001SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, Eric, we're good on your end, too? SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah. Okay, great. SBSD Helpdesk: I'd like to call to order the September 10th, 2025 SBSD Helpdesk: special meeting of the South Burlington School Board. SBSD Helpdesk: Our first agenda item is a projected executive session. SBSD Helpdesk: I would entertain a motion to find that premature, public disclosure of what we're going to talk about, which is employment of a public officer employee. SBSD Helpdesk: Receiving confidential attorney-client communication for the purpose of providing legal service to the board and labor negotiations update would place the board at a significant disadvantage. SBSD Helpdesk: Sorry, your motion. SBSD Helpdesk: Or someone has to move that incident. SBSD Helpdesk: Do I have a second? Michelle Boyer: Second. SBSD Helpdesk: Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor say aye.
002Michelle Boyer: Alright. Michelle Boyer: Bye. SBSD Helpdesk: And we're gonna do a roll call just because we have a couple of remote people, so, SBSD Helpdesk: Austin, how do you vote? Yes. Yes. Michelle, how do you vote? Michelle Boyer: Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: Dan, how do you vote? SBSD Helpdesk: We couldn't hear Dad. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, well, let's switch to Emily. Emily, how do you vote? SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, Emily, your mic is not working. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, we need to wait on this. We need to hear from, SBSD Helpdesk: Dan, and I'm just gonna call Emily. Is this recording sufficient that we have Emily have her in the chat? I would rather have her say it out loud. SBSD Helpdesk: Oh, well, let's see, 1, 2, shell? Yeah, I know. Too hard. I am,
003yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, so, okay, so we just… yeah, we're gonna let the motion die. Yes. I'm gonna call Emily. SBSD Helpdesk: So that we have her voice. And then, Michelle, for some reason, we can hear you, but not Dan. Michelle Boyer: Just… SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, so first I'm calling in a lake. SBSD Helpdesk: Hi, Emily. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, okay. Michelle Boyer: Maybe the speakers on this. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm gonna start over, we're gonna let the motion fail. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I would entertain a motion to find that premature public knowledge of what we're going to discuss in the executive session. SBSD Helpdesk: Namely, employment of a public officer employee. SBSD Helpdesk: Receiving confidential attorney-client communication for the purpose of providing legal services to the board, And or leave labor negotiations. SBSD
004Helpdesk: would put the school district at a significant disadvantage. SBSD Helpdesk: Smooth. SBSD Helpdesk: Do I have a second? I'll second. All right, any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All right, all those in favor, say aye. We're gonna actually do this roll call. Flora? Aye. Austin? Aye. Michelle? SBSD Helpdesk: Emily? SBSD Helpdesk: Aye. Seamus, aye. So that's 4, so we… the motion passes. SBSD Helpdesk: I would entertain a motion to enter into Executive Session. I move to enter into Executive Session. Second. SBSD Helpdesk: Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All right, and then we'll do another roll call. Laura? SBSD Helpdesk: Hi. Austin. Alright. SBSD Helpdesk: Emily? SBSD Helpdesk: Hi. Michelle? SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, great. So the motion passes, and we are now in executive session. SBSD Helpdesk: And, coming into executive session with us are, Kristen Romick, Acting
005Superintendent. SBSD Helpdesk: Mick Letty, District Council, And… SBSD Helpdesk: that's, who we know of so far, who will definitely be called into Executive Session. And if there's anybody else, I will say that when we get back from Executive Session. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Pretty disgusting? Yes. Yes, please. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright. SBSD Helpdesk: So… I'd like to call the September 10th, 2025 SBSD Helpdesk: special meeting of the South Burlington School Board, back into order. We just got out of executive session, and, Kristen, and Mick SBSD Helpdesk: Kristen, our Acting Superintendent, and Mickletdy, District Council, were the ones who joined us in Executive Session. SBSD Helpdesk: So the first item on our agenda is announcements and amendments to the agenda. Do we have any announcements or amendments to the agenda? SBSD Helpdesk: in consent
006agenda, I'll need to make, another switch. So, just so that you know, that's coming. Okay. Thanks. Great. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other announcements or amendments? SBSD Helpdesk: Great. Okay, so the next item on the agenda is comments from the public. SBSD Helpdesk: And this is an opportunity to talk about any topic. SBSD Helpdesk: And you are encouraged to, for example, mention anything that is on the agenda. You're allowed to talk about that also. Once we finish this section on public comment, the only other time that we'll be taking public comment during the meeting is during action items. And we do have one action item tonight. SBSD Helpdesk: Which will be around the interim superintendent. So, anyway, please, if you have public comment, let us know. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we have anybody online? Their hands raised? SBSD
007Helpdesk: Nope. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright. Bye. SBSD Helpdesk: For the conference. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. Okay, our next, item on the agenda is focus on student learning, our student representative report, so… SBSD Helpdesk: Alma, turn it over to you. As students continue to adjust back into their school schedule, parents might be looking for opportunities to get involved in their children's education. SBSD Helpdesk: So, if any parents would like to contribute to enhancing the sense of the school community in South Burlington, think about joining your child's school PTO or booster program. More information on each school's PTO and meeting days can be found on the school's website. SBSD Helpdesk: International Dot Day is coming up Monday, September 15th. Many South Bronx schools celebrate International Dot Day, which is named after Peter Reynolds' book, The Dot, which encourages creativity.
