001Sorry. Now, actually the this was muted. >> Oh, okay. >> So, Richard didn't get your introductions. >> Just kidding. two. >> We'll quickly go around. So anyway, >> all right. Chris McGuire, principal, Mount Anthony Middle School. >> Adam Carmichael, >> still principal high school. >> You took my line. Susan Py, still a board member. >> Scott Mcini, board member. >> Tim F, superintendent. >> Stephanie Mulligan, board member. >> Sandy Foster, board member. >> Glenn Thurber, board member. >> Kristenstead, board member. Dave Frederickson, board member. >> Katie Aken, board member. >> Nelson Brownell, board member. >> Okay, great. Um, and there's still no other board members online. Richard's there. Uh, we will start with public comments. You have anybody online that's >> I don't see any hands being raised. >> Okay. With no public comments, we'll
002move on to the consent agenda. We have minutes, warrants, retirements, leave of absence, resignation, and nominations. Can I have a motion to move on all as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Can I have a second? So we have a motion by Susan, second by Glenn. Is there any discussion? >> Seeing none. All in favor? >> Okay. We will move on to um number three finance their treasures report of um September 25th or I'm sorry September for 2025. Can I have a motion to approve this treasures report? >> So moved. >> Okay. So motion by Scott, second by Glenn. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Okay. And we have a uh donation onto a team field trip. There is an action requested. >> I'll move to accept. >> Okay, we have a motion
003to accept. >> A second by Scott, second by Susan. Is there any discussion? All in favor? >> Um we have operations. >> No report. >> Okay. Uh any reports on policies? I think it says none. We'll move on to the administrator's reports. Um we have uh student representatives representing. >> Yeah, we're very lucky to have uh Daniel with us tonight. Uh we have one of our one of our juniors, Alia Rodosia, here and uh she's gonna take the lead for us on >> Yeah. Uh as you said, I'm Alia. I'm one of the student reps. Um my I guess partner Chloe, she can't be here tonight. She has a game. Um but at the high school things have been pretty quiet recently. Oops. Uh except for homecoming uh which was octo I think October 4th
004and we sold I think roughly 400 tickets and so it was a big success. Um other events that have happened recently um MCLA came on October 10th to talk to juniors and seniors about the college admissions process. Um and like for future events, we have a craft fair a craft fair on November 1st. Um which is I think from 9 to 3. Um and I think the first quarter also ends like November 3rd, right? Yeah. Um sports are also coming to a close. We have a lot of senior nights going on right now. Uh tonight, for example, is the vol girls volleyball and tomorrow is girls soccer. Um clubs, we have a new club at the high school. We have film club um uh which is supervised by Mr. Hanken. Um, if any of your
005kids go to MAU, it's really fun. Encourage them to come. We need more people. Um, Student Senate is hosting a trivia night on October 3rd, and they're also planning a volleyball tournament. Um, also, just a reminder, the Shrek performances are November 13th, 14th, and 15th. Um, and it's going to it's and it's a musical, and so it's going to be really big, and there's be like there's a huge cast. It's really fun. It's always fun. Please come. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, if there are any questions, we'll move on to the the high school administrator to report Principal Carmichael. >> Thank you, Alia. Stop there. Two points. >> Thank you. >> So, I'll try not to repeat any of Alia's points, but just a few highlights to share. Um you mentioned homecoming week
006came to an end with the dance on Saturday. We also hosted a field day on Friday for students. Uh we ran a half day schedule and in the afternoon provided a nice uh barbecue lunch and field day activities for the students to participate in along with our traditional pep rally out on a football field. So it's really nice to have the afternoon students you know go out have fun see their friends. a lot of positive energy, a lot of it was good time for for all. Um, so that was that was nice. And thanks to uh the cheerleaders and uh coach Jordan Upright and really the Upright family along with uh Paddington Police Department for supporting both the field day and the homecoming dance uh partnerships were really like essential to making that all a
007success. Uh some other things that have happened recently, our uh unified soccer team traveled to Norwich University for a tournament last week uh on October 7th. So I know that was um a great opportunity for those students to uh get out of Bington area and go and uh show their skills. Um some other sports related news, uh girls varsity golf plays second in division one. Uh, two members of the team are be will be going to the New England Golf Tournament at the end of October that um, and got an update. Uh, all fall sports teams are making playoffs this season. Uh, so very excited for the success of our teams. Um, German exchange program. This is a big one that we're very proud of. It's now in its third consecutive year at our school.
