001Okay, I have 5:30. We are going to open the Arlington School District board meeting. The first item on our agenda is public comments. Public in person or online? I have a couple comments. First of all, I'd like to thank Rich Lutter, which I should have last for keeping this update or keep letting me know about the buses and what's going on with them before the last meeting. And also, I'd like the public to know because I've heard from so many people. We did have somebody, we had Mike Wood, who was in charge of buses at the time in on when we got these electric buses. It's not that the school board got together all by ourselves and just decided on go electric school buses and have been at least a dozen people calling. So just
002want to clear the air and uh just to people we do still have diesel buses and got diesel buses. Any other public comments? All right. Next, we have our consent agenda, which consists of the minutes of August 13th, August 26. It says October 8. However, those were not in our packet. I didn't find them posted unless somebody else did. >> I was not here for that one. I thought Nicole did that once. When we left the meeting, Tim, you were going to talk to Amy about watching the recorded. >> I will correct that >> and I apologize because I think she emailed me while I was on vacation. I did not get that to her. >> Not a problem. We'll just remove that when we make our motion. Uh we have our warrants which are
003enclosed in your packet. We have no retirements. We have no leaves of the leave followed absences. We have no resignations. We have no nominations and we have no field trips. The chair will entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda with the removal of the October 8th. Second made by Jess, seconded by Dan. Discussion hearing none. All those in favor? >> Anybody opposed? >> Next we have finance. Under finance, we have Reich Park. Couple things under Reich Park. Uh one is uh we received an invoice from the town for $6,100. We normally give them a donation of $4,500. Some confusion on that. And uh we also received a request or total of $2,300 extra to put into the softball field. Is there any was there was supposed to be someone from the park right here?
004I wanted to inform you on that. There's any questions that we've discussed open session. >> I guess my question is why did it go from 45 to 61? We didn't know. >> Uh when I inquired it, they uh said that the previous town administrator had talked to the principal which is not true about an increase in it. So we're not sure really where that came. >> And you said we normally give 4500 donation. Yeah. Is it then left up to us to decide how much to give or is they >> It's been $4,500 for years and years. Yeah. >> Yep. Uh there was a brief conversation. Uh so last year before you started, we put an additional $1,800 into the softball and baseball field. So at that point we said if you need an increase
005in the donation please let us know >> part of the conversation there was no conversation >> because we figured if you're going to start upgrading fields that our kids used and let's have a conversation about that so we received that invoice after questioned it and that was response I got a decision but what a matter to donate for that. So they really want 6 + 18 or >> plus 23 >> 6 plus 23 but 23 would be separate solely for the softball field upgrades that have occurred I believe. >> Well that's what that have already occurred that they agreed to but now are coming for request. Yes. >> Keep that in mind. Decisions. Any other questions? >> Are you I mean you have action requested. So >> just in case I put it down there
006in case there was action on this legisl asking for one but if I don't put action here then there's there's questions on it. have learned over the years that we now put action request in case that there is >> I mean it would be helpful with the 6100 if there was some I mean the school uses the fields and the resources there quite a bit and if there's some way to demonstrate that their costs have increased which is why our portion of costs are increasing that would be helpful but an arbitrary we've decided to charge you 6,100 >> and I asked for that I asked for an explanation they really did it the kind of the way we we left it was um either there with our board or we appoint a couple members a
007couple of their members >> doing that is every time a full board meets then one to meet >> and and do all that because there's a 48 hour warning period >> arguous in conversations and then come reporting back to the boards or decisions make a full board. So, >> I mean, we're really lucky to have access to the to the fields and the facilities and they're very wellmaintained and so I'm not opposed to an increase. It's just wanting to understand rationale for the change from last year to this year. >> Yeah, there really isn't no rational like I it was just it to me it wasn't a random number of $6,100. If you said $6,000, I'd like Okay, so you raised the 1,500 bucks, right? It went 6100. So I asked where the the explanation
008really could give >> or if it's connected at all field. >> No, that came out separately. >> That's what I asked when we got the invoice. I thought it included for the field, but it did not. That then came. etc. So, you know, we think costs go up and keep in mind like this is a donation. It's way that the was created supposed to be charged for usages of it. donation school misparent is donated the $4,500 to help the expenses because people said if you need additional months have conversations the school board can then budget >> yeah every year for additional funds >> I agree 100% our kids utilize that part tremendous amount donating the appropriate amount of help. >> Well, yeah. And if there's some um animosity from the park feeling that we don't