008Students at all schools are welcome to wear any clothing they have with dots and might participate in dot-themed activities at that. SBSD Helpdesk: And, high school sports photos were last week and continue to roll into this week. SBSD Helpdesk: For any sports player, if you're unsure when your photos will be, your coaches can provide more information, and we want to give a big thank you to Mr. Gordon for taking the time to take all the team's photos. That's it. SBSD Helpdesk: When the start date? It is September 15th. SBSD Helpdesk: Excellent, thank you very much. SBSD Helpdesk: So the next item on our agenda is, SBSD Helpdesk: An action item on the interim superintendent search. SBSD Helpdesk: So… The board has chosen Dr. Joe Clark. SBSD Helpdesk: as our next superintendent, I just want to
009read out a couple quotes from his last three school districts. SBSD Helpdesk: In Nordonia, Ohio, where he was the longest-serving superintendent of about 12 or 14 years. SBSD Helpdesk: The current superintendent in Nordonia sent in a note to say, Dr. Clark leads with humility and purpose. I am a better leader because of his example, and I recommend him without hesitation. That's the current superintendent in Nordonia. SBSD Helpdesk: In Westerville, which is another district that, Dr. Clark served in, I talked to a football coach. SBSD Helpdesk: And the football coach said, I would have him back as a superintendent, and unlike previous superintendents, I could actually talk to him. SBSD Helpdesk: And then, at Waterloo, which was, Dr. Clark's last SBSD Helpdesk: District before he came, to us. SBSD Helpdesk: I contacted their board chair. SBSD
010Helpdesk: And I finally got through to him after a few days of trying, actually right before we were gonna do a second round interview with Joe. And I said, you know, thanks, I'm about to interview Joe, you know, do you have any thoughts? SBSD Helpdesk: And he said, yes. In 36 years of being on the Waterloo Board of Education, Joe is the best superintendent that I have worked with. SBSD Helpdesk: So, that was Mr. Brian Pussiteri of the Waterloo. SBSD Helpdesk: Board of Education. SBSD Helpdesk: So I want to also say that our search committee, we are aware of his full SBSD Helpdesk: Service and record as a superintendent across, many districts, and we have done our due diligence. SBSD Helpdesk: And the 14-person hiring committee Recommended him without reservation. SBSD Helpdesk: So at this
011point, I'm going to open us up for public comment, because this is an action item. SBSD Helpdesk: And, so, are there any public comments before we take action? SBSD Helpdesk: Perfect. SBSD Helpdesk: Would you please recognize her? Diane Bugbee: Hi. SBSD Helpdesk: Hi, Diane. Diane Bugbee: Hi, I would just like to say, welcome, Dr. Clark, and… Diane Bugbee: just had a couple of questions, what… you know, we've gone through some upheaval in our… in our district, and… Diane Bugbee: I just wondered what drew you to this position, and, what do you see as kind of your priority as you join the district and help us to move forward? Thank you, and welcome. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you very much, Diane. And I will remind the public that next week. SBSD Helpdesk: same place, same time. We're
012having our first community forum, and we're both very much looking forward to hearing from Dr. Clark on that occasion, and also questions like the one that was just raised are going to be, open for discussion. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we have any other public comments? SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, I would entertain a motion to authorize me to sign SBSD Helpdesk: the contract that has been negotiated with Dr. Joe Clark? SBSD Helpdesk: I'm the board chair, signed a contract with Dr. Joe Clark. SBSD Helpdesk: Sergeant. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura makes the motion, Austin seconds. Do we have any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: Alright, we're gonna do a roll call, since we have a couple people remote. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I will start with, Emily. Emilee Hoffman: With great enthusiasm, I say aye. SBSD Helpdesk: Michelle? Dan Boyer: Aye. SBSD Helpdesk:
013Dan? Dan Boyer: Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: Laura? Yes. Austin? Aye. And I also vote aye. The motion passes. SBSD Helpdesk: So, I will sign that contract, and, Dr. Joe will start at 5.01 PM on Friday. SBSD Helpdesk: And he has said that if there's a sports event on that night, he'll be there. And I just want to reiterate. SBSD Helpdesk: next week. SBSD Helpdesk: come to the central office, and we'll have the full quorum of the board, we'll have Dr. Clark here, and we'll have a good discussion, both of SBSD Helpdesk: superintendent, and also about the budget. We want to hear from the community about how we should think about the budget number. SBSD Helpdesk: Just to say, I don't think that, Dan and Michelle will be here next week, just to confirm.
014Yes, we will still be in full quorum, but Dan and Michelle won't be here. That's right. SBSD Helpdesk: And at this time, I would like to extend the board's sincere appreciation SBSD Helpdesk: And thank you to Kristen Rome, who's been… who took up… SBSD Helpdesk: the responsibility of the superintendent post in time of need for the district. We greatly appreciate both all of your service to this district over 20 years, and also stepping up at this time. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, definitely. Thank you, Kristen. I know it hasn't… it wasn't easy, and we do really, really appreciate it. Could not have… we could not have done that… done it without you. Thank you. Yeah, and thank you so much for helping with the search. Absolutely.
015Yeah, so… yeah. Welcome, Jeff. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other board discussion on, what just happened on the interim superintendent search? Any other comments? SBSD Helpdesk: Nope. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so we will now move to the next… agenda item. SBSD Helpdesk: Which is a discussion This is our third discussion of an amendment to our policy governance structure. SBSD Helpdesk: The South Burlington School Board uses something called policy governance. SBSD Helpdesk: The purpose of policy governance is to define… SBSD Helpdesk: What the school board should do and shouldn't do. SBSD Helpdesk: And… The way it works is that we set up some ends, some goals… for the district. SBSD Helpdesk: And then we hire a superintendent to meet those goals. SBSD Helpdesk: And then we laid out some rules about what the superintendent can't do
016to meet those rules. SBSD Helpdesk: And those are called executive limitations. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, when we discuss an amendment to policy governance. SBSD Helpdesk: Sometimes we're talking about amending the ends, sometimes we're talking about amending the executive limitations to meeting those ends. In this case. SBSD Helpdesk: It's about the executive limitations. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, this policy amendment is, again, in our third reading, It is very small. SBSD Helpdesk: And it is in the section that relates to, the communication between the superintendent and the board. And there are 9 other bullet points. SBSD Helpdesk: in this executive limitation, and they're all in our policy governance. I'm not going to read them out right now. SBSD Helpdesk: But the amendment that we are discussing is just this. SBSD Helpdesk: the superintendent shall not. SBSD Helpdesk:
017Prevent faculty and staff from communicating with the board regarding matters of public concern. SBSD Helpdesk: Including district policies, procedures, and budgets. SBSD Helpdesk: So, this is… SBSD Helpdesk: in some ways, reinforcing a right that already exists under the First Amendment and various Supreme Court cases SBSD Helpdesk: That say that… SBSD Helpdesk: Basically, anything that is of public concern is fair game, and the employee cannot be retaliated or disciplined against. SBSD Helpdesk: For bringing it up. But, we felt that it was important to state that clearly in our executive limitations, that there could be no gag orders or, SBSD Helpdesk: instructions to the contrary, when it came to, for example, a district employee offering opinions to the board during public comment about school consolidation, budgetary allocation, all of those things SBSD Helpdesk: which normally we would
018hope would come up through the superintendent, nevertheless, sometimes, we believe, I believe, sorry, the board hasn't passed us, I believe need to be protected, from any kind of, from any kind of gag order. So, it's open for discussion now, on the board. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we need to read it again, or… Sure, I can read it again. Yeah. For everyone? SBSD Helpdesk: Well, it's really short. It used to be longer, and now it's really short. It's just, the superintendent shall not prevent faculty and staff from communicating with the board regarding matters of public concern, including district policies, procedures, and budgets. SBSD Helpdesk: Dan, Michelle, Emily, any… Any thoughts? Dan Boyer: Nope. Emilee Hoffman: Hey, Miss, can you, direct me to where I can find that latest version? I'm looking at one that was from August.