008Um, coordinated by our German and Spanish teacher, Dylan Wada. Um, so 10 German high school students along with two of their teachers arrived here on October 6 and they'll be with us until October 18th, staying with 10 local host families. Uh, while they're here, they're attending classes. They're going on visits to area attractions like Mass Mocha, Arc Art. Um, while they're here, they're also collaborating with Bennington College students to, uh, I think their focus this trip is studying some water issues in our community, including PAS contamination. Uh, working with one of our science teachers, Jordan Burke, to do some water lab studies. They visited the Bennington wastewater treatment plant. Um, so it's a really great opportunity to bring them over, uh, visit our school, but also our community, uh, and do some good work while
009they're here. Uh, to finish it to finish the program off, at the end of the school year, 10 of our high school students and three teachers will then travel to Germany June 17th through uh, July 4th uh, to have a mirrored experience over there at their school. In addition, we have the uh Bennington Rising program which began just yesterday. Uh Bennington College and high school students are working together on science related projects. Um half of those groups will end up teaching some of these to uh some of these science lessons to Bennington Elementary students. Uh the other half will create projects that will be displayed at Bennington Museum. Um there's a gala event at Bennington Museum celebrate this work on November 20th. So mark your calendars for that. Great. Uh looking ahead next week, just
010a reminder, we have a half day next Wednesday, October 22nd. Again, dismissal for students is at 11:05. In the afternoon, we'll be running teacher inservice SCSU data day. also an event happening during that day. There's going to be a community conversation around cannabis. This is coordinated by GL Coyman's our prevention coordinator for MAU uh along with support from some of our MAU students who are part of what's called the choice group um helping support making healthy choices. So that will be a speaker named Tom Fontana from UVM. He'll be coming and doing a student presentation at our school for the high school students in the morning of that half day. Uh he there will also be a community event next Wednesday evening from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in our auditorium. Anybody interested is joining us
011for that. And looking ahead to the end of the month, uh there will be a youth risk behavior survey data seminar on October 30th at Castleton University. This is in collaboration with Up for Learning. Uh we have both middle and high school students joining that group. Uh they're traveling to Castleton and uh they're reviewing some of that survey data for Bennington County as a whole. Um working together to identify some root causes and potential solutions based on that survey. Lots of good things going on. >> Great. Thank you. Any questions? So, since it's high school time, I want to um thank uh the high school for stepping up. We have 35 volunteers coming for trunk or treat. Oh, good. Between the cheerleaders and the interact club, I had to hold back the interact club. They
012got a little ambitious. >> Yeah. Little little two to do it. They wanted seven trunks, >> but could you do five? Yes. Thank you. >> They're doing great. >> Well, thanks for bringing attention to that. I make my bullet point list. Yeah, there's always things that get left off. If I could just add one, the the football team and the um the work toward uh or the working with the community veterans uh last Friday I thought was a really really great outreach and um a great way for the kids to to to interact with that that important group within our community in a meaningful way. And um and I know we had a couple of couple of kids who were there watching and both came home and commented on that. So kudos to the coaching
013and uh the staff for for putting that together. I thought it was a great effort. >> I was slightly late to the game, but I sat directly next to the veterans and I missed the presentation because they came up into the stands which I saw on Facebook I think afterwards. But those veterans had such a great time. They totally were loving it. We're loving it. It's great. >> Yep. Thanks for bringing attention to that. >> Anything else? Um, we will move on to the middle school administrators report. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to start with a little hiring update. Um, I think this update will round us off as being fully hired. So, it's an exciting update. Um, I want to welcome Michael Bombard, who is a school-based clinician supporting our Champlain intervention program.
014Um, Erica Crowers, uh, who has just been hired, uh, as a, uh, school-based clinician um, in the school as well. And, uh, Tamara Christopher, uh, who has just been hired as a PAR educator. And so those are three new hires in the building. They're all uh bringing great energy. Uh been with us for, you know, anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks between the three of them and and they're just been a pleasure to have all three of them. They're been great. So thank you to them. Um and like I said, it's a nice little, you know, rounding out the hiring for the middle school at this time. Um I had a note uh on Tom Fonana as well, which Mr. Carmichael um already talked about a little bit. Uh we've uh Gala
015Poyman's our prevention coordinator for MAU has done a lot of leg work and all of the leg work I will say I will say on my end anyways in in making this happen and and communicating with administration. Um and uh we have kind of tapped into uh you know having him in the community. Um as Adam said he's going to be doing a community night on uh Wednesday uh the 22nd from 6:00 to 7. Adam already talked about that, but we are having him also come to the school and speak to uh seventh and eighth grade students respectively. Um in two different assemblies um again he he's the alcohol and cannabis and other drugs initiative manager at UVN. Um so he comes pretty highly touted. I think we're lucky to have him come to the
016community and um this came from a need based uh on the youth risk behavior survey data that um you know indicated that uh you know high number of students were reporting using cannabis and so we were you know we were trying to respond to that that need. um the choice group that Adam touched upon, a middle school group that um you know takes a look at youth risk behavior survey data and then uh plans some action steps and really um does the work uh in a leadership capacity on figuring out initiatives to like mitigate um you know some of those you know unhealthy or risky behaviors. Um and if if you haven't heard the choice group presenter speak um you really should try to catch them. They're they're really a very impressive group um year
017after year. Um and they've presented to the Benon Select Board with great reviews. >> They did. Yeah. >> Yeah. They've presented uh at previous community nights uh introducing guest speakers and such at MAUMS to pretty uh pretty large groups, you know, audiences. Um and they've also presented uh or introduced some speakers for past uh student um student assemblies. uh that we've had to you know 200 plus you know students at a time. So they're a pretty impressive group and uh they're you know doing introductions and and for for Tom and and also um you know talking a little bit about what they do. So that's a it's a cool thing if you ever get a chance to see them in any uh any venue. It's it's their impressive group. Um uh my main thing that
018I want to talk about I have a little handout that I'd like to pass around for you guys. Um, there's two I hope I have enough coffees. It's Mr. Kelly Brooks's fault if I do not. Um, just kidding. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. He's he's a great guy. Um, so you're going to have two things. Uh, Melissa today. Sorry. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think I might be a little short and I apologize. I can get more for anyone if you'd like them. Um, so uh the first one coming around is our 21st century uh afterchool program experiences funded by our 21st C grant. The second um pamphlet coming around is our clubs and activities. So they're all after school programs that we run currently in the building. Um but they're kind of under two different
019funding sources if you will and we do kind of roll them out um differently. So that one's the clubs and activities one. And so just a couple actually well never mind you guys can take a look. I was going to like reference one of them but you're good. Um so for clubs and activities uh we started those a week prior. Um we have about five I I current enrollment is about 511 students. Um so for clubs and that just gives you a little frame. So clubs and activities we have currently 104 students um staying after school to partake in clubs and activities. Um and you can take a look at the the various uh wow you might have really hit it right on the head with the number of copies. He's pretty good actually there.
