or continue having. SBSD Owl Camera: It's it's 1 thing to have Dei theory all over the the school culture websites. One thing, to have staff faculty dissect anti-racism practices during the service. But currently you have Dei in action within having a black individual actually doing the work that individuals right here, right right in front of you guys. SBSD Owl Camera: there are students across the street SBSD Owl Camera: who benefit from having

033Dawson building to represent, who they look like, who understand who they are, and can resonate and connect with their similar struggles. SBSD Owl Camera: A school counselor cut not only negatively impacts the students, but also the School Counselor Department will have double the work and students to attend to. SBSD Owl Camera: This is how you create program. SBSD Owl Camera: When I see that there's new board members around on the on the podium. Here, I I wanna encourage you guys to as you begin this work to truly understand the foundation of this work that you're doing, and I believe that a lot of foundation is going into the school buildings and seeing the work in action. And so, once you see the work in action. SBSD Owl Camera: you would then be acquired with information

034and relative experiences that would then continue to decide the the decisions you make that affect the school system? SBSD Owl Camera: And I just also want to say that being the School Board in Burlington, I've SBSD Owl Camera: growing up in Burlington also, and beyond the School Board in Burlington. I've I've seen and have been immersed with new Americans, because, you know, Vermont being not the biggest refugee resettlement program. We have a lot of new Americans in Burlington. And so, having experiences, and beyond the School Board these last 2 years, where a lot of our work have SBSD Owl Camera: went into. You know, the construction of the new school. We also have put our focus into our new American population and by black individuals. So I encourage you guys to keep the Di in

035action within keeping and having black individuals in your buildings as opposed to cutting them. SBSD Owl Camera: You can correct me here. I would love to just kind of thought, partner with you here, if that's permissible. Something about this. But I would appreciate if you could respond. Yeah, we can also take action to focus on a future agenda discussion. SBSD Owl Camera: That's also possible. I wonder about the I greatly. I agree with you. SBSD Owl Camera: and when we make reductions we have to abide by Union seniority. And so I wondered about. You know your experience on the school Board and your experience here, and how you know, with these new efforts to attract and retain staff and increase, Dei hires, and to ensure that our student population SBSD Owl Camera: is reflected in

036our staff, which is critically important, and it seems that these efforts, which have been new and recent are really impacted by seniority as we face these difficult budget times. And so that's something that we've done a great deal of thinking about. And I just wondered if you have any valuable experience at Burlington, and that. And we can. We can talk offline as well. SBSD Owl Camera: I just wanted to, you know, publicly say that the value is there, and some of the structures that we have with Union seniority tied to hands the district. And it's it's absolutely, you know, 3 straight years of reductions, 45.5 staff SBSD Owl Camera: and a lot of our recent hires are people of color. And it's absolutely impacting the effort. So maybe we can connect offline. But I appreciate

037you saying that awesome, just moving forward? I just urge you guys to keep the students SBSD Owl Camera: the main thing, the main thing. SBSD Owl Camera: Think we need to get Hamish. I can. I can reach out to you. Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: The other port on it. SBSD Owl Camera: Welcome new board members couldn't still be real familiar. SBSD Owl Camera: very excited, to see you here. SBSD Owl Camera: Good luck! SBSD Owl Camera: Congratulations on the budget. SBSD Owl Camera: I have a quote from oh, Gracie and Alley. Nice article SBSD Owl Camera: the way you get quoted in the other papers. SBSD Owl Camera: Impression. It is so. SBSD Owl Camera: Your mentor, Gracie, has asked me to read a statement that she sent to my email. I'm hoping that you'll

038give me the grace to allow Rama. SBSD Owl Camera: who sat in very CC. Last year the 3 min, and still allow myself 3 min thereafter, if I need to. Can we do that? SBSD Owl Camera: I am Rama's voice right now, not my own. SBSD Owl Camera: We received this via email couple of weeks back SBSD Owl Camera: and waited for her permission to come in and share it with you. SBSD Owl Camera: Quote, as of now, I read your email chain and notice some parents commenting on the equity aspect of the decision around honors America. SBSD Owl Camera: and how they'd like to get opinions of the lower income and more diverse families in the district. SBSD Owl Camera: This comment really spoke to me as I come from this background myself. I feel that

039this decision earns those students more than anyone else. SBSD Owl Camera: In my opinion, the simplification of courses at South Burlington High School, for the reason of equity is simply sending a message to those students saying the district does not think that they are smart enough, persevering enough, or have what you need to succeed in those environments. And this. SBSD Owl Camera: more than anything else, is condescension and hypocrisy in its highest order. SBSD Owl Camera: It is those students in particular that need that rigor of classes like honors, American studies to succeed further in life. SBSD Owl Camera: the most surface level repercussion being that academic scholarships. SBSD Owl Camera: Maybe the only way that those students could afford to attain higher education SBSD Owl Camera: come partially from showing success in high level

040courses, and with the disappearance of honors, American studies that opportunity not only disintegrates. But all the skills those students would have gained which I do not believe can be replicated with any of the alternatives that have been offered thus far disappear as well. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, my voice, and thank you, Ron, for sharing that my voice. SBSD Owl Camera: Here's the timeline on what's happened with honors. American studies thus far on the 21st of January. My name is Mark Gable, so I have a daughter who's currently in honors American studies. I also have an older daughter, whose life was changed by honors, American studies, and went from being average student at best SBSD Owl Camera: to a 4 point honor student, and is now a university. Now you go to those classes. SBSD Owl

041Camera: On the 21st of January I emailed Megan sweet to confirm the rumor that honors American studies was going to be canceled for next year she forwarded my email to John Craig SBSD Owl Camera: on the 21st of January. SBSD Owl Camera: On the 20 second of January he responded, saying he was happy to meet with me. SBSD Owl Camera: On the 14th of February SBSD Owl Camera: I send a second request to John Craig, asking for a date and a time when parents can meet with him, and the teachers and students being impacted SBSD Owl Camera: between that time and now SBSD Owl Camera: students have presented a petition with excess of 250 students signatures to John Craig asking for the guidelines. Specify that we're not identifying individuals. If you kindly to the principal

042of South Burlington High School, asking that honors American studies be reinstated. SBSD Owl Camera: Recent and past alumni have reached out to SBSD Owl Camera: Principal the superintendent and the School Board, expressing the importance of honors, American studies in their own lives. Multiple parents have reached out via email phone calls and in person who expressed their dismay at the possibility of honors. American studies being removed from South Burlington High School curriculum. SBSD Owl Camera: Parents and students show up and stand up and speak up, including Gracie and Allie at South Burlington School board meetings expressing concern and frustration over this decision-making process. SBSD Owl Camera: On the 3rd of February I was told by the superintendent that quote, I've asked John Craig and team to host a session for parents to attend to share the

043information and engage in dialogue SBSD Owl Camera: in our public comment. Mode. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay. Someone told me he'll be sharing date, that they widely with parents, guardians via his newsletter. On the 14th SBSD Owl Camera: I asked again and again was told the same thing. SBSD Owl Camera: and the Jc. I'm sorry that the principal would communicate a date and time. On the 18th SBSD Owl Camera: I was told SBSD Owl Camera: that individual would certainly attend the session of South Brompton High School regarding honors American, and have further requested the scope of the conversation be widened to include academic rigor. I have requested this conversation happen to hear the high school teams, responses to our parents and guardians, questions and concerns to hear our communities responses to those responses. SBSD Owl Camera:

044After the discussion I will be making the final decision on the course of action. SBSD Owl Camera: February 24, th the 1st day of February. Break SBSD Owl Camera: in the High School. Newsletter, buried under upcoming dates. SBSD Owl Camera: Quote, March 27 Pm. Information session regarding 10th grade. Humanitarians curriculum unquote. No further explanation as to what that meeting meant. SBSD Owl Camera: In the same Newsletter quote. School counselors have spent the last month meeting with all 9, th 10, th and 11th grade students to review course requests. They will now begin working on schedules for 2025 to 26 school year. That doesn't sound like someone who's open to a reinstatement of honors. American studies, regardless SBSD Owl Camera: of what the other individual might decide its final decision. SBSD Owl Camera: 5th of March

045SBSD Owl Camera: confirmation, because that buying vehicles is looking forward to robust conversation. Here's what I would ask of you. SBSD Owl Camera: Slow the conversation down. SBSD Owl Camera: you know, if this is going to happen. At least wait till next year, when there's a firm plan in place for embedded honors. Right now there's none. There is no plan in place for how embedded honors is going to work in this program, which is what a certain individual at the high School is telling people is the plan. SBSD Owl Camera: It's not there. SBSD Owl Camera: So we're gonna take a class. It's been SBSD Owl Camera: high school for over 2 decades, wildly popular, incredibly impactful for more students that can be counted, including alumni that are now 20 and 25 years out of

046South Burlington High School, who still rave about it. SBSD Owl Camera: and we're just gonna eliminate it with no plan. Thank you, he didn't. SBSD Owl Camera: I would respectfully ask that I could get a copy of my notes to the School Board. SBSD Owl Camera: Sure, thanks. SBSD Owl Camera: Could we unmute the mailing address. Kate Bailey (she/her): Hi! Can you hear me? Kate Bailey (she/her): Can you hear me? Kate Bailey (she/her): Yes, okay. Great thanks. I am. My name is Kate Bailey. I'm a community member, a taxpayer and a former school board member. And I just like to take a moment to reflect. I'm a big reporter of reflection and Kate Bailey (she/her): give some appreciation and gratitude to Chelsea Tillinghast, your board chair, and I'm excited to see that she accepted the

047nomination to continue in that role. I Kate Bailey (she/her): was on the Kate Bailey (she/her): board with Chelsea in 2022, and have seen her dedication and commitment to this board and to our students in our district firsthand, and it's really inspiring and meaningful. I've also, I think one of the greatest things about Chelsea is that she is someone who seeks understanding, and there's so much to learn on the board. And Chelsea is someone who has taken that learning in stride Kate Bailey (she/her): and gone above and beyond. She's the epitome, the full maximum definition of a working mom. And I just want to encourage other board members, especially the new Board members, to use Chelsea as a resource. And I just wanted to take a moment during public comment, to give a huge gratitude, kudos,

048and appreciation for your service. So thanks for your service, Chelsea. Michelle Boyer: Hi! Can you hear me? SBSD Owl Camera: Can hear you. Michelle Boyer: Thank you. So I have a brief and very simple request. So, in addition to the superintendent's definition of the value that each board member brings. I would actually like to request that each board member be invited to introduce themselves to the community. SBSD Owl Camera: We are missing a board member this evening, so perhaps we could add that to the next. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright. Is there any other public comment. SBSD Owl Camera: and then we'll move on to agenda. Item 7. Designate a School Board member to sign contracts on behalf of the School Board. This person is responsible for signing contracts, and may

049be required to come to Central Office at variable times during business hours, just to be a signer on behalf SBSD Owl Camera: traditionally, we have had the clerk do it, but somebody else wants it. I'm happy to. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah. It is helpful to be available. SBSD Owl Camera: So we have designated to sign contracts. We have SBSD Owl Camera: all right with that. We're going to move to agenda. Item 8, which is the review of our policy. b, 1. Board members. Conflict of interest. B. 2 board member code of conduct, roles and responsibilities of Board Members review, board, job description. And it will also be our student Board, member training policy governance. SBSD Owl Camera: So it is my distinct pleasure to introduce our attorney, Mr. Joe Mcneil. Mr. Mcneil, supports the Board

050of Negotiations and other education and education, law, and policy matters. SBSD Owl Camera: He's been practicing in education law since the 19 seventies. He has served the South Arlington School district intermittently since the 19 eighties, and has consistently been supporting our district for the better part of the last decade. Mr. Mcneil, if you'd like to join us at the podium SBSD Owl Camera: I find Joe to be such an inspiration to work with, and we are truly lucky to have his assistance. I think Joe is the perfect example of someone who quietly supports our district. And if you don't know about Joe, it's because he does his work so well that he just prevents fires from happening. SBSD Owl Camera: yeah, yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: So I've asked Mr. Mcneil to join us here this

051evening with the intention of providing a highly relevant and applicable new Board member training in my experience in the 1st year and a half or so on the board. The trainings that I received did not allow me to access the full course of my efficiency as a board member. Often I'm afraid that my well intentions, my well meaning intentions, would be misguided, and SBSD Owl Camera: could cause harm in some unanticipated way. And so I felt rather psyched in my ability to use the whole course of my role as a board member. SBSD Owl Camera: and impact a positive change for our district. So my intention is to have a somewhat discussion based training so that you're not hampered by any anxiety, fear, worry, that your actions are going to cause harm, and also so

052that you don't waste your or the district's valuable time and money SBSD Owl Camera: in efforts that we could be trained on rather than looking this test. SBSD Owl Camera: I think there's another frame that we want to do. SBSD Owl Camera: So. SBSD Owl Camera: We have outlined the topics to cover legal roles and responsibilities, open meeting, law, collective marketing, access to documents and policy governance. SBSD Owl Camera: Mr. Mcneil will lay out all the groundwork that you need will review our policies, and I'll ask some questions of Mr. Mcneil, so that we can all learn together from his long history in the system, and I would encourage you to ask questions at any time if anything is unclear, but also ask you. I'd like to take the time to remind everyone that there's

053no such thing as a unnecessary or silly question. If you have a question, I can almost guarantee that someone listening also has that same question, and we can all benefit from the learning. SBSD Owl Camera: So with that, Joe, would you like to start with what you've prepared? Sure. SBSD Owl Camera: Good to meet all of you that I haven't met before. SBSD Owl Camera: And good to be back here. It I came in here not feeling very nervous, and then I listened to the students, presentation and all the work they had done in advance of it, and I became more nervous sitting SBSD Owl Camera: when I started this work, I can assure you that I had more air, a little less weight, and didn't need glasses. So SBSD Owl Camera: that will happen

054hopefully, not to you all in particular. With that as a backdrop, I've tried to prepare a document that outlines SBSD Owl Camera: other what? I've separated into primary responsibilities, secondary responsibilities, and ancillary responsibilities of School Board members, and SBSD Owl Camera: having having said that I don't want to bore you by just reading through documents, but I will highlight some aspects, and I'll also say that you know I'm very use as a practicing attorney to being interrupted by many cases of court, but also administrative bodies, etc, and boards with questions. I don't regard them as SBSD Owl Camera: a problem in the slightest, and I regard this is more your meeting than mine, frankly, and and so I hopefully, we'll be able to walk you through some helpful. SBSD Owl Camera: Most of what I

055am speaking about here is contained in Vermont law. SBSD Owl Camera: and it's contained in Vermont law in 2 locations that form the basis of what you do and why you do it, and how you're supposed to do it. SBSD Owl Camera: Generally speaking, title 16 of the Vermont Statutes contains the educational standards and statutes for this State. SBSD Owl Camera: They're supplemented at the State level by the regulations of the agency of education. SBSD Owl Camera: and they're also supplemented here in South Burlington by various provisions of the South Burlington City charter. SBSD Owl Camera: and for those for those of you who may not be completely aware of it. The South Burlington city charter is also a State law SBSD Owl Camera: the difference between the 2 is that title 16 represents what

056we call the general statutes. They're they're applicable across the State. SBSD Owl Camera: South Burlington City Charter is what we call a special enactment of the legislature that is applicable to the city of South Burlington and it it contains, for the most part SBSD Owl Camera: standards for the operation of the municipal government, but it also contains in various important sections, provisions that are applicable to the School Board, particularly with regard to like vacancies when they arise, presentation of budget and other fairly important matters. SBSD Owl Camera: So SBSD Owl Camera: I just want to hit some some highlights and turn it back to to to Chelsea for a bit of conversation on policy governance. And but I wanna and I and I would mention SBSD Owl Camera: that many of these topics and I'm