019SBSD Helpdesk: 7th, that's much longer. SBSD Helpdesk: Sure, I'll share my screen. SBSD Helpdesk: Let me do that. SBSD Helpdesk: Linked in the agenda. It is linked in the agenda. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Just give me a minute to, get connected here. Emilee Hoffman: Thank you, I got the link. Thank you for letting me know. SBSD Helpdesk: Seamus, in this discussion, are we… SBSD Helpdesk: Editing this text, or approving or rejecting it? SBSD Helpdesk: We can edit, we can approve or reject it, but we can definitely edit it. SBSD Helpdesk: Say it's a terrible idea. They would never want to talk about it again. SBSD Helpdesk: Make it twice as long. SBSD Helpdesk: Clarify, if anything. SBSD Helpdesk: Can I move on? Yes, please. I have said this… SBSD Helpdesk: from the beginning, and I appreciate
020the fact that you stated that it's already… it's already, SBSD Helpdesk: a rate that folks have, and I also believe that we have it in other areas. I… I do believe it's redundant, and obviously you want to take action however you choose. I feel like it's… it's, SBSD Helpdesk: It's already there. And I… I'm not clear… SBSD Helpdesk: I'm not sure of the need for this, so that's just something that I shared previous to this, and just want to make sure that I'm sharing it again. And if you don't mind, I'm going to ask a question about that, which you don't have to answer. Yeah. But, SBSD Helpdesk: If you saw an email from a superintendent of our district that instructed a district employee that they were not to discuss SBSD Helpdesk: district policies with
021the school board. And if they did, they would be subject to termination. SBSD Helpdesk: Would that surprise him? SBSD Helpdesk: Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: And I just… I don't… and I don't mean to surprise you, but I do have a physical copy of an email that says exactly those things. SBSD Helpdesk: And I don't… I know that you're not… you're not involved in that in any way, but that's the concern that gave… That was the impetus for this. But what I also will say is regardless of what's there, there are protections in place, and so, SBSD Helpdesk: If you have that information, then as a board, you would act on that information. SBSD Helpdesk: So I feel like there's protections already in place, and so I just go back to my original comment, is that I
022don't understand the reason. SBSD Helpdesk: to have this when we have… we have other things in place already. So… SBSD Helpdesk: that will… that's just, again, where I… where I'm standing with that. The way I interpret what you're saying is that you think that if it was SBSD Helpdesk: adjudicated, you know, however that might happen, that it would resolve in favor of the employee. But I think that one of my primary concerns, one of the reasons that we brought this up to begin with, is to defend the culture and defend a… SBSD Helpdesk: to defend morale and to avoid a chilling effect. And a chilling effect is where, essentially… SBSD Helpdesk: things are threatened without actually being acted upon, and those threats cause people to change their behavior. You know, you see chilling effect in
023art. SBSD Helpdesk: when, you know, First Amendment rights are infringed on. And so this… SBSD Helpdesk: I agree with you about how this probably would have ended up if it had come to it, in terms of the public concern defense, but I think that the knowledge that such gag orders had ever been given SBSD Helpdesk: could lead employees to not bring things up in the first place. And I just want… I believe that matters of public concern are SBSD Helpdesk: especially around budgetary things in these difficult times when we're having to consider things like school consolidation and other things. It's just very important that we do hear the dissident voices, we do hear the Minority Report. SBSD Helpdesk: So how will this be different than what's already in place? SBSD Helpdesk: The reason this is
024different is because, SBSD Helpdesk: it's a written policy that, by passing, by putting people's attention on it, I think our, our staff will notice that the board is saying, you know, we give our superintendent wide latitude SBSD Helpdesk: But… In the same way that they're not allowed to hire people from their family. SBSD Helpdesk: They're also not allowed without permission. They're not… they're also not allowed to tell employees not to show up for public comment. SBSD Helpdesk: So that's the difference. It's just, we want to call attention to the issue. Like, if all we were doing was writing this down and not telling anybody, I agree, it would not do anything. But by calling attention to the issue, I think that's where the benefit lies. Michelle Boyer: I also have a question, or a clarification.
025So, in the example that you gave, Seamus. Michelle Boyer: Should the person who received such an email Michelle Boyer: Believe they have cause for grievance. Michelle Boyer: or whatever the formal term is, what is the actual process? And specifically, I'm looking for clarification of who decides in that case. SBSD Helpdesk: You mean if… who decides what is public concern? SBSD Helpdesk: Or who. Michelle Boyer: Well, what is the process for somebody who receives an email that they, you know, feel as if it wasn't fair and possibly threatening? Michelle Boyer: from the leader, Of the organization. Michelle Boyer: what is their process, right? So, I guess the… ultimately, what I'm getting at is, are they in a position where, if they want to pursue any kind of remedy. Michelle Boyer: Do they have to hire an
026attorney? Michelle Boyer: If the concern is that the person to whom they're submitting the complaint is actually the arbiter of the complaint. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, I would like, actually, to ask you if you happen to know… it's not your, you know, you have other focuses as the, supports, you know, in a… but if you have an answer to that. Otherwise, we… SBSD Helpdesk: We don't have an official answer for that. So the book. SBSD Helpdesk: So, are you asking what the… what the process is now, or are you asking what the process will be with the superior now? No, what's the process? Yeah, so the process now is that you can file a complaint, you have HR, which is… is where folks typically go when they… when they take issue, that they would file a
027complaint with Utah. Michelle Boyer: But HR reports to the superintendent. SBSD Helpdesk: Yep, if I report to the superintendent, and I think if there were concerns that were specific to the superintendent, SBSD Helpdesk: there would be… again, I… I don't have the exact, terminology or the exact information in front of me, Michelle, but, they would share that information with… we have an executive team, so there's… SBSD Helpdesk: Myself, there's an executive, there's the director of, of, SBSD Helpdesk: curriculum, who's an executive, and, I don't know if that's in writing, but it's always been, SBSD Helpdesk: the thought that we're an executive team who helps support making those decisions, so if that information were to come, then people would be concerned. I also think SBSD Helpdesk: I guess, in… in my mind, Michelle, the… the superintendent
028is… is expected to lead the district, and there's a… there's a level of what your expectation would be. Michelle Boyer: in regards. SBSD Helpdesk: to… to… just let me finish for one second, just in regard to what… what they would do. I then think it would be up to the board as their… as their, employer to make decisions if they… if… if they were, SBSD Helpdesk: If they felt that wasn't what was happening. Michelle Boyer: Okay, well, I guess two comments after that, and then I'll be done. All of those people on that executive team also report to the superintendent? SBSD Helpdesk: Just to point… point that out. Michelle Boyer: And the other comment is that I'm not actually hearing clarity on process, because I do keep hearing, we have a process, this is redundant.