009contribute an amount that is equitable to our use of it, then that should be addressed. But >> I did not >> without the context, it's hard to know. >> I did not get that sense at all. um there was any type of animosity. Um one of the things that I shared was one of my concerns was if you know as we start to donate or give more money that has to be a clear usage policy on these fields because one of the issues with the reasons the field has to be redone some basically things got to move the field square and stuff like that which I think affects softball in that particular field. My concern is if that happens with other fields, we have no control or say over who uses it. So just needs
010to be some clear policies to ensure that there's a way to control who's using it and ensure that what >> so Todd I don't know if it makes sense to have you and possibly um Kathy man I mean from an athletic director standpoint that's really the primary uses for our athletics if it makes sense to have you all me come up with an understanding and agreement and figure out what that appropriate cost is. I don't know who needs to be involved in the conversation, but certainly it does not need to come to the board other than >> once it's finalized. >> I'm willing to do that conversation report back to you all. >> I'm a little disappointed. When that parking was started, my mother was an original member. which probably was still alive. Federal money
011involved, but it was also set up so that it paid for itself and then the town took it over and everything seems to change. That's all I'm looking at it right now. >> I do believe that there are two se there two separate entities. I will say that I do believe that it is actually new parts of the wreck committee that is paying for softball upgrade donation. Well, I'm sorry. I think the town is paying for it, but then they're going to be reimbursed by the apartment committee funds, the trust funds set up for the plans. Anything else on that? >> We'll just wait to hear. Okay. Okay. We have no policies. >> Have a question on the timeline for the audit. when is for the SPS audit process for policies. >> So, uh we
012had a conversation with uh Vermont School Board Association last Thursday. Uh they have given us the they break it out into three parts. So, the required ones have been given back to us. We're working way way through that. We have a plan. We'll call a meeting in December, resume our regular schedule and start working through those. and then the recommended will follow and then the uh those who cannot be labeled will follow unless they're gone. They have there are 30 if I'm correct there are 34 required um policies and we have over a hundred of them in my book so like probably three buckets but the first one has been returned and uh Lisa and I will put that on the agenda and we'll call a policy committee meeting first week of the seven. Okay.
013Okay, next inert operations have we have received an estimate. Uh so we're addressing the smell in the basement. Still have discovered there is some mildew um and some potentially some mold that has to be remediated. We have received a quote from a company to do this. If I if you all remember at our last meeting, we approved some monies for the insulation treatment of the basement. However, since um discovered that we need to have a company remediate what's in there first. So, um we have received that quote, I believe went out to all of you. Uh it is from Serve Pro for $26,73523. Can you repeat that, Tad? I'm sorry. 26 >> for $26,73523. >> Thank you. >> So, if we were to do the entire project, that puts it up to close to 70,000
014quality. Correct. Um, it is up to the board. I am leaning toward the fact that we've pulled off on the installation for this year. Deal with the remediation issue this year and the budget in installation next budget. We do have to have eventually have to have insulation vapor barrier put down. If we don't have >> it's likely going to happen again in the future. It may take a decade to realize it. It's going to happen. So, but in the interest of budgetary constraints, $65,000 for that was just my thoughts. >> What What did we What did we approve the last time? >> The insulation. They were going to insulate the entire 60 foot basement. uh put a vapor barrier down, insulate walls, the floor joist, stuff like that to prevent any future moisture infiltration as
015well as of course, you know, add insulation back to it like that. >> And that without the minutes and without my mind, um that motion was made and approved. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, we would need to do What then if we had >> we would we would need a motion vote to resend that because no nothing's happened on that yet the select to be written. >> Okay. Then we would need a separate motion to accept sir rose quote and authorize them to do the work. The only the only piece that I would like to add is that um last month when you looked at the vapor bearing insulation quote um I said I' I'd come back with um if efficiency Vermont had any funds they could contribute and they have set aside 10 grand
