001we mow lawn and make it more places for pollinators so that we can increase the habitat and the ecosystem of the area around Molly Stark. And there's other ideas too that we're we'll present in the presentation that I don't want to step on. Um but another critical part of the partnership is the opportunity to bring members of the community into the classrooms and meet with the students, work with the students, share their experiences with the students. Uh they spent great to talk to the students after they the community members come in and hear what they learned and hear about the experiences that they're getting. And the fifth grade teachers were not able to make it to tonight's board meeting. Uh but Mrs. McIntyre, the fifth grade social studies teacher, did give me some notes that
002I will read. Uh Miss Mack and the fifth graders are so thankful to Mr. Tyler and his team. We love garden days. As a teacher, I believe that the garden program has been so beneficial to our community at Molly Stark. Our students have loved having a multitude of guest speakers from throughout Bennington, performing hands-on activities, and trying new homemade snacks that relate to their lessons. Tyler, Mary Ellen, Jack, Miss Stone, and all their friends have given our learners the ability to see the world in a new light and provided them with the tools to help our challenging world in so many ways. I look forward to continuing the collaboration with the farm to school team next year. Um and I don't want to talk too much cuz we have a great presentation. Uh but it's
003my privilege and honor to introduce in the room we have Donna Stone, Tyler Colfin, and Jack Rossiter Manley. Uh unfortunately, Mary Ellen Manley couldn't make it tonight, but um I'm so pleased to work with them and make their get to know them better. But thank you everybody and Tyler here. All right, thank you, Terry, and thank you all. Um so my name is Tyler Colvin and I have the privilege to be leading this project revitalizing the ecology of our beautiful Molly Stark Elementary School and also turning it into a more productive um farm essentially. So, if we could go to the first slide. Sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I think this is the last slide. But I was going to mention the link to the culture. Oh, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. But
004yeah, my my own background, so I am an ecologist. I work for the European Union. I used to work for the the National Forest Service and Park Service. And yeah, it's it's my honor to be working on this program. Um so, the farm to school it is a Vermont Department of Agricultural grant project and it brings farmers and educators together so that children can experience local food, have nutritious meals, and learn about where their food comes from. This program amplifies and expands innovative work being done to strengthen connections between schools and local food production and to reach underserved school communities. And right there you can see a picture of one of our classroom leaders from Bennington Cares, which is Mary Ellen Manley, and that was our first lesson of the year where we took the
005kids out to an apple orchard on site at Molly Stark and taught them about biodiversity between different types of fruit trees, um the diversity of species or of varieties of apple trees, and let them taste some apple-related snacks. So, it's a good way to kick off the year. Next slide, please. And yeah, so this is a little bit about the the farm to school grants and projects. It's a collaboration between Molly Stark Elementary School and the Bennington County Multicultural Community Center, which Jack will tell you a little bit about in the next slide. This project represents comprehensive transformation of the Molly Stark grounds and a re-imagination of the nature of education that primarily Tyler said fifth graders are receiving. But we're expanding and incorporating fourth graders more and more into the lessons and also establishing
006growing beds outside of the other grade levels so they can also plant seedlings, produce some food, flowers. So it's a re-imagination of the nature of their education through immersion and hands-on nature-based learning. The students are directly involved in on-site food production. See they just planted these blueberry bushes featured in the picture last week sourced from Clearbrook Farm. Anyone know it? Lovely place. They they donated a lot of our starts last year. So we love Clearbrook. And students yeah they are involved in food production and learning about biodiversity and nature conservation and instilling those land-based practices that help support biodiversity on their own school campus. Along with a broad spectrum of activities incorporating multicultural lessons and interactions, arts, sciences, literature, skill building, leadership, and more. And I'll just insert a little bit about vocabulary into the