029But I'm not actually hearing a process, I'm hearing kind of a vague reference to a process. If that is true. SBSD Helpdesk: then I just wanna… Michelle Boyer: Go ahead. SBSD Helpdesk: I didn't prepare, Kristen… I didn't say, Kristen, be prepared to answer questions about this, so if Kristen doesn't know the exact wording of the story, that's my fault, not her fault. I think Daisy's on, too, just in case, if you want to… it sounds like she might have… SBSD Helpdesk: Something to add. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, you can… oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Yes, of course, yes, please, allow Daisy to speak. SBSD Helpdesk: But maybe, Michelle, finish your point. I just wanted to make it clear that I have not asked Kristen to defend this or prepare for your questions, so if she doesn't have
030the answer, it's not her fault. But please continue, Michelle, and then we'll hear from Daisy, and then Jen, and then Austin. Michelle Boyer: Yeah, no, I totally understand, and that's… that's, why I was asking the question. And… m-my… Michelle Boyer: I'm trying to recall the… I think I was just going to… to end with, if those assumptions that I'm making, which are… they are… I want to be clear that I'm… Michelle Boyer: making an assumption based on what I've heard so far, and I've been listening to not just this meeting, but past meetings, and I hear that said a lot. Michelle Boyer: And then I hear, the comment that this doesn't give Michelle Boyer: this doesn't add anything to existing policy. It's redundant. I'm not convinced it is, and I just want to, I guess,
031state that I do agree with Michelle Boyer: Seamus's comment, but it, Michelle Boyer: it just makes it very clear, at a minimum, and to me, that is, that's… it's important. So I'm… I… I do support, the language and moving forward. Michelle Boyer: I know we're not taking a vote. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, yeah. Daisy, would you, just to fill in, to see if, if, in answer to Michelle's question, Daisy, has any more information? Can you, allow her to speak? SBSD Helpdesk: And Daisy Brayton is our HR Director. Daisymae's iPhone (2): Yes, can you hear me? SBSD Helpdesk: Yep. Daisymae's iPhone (2): Okay, thank you. So the general complaint form that, and that is in policy, that is in the policy and procedure. Daisymae's iPhone (2): General… I'm sorry, I'm trying to look it up on the
032email as we're talking. Daisymae's iPhone (2): or, excuse me, on the policy and procedure page. The general complaint form… policy states that it goes… follows the chain of command, and then it goes to the superintendent, and I apologize, I am, someone is… I'm in my car, and someone's driving with a lot of radio. Yeah, so then the, it also comes to me, and in the past, they've also gone to the board directly. The… Daisymae's iPhone (2): the… In the past, if the complaint was regarding the superintendent, it went to the attorney and the board. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you, Daisy. Yeah. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, I just wanted to say that I think that part of the impetus of this also was that we could not put our hands on something specific, as Michelle had just said,
033that there was this… this clarity, that there was protection from other policies or processes there. SBSD Helpdesk: What I could find is, in that policy, it's policy D6, and it really pertains more to, like, protection against harassment of employees, but this may not necessarily fall under that. So I guess the point is, I think we have some work to do in this space. SBSD Helpdesk: to have that real line of clarity as to how employees' rights are protected. And so, until we can get there, you know, I believe that this, this is very important to have. SBSD Helpdesk: Austin? I fully support the simplification and the intention of this. I support the openness of it. I think there's some… SBSD Helpdesk: it might be a little too broad or open, and I'm wondering if there
034are things we can clarify. One, you know, matters of the public concern is a big, broad term, and I don't want to specify that the board is going to hear matters relevant to our governance, right, our purview. SBSD Helpdesk: And I'm curious if it's important to specify SBSD Helpdesk: the format of receiving that communication, and if there is another policy that we could reference specifically and say, in keeping with the existing policy. I support the simplification of this, it's easier to read. I support the intention of it. If there are one or two things that could add some specifics to that would make it SBSD Helpdesk: more actionable. SBSD Helpdesk: And in a clear way. SBSD Helpdesk: We're in pipeline. SBSD Helpdesk: Your thoughts? SBSD Helpdesk: I have a comment, Robin. SBSD Helpdesk: I have
035a couple thoughts, just based on what everybody's been saying. First of all, in terms of defining this SBSD Helpdesk: You know, more broadly or more tightly than public concern. SBSD Helpdesk: I, at least as the board chair, don't want to be the police of free speech. And so, when somebody's giving a public comment, I don't want to be in the position of determining in that moment whether what they're saying is appropriate or not, right? SBSD Helpdesk: That's my concern with Bernie, beyond simply stating public concern. SBSD Helpdesk: And then, I would say, in general, there's, SBSD Helpdesk: There's two reasons for… for doing this. SBSD Helpdesk: On the one hand, It's to avoid the chilling effect. SBSD Helpdesk: And on the other hand, I can't even remember what the other reason is, but that by
036itself, just avoiding the chilling effect, seems to me to be such a strong reason for it. SBSD Helpdesk: that I believe it should be considered for adoption at a future board meeting. And I'm just looking, I did see in the procedures to Daisy's comment, it's Procedure I1, SBSD Helpdesk: For the administrative complaint process. And, you know, I'm looking at this, and this is from October 21st, 2008, so I feel like there's a significant opportunity for us to provide some clarity to this, and to tighten these up. So there may be, you know, this idea that, oh, well, there's other protections, and it's out there, and there's processes that cover it, but again, I mean, I think we need to tighten some of this stuff up, and until we can SBSD Helpdesk: knew that, I'm very
037supportive of this. I did. I apologize for my, lapse there. I did remember the other reason to do this, and that's just to redress an imbalance of power. SBSD Helpdesk: not necessarily only for the staff, but also for the superintendent, to avoid them going into situations where they might make an error that they regret later. And so, for example, in the specific case that I know about, SBSD Helpdesk: it was, you know, what I would personally call a gag order was issued. SBSD Helpdesk: And then the employee said, I want to talk to my union rep. SBSD Helpdesk: and then… SBSD Helpdesk: the super said, no, no, this isn't disciplinary, even though in the previous email, this person had said, actually, this is subject to termination, and so therefore, I'm denying your right to bring
038in your union steward in this situation. And the imbalance of power and the creation of a situation where a superintendent might SBSD Helpdesk: Make a mistake like that. SBSD Helpdesk: let's just take that off the table. You know, let's just make it so that SBSD Helpdesk: you can't tell employees not to talk at a public comment, you know? And I think that that'll help everybody, SBSD Helpdesk: In this situation. Michelle Boyer: I think that was an excellent clarification. Thank you, Shannis. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other comments on this, or shall we leave Levant? SBSD Helpdesk: All right, thanks, Deborah, and I very much appreciate that you're helping us SBSD Helpdesk: develop the strength of the argument for and again, so thank you for your comment. SBSD Helpdesk: The next item on the agenda is… SBSD Helpdesk:
039the acting superintendent's report. So I should clarify, Joe… SBSD Helpdesk: once I sign the document, we are also waiting for our authorization from the… the contract is contingent on approval from the Secretary of Education, and so, SBSD Helpdesk: You know, Kristen is still our acting superintendent, and so with that, I'll turn it over to her for the… Oh, and I very much apologize. I forgot there was another discussion item on here. SBSD Helpdesk: knock up on me. So, yes, when we do hear the acting superintendent's report, which will be after the next item, I just wanted to clarify that Kristen is still the acting superintendent. SBSD Helpdesk: But before we move on to that, I apologize, I missed this. In the agenda, we have a discussion item on the concept of community committees. SBSD Helpdesk:
040And so, what the board is to discuss is what community committees are, SBSD Helpdesk: How to run them, and what kinds of community committees we might want to have, and… SBSD Helpdesk: And all that stuff. So, maybe, Jen, I think this was… SBSD Helpdesk: coming from your idea, so can you give a presentation on… Yeah, sure. Well, I don't really have much of a presentation, but I think the point here was we wanted to discuss the concept of committees or subcommittees. SBSD Helpdesk: Which would be opportunities for the public to engage with the board in a more formalized manner on a variety of topics that may include SBSD Helpdesk: these were just ideas. Academic and student support, community and family engagement, extracurricular and enrichment, safety and community well-being, or other topics that could be identified
041by the community. And so the thought was. SBSD Helpdesk: We would add it to the September 17th Community Forum. SBSD Helpdesk: And envision that as an opportunity to just gauge the public's interest in forming such committees as a mean of providing feedback to the board. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, and I would say, I'd love to see a budget committee. SBSD Helpdesk: And the superintendent search, yes. So those would be my votes, because those are… those are coming up, because I think community input would be really, really important. Not just here, not just in the forums, but, like, another night set aside specifically for budget. SBSD Helpdesk: I agree, yeah, so I'm just adding two lists. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, in talking with, with Allie the other day, she had also suggested, you know, having
042student committees. Yeah. Specific student committees that feed up through Allie and Moment, so I think just… SBSD Helpdesk: The goal here is just more engagement, from the community, and I think people might be more keen to engage if they have an avenue and channel to do that that they may be interested in. SBSD Helpdesk: And if I could play devil's advocate for a minute, how will you… SBSD Helpdesk: Keep the committees from getting into operational issues that are, rightly, the superintendent's. SBSD Helpdesk: purview. Like, in policy governance, one of the rules that it sets up is that the superintendent is in charge of how the school is operated, and the board is in charge of SBSD Helpdesk: like I said, the ends and the, executive limitations. So, can you talk to me about how the
043committees will be… SBSD Helpdesk: work with policy governance? Not yet. SBSD Helpdesk: No, and if we have a budget committee, I mean, this is fairly standard practice, with just help, like, buy, support, just like, we had this great process finding Dr. Joe, and we… we followed the process. We had community input, so… SBSD Helpdesk: I think… I think if it… if it's… if it's clearly defined out of operations, as you say. SBSD Helpdesk: If the board's just looking… looking for input. So we definitely want community input. When we do the permanent search, we definitely want the input on budget. SBSD Helpdesk: The other issues that Jen mentioned, I don't know how to stay out of operations for that. Yeah. So, SBSD Helpdesk: But, anyway, I'm not saying you wouldn't want, but… Sir? SBSD Helpdesk: I
044agree with you 100%. Budget, superintendent search. SBSD Helpdesk: The balance of output is recommendations, and we try and… SBSD Helpdesk: distinguish that from operations. The board is receiving Assembled material. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, and I mean, even if it is that you have committees that are collecting information and saying, like, hey, this is what I want, just as an example, student enrichment. These are things that we want. And even if they can bring that forward and have a common voice, and they can present that information. SBSD Helpdesk: you know, I mean, it's not that the board is going to necessarily act on it, but it is a mechanism for, you know, collecting that feedback from the community, right? SBSD Helpdesk: This does remind me that when we approved our public participation policy, one of the things
045that it gave us SBSD Helpdesk: that it suggested that we do is, like, write down on the website who's in charge of things, you know? Because, like, I was confused about, like, if I have a curriculum question. SBSD Helpdesk: who do I talk to? And the answer is the superintendent. I mean, in many cases, the answer is the superintendent, but in some surprising cases, apparently the case was the school principal or your teacher. So, SBSD Helpdesk: it's a broad, like you're saying, the goal is a broad increase in community engagement, and we can do that through committees, we can do that through better explanation of, like, how you provide feedback, where you get answers, and all that stuff, so I like that. And I do think and hope that once we have Dr. Joe that's,
046you know, up here and part of this team, that we can learn and harness some of his ideas for what's worked well and different SBSD Helpdesk: districts where he's worked in engaging the community, and maybe there's other ideas here, or we can grow on these things, or… SBSD Helpdesk: And the other… this… I don't know if this would involve the community, but, like, a labor relations committee, which I think would be really good, like, a couple of board members. SBSD Helpdesk: head of HR, and… and the, union leadership to meet once a month and keep the lines of communication moving, and I don't know if that would involve SBSD Helpdesk: community members or not. I've never done it, I just got that idea from… I do think… from… SBSD Helpdesk: I think more communication, not
047less, is better. I think one of the things you'll want to be careful about is… is that historically, committees are made up of folks who SBSD Helpdesk: who have the ability to attend committee meetings, and that we have to be mindful about our historically marginalized populations, because we don't want to just hear the loudest voices, we want to hear everybody's voice, and so I think that that's something that we just need to be really mindful of, is when these communities are happening, and how they're SBSD Helpdesk: you know, again, I also want to ensure that we are being mindful of what will be in the purview of the interim superintendent, the superintendent, you know, because that's going to be really important, and I think it's as clear as we can make that for people, because
048I think sometimes when folks feel like they SBSD Helpdesk: They have said information if they don't feel like the… SBSD Helpdesk: being heard doesn't necessarily mean that a decision is made in the way you want that decision to be made, and so being clear on what… what is something we can take action on, and what is something we can provide input into will be really important. Yeah, and I do think we can do a better job there, Kristen. Yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of room for growth. Yep. SBSD Helpdesk: Dan, Michelle, Emily, any thoughts? Michelle Boyer: I'm… Michelle Boyer: I'm generally in favor of committees ad hoc, or I know we're not, actually. I think our policy governance does not allow standing committees. I could make a pitch for those at some
049point, but in terms of the ad hoc committees and their ability to support engagement with the community, I think it's a great idea. Michelle Boyer: And I really appreciate Christian's comment there as well about, you know, we do tend to have louder voices and quieter voices and silent voices, and if we're very careful about how we construct those. Michelle Boyer: committees and invite participation, it could actually work in favor of giving a greater voice to folks who may not be Michelle Boyer: attending all of the meetings, and, you know, broaden the engagement, and I think that can only be good. But one comment I do want to make about committees, I… the question about Michelle Boyer: How, you know, how do you avoid interfering with the superintendent's leadership role of operations? Michelle Boyer: And I…
