001First thing is before we do public comments, we're going to move the principal's report to after public comments. Um, so I guess right now public comments. >> Wow, it's full house. Yeah, >> I have a survey here. Sorry. >> Okay. Uh, principles report. >> This meeting we talk about two different days. one being the >> Dan, you guys always come up so they could see on the camera. >> Uh at the last meeting, we talked about two different things and you asked for the um more information about the Lions donation that we received. So I've asked uh Mr. Cummings to come and he's brought a couple of students and they're going to give you a quick presentation um about the donation and what they're doing. >> Did not expect this quick turnaround. >> Okay, hold
002on for a minute. I got to get your view up here. >> Do we think that I can control the slides via touch screen or >> can I just give you a >> feeding my capacity quickly for just a second? I'm gonna do share. >> Oh yeah, I gota give you guys on camera here. >> Get right up front if you want, Charlie. >> So we got a good angle on things. I feel like I don't want to block you guys blockage. looking for. I want to put this up. Share this slides. >> All right. So, thank you all for inviting us. Uh, as I understood, you had chatted uh, last week about a Lions Club donation or last meeting um, that we received. And so I brought a couple of uh, my very engaged
003eighth graders with me today to chat a little bit about uh, what we're doing in eighth grade. Um, and if you haven't been through the classroom, you should definitely peek your head in there. Um, this is Oh my god, Ruby Miranda. Sorry, I just totally blank. And Xander Maize uh, who are two of my eighth grade students. And uh I just kind of take it take a minute to share with you guys how I decided I was going to help k get kids about take two on that how I wanted to try to get kids excited about science. So I brainstormed and I thought and I thought and I thought and I said you know what we need at at uh AMHS if you would pop that slide forward for me please. Um we need
004>> Do I press the button? >> Yeah that would be great. >> Okay. Um, and you can mute, >> but we need to drop it in. Yeah, there probably won't be. Go ahead and drop it in. >> This is exciting and fun more than uh than a pool. >> What you're looking at is my middle school science classroom. And >> while the pool may be the on tether control uh when the package arrived here at AMHS, what you're looking at is what the eighth graders have been doing for the last uh two and a half or three weeks. Just >> Okay. >> Um, dropping it in. >> There probably won't be. decided drop it in. Uh we wanted to pursue this program called SER. >> All right, let's see what you got, Nate. >> Um
005SE Perch is a program put on by the Department of uh Naval Affairs and Naval Research out of uh Connecticut. Um and it is essentially getting middle and high school students um another angle to get excited about STEM, right? science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and as I always like to say, steam because there should be an A in there for art as well. So, if you would pop to the next one as well. Um, C Perch is an experiential learning program that's very very studentled. Um over the summer, Denise Monty, who's a retired uh former alum of of Arlington, um retired teacher of the deaf in Connecticut, um and of Village Pedaller fame in East Arlington, um had approached me and said, "Hey, you know, I used to run this program when I was teaching in
006Connecticut. It's amazing. You should check it out." And it happened to be about a week after I'd had the interview for the science position up here. And I thought, "This is exactly what I'm looking for." Um so we chatted a little bit about it. Um, she had mentioned that the Lions Club would be interested in uh potentially helping start uh start the program up, giving some uh seed money uh as long as it sort of aligned with their ideals of community and and engagement. And so it seemed like a perfect fit. So uh back in the winter, I approached the Lions Club and said, "Here's this program that I really want to do. It's about $2,000 to get it started. Uh, and then moving forward, uh, all of those costs are built into my annual
007budget each year. But it's really that that jump start that I need and they were ecstatic to, uh, to to give us the donation and and get us started off. So, uh, huge thank you to the Lions Club who I thought were going to come tonight, but doesn't look like they're here, but that's okay. Um, and so it's a great program fitting into our our um, seventh and eighth grade science standards. And it happens to be a really good extension from the seventh grade um, quarterlong unit where we do a a bridge building competition at uh, Vermont Techn Vermont Technical College in Randolph. So we sort of have these big capstone style projects. Eighth grade didn't have one. Um, and this has fit that that niche perfectly. So you can pop ahead to the next
008one there for me. Um, so the $2,000 donation that we got essentially got us, uh, the picture that you see on the left there, the kits, um, that involve a lot of sort of everyday things like PVC and pool noodles, um, and some more specialized thing like the little, um, circuit boards, uh, these electromagnetic motors, um, and these deep cycle marine batteries. So, we went through did some some shopping and price comparison uh comparison and sort of paired uh the initial $2,000 order down a little bit to get some more kits um and to get the pool as well because we really needed a place to be able to do the testing for this before we take it out into the real world which happens to be tomorrow at the Bennington YMCA pool where they're