016for that work. So that that brings the whole um because that was just shy of 40. So that that will be starting now and they base that based on oil savings and other our um eating metrics. >> It's also something that we can revisit here couple months as we get a a more clear picture of the end ofear budget stuff if there's surplus and things like that to hit the installation piece. That's good to know. That's that's huge. sh. So the other thing that I briefly got a conversation about tonight was the water infiltration. One of the things that we I noticed is uh this used to be a slate roof and it's a slate roof. The gutters were ripped off the building basically from building up that has since been changed. It is now
017an asphalt roof with water and ice barrier underneath it. So, we discussed having new gutters placed on there to and the gutters put into the drainage systems already in place out there to remediate some of the water. Should get something I have question because we're here. We kind of rush this through because it's a problem for Deian. Not everybody here smells so bad. So if we we're going to wait now and not do anything about it is that we're saying >> no we're having the remediation done that's going to cure that snow that's it's going to be taken care of then the insulation will prevent that from ever happening in future. It's not like it has to get done the day after this. It's you know remediated but it is an issue that's going to
018creep up again if we don't stop in moisture you know we don't create a moisture barrier. So, we talked about it's going to be done on Christmas vacation, right? >> Yeah. Well, I think the remediation can be done today. I think the the insulation's a different a different aspect of that's got to be done and the insulation also when they do it gives a little bit of off gasing. We don't want kids or >> I know one of the concerns with the space down there is access. Is that an issue for the mold remediation work? >> No. No. Okay. >> Okay. And is Surfro the only one around that does this at this scale? >> At this scale with the with the correct um certifications to perform the work. And if anyone wants a tour,
019I'm happy. It's really fun to crawl around. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. It's like it's like a historical thing. It's great. >> I'm encouraged. >> Well, and everything that we've talked about in this whole area, properties along the East Arlington Road, I know wetter than they were before. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, chair will entertain a motion to resend the previous vote to have insulation done. >> Motion second. >> Second by Taran. >> Further discussion. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Anybody opposed? Next, we'll entertain a motion to accept serve pros bid of $26,73523 for remediation. I make the motion made by Dan, second by Jess. Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> Anybody opposed? Right. Next up is the principles report. the ghost. It's okay. It's my phone. >> Setting it
020off. >> Oh. >> Um, >> first a thank you to the Arlington Fire Department and Rescue for our fire prevention day that was held for both schools. Um, we did evacuate Sorry, flying cell phones. Flying cell phones. >> Um, thank you to the PTG who held pumpkin painting and spooky bingo for our families. And the Arlington School District held trunk retreat, a middle school dance, and the Halloween parade. Um, the weather wasn't the best, but we made it work for all of our students, and we we had a great October. Uh I have been meeting with assistant principles and a special ed director uh bi-weekly and together and this month our focus has been goal setting and evaluations of staff. Uh budget meetings have begun with Renee as we begin to prepare for FY27 and
021teachers have been participating in some professional development around data and looking at student growth through literacy teams, grade level teams and leadership teams. And thank you to Kathy Beerworth and her team, Alex, Aaron, Missy, and myself have all moved our athletic registrations to Arbiter, which should be much easier for families as we move forward. The first I think this winter will be a little bumpy as we get started because all of the forms have to be uploaded, but once your information is uploaded, it will it will remain in there and then you can register for on upcoming seasons. Um, and so we're looking uh we're looking forward to that. The deadline for registration for winter is November 14th. So, we're hopeful that all of our athletes have registered. If not, we will go hunt them
022down and assist them um in getting registered and then coaches will have access. Um and congratulations to our fall athletes for a great season. Uh both girls and boys soccer teams made it to the finals. And we had um SVLB division all league track of Tobias counts and Alex Foley and we had SBLD champs for the boys soccer and all league first team was Sean Burman, Ethan Pickering and Leo Robinson and second team was Willer, Bryce Sheldon and Garrian. And uh coach of the year was Glenn Sherman. And all state for boys was Leo Robinson, Shawn Wman, and Ethan Pickering. And for the girls, we had first team Mia Aldrich, Avery Aldrich, and Cara Maynard. And second team was Abby Mackey Davis. And all state was All State was Mia Aldridge and Avery Aldridge. And
