001Excellent. Okay. Good evening. Uh my name is Renee Gordon. I'm the director of finance for the Southwest Vermont Supervisor Union and I will call this meeting of the North Bennington graded school district credential committee to order at 5:31 on Wednesday, March 11th. Um the first item of business is uh board reorganization. So, I will open up the floor for nominations for chair. >> Nominate Ray Molino as chair. >> Thank you, Karen. >> Oh, second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Matt. Are there any other nominations for chair? Hearing none. All those in favor of Ray Mulleno as chair, please say I. >> I. >> Are there any opposed? I don't think so. >> And abstaining. Okay. So, Ray abstains. >> All right, Mr. Chair, I'll turn it over to you. >> Do you [clears throat] want
002the script for vice chair and clerk? And [laughter] >> there's a script. >> Okay. But you know, you know this is for you. [clears throat] >> All right. Good evening board. And uh our next order of business is to appoint or elect a vice chairperson. And >> [clears throat] >> um I uh the floor is open for nominations. I nominate Matthew. >> Okay. Two people have nominated Matthew, right? >> Yeah, I'll second. >> Kieran and nominated and I'll second. >> All right. Thank you. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none, I'll call the question. Shall we uh are we in favor of Matthew Patterson as the vice chair for president North School District? All in favor say I. >> I >> abain Matthews abstaining. That's 44 net zero opposed and one abstaining. Okay. Um, nominations
003for clerk of the North Bennington Predential Committee Board. This is a function that is of use when u if Lori for some reason is not able to be here and uh for signing documents or as in the chain of command for signing warrants and other documents that the board needs to have signed in the absence of a meeting. So, um, I'll entertain nominations for a clerk for the North Bennington Credential Committee. >> Or you can nominate yourself if you wish. >> How about I nominate Lonnie? >> Lonnie. Lonnie's got the thumbs up. Okay, so we have one nomination. Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, u I'll call the question. Are we in favor of Lonnie Deporta being our clerk for this year? >> All in favor? I >> I >> abstain. >> Okay. Did
004you abstain, Lenny? >> Yes. >> Or did you? Doesn't matter really. Okay. So I I guess that's uh all of us except Lonnie. And so um Lenny is appointed is elected clerk of the North Mington Credential Committee for FY 20 28. Okay. >> Just 14 or Nominations are in order for representative to the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union Board of Directors from the credential committee. We only have one member. I've been that member for a number of years. >> I nominate to serve again, but we'll see. >> I'll second Matt. Can't hear you. Matt, >> I'll second the nomination for Ray. Who made me first? >> I think Lonnie did. >> Okay. >> Oh, I nominated you, Ray. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, Lonnie. I didn't see it. So, um, so we have a first and
005a second for Ray Molino to serve as the North Bennington Great School District Credential Committee representative to the SPSU board. U are there any other nominations? Seeing none, I'll call the question. Are we in favor of said Ray Molino being the representative to the SCU board? >> I [clears throat] >> Right. That's I'm abstaining. So that passes for four and zero. Okay. And then committees. I know there there are committees listed there. Yes. Um but I don't we haven't really been running your facilities maybe. I'm not sure how you want to handle that. You do it. >> Well, our own committee, our own facility committee is just going to be the whole board anyway. >> Um the policy committee is an SU committee. Um [clears throat] Kieran served on it for a while. I was
006serving last year, but there weren't very many meetings. I only went to one or two. And uh but at any rate uh it if someone would like to volunteer to be on that committee um it's unfortunately a little bit irregular in meeting meetings but there are meetings and it can be interesting to have the discussions around policies. Uh mostly most of the policy work is revisions of older policies that need updating. Some of it is for policies that have to be corrected or changed or new policies because the legislature votes for new new particular legislation that needs to have policy attached to it for the school boards. No, I don't see any volunteers. >> I I can share that the the meetings um weren't as numerous this past year because we contracted with the Vermont
007School Board Association to do an audit of all of our policies. So, they went through that process and I think now that with board reorganization that proc or the regular meetings will start again. >> Renee, now you're dissuading people. Well, that's So, my question I'm I'm possibly willing to volunteer. My question is how um often those meetings are just because I'm also a um a member of another board um for the town of Bennington. So, I'm just reticent to load myself with too many weekly meetings or >> the maximum would be once a month and uh that's usually the month >> Monday. Yeah, I think it was the first Monday of the month. >> Monday of the month at what time was >> 5:30 or 6? >> Thought they started at 4:30. >> 4:30. Okay.