009going to be dropping these in and doing a timed obstacle course with them. So, um, so that's what the donation got was 10 of those kits plus the pool. Um, and you can see just a picture there on the side of the students unboxing the kits for the first time, figuring out what PVC is, what um, um, circuit boards are, what diagonal cutters are. So, they're learning about tools. They're learning about all these sort of, at least me as a homeowner, DIY sorts of things, right? Like PVC, zip ties, those things that we always have kicking around to fix things that are broken at the last minute. You can pop to the next one, Keith. Um, and so why did we decide this? There's a eight cajillion programs out there. What I really liked about
010C Perch is the program itself is not a canned curriculum. It is a box of materials and a and a build guide to help students build these things. The educational part of it, the standardsbased part of it is up to me and my discretion as a teacher. And so I really I got to give Deianne um and Alex Borsari a huge shout out to giving us teachers the latitude the the flexibility to take the standards that we know that we need to teach and teach them how we think is going to be most effective as opposed to just saying here's a curriculum that we spent, you know, $50,000 for. You need to read the script and measure your kids success and they don't work. So this this works especially when you have a teacher who's
011interested and engaged and passionate about it. So that was really the the biggest thing. Um it's very student directed. So I spend about a week at uh ahead of time giving them some basic principles. Um you know Archimedes principle, some electronic uh electricity. They have a general knowledge and then here you go guys. Here's the end product. How are you and your team going to get there? Uh so they're using real life skills like measuring PVC um using a measuring tape cutting. Um all of these guys actually you two were both working you were circuit boards and you were um propulsion right so there is soldering there's a lot of fine motor skill there's a ton of troubleshooting which was new for me going through this um error diagnosis and then just peer collaboration right
012so how are you going to work with three people who aren't necessarily your best friends that's a really important life skill I think we can all agree so those were the sorts of things that we were I was able to say here you go guys, I'm just going to facilitate and you know, if you really get stuck, help you out with something, but this is what you're going to do. So, there's one of our students right there at the soldering station. Um, I'm happy to report that the nine kits that we just finished up yesterday, all nine are functioning fully. Um, fuses haven't blown, everything works great, and they are ready for the water, which is exciting. A new program like this, you sort of never know. Like, I'll be happy if we have one
013that, you know, that makes the pool. So, uh, this worked really, really great. Can switch to the next one. Um, and you know, the boring stuff, uh, it aligns with about eight NGSS standards, uh, 11 math common core standards, and I think seven or eight, um, ELA standards. Some of that's, uh, before the fact, and some of that's after the fact in assessment and, um, uh, writing and revisiting about the process. So, very standards connected, um, and really student driven, which I think is is hugely important nowadays. and you could pop to the next one. So, where are we going to go with this? Like I said, the the costs for maintaining this program are already built into my budget. Uh we've gotten the expensive stuff. The rest of it's primarily Home Depot, um RK
014Miles, sorts of stuff. Um both of those companies have been very very generous about donating tools and materials to us so far. I have a nicer tool workbench in my seventh and eighth grade science classroom than I think a lot of people have in their garage or their basement. So, um if you need a little bit of tool envy, you can come check that out. So, uh the idea is to continue that as sort of a capstone eighth grade uh project um happening toward the end of the year. And um I'm really looking to recruit some other schools in the area. Uh not a pyramid scheme, I swear. in order to uh get them to bring this on board so that we can actually do true competitions uh you know at the at the Bennington
015Y. Right now it's sort of a competition among us just to see who's the fastest in the class. Um but the competition part of it goes regional, national, and worldwide through the C purge program. That felt a little ambitious for year one. So I said, let's keep it local and then we'll kind of see where we're going to go. So, um, that's what the the $2,000 has been spent on in the last, uh, couple of weeks. And Xander and Ruby, I don't know if you guys want to just say anything about the program, like how has it been for you so far? >> I enjoyed it. I think it was a good learning experience for the students, >> some real world skills. >> So, can you talk a little bit about So, there were three