057going to cover cursorily tonight SBSD Owl Camera: are in and of themselves worthy of separate and distinct meetings for you, and separate and distinct trainings. You can't do it all at one time. But SBSD Owl Camera: There are. There are issues that bear more conversation and drilling down if you will. Then there's time for this evening. SBSD Owl Camera: With that said, let me hit on a couple of the primary responsibilities of School Board members in Vermont, and in particular South Building. SBSD Owl Camera: The number one responsibility is to set the education and policies for the district. SBSD Owl Camera: You are the elected representatives, and as a result. You have been charged, and have taken an oath, or will, or the number that's not here yet take an oath to faithfully carry out

058the responsibilities of the office. SBSD Owl Camera: That means that you exercise your intelligence, your integrity, your knowledge, etc, for the betterment of the school district. SBSD Owl Camera: You are a fiduciary. SBSD Owl Camera: You stand in the stead of the voters. SBSD Owl Camera: and you do what you do, based upon your best judgment SBSD Owl Camera: of the best interest of the school system. SBSD Owl Camera: You're not SBSD Owl Camera: obligated to vote in any particular way, because somebody else is. You're not obligated to vote in any particular way, because you have received a telephone call suggesting how you should vote. SBSD Owl Camera: You are responsible to SBSD Owl Camera: do the research, carry on the conversations, etc, that you think are appropriate, but then, ultimately you exercise your own

059judgment in your own conscience, and you vote what you think is the best approach. SBSD Owl Camera: But SBSD Owl Camera: with regard to the number one assignment it is to set the policies that govern the district. SBSD Owl Camera: You have adopted here, as many Vermont school districts have a technique called policy governance. SBSD Owl Camera: and it is a method to achieve a result. It's not in and of itself a result. It's a methodology to do that. And you have SBSD Owl Camera: adopted you. I say collectively, and it's important to understand that actions taken by one board for the most part carry over into the next board, unless and until they are changed by the sitting board. You're not included from making policy changes, but they don't automatically expire on the election

060of the new board. SBSD Owl Camera: So the you have adopted collectively what SBSD Owl Camera: are a series of called ends policies. SBSD Owl Camera: and they relate to the myriad of things that this district, as a major corporation, frankly, is responsible to carry out SBSD Owl Camera: whether it is, you know, student curriculum matters whether it is instructional more generally, whether it is employment relationships with your professional and and support staff. SBSD Owl Camera: Whether it is buildings and grounds and the maintenance of your facilities, whether it is your school finance on both a temporary or sometimes long term basis. All of those things SBSD Owl Camera: are set out now in various formats in your end policy. SBSD Owl Camera: and you have developed a methodology to achieve those ends. SBSD Owl

061Camera: And the methodology that you've adopted right now is that your chief executive officer, your superintendent of schools, is responsible to deliver to you. The realization of the ends policies through SBSD Owl Camera: the mechanism of her stewardship. SBSD Owl Camera: And she does this by SBSD Owl Camera: 2 aspects. Number one is by reporting to you on a regular basis, so that you can monitor SBSD Owl Camera: whether the ends policies are being met and she is responsible to be reporting to you SBSD Owl Camera: the good, bad, and then the good, bad, and the ugly, in terms of how things are going against the way you have indicated. You want them to go SBSD Owl Camera: and you have the right to question that, and mid force correct as necessary. You also have

062you also have the right in effect, to SBSD Owl Camera: evaluate the superintendent ultimately on her success in carrying out your policies and delivering that the SBSD Owl Camera: the the board has a board SBSD Owl Camera: operates, and not as an individual, but as a whole. SBSD Owl Camera: and no one board member has sovereignty if you will, but as a whole majority the Board can take action. SBSD Owl Camera: and that action can be. You know questions about monitoring, etc. SBSD Owl Camera: the way that it should be done under your policy. Your current policy governance is that you? If you have questions or concerns, they can be raised during the monitoring part. They can also be raised through your board chair. Who will report to the superintendent, and and with regard to

063any issue SBSD Owl Camera: between the district represented by the board and the subordinate staff. Go to the superintendent have the superintendent deal with the matter, and then report back to you. The superintendent is your appointee. The superintendent has responsibility to you. It is the one office in the district that directly reports to you. SBSD Owl Camera: So so is there any free flow dialogue between the board and the superintendent in the context of the meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes, the superintendent at nearly every meeting in every school district that I'm involved in which is quite a few, unfortunately, or fortunately the SBSD Owl Camera: The. There is active dialogue at each and every meeting between the superintendent who is reporting on one aspect or another, and your both individual thoughts, or maybe thoughts that

064have been communicated to you to ask of the superintendent. But SBSD Owl Camera: absolutely if that dialogue is not taking place, you're not getting the full benefit of the of the operational efficiency SBSD Owl Camera: during public comments. It wouldn't be board members who would engage in dialogue. I can. I'm not a member of the board, so I didn't see that. But you will come to me for additional understanding. As I understand the program so I can I. It is my responsibility to report back to you on that. If you have questions, it's your role to question me about that topic SBSD Owl Camera: right? And then so, for example, the policy. So I understand that our role is 1st and foremost to make the educational policy and then we've adopted certain self regulating things

065like Roberts, rules of order, like policy, governance. But those themselves are not written into, you know. Like. SBSD Owl Camera: if we wanted to go crazy and say, no Roberts rules, no policy governance. There's nothing in the law that those those are self regulating SBSD Owl Camera: Robert's rules is a mandate SBSD Owl Camera: Vermont. Statutes require that Roberts rules be utilized by school boards across Vermont as the methodology for carrying out your meetings, so that, that is not something that you could choose against. The Vermont Legislature uses a different methodology called Mason's Rules of Order. They've been both been in existence forever. But Vermont statutes SBSD Owl Camera: require both municipalities, and you know, municipal side of government and school district from require that they operate on Roberts rules, and there are that is,

066that is also a topic that could you could spend a meeting a meeting on SBSD Owl Camera: with regard to policy governance, that is correct, that ultimately is correct. The Board has adopted policy governance as a methodology to do its business. It has set out the ends, goals. It acts upon them. It could. It could change that appropriately, if it if it should, which SBSD Owl Camera: because that's the that's the division SBSD Owl Camera: I want to. I mentioned that the that the superintendent is the boards. Primary and sole appointee SBSD Owl Camera: on staff, and so that I would put as a second major responsibility to make sure that you have the right captain for your ship on a day to day basis, acting as your chief executive officer for the purpose of

067carrying out your policies. SBSD Owl Camera: to make sure on your behalf, that the district is well managed. Well run, that the facilities are taken care of appropriately, that the finances are taken care of, and SBSD Owl Camera: the superintendent assembles the staff for that purpose. SBSD Owl Camera: There is a dichotomy in Vermont law with regard to appointments of school, to school staff. SBSD Owl Camera: those school staff members, like teachers or administrators who require a license from the agency of education as professional educators. You must approve the recommendations of the superintendent in regard to those appointments. SBSD Owl Camera: So those come to you ultimately with the superintendent's recommendation, obviously to to do the state work SBSD Owl Camera: by contrast SBSD Owl Camera: those employment positions that do not require a license

068from the agency of education are the superintendent's responsibility, without necessity for board acknowledgement or confirmation, so that, that is an important distinction. SBSD Owl Camera: the I want to talk about the fact that I'll say the 3rd responsibility, and it's not insignificant as you'll come to know. SBSD Owl Camera: is the consideration and adoption subject to voter approval of a budget annually. SBSD Owl Camera: There's probably no more. There probably are more tedious things. But there, there are a few that SBSD Owl Camera: require the level of SBSD Owl Camera: of attention to detail across all the specters of your operation. That preparation of the budget does, and from, you know, watching not only SBSD Owl Camera: Violet and Tim and the finance operation here, but the finance operations of other school districts across Vermont.

069It's fair to say that the work that School Board members do is incredibly important and incredibly difficult, and ultimately, in making choices of SBSD Owl Camera: more limited resources against more programs than you can afford. And that's not the case just in South Burlington, but that's the case generally across Vermont and generally across the United States there are more needs than there are finances to support. So the discretion, the judgment in determining SBSD Owl Camera: what recommendations will be adopted and what will be put aside is a very important for your SBSD Owl Camera: Talked a little bit about you elected a board chair. You elected a clerk tonight. And SBSD Owl Camera: both have important roles. The board chair is your eyes and ears in terms of of coalescing and and representing you in

070SBSD Owl Camera: in public. It's important to understand that SBSD Owl Camera: no one of you individually speaks for the board. No one of you, very frankly should attempt to speak for the Board, because, unless there is a majority in support of a particular course of action. No course of action has been decided. SBSD Owl Camera: I want a little. I want to take a minute on the open meeting law, because this is critically important to your operation. SBSD Owl Camera: Vermont has 2 statutes that are very, very important and significant with regard to the operation of not only school boards, but public bodies generally. SBSD Owl Camera: The 1st is the open meeting law, the second is the access to public documents law. SBSD Owl Camera: and they both have ramifications, generally speaking. SBSD

071Owl Camera: with one exception, and that is relating to real estate transactions. SBSD Owl Camera: Boards not take binding action. SBSD Owl Camera: and, and, except at a duly warned, open public meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: So Chelsea tonight, appropriately indicated that a particular item wasn't on your agenda so needed to be on a subsequent agenda, so the public would be aware. That that is a part of the fulfillment of the open meeting room SBSD Owl Camera: meetings have to be warned. There are different types of meetings. There are regular meetings which you have recurrent at a given time throughout the year. There are special meetings that are called for issues that may arise in between your regular meetings. They have to be worn by 24 h notice, and there are in the rarest of cases, something

072called emergency meetings SBSD Owl Camera: and emergency meetings are those meetings for which the Board cannot afford to wait 24 h before it has to deal with an issue. SBSD Owl Camera: I think of. That is sort of like the municipal and school equivalent of the sky as well it. It should be rarely used, but it's available when and if needed. And in those situations you have to give as much notice as practicable to available media, so that they can represent SBSD Owl Camera: There are also the obligation in the open meeting law to take minutes SBSD Owl Camera: and the minutes have to describe in general. The topics that you discussed SBSD Owl Camera: the discussion that was had, and the votes that were taken, so that the public can follow your your actions. SBSD

073Owl Camera: Here I'll pause, though, to say that although the public has opportunity for input and the statute. The open meeting law says that the public has to be given reasonable opportunity to speak to items that the board is considering. SBSD Owl Camera: The public has not been elected. SBSD Owl Camera: You have been so ultimately. While you may take advice from the public. SBSD Owl Camera: The ultimate decision making is yours. SBSD Owl Camera: so there will come a time in a meeting when you say, Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: thank you very much. We've heard. Now we're going to have board discussion, and we're going to have board sometimes board debate, and we're going to have folks taken SBSD Owl Camera: that's called representative democracy SBSD Owl Camera: as opposed to Athenian democracy, where

074the whole community comes together, and you know, debates, discussions, and whatever. And then votes. That's not our style in the United States. It's not the style in Vermont we follow elected representative democracy. SBSD Owl Camera: Another point that I want to make relates to your responsibility for financing. SBSD Owl Camera: There are there are times when the board needs money. SBSD Owl Camera: and the district needs money, and SBSD Owl Camera: sometimes that need arises in advance of the collection of taxes and the delivery of those taxes to you. SBSD Owl Camera: You have the authority to borrow in anticipation of taxes. You have done that from time to time. That's a board action and can be taken. SBSD Owl Camera: There are also, however, times when you need, like major capital facilities, renewals, or

075replacements. SBSD Owl Camera: And that cannot be done just on the board. Action alone that requires referendum approval by the electorate. SBSD Owl Camera: So if you're going to, they call it pledge the credit they're going. You're going to pledge the credit of the district such that. SBSD Owl Camera: if necessary, taxes will be raised for the purpose of repaying the debt, and you're going to borrow money on that basis. You need to have voter approval in advance. SBSD Owl Camera: So that that is another example starting to drone on. And I don't want to. But I do want to hit on just a couple of additional additional things. I mentioned the SBSD Owl Camera: the so-called open meeting. I also want to mention the access to public documents. SBSD Owl Camera: because this affects

076you directly. SBSD Owl Camera: The Vermont law with regard to public documents is that any communication SBSD Owl Camera: sent and received in the ordinary course of of public business SBSD Owl Camera: is regarded as a public record. SBSD Owl Camera: and that is available for inspection, copying, etc, by members of the public upon request. SBSD Owl Camera: unless it falls into one of the exemption categories. There are certain exemption categories. But and we can get into that in detail at a at a subsequent meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: But I want to talk about the unwary traps. SBSD Owl Camera: You all have a South Burlington School district or will have a South Burlington School District Email address. SBSD Owl Camera: Use it. SBSD Owl Camera: Do not use your personal email address SBSD Owl

077Camera: for South Burlington School Board business, SBSD Owl Camera: and one of the practical reasons that you should not do that is because if if you do. SBSD Owl Camera: and if the public raises a question about wanting to see any communication that you have written about South Burlington School district affairs, it's quite possible that a judge will say. SBSD Owl Camera: I want to see all of your emails. SBSD Owl Camera: and I will separate out those that relate to the business of South Burlington and those that do not. SBSD Owl Camera: Most people would not prefer that. SBSD Owl Camera: So the the practice pointer is, use your South Burlington email. SBSD Owl Camera: second practice pointer. Put tape over the darn reply. All button put tape over the reply. All button. It

078gets people in trouble. SBSD Owl Camera: If you have a matter that you're discussing and your SBSD Owl Camera: legitimately doing it, one on one, let's say. But you hit reply all, and it goes out to people that are outside of the the group. You've just lost whatever privilege, whatever limitation there may be so practical. Pointer. SBSD Owl Camera: try not to use. Reply. Understand that? SBSD Owl Camera: The use of of emails, the use of text. The use of any form of of electronic communication SBSD Owl Camera: can, under certain circumstances, represent a violation of the open meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: And so you need to be very careful about that. SBSD Owl Camera: If, for example, I re agent myself, but refer to it as a chat room. If there are SBSD Owl

079Camera: a a quorum of you coming together simultaneously SBSD Owl Camera: and having a discussion, even though it's by electronic means. SBSD Owl Camera: That would be regarded as a meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: The law says no action can be taken unless it's a duly worn meeting in open session. That would not be an open session wouldn't be duly worn, so any action that you would take would be invalid, but even more significantly for you as members SBSD Owl Camera: the Vermont law says that if there's an intentional violation of the open meeting law, you're subject to fine up to 500 bucks. SBSD Owl Camera: Joe, can I give an example of what that might look like? So we use Google and Google Docs. So if the Board were doing something as simple as editing

080a Google Doc, one Google, Doc, that would be a violation of open meeting law. You can't break open meeting law with me through communication, because I'm your employee, and I'm not a member of the board. SBSD Owl Camera: But I wanted to just provide that at some point. SBSD Owl Camera: I can also, if I could follow up in the last year as chair. I have weekly meetings with the superintendent when the superintendent updates me to different issues or topics that we're discussing at the Board level. SBSD Owl Camera: And I will send an email to the full board with a summary of my meeting superintendent, and as a regular practice I send it to myself, and I copy the superintendent, and then I go ahead and copy the whole board, so that you're all

081given the information, but if any of you hit reply or reply all, it will only go to me and superintendent, so you can't accidentally SBSD Owl Camera: we can't accidentally violate open meeting law by replying to all of the board members. SBSD Owl Camera: and so it is best practice that if you have a question or concern or comment that you are not saying it's in between meetings, or it's something that you've heard and you want it communicated to the Board. Best practice would be to email it to me. SBSD Owl Camera: and I will collect it, or I can respond to you if I feel like it's something that you need the whole board to know. We'll either talk about it in the open session or executive session, depending on what topic is. SBSD

082Owl Camera: But I feel like I've been in the past, I said. You understand what I'm saying right open meeting law. And then I have very well meeting Board members who are prepared to write an email to the full board with everybody like available to respond back. And if anyone responded back, that would be a violation. SBSD Owl Camera: Let's say I wrote to you, shame! I'm a board member. I wrote to you, Jameis, and you wait a day, and then you write your thoughts to Laura. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: that's not a meeting that is, 2 board members communicating. SBSD Owl Camera: But let's assume that instead of writing to Laura, you write to everyone on the board, or you write to a quorum of the board, and they respond. SBSD Owl Camera: now

083you've got a conversation going. SBSD Owl Camera: and that conversation is in real time that should be real. SBSD Owl Camera: And so those are the 2 bookends, if you will, of this conversation, and let let me just say that Vermont law is still emerging in this regard. SBSD Owl Camera: California has a thing called successive successive participation in meetings so SBSD Owl Camera: like, if I write to you and you write to Laura an hour later, California would regard that as simultaneous. SBSD Owl Camera: Vermont hasn't quite gotten there, but I would point out as a as a risk of coming attractions, that we're more heading there than not heading there, because, the the notion is that we're conducting the people's business. And, generally speaking, the people have the right to know what you're

084doing SBSD Owl Camera: as public officials. So be careful about SBSD Owl Camera: creating what amounts to a meeting by simultaneous exchanges. SBSD Owl Camera: I also want to point out a different topic, and that is collective bargaining. 2 clarifications. Sure. So in that instance, Joe. SBSD Owl Camera: I write an email, send it to Seamus about something, you know, that's on the Board's mind, or we've been talking about an open meeting. Seamus writes to SBSD Owl Camera: Lauren, says, you know Tim was thinking this, you know, blah blah, Laura takes that up and sends it over to. Dan says, now we have just essentially done that chain, and we're now we violated really the open meeting, or we're close enough where? Close enough for government work and close enough to be very, very worried.