008>> And this is just a liaison from our credential committee to that SU policy committee. [clears throat] >> Yep. >> So essentially just garnering that information. I'm just I'm just bringing that information to if I were to volunteer, just bringing that information from there to the board. there isn't more of an active. >> Yes, but you are a participant uh and you can certainly be studying the policies and making offering your comments. >> Okay. I'm >> I've certainly been an active participant when I've been >> I'm interested in volunteering. I'm wondering about the protocol if for some reason like is there is there a way for us to at a board meeting like change over who our representative is? if it becomes >> okay >> then I will for the time being volunteer for that.
009Um I'm happy to take that on for now. Um >> all right >> testing the limits of my capacity I suppose. >> We're not going to vote on this. I'm just going to say you know that's fine. We'll point you >> and um we can we make certain that she gets meeting notices please. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Thank you for volunteering. >> Thanks Lonnie. >> The um the next committee assignment is finance. Is this this is the SU finance >> which we we've been meeting as a whole. >> We meet as a whole group. So, I'm uh I'm that person because I'm going to be there for the SU meetings and personnel, which is a that hasn't met in some time. And that's that's a very rare occasion when there is a need for
010the board subcommittee to consider a personnel matter. And since I'm on the board, I'd be probably the person to do that as well. So, I'm selfappointing myself to finance and personnel for the SU. And that's the end of our policy, our committee of soft. Now we have uh authorization to execute contracts. This is [clears throat] what is that piece of >> be agenda. Yeah. Right. >> Okay. So now this is a an authorization for the superintendent or his for well his designate to execute on the behalf of the school district purchase orders, agreements for consulting services, grant agreements, other contracts affecting arising from and affecting the routine operation of the district. um said person shall not execute any contracts either superintendent of destiny resulting from a public bid process, any employment agreements, any long-term contracts
011without express authority from the board. Um, so if um I will put that forth as a a a proposal that we authorize the superintendent or his designate. >> So authorized >> and I'll call the question and we'll vote on it. All in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay, that's all of us, I believe. >> Thank you. >> So, if that's that, then the final step of this reorganization is authorization of the chair, the vice chair, and we've usually included the secret the clerk. Um, >> okay. as to approve off cycle warrants which occur once a year normally although this year there was a second month February no was February >> yeah there was one earlier yeah in the in the year [clears throat] >> so um on occasion that is a necessity and then there
012are a different sort of incident circumstance that's unplanned just happens to come about because of various circumstances and um usually I've taken care of those but um in case I'm not there not around then someone someone else needs to do it and that we've allowed the vice chair and the cart to be in that chain of command. U if this is an suitable practice for the board, u I'll make a motion that we uh construct that chain of command for this FY and uh 28 28. Yeah. Um, [clears throat] I'll make that that proposal. If I get a second, we'll vote it. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Lonnie. So, are there any questions about what I said? Just like I may be rambling around, here >> rambling clearly enough, Ray. >> Okay. Um, I'll
013call the question. All in favor of that group of people having the power to uh in order depending on missing people to get down to all the way to the court to execute uh warrants and other documents for the board. >> I I >> I think that was all of us right? >> Did I hear you, Katherine? I'm not sure. >> You heard you. >> Okay. All right, thank you. Okay. So that is the um end of our re reorganization and u at this point we enter the regular part of the agenda which is our normal the normal agenda we have and we have uh public comment if any and I don't see anybody to offer comment so we'll pass over that. Uh we go to the consent agenda that consists of the minutes and
014warrants and actually there's we have two sets of minutes. one from Saturday, January 24th, and which was our adoption of the warning for the annual meeting and one was for Wednesday, January 2014, excuse is it 24th or 14th? 14th. Um [clears throat] and those minutes were in the uh package. Then there is additionally the warrant. The warrant um includes warrant the warrant for February because since we had no meeting I signed for that warrant so that the bills got paid. So both February's warrant and the um billings for March are in this this warrant. So it ends up being a giant total of of [clears throat] 700,000 was it 720,8182 rounded up. >> But a portion of that a $100,000 of that is just moving >> right. Yeah. And uh right, as Renee said, there's
015$100,000 that's not actually going paid to anyone. It's moving accounts. And I'll let Doug speak to me. Okay. Can everybody hear me? [clears throat] >> All right. I'll do a quick introduction since I've never met Katherine before. My name is Doug Bugji. Um I'm the treasurer for the school district. I'm also the treasurer for the village of North Bennington, tax collector, delinquent tax collector. Um, the list goes on and on. Um, so we'll get you added. I did not um if you printed the packet, you have my report. I typically will send that out. So I'll get your email um from Lori or Rey um so you I can include you when I send it out. But again, it's always in the packet, so you'll have access to the report. Um, and the report that
016I produce is the cash balance report that shows uh where we are um with our account. So, um for a brief recap for everybody and for Katherine, um we are in the process of uh switching banks locally uh for a variety of reasons. Um our accounts now are with Mnt and they are moving to the Bank of Bennington. So, as Ray stated, we have a $100,000 check that's on the warrant, but it is not payable to anybody other than the district. So, it's basically to establish the two new accounts at the Bank of Bennington. Um, and you'll see in the breakdown, um, there's two accounts there. One will be an operating account, one will be a money market account, which is the exact same setup that we have at Mnt currently. So, it's going to
017be the same. you know the bulk of the money will stay in the money market which earns more interest and then um on a monthly basis weekly basis however the checks go through money will transfer from the money market to the operating to clear those checks. So to establish those accounts, um we're moving 100,000, 75 will go into the money market, 25 will go into the operating. Um so this is step two. Um I established the accounts about a week and a half ago. Got those all up and running. So now we're funding them. Then we will begin getting checks ordered, getting online banking set up, all those types of things. Um the goal is to start um our fiscal year which is July 1st to hopefully exclusively use those new Bank of Bennington accounts.