023just a few save the dates. This Friday is our blood drive from 12 to 5. December 1st, winter season begins. December 4th is my favorite event. It's the Fiser concert. Uh from preK to grade 5. We'll start at 5:30 right here at the high school gymnasium. And December 10th will be AMHS coral concert at 6:00 p. p.m. in the pack. And December 17th will be AMHS instrumental concert to begin at 6 PM in the pack. >> Going fast. >> Questions for >> Thank you. Superintendent. Thank you. I'm sorry. All right. Um folks who've seen us here before, uh tonight's another presentation. Uh we've been giving presentations uh monthly. Uh we came in August and started with staffing. We've done buildings. We've done student achievement. We've done a little bit of budget. Uh this evening I've
024asked Dr. Kate Abbott to join us. She is director of student services for the SPSU. Um I want to be really clear. Uh Dr. Abbott and I have been working on two things. Tonight is the first thing which is a review of the state of Vermont has issued a state of student services for the state and that's what I've asked Dr. A to talk about. Um we are also working with uh Dr. Megan Roy. She's out of uh St. Mike's. She's a retired superintendent, retired district uh director of student services. She has also completed a second audit for us. this one regarding student services. We just got uh the final report last week unpacking that. So I would I'll be asking the chair to allow us to come back in future and kind of talk
025specifically about um the SPSU. But again for this evening um this is a big report that came out of the agency of education. It has impacts for us uh not only in programming for kids but also budget. So, we thought it would be helpful for board members to have a look at this as it moves through. Dr. >> All right. Uh, so thanks for having me tonight. Uh, I'll be talking a little bit about act 73 as it pertains to special education um, specific to the lumens. So uh in the end of September about the September 26, the agency of education um released a report on the current state of the state of special education in the state of Vermont and in relation to the goals of act 73. So we'll talk a little tonight
026about the overview of act 73 in relation to special education. Um, and we'll talk a little bit about the current landscape of special education in Vermont and what the implications are for the Act 73 related to our procedures and practices. So, you've heard a lot about Act 73 in the news. Um, so from the perspective of special education, there's two major drivers in Act 73. The first is budgetary and the second is program implications specific to the way we deliver special education services. Um what the report from the agency of education kind of highlights is what's the state of the state in terms of population individual types of disabilities across the state and services that we provide and how those services are funded. Um and this is not a district lens. This is a statewide
027lens. So, act 73 and special education. Um, throughout the process of act 73 becoming law, it really became clear the leg the legislature is concerned about the rising cost of special education services across the state. Um so in the report they outline the factors contributing to the growth in extraordinary special education reimbursement costs. So extraordinary costs are anytime one individual child's program costs approximately more than $65,000. That oftentimes happens when children have to go outside their home communities to go to school. You incur tuition. You incur transportation. So, if you don't have the local service offerings, the cost of that educational um provision for that child can exceed $65,000. After that threshold is passed, then the state gives districts aid of 95% of the additional cost beyond that $65,000. So, then when we're talking about
028extraordinary special education costs, that's exactly what we're talking about in this report. Um so the educational landscape in Vermont uh the agency of education shared that this total student population in the state of Vermont has declined since 2017. Um and so that blue line there is looking at the total enrollment. The red line you see on the screen is the percentage of children in Vermont that have disabilities that are qualifying for IPS. So, as the total population of students across the state have declined, the students that need something special and extra in order to access their education has increased. >> Has anything changed during those years while that's gone up to make more kids that would be there that weren't there before? >> We're going to look. That's a great question. um we're going to
029look at some very specific trends of disability categories that um have increased significantly. And to your point, yes, in 2022, they changed how we do evaluations, who qualifies under um what categories uh as part of the new rules for evaluations, and who is considered disabled and who is not in the state of Vermont. I'm honing in here on complex disabilities because the majority of our children that ex that have extraordinary costs fall into um complex disability categories and the state notice noticed this as part of their research. Um so there's three major categories that drive the majority of the extraordinary cost. Um one is uh students that have a disability category of autism. The second is emotional disturbance and the third is other health impairment. Autism rates in the state of Vermont have increased by