016different jobs uh, for each of each of these ROVs. There was a structural engineer who built the the device. There was a tether and propulsion who had to wire and waterproof three different motors in order to get these things to move where they needed to go. And then there was what was it called? >> The remote control. >> Oh, the electrician. Yeah. So, the electrician had I don't know what was it two dozen little individual connectors. So you've got an up down left and up down right and a pointer finger one and two button that needed to all work. So you did propulsion. Can you just talk a little bit about like what was a challenging part of that or a interesting part of it because you really like were were leading the way with
017some of it. Xander became sort of my assistant where when other kids were starting to the Mr. Cummings Mr. Cummings champ I would be like Xander you gota you got to go help help these kids. Uh, I think that my opinion it was all interesting. I learned some new stuff. Uh, learned how to use a solder properly which was interesting. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> no fire alarms are set, right? >> Yeah. >> Perfect. What about you, Ruby? >> Um, >> you had a little different angle on it, right? Because you did a lot of the soldering. >> Yeah. And like I liked the soldering because it was just interesting to learn about how to do it. And maybe I could take that further into like jewelry making and it was just overall an interesting
018experience learning how to do that in science club. >> Yeah. And that was a cool thing I think that Ruby and I had the conversation about. she may not become a submarine engineer or um an electrician, but that she could take that skill that we had learned and and played around with and take it into a completely different area that I never would have thought of. So, um I think there's some stuff that we can quantify about this and I think there's a lot of stuff that we can't um like that which was really cool that she shared that. So, yeah. >> What time are you guys at Hawaii tomorrow? >> Uh from 9 to 10ish. We'll see how long it's going to take. It's first year. It's always a uh >> work in progress.
019So, and I know Katie West is going to come down and uh shoot some video and do some pictures for us. So, >> yeah. >> Any questions from board members or any folks in the community before I send these two panicked students? >> Diving in the pool to retrieve things if they don't. >> Okay. Nobody Nobody is going in the pool tomorrow, but I'm going to bring some shorts just in case something has to get retrieved. But yeah, the intent is that nobody needs to go in the pool. ankles at at most is all that we're going to do. So ask me that again tomorrow. Let's let's see how it goes. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Take that a step further and like physics or the waves and all stuff like that. >>
020Yeah. So, uh what I've focused more on this uh this year and that's it's one of the seventh and eighth grade standards or one of the middle school standards um is buoyancy and displacement. So, that's kind of the main area that we that we hit in terms of that. Um, we could, this is one of those programs where I could do it just as a craft and spend a week, have them build it, and then drive it. I could take a whole half the year and do Yeah. You know, um, energy of wave transfer, um, the electricity component of it. So, I kept the the standards focus pretty narrow this year, and now that it's I've got the year under my belt, I might expand that a little bit next year. Um but yeah, primarily
021uh looking at buoyancy, displacement um and forces, opposing forces. So yeah, >> great. >> Well, thank you guys. >> Absolutely. All right. Good. Thank you guys. >> Great. >> We use potatoes. So the second thing I have um while we were here at the last meeting, our group of students was on their way to China um on their 24hour travel trip um and so I've asked them to come speak about their experience. So I am going to as they are setting up I'm going to turn it over to Emma Bell who's going to kick off their presentation hopefully not in Chinese. Okay. So, um we're going to be presenting like our experience in China and um what we've learned and what we've grown and took here and our perspective on everything and just like how
022it went Let's try a different >> Yeah. Great. Oh, you got to come back this way. You're off. We can go to China. There you go. So sometimes it doesn't like the Apple FireWire connection. So it's plugged into two on the back side there. Three is the one that's right up front. Yeah. So you can try three there. Yeah, we might need to just share it with Tim again. >> Is it a Google doc slideshow? >> You want to share it with me? We can do that. >> Yes. >> Is it um that >> while we're waiting. What was the travel? You went from Albany to where? We went to JFK and then we went from JFK to Hong Kong which was a straight flight to Hong Kong and um we had an overlay from
023Hong Kong to Shanghai which was our first destination and then we took a flight to Seion and then we took an overnight train to Beijing. >> Wow. >> And then we flew from Beijing to Hong Kong to home. >> It was by the way. >> Just what? backwards. Okay. Or yeah, >> you can just I will do my very best to keep up with you. Just tell me when you want me to change the slides for you. >> Okay. So, um >> but I want to know someone was quoted in the paper as saying this is their favorite thing. Who was that person? >> Great wall. >> It was check out the banner, folks. Lots of pictures. These guys are famous. Okay. So, um this is our um AMHS China Educational Exchange 2026. We went