007lesson. Um Tyler sends us the lesson plans for our weekly lessons and it's probably a good thing because even myself I have had to look up words that Tyler is going to present in his lesson. >> We always have a word of the week. >> And he had is more diverse than I am in all this multicultural, agricultural, all of this stuff. So, um the kids are really important. Yeah. The kids are really, really learning along with the adults that are presenting and helping out in the community. So, thank you for that. Thank you. And that is part of the vision for the overall project. So, as Tyler mentioned, the Bennington County Multicultural Community Center through the Bennington County Regional Commission is a partner in the strength program, and the logic behind that is not
008only being deeply involved with the school community around changing in and adding food production and adding, uh you know, hands-on science-based learning opportunities and biodiversity to the Molly Stark campus. It's also about opening up these other kinds of intergenerational and multicultural learning and relationship building experiences, and we've seen that over and over again as part of the program. So, we've had guest speakers come in not only who are local farmers doing work in Bennington County, but also members of the local Afghan community who resettled after fleeing from their country a several years ago, who had presented about what agriculture is like in Afghanistan, have shared foods that are grown there, have talked about what might be commonly found in Afghanistan that's a little bit rarer here, something like okra. It's not that you can't find
009it here, it's just not a staple of the diet the way that it might be for some folks over in Afghanistan. And we've uh you know, we've built in plans to have members of other groups settled here in Bennington, the Venezuelan community, possibly the South Sudanese community, to have that integrated into the educational plan alongside learning about gardening and farming practices from around the world, such as lessons about permaculture, food forests, these kinds of integrated land management practices that have roots in indigenous land management practices, and also were themselves developed in places like Australia or New Zealand and really bringing that perspective and that global view to the project and that has been a really wonderful aspect of it bringing people from around the world into Molly Stark to talk about their background and to
010be present with the kids who have absolutely loved all of those lessons and really gotten excited about that aspect of the project. >> And to compare and contrast how we do it here, how they do it over there in another part of the world. And it really is amazing. Their eyes get about this big and they're like, "Really? That's I mean it's it's really >> No, the number of kids who had never seen a pomegranate before and totally rocked their world. And yeah, like I mentioned my day job is in Europe. Um so incorporating some of those international perspectives into it is just super fun. And their favorite food so far to taste is garlic mashed potatoes. And that really was Each of the kids planted their own clove of garlic which is sprouting now.
011You can see it in front of the school and they got to try the sprouts. It's their favorite. Exotic. So um the farm to school program, the metrics of success for a farm to school program according to the Department of Agriculture is a project that improves child nutrition, enhances educational experiences, and connects youth with the land, local farms, and their local community. Um in this picture we have members of the solid waste alliance and the the Bennington composting committee who came in and talked kids about composting. And um yeah, conservation focused waste management. And um yeah, with the the farm to school program I would also add that correct me if I'm wrong Jen, but in the history of the program our grant was the the most sizable that's ever been. In in this region,
012Yes. Mhm. Yeah. This is So, the these kinds of grants, this part of the Farm to School program, the grants are up to $60,000 for the 2-year life cycle of the grant, and we received the maximum award. As far back as their current grant management plan for we goes, which is back to 2016, I think the largest grant that our region had previously received is about $7,000. So, this is on a much much larger and um more intense scale than anything that's been done in the past. Thanks, Lee. So, a little look into um what we've done over the last uh two semesters. So, the the project began back in summer. Um obviously, the kids were out of school, but we were already um they had volunteered, which is back in spring of last year,