085SBSD Owl Camera: There in that scenario that you've just outlined, Tim. That's a better example than I put together on that successive chain. SBSD Owl Camera: It looks more like a simultaneous conversation than it does 2 board members having a discussion about what policy positions will be taken next week. And so I can't give you an exact division line at this point, but I can tell you that it is an area where SBSD Owl Camera: caution should be needs to be applied. Because doubt will be fatal to your land. SBSD Owl Camera: And so SBSD Owl Camera: more more later. I I would hope, with regard to open meeting law, access to public documents, law, and the nuances of that, we could spend hours on it. Frankly. That we don't have this evening. SBSD Owl

086Camera: I'm sorry I want to go back to the Google Documents example, because now I'm sitting here saying, Okay, I created a Google document. I put a bunch of stuff in it, you know, as we're preparing, maybe a policy or something. I want people to read it. But should I now say I don't want them to be able to edit it, because then we sort of cross that line into SBSD Owl Camera: right? Because this happens a lot. We do create Google docs. People have access to them. Should we be very wary of that? If again, I, the open meeting law and the access to public documents. Law are sort of at a piece with one another. SBSD Owl Camera: So if you are simultaneously editing a document. SBSD Owl Camera: it's the same thing

087as if you're simultaneously having the conversation SBSD Owl Camera: that is a meeting and it it will reflect that way upon any sort of challenge. SBSD Owl Camera: If you write a policy, and then you send it off to both. Whether it's the student reps, or the or your other board Board members, and say, What do you? What do you think, and you're getting something back 2 or 3 days from now? That's not a that's not a meeting SBSD Owl Camera: that that may be good. That may be great governance. But you need to be very, very careful in how you do that. So Pcc. Only don't apply. All scheduling is the one exemption, and Google Docs view, only no comment access, no edit access. SBSD Owl Camera: Got it? Okay? Just wanted to clarify.

088And in terms of the success of meetings like, let's say that we send something out view only Pcc. Only to the whole board. SBSD Owl Camera: And then is there a difference between whether somebody replies SBSD Owl Camera: in 4 h versus 3 days. SBSD Owl Camera: Good SBSD Owl Camera: potentially. That's an answer that I cannot give you definitively, because the Vermont Supreme Court hasn't ruled on what the Attorney General has advised to public bodies across the State is to SBSD Owl Camera: avoid simultaneous or near simultaneous interaction among board members SBSD Owl Camera: that way you're safe. If you're not doing that, you're safe if you're, you know, if it's a day later. I'm not complaining about that right SBSD Owl Camera: where I am concerned is if it's an hour later. SBSD Owl

089Camera: where I don't really know but I'd be cautious, and and you know. SBSD Owl Camera: nerves is, if it's say, 2, 2 h, and then looking more like a meeting than it's looking like an exchange of viewpoints. For future. SBSD Owl Camera: Wanna if I may jump into collective bargaining, because if it's been. SBSD Owl Camera: we could have like a special training that at the meeting lot it's helpful just to get like some basic best practices out there right away. We do have executive session also after our regular session tonight, and that will be an opportunity for new board members to be on collective bargaining. SBSD Owl Camera: I don't think I could bring. I don't think it would be a proper use of executive session to talk an executive session about how executive

090session should be conducted. But let me just say that there are statutory criteria for going into executive session. SBSD Owl Camera: Common among them are contractual negotiations, real estate matters, personnel matters where premature disclosure could put you at a disadvantage. SBSD Owl Camera: The there needs to be a majority vote to go into executive session, and you need to be very careful about executive session creep. SBSD Owl Camera: and that is. SBSD Owl Camera: you go into executive session or a topic that is identified in advance when you vote, and then, oh, yeah, that gives me an idea about something that happened last Wednesday, and you raised a question about that. That's impermissible creep. You need to stay on task in the executive session. SBSD Owl Camera: and presumably once the executive session starts, you

091picked up the public. You can't stop it and go back in the public. You can, you can. You can. If you you could. You could divide your executive session topics if you wanted to, or you could identify a number of topics and cover them all in serial fashion in executive session. SBSD Owl Camera: The the one thing that I will say additional is that SBSD Owl Camera: more problems have occurred by loose lips, sinking ships than I would like to imagine across public sectors in Vermont and elsewhere. SBSD Owl Camera: The reason you go into executive session is because you have something of a confidential nature where you want to be able to discuss it candidly, openly, and you know, without without worry about prejudicing yourself before you come to a determination. SBSD Owl Camera:

092If you go in for that purpose, and then come right out and talk to the public about SBSD Owl Camera: what just happened in executive session. Well, there's no need to go into executive session because you've just publicized everything that you thought should be confidential. SBSD Owl Camera: so don't do it and be careful of what I call pillow tone. SBSD Owl Camera: there is a tendency to believe that SBSD Owl Camera: among board members that you know your closest personal and societal friends and relatives, they'll keep your confidence. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, they don't. SBSD Owl Camera: And so more problems have developed, or just with people going into executive session and then saying, I'm just gonna tell you, please keep it to yourself. SBSD Owl Camera: You number one. You just SBSD Owl

093Camera: eliminated any privilege that might be associated with the executive session. But more significantly, perhaps you've done away with that, and I've been victim by it. I hasten to add, I had a situation, not this board, but another board. One time we were talking about a very complicated piece of litigation. I had outlined it all in writing in terms of what position we should be taking and why? SBSD Owl Camera: And I told the board members that I wanted to collect those notes at the end of the executive session. SBSD Owl Camera: And I learned the next day that one member hadn't turned a copy back to me, and it left it at the table of the of the board, the board meeting, and both a reporter and somebody on the other side discovered it.

094The attorney on the other side fortuitously, was an attorney of great ethics, and turned it back to me, saying, I don't think I should have this SBSD Owl Camera: the reporter, on the other hand, well acted as a reporter. But just just a word for the loss. SBSD Owl Camera: And and with regard to collective bargaining. SBSD Owl Camera: the statute talks about bargaining through appointed committees, appointed representatives of the Board. SBSD Owl Camera: Use that process. SBSD Owl Camera: Don't think that you can go rogue. SBSD Owl Camera: or individually, and do what the committee has been appointed to do. SBSD Owl Camera: Have your discussions about whether the committee is following your advice, etc, in your executive sessions. SBSD Owl Camera: But SBSD Owl Camera: speaking out of school, if you will, with

095regard to collective bargaining matters to the public or to even to the SBSD Owl Camera: people on the other side. SBSD Owl Camera: Is a mistake, and it's a mistake that leads very often to prejudicing yourself and compromising the positions that you want to hold strategically and tactically. SBSD Owl Camera: So be careful about that. Operate through your committees more on collective bargaining to come SBSD Owl Camera: and I'll turn it back to you, Chelsea. So, Joe, so for executive session, do we need 2 motions SBSD Owl Camera: for the size? 4. There. There are certain aspects of Vermont law is divided into 2 types of executive session motions to one part where you can go in just on one motion, where premature public knowledge will put you at a substantial disadvantage. The other part

096by statute is, you have to intone that there is SBSD Owl Camera: a disadvantage to begin to be gained. If you don't vote into in 2 motions, so I can walk you through that as as need be. I know you've got a cook. Chelsea has a cookbook on that because it's the 1st motion of what you're saying. I I moved to find that premature general public knowledge regarding the superintendent. Whatever SBSD Owl Camera: you know, giving you example, places of orders, substantial disadvantage. And then you, yeah. And then, second motion, I move to enter into. And there there are a limited number of things where you don't need to do that. Okay, you can. Just for the second, okay, great, great. And then SBSD Owl Camera: gosh! I don't know. So I'm SBSD Owl Camera:

097fine. I can ask you to stay here. SBSD Owl Camera: Go ahead. Cheers. SBSD Owl Camera: No, that's great. Any other questions so far SBSD Owl Camera: is this, is this helpful? So I have a question so like, let's say, a friend of mine sends me an email asking about the school district to my personal email, should I reply back to them, saying, Send this to my other email, or SBSD Owl Camera: I would SBSD Owl Camera: I? I would say that we have been we have been given an address and a means to deal with business South Burlington business, and I really appreciate that you would deal with me through that mechanism. That's the safest course of action we've got, you know many corporations require that their senior well, many employees covered have 2

098phones SBSD Owl Camera: one in which they do their corporate business, and the other in which they do their personal business. SBSD Owl Camera: You've got accounts to utilize them, you know. So school district. So use use that. SBSD Owl Camera: I had a quick question. Okay, in terms of SBSD Owl Camera: the Google Doc conversation we were having. And I'm assuming it's just best best practice to never be able to communicate that way. But I'm just curious. If we were communicating about a potluck that we were planning on having just between us. SBSD Owl Camera: But you can come together at a hall. You can come together at a holiday party. All of you present. And yeah enjoy the festivities of the party. SBSD Owl Camera: However. SBSD Owl Camera: if during the party,

099you say. Oh, by the way, we have this meeting coming up on Tuesday, let's discuss what we're going to do on, you know. Item 3, SBSD Owl Camera: you've just gone from a convivial party experience to a violation of the open meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, and because of open meeting law, it would, if you were in a forum at any point in time it would be required to be a public meeting, and people could literally sit and watch you on a zoom. Eat your dinner. Seriously, I think there's there's like room for we we theoretically would gather, and it not be a meeting. But if there's the appearance that it's SBSD Owl Camera: yeah, there's there's a couple of other examples I can give. The law allows you to come together for a training

100very frankly, that is SBSD Owl Camera: not subject to the, to the typical standards of the open meeting room, and it it also SBSD Owl Camera: allowed you to come together at some other entities, meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: so like, say, the agency of education was having a seminar for, or the Sba. Was having a seminar for School Board members. SBSD Owl Camera: and there's a forum of you present. That's perfectly fine again. Just don't separate yourselves into a corner and start talking about south drilling conditions. That's the that's the SBSD Owl Camera: do not stand next to each other at a soccer game. Do not work a bake sale together, do not have the appearance of warm SBSD Owl Camera: challenges, the appearance. It's like once there's an accusation. It's pretty difficult to prove

101that we weren't talking about board business unless we were recording it. And so it's just kind of best practice not to even. And I feel the same about the open meeting. Law stuff like, sure, there's like little workarounds that you could do. But you may not necessarily be able to prove your innocence, and it's really damaging to SBSD Owl Camera: not just have the best practice of appearance from from the start. So so from like a legal point of view. Presumably we would have the SBSD Owl Camera: innocent or proven guilty. But in the public eye we wouldn't have that same. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, it's a good point. Yeah, it's all about problem perception. SBSD Owl Camera: There's any perceived SBSD Owl Camera: one more question about that. If we were to go to

102like the science fairs next year together, would we? If we were all there, would that be a problem? No, so long as you're you're paying attention to the beautiful presentations by the students. You're asking the students questions. You're interacting with them. SBSD Owl Camera: That's you're not interacting with your fellow board members. You're interacting with the students. That's okay. That's encouraged. Go to graduation, you know. That's that there's there's another good example. But be careful about SBSD Owl Camera: that. I would probably creep into anyway. SBSD Owl Camera: Thanks. SBSD Owl Camera: Did I bore you sufficiently. No, but I do still have some questions, any other questions. So far. So we could have a recorded call. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, we could and welcome members of the public. I think that the Sba did

103just put out guidance. That they're recommending retrieves intervening speed recorded, it says, warned and recorded, so warned minutes SBSD Owl Camera: recorded and posted that is, that's that's their advice. Certainly. Good advice. You can't go wrong, even though there is an exception in the statute for it. SBSD Owl Camera: We had a meet and greet with the city council the 2 bodies will work together. We had a warned dinner. And there were people in person. There were chairs, and it was also a requirement by law that we broadcast. We. We offer accessibility through zoom or other mechanisms, virtually SBSD Owl Camera: so. Social gatherings. Right? That's the exceptions. Okay, those are the okay. Got it so we could SBSD Owl Camera: conference and we wouldn't bring a minute taker along. But also a Bsba Conference

104is a pretty SBSD Owl Camera: usual thing for board members to attend. So SBSD Owl Camera: yeah. And then that's per. As I said, it's perfectly permissible. Just don't break out into a into a SBSD Owl Camera: work group. That is your board. I'm a stickler and a role follower. So if I give you friendly reminders. SBSD Owl Camera: please understand, it's because SBSD Owl Camera: I think these are nuanced, and I don't want folks to get in trouble, or to, you know, jeopardize the district, so forgive me if it seems snaggy. It would also be a shame for someone to learn to get in trouble, and it wasn't even their intention to do something wrong. It's just that's the purpose of the training is to try to help them support that SBSD Owl Camera:

105I would just say, parenthetically, that it is legal obligation SBSD Owl Camera: for school board chairs and for superintendents to have annual training SBSD Owl Camera: with regard, and that is a minimum annual training with regard to, among others, the open duty. SBSD Owl Camera: so constant vigilance on your behalf by the superintendent is a great, a great deal, and I would say, too. SBSD Owl Camera: if there is any question whatsoever that you have. SBSD Owl Camera: there's no dumb legal question about the the applicability of the open meeting law. And not only that, it's to your advantage to ask a question SBSD Owl Camera: because it like you go to Violet say, Hey, I'm wondering about this, and she comes to me, and I or Chelsea does, and I provide an answer SBSD

106Owl Camera: by implication. You're not intentionally violating the statute because you're inquiring as to how to comply with it. SBSD Owl Camera: That would be the best. That would be great evidence if somebody were to assert that you should be fine for intentionally violating the statute? And are we allowed to ask you directly like, Are you? SBSD Owl Camera: So it's very expensive and so best practices for you to ask me, and if I don't know, I'll ask right. But from a formal like your are you my lawyer? I am counsel to the South Burlington School district. As Rep. So I ultimately my responsibility is to the Corp, the Educational Corporation, to make sure that all of you stay within the law. SBSD Owl Camera: Having said that my primary contact is through the board.