03033% between 2019 and um today. Other health impairment has shown an increase of 26% in that same time frame. and emotional disturbance, while not increasing as a category, um, is identified at a much higher rate in the state of Vermont compared to other states with the similar population. Um, so the state has broken down a kind of a comparison between Vermont and other similarly positioned states. And to give us a kind of a a comparison, they've compared us with Wyoming and North Dakota who have similar populations in terms of numbers as well as the national percentages. And what we notice with their data breakdown is that uh compared to Wyoming and North Dakota, um you'll see that our total number of students with emotional disturbance across the state. In Wyoming, it's 595. North Dakota is
031about,200 in Vermont that's 2,100. So we have a much higher percentage of uh population with that we've identified as emotional dis emotional disturbance. >> But are they using the exact same thing that we use for that to decide emotional disturbance? >> So there's federal guidelines in terms of the 13 disability categories that are qualified under IDA. However, every state interprets those how they identify within their state a child that qualifies for that differently, slightly differently. So, while you might be identified in Vermont, but like Vermont has adverse effect rules that are slightly different than in New York, the federal law has adverse effect, but how each state interprets how you def how you define and show that is slightly different. So to your point, a child might um have that identification in Vermont and maybe
032not qualify for it in Wyoming based on how the state interprets the federal government rules. Does that help? >> I guess what I'm saying is make it so a liberal state would probably have more than a conservative state basically is what you're telling me. No, >> I think it just has to do with how each individual state defines what what they consider criteria for eligibility >> and that varies from state to state. And our own state changed our definition in 2022 of how we consider eligibility with adverse effect um data. So, it's different uh from state to state, but it's overarchingly the federal IDEIDA rules outline what 13 categories qualify as um disability categories that allow for IDEIDA funding. All right, so back to this chart. So, as you notice, um 62% Vermont does an
033amazing job. 62% of our students with emotional disturbance are educated in the general education environment. at least 80% of the day. That's more than uh our the national rate which is 55%. However, when you look at um the bottom chart, the bottom half of this chart, um that's children that are educated in their home schools but um for less than 80% of the day in the general classroom. What we notice is that when we get down to um separate school, children in Vermont with the identification of emotional disturbance are much more likely. They're at 19% 19% of that population is um educated in a separate school environment compared to in Wyoming that's 4% and in North Dakota that's just under 2% and federally that's 10%. So Vermont has a higher rate of educating our children
034that have emotional disturbance in separate settings, separate school settings. When we look at autism as a complex disability, um we notice some of the similar trends. Um 63% of our children that have autism are educated at least 80% of the day in the general education environment compared to 51% in Wyoming and 51% in North Dakota. So we are very inclusive as a state when we go down through the next two categories which is um spending more time in se separate classrooms but still within the same school um versus being educated in a completely separate school. We see the same trend as we see with the category of emotional disturbance. 9% of our children that have autism are educated in a completely separate school environment compared to 1.95% in Wyoming and 1.37% in North Dakota. And
035nationally the rate is just under 6%. So Vermont, what this speaks to is that we do primarily inclusive education, but as we need more intensive supports and more separate environments, we lack those within our homes, community schools. >> Are these when we you say they're in separate schools, are these typically schools that specialize in those particular disabilities? >> Could be therapeutic schools. they would have the way the agency of education approves schools, you have to be approved to serve a particular type of disability in order for them to accept that um application. So yes. Yep. Um state trends. Um so what we notice here we've um there we are is that um the state report notes that the expansion of the continuum of services aims to reduce the number of students served in separate out
036of district programs and that would directly address the core goal of cost containment. So basically what they're saying is that if our local schools were to be able to expand our continuum of services then we wouldn't have to have so many children go to school outside their home community which would also have the double benefit of having reduced cost. Um here we go into costs. So um this chart shows you a longitudinal data over from fiscal year 18 to fiscal year over the course of six years. And what they noted in the agency of ed report is the growth in extraordinary costs make up roughly half of the increase of total special education expenditures while they only represent 15% of the population. So this extraordinary cost number that we've been talking about, this is really