018That will keep it clean um from a reporting/accounting standpoint. Obviously, all the checks won't be cleared um as of that date, but at least going forward then we're only writing checks and paying bills out of one bank as opposed to doing two different banks and then reconciliations can get a little dicey. Um so that's the goal. That's where we are right now. Um as Ry said, there was two warrants. I mean the February checks, the bulk of those have all already cleared. Um, so with that, the March was a light light month. Um, the next couple of months will start to get heavier. Um, some of the districts bill their tuition towards the end of the year. We'll have the um SU assessment and things of that nature. So, we'll have those coming up. Um,
019as we were going forward with the process, the Bank of Bennington is fully aware that we do a tax anticipation note annually. Um, so that will continue. I would assume we'll have to do one as we have for many years now. Um so that process um will be a lot easier, quicker, smoother um than it had gotten with Mnt, which is one of the main reasons why we're moving over. So um that will likely happen in the month of June. So that way there as of July 1st, it's ready and available to us um as we need until tax collection payout um Novemberish. Um that's kind of all I have. If anybody has any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them. >> Well, I have one question. >> Sure. >> So what happens
020to the account that has the gift monies that we have? >> So Yep. So right now there's the the main one is the Eric CD account. So I timed that. So that maturity date is the end of June. So when that matures at Mnt I will go in and get a bank check payable to the village or yeah to the village sorry to the school district and bring that to the Bank of Bennington and title it the exact same way that it was at Mnt and put it into a CD just like it's been for the past how many other years it's been going. The other small the smaller check that we received um is currently in the money market account, but it's earmarked. If you look at the bottom of my report, you'll see
021that that amount is is noted there um of how much that is because you had felt at some point in the not too distant future that you were going to recommend using that money for something. So, that did not go into a separate CD because if it was only going to be in there for four months, 5 months, 6 months, um the bookkeeping on it is a lot more if we put it into a new account. Um if it seems like it's not going to um Rene Renee and I had talked originally, it can certainly go into the CD with the ERIC and just designate how much money it is. So, it's it it wouldn't be a big deal to move that into that other CD. Um because both of them are not really restricted.
022It's just board discretion. >> Yep. So, that's where those funds are currently. >> Okay. So, so Terry Eric used to be on this board. Um, and he designated that the uh district would receive funds when he passed away. And so that accounts for the the uh well it's currently 56,000 56,600 basically but it was a $50,000 of gift from his estate. Uh we've we have not spent it obviously it's just been acrewing interest uh looking waiting awaiting a need for it by the district. The other small amount that Doug is talking about uh was recently received from the estate of a person who was originally from North Bennington and from I think went through North Bennington school and >> I believe that was correct. Yes. >> Yes. And she left uh about $9,700 that we
023put aside again on the I think ultimately may end up with the ERIC money but for now it's not in case we develop a need to use it in the near future >> which is perfectly fine. >> Sorry, what? >> Yep, that's perfectly fine. Like I said, that's why we designated it where we did on that on that report and SPSU in their accounting has it, you know, the same way where we know how much that is. >> Okay. So, that that explains why those funds were mentioned. Um, and and Doug's very well very cap capably explained why we're switching banks. uh smoother functioning in those banking operations. >> Exactly. Yep. >> Yes, you do. Um so, um All right. So, we have we're on the warrants, right? Facebook. So, um I I I'm going
024to briefly go through the warrant that was for February that I signed for which has been appended to this to get the approval from the full board. Uh there's a invoice for Catamount TV minutes from Lori Elwell. the cost of those. Then there are supervisory union assessments totaling 49,100 days roughly and then tuition of the village school for 78 students and that added up to 196,45 basically. Uh that then there is for this this warrant for the current month there's a payment to >> it's a payroll >> payroll. >> Yes. >> It looks a little bit different than what we're used to seeing for the payrolls because there's an issue with our software powers school connectivity. So, we mocked that up to make it to try to make it look like what it it normally