107And SBSD Owl Camera: I don't represent you individually or you individually. But I represent the Board collectively. SBSD Owl Camera: and there have been many questions asked of Joe, and and commonly I can just forward you what he said in the past about that same question, so like, instead of having board members contacting Joe all the time, I take responsibility for SBSD Owl Camera: utilizing his time and efforts. And certainly, if my, if my answer is not satisfactory. Say so, and then I will happily connect Joe or forward the request. And in case of stormy weather, let's say there's a real emergent need. SBSD Owl Camera: I'd rather have you asked and not ask. So that are you concerned? Ever that that SBSD Owl Camera: since it's not legal advice coming from anybody but you.

108SBSD Owl Camera: you know, like, are there any lines you're like, just, you know. Only ask me about that. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm not a shrinking violet, so I would I would tell you if I thought that, you know a question was out of bounds. But I, SBSD Owl Camera: in all of my decades have been. SBSD Owl Camera: I could count on one hand, probably the questions that I wouldn't think I should try to. Oh, I'm sorry like, for example, you know, if I get if I have a question which is effectively a legal question. I asked you, and you tell me something that's not legal advice, right? SBSD Owl Camera: And so is there any like? SBSD Owl Camera: I have as soon as soon as chelsea asked me a question on behalf

109of the Board, or Violet does on behalf of the Board or the Administration, I'm in an attorney client relationship. And so I you're all covered. I can answer that question. Subject to the attorney client. SBSD Owl Camera: So, Joe? I am harkening back to when we on boarded a board member regarding personal liability and could he be pursued personally? Can I ask you at this time to detail the SBSD Owl Camera: coverage to liability. That is that all of the board members are subject to. Yeah. Thank you. So great question SBSD Owl Camera: start with the Administration all the way down to, you know, teacher, support, staff, etc. SBSD Owl Camera: If you're acting within the scope of your responsibilities, then you are covered by the district's insurance policies, and you're entitled to representation, if

110you will. Should that be challenged as a board member. SBSD Owl Camera: if you are acting within the apparent scope of your responsibilities. You're asking questions. You're doing whatever SBSD Owl Camera: you're you're covered by. Insurance. You're covered by board policy. You'll be provided defense and indemnification. If, on the other hand. SBSD Owl Camera: you stick your finger in the cookie jar or you let's say SBSD Owl Camera: committed assault or commit discrimination based upon protected characteristics. SBSD Owl Camera: There the Board through Council will do a preliminary inquiry as to whether you're within the scope of your activity. If it's determined that you were SBSD Owl Camera: fine, you'll be covered if it's determined that you've intentionally violated statutes or or regular law in this case, statutes like. If you discriminate on the basis

111of gender you discriminate on the basis of religion, don't expect to be much covered by the district you will be. You will be cut. A group SBSD Owl Camera: didn't sometimes wish not to with them. SBSD Owl Camera: and so your employees at the district, so, as other employees would also be subject to SBSD Owl Camera: and and just sorry to. So the if I send email to Chelsea. SBSD Owl Camera: and then Chelsea's, whether you know whether or not you respond to me. And then you end up. Going back with Joe is the original email that I sent to you protected SBSD Owl Camera: the question. The the interaction between Chelsea and me. SBSD Owl Camera: which would entail the question. SBSD Owl Camera: Let's assume you ask her a question. She repeats it,

112seeking legal advice. I would provide that advice in the entire board would be covered. But what if I provided some information to her that was of interest to the other party? SBSD Owl Camera: If you're having a conversation with Chelsea in and of itself. SBSD Owl Camera: That does not involve a legal question. Start there, that SBSD Owl Camera: that is a communication which would be subject to disclosure SBSD Owl Camera: under the access to public documents, law, because it's received, sent, and received in the ordinary course of business. SBSD Owl Camera: If it involves a legal question that I am asked to intervene in. I am confident that not only would Chelsea be protected, but you would do as well, especially if the content is something protected, such as SBSD Owl Camera: negotiations. Personnel

113matters are highly protected, so the content would would matter. If it's ordinary business, it would be different than something that would be redacted in a public record request. SBSD Owl Camera: So yeah, that's in, that's great. And just follow up on that, for the Vermont Supreme Court has made clear on several occasions that SBSD Owl Camera: one cannot acquire protections where they don't exist, simply by putting an attorney's name on the communication SBSD Owl Camera: it has to be for a subject that is within the Ambi of legal advice. So if you're if you're asking, how much did we spend last year on X? SBSD Owl Camera: I wouldn't know the answer to that, and it wouldn't be legal advice if you're asking, what does the budget allow? Or you know, what do contracts provide

114for? SBSD Owl Camera: I'm thinking about more. Something along the lines of like, you know. SBSD Owl Camera: I think I just violated open meeting law like I shouldn't send that to you. SBSD Owl Camera: I would say I would like to talk. I would like to talk to our attorney. That's what I would do. SBSD Owl Camera: You should talk to me also. SBSD Owl Camera: but for just for, like for us, as like board members. SBSD Owl Camera: I just wanna, we're not saying here that we don't have access to you. This, we want to make that access efficient. SBSD Owl Camera: But ultimately the legal representation is you not anybody else? I think what I want to say is, please don't contact Joe with questions I might know the answer to, because

115we've already paid for that answer. And so we're not in any budgetary situation to be paying for an answer twice SBSD Owl Camera: and if I genuinely don't know, I will ask like I, and if I do know, I will tell you. SBSD Owl Camera: Part of my job is to also have a deep understanding of open meeting law. Roberts Roberts, rules of order and policy governance, which I do. And so SBSD Owl Camera: I. My part of my role is to ensure that you all are not inadvertently violating these statutory requirements. And so I'm certainly a resource to you as well, and SBSD Owl Camera: and the Board members can be assured, based upon my experience over a number of years. SBSD Owl Camera: When superintendents they don't hesitate to ask, and Violet doesn't

116hesitate to ask when and if there's any uncertainty, so we'll get you the right answer. SBSD Owl Camera: If there's no further questions about that piece, I would like to just quickly show you about policy governance. But in the absence of time. I do think we should discuss like another board training very soon. SBSD Owl Camera: So I will just quickly share my screen. SBSD Owl Camera: And what I'd like to do SBSD Owl Camera: is just showing where you can access information about our policies. SBSD Owl Camera: So if you go to menu and scroll down to school board, you'll find policy under governance and clicking right here, policy under governance. These are our policies that we are bound to operate by as a board, and I would love to go in detail about

117these with you SBSD Owl Camera: another time. I don't think we have a lot of time today, but I also discovered I did not realize this on our website, we have frequently asked questions. I think that these were published by a former board under the last superintendent, but I was reading through them, and they are really nice, like easy SBSD Owl Camera: explanations of some of the common questions about what is policy governance? Why, how do we use it? Particularly like, how is the community involved? SBSD Owl Camera: So I would love to have a larger conversation about policy governance in the future. I think the very basic understanding I'd like to offer you through the trainings that I've gone through. Books that I've read is policy. Governance is like the software on your phone.

118You don't need to know how the software was written, or why. But you do not have you need to know how to use it effectively in order to operate your phone and use it as a tool. SBSD Owl Camera: It is the bicycle that gets us down the road. You don't need to understand how the bicycle was built or made, although it is pretty interesting. SBSD Owl Camera: But you do need to know how to ride the bicycle to get down the road. So that is policy governance. It is the mechanism by which we can do our work. SBSD Owl Camera: so any questions about that so far, I mostly just wanted to make sure you knew where you could access the policies, how to read them. And when we say policy, governance, and policy

119under governance, what we're talking about SBSD Owl Camera: those are separate from policies and procedures. So policies and procedures toggle to SBSD Owl Camera: these are operational and educational procedures that often have require the expertise of school staff to put together. So, for example, we don't expect you to be experts in employment law or in SBSD Owl Camera: sex based discrimination. Right? You know. So SBSD Owl Camera: for experts in agency of education requirements, that's my role. So, for instance, some of the updated policies I brought forward to you involve Act 39. Literacy. I don't expect you to know the numbers right. Act 29, safety. So when I introduce to you operational policies, they're often with Bsba model policies. But part of my role is to SBSD Owl Camera: follow the the legislature and ensure

120that I'm keeping our district in compliance, so I wouldn't be. You wouldn't be expected to introduce educational policy or information on how to SBSD Owl Camera: Well, we wouldn't be expected to know the things that they asked us sometime, maybe to be like how to deal with our neurodiversity. That's not our, that's not. It's our concern. But it's not our expertise. SBSD Owl Camera: I have a question in general. How do you want us to signal like we're having discussion? Should we raise our hands if we want to talk, or how do you want to do that in discussion and in most of we usually operate by Robert, tools for small boards, which is more casual in this course. So there are still SBSD Owl Camera: Robert's rules, and and we still need to operate

121by them. But in my leadership style, as a small board chair has been. If you have a question. Just be respectful of other people when they're talking, listening, when you have an opportunity to ask if you feel like your opportunity is being missed, tell me, and I'll make sure we have the chance. Would you prefer? Be like literally just gave you like a visual indication? And you kind of call on us, or I don't want to restrict SBSD Owl Camera: board conversation. So I would just ask that we all are respectful to each other, and don't talk over each other. SBSD Owl Camera: and unless I'm when when you're speaking, but I'm not going to be stickler about the chair. May I say, you know, we're we're 6 people 7 eventually as our superintendent, our

122student. Perhaps I think we can be responsible. SBSD Owl Camera: So is there. So I think you showed us policy under governance, and then separately, policies and procedures so like the executive limitations and the ends policy they don't show up in here. They require me to do all these things right. Do they have like a separate legal status. SBSD Owl Camera: One is articulating my roles, the other is articulating the district's roles, and how you monitor my work. SBSD Owl Camera: So most of our work at the board level we are always SBSD Owl Camera: Whenever an issue is brought to you as a board member, the 1st thing you should ask yourself is, where does this fit under policy monitoring? And I think this is going to be a great place of growth for

123the Board this year in having engaging conversation about monitoring policy in our open meetings, and and in order to do that, it requires a board that is well trained on how to monitor policy and how to have these discussions. But if someone, if SBSD Owl Camera: a parent, were to come to you and say, I'm really worried about school safety, the 1st thing you should ask yourself is, when do we monitor the policy that relates to school safety? SBSD Owl Camera: And when we eventually we're going to set a board Work calendar. And if that work calendar, that's when we decide when we're going to monitor all of our policy, we can at any time request that the superintendent provide an update about any of these policies, but it's most SBSD Owl Camera: I would

124say SBSD Owl Camera: it is most efficient to give the superintendent our plan, for when we're going to monitor those policies so that she can provide input on when some data will be available operationally and also make sure that the reports are well researched and prepared. Given the timeline that we've provided to her about when we expect to monitor any given policy. SBSD Owl Camera: If it's time sensitive as the public comment, guidelines read which Chelsea reads at the onset of every meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: If there's an issue, the Board can delegate it to me to address. So, for instance, you wouldn't follow up with a school counselor on an issue. I hear that in a board meeting I take a note SBSD Owl Camera: I follow up on it, and then I report.

125You know, I handle the operational issues right? So monitoring is something that happens. You know we do. The curriculum report once a year. The question on honors American that a constituent brought this evening is something operationally. We've already so that's something where I SBSD Owl Camera: heard the question. We're not going to open up curriculum discussions at a board meeting. This is something operationally. I meet with SBSD Owl Camera: my staff, my team, and I say, great, we're gonna have a community conversation. Please let me know the date, which is how I handle that operationally. So that wouldn't be something where you would follow up individually with the person to provide a solution. SBSD Owl Camera: But you can follow up with me, or with Violet about making sure that that concern was handled. The

126other thing, I think, is important to recognize here is board members are not expected to be curriculum experts or financial experts or legal experts, or we are meant to be representatives of our community, and our community has a wide SBSD Owl Camera: realm, a wide breadth of knowledge and experience. And when we set up these expectations with our community that board members can weigh in on these. I mean, school safety is a great one. SBSD Owl Camera: I think about the amount of time and effort. And you, as a you're a former police officer, right? I'm sure you can imagine not only how sensitive planning and understanding safety protocols are, but also how much experience you really need to be able to make a policy like that. There should be no expectation that we will

127always have a board member with that specific experience. And so we delegate making sure that someone with that experience is the one who is SBSD Owl Camera: doing that operation and our job as board members is to ensure that it's been done not to design it SBSD Owl Camera: access. SBSD Owl Camera: It's certainly helpful when we have curriculum, school safety SBSD Owl Camera: financial experience on the board, because it helps inform the discussion. It means that the monitoring and the questions are really rigorous and good. That's great. But just trying to really define that role of board member versus. This is a good time. I was gonna make make a suggestion that we all learn together. So there's 7 of us. So the accelerator. I don't know if you've heard of it, but that

128is, it's SBSD Owl Camera: It's training for policy governance, and it's 8 modules, and they take 20 to 20 min to complete. SBSD Owl Camera: And it's $300 a person. SBSD Owl Camera: And at at the end the woman who does it will give a 30 min coaching session to anybody who wants it. SBSD Owl Camera: But I I was thinking this would be a really good idea. We each do a module, and then we like set aside 20 min during the board to to talk about it that way. We are all getting SBSD Owl Camera: the same information at the same time, and and and talking about it. Because this I actually really like this, Joe. Thank you. And SBSD Owl Camera: it's never enough. It's just something, never enough. I've been on this board 2 and

129a half years. I feel like I'm just now starting to get it. So I think the more we can work together, and I love Racy could do it SBSD Owl Camera: because I think SBSD Owl Camera: if it just like learning learning together would be really great. So I don't know. I know it's it's a it. There is a cost to it. SBSD Owl Camera: But honestly, I I think that it would be well worth it. Are you suggesting that we pay one for one account, and then maybe do one module. No, we would have to. It's it would be 300, be 2,400. Well, and then, if they wanted to do it. SBSD Owl Camera: you know, with, you know, 300 times 10, right? So exactly $1,000. So. But I do think like at this

130point, it would be really well worth, since we have so many people. SBSD Owl Camera: So and I'm gonna be candid, because I think that's important. You know that we don't have it? SBSD Owl Camera: mo. The concept of monitoring is specific. It's not. It's not the only, it's not only used by policy governance, but the word, the reason we use the monitoring. And we talk about monitoring SBSD Owl Camera: policies. That's a policy governance decision that we've made SBSD Owl Camera: right like there's no law that, says the Board will. There's other laws that say, you know, the Board will make sure that the policies are executed. But and so like, I think that sort of along the same lines. It's my sense that along the same lines is that like we wouldn't be

131experts in public safety, we wouldn't be experts in curriculum development. Similarly. SBSD Owl Camera: I'm a little skeptical of the concept that we need to be really, really experts in a specific form of methodology and policy governance SBSD Owl Camera: prioritized over. Say, for example, other things that we might spend our energy on like community SBSD Owl Camera: outreach and kind of stuff like that. So maybe. And maybe if it's okay, a question for for the superintendent. Can you talk about why. SBSD Owl Camera: monitoring is a good way for us and and why you like policy governance, or how do you feel about policy? Governance? SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, I think policy governance is a I would not. I would never agree to work in a community as a superintendent where or as an

132administrator where policy governance wasn't at play, it makes roles and responsibilities very, very clear. SBSD Owl Camera: and the board determines the rules, and they tell me very clearly what I am responsible for, and I know what and when I need to manage, and the Board has their. I know that the board will hold me accountable, and I think it ensures operational efficiency. It's also a system of checks and balances. SBSD Owl Camera: So I have. Colleagues who may get. We never know who's going to be elected SBSD Owl Camera: to a board, especially in Vermont, where, as you all see, we have sometimes SBSD Owl Camera: no one running for seats or no one contested, as is the case SBSD Owl Camera: as we sit here together this evening, and so policy governance ensures

133that if there is a board member. So you've not only SBSD Owl Camera: employed me because I've agreed to execute what you're asking. You've also employed because of my experience, my values right? So, for instance, we in the past have had parents, guardians, community members request that I remove certain pieces of the curriculum. referring to Vermont State health standards regarding gender right? SBSD Owl Camera: And I, as a superintendent, have said, we will carry on with these standards, and here is why, there are some school boards who may get someone on a school board who says I would like to remove any SBSD Owl Camera: curriculum or standards referring to that, that are in contrast with creationism. Right? So it's a safeguard to ensure this, the system that both your superintendent and the Board SBSD

134Owl Camera: are not SBSD Owl Camera: inadvertently due to personal views, impacting students or staff negatively. So it both is a system of accountability and of protection, and it ensures that the district will not be harmed by either party. SBSD Owl Camera: and so is that to say that, like we don't write. SBSD Owl Camera: we don't write, or nor should we be expected to write the policy on like treatment of staff. Is that operational? SBSD Owl Camera: So all these, all these operational policies, or nobody, has some executive limitation. So I will submit a report to you regarding treatment of students and staff, and I will provide a curriculum report to you. I will provide monitoring reports on SBSD Owl Camera: All of these. Right? So 2, 2. Treatment of staff, 2, 3, treatment

135of community, and I'll give you a written report and verbal report, and then you will determine whether it is compliance in each area, or if it is not compliant, if it is not compliant, and I will tell you when something is not compliant, and in my report I will detail the compliance plan. SBSD Owl Camera: For instance, you will find in my reports. I will tell you that in many ways our facilities are we were out of compliance in financials. I report annually that we have insufficient SBSD Owl Camera: funding for future capital project needs before we moved to the new financial software. I reported multiple deficiencies in financials. SBSD Owl Camera: and and SBSD Owl Camera: and so like, let me take us back a couple of years when there's a lot, you know.