024from April 6th to April 22nd. >> I mean to switch. >> Yes, please. >> Okay. Have to be prompted. >> So, our CP our CPG is our connections, perspectives, and growth, which we'll all be sharing um each of these things. Um we'll be sharing our experience of daily life, tradition, food, host family culture, sister school, classroom visits, real world communication and crossculture interaction. Um we'll explore we explored historical sites, performances, interviews, and cultural activities that connect learning with lived experience. So basically like daily life and experiences of their culture and we'll be sharing our growth which is our development and um our am reflections interesting action meaningful. So every single day, everyone did a daily reflection in China of um three of those things on WeChat and our principal could view and our families and
025friends and our teachers. Next slide. >> So some connections I established my Shanghai homeay was very generous and educational. Boy's name was Gunyang or his English name was Yang. I learned a lot about Chinese traditions through calligraphy and the ancient market of Shanghai. I also got to reunite with an old friend and neighbor Owen who I met last time I was in China. And together we visited the area where I once lived there and I got to see how his family grew. You can see it. He's in the picture on the right there. The next slide please. And for my perspective, we visited the Shien ancient city wall, the Guangia. We got to ride bikes along the top enjoying scenic views of the Shien architecture. Then in Beijing we were driven in rickshaw cards through
026hutong were living quarters of houses and courtyards through scenic narrow alleys. These sites display how China blends tradition and modernity and for my growth how I thought big Chinese cities with advanced technology simultaneously with the traditional buildings and architecture was very neat. I thought was really interesting. Um visiting so many places and doing so many things advanced my Chinese ability. but also revealed many gaps that I must learn. Um, I've come to love Chinese culture and want to further my connection to it. So, I'd like to study abroad or attend a Chinese or Taiwanese university in a couple years did for me. >> My home stayain my homeay his name was the or we also call him Carrie. Um, he is a wholesome, funny, and thoughtful person. He and his parents are always so considerate
027and made me feel at home. They taught me many cultural insights and he bought brought me to the Shanghai old streets which I got to experience the tra the traditional life of Shanghai and living in China has enriched my perspective of life. This trip also rei refined my understanding and I'm really glad that they are my home state. Um, the Oriental Pro TV tower dash in Balti restaurant. We went to the Oriental Pro Tower located in the bun. The view there was breathtaking, especially the sunset view with the purple tinted windows. It was even more beautiful while dining at the revolting restaurant. Okay, so one of my favorite places I've hunted to was the temple of heaven, which in ancient times was where the emperor would go to fast for a few days to prove
028his prosperity to the nation. So I thought that was very cool. And this temple was really huge and it had many other like temples around it, but that one was like the main big one and there was like other buildings and um the sun was setting over there. So, it was very beautiful and the site was really nice and um we all had fun walking around and taking pictures together. Thanks. >> And the other um one of my other favorites was definitely the Great Wall of China because I feel like growing up I've always like saw on it like online. I was like, "Oh my gosh." So, I never thought I would actually go there. So, it was really cool. And we all made it to the fifth tower which was a lot of exercise
029really good for us and our bodies. And we all had a really good time and we spoke to lots of people um using Chinese language there and just like feeling the connection between the culture and just enjoying our time. And we also all had some hulu which is um a fruit candy that's like crystallized. It's a traditional Chinese food and it was very good. So we all joined that. My home stay I would say was very unique and I really really enjoyed it and they were really kind to me and they showed me around Shanghai and I took honu photos with them which is a traditional Chinese um photo shoot and you wear a traditional Chinese dress. So, we did those um over a lake that was like very popular for these photos. So, there
030was like tons of girls wearing those dresses and um I experienced lots of um meaningful moments with my family. We drank tea together um traditionally and I would say um my growth throughout this whole experience was it really improved my Chinese language and grew my vocabulary I would say. And I always tried to speak to people no matter what. Even if it was like wrong, I would always like I'm like, "Oh my gosh." So like I corrected myself. So it helped me with that. And um it opened my mind and grew my perspective and really made me want to travel more in the future. I'm Jiren and my home state name was Allan or Jim. We went to many places such as the bun and they pick and duck dinner. Many Chinese students such as
031my homestead had to stay up very late with his studies. Although he was very busy, he would still make time for me. We went to the bun with beautiful sceneries containing many buildings such as the TV tower in the same high world financial center. We walked around the city, shop and had dinner at the pearl. Throughout the trip, I learned more and more Chinese. I made stronger relationships with my peers and teachers. Every day we did something new, whether it was going to sighting, eating Chinese cuisine, or feeding pigeons. Uh, this is my connection. My homestead was very nice and let me hang out a lot with other people. His name was Andy and me and him got along very well immediately. He took me out to get full, which is also hot pot, and