025looks like. But, uh I think it's Doug's compensation. >> That's my That's my quarterly. Yep. >> Because my mine goes quarterly. >> Yep. >> And that's about just under $3,000. And uh we have a bunch of tuition payments to Arlington School to uh Grace Christian Highland Hall, Maple Street, North Bennington. Oops, sorry. Skip that. That's the 100,000. Uh Sacred Heart, Southshshire Community School, and Southwest Vermont Union Elementary Schools alongside the Village School of Bington. Uh I'm not going to total that up in my head. It's quite a lot. And u payment to uh Pan Weber and Lori Belwell for the whole work last week. And then meeting minutes for Lori, plus uh supplies and the other materials used in the in the preparations for and the running of the election and another pole worker, he
026Heather Bulock and that totals up to with theund,00 000 for the transfer of money funds from MNT to the bank of Benington have a total fund total report. Oh, five. Sorry, I'm reading the five as a as a dollar something. $520,824 for this month's 12 plus. Oh yeah. And then there's a separate warrant for the ballots. Yeah, there's a separate warrant for the cost of the ballots which gets split out by the Cassie town of Bennington >> actually Kayla Kay. >> All right, thanks. All right, so uh that accounts for everything that's in the warrant of 720,000 $82. So that's the description of the consent agenda. I hope that all of you have looked at the documents that were in the in the documents online for this meeting and u uh so I'll unless there
027are any questions I'll propose that we approve these two warrants approve. >> I need a second. Well, I made the motion, so you're sec. >> Okay. >> So, um, any questions? There could be some, so speak up if you have any. So, no questions. All in favor of approving the consent agend. All >> in favor? side. Is that everyone? >> Yeah. >> All right, we're done with that consent agenda. >> All right, finance. >> Anybody doesn't have any questions for me, I'm going to jump off. >> Yes. Thank you, Doug. >> Have a good night, everybody. >> Yep. Good night. U finance, there's nothing in finance to report. You don't have anything to say to really policies? None. Superintendent report. None. This is >> the only thing I actually have to to share or just
028as a reminder, I'm not sure how it got communicated. There's a legislative breakfast Monday morning here. >> Um in this room at 8:00 a.m. um for anybody who wants to come. >> It's Monday. >> Yes. >> I did not know that. Um anybody likely to come from the board? Well, no. probably except me. Maybe I'll only get 8 o'clock. >> 8 a.m. Monday morning. >> Is there actually going to be food? >> Yes. [laughter] >> Light refreshments. >> Yeah. >> Uh so you're any of you are welcome to come if you if you can come. Um is it is it on Zoom? >> There is a Zoom link. If anybody wants um to join remotely, we can certainly share that. I know it did go out to all of our legislators because we do have
029a couple that um typically do join remotely, but we can certainly share that if anybody's interested. >> Yeah. Um, since there may be some talk of max 73, um, I will try to go and um, uh, perhaps perhaps Lonnie has the time to do it. I'm not sure, but 8:00 probably not because that's >> I can try and get on to the Zoom. >> Yep. Okay. >> It'll be it'll be tight with getting the kids off to school and whatnot, but Yep. Can we make sure that D link gets sent out to us? >> Yeah. >> Possible I could do it remotely. >> Yeah. I don't know if you know how difficult is it to post questions on the Zoom get >> we'll have everybody up on the screen just like this and and Tim
030normally will kind of open it up at points and people can certainly raise their hand if they have questions and I think it will identify numerically like who's in order of that their hands being raised. So, >> okay. >> So, um perhaps some of us will be there and we can I will be here in person. I'll come to it in person. >> Thank you, Ray, for doing that. >> Um I'd appreciate anybody who can come and listen and ask a question if you have one. And uh Lenny, if you would if you can't make it, maybe you could get someone from Southshore that I don't know. >> Yeah. Well, what I'll do is as soon as I can have the um link, the Zoom link to it, I will forward that to the Southsh
031message and I'm sure either someone from the board or another parent will come in. Um because everyone there is very >> um if if nothing else then I can act as a liaison for Southshshire as well and take down some [clears throat] of that information. Um and I'll let them know. It's this Monday the 16th. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Um I will let I'll reach out and see, you know, if anyone who can't be there has any questions. Um >> Right. >> I'll try and do that as well. >> Yeah. So, um, the last item on our agenda really, it's not really business since there I don't think there's any any decisions that we'll be making. Um but we have had a habit of sort of reviewing the election which was uh and possibly
032the the actual floor meeting and uh I welcome comments or maybe I'll make one first uh about the turnout. out. The turnout was pretty low. There was only 210 votes, I think. And uh >> my question was about the turnout too, Ray. And do we think that the snowstorm that day had affected that at all? Cuz I remember at one point after I went and voted, I was like, why don't we have any signage out? And then I saw the poor little sandwich board sign and it was just completely covered in white snow and invisible. So I went and cleared that off. But um yeah, I had questions about about disseminating voting day info a little bit better in the community or if that that particularly was because of a weather related. Well, material was