013and um and got some delicious food and um pollinator gardens in ground, and then maintained the uh the grounds through the summer, harvesting what we had produced. Um in fall 2025, the curriculum proper began, um and we're working with the uh fifth-grade students every Tuesday, um myself, members of Multicultural um Community Center, members of Bennington Cares, um and leading weekly lessons and activities with kids, and most importantly for the kids, weekly snacks. Um So, some of the lessons that we did in fall 2025 were a introduction and uh vision workshop, where they got to um do a kind of blueprints of what they would like to see grown um on Molly Stark, and how they would like to yeah, imagine the landscape could be transformed. Um the the lesson I mentioned earlier about apple orchards
014and biodiversity, garden planning and design, another blueprint uh art-based workshop. Uh the garlic lesson that Donald mentioned, um featuring the garlic mashed potatoes. Whoever would have thought they'd love that. And that's actually what this picture is from. Yeah, this is one of our our junior rangers planting garlic. And um mushroom foraging. So, um Oh, that'll come later, too. Yeah. Next. Oh, not yet. >> [laughter] >> Easy tiger. Easy tiger. Um mushroom foraging. My um I I am myself a forager, and my wife is an expert forager. So, she led a walk in the woods, the Whispering Woods, on site and identified different mushrooms and made sure that they did not try any of them. Um identifying leaves and crafting their own herbarium. Identifying evergreens and food and farming in Afghanistan, one of these multicultural lessons
015that Jack mentioned. Now, next slide. And yeah, here they are on their foraging walk in the Whispering Woods and trying some Afghan snacks with our friend Shusha. Next slide. Winter 2026. So, one of the unfortunate things about these farm to school programs is that in Vermont, the the growing season does not align well with the the school the school session. So, um while they are in school, we're trying to teach them as much as we can and even though during winter, obviously, you can't be outside getting hands-on or doing planting. Um so, we had a revisit to their garden planning and mapping. We had um featured guest speakers uh like Terry mentioned, so that included Genie Alexander and Tess Lyerly from Food Works, who's pictured here. And she's also managing the greenhouse and agriculture at
016the middle school. So, it's good connection for the fifth graders, um some continuity for the the years ahead. And yeah, it was cool introducing these speakers, both young women farmers in local agriculture, kind of hopefully changing their their perception about what a farmer looks like, and giving them some possible inspiration for their own future careers. And then in front of composting with our Bennington County Multicultural Center intern, Emil, and two follow-up lessons on composting and trash separation from the composting committee. Next slide, please. Here is a picture of farmer Genie Alexander, who has a sheep farm in Townshend, and brought in her sheep staff, which the kids were entranced by. And then a lesson on trash separation, where they the kids themselves were the trash. Spring. Finally, we can do some light gardening, beginning with
017indoor planting. Um seedlings that eventually will be able to put in the beds outside. And yes, so we had a lesson on welcoming spring with an introduction to a Bulgarian spring holiday, another international perspective from our intern, Emil. We planted seedlings with fourth fourth-grade classes. Jack led a lesson on permaculture and Maori culture and New Zealand food forests. And then we planted these blueberry shrubs. So, this is where the fun begins. Finally warm enough that we can actually put stuff in the ground. So, we transplanted a butterfly bush and planted blueberries last week. There are now 10 blueberry shrubs in front of the school, so go check it out. It looks amazing. And they'll be producing berries all summer. And our next activity scheduled for planning is a wildflower river birch. So, as Terry mentioned,
018we're rewilding what was previously just a mode monoculture, not particularly biodiverse, um field in the back that also conveniently had uh it's too saturated. It's like flood sensitive. They can't They can't effectively mow it anymore. So, they gave us weirdos permission to some rewilding, and we'll be spreading wildflower and native uh meadow grass seeds with kids next week to turn it into a beautiful pollinator field. And here is me and Donna with all of our junior rangers having just transplanted these butterfly bushes. Kids were so helpful. Next slide, please. So, junior rangers and so um so, yeah, I I used to work with the National Park Service in Rocky Mountain National Park. And one of my favorite elements of that work was doing the junior ranger um programs. If you as a kid ever went
019to a national um or brought your kids, they can get a badge and take a pledge. They do some activities and take a quiz, and then they get sworn in as a junior ranger. So, we kind of based our nature-based education program around the junior ranger programs in national parks. And um if you all would raise your hands and repeat after me, the ranger And the kids did a good job. They were serious. >> They really were, and they got their badges. We made um little Molly Stark Molly Stark Park badges. So, that was a little inspiration for the project. Next slide, please. So, what's ahead? Um this picture I took yesterday. Um we just laid compost out on front um beds. And between me and Donna, we sweated a lot and got a lot