050I guess I… and I could be wrong, but from my perspective, I don't see that as… Michelle Boyer: A risk, because committees by design aren't about making decisions. They're about exploring ideas, exploring Michelle Boyer: special topics and providing, at most, recommendations. I think Austin mentioned that. So it just, even if it comes to operational matters, curriculum matters, whatever, it's input. It's not a decision, it's not a directive. Thanks. SBSD Helpdesk: I just wanted to, before Dan or Emily, I wanted to clarify something Michelle said. She said our policy governance doesn't allow standing committees, and what that means, if I understand it, is basically just that we can't… SBSD Helpdesk: Create a permanent committee. SBSD Helpdesk: We always have to have a determined start and end to a committee, and that's just because of the rules
051that we've written for ourselves. SBSD Helpdesk: I can't support that. I think all… first, I would advocate that we keep that rule, and we add committees based on the feedback that we need. SBSD Helpdesk: Dan, Emily, any thoughts? SBSD Helpdesk: Oh. Emilee Hoffman: I don't have anything, too, to add. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: I also really think that Kristen's point about making sure that the committees are representative, for me, I think that that also means including SBSD Helpdesk: Non-school community members in the committees, ensuring that we have broad representation of the tax… the taxpayer base. SBSD Helpdesk: That will really, help them… help us, guide the district in the way that they want. So, all for being careful about, SBSD Helpdesk: Getting, wide representation in committees. SBSD Helpdesk: Any further discussion on this topic? SBSD
052Helpdesk: Great. Now we'll have the active superintendent's report. Thank you, Kristen. SBSD Helpdesk: So this is about, new social media restrictions imposed by Act 72 of 2025. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, thanks. And I feel like, Movin and Allie had questions in regard to Instagram, for instance, and that was, I think, part of what kind of, started this conversation, so I appreciate that from you all. SBSD Helpdesk: And I… Bridget Burkhart is here, and I was hoping to pick her brain before, we met tonight, and that's on my… my… completely my fault. I ran out of time before I was able to SBSD Helpdesk: to connect with her, so I'm really glad that you're in the audience, as someone who can help support us. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. SBSD Helpdesk: Thanks. SBSD Helpdesk: Yeah, and so, you know,
053just getting your input, I think this is, is really important. Spoke to, our principal, Patrick Burke, and he got some input from the VPA. It's not official information, but it's what folks are thinking about. So when we're thinking about Act 72, SBSD Helpdesk: And whether the idea is to strictly prohibit using social media, like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, for direct communication with students, folks seem to be pretty clear that there isn't to be any direct communication in regard, SBSD Helpdesk: to those social media avenues. I feel like people are pretty clear on that. I think where it gets a little bit, murky, maybe, is if we're using our Instagram account to share information with students, Picture Day is happening, or just in general information, is that a means for us to be able to continue to
054communicate SBSD Helpdesk: that's where things get a little more murky. The idea is if there are things that have been in existence, and it's a way for us to communicate general information, potentially, that would be an avenue that we could continue to use, but then there's also a line of thinking that we're trying to get rid of social media as a means for information, and that we need to SBSD Helpdesk: find other ways. So if we're not using phones, if we're not using social media as screens, as a way to share information. SBSD Helpdesk: that we shouldn't be utilizing those, those areas. There isn't clarity right now, as far as school districts, and I know that BPA is thinking of making a stance that, what's BPA? I'm sorry, the Vermont Principals Association. Thank you. SBSD
055Helpdesk: As well as the Vermont Superintendents Association is also, trying to get clarity on that. I don't know, Bridget, I don't want to put you on the spot. SBSD Helpdesk: But I didn't know if you wanted to speak at all. Okay, that'd be great, thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Huh. SBSD Helpdesk: So, Bridget Burkhardt, representative. SBSD Helpdesk: Yes, Bridget Burkhart, Bridget Burkhart, representative for Chittenden Gate, but all of us from South Burlington all kind of represent South Burlington. SBSD Helpdesk: I did not write the law, I was a co-sponsor on the law, so others definitely took the lead on it. The real intent behind the law was not to use social media to communicate with students. SBSD Helpdesk: The idea is that there's a lot of research that's coming out that really points in the direction
056of social media as one of the big causes of, part of the mental health crisis that's going on in schools across the country. There's a movie I would love for all of you to watch, if you ever have time, I could point you in the direction of those resources. If you haven't already seen the movie, there are lots of resources SBSD Helpdesk: That kind of point to this as, something that's damaging to the health of, of schools. SBSD Helpdesk: And the idea is that, we understand folks have kind of already gone on the path of communicating in that way, but it then requires students to be on social media. And then they're fed things by the algorithm, and it's really easy to go down the social media rabbit hole. So, for example, in our house,
057nobody has social media. SBSD Helpdesk: We just don't allow that for the kids. Adults, obviously, do, but the kids do not, and they understand what it is, they definitely looked over my shoulder, but I would not want my child to feel like they are missing out on direct messages from the district, that are only provided through social media, and therefore they feel like they need to be. Because this happened with cell phones last year, for example. There was, it was not a law, but it was a… SBSD Helpdesk: South Burlington policy that we were going to go cell phone free, and then immediately in the high school, literally the first day, one of the teachers was like, let's pull out our phones and, like, let's do this little project together using our phones, and so
058there are these mixed messages. And so, I think whether it was really clearly written in the law, you know, if you go back and read it, the law is a little hazy, right? It says, only approved social media. SBSD Helpdesk: Where I… I know the intent was that it was meant not to be used, and I think where I get hung up is, they… they want to make sure there's an archive of anything that goes out over social media that can't be deleted and that can't be edited, and that's really tricky. I know that because when I was on the board, we had a board, Facebook page, and it was really tricky to try to archive all of that, which is what legal counsel told us we needed to do. SBSD Helpdesk: to save every
059single post, every single comment that was made on that page, and that gets really messy at a district level if we're trying to archive every single thing that we're communicating. So I know that this is, like, a big step backward from where we were. I know especially Principal Burke, is really, SBSD Helpdesk: trying to beat the kids where they are with social media, or had been, and, yeah, it's a change. It is… I think the intent really was to sort of pull back from social media entirely. That being said, that law… SBSD Helpdesk: I've read it many, many times, and… SBSD Helpdesk: it's open to interpretation, and so I think the VPA and the VSA and a lot of the other Vs will have to weigh in on that and see where it goes from
060here. I will also say that there are some legislators, there's legislative energy behind tightening it up in the next year. That was my other question, is it will hopefully be getting any more direction, do you think? So… so, in theory, the Agency of Education is supposed to be taking that law. SBSD Helpdesk: And giving everyone really clear messaging about it. Art. SBSD Helpdesk: I'm going to be really fair to the AOE right now. We keep asking them to do more and more and more and more, with every bit of legislation that we write, and they do not have the resources to even implement a lot of the stuff that we've already, written and asked them to implement. So, to be fair to them, they have a lot on their plate right now with the big