033left all over the the community and um there were there was a good good crowd at the floor meeting and um I believe this was Lori were telling me that u was it you Lori that said that it seemed like it there wasn't mostly parents. >> No, there were We have a good crowd. >> There were very few parents that came to vote. Um, it was interesting because Pam mentioned that to me. So, I went through the class list the following day of people I remembered and people who asked me for absentees. There were just a handful on maybe 10 uh parents who voted and the rest were community members. So, they were not parents in their voting. there were not school, you know, it was it was really pretty scary when I thought about
034it when [clears throat] you know and went through the class list and because I was there for like 14 hours. So, >> and yet the budget passed four to one, >> right? >> Yeah. 85% for the budget. I mean, >> but you know, Matt, I what I was thinking about is a lot of the people who voted um the absentees were all generally elderly people who were worried about getting out and I would say that would be the case for people who came in as well. And those people aren't going to be here for a long time. Uh, I'm worried that families, parents aren't coming to vote for their child's school or um, you know, the the for any any of what was voted on. So, that's bothersome to me. I don't know how you
035change that. I mean, we sent home Sherry did multiple eblasts out to the families. we sent home. Um, every student got packets with the reports in it, with the school report in it, you know, those nice school. We sent a village one to them as well, you know. Um, so lots and lots of things went out. Plus, there was all, you know, there were uh the uh annual reports and other documents that I spread around the community in the places that I would normally spread them. >> But there were people who handwalked throughout the village and Shaspberry I District 1 the annual reports for the for you know the village school for the village school the colored colored ones. So families got those reports and they got eblasts and they got another one in the
036mail or I mean uh that walked home with their student their child >> and they still didn't come in and vote and it was probably I do Lonnie think that the weather had something to do with a lot of this um but I don't think it was all of it. I'm not sure what it is, but it's kind of scary. >> Nature of a disengaged electorate, you know, in this in this era of dystopian reality. I mean, nobody gives a [ __ ] anymore. They they they can't they can't afford the bandwidth. I mean, that's >> I think I think it's not that people don't care, Matthew. I think that there's a very intentional um strategical overload happening on a national level that leads it, you're very right, about bandwidth. It's people pe people are kind of
037in survival mode. Um, and so finding a way to uh help folks understand that this level of engagement is where it matters and and where it's going to make a difference and that, you know, if you can zoom in a lot to your little community, that's where your effort is going to make a bigger difference. That's where you can focus without getting um uh without getting just like overwhelmed by everything that's going on because it's very it's a it's a tried andrue play that's going on all over the place right now. So, but it is it people are disengaged a out of I think self-preservation. Honestly, I don't know what the solution is to that besides, you know, onetoone getting out there with people that you know in your community and and I, you know,
038believe truly in a ripple effect type of thing. And, you know, um just pulling people along by their wrists essentially at some point. But you're right, Lori, it is it's concerning and I think it's something um that we can put our heads together about. Um and I don't think it's insolvable. I mean, I do I will do anything to get people a ballot. I've hung them on my door in an envelope at my home, you know, and people know that I will do that for them. So, a few people did ask again. um you know, they'll they'll do it and they'll fill out the ballot, sign it, stick it in the sealed envelope, and I'll bring it to the polls, you know. So, um uh you know, I'm I'm offering to do whatever, and some
039people will take me up on that, but >> Well, yeah. >> You know, again, I did get like nine ballots on the following day. uh after the vote. So, I got like nine ballots came through on the Wednesday, but our postmaster brought over any ballot that was in my box at the close of the day on Tuesday. So, you know, because we're really careful about checking that as well. So, yeah. I don't know. But I did get most of them back. Are you saying that that that there were ballots the following day in your in your mailbox? I don't recall that. >> Yeah, there were. Um, and I guess they were mailed, you know, they were mailed late or whatever. I mean, some people ask me for a ballot on Friday that I mail them.