020of work done. Um so, everything was raked, and brassicas were planted in front bed, this um front side bed full of herbs now. That's lavender, bee balm, lemon balm, thyme, cilantro and parsley. All planted out front. So once again, go check it out. Um we are also putting in new raised beds. So back to the multicultural element, we're putting in a bed of Afghani all crops that would be typical of Afghan cuisine and one of Venezuelan crops to have a a little immersive tangible lesson about the refugee communities that are most prominent in Banning City and the the types of food they would grow. Hopefully the exposure gets to yes some new perspectives. And then as I mentioned, rewilding of fields in the back which will begin next week. Uh they already stopped mowing the
021the main area but we'll start spreading the wildflower seeds. And we will be um adding and expanding to the existing apple orchard in the back with eight restoration crossbred American chestnut trees. We'll have a a chestnut orchard in addition to the apple orchard. And there's a lot of peppermint growing in the There is all together too much. Like by the end through the gate Molly Stark School and while we're out there working of course we're getting into the peppermint and oh it smells so good. And our Molly Stark community everybody that was coming in and out with their kids and all this other stuff going like, oh it smells so good. It smells so good here. Where's it smells like peppermint. And so Terry would have a conversation or I would and it's like, oh
022that's wicked. You walk into school it smells like peppermint. It smells so good. >> And now hopefully when they walk out the other entrance it will smell like lavender. >> Yeah. And the rhubarb is also doing well. The rhubarb is really coming up. Get more. Next one, please. So, this is um some of the garden beds. The orange ones are already existing beds. The purple ones in the front are where we planted berry bushes and the herbs and brassicas. Um the red beds between this year and next year, it's a 2-year project. Um our new raised beds that are being constructed. This thing will add two on the left side, the two upper red ones. Um blue square will be a food forest um in the back. See there's two orange existing beds. We're getting
023the um younger grades starting to maintain those beds. So, the fifth graders are really working on um what's most visible and prominent when you come to the school, which is in front. And um but all the younger grades get some practice. Start growing stuff in the gardens in the back. Next slide, please. And as you can see the field in the back that we're rewilding and the blue square is uh where we'll be planting some chestnut trees. Next slide, please. So, um it takes a lot of work and helping hands to realize these uh grounds transformation plans. They're quite ambitious. Um so, in the upcoming weeks and months, we're planning to uh host community volunteer work days um where we plant, we harvest, we weed, uh we set up raised beds, do the work that
024we need to do to convert these school grounds into productive agricultural space. Um so, that's that'll be a collaboration between Park School program, um lots of volunteers, BC MCC, Bennington Cares, and uh the Molly Stark community. But we will advertise it. Anyone is welcome to join. We would love to help. Stop, please. And this is a picture from yesterday as well. Those are all um brassicas that were planted in the front. So, we got cauliflower >> You should have had a before and after picture. Oh, we should have. We should have. Probably do with some of the ones that we have. I have pictures of those in the ground last year though. We can do We got right here. different Cauliflower, broccoli, kale, and cabbage all planted yesterday. Um and I would also like to
025mention now huge amount of gratitude to Perry Yes. who once again just completely welcomed and signed off on us weirdos completely transformed this whole ground here. Turned it into a um biodiverse agricultural paradise. So, I really appreciate it. He's He's been so welcoming throughout the whole process. And we thank him a lot, not only for this program, but for so much more that's happening at Molly Stark School. Thank you very much. Yeah, wouldn't have happened without you. So, much appreciated. It's my privilege to be working with you guys. So, I appreciate the nice words. As was mentioned, this started with a conversation basically about the existing fifth grade leadership program at Molly Stark with desire for more gardening and the interest from the teachers and the students. And when it turned into this bigger vision,