032it was fetch, which means very good. Uh the sports in Shanghai we played bad mitten and soccer with the Shanghai students and it was a really good experience to show how they play sports. Uh the experience the China Trip group went and saw an acrobatic show and had many different acts. You can see how hard the people had trained and how much it meant to them. It was a really great experience and we all had a great time watching the different acts. This is one of my reflections. Uh this is the growth during the China trip. I used a lot. I used Chinese a lot and improved my Chinese and it made me realize how hard some kids really try in school and how much they respect their teachers. It made me want to try
033harder in my own studies and improve my language skills even more so I can go back and have conversations. >> Um so one of my favorite places we went to was the summer palace and it's really big of a soccer field. Um, it has a man-made lake and man-made mountains and it was rebuilt two times. Sorry, destroyed two times, rebuilt three times. And it was really beautiful. It had shops along like along the lakeside and we had ice cream by the lake. We ate a lot of matcha in China. Next slide, please. One of it. We also went to the Bomba Museum which was really interesting because it was a village human village from 6,000 years ago and they had like veins of like human remains and like just for like traditions and stuff and
034it was just really interesting to learn about. In my homeay I learned about Chinese eating habits and I saw everyday life in China. I also learned a lot of Chinese. I got very prof proficient in ordering food from restaurants. So yeah, and my family had two pets. They're really cute. >> And my growth is that this trip opened my mind the Chinese culture and I feel very lucky to have gone there and experienced everything I experienced. >> All right. Um my homeay is Chinese name was uh Wong Rang and his English name was Roy. Um, I made my best attempt to hold a conversation with him in Chinese, but it was pretty difficult with my limited vocabulary. But luckily, he helped me. Um, and he would give me the words I didn't know so that
035I could finish my sentences. Uh, so that was my growth mainly was the fact that he helped me learn more Chinese words. Um, his family was very traditional as well. Um, we didn't do a whole lot around his house because it was relatively small. But, um, they were also pretty welcoming and it reassured me about how nice people in China are. So, that changed my perspective on the Chinese people cuz I was scared I wouldn't fit in and all that. But, it was really good the way they welcomed me. I also got to hang out with my homeay a lot, which uh, made me better connect with him and others to build a stronger friendship. Um, a lot of the hangouts I did was me and my homestead with uh Colby and his homestead. We
036went to like a Chinese barbecue and stuff like that. So, it was pretty cool going to all those restaurants. But, um, my favorite place we went to was Great Wall of China. Um, getting to walk up the Great Wall with my friends helped me to build a stronger bond with them and even a better connection with China's history. Um, getting to the top of the wall made me realize just how fit you have to be to get to the top of the Great Wall. It was really a major exercise. I wasn't expecting. Um, but it also made me feel stronger after we got done, especially since I was missing two weeks of track and was pretty out of shape by that time. But yeah, the views were also really great off the wall. It was
037pretty steep, but other than that, it was really fun and we made it to the top. >> My favorite part was the home stay in Shanghai. It was really great to experience like the culture firsthand. So, we went shopping together a lot. We got a lot of food together, like hot pot and steamed meat buns, which were my favorite um little snack. Um we met up with Emma and Huny at the youth gardens, which were beautiful. Um dying buildings. We didn't go into the gardens themselves, but they were so buildings were gorgeous. Um, as my perspective, we went the Kong Dynasty performance and we had a dinner there which was delicious and they used traditional Chinese instruments with mixed with like dance poetry to tell a story of the empress um during the Tong Dynasty,
038the only female ruling emperor empress of China and it was so vibrant and well organized. All the dancers were super talented and it was such a unique way to learn about a different part of history. And we also went to the Forbidden City which was huge. We only got to see a small portion but it was where the emperor spent I believe most of his time and this it was the center of power during the Ting Ming dynasties and it was about 606 years old so like twice as old as the states. It was super cool >> and I feel I grew in my culture understanding and being able to make connections with different pieces of the languages and it was it was very lovely side with all my pictures. So um picture with my