136SBSD Owl Camera: when it came time to write a policy about Dei, or something like that. Is that something that we're we're not drafting that. So I was involved in the development of this and was one of the co-authors. And what happened is the Board felt that it was important to implement an equity policy. And so the superintendent worked with their team in order to bring something forward to the board, and then the Board tuned SBSD Owl Camera: versions of that weighing in on it in public open meetings. So did we add it to the ends policy that there should be equitable treatment of people, or SBSD Owl Camera: so SBSD Owl Camera: basically, our ends are what we expect the district to furnish or provide us as the entity. And we charge our CEO

137and getting the means like making that achieving those ends. And we monitor how well she's doing that. So equity is within the executive limitations. Basically, we're empowering our CEO to reach those ends. However, she sees fit with these SBSD Owl Camera: limitations. That's 2.0 sorry executive limitations. So whatever strategy she deems the best way to meet the ends, that's what we hired her to think about and and know with given limitations. And so we kind of have to decide amongst ourselves like, do we want to define it in a positive way, and then it goes to the ends. Or do we want to define it like this, like in a negative way, and put it in the limit. SBSD Owl Camera: That is a really complex legal philosophy question. In my opinion, it's it's like,

138do you want to define what you want to have happen, or what you don't want to have. SBSD Owl Camera: I didn't you like a seltzer? Yeah, please. Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: That's fine. SBSD Owl Camera: Think there is a short end wave describing this, in that SBSD Owl Camera: you indicate what the M is you desire to occur. SBSD Owl Camera: You hire a professional in the form of the superintendent of schools to make sure those are doing that. SBSD Owl Camera: The superintendent told you in the words of the former New York Mayor. SBSD Owl Camera: how am I doing? And you say SBSD Owl Camera: we think you're doing okay? We think you could be improving in these in these areas. We're concerned about this or that. SBSD Owl Camera: Go

139back and see how you might manage your staff more effectively SBSD Owl Camera: to to meet those limits. Or you say, boy. SBSD Owl Camera: you you've outdone yourself in this regard, and you're we can't be more happy. All of that is part of the monitoring responsibility. So in the end SBSD Owl Camera: the Board, like such the policy SBSD Owl Camera: and determines whether it's being complied with. SBSD Owl Camera: and that is what the electorate SBSD Owl Camera: have voted you in. To do. SBSD Owl Camera: What they haven't voted you in to do is to determine the method and means of accomplishing those ends. The method and means are delegated to your Chief executive and her staff. SBSD Owl Camera: If that's okay. SBSD Owl Camera: okay, how are we doing? How

140are we doing, we do still the rest of our meeting. We wanna pause here, and I think I have let me. Just I think we've had some good questions. So I just I know I asked you to prepare. SBSD Owl Camera: Here are answers on some common questions that I think board members get. So let me just see if there's any. We haven't covered what we have here. SBSD Owl Camera: How how about? How can I communicate on social media? SBSD Owl Camera: How can I communicate on social media. SBSD Owl Camera: So the the legal advice. SBSD Owl Camera: Just to be careful. SBSD Owl Camera: social media is just another form of media in my mind. SBSD Owl Camera: and the same cautions that I've given you earlier apply there. SBSD Owl Camera:

141So SBSD Owl Camera: if there is a question about the operation of the district that is in your head individually, or has come to you from a constituent. SBSD Owl Camera: I think the approach is. We're the chair to the superintendent SBSD Owl Camera: so that the superintendent can be aware of it and deal with it and stay the heck away from just, you know, debating discussing and social media in a way that does not reflect what the board as a board wants to do, and you include all media in that. I I would. I think that it's both SBSD Owl Camera: is both an opportunity, but also a danger. And the SBSD Owl Camera: The one thing about good media is that it's sensational, so you will. SBSD Owl Camera: You'll answer one aspect,

142and there will be a follow up question, and there will be a follow up question, and there will be a follow up question. SBSD Owl Camera: So SBSD Owl Camera: going out on your own in that environment is, you know, selling between the rock and the hard place. Really? So SBSD Owl Camera: I would say, the better course of action is to make sure that before you're hosting SBSD Owl Camera: something that represents what the Board is doing, why, the Board's doing it, what the district is doing, why, the district's doing it. Go through your normal channels. That SBSD Owl Camera: particularly if you're represent. If you're attempting to speak for the board. SBSD Owl Camera: you've got problems, if you're not, in fact, speaking fully. So speaking also as a small business owner who's

143done quite a bit of research about SBSD Owl Camera: building client bases and things like that. You don't actually own anything that you post on a social media site. And so at any time that content can be taken down or taken away from you. And so I I personally think it's best practice for us to drive engagement through our website through email correspondence, through our public meetings through porch forum where we can share. I don't think from porch forum is going anywhere. And also once it's shared to an email. SBSD Owl Camera: it doesn't really matter if it goes away at that point. It sounds like we should sorry. But we should have a agenda item for social media policy. I think. I'm hoping to suggest that we do more training soon. I love, I

144love all the questions and the engagement. It really, I think, demonstrates learning and thoughtfulness. SBSD Owl Camera: I just also wanna make sure that we cover what we said we would cover. SBSD Owl Camera: I just think, in terms of community engagement, which I think is something we're all going to be very interested in typical social media sites, I don't think are really a great idea, because we could build a really strong following, and then that could vanish and then have, I think it's just better to drive that engagement in platforms that we do own like a website or well. But let's, this is a good talk. I feel like this is an example of where SBSD Owl Camera: we should say future board meeting. Let's warn social media policy like, when you end discussion.

145Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: any other questions about social media. For now? SBSD Owl Camera: Tim, More, can I put you on the spot. We did policy governance training at this meeting last year. Anything that you took away from that meeting that you feel like needs to be shared now. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh. SBSD Owl Camera: yeah, I thought it was. I mean, I was relatively new to the board at that time last year. SBSD Owl Camera: and you know, haven't been on the board for over a year. Now SBSD Owl Camera: I think 2 things. I think it's incredibly challenging to operate as a board member under policy governance, because you want to act, but I think it puts brakes on your actions that are appropriate. SBSD Owl Camera: the the one area where I

146potentially would like us to improve a little bit as a board, and this is where I struggle. When we come to the actual monitoring we often are. On the agenda. We have a policy that we're going to monitor but I found last year that it was challenging to know exactly what it was I was supposed to be looking at what does this really mean? So SBSD Owl Camera: I would recommend it as we move forward. And and we we so we will pre build the agenda. I think you will do that, Chelsea, where we will say we're gonna look at these policies. We're gonna monitor this and that in this month that we do a little bit of precursor training on that particular monitoring report. So we know what we're looking for and stuff. And

147then you don't feel as SBSD Owl Camera: out of touch, because that's what I felt on numerous occasions as I was looking at some of the monitoring reports. But I didn't really know what I was looking for, that I had input into it right? Appropriately. So. A little precursor training. But other than that, I've come to respect policy governance, because, and the social media policy, I think, is really important, or the approach because you often want to jump into the defense of something, or you feel you take something personally, almost as a board member, but it just SBSD Owl Camera: you just kind of learn to, you know, water off a duck's back, and SBSD Owl Camera: just don't engage. So it's that those are my lessons over the last year. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah,

148I did research, like, what are some common criticisms of policy governance, because in most of what I can find it's highly regarded and very popular. One of the criticisms, though, is high board, turnover, and policy governance don't gel well together, and and what Tim's speaking about is a perfect example. When you don't have any sort of continuity of board members. It's hard to have any sort of SBSD Owl Camera: fellow board member support, or training as to what it is you're supposed to be doing. SBSD Owl Camera: and that was certainly my experience joining the board, which is why I've tried pretty hard to find ways to make trainings more applicable and helpful. Because when you don't have someone on the board to say like, Hey, this is your 1st monitoring report like, let me

149tell you about last year, when we monitor this report and give you some context and tell you what you should be looking for it's really hard to feel like you're doing your job. Well, so SBSD Owl Camera: yeah, and I, yeah, I would, I would agree. And the other thing is, Troy I. SBSD Owl Camera: The Vsba has got great information for new board. Members like everybody should should go on there. And that, and SBSD Owl Camera: and Chelsea's done training it. It is on the South Burlington website. SBSD Owl Camera: I I do. I do want to advocate for like a more formal training like that rhythmic like 8 modules. So we. So we we all are getting the training, because, you know, maybe I don't know. Dan's got more time than than I

150do to to to do that, and I don't know what he's looking at. I don't know what Emily's looking at. We're all kind of learning at our own pace with different things, and I just think there's SBSD Owl Camera: to to bring us together. We we do need to gel as a group which we don't SBSD Owl Camera: believe that we have done, and I think that will like learning together will bring us together. SBSD Owl Camera: so that that would be my teacher. Thank you. Outlined. I think so SBSD Owl Camera: until the till the point of board. And probably. SBSD Owl Camera: yeah, well, I really appreciate the discussion. This feels great. SBSD Owl Camera: is there any further discussion about board training at this time? Because, if not, we can move on

151with the rest of our agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: Oh, thank you, John, we really appreciate it. So you'll be an executive session regarding labor relations this evening. SBSD Owl Camera: So SBSD Owl Camera: okay, well, with that, let's move to agenda. Item 9. Now, discussion items. And first, st we have election and budget results. SBSD Owl Camera: so Superintendent Nichols is going to share some budget results with us. And then, after that, I have a statement I prepared that I'd like to send to the community on our behalf, and I just like to read it out for you for any feedback. It should be pretty straightforward. It's just a an acknowledgement, and thank you for our community. SBSD Owl Camera: So I just I, you know. So our budget passed last night. This is a

152tremendous, tremendous victory for our community, for our students and for our staff. SBSD Owl Camera: And we came out this year because of the impacts of the education funding formula changes with a 7.9 3 homestead tax rate increase, and also because of the use of the surplus funds that we allocated to the fiscal year 25 budget, which is our current budget because we bought SBSD Owl Camera: that tax rate down. We also have one of the highest debt spending per pupil. That change in spending is driven up. SBSD Owl Camera: We brought a tremendous ask to our community. We statewide. We saw districts that had 0% increases and many negatives. This was the message that some of you likely heard from the governor, and was also connected to the yield. SBSD Owl Camera: being so

153high to intentionally, which was a legislative decision. The yield is set by the legislature. SBSD Owl Camera: and it being so high, provided tax relief SBSD Owl Camera: for communities. So with many of our constituents in the State, and certainly in the Champlain Valley, we stuck out among the patents being the highest, we received a lot of feedback regarding our 14.9 5 fte reductions while maintaining a near 80% increase. SBSD Owl Camera: Many of our neighbors reduced 40 or so ftes, or discussing closing buildings or decimating programs, such as the arts in total. We did not take that Draconian approach. That was not my recommendation to the Board, and the Board did not impose those limitations on me and budget development either. SBSD Owl Camera: So you know, while Burlington is at negative 4 and

154Cvsd the same Colchester at a 3% increase. We were incredibly fortunate to pass SBSD Owl Camera: a near 8% budget last night. I'm incredibly grateful to all of those who participated in the development process which was the most robust. I've participated in as an administrator or career educator. The amount of detail that was provided in looking at financials, enrollment, student achievement results SBSD Owl Camera: survey that we issued to staff and administrative and director feedback which was gathered by connecting with staffs, yielded a budget that ultimately our community stood behind, incredibly grateful because of the South Burlington City charter. We are obligated by law to have a revote within 30 days. SBSD Owl Camera: which meant that with just the meeting this evening and 12, th that we would have had, you all would have

155had to SBSD Owl Camera: approve a budget one week from today. So administrators and I have gone through the hard task of being prepared for subsequent votes, and we are absolutely grateful and relieved to maintain the programming that we have this evening. So I really want to thank all those who participated in the budget development process. SBSD Owl Camera: Our administrative team, our directors, our staff board members, community members. This is something that I view as a team win and and a victory which supports our students, staff and community. So SBSD Owl Camera: really happy to be able to to share that and just feel that there's a tremendous amount of support our community for our schools and for education and the work that we're doing. SBSD Owl Camera: You know, I chose to work

156here because I believe that this is the best district in the State, and I stand by that, and I I really feel that the community has spoken through their votes, and has been willing to pay for that which is an incredible gesture. So great news to report. I do want to share the disaggregated SBSD Owl Camera: voting information. So we have about 21,000 residents in our city. 3,601 of them voted, which is about a 20%. This is a standard and typical turnout we do see increases around presidential elections, which typically are around 5,000. SBSD Owl Camera: We received 51.7 6%. Yes, votes and 48.2, 4 no's we won by 127 votes. And again, I think that this was SBSD Owl Camera: earn one in thought, and our community support has been incredible. Again, we need

157to contextualize this financial cost. Given that many of the residents in our community are on fixed incomes, or who are below the poverty line, albeit there is the poverty, forgiveness that's only issued to about 52% of those in our community. SBSD Owl Camera: So by district we see here, Chittenden, 10, that we received a larger margin of support at nearly 58% Chittenden, 11 here, which you see in this light blue color again, also a 57%. Yes, vote in our SBSD Owl Camera: this. Almost coral like color here should use primary color. So that's controversial. We we received about a 50, 57% support. If you look at Chittenden ape here. SBSD Owl Camera: you're seeing that this is one area where we were just under on the yes votes. And then Chittenden 9. We're just over.