061act that we just passed. So in theory, the Agency of Education should hand down SBSD Helpdesk: This is the interpretation of this, and this is what it means, and here's a model policy, and all of that kind of stuff. SBSD Helpdesk: I don't know how long that will actually take. In theory, those pauses are supposed to be in place in 2026 at some point, but I don't know what the AOE schedule is, or, or how schools will go back to it then. SBSD Helpdesk: Sorry, I can't provide more clarity than that. No, I appreciate that, though, thank you. Would you mind taking a question from a board member? Absolutely, yeah. Are there any questions from board members? Or maybe when you're done with your presentation, if board members have… SBSD Helpdesk: Well, I mentioned to
062Kristen as well, the author of the law, the… my colleague, Angela Arsenault from Williston, who was, like, one of the main drivers behind the law, she did have a little, email with a pack of information that I can forward along that's sort of, like, more resources for districts. Since the AOE's not kind of stepping up, we're sort of feeling that we have to send the greenback path. SBSD Helpdesk: So, yeah. Yeah, so I think the confusion… the confusing piece is that the law doesn't explicitly state SBSD Helpdesk: That educators can't, SBSD Helpdesk: post general information on these. Yeah. And so that's where… that's where there is… is some confusion. It does say that they've… they… if a platform is approved, they do want, SBSD Helpdesk: Just to your point, that they want there to be
063backup, they want there to be a history, and most of our social media platforms don't provide a history of SBSD Helpdesk: of the information. So that was, that was part of it. And, again, just that the, the, the Vermont Principals Association, the base, the Vermont, SBSD Helpdesk: Superintendents Association, are trying to, you know, also give their input and figure out where that information, you know, what we do with the information. But right now, there is some gray area. SBSD Helpdesk: So, if I can just ask or make a comment, I think to calibrate this discussion, it's important to go back and remember what started it, and it was… because I think Allie and Roman had discussed SBSD Helpdesk: you know, having, perhaps, a student rep social media account regarding what was going on with the
064board, again, just to try to promote that information and connect with the students. I think it's important to just, again, calibrate this discussion, like, what precipitated all of this, why we're talking about it right now. SBSD Helpdesk: I mean, I think it would be helpful at some point to be able to go back and say, like, what is the direction here? Do they have SBSD Helpdesk: the blessing of the board to create a social media account. So, what we've been doing, and I spoke to Allie in the moment, I may have spoken to you about this, my mind's a little disheveled at times. SBSD Helpdesk: But… SBSD Helpdesk: Principal Burke had an idea that wasn't a social media platform. It was my understanding, and he was going to connect with you and Allie in regard
065to that. So, I do feel like we're… we're trying to circle back to that and ensure that you have a way to connect and communicate with… with, classmates in regard to, you know, sharing out this information, because we do think it's important. SBSD Helpdesk: And we're also trying to kind of digest all this information and figure out… we… I think what we don't want to do is set something up that we shouldn't be setting up, and that in the future we'll then need to just take down. So… SBSD Helpdesk: You know, and I know that within our school, there's lots of people who have varying thoughts and philosophies on this, so… SBSD Helpdesk: I think we're gonna probably need a little more direction, but again, connecting with Principal Burke would be a great avenue if
066he hasn't already connected with you. That's a good segue to a question that I had for Bridget. SBSD Helpdesk: the loss, I guess, says, that it doesn't want social media, and so is there any sense of, like, what we should be using instead? You know, like. SBSD Helpdesk: What are the… what are the things that schools… how would… how should the schools talk to kids if not through social media? SBSD Helpdesk: the law doesn't really express that. I mean, my own opinion is email, and… and back to the old-fashioned… the old-fashioned way of doing it. I know that my kids are getting a lot more email from SBSD Helpdesk: classmates, even, and from… from their parents sometimes, even, during the day, because that is the only way, really, to connect with one another. SBSD Helpdesk:
067maybe not ideal, but it is… it is, I think it puts everyone on a level playing field. So, those kids that have social media and those kids that don't have social media are all getting the same information and have the same avenue to communicate with each other. Yeah, and I don't have an answer for that. I know that, you know, I think it's something that, if this is the avenue, we go down, we'll have to have some conversation about what that looks like and about how we connect and communicate more with our SBSD Helpdesk: students? Is it, you know, more opportunities during the day to, you know, have SBSD Helpdesk: informational sessions, you know, what… what is going to be the way? I'm not sure. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other… Emily, Dan, Michelle, anything from your
068end? SBSD Helpdesk: No? Okay, any other questions on, SBSD Helpdesk: Great, well, Bridget, thank you for coming to our meetings, and thank you for telling me about things like this. Thanks for letting me put you on the spot, and I appreciate it. SBSD Helpdesk: So that is it from that standpoint. The only other thing I just want to comment on again is to just welcome, Joe, as our new superintendent, and then I look forward to working with you, and I look forward to continuing, my, you know, existing position, you know, on Monday. SBSD Helpdesk: So, the consent, for instance. SBSD Helpdesk: That's it, yeah. Thank you. SBSD Helpdesk: Crystal. SBSD Helpdesk: So, the next item on the agenda is agenda planning. SBSD Helpdesk: And so, the first, question is for the September 17th meeting, which
069is a community forum, which means that the community will be invited to talk back and forth with the full forum of the board on warned topics SBSD Helpdesk: Do we want to add any discussion items to that, board meeting? What we have right now for September 17th, there's two topics. Number one, meet the superintendent. SBSD Helpdesk: Number two… SBSD Helpdesk: I think it's literally stated as, how should we think about the budget number? You know, how should, SBSD Helpdesk: Given that the budgeting process, I think, begins with the board telling the central office what they should shoot for, we want the community to help us think about what number should we tell the central office. So, is there any other thoughts for the September 17th meeting? SBSD Helpdesk: Sounds good. No, I think those are
070the two, by far, most consequential topics right now. SBSD Helpdesk: We give them as much oxygen as we can. SBSD Helpdesk: So I think, this week, we as an administrative team, not with Sassan, or past them, I think is actually what they're… Oh, really? I think we've all been calling Romney from time to time. SBSD Helpdesk: And, it gave our administrators, again, another chance to, to hear the information, just to understand what, SBSD Helpdesk: What the, framework is looking like, what, what the board's, SBSD Helpdesk: charge is, and then what their charge is. And I think for them having some… some clarity on… on numbers and what you all are thinking was one of the things that kind of rose to the top of… SBSD Helpdesk: what our administrators are looking for. I'm going to
071look to Nicole and June, Marie, because they were awesome at that meeting, to see if there's anything else that you… SBSD Helpdesk: you all were thinking in regard to… so this work… with the 17th being the meeting, is there anything… Right, it would be great in terms of agenda planning, you know, it'd be great to even amend the SBSD Helpdesk: published agenda and add any specific questions that we might have from your side or to Sant, like. SBSD Helpdesk: You know? SBSD Helpdesk: So, and that doesn't have to be now, you could also send me stuff later. Yeah, oh yeah, it's agenda planning, so it's fine. SBSD Helpdesk: I would just add that, one of the things that we kicked around… Yeah, I was just gonna say, because some people can hear you, that's all.