039home stay and bottom corner em dynasty show and the forbidden parts of the forbidding city to the right and then the next time slide and we didn't just visit China we experienced it and it changed us. Okay, thank you. >> I have a question. >> How about your host families? Because most of them speak English. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. Because they learn English from like elementary school over there. Like they really do learn English for a long time. It's like a second language basically. I would say like personally like the I would feel the student spoke well English but my host say parents knew like maybe like eight words in English but the students are really Yeah. >> So the students were very advanced. >> Yes. >> Yeah. My student kind of we usually use
040Google translate but because some like they major different languages >> so like some they also like Spanish and then English and some like didn't do English. I deal with Chinese people all the time and I'm always amazed they all have an American name or an English name yet I don't have a Chinese >> we can make >> we can work on that for >> she can give me one >> sounds like a great trip >> I think the students had a great experience from even just talking about even the smallest things that occurred others in the airport on the airplane um talking and sharing their pictures on the WeChat chat. Um but I publicly want to thank um Leelu and Michelle Emory and Mr. How um a lot goes into chaperoning that trip. A lot
041goes into planning that trip and those three individuals went above and beyond to allow the expenses. Thank you. I want to say thank you for this good word and the community always. So whenever we need you always lift us and also finally we make this trip really. I'm so lucky so blessed we have such great communities though we are small school but we are really a true gem. you have seen just a little bit of it as we really truly blessed to had to have this experience. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're done. Time to go home. >> I'm good. Anything else for that's going on right? No, I don't need one. >> Okay, one question. The buses. >> Not really sure, Dan. Um, we're having still
042trouble with the electric buses. Got delivered back uh last week. I don't know if they're all migration. Next up is a consent agenda. We're going to make we're going to request that the board makes one amendment as you have a new nomination that you could approve this evening. And that would be Nick. Do you have language for that? >> My request is to amend uh the consent agenda to add a nomination for your English teaching position. So, I'd make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the revision of adding the nomination for Jonathan Schiff. >> I'll second it. >> Second car. >> I did. >> All those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Any questions? Do we still have to do the consent agenda? The whole thing is >> No, you can just approve
043your you can make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Is that what >> that was? Was the motion I made. >> Oh, I thought that the teacher No, >> that was good. >> So, we're good. Next up is finances, which we have none. >> Yep. >> And after that is policies. Um I guess we're just warning them. Anybody have any questions on them to start with? >> In terms of process, I am on the policy committee. So, in terms of process, it would be helpful if you reviewed them once they're warned. If there is any feedback, if you could um forward that to me and then I can take that back to the policy committee if there are any questions or any any input on revisions. >> I have a question. I was going
044to direct it towards Tim, but I guess I could I just wonder I mean, it just seems like we keep uh going over these and they keep changing like two words or something like that. And I guess from my point of view, from a business point of view, I mean, I I I asked our lawyer about it the other day for our company, she said, "You could be sued just as much with those two words without." So, it can't be for that reason. So, I guess I wonder why do we keep >> So, from the start of the school year, uh, I contracted with the Vermont, uh, school board to go through our policy as a district. >> Yeah. because some of the policies haven't been reviewed for quite some time. Yeah. >> So, they
045go through your policies and they break them out into sections. These are the required, which is what we're working through right now. So, the ones that we're asking you to take a look at are the required ones. The next group will be recommended, and then you have a series of policies that the school board doesn't have an opinion on. You you can make policy at the local level if you see fit. So, some of this will feel like a revisit. Um but we're going we're working through the required ones right now and there's the VSBA does a side by side your current policy. Hey this is our recommendation. So you you will see some changes but the committee will make the decision as to what they adopt and what they don't put out. >> So
046it's not our our lawyers actually they're writing this up. It's the state that's writing this. >> The state pro uh the state association for the school board provides you a model policy for every required policy. our our attorney does sit with the policy committee to say you're in you know not bending any of the rules you're not breaking any statute um but no this is provided to you but it's a side so the committee is looking at side by side and we're pointing that out oh your language is a little different here you're so you may see some changes most of them though are coming from a recommendation from the state association >> okay thanks Sure. >> So, I'd make a motion to warrant policy number 6100, 4261, 4276, and 4100. >> No, I can.