158Last night, as the votes were coming in, and the incredible folks at the city were communicating results. SBSD Owl Camera: They told me that our final district was Chittenden 12. And because I am aware I understand the voting history of Chittenden 12. That is, when I called our board chair, crying, because I know about their historical high support, and that is one of the areas where we receive historically. SBSD Owl Camera: A great deal of support. So you know it does take all all areas. And SBSD Owl Camera: you know these are you know. You can tell where the neighborhoods are here. And SBSD Owl Camera: we've also put the polling places here. So you see. You know Chittenden, 1010 is the Chamberlain area, and then we have the middle school, which is 9 and

15911, Orchard School, Shipmentton 12, and City Hall as well, which is Chittenden 8. I want to provide a huge thank you to those at the city, and all those who volunteered at the polls. SBSD Owl Camera: We, as a school district, and not all school districts, do this, but we are voting locations. And so SBSD Owl Camera: when it's on town meeting day, and we intentionally don't have school things run smoothly. Should we have revotes? So I'm around making sure things go operationally, smoothly at elections. When there are students in the buildings, things become SBSD Owl Camera: quite challenging, because we are now opening our schools for the only time of year when there are also students in the building. So wonderful professional, accurate dedicated volunteers who made this possible? And SBSD Owl Camera: I

160want to share just a bit more information here about the votes for Fy. 25, which you see are these, 1st 3 maps, and then you see the fiscal year 26. So we're currently in fiscal year 25. Our fiscal year ends June 30, th 2025. On July 1st we will start fiscal year 26 SBSD Owl Camera: and last year. Unfortunately, the reason you see 3 maps here is because we were unsuccessful on our initial town meeting day vote. This is where you see an unprecedented unfolding of legislation pertaining, and then ultimately law pertaining to school budgets after our city charter had required us to adopt SBSD Owl Camera: and warned budgets. So this 1st budget after the board approved and adopted it and warned it. It became what was a 12 and a half became a

16123 and a half percent budget literally overnight, based on law changes. And then so you see the the SBSD Owl Camera: the percentages here. It was a presidential election. So you're at that near 5,000 number for that march 5, th 24 vote. And we were 42%. Yes, at that time. For the next budget, we were 48%, finally, 56.7 8 on vote 3, which was May 7.th It's a lovely belated birthday present for me. This was a painful process for our staff staff morale is incredibly impacted which impacts our students and community significantly. SBSD Owl Camera: The way that our current teachers, collective bargaining agreement is written is that the Board must give seniority to the Union, and then rif notification, intent to rif by the 15th of March, and then rif notices must go out

162to all staff who could potentially, who will be riffed? That doesn't mean that they will be reduced. It means there's a possibility. SBSD Owl Camera: So what this means is that should the budget have failed last night, we would have been in a position now, because we wouldn't have revoted before the Rif notification date that we would have had to riff for SBSD Owl Camera: multiple contingency votes, because we could not have as a district you all couldn't have approved a budget that would have committed to staffing that the voters would not have approved SBSD Owl Camera: so. I am so grateful not to be sending Riff letters. This has been a really painful process. And, as you heard earlier, because of Union negotiated seniority, we are often. And we discussed this publicly in board

163meetings throughout the budget process. Often those impacted are hires SBSD Owl Camera: through the district's Dei efforts. So here we are. Today I stand here with a tremendous amount of gratitude. This was the, you know blood, sweat, and tears of many. And right up to the end. You know our students standing out at the polling locations, the honk and wave, you know board members doing community engagement in folks living rooms. You know the the calls, the emails, the conversations in the grocery store? So SBSD Owl Camera: you know. And ultimately again, the community sending powerful message that they're supporting our schools and our kids and our staff with this significant financial ask, is is not one that I take for granted, or take lightly, anyway. SBSD Owl Camera: Can I ask? Do you know about

164how many intend to references? You might well, SBSD Owl Camera: The board would give guidance on parameters in a reboot. That would have conversation would have happened publicly this evening. I would have asked you explicitly for feedback on SBSD Owl Camera: big buckets. Right? So you you the Board, would advise on. We would like to see changes in major structures, or major things such as facilities, you know, would you have said? And this is what I think. This is a real example, because that's what the Board said to me last year. Take out the future facilities savings. So you, the Board, should weigh in on priorities. SBSD Owl Camera: and those would be reflected financially. The Board might say things like make reductions in arts SBSD Owl Camera: administration, whatever the the big category is.

165And I would have asked for you know, guidance on not only programmatically but financially. And so when administrators and directors and I were meeting, we had planned for SBSD Owl Camera: I had given our administrators targets to achieve a 3%, thinking that things couldn't possibly get any worse than that. That would mean we would have gone out with it. It meant that the teams needed to be prepared, and we needed to. You know, it takes time to develop a budget. So there would have been and and I calculated that, based on budgets in our area. So it wasn't a number that I picked out of the hat I'm looking at SBSD Owl Camera: what what districts are aiming for. And again, 3% sticks out amongst the negative fours in our region, but it was a

166number that I felt like we couldn't. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean to go below where we are is SBSD Owl Camera: has been scary to think about. So with that SBSD Owl Camera: the the reductions would have been significant. SBSD Owl Camera: I. We have not quantified the number of letters. There is also in the agreement here, which is somewhat unique, is that there is a displace displacement process. So if a teacher has a license in SBSD Owl Camera: They have a science endorsement and a math and a multilingual endorsement. They could then displace someone in science or in math, or in a multilingual teacher. So they also. Then they have several days to respond to the displacement letter, indicating whether they will or won't. SBSD Owl Camera: Then someone else could get the letter

167down the line. This is something that is SBSD Owl Camera: particularly bad for staff morale, because someone could be getting a roof letter SBSD Owl Camera: not on March 30, th but you know. SBSD Owl Camera: April, may and so SBSD Owl Camera: We don't always know which staff is going to be impacted right like you heard this evening from a staff member who knows that they're the lowest seniority in that category. SBSD Owl Camera: But there's that's not something that we we know ultimately, until folks have decided to displace or not. SBSD Owl Camera: So I just wanted to share the brief results. Mostly to share. Thank you. SBSD Owl Camera: Incredible amount of gratitude, and to the to the board members who endured this process. SBSD Owl Camera: you know, being a board

168member is you're giving a tremendous amount of your your life and your time and your energy and your reputation and SBSD Owl Camera: you know, I think it's very clear to say that the discussion is not always civil, and in fact, SBSD Owl Camera: you know the SBSD Owl Camera: In fact, I'll go so far as to say that you know this was there was quite a lot of behavior exhibited that was very cool. And so I want to thank our board members who were steadfast and enduring. This and I will add one final note, part of implementing the financial software which I did allowed us to have a lot of much greater controls on pinpointing and developing metrics for budgeting. SBSD Owl Camera: in my opinion, in a responsible way. So SBSD Owl Camera:

169I've engaged with tossant consulting partners who develop school budgets for districts. Using a number of metrics. They engaged with the Burlington School district 4 years ago. I have met with I've you know, reviewed the Burlington budgets in their plan. And you can see things like SBSD Owl Camera: for elementary schools in, you know, for ages 3 to 5. There is an average of X number of dollars per student. And it's across all the schools, right? And so it's a way that we are really drilling down into data to make decisions. Dessant also. Not only will they manipulate finances, but they engage in a significant amount of community engagement, which is really important. SBSD Owl Camera: I think. The the board and I have different perspectives on feedback for the the the process of budget development.

170This boardroom was primarily staff members. There were very few community members who provided feedback on positions specifically SBSD Owl Camera: but in the community there were a lot of folks who provided feedback on cost specifically. And so the idea that and 80% of those who in our community of our 21,000 residents do not, in fact, have ties to the schools. So it's SBSD Owl Camera: you know. Again, we're we're not only seeking to. We're seeking to support our students and our staff. But through the values in the eyes of many different constituents. SBSD Owl Camera: So I've engaged in conversations with and they do have like the financial piece, but they also support engagement. So I wanted to share that this evening, because I think it's a step in the right direction. This is not

171something that I've executed yet. It is an operational decision that it's not something that would require either a bid or board approval. SBSD Owl Camera: But I do value the episode of the board. SBSD Owl Camera: So what it's it's not budgeted, though. Right? So how like, where would this? Because, honestly, I think our training again really would be. SBSD Owl Camera: and it's so much less expensive. I guess I don't. SBSD Owl Camera: Great question. So we have a 71.5 million dollar budget and the total cost of this is depending on on 2. It's either 58,000 or 70,070 includes significant engagement with constituents and in budget board SBSD Owl Camera: through monitoring holds me and through financial reporting is my responsibility to ensure that we do not exceed the number of ftes the board

172approves, or the number of financials. So a dollar amount for the budget, so should the year progress, and we have consistent vacancies in positions I can evaluate and reallocate money for SBSD Owl Camera: things like. SBSD Owl Camera: you know, $58,000 for tossant. Should that be, you know, a priority. And I and I, you know I mentioned this because it, you know, process was something that was discussed, and so it would certainly take SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, it would certainly. Provide an additional level of expertise. Communication and evaluation. The. So SBSD Owl Camera: there is no executive limitation that says you can't reallocate, or something like that, like in this case, you're saying, take budget from Fds that weren't filled. Put it into the software and consulting. And so that's why, right? So so 2.4

173financial monitoring says, do not go into. Don't go into a deficit. Don't hire more staff than we've approved SBSD Owl Camera: the other thing. With staffing we can set operational controls, which I SBSD Owl Camera: do annually, and I can say things like. We won't be hiring above a master's 3 step 5, right because we need to. And the way that I monitor that is, I look at. I prepare for you higher reports. SBSD Owl Camera: And yeah, I I prepare for you reports on hires. And so I, monitor, do. We have folks who are retiring, and are the folks that we are attracting of higher or lower cost? Right? So I both the principals responsible. I give you hiring reports. The the point isn't as 71.5 million dollars. I would not feel concerned about

174a SBSD Owl Camera: 50, let alone a $70,000 expenditure. That's not to say that I spend district funds willy-nilly, but it is to say that, due to the nature of even our current you know, hiring that if this is something that would not. I would it would not flag for me as putting us at risk for a deficit. SBSD Owl Camera: Let me just make one comment on the election results. Oh. SBSD Owl Camera: as as you were showing the the graphic Violet about 3 budgets last year, budget votes I just want to share with the board that I'm very grateful. The budget passed the 1st time, because the last year we were consumed for upwards of 6 months with nothing but the budget, and I don't think, you know, I think it put us

175behind as a board SBSD Owl Camera: dealing with a lot of stuff that we really needed to focus on. And of course we were a smaller board at the time, so I'm very grateful. The community supported the budget, and as I looked at that graphic and realized every. The last date was May 7.th We passed the budget finally, that that was a huge amount of just just energy that went into that month over month for all of us, so. SBSD Owl Camera: not to mention we had to appoint a new board member, and then, shortly after that, the Board member moved away, and so we had to appoint another board member. We're grateful for everybody on the board now, so if I can make a comment on the budget SBSD Owl Camera: if you look

176at it, passed by less than 2% with very low turnout. SBSD Owl Camera: and if you look at in comparison to some of the other districts in the area where they either saw a reduction in their tax liability, responsibility, or something closer to level of inflation. SBSD Owl Camera: they pass by a much larger margin. SBSD Owl Camera: So what I would hope is that SBSD Owl Camera: please don't take away that all the budget passed. SBSD Owl Camera: We need to be more responsible and get budgets closer to the rate of inflation, because this budget. SBSD Owl Camera: it's a little over 7%, which is more than double the pace of inflation. Right now the increase in per pupil spending was close to 16%. SBSD Owl Camera: That's not the best factor in the

177surplus. So it's it's a complicated, it's not. I would caution against something. It's as simple as this rating with inflation, because there's a lot of other factors that really drive those numbers by a large margin. Okay? But it was. It was something that was SBSD Owl Camera: just, I think. Think that's why I was looking to hear the SBSD Owl Camera: the message that you wanted to share with the community. Because I want from my perspective. I want to hear it, and then I want to make sure that we're as a board, not coming across as like having won a victory over 49 per pupil spending more than SBSD Owl Camera: who are at a greater rate than the budget outpaced inflation. SBSD Owl Camera: And, as Chelsea said, or I'm sorry, as Violet said,

178there are districts that are struggling financially. SBSD Owl Camera: and you can keep outpacing inflation at a great rate SBSD Owl Camera: without the whole thing just imploding at some point in the future. You have to get closer to the rate of inflation because most people don't see a 7% raise each year. SBSD Owl Camera: So we need to be as a board more responsible, and start looking at SBSD Owl Camera: getting things closer to the rate of inflation. SBSD Owl Camera: And I would also argue that we lobby, you know, one of the reasons that school budgets are so expensive is that we are asked to do things that really society shouldn't taken care of like mental health. SBSD Owl Camera: And so we school budget. We pay so much money monthly every district

179does, and that is something that Governor Scott. They capped the mental health spending on SBSD Owl Camera: that that agency. So it's fallen to schools. SBSD Owl Camera: And so, you know, there's a lot of things that schools do that have nothing to do with education. I don't think people quite understand that. And that is what drives drives the cost. The other thing is teacher health care. We have no control. So yeah. But I'm just saying that there's a lot of things happen in schools that we we have to do because society isn't doing it. SBSD Owl Camera: The healthcare cost the district. Paid in 2,024, which is the last year that actuals on was about 8.5 million healthcare was a 12% increase this year, 11.9 9 for the for the district and it's negotiated

180at a statewide level between the Vermont National, the Nea. So the National Education Association and the School Board Association. So SBSD Owl Camera: just information. Could we go back? So is the message that you had something that you were going to propose that like we say, support, yeah, so standardly when I craft sometimes I delegate to other board members to craft a statement on behalf of the Board. If I feel another board member has a really good place on how the board is feeling. But typically I will craft a statement on behalf of the Board and SBSD Owl Camera: Send it to myself with the full board blind copy and ask for your feedback, and then I'll collect your feedback and try to incorporate it into a new draft, and I'll send that new draft.