037what's driving the increases in cost of special education across the state. Um so this is statewide and you can see from this chart it's while the increases in total special education growth are maybe between 1 and 8 and a half% the percentage of increase for the extraordinary costs range between 1 and almost 20 17.9%. So that extraordinary cost is really the driver of the total expenditures of special education cost going up. Another interesting aspect of the state report uh included the changes in store for us for Medicaid. Um so within the state report they talked about um a redistribution or reallocation of the federally um allocated Medicaid grant funds. So uh currently Kendall is one of our uh Medicaid billers and what uh we use Medicaid as reimbursements in order to prevent disability. So we
038use Medicaid reimbursements for things like hearing and vision screenings, mental health supports, behavioral supports in our schools. They directly relate to staff salaries and supports for kids to offset um challenges that they may have or prevent children from developing disability. So, the two things that we're hearing about Whoops. with Medicaid um reallocation is that Whoops. There we go. Um they're changing both the billing system. So, we're moving to a a different type of a billing system that will require new software for us to um learn how to bill Medicaid. And we aren't sure exactly what's going to happen with the um reallocation. So, we know that there's a certain pot of money that's Medicaid um funding and how that's distributed across the state may change. Um but we do know that there's some changes in
039store for us. It could be an increase in Medicaid dollars coming our way or decrease in Medicaid dollars coming our way. But between now and July 1, we're going to have to learn a new Medicaid billing system, adopt new technology that's statewide, and learn how to bill using that technology in order to access any of our Medicaid dollars. And when you talk about Medicaid dollars, it's not not a small amount of money. Uh it's about threequarters of a million dollars annually um across the SU, a little bit more. Um so we're we're talking a significant amount of um support for our learners. the comment that you have there, equity and distribution of funds will be assessed. What does that refer to? >> So the state will determine which so there's certain drivers that they use
040to determine which districts and which locations get what percentage of the monies that they get from the federal government. Could be poverty rate, disability rate, could be number of um English language. You know, there's a lot of different factors. So those waiting factors are up in the air right now and we don't know if um how the how the reallocation of funds will go. >> We talked about this. We just want folks to understand that there's question marks a new a new system being put in place and trained up and functioning. We've had experiences with systems at the state level before that haven't always been what they thought. And then also that does that a diplomatic answer that's and then uh the funding piece being an unknown it could be a plus or a minus
041it's not really healthy as you're trying to talk about budget and how that could impact and it impacts people in this district because we use them as preventative pieces for kids. So I mean the one now if you were to play out the when they went to the weighted cost per pupil bar numbers went up based on criteria and if they're using similar criteria in theory we shouldn't see a decrease. So what we know right now is that we don't know. So it could go up, it could go down. It's really hard to it's really hard to guess. Um but consider it just like your title funds, right? your title funds waiting those that it's a huge driver to your budget and it's kind of a question mark right now. So, we're not sure what
042to expect, but we know we're going to experience some change in some rocky roads as we go through learning new software, teaching our staff how to do the billing as per the new procedure. Um, and we when you look at that July 1 transition date, the way we bill Medicaid is we bill Medicaid six months in. um there's a window in which we bill Medicaid. So you can't if you Anyway, so there's going to be a lot of change happening and we are getting ready for that change and we can't we're anticipating that information from the state hopefully coming out soon so we can start to prepare ourselves for that. So in closing, you know, this is a lot of information specific to special education because that's really the driver of much of the Act
04373 report that we read or we reviewed today. we are positioning ourselves as a district to be in the best possible place to adapt and adopt those the new rules um by having an internal audit done by Dr. Roy of our current practices, our strengths and needs and so we can prepare ourselves to um be aligned with the new expectations and land in a in a favorable way. But we know that it's going to be a lot of change the next few months. So, as we know and learn things, we will pass them along u for the boards. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for >> just I don't know that this is necessarily a question, but the the other states that were referenced in comparison to Vermont, were those the agency of education