026everybody was ready to go along with it. That's really huge and we're excited to see it all continue to come together. And as usual with our lessons, we'll support our um kids because we're thinking, oh, we've got to teach this, this, and this. Well, guess what? They knew a lot. Every time you start teaching, you're doing like, we surprised me. We never thought you would know that. We know stuff. They really do know a lot about um farm, soil, and growing, and and we done here in our community. So. And it's really really cool too to see the kids uh they're so open to trying new things, whether it's yeah, new activities, but also new foods. Um we brought in some pretty weird foods and snacks. And the peer pressure always kicks in. The one
027brave student will try first, and then everyone wants to. And usually they like it, whether it's pomegranate or garlic mustard. >> Well, and like I really and last week it was dried blueberries and blueberry jam. Oh. And they um had it on the jam on dried pretzel. And it was they loved it. They loved it. So, thank you very much. >> Yes, thank you. And thank you, Mr. Taylor. Thank you [clears throat] very much. I don't know do we take questions? I'm a bad citizen. I don't know how these work. I have one more from the In the summer when no one's around, how do you maintain the gardens? I'll I'll be using >> So, you come in and okay. Cuz that's a lot of work. We had some little things and at Shasberry and
028it kind of just got crazy over the summer. One of the great things with this project, yeah, I'll be coming in harvesting and weeding and cleaning. Um there are teachers in the lower grades who have beds last season. And they plant it with the kids and then they just let it return to nature over the summer, right? So, I plugged them into the program and in addition to maintaining the ones that we planted, I'll harvest and maintain theirs. Um so, that the food's not going to waste and And they must do a summer program there, don't they? So, that also that could be something they could do in those summer program classes. >> Absolutely. And that is part of what we put into the grant as one of our goals is through this transformation making
029the school a place that is used even more outside of school hours than it is currently both by students and parents, but also by bringing in other community members who can be a part of maintaining the transformed grounds. Cuz we really want them to be transformed in perpetuity like as an ongoing um asset for the for the project. Our family members can come in to participate with their their children and and um being able to do this at home as well. Being able to um giving seeds or whatever to They already have them. Yeah, so on their family night they were each given a pot and seeds. >> Oh, wow. Very nice. I think it's a great program. Yeah, thank you. During our volunteer work days the profusion of peppermint was mentioned, but like sprigs
030were sent home with kids to start soil and there were also [clears throat] a lot of I don't know, a bunch of tribes that are already growing there and so we're getting the kids not only to try them but also encouraging them if they want to transplant a little bit cuz there's such an abundance of it. So, started off with some of that. >> That's what a great program you guys and Chip Malloy Strong's Facebook page. There's always pictures and updates on Facebook page and we've got a lot to share with you. So, we'll probably be back. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> I'm so appreciative to hear such good things that are happening in our schools. Yeah. Yeah. I've had a lot of fun working about thinking about budgets and and sometimes just
031nice to hear this these great things are happening. So, thank you so much for coming. Maybe next time we'll have a few kids with us. That'd be lovely. Our rangers. You are welcome please to stay through the rest of the meeting. You're also I'm David Stewart. So, your choice. We always welcome you. What time is the meeting at 6:30? Thank you. Thanks for your dedication. Thanks. And then we'll be on to the consent agenda. That would include minutes and retirements. And I would like a motion for to accept the consent agenda. I'll make the motion. I'll second it and if I can share just a quick little story. I'd like to celebrate the retirement of Linda O'Neal down at Pennel. She was the first person to open a door for me when I started substitute
032teaching here. Uh, for record I want to say 10 years ago. She warmly welcomed me. I was terrified. She introduced me to to the right people and she's part of the reason that I sit here today on this board. That's right. >> I wish her nothing but the best in retirement, Frank. Thank you for that. And I would also like to recognize Kevin Davis who has been here for quite some time. And I have known him for quite a long time, not just from his time in town, but just in the community and I wish him the best as well. Two great people. >> Two great people. Well, we haven't accepted the the agenda, the consent agenda yet. We have to vote. We do have to vote on both. Shall I put them both? So