181And that is how board statements are typically crafted, especially when it's between meetings, and we can't just it's also like a little SBSD Owl Camera: right right? It's also like a little awkward right in this moment, because my hope is that as a board we can express base a statement and message to our community. But we haven't had a chance to have discussion to inform the statement that I prepared in this board. It's just the nature of the budget today. So in anticipation of this meeting, I prepared a brief statement that I'd like to share with all of you. Get your feedback and SBSD Owl Camera: if you're all amenable to it, I would like to post it on our website posted on Approach Forum SBSD Owl Camera: and also just read it out. Now,

182in this public meeting, if that's could we read it out now as a provisional kind of just a discussion item before we adopt this, are we ready for that part SBSD Owl Camera: all around SBSD Owl Camera: as members of the South Arlington School Board? We want to express our sincere gratitude to all community members who participated in the vote on our school budget. We recognize that this was a significant decision for our community, and we deeply appreciate the support that allowed it to pass. At the same time we acknowledge the concerns and perspectives shared throughout this process SBSD Owl Camera: as we move forward together. We want to assure you that every email sent, every conversation held, every article written, and every public comment shared over the past several months has been heard and

183will continue to inform our work in the year ahead. SBSD Owl Camera: This budget represents an investment in our schools, our students, and the future of our community. We know that challenges lie ahead, and we do not take lightly the responsibility that comes with this support. The Board is committed to strengthening community connections, fostering open and productive dialogue and working collaboratively to find thoughtful and sustainable solutions. SBSD Owl Camera: Our goal remains clear to ensure that South Burlington schools remain strong, vibrant and positioned to serve our students and community for generations to come. Thank you for your engagement, your trust, and your commitment to the success of our schools. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you for writing it SBSD Owl Camera: hard thing to try to crystallize what you think a bunch of people are gonna

184agree to SBSD Owl Camera: my intention. Whenever I try to write a statement on behalf of the Board is to, I hope, represent the positions of everyone on the board. SBSD Owl Camera: we do speak as one voice, and sometimes we really don't agree. But ultimately, when we don't agree, we take a vote, and however, the vote is, that is the court's position. So I tried to craft something that acknowledged the difficult position many of our voters were in. SBSD Owl Camera: and was grateful and thankful to our community for passing the budget, and I tried to be clear about our intentions moving forward, and the responsibility that we have for the next year as as we, I don't think anything is going to get easier. So my! My feedback, just the key points on

185it, I think, are more. SBSD Owl Camera: They're they're less about which direction. I think spending should go, or something like that. I I think that I think, is as Dan brings up like we haven't won the argument in terms of like funding in terms of like SBSD Owl Camera: a anything really like. We, we haven't won the argument, and I think that SBSD Owl Camera: turnout would affect the way that the budget would go. And and so that's number one is, we haven't won the argument. So whatever we say as a board, I think should reflect that SBSD Owl Camera: that we need to keep having an argument and and and then the other thing SBSD Owl Camera: is that I think that one of the most SBSD Owl Camera: One of the things

186that we have to be most one of the things that hurts our standing the most is a feeling of opacity and a feeling of like where we're kind of like SBSD Owl Camera: doing things. You know, it's like in community members often say the word transparency right? They want transparency. They want transparency, and then we flip that around and we look look, and we say, Well, well, we sent you all the numbers. SBSD Owl Camera: But I think that we need to. Again. I I would suggest that in our response we talk about our commitment SBSD Owl Camera: to like SBSD Owl Camera: ourselves being less opaque, and I mean. And again, like we tried to be open. We've tried to SBSD Owl Camera: bring community in to, you know, like have listening sessions and

187stuff like that. But if it's not working, we need to try something else, and and and so I I would feel that like we should. SBSD Owl Camera: And the 3rd thing I'll mention, I think also is that this political moment right now? A lot of people who won't, who wouldn't necessarily support a school budget SBSD Owl Camera: out of their own interests or out of their own beliefs. I think are pretty resistant to SBSD Owl Camera: hearing from like officials like official talk, official, like kind of like officious language. SBSD Owl Camera: And so I think that we should consider it would be SBSD Owl Camera: put together a statement that we wanna reach people who are, you know, like SBSD Owl Camera: in this moment right now. So I'm not sure how we

188can craft a statement. I can see then I can see the urgency of it. But I think it is, you know, 51 to 49 is pretty polarized, 52 to 48, or, you know, whatever and so we just we have to, I think SBSD Owl Camera: try to get more of that 48, you know, and especially if we want capital improvements. If we want to bring schools into compliance, that's going to bring out the whole community. And if history tells us whether it's the March 5, th 2024 vote, or the 2019 vote where it was 6,400 to 1,700. We have to. We. We have a work cut out for us for the next year, and so we can start early by SBSD Owl Camera: really trying to recognize how we have to be more actively actively

189transparent and stuff. So as a parent, I support obviously spending money. But then, my neighbor, down the way, you know, he doesn't have kids, and we're both in the same taxpayer voters. You know, we're we're both the same community. So SBSD Owl Camera: I think from my perspective, going into my. SBSD Owl Camera: this is now starting my 4th year. I've done it 3 full years. I think that having an engaged board at the table to have robust discussion about the information that the Board has been consuming in the past is, is, I think a really important missing link in that transparency. And I think. SBSD Owl Camera: speaking on behalf of myself, the efforts that I've put in to try to. SBSD Owl Camera: as you say, like, hold listening sessions send the numbers.

190SBSD Owl Camera: It's not working. And so I've been really trying to brainstorm and think about ways where in this format, in our business meeting, where it's appropriate for discussion. How do we show our community the rigorous, evaluating, monitoring that we're doing, and part of that is having board members trained on how to do it. So the training is important and the work is important. SBSD Owl Camera: there's 1 we had a former board member make a comment. Who said, You're not doing the district or the superintendent any any good by? Not, you know. SBSD Owl Camera: I don't wanna miss SBSD Owl Camera: quote so, not quoting but paraphrasing. You're not doing anyone anyone any good by not having this like rigorous evaluation and monitoring in your open session, and I have to agree.

191And I think that's the piece that's been missing. So I'm looking forward to having. But I think it's a really important piece that it's just not been well translated. So I'm hoping SBSD Owl Camera: as your chair to focus our meetings to these really important discussions, and less of the distracting. SBSD Owl Camera: distracting stuff, or just like I mean, I don't want to color other important things, but SBSD Owl Camera: focus focused on the work and not onboarding and appointing and revoting, and I would like to call for the orders of the day. I'm wondering, Chelsea, can we? SBSD Owl Camera: And we put these other things on hold and go? Yes. Can we just get can. I just SBSD Owl Camera: hear from 4 board members about? I know you can't look at

192it. I would email it to you. But I don't know who your emails working at? The statement that I just read is that palatable to the board. So I like this statement. I, I feel like I'm behind all the things that was written there. I understand what she was saying, and SBSD Owl Camera: and one way that SBSD Owl Camera: I was thinking maybe could be conveyed. Is that what you just said. It's not working. We're not getting through somehow. And so the board might be committed to finding out other ways to communicate with the community and help them to understand what we're trying to convey, because we can acknowledge that SBSD Owl Camera: the current steps aren't necessarily working as well find it. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay? SBSD Owl Camera: I mean you mentioned

193in there about our responsibility. SBSD Owl Camera: One thing I don't think I heard like SBSD Owl Camera: didn't if it's in there, and I didn't hear, I apologize. Fiscal responsibility SBSD Owl Camera: and trying to get things closer to SBSD Owl Camera: what most people experience. Like, I said, most people SBSD Owl Camera: didn't get a 7% raise last year. SBSD Owl Camera: So SBSD Owl Camera: I shouldn't push back on that day, because I don't think when this kind of a letter we want to commit ourselves to some sort of policy SBSD Owl Camera: financial commitment. Right? I understand exactly. I'm not saying a a specific number. I'm saying SBSD Owl Camera: that we need to acknowledge that part of our job is to be fiscally responsible and trying to keep things more

194in line with what the average person experience. And that's where I disagree, because I think if we say we're going to try to keep things more in line with the average person. That's almost an economic commitment ahead of time. But that's also positive. But it's it's not saying we will, we will try. SBSD Owl Camera: Would it be appropriate? SBSD Owl Camera: I would. Well, would it be appropriate if we came, maybe in 2 weeks with you know our own thoughts on what the letter should be in that, or maybe we could send them around earlier. But we can't talk about it for 2 weeks. Is it too long. This is like the the awkward part of trying to have a statement that has board support 20, less than 24 h from the budget passing. This

195could have been a very different letter. Right? SBSD Owl Camera: so perhaps what we do is is reframe. The purpose of this letter, which I think is to acknowledge and thank our community for the support that we've received, and but only 51% gave support. But that's still 51% who gave support. I'm acknowledging and grateful for that support that we received, while also maintaining and committing to SBSD Owl Camera: working harder and better to reach, that the the constituents who voted? No. And and I want to know more about why I want to know more about SBSD Owl Camera: no is a very valid thing to vote right that those are your choices? Yes or no. And so it's not like, I want to really steer very clear of any sort of implication that anyone who

196voted no, on the budget did something wrong. And I want this letter to reflect the very difficult position that our no voters were put in, and I would I would appreciate this board making the commitment to SBSD Owl Camera: trying to do better. Always do better always. Improving. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, you can. But are you saying I'm sorry, from a process point of view. SBSD Owl Camera: Are you saying that you'd like to vote on this tonight? Because if we don't vote on it tonight, we'll have to wait 2 weeks before we put out a statement vote on statements. It's more. I'm the chairperson. I'm the spokesperson of the Board, and it's my responsibility to inform you what I'm saying on your behalf, and also make sure I have your support with what I'm

197saying on your behalf. SBSD Owl Camera: and standardly, I would craft something like this. And I would email it to all of you and collect your feedback and try to draw something that I feel represents the board the best that it can, and then put it out there. It doesn't require formal approval. SBSD Owl Camera: I I think with this one specifically, I would like timely communication from the Board, because the vote that happened last night. I don't love the optics for our community of waiting 2 weeks. To sure. I guess. My, I'm just saying, can we simplify the purpose of this statement? It's really just to acknowledge and be grateful and commit SBSD Owl Camera: to what we would like to commit to but it it's clear that we have. SBSD Owl Camera: we're

198not in total agreement. So how do we simplify this to still achieve the purpose of acknowledging to our community SBSD Owl Camera: happens. Budget Pass, you know, like Seamus said. You know, it's it SBSD Owl Camera: less than 2%. So you have to SBSD Owl Camera: acknowledge both. This wasn't anywhere near a landslide, and you can pretty much guarantee that anybody voted. No. SBSD Owl Camera: they voted. No, not because SBSD Owl Camera: why? I want them to spend more money, because I can guarantee there's never been a budget that was shot down where you came back from the second book, where you increased what you're spending. SBSD Owl Camera: so that 48.2 4%, or whatever it was they voted because SBSD Owl Camera: they wouldn't know, because they think the budget's too. Dan, do

199you think you could write that in something like like I could commit to writing something tomorrow. You could probably commit to writing something sometime, and then we could at least give you that written like this is what I would say if I was the spokesperson. I feel like that's the most SBSD Owl Camera: efficient thing for us to do now is for us. I don't. I don't necessarily want to tell you all the edits I would make for that. This is what I would write if I was going to say something, and most schools have their thank yous already on, and they've already acknowledged that they, you know, thank you for voting, and we do acknowledge the challenges that people were up against, I think like. SBSD Owl Camera: but the urgency there is not

200necessarily politically, advantageously work. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, I think, like you, you need to acknowledge what's just happened. It's just one it's not like. I think it sets the I think I'm not, you know. I don't want to be pressured. If the board speaks one voice SBSD Owl Camera: I think we can't be pressured into. I mean, it's not even pressure. I'm just saying like, Give us a day. It looked to write an alternate and then together like at least then we would have other texts to look at, you know, cause I what I want to do again. My priority is SBSD Owl Camera: support for this board. SBSD Owl Camera: We will not pressure you to make a decision quickly, and, in fact, SBSD Owl Camera: I think that the Board should not be

201really really quick to answer anything. We should be thoughtful and and take time to form full opinions. SBSD Owl Camera: It just, I guess I felt in this case. SBSD Owl Camera: It's the purpose of what I'm trying to write is meant to be a very simple acknowledgement of the vote is included. The budget passed. SBSD Owl Camera: Thank you for the support that we did receive. If the commitment of of what we need to do moving forward is is asking too much, I'm happy to remove that. SBSD Owl Camera: but to the 51% who said Yes, to not thank them for that support. I have a problem with it. I want to acknowledge the people who did not support this budget. But I also don't. But those same people who, those 51% who supported

202it that you want to acknowledge SBSD Owl Camera: they won't withdraw their support if you don't acknowledge them within 24 h, but it may, it may be it may be disrespectful, but it may end up being more politically costly. So I'm just gonna say something. This is a should be a very simple thank you. We passed, you know, budget passed. We appreciate everybody who voted. SBSD Owl Camera: I would not put in there any implication that, hey? This was a really high budget, and next time we're going to make it lower, right? SBSD Owl Camera: You want to avoid anything like that. It's really just a thank you. So this is where Dan, I understand what you're saying. But I think if you put in there something about hey? You know, we recognize that we can

203do better financially what you're really saying. There that message is, we put forward a budget that we knew was financially. It can be sensitive. How? Right? So. SBSD Owl Camera: But you have a really close vote. I understand you want to get this out and thank the people that supported the budget. But because it's so close. SBSD Owl Camera: there needs to be some acknowledgement for the people who didn't support it SBSD Owl Camera: that we will. I'm sorry I don't. I don't mean I don't think that the end result of this is that SBSD Owl Camera: I think. SBSD Owl Camera: Is there any problem with us, saying, Let's wait until tomorrow. Okay, so maybe we should just wait till tomorrow and let Dan write something with anybody else who wants to write something,

204Emily Laura, like anybody, and then we submit it to you, and then you could look at them, and at least then you'll know what I'm talking about SBSD Owl Camera: my experience. Given that, I do think the general feeling of the Board is a timely statement to the community. SBSD Owl Camera: I I would put a deadline out of SBSD Owl Camera: by end of day. End of this end of day tomorrow. If I don't hear anything, I'll move forward with this. SBSD Owl Camera: that the thing is, though, whatever you submit, I will then try to incorporate that and send it to the full board and meeting response from the full board, and it starts. It starts to be these email deadlines. And I'm not sure that you all even have their emails again.

205But urgency versus importance is very important that this SBSD Owl Camera: elected representative body represent more than 51.7, and I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but that is the important thing, and the urgency of responding to a vote within 24 h within 48 h is just not, in my opinion, the same. But you know urgency and importance are different things. I just want to say I heard you acknowledging both sides of the yes votes and the no votes. I'm not quite certain SBSD Owl Camera: what how, how it hasn't been acknowledged that. Thank you. And we hear you who didn't vote SBSD Owl Camera: because people may not like being addressed in that language. That's an interesting point. I don't hear I didn't hear any language that was offensive. So I understand what you're what

206you're saying and how you might have a perspective that it has language that would be more able to absorb and and hear. So I like the idea of taking time to hear what you have to say, but I do also agree that I would like it to be going out in a timely SBSD Owl Camera: manner. So this is a point of clarity regarding open meeting law. If Chelsea received individual feedback from you all directly to her, and and it was not SBSD Owl Camera: collaborative among other Board members that that would, in fact, not be violation. I just wanted to state that explicitly. Might I suggest as a way forward, because I acknowledge that SBSD Owl Camera: here's the penny picture in the eyes that Mr. Mcneil is here. I would propose that the

207Board agree to send feedback directly to the chair and move to SBSD Owl Camera: item 13 a. SBSD Owl Camera: Yes. SBSD Owl Camera: So then, just generally, I will. SBSD Owl Camera: I really want to know that your emails are already up and functioning and working. Because I would like to email this draft to the email. Addresses have been created, and the list serve is accurate with everyone's information. SBSD Owl Camera: However, not every board member has been sworn in SBSD Owl Camera: and you know, several folks just got devices. So SBSD Owl Camera: perhaps after the meeting I can make sure all of you have my cell phone number. That way. You can let me know that you are able to access your email because sometimes I will take no response. As you

208don't have any feedback, I don't have the expectation that you're going to email every thing that I send got it understood. I'm all set, you know. SBSD Owl Camera: so I'll make sure all of you have my cell phone number so that you can confirm to me that your email, I will send a draft this draft and seek feedback SBSD Owl Camera: in the event that your emails aren't working. Perhaps by the end of day, Friday. SBSD Owl Camera: and then, perhaps by Monday, I will be able to find a draft opening to creating my email account tonight when I, yeah. And Jen Lawrence is in. So everybody's SBSD Owl Camera: okay. SBSD Owl Camera: And SBSD Owl Camera: okay, Jen is not sworn in, though, and so she cannot be a part of any

209board business until she is sworn in, so the board SBSD Owl Camera: is, is unable to communicate with any member of the community who's not been sworn in until such time that they haven't. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah, okay. SBSD Owl Camera: So we have a School board, retreat and public comment board for discussion. And we have a 3 h work session scheduled for March 12, which really was there in the event that the budget didn't ask as an opportunity to work on budget. SBSD Owl Camera: I'd like to propose that we still meet on the 12, th but have it be still more of an onboarding retreat, style or not retreat style, but training meeting hopefully, our 7 board member would be able to attend. At that time we could continue these discussions. SBSD Owl Camera:

210public comments, monitoring policy, governance. Is that so? Would we cover public comment, board, retreat? Yep. SBSD Owl Camera: And what were the other? Monitoring? So what we have an agenda? Item 12. Where we set the agendas for future. And so at that time that's an opportunity for board members to let me know what they'd like to see on the agenda SBSD Owl Camera: you can also email me anytime. We typically warn agendas Friday before the meeting. So in this case our March 12th agenda will need to be warned by Friday. So any topics that you want to see on the agenda SBSD Owl Camera: you may need to email that to me SBSD Owl Camera: before Friday would be good, because usually it's warned by Wednesday is the deadline that we typically give because it

211takes SBSD Owl Camera: our team's time to SBSD Owl Camera: develop the agendas. And then we have to also physically post to them. So posting often starts sometimes Thursday afternoon on the way home, you know, depending on SBSD Owl Camera: what's being driven by. In this case it should be a pretty simple agenda, because it's it's not set for regular business. It's set to be a work session. So and we could. We could leave it fairly general in like training, so that the community can expect we're going to be covering training topics. And that way, if there's like a certain aspect of training that SBSD Owl Camera: you want to bring up. I think that would be okay. I think the link I would suggest the Language Board member onboarding roles and responsibilities, policy, governance,

212policy, governance, public comments, open meeting law. Are you gonna deliver the training? SBSD Owl Camera: I think we need to have a discussion about what sort of training we would like to. The tricky thing is, it's a week from today. So there isn't. I. I think there's plenty of onboarding, training and discussion to be had outside of policy governance, and perhaps at our meeting next week we could discuss what sort of policy governance, training, we think, is needed, appropriate, financially responsible. SBSD Owl Camera: I provided the training last year. Gracie Morris: Have I done? SBSD Owl Camera: I have been the recipient of a lot of training in my 1st 2 years, and I've done a lot of personal research on this. And so I thought I could give a basic training that would be

213appropriate at no cost to the district. But if the Board feels we need to spend resources. SBSD Owl Camera: For the 12.th Sorry could provide a policy governance training, if you like. I have one prepared, but I also would be open to the discussion. Of what sort of training do you think is appropriate? SBSD Owl Camera: And maybe you don't want it to come. I'll send you some info, and then SBSD Owl Camera: 1 1 item, I would like to add explicitly, is our conflict of interest policy, and you may need to follow up with Joe. I know that the State, January 1, st 2025, new conflict of interest State level policy was implemented. I don't know if it supersedes ours, and we have to rewrite it, but that would be something I think we

214need to. SBSD Owl Camera: So, Chelsea. I don't know if this is the time, but you know I'm just wondering about our climate survey. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, given like the budget like Violet was mentioning. You know, it's been really hard on staff. SBSD Owl Camera: I would like to know, feeling like in our unions done listening sessions, I would like to know? Like, what are the results of these? And how are people feeling? SBSD Owl Camera: You know? I don't. You know, I don't know that this is the place to ask that. But we could add that as a topic, I just would like, yeah, just just a big just to SBSD Owl Camera: understand they because, you know, just SBSD Owl Camera: there are constituents really. So we need to know. SBSD

215Owl Camera: yeah, go to. I mean, because that's part of like we want our staff to be SBSD Owl Camera: to feel positive about coming. That does have an impact, a lot of children. Just I'm just yeah. It's just something that worries me. SBSD Owl Camera: What policy does that fall under? By the way? Excellent training, seamus? SBSD Owl Camera: I want to be clear. Are you asking about a staff climate survey or for a community. I know I did. I did. Kind of SBSD Owl Camera: yeah, no, I I understand that. I I'm really thinking about like teachers and staff. Because while I mentioned like, this process has been pretty. SBSD Owl Camera: what about what? What's what policy would that fall under treatment? Yeah. So I mean, it's just something, you know. So

216that's a discussion of treatment. SBSD Owl Camera: So just just to be clear, yeah, the Board would not conduct a survey of the staff. That would be. We would ask our superintendent to provide information about how staff morale is under. SBSD Owl Camera: So can we talk about that next time, or talk about the policy and then give training on that policy. SBSD Owl Camera: What Laura is asking SBSD Owl Camera: In our last forward work plan we discussed treatment of staff in April, so that would be coming up SBSD Owl Camera: and in treatment of Staff 2.2, the superintendent shall not fail to create a positive organizational climate conducive to achievement of events, so she will provide information in her monitoring report. SBSD Owl Camera: Up with evidence to that. And and so I

217would provide the panorama. So we implemented the panorama survey, and that's a tool that I've used to measure student and staff SBSD Owl Camera: metrics. And so that's where I would report out to the board and the community on those. That's the that is the survey that the district uses with staff. Several times a year. SBSD Owl Camera: So would you just review back the explicit agenda items you have for next week. Yes. So next week what I'm hearing is conflict of interest policy review. And then I was going to leave the training topics relatively general, so that you have the opportunity to come with. Given that we need to warn this agenda in 2 days. SBSD Owl Camera: so public comment, discussion, policy, governance perhaps training discussion, but also some training like general training.

218Like, I would love for you to have your own copies of this and be able to we can go through and highlight. Some things, I think, are particularly relevant. SBSD Owl Camera: monitoring reports. What else I think school or order treat was on this agenda, and we could. I don't know if we want to talk about that next week or push it by one. But yeah, I'd love to talk because I think it. I think the sooner the better. Dates are the discussion. Planning a meeting is also not a violation of open meeting law. SBSD Owl Camera: So you could select the date via email. Yeah, can I just ask. SBSD Owl Camera: would you be satisfied with your climate survey discussion question being addressed, and we monitored to 22 SBSD Owl Camera: to get

219ahead of that, though, because we don't want to make the superintendent do work twice. SBSD Owl Camera: That's what I'm saying she's just well, that's what I'm saying is, maybe it would be good if next week we heard whatever 12 we talked about what you wanted to see SBSD Owl Camera: in, you know, in your monitoring of that policy. Give the superintendent a little bit of guidance on like well, in the monitoring. I have these particular questions. Just so we don't have to do it twice. SBSD Owl Camera: It seems to me like it's not a bad idea to talk about next week, not the actual results. Maybe what I can do is make sure the Board has the monitoring report from last year that way. You have information about what sort of evidence that

220the superintendent furnishes. And then, if that's not what you SBSD Owl Camera: yeah, I think it's in there. You say you can SBSD Owl Camera: anything else for next week this evening. And then can we talk about social media policy sometime? Not not next week, but maybe SBSD Owl Camera: okay it's not actually for you, SBSD Owl Camera: I don't, I think it's too big of a topic. SBSD Owl Camera: I mean, it certainly could be a topic of. SBSD Owl Camera: you know, our code of conduct and open meeting law. I I think social media has. It is fraught with traps for well intentioned board members. So SBSD Owl Camera: I guess if you don't want to talk about it next week, I would just say, maybe don't post on social media until you

221have a really firm idea in your mind of your responsibilities. That's important. Social media in general SBSD Owl Camera: social community, like the other paper, is an example. Right? So SBSD Owl Camera: I will add the calendar, the 2526 calendar on for the 19.th Okay? SBSD Owl Camera: Screen. SBSD Owl Camera: I just wanna make sure. Are we all set with moving our other discussion items next, like they both would be covered in next week. So we're not going to get into that right now. Okay. SBSD Owl Camera: which brings us to agenda. Item, 10 reports by the board, recent open community engagement activities. This is typically when the Board reports board members report out to the full board any community engagement activities that they have done, how they've gone, what they happen to share,

222or the time that we plan to engage SBSD Owl Camera: next week to have ideas. That's another big topic is what Seamus was saying, that just Joe is here. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: Do we have a city school? I mean, we just had a steering community meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: Alright. We have a placeholder for a brief recess as agenda. Item 11. However, I will say the next 2 agenda items tend to go fairly quickly, and we've already done most of it. SBSD Owl Camera: So would you like to take a recess? SBSD Owl Camera: Would you like to just go right through? SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, cool SBSD Owl Camera: brings us to agenda. Item 12 agenda planning. We have discussed the March 12th agenda. We'll have the opportunity on the

22312th to discuss the agenda for the 19th for the 19.th We already have a board work, calendar, or work annual work plan. That's when we decide what policies we'll monitor. And when is there anything else that anyone would like to add to the 19th that you know of right now, and please know you have plenty of time to add things SBSD Owl Camera: you don't have to know right now. SBSD Owl Camera: just wondering if we can do a placeholder on an update about what's happening at the state level. Yeah, just as a place order for right now. Not that we may have it wrong, but SBSD Owl Camera: I think it's important that we, as a board, try to stay apprised of what the State is doing with us at that time. I think

224it's a great way to engage with legislators, and she's, you know, dialed in being on the ways in the city. SBSD Owl Camera: Well, we also, during public comment, said we would add, board member introductions. I'm just noting that we did that. SBSD Owl Camera: My thought is plan to share with the community a little bit about yourself why you're motivated to run for the board. What experience you have that might be relevant. SBSD Owl Camera: But isn't the ask that question not SBSD Owl Camera: none. The only possible experience we could have for the board is governance, because nothing that we're not bringing anything in terms of, you know. Like, if I knew something about how to. I'm just saying it's an interesting person, right? SBSD Owl Camera: That brings us to agenda. Item

22513, consent agenda. More recently I have asked if there are any questions about the consent agenda, and if I see none, I will say the consent. Agenda items are approved by consent. SBSD Owl Camera: They include approval of minutes, and the expectation is that you will minutes of the prior meeting and agree to it. And then, if there's an acknowledgement of hires, resignations, retirements of absence. There's also Ap. Orders which I think we should go over what a board members responsibility is. Orders SBSD Owl Camera: next, it's accounts payable. Yes, accounts payable. And then there's board. Approval is required to disperse checks in the amount of 50,000 or more, and so we'll commonly see checks that require board approval to SBSD Owl Camera: send them. So that's that's what you'll typically see on the consent

226agenda, including the bids also on SBSD Owl Camera: usually facilities, upgrades or $40,000. SBSD Owl Camera: Anything over 40,000 that isn't it did, and it the SBSD Owl Camera: There are certain exemptions to bids. For instance, the Toussants that we discussed. SBSD Owl Camera: these are competitive bids, such as the boiler replacement at Chamber Chamberlain to. So to ensure that pricing where there are competitive situations, is that we're putting out a bid for a process and selecting someone with the best pricing availability. SBSD Owl Camera: So with that framework are there any questions about any of the items on the consent agenda. SBSD Owl Camera: So one SBSD Owl Camera: just want to note that. So I have no problem with the bid. I just I just think they want to update the SBSD Owl

227Camera: and I was gonna ask you one question about one of the Ap. Orders. But it's the University of Vermont. There was an acronym. My wife happens to work at Uvm, and she told me so. I said I should just ask Violet anyways to see if I could win. It was University of Vermont. Clci. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, we'll see if it was order 1337. SBSD Owl Camera: I love jeopardy, and I know where the money goes. So this is the game that I enjoy playing. SBSD Owl Camera: What? What's the the voucher? With? 1337. I think I can get into it. SBSD Owl Camera: I won't take the time to do this now. But I'm going to get back to everyone. SBSD Owl Camera: So I typically orders, I will read through them all.

228And if there's 1 i don't understand, I will ask if I just keep a running record of that, and she gets them all the time. But I I get the. I get the download from my wife. So SBSD Owl Camera: I think it's a i think it's a Medicaid reimbursement. SBSD Owl Camera: Think I think it was professional education services that I was looking at. SBSD Owl Camera: Day one. You did it. I know you did it. 1st victory. SBSD Owl Camera: It helps build our legitimacy. So yes. SBSD Owl Camera: okay, any further questions about any of the items that I SBSD Owl Camera: hearing. Then with that cycle change the consent. Agenda items are approved. SBSD Owl Camera: All right. That brings us to agenda. Item 14, which is executive session. Do I

229have a motion to enter into executive session under one Vermont Statutes. Annotated. Section 3, 13. Subsection a. For the purpose of discussion, the purpose of discussing negotiations, and not to do so in executive session with the district at a clear disadvantage. SBSD Owl Camera: Now, he interjected them. SBSD Owl Camera: Joe, we are not aware of any SBSD Owl Camera: real or perceived conflicts with board members who've just been elected. SBSD Owl Camera: none that have been called to my attention that I'm aware of. Should I am going to formally recuse myself SBSD Owl Camera: just for training purposes. Also I in executive session motions. SBSD Owl Camera: after I state explicitly who would be going to session. So for the minutes it's clear who went in. And that way any board members who refused

230from the locations. SBSD Owl Camera: they're they're stated in the minutes as not entering, and then we also keep executive session minutes that include who was there? What topic was discussed? At what time and when there's multiple topics, the topics are the times are kept for when the topic discussion began. SBSD Owl Camera: just so you're aware of how executive session minutes work. SBSD Owl Camera: Are there other Board members who SBSD Owl Camera: should reveal conflicts of interest or close connections with those who are employed by the district. SBSD Owl Camera: If it helps conflict of interest, means a situation that a board member's private interest, as distinguished with a board member's interest as a member of the general public would benefit from or be harmed by, a board member. SBSD Owl Camera: It

231is the ethical and legal duty of all School Board members to avoid conflicts of interest as well as the appearance of conflict, of the appearance of conflicts of interest. SBSD Owl Camera: So if someone has a family member, for instance, who is in one reunions? Right? So that's SBSD Owl Camera: so. Yes, I thought that was assumed specifically. Teachers and support staff. I don't think I would technically need to refuse from administrative. But I have in the past. When I've helped with this. SBSD Owl Camera: I I haven't my sister's market vents for nice staffers. SBSD Owl Camera: Yeah. SBSD Owl Camera: So if that's the case, I would recommend that we would use our negotiating. SBSD Owl Camera: Did you say teachers, their teacher? And it's more staff for those 2. We call them

232collective bargaining. SBSD Owl Camera: Just we. I think we have much larger venture negotiators in terms of now. SBSD Owl Camera: Okay, so that's helpful to know, because I am going to state who's gonna go into the executive session? SBSD Owl Camera: and the executive session? Could we have had it earlier in the day? When I 1st joined the board we used to have executive session ahead of the meeting, but we were trying to start the meeting earlier, and also it's not best practice to have an executive session every meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: That really shouldn't need to be the case, it did seem when I joined like that was just standard practice, or that executive session before concession. So typically also, we try not to keep the public meeting. And so we've been putting

233it at the end of the meeting. SBSD Owl Camera: and it also gives you some leeway to really dig in and ask and and check for understanding. If you're not feeling well, I've got to get downstairs for the regular session that's about to start. SBSD Owl Camera: although obviously. SBSD Owl Camera: when our open meeting goes longer, it means now you have to go out there tired. So any other questions. SBSD Owl Camera: So I did call for a motion. I'm happy to restate that if if that it's paper. SBSD Owl Camera: but just tactically, when I called for the motion. I also said I asserted that it would be a disadvantage to the district not to do so in executive session. That was what Laura was asking about earlier about separate motions. So at

234this time I'm looking for a motion to move into executive session to discuss labor negotiations. SBSD Owl Camera: So moved 10 min. Do I have a second? Yeah. And second, any discussion SBSD Owl Camera: all in favor signify by saying, Aye, the motion passes unanimously. Dan Boyer, Violet Nichols, Tim Warren, Seamus Apsher. SBSD Owl Camera: and Joe Mcneil, attorney, will be entering into executive session to discuss labor negotiations, and we will not return to our regular meeting to the attorney.