044that compared us to Wyoming and Okay. Yeah. I mean, without knowing what their infrastructure is, that's a really there's a there are more unknowns than knowns in that data that's being presented. So you don't know what their infrastructure is like. You don't know what services they offer. You don't know what their governance structure is. It's a it's a data point without any real justification for it. >> It could be as simple as just population. You are absolutely you're a similar population. I mean, someone could read those charts and say, "Wow, we are way overspending and we're we've got problems with how we're identifying students." Or it could be we don't have enough instate resources or we have too many separate small school districts and we're handling students, you know, like there are a lot of
045factors that that play into that. So it's that's a tough bit of data to present without all the rest of what goes I will >> and not to you Kate not at all >> I didn't >> these are tough >> yes >> we we had a very good conversation today with Dr. Roy and the reassurance I took was is that the SU is in the same boat as the rest of the state. We are in and she consults with districts across the state. She says you are in exactly the same spot. You do a really good job getting most of your kids to be with their peers all day in classes. You do send quite a bit, you know, your your kids that you just can't service, you're relying on outside the district school. What
046she's interested is, all right, so what could we do locally that get keeps more kids with us in our communities, which is good for kids. It helps also with reducing your cost. You're not paying for transportation. You're not paying tuition to another district to educate kids. So, we walked away thinking, all right, we're kind of in the similar boat. People are talking about this. There's some opportunities. So, >> I think the other piece of this is you want to uh you know, move some of these kids into your their current school district, but that requires people. You know, it requires trained people and we all know how easy it is to hire trained people today. >> Yeah. >> And uh you know, when when there are resources out there that have trained individuals out, you
047utilize them because it's not easy to hire a union. >> Thank you. So, thank you. >> Um Kate, do you mind just putting it on the website for me? That really appreciate it. I wanted to make one introduction. Uh the SU uh has uh appointed an interim assistant superintendent, Beth Lorge. She is uh she started the year as principal of Panel Elementary. Um she's been there since 2022. Prior to that, she did 15 years in San Antonio, Texas, where she was a teacher, assistant superintendent, assistant principal, sorry, principal. uh and she is originally from much closer to here, North Adams, Massachusetts, and it has been a great relief to have her in the office. We appreciate her taking on this challenge. >> Welcome, Beth. >> Thank you. >> Um two things on the website and
048then I'll I'll done folks don't want to hear me jibber jabber. Um this is the SVSU website. Uh just two buttons to make sure. I know folks as I move through the district have various uh levels of interest in this, but there is a button at the bottom for Act 73 if you've been paying attention to that. And on this is the full text of the law. There's a summary uh the redistricting map button. You can scroll on over there and if you want to do your own research, we clicked it right there. Um and so you can figure all that out. Of course, if you read the digger like a couple of us did that, you might want to take one of those maps off and set it aside. It may not make it
049back to the to the process. And then the other piece we wanted to show you is at the top of the uh menu under departments, there is a superintendence button. And if you jump onto that page, so all the presentations we've talked about are listed on the left side, August through October. And then you can scroll over here and you can check out the uh newsletter and the podcast that we've been putting on. And um it's not linked to YouTube, although I was in Arlington a few weeks ago and it's now up on YouTube, Simple Questions with Superintendent Payne. Uh we had a a very nice young man who did this community very proudly on that if you want to check that out. But there's also goals in here. Uh this is both my goals
050if you want to check those out. Those have to do with governance and communication and also the SPSU board has put its goals there as well if you want to check those out. And then one last thing, I know that your chair uh you guys have already covered this, but we have a handy dandy little school funding uh roadmap if folks want to get really into the winding pathway of how we pass a local school budget all the way to our property taxes. And for the folks who really like to do their own research, there's either even a math problem and a vocabulary list on there if any proper lesson in school will be included. Okay. So, uh just some information. We'll have more of that and uh we'll be back next month uh with
051Renee and I as we will be deep into the budget process and talking about that. But I thank you for your time. Questions for >> Tim? When um when Melissa was here presenting performance data, >> it was SVSU data. Yes. >> On the continuous improvement plans and it was referenced that that would come back to report on specific Arlington data. Was that in fact the intent? >> It is the intent. We're looking at a January February presentation for that. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. uh much like Kate's presentation, you know, kind of big one and we'll come back and bring more detail as we get through. >> Yeah. >> The one encouraging thing on I mean for the task force and all the work that they have done and the three versions of the map and