047>> Okay. What? We have to vote. Yeah. All those in favor? >> I I >> Any questions operations? There's none. So, I guess now we're down to the superintendent's report. Let me let me do this. I have uh I've brought one slide is is my custom. Uh I want to say thank you to Nicole and members of the community who attended the last meeting gave us some feedback uh on student achievement. Uh and I will for folks who are at home or folks who aren't attending all of these presentations go up on the school on the SPSU website so you can check them out at your own leisure. What we wanted to do this evening after some feedback is break this out uh for folks to see. So on the left side you will see
048Fiser Elementary. There's a proficiency and a normed growth rate. I know it's a little small on the screen. I apologize for that, but I will read it out loud for folks really quickly. So Fiser Elementary, uh we're looking for the percentage of kiddos who are proficient in reading and mathematics. This is taken from uh a MAP uh assessment taken in the winter of 2026. So it's very new. It's uh what we did is we only included students who have been at Fiser for five years. Okay, five years or more. Uh just to kind of based on feedback from the community and from Nicole, we want to see, hey, what's the effect of a kiddo traveling through Fiser Elementary? So proficiency rating right now, reading is 67% for your Fischer Elementary kiddos. math one is 42%.
049And then there's what is called normed growth. Basically, MAP is a nationwide assessment. So they can compare Fisher students to their peers across the country. And what they say is we if you have a really effective teacher working with this kiddo, you should see a normed growth rate of somewhere over 60%. Anything over 60% is a really good thing or you're working toward that. So you'll see that reading in Fischer Elementary the normed growth rate is 79%. Which is good. Um for mathematics it's 46. So you're moving toward that that 60% range. Uh but there are some bright spots in there as you're moving along. Definitely to the right of that there is a column uh there was a request hey can you talk to us about what are specific things you are providing for
050teachers resources at that grade level to help improve these things. So there's connections for professional learning through what is a group called the all learners network. Some folks may be familiar with that. They've been working with the district for quite some time. Uh this is the second year of a primary resource in mathematics. A common resource across grades using ofl still working with the science of reading professional development. Second year of a primary resource around reading and then OGAP which is um specific uh specific to uh elementary school as well as far as another resource. If you go down one block it says Arlington Memorial High School. So this is middle and high school. Uh this is taken from map data in the winter of 2026. The cohort here is students who have spent nine
051years in Fiser and Arlington. So we really we should be seeing the impact of uh a full u career in the school. Reading proficiency in Arlington middle uh middle and high school is 68%. Mathematics is 62. So you can see that mathematics has grown quite a bit as far as proficiency over time. So that's a good thing. The normed growth again anything over 60% uh according to MAP is good. Uh so the normed growth for reading is 79% in the middle and high school. Mathematics is 49%. So that's an area that's continuing to you're moving toward that goal um outright. Again on the right side, things that are available in the uh middle and high school all learners network. This is professional development for teaching. It's a year two of a math resource, the use
052of as a monitoring tool. It's year one for an ELA primary resource according to the folks in curriculum and instruction. So our as we move forward, uh everything that I present to the board, I promise to put up on the uh website. Please encourage friends and family to take a look at that if they want to see. We love the feedback. Um looking to come back in the fall and share with the board more data. Been getting some feedback about hey the visuals help us. This has got too much jargon in it, Tim. All that is welcome as far as uh coming back to us and making it better as we move forward. The last uh little block at the bottom is the current high school graduation rate uh within four years is the measure.
053Uh, this was pulled for the um 24-25 school year. Shows Arlington's graduation rate at 94%. And there's an explanation of the state's math problem to the right. I always have folks who want to know the the math. I'm happy to provide that. Sometimes it's easily understood and other times it's a little bit of a variable. So, you never know. Any questions? When you say they got to be in elementary school for like five years, so you're only doing what, like the fifth and sixth graders. >> Uh, so these scores would be Yes. So these would be your fifth graders and then you take another snapshot in your middle school. Eighth graders will take a snapshot. Well, actually >> they'll be in the high school, right? >> Yeah. So two things there for your question. Not
054the same cohort of kids. So this would be middle and high school. you're going to be testing 7 8 9 correct and Fiser you're going to be testing kiddos for 3 through six but what we did was when we showed proficiency we wanted to you have kids who trans have moved into school four fifth grade we wanted to show you to the question of investment and your teaching and the impact of a Fiser experience or an Arlington experience we pulled kids been five years so you are correct you're looking at fourth fifth grade or sixth graders, anybody who meets that. So, just fifth and sixth grade. Yeah. And then when you get to the high school, we're looking for kiddos who've been here for nine years. Three years. >> Should we count the prek experience?