040And how are they going to get that back to me? But you know what? I mail them because some people will drop it off. >> And um and the the ones that I got back late were from people who asked me late. >> Well, your postmaster did everything he could. >> And I just I just gave you credit for that, Matthew. You walked over ballots at the close of the day on Tuesday. So, thank you. So were were both Salshshire and village school open that Tuesday? Last Tuesday. >> Yeah, we were um >> Okay. >> We had I mean there were a lot of people around us who closed early. Um >> yeah, >> you know, and and released early, but um but we were we were all open, >> right? So >> I know
041I can speak that the I was out on the roads that day working down in New York and roads were pretty bad in the afternoon. So you know if roads were pretty bad in the afternoon I guarantee that's probably why a lot of people didn't go out. I know that's why I generally go out. [clears throat] So, >> well, yeah. Well, I was going to say, well, maybe we should have close school that day and just make a point of calling a celebration of our right to vote or school budget or something. But you know, on the other hand, Ray, people who came to vote are like the few who came that have children in our in our schools stopped on their way after they pick their child up at school or so. Will they
042even go out if they don't have to bring their child to school? That's another way to look at it. I don't know if that's a good idea. I I do know from a parents perspective that there's a lot of people, you know, if they have a day job, it doesn't particularly they're not going to necessarily come in during the hours that they're in school, but there's a lot of parents who have more flexible things like me, and it makes it easier to be able to pop over while the kids are in school to get that done. >> Um, so I I I also don't know. I I I mean what Kieran said rings true to me because that's when I first when you when Lori you first sent over the results. I think I responded
043immediately. Do you think the voter was low because of the weather? Because I was so surprised. Um >> because normally we have a decent amount more than that, >> right? >> Um I don't know if it's been trending downwards because this is really the only second time that I've been >> looped into what the actual poll numbers were. >> It's up and down. year was about half I think of what last year was. >> Yeah, that's what it seemed like. >> About um you know, >> and Bennington's results for the the voters who voted um at the depot for the Bennington vote were also down, you know. And it was funny because they had fewer absent tea ballots than I did. I sent out more absentee ballots than the entire town of Bennington did, which
044is kind of interesting. >> All right. Would there be any way to get the results of what they had at the firehouse that day? >> Oh, sure. I mean, I can ask Kayla how many people were uh how many >> voters year over year if they if they saw the same, you know, drop as what we did. I would imagine I would imagine they probably had similar turnout. >> Yeah, I I would agree with that. But I'll ask Kayla just because it would be interesting to know. >> Well, there also really any there wasn't any too controversial unless you consider a budget. Sometimes there's something more uh I don't know important on the on the March ballot, >> right? But uh what what actually brought the SDSD budget down? It was 18 votes. >> 18.
045And and was that Bennington voting it down or >> with with the union um both of our union school districts uh the results cannot be um >> disagregated >> by town. They have to be co-mingled and reported as a whole. >> What? >> So no one actually knows that. >> Well, the clerks of the individual towns probably know, but they're not supposed to release that. Um it would have been it was my supposition that it was million voters but because they they voted you know they voted down on middle school loan every time and it was only the fact that outside talents were willing to go forth. It's >> just speculation, Ray. >> Yeah, it's just speculation. I so I don't I don't know, you know, I don't know what what created that situation, but
046it was a low turnout. That's probably part of it. >> So, >> what comes of that >> nay nay voters may have been more motivated to express their opinion. >> I don't know. >> Do they have to they have to restructure their budget and put it forth? >> They have to change it, right? or >> Tuesday night. >> It'll be fun with the SVUSD board meets. Yep. >> To reorganize. >> They'll have to >> make a decision and probably lop it a little bit off somewhere, >> right? >> Okay. >> Then and then what? A vote when >> they'll need to determine that. Um hopefully they'll decide to do it within a time frame that's tight enough that we can have one vote in case it goes down again and have a second one before
047the end of June. >> Right. Give give yourself a chance. >> Yeah. >> If you want to see low turnout, check out that that next vote. >> Yeah. Right. Really? Um okay. So that's that's votes. Um, as I said, it the vote for our budget was one um was 210 votes total. There were 30 against. So it was 180 to 30 175 to somewhere in that range. And I calculated that this is like 85% positive. >> Well, that's the best we've done ever. Probably >> it's the high end. Yes. But uh based on the chart that I displayed at the floor meeting which I hadn't updated um but uh the average positive rate has been in the mid70s over the 13 or 14 years. This would be the 14th vote, I think, um, that we've
048been operating in the way that we're operating, which now I'm going to take a little bit of time to uh, because Jake is new to this board and I didn't do this last when Lonnie got on the board, but uh, I assumed that there'd be osmosis on spoons. But uh you know we set just to describe what we set up when we uh moved from operating a school, the North Benington graded school to not operating the school and the village school opened up and uh the option was available for parents to make choices of Um well choice but mostly the village school at the time but then students started making choices for Shasbury mostly in the SDUD. was originally Shaffbury per se and then because of at 46 became the SDUes um and um for