052the career technical center versions that were frightening in the district that would take us from Rutland to Panel and include Lelo and Mount Holly. That was >> Yeah. big >> big um the what are they Boseies the board of education cooperative services is the most encouraging piece of this whole conversation and it directly could address what Kate's talking about in terms of cost if you start creating larger structures where you can provide more services outside of your SU to students with those specific needs it it >> could be really beneficial >> absolutely a voluntary approach that is incentivized. I would encourage folks don't read the digger every morning because you, you know, you don't have anything else to do over breakfast. They had a good article this morning and it will give you a little
053snapshot of what they were talking about on Monday. That districtricting redistricting committee will be back together for their final meeting on November 20th. Um, if you want to tune in, they have a if you want to spend eight hours of your day watching the committee work through its agenda, you can do that. And apparently the Senate Education Committee is going on the road in the similar way that the redistricting redistricting task force did and they are um the closest that they're getting to us is R. >> But there are links to that and tomorrow Katie West and I will be working on putting that up under the act 73 button. So if folks wanted to because each one of those has an opportunity for the public to weigh in. Yeah. We'll put those up there
054for folks and there's five or six opportun well now they're into the second week so there's two or three left over for folks to participate and we'd encourage people to participate. >> There four more still together. >> Okay. Any other question for superintendent? Only that you folks are going to need signatures. We can do that. Um I have a chair's report which was really under my chair's report was really going to be governance and maps because um as of um this morning I anticipated the three very loosely proposed maps. However, the basic gist of the articles coming out today is that uh the redistricting task force is not going to propose any maps. um they feel that it should be done by incentivizing consolidation to put it very short. So that seems to be the
055way they're leaning currently. Um they did not like the the map around the CTE at all. It sounded like uh and they were mostly leaning toward the BIES map. It's a potential for it. So where that leaves us, I have no idea. um it is still very much up in the air. Uh if they don't come up with that, I don't know what that does to act 73 because it is a part of the bill. So um it's if we had questions now we have more questions. Just you know a little bit crazy to think about. There's lots of conversations between the superintendent myself. We're all kind of following this. I do still do have regular conversations with our two senators. Representatives can't really offer a lot yet because they're waiting for maps. So, it
056is still very much up in the air. We'll continue to all this read and see how it changes time and we have a meeting scheduled for next week with the elected officials too. So, we'll have another opportunity to kind of weigh in and some The only thing other thing I have under my report is Tim said one of your goals is communication. Um I want to publicly thank you for your communication with the board chairs. It has been fantastic. >> Um you're very easy to get a hold of if you keep us informed. >> Um so I want to extend a public appreciation for that. Been great. So thank you. >> Okay. Next we have FYI which is abundant status which is uh was included in your packet. It's also on the website. Next, we
057have an executive session for two reasons. One is for contracts and one is for labor relations. So, the chair will entertain a motion to enter into executive session or BSA A1 313 contracts A1313 labor relations agreement and invite the superintendent name HR director and principal cost. Is there a motion? by T. Second by Terry. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? I know this is really out of order, but I'm gonna say it out loud because I was here. Um, the Arlington Comm is going to be hosting the Dawn Guys movie with a um discussion group January 11th and that more information will be coming, but the school is going to be involved in communicating and posting that. >> Great. >> You're involved, too? Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes, I will be there. Okay. Thanks.
058set. Okay, we're out of executive session at 659. We do have some action requested. One is the chair will entertain a motion to enter into a contract with the town of Arlington to do our plowing uh during the winter months at a rate of $27.84 per hour. the use of the Arlington School District truck. Second make a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Any public discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Okay. The next is to approve all non union employees increase in wages. Chair would entertain a motion to increase non-UN employees by 3 and a half% retroactive to July 1, 2025. I make the motion. Motion is made by Dan. >> seconded by Terry. Any discussion? All those in favor? Anybody? Any other business to be brought before the board hearing?
059None. Is there a motion to adjourn? Made by Jess. Is there a second? Second. Second by Terry. And we are adjourned at 7:01.