033all those in favor of accepting the consent agenda? Opposed? We have no finance, no policies, no operations. Cindy has a food service This is I'm going to make it short. This is a contract year for food service. So you discussed that the contract is coming up for next year? When is your next meeting, Cindy? If you don't know off the top of your head, will you send me a I'll be joining you. That would be lovely because it's a it's a big undertaking to do. I'll find the next date. Okay, thank you. Thank you. And Superintendent Pay, would you like to add anything else? No, I'm not even going to try to add to that fantastic presentation. Thank you folks who came out today to do that. Really nice. Thank you. You're absolutely right. It's
034hard to follow that. Now, what the SVSU kitchen bid? We did discuss the kitchen bid that's been rescaled back from over $2 million to roughly 1.6, 1.7. Yeah, the grant was for one amount, but due to do you know, federal guidelines now the price price did increase quite a bit. And so we had to deal with that probably through And then the student achievement? That's what we talked Yeah, same presentation as last time student achievement. So it's just another rolling thing involved with the course. That you know Thank you. Moving on to the chair's report. We still I want you to keep thinking of our board retreat that is hopefully going to be in June. We I need to double check. Someone had an issue, perhaps a conflict on that one day that we had
035originally shared. So I will be sending you all out an email separately to ask if there's another day that might also possibly two evenings to talk about setting goals, orient our new board member, and also celebrate our accomplishments from last year. The only other thing to remember is that it is teacher appreciation week. So please consider sending a teacher handwritten note, a little card, something that says, you know, I appreciate you and I am grateful for what you do. They have a very tough job. And we couldn't do what we do without them. So thank you all teachers. Um there's also an FYI budget status report and treasurer's report which will be posted is not yet posted. And I'm going to um move into executive session. I motion to move into exec executive session 313A7
036and VSA 313-1A. 313A7 is academic records for suspension or dismissal of students. And 313A1 is about contracts and I would like to invite our superintendent to both of those sessions. And I would like to invite the equity coordinator and parents or guardians of the students into that executive session when that happens. I so move. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor of moving into executive session. I can't. All right. All those opposed. Thank you all for Have a good night. Thank you. Good to see you. I'm great, Calvin. I got a chocolate wing there, so That was great. We are being recorded. I'd like to make a motion to come out of executive session. I'll second you. First is Glenn, second is Cindy. Um all those in favor. Coming out. >>
037I. I. We are now out. I make a motion we reenter executive session with all those previous invitees and we add Sarah Case to the list. I would love to second his motion as it was so well said. Any discussion? Any discussion? No. No. And may I ask a question? Yes. Uh Sarah Case, what's her position? She is the um vice principal at Chesbrough Elementary. All those in favor going back into executive session with those people. Say I by saying I. I. All those opposed. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. You're back in executive. Thank you. >> And thank you, Shiga. Right in front of that camera, too. Look how long we've been here. He says he's grandfathering that. >> [laughter] >> So, you are you are recording. You are good to go. Thank you. I
038would like >> see Adam out on that. So, go ahead and I'd like to get a motion to come out of I'll make a motion to come out of executive Thank you. Thank you, Cindy. Thank you, Glenn. session >> Any discussion? All those in favor coming out of executive session Aye. Aye. Thank you. Um now, I would like to make a motion to ask our superintendent of schools to address the academic records on behalf of this board. >> Make a motion that we give the responsibility to independent paper for the superintendent to write whatever he has to. Thank you. And do we have a second for Second. Glenn, any discussion? No. All those in favor, say aye by saying aye. Aye. Aye. And the last motion, the last action requested is um I need a
039motion to empower the SBSD representatives to negotiate a salary increase for non-union employees of the SBUESD. Can I have a motion for that? Chris and a second? Cindy. Cindy, all right. Uh any discussion? All those in favor, all those in favor say aye by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Second, all those in favor? Aye. Thank you, everyone.