049other independents like Highwood Hall and Southshshire and later for independents such as Sacred Heart and Grace Christian and Maple Street in Manchester. Chester. Um, and uh that I I was going to say that that took some doing because uh we had some though we had three different votes on changing our our governance structure and whether we operated a school or not and they were all positive to do that. uh there was shenanigans by the state board that created the second vote or else it would have been done a year or so earlier. And um [clears throat] the way in which we set this up uh was that we [clears throat] excuse me, we leased our building to the village school as a place to operate a school in because it was a school building. And
050uh we set up a lease arrangement that there was a certain amount of lease lease to be paid annually. And that money would help the district pay for expenses of the building that were um the districts not the tenants to pay. Um those mostly roughly divide between the structural parts of the building and the infrastructure that's required for a school to operate there and the operating expenses for oil, gas, electric, and all the supplies and so forth that go into operating school these days. um we also set up a tuition agreement that um was structured to define a relationship between the school board and the village school such that it uh bound the village school to operating completely as the public school with respect to things like special education and um also set a tuition
051rate for observing the those conditions. Now those conditions have been broadened by the state board of education after act 46 really right some sometime after act 46 between 2016 and 2020 uh they worked on state board of education and the agency of education worked on changing rule 2200 which is the rule that deals with independent schools. uh to uh creating conditions that required uh [clears throat] attent attempted to enforce uh equal opportunity of all students to attend independent schools where it was possible for them to attend through u [clears throat] non-operating districts like ours. And um that tuition agreement is still the basic tuition agreement we had in place. It just we alter it annually to accommodate the tuition amount and um to u yeah that's what we that's what basically changes them. And uh
052with respect to other to public schools that uh students attend uh which would be originally was Shaspberry School but now it's Shasbury School as a member of the Southwest Vermont Union Elementary District. >> [clears throat] >> Some students have chosen to because they've moved into the district after their children started perhaps at say Molly Stark, Benell or Pel um have moved into our district and they've become eligible for that choice and they've chosen to stay where where they started schools. And finally then um if I covered all bases um and then um suits that chose high Paul Southshore the the most the largest number of students other than the village school and >> [clears throat] >> SVUSD as El Sal and um we we continue to operate on that basis of funding of tuitions for
053students to go to those schools. Now with respect to the public schools, we pay what the public schools ask us to pay and that is set by allowable tuition rates uh which are calculated by the state or do you calculate them in the state? We do announced and then they come back with a loud poll. >> Okay. >> Um so that has made a difference in one particular case for us. Yes. Um and uh so that that is determined by statute. Um statute also says that unless the community votes otherwise uh independent schools will be are limited to the state average for the grade levels and u so that's that is what we will pay for other independents and there's quite a wide wide range there because uh you have um [clears throat] you have
054Sacred Heart and being the I think they're the lowest charge we have and Grace is not much higher and Highland Hall is right in that range. And then Southshore uh is at state average and the village school we we put on the ballot for above above that average. Are there any questions about that? Um, and I guess my question is, uh, I've never asked this really, but I've assumed it, uh, was true. Is that are we still happy with this particular structure that we have? I personally don't have enough experience yet, I think, with anything else to say that I am happy or unhappy with it. Um, I think it seems to be a functional way for making things work for the most people in our community, which is getting kind of torn up a
055little bit up in the state, but we'll see how that goes. Hopefully have some more information on Monday. I >> I would have taken it that everybody would reply basically that they were but um you know it's f it's quite possible that we since we don't know what's going to happen with act 73 and there's strong differences of opinion at the legislative level and uh although So I read yesterday that there's some movement of the house ed committee toward looking into the community CISA. What's it community educational support? >> Oh the Boseis model. >> Yeah, the Boseies model. Yes. Yeah. um and to maintaining some supervisory unions which they were trying common was trying to do away with entirely and um and the Senate type has its own district map which preserves um supervisory unions
056where they're currently in use basically. and allows for continuation of which would allow for continuation of North Bennington as a district with operating nonoperating status and Sandgate as well which is the other district in our SU. So, um, we've been trying to enforce to, uh, make clear to our legislative delegation that that's what we want to do. But I, so that's why I ask whether we're supporting this. Um, and if if they do away with this SU or a successor SU that would be larger, encompass maybe Manchester as well as ourselves, um, or even further field, um, then we probably continue the way we are. Otherwise, we might find ourselves faced with the prospect of actually losing school in our our village and uh we might want to think about what what's going to happen,