055>> It's a good question. I don't know that. >> Like my third grader has been there for five years. No. So, it starts at kindergarten. >> Pretty sure it's a K5 >> question. Yes. So I guess just looking at that, I mean from somebody standing outside here looking at it, they got a problem in the elementary school with math. Is that what you're telling us? And the and the and it must be at the high school level over there must be good math because they catch them back up and got them above the average. >> I would it's a little more nuanced than that. And I will tell you that I see the same thing when we talk about kids who go through the MAU system. So, uh, math is a particular struggle because you
056got to be able to read in order to do math. So, while you're helping kids make sure they're reading at grade level, you still have kids who are, you know, they're working on their reading skills, well, they're also getting whacked in mathematics because we're asking them to read a problem, break the problem apart, solve the problem. Uh, I think you see catchup as kids are mastering reading. teachers have more opportunity to help them break down math problems. You also see this in science uh scores as well. Kids will close the gap as they get farther into their education. So, they're just having more practice and they're developing their reading skills. But reading is kind of the key that unlocks the other two subjects is my understanding of that too because you'll see you'll see the
057closing of science uh achievement as well. But absolutely we would like to see more kids who are proficient in mathematics at grade level. So it's a good place to keep working. Any other questions? It's a big crowd. I was expecting some hands. Oh, there's a question. >> There was So I would just say two things. One, I think my experience with maps, maps doesn't really give you proficiency. So I would just double check with the team on what their cuts are. So that was one and two I would say and I mean since these are cohort data multiple years of instruction I didn't really expect to see numbers this high and higher but I think the other piece of that is I would push the vendor NWA maps to make sure that they are working
058with your team to do that correlation of performance on maps versus BTC and it's a little tricky with Vermont because we're not as mapped as other states, but it's still pretty good. In other words, performance that you see on maps should translate pretty well to the performance you're seeing on VT. Yeah, if it's not, I would go back to the vendor and have them explain that. Um, maybe there's an alignment issue, maybe there's something else, or maybe it's not the testing and it's something else on the ground. But just to to diagnose that a little bit more deeply, you shouldn't see big gaps in proficiency or what you're calling proficiency on maps versus my teams. >> Yeah, map's a good predictor of how you should Yep. Right. I will be back in the fall. Well,
059I'll be back before that, but I'll bring March back in the fall. Any other >> on vacation? >> Yeah. Any other questions for me from the board? You guys good? All right, sir. Chair's report. Oh, see now it was two hours ago. I found out I was the chair. I have no report. Just said I hope people are contacting their representatives about some of the things that's going on in the state. you know, it's it's uh it's pretty bleak, not just for education, as far as I'm concerned, for anything with what's going on. So, hopefully you're voicing your opinion. >> There could be a vote in the Senate tomorrow on the education bill. I tried to listen to the end of the testimony today where they were talking about um construction and debt and but
060I I missed the beginning of it. But it's this there's a Senate version of the map off of 955 that was presented that is completely different that would put us in a region from Lello Mount Holly to Bennington. It's kind of crazy. So the the big concern is that there are going to be a lot of lastm minute potential modifications to try to create something that they think the governor will support. That's my That's not just my concern, but it's really important that people are paying attention. Some stuff could slide in at the end that turns it all upside down. >> We had we had a meeting on Monday with a number of the local officials and they all pretty KY about what was going to come out of Yeah. a lot of uncertainty. Y,
061>> any questions on the uh budget status report? Chelsea. >> Okay. So we need to make a motion to I think to go into executive session. >> Make a motion that we enter executive session. Discuss >> says labor relations agreements with employees. >> I don't know if you're going to have >> right. That's what I'm going to abstain from this executive session. Would you like to invite myself and Nick instead for >> Yes. >> I will second the motion. >> Okay. So, so moved. We'll go into ESA section 313A1 labor relation agreement with employees. So, we're going to Alex's room again. I don't know where. >> Well, next week. >> Okay. Just for minute purposes, we're out of executive session at 6:44. I would make a motion to ratify the Arlington support staff collective bargaining
062agreement for the years 2025 to 2027 as presented. >> I'll second that. >> All in favor? >> Dane. >> I Chelsea abstaining. >> Any questions? Moved. Make a motion that you adjourn. >> Yep. >> Make a motion to adjourn. Meeting at 6:45. Okay. Move.