072Sorry. This is Jean Marie Clark, our Director of Operations. And Finance. And Finance, sorry. I would add that one of the things we really briefly kicked around was Tacit on… SBSD Helpdesk: Tuesday, I've lost track of the day of the week. And hold up just one second, is that since we're not warned for talking about the budget itself, let's just talk about, like, what questions we should ask at future meetings. Yes. SBSD Helpdesk: So the idea was, SBSD Helpdesk: to give the group that's working on the budget potentially 3 numbers to work with. A flat line, a… SBSD Helpdesk: high in the sky, and at a decrease, right? I am new to this finance role, but I've spent a lot of time on your side of the house, and I'm a taxpayer in this state,
073and so all of what is happening in our state, I think, brings caution to me, as we look at our budget and the future that's to come, and so… SBSD Helpdesk: You know, I think that will be a very new experience for South Burlington, trying to work with a trimmed budget, potentially, and there are a lot of drivers outside of our control. SBSD Helpdesk: health insurance, for example, that has a very big impact on our budget, and so we have to counterbalance those with the other expenses that are on our budget, and the requests from our community of how they want us to steward. So I hear a few questions in there that we might be able to add to the agenda for people to think about. SBSD Helpdesk: So if you would send me
074maybe some… Thoughts. SBSD Helpdesk: Of, you know, Yep, absolutely. That would be great. SBSD Helpdesk: And I'll be here the 17th. SBSD Helpdesk: Thank you. Thanks. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other thoughts for… I… you know what, I'm gonna pull up the… well, actually, no, the only… the point of community forums is that we don't have regular business, we don't have a consent agenda, we don't have discussion items, we don't have action items, we only have discussion with the community. So there's really nothing else to… SBSD Helpdesk: talk about the agenda. The only things on the agenda are meet the superintendent and talk about the budget. Are we good? Yes, I think that's great. Perfect. SBSD Helpdesk: It's a warned meeting, though? It's a warm meeting, small quorum of the board, and they're… I'm just thinking about,
075approval of, AP vouchers, like, normal… No, we're not doing that, though. You won't do that? No, we're gonna do that tonight. We shouldn't be talking. SBSD Helpdesk: Well, we can talk about that, yeah. Okay. No, but I mean, I just wanted to know if Jean Marie should be able to hear, so… Oh, Jean Marie Clark asked whether we would be approving AP orders and doing other consent agenda stuff in the September 17th meeting. My opinion is that if you guys need it, feel free to add it to the agenda, and we'll do it at the end. SBSD Helpdesk: Because it doesn't really disrupt… the main idea of the community forum was to not have… That's my understanding of the community forum, is that, no, it's… that's all… the formal business meeting is out there. It's
076a special meeting to… my recommendation would be to stick with SBSD Helpdesk: The agenda items you want to have on there as items that you're going to discuss with your SBSD Helpdesk: So, no consent. Okay, that's fine, so no consent, right? SBSD Helpdesk: And any other future agenda items, SBSD Helpdesk: In terms of meetings going into October. SBSD Helpdesk: We need to put the fiscal report, the monitoring report, on. We changed that from September, and so we wanted to add that to one of our October meetings, and so I want to just make sure that that doesn't fall off our radar, because that was one of the monitoring reports. SBSD Helpdesk: That needed to be done. So, we moved that from September, and we'll want to have that on. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, would you please,
077draft the next agenda, and then put that on there? So this will be for a meeting in October. SBSD Helpdesk: the next agenda, do you want me to draft the agenda for the 17th? No, for the 8th, I think, yes. Okay, yep, absolutely. Yeah, the 17th meeting is already worn. It's already… or it's already… a draft agenda's already been… SBSD Helpdesk: Yep. Put out there. And so we just need to finalize that, and if we could finalize that by tomorrow, so that that gets out. Okay, great. So that would be great. SBSD Helpdesk: Any other thoughts on agenda planning? So, the one thing I did… I will note is that we did not add a third item to the community forum to talk about committees. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we want to leave that for a
078future committee forum? I would like to have it, because I think that it's… I mean, particularly with the budget coming up, I think that in the end of search coming up, I… again, it's… I would imagine it's not going to be more than a 10-15 minute… 10-minute discussion, perhaps? Like, is there an appetite for this, and what would these committees potentially look like? SBSD Helpdesk: I think that's just to, again, solicit feedback from the community if there's interest there. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so we will add another… we'll add a third topic at the end. SBSD Helpdesk: And, time permitting, or maybe we don't have to say that, but, like, time permitting, we'll… we'll talk about committees. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so other topics looking forward beyond this, I do think that hopefully we will have the
079opportunity to talk about committees, and I think we will need to formulate how exactly we'll be moving forward with that. SBSD Helpdesk: I think also, at some point, it would be helpful to plan a retreat or some kind of event with the new superintendent. I think we need to also talk about BSBA training. Or training, yeah. I think we need to talk about, an audit of our monitoring. SBSD Helpdesk: reports. I think our policies, I think, would be a good thing for us to do. I think we also, other topics, need to have somewhere on our radar and start putting together a schedule for launching our permanent superintendent search. SBSD Helpdesk: And last thing, and I don't want this to fall off, because it keeps kind of dropping off the end, is our scorecard. Whether,
080you know, where we're mapping that back, and that could be something that we could do in concert with any audit. SBSD Helpdesk: That is going on, so that we can see how things are shaking out. Can you send me that list and your suggestions for which, in the next few meetings, which of them should go in which? SBSD Helpdesk: Any other agenda? Dan, Emily, Michelle? Michelle Boyer: What Jen said. SBSD Helpdesk: Perfect. Dan Boyer: No, nothing. SBSD Helpdesk: Alright. SBSD Helpdesk: Moment? At the later mark. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay, so our next, item on the agenda is the consent agenda. SBSD Helpdesk: And you said you had a… I do! So we have… I'll… with the permission, I'll skip the approval of AP orders and go to hires. Is that okay with you? SBSD Helpdesk: So
081I need to remove Allison Crosci. She decided not to accept the contract, so that's on there, and I just need to, show that I let you know that she's decided not to do that. SBSD Helpdesk: Sarah Betsy Johnson is a 1.0 FTE School nurse. She is, being hired to fill the resignation of Darcy. SBSD Helpdesk: And then, Vincenza Mundi? SBSD Helpdesk: was hired as a .40 FTE music teacher. The position was, posted as a .6. SBSD Helpdesk: At the time, she felt she could only accept a .40 position, but has since, stated that she's able to, accept the .6. So I have an amended contract, it actually shows that it'll be the .4 that she's accepting, and then we'll also have her accept a .2. SBSD Helpdesk: So for the total of a .6, but
082it… SBSD Helpdesk: little, little, unclarity there, and I just wanted to make sure that she is accepting a .6. We'd like to be able to afford her that opportunity. It was what it was posted for, and she's now able to accept that. SBSD Helpdesk: So that's the, hires. SBSD Helpdesk: And then there's the AP orders. SBSD Helpdesk: Does anybody have any questions on the AP orders? SBSD Helpdesk: Nope. SBSD Helpdesk: Perfectly. SBSD Helpdesk: Do we have to take a motion to approve the consent agenda? We do. Okay, all right. And if there were items on it that were more than 50, we'd have to take a special one. Correct, for that specific order. Okay, great. So I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. SBSD Helpdesk: Why move to approve the consent assembly?
083SBSD Helpdesk: Do I have a second? Second. So, Laura moves to approve, and Austin seconds. SBSD Helpdesk: Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? SBSD Helpdesk: Bye. Bye. SBSD Helpdesk: Aye. Emilee Hoffman: Hi. SBSD Helpdesk: Great. SBSD Helpdesk: All right, so one thing, sorry, I should have brought this up before, but, so I had met with Kristen and Delina, was it last week, or was that two weeks ago? I think it was 2 weeks ago. Was it 2 weeks ago? And so we drafted up the… SBSD Helpdesk: template for a potential agenda. So I wanted to know if there was any thoughts on SBSD Helpdesk: board's decision to accept something like that, or modify something like that, but it's been out there, and it's kind of hanging. Okay, so that's a reminder to the
084board, and maybe you'll send a reminder email with the links, to provide comments back to me only about the agenda, the proposed agenda template. SBSD Helpdesk: Okay. Alright, I would entertain a motion to adjourn the mid… All motion to adjourned. SBSD Helpdesk: Second. Okay, Laura moves to adjourn the meeting, and Austin seconds. Any discussion? SBSD Helpdesk: All those in favor? Dan Boyer: Aye. Emilee Hoffman: Aye. SBSD Helpdesk: It is attending. Thank you.