057what we want to do. Uh I don't know that we can do much real positive calculation until there's actually evidence that it's going to happen. But I'll stop talking. >> Yeah, people need to wake the hell up about all this. But I'm I'm confident that that they're going to uh capitulate to to the stand the norm that exists in some of these communities. it. They don't have the they don't have the will to to eliminate um these structures, but it is it's scary. Um if if if their motivation is well, I don't know. I'm I think we'll be okay, but I think people really need to follow this closely. [snorts] Um, I think we're in a unique situation where yes, you could combine our SU with the Manchester SU such that that preserves Burham Burton
058because they're going to definitely preserve Bur Burton um and uh and the other legacy uh independents But we're close enough that I think they could just fold us into that and and it'll work out. But not that anybody's watching this meeting. So, um, you know, if they were, they should be paying attention. Well, >> sometimes I feel a little bit though like as a board on it's >> um not necessarily that it's not other community members jobs to pay attention but I think we can work together to try and pay attention for them and bring that information to them. That's that's what I see uh um sometimes you know like when we are you know Ry is a liaison to the SU and he comes back and brings that information to us or if I'm
059volunteering for the policy committee um it's a lot for people to follow there's a lot of meetings going around there's a lot I mean even at the floor meeting the legislators being like yeah we don't know what's like trying to get any information from them and they're like we don't know what's going on so that can be disheartening for people you know it's again it's that thing where the the overwhelm is intense. So, um I think we have good work to do to be paying attention and trying to bring that to the forefront in our communities. Yeah. Okay. So, there's an information part, but there's also I think there's a somewhat of a lobbying e effort. I I mean from just my perspective of watching the rural school community alliance group, they have been very
060active in this and uh even though some of their members are definitely not in favor of independent schools, uh the leadership realizes that they're going to have to be supportive of independent schools because they want to that is beautiful skull. with them. They want to um they want to maintain supervisory unions where there are supervisory unions because uh the supervisory unions and the smaller schools that are u working to remain viable are pretty much in the same area as the independent schools across the state. which is sort of divingly from southwest corner up to the northeast corner. Uh so uh you know uh last year I I got the message that from listening to Seth and that we probably should keep our head down. But now I'm not so sure anymore because um you know
061but I don't I you know I don't want to be aggressive about it. I just want to watch and u maybe communicate with our legislaturators that we know and keep pressing on them our concerns and our interests. And so that's both an information and a kind of a pressure operation. Not much pressure just u showing maintaining interest and contact with the legislators. So, u maybe you should if you all think about that, you know, um I mean if we got some ideas for how how we could get parents engaged too to help us out. I know that there's a lot of engagement from the Southshshire parenting community in that many of them have been actively and consistently writing to our reps. Um, so I guess my question on how to engage the parent community would
062depend on what level engagement we're already seeing from them because we don't know how many people may be in contact and writing letters. >> Um, it could be a ton. It could be a small handful. Yeah. So, um, but seeing the amount of parents and community members that were at the floor meeting the other day, you know, it felt like all those chairs were full, more full than the last time for sure. And >> yeah, >> and people came with questions for the I'm glad the legislators were there. you know, I think keeping them apprised informing of legislative breakfast type situation. Um, it's going to start moving again more so it seems as as per what you know Seth and Rob and all of them were saying um that there's going to be some movement
063in a few weeks on on things. So, So, uh, if I could sort of impose on money to make, you know, keep me informed or keep the board informed of established our parents that that interest group there. I'd be I think that would be useful to know what's going on there. And then um the rest was probably need to see if we can't uh help Tim New out in terms of his efforts to work this legislators and uh his actions activity on the visa board. >> All right. Well, that's all I have to say. If anyone else has anything to say, otherwise we'll jerk it. >> You have one more item on your report, your regular meeting schedule and time for the coming year. >> Well, okay. So, is this is 5:30 okay with um
064all of you? 5:30 is fine with me. >> It works for me. >> Matt, that's okay with you. >> Matt, you're muted. >> Okay, >> I'm good. I can just take it on the road if need be. >> And Lori is okay. All right. Good. Okay. U and that's we aren't going to change the day of the week and the day and the position in the month which is the second Wednesday of the month unless we have a reason to do that which usually we have a reason to do that you know in December and January when budgets are being put together. All right. So, I entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So, move. >> Second. >> All right. All in favor? I know you're all in favor. So, >> I >> Bye, everyone. >>
065Have a good night.