020Um so you can take a look at the the wide you know array of offerings. There's a lot of different things there and and when you look at both of them it's a it's a pretty impressive list. I'm really proud of it. Um and I I give Kelly Brooks all joking aside like a lot of credit for what he's done to kind of um I would say streamline the process by which we sign students up for clubs and activities and after school programs. Um, you know, he's, you know, he does everything from sending home the information to families, collecting signups, creating rosters, communicating with the teachers, uh, that are and the the people that are running the program. Um, so clubs and activities, 104 students currently participating. Um, that's the yellow pamphlet. So, you can
021see some of those offerings for athletics. Uh, we also have, uh, 108 students staying after regularly partic uh, taking part in athletics. So that's 212 students just between clubs and activities and athletics that are engaging in something after school. So that I mean that's a it's a good number, you know, 511 students and that's not even counting the students that are signing up for the 21st century uh grant and that's the grant is actually called 21st century community learning centers grant. I wanted to articulate that whole thing and we're anticipating anywhere from you know another 50 to 100 students uh signing up and staying at school for those. So I like think you know once we get those that those signups are in the process right now um by I think next week we'll have
022students staying after and and those clubs uh sorry the experiences uh under the grant taking place and so we should have you know around 300 students roughly engaging in after school program which I'm again really know I've said it a couple times proud of that. Um you can also look at busing uh in the pamphlet. So it has in both of the pamphlets. So schools do uh excuse me, students do um have options to get home. We have several bus stops uh that you know span all the way you know through the district. Um there are stops added to this list. Sometimes kids go to Kelly. He works with the you know with central office and the bus garage and they try to you know they they make things work. So we can get kids
023home walking away when any student not um you know staying after because of transportation. Um that is I think pretty much what I got today. Um I just on a total random side um talked about the half day next we said your dismissal time middle school dismissal for the half day is 11:15. Just want to throw that in there too. questions, >> comment. There's all kind of good things that you folks are talking about. Don't we have someone that's supposed to let the community know about this? Twice the banner two days in a row. It was right on the front page. But there seems like there's all kind of good stuff that we should be sending out and letting people know that good things are happening. >> I agree. Yeah. Yeah. And I can talk
024to Kelly and me and I can work together. get in touch with uh Katie West and you know try to work on getting some some more PR going on that for sure. >> Yeah. Likewise. Kudos to Kelly because having run one of these programs in another SU it's a lot of work. >> It is a lot of work and he's he's you know and he's a full-time behavior interventionist as you can also relate to. But um but he he's he's a workhorse and he he's doing some amazing stuff and and kids kids gravitate to him and so you know there's there's something infectious about that you know where it's like you know Mr. Brooks is the guy coordinating these and he just really pulls pulls kids in. I really want to um bring him to
025a meeting. I've said that before. I really want to bring him maybe some students to a meeting uh in the near future and talk a little bit about um you know what they're doing in programs. probably wait until they get into them a you know for a month or two just so you know they have a good sample size to to draw from. But thank you for that Dave. That's yeah agreed >> cuz I want to go to the robotics class. >> Yeah. I don't really like >> there's really scares you to a certain >> and why scared you scared you didn't have that when I was in school as well. Great. Any other questions? Uh we'll move on to the superintendent's report. >> So there's a couple of uh opportunities to share information this
026evening. I wanted to start with Adam. There is a request from Southwest Tech U for the MAU board to recognize embedded credits. This is past practice for this board. Uh we have a good partnership with Southwest Tech. they offer programs and within the program if students complete uh a period of time they can earn high school credit by going through the program. So I've asked Adam just to if you could just quickly cover the request and then we in the past we've asked the board to make a motion and support that um going forward. >> When did that end? When did it end? Because I know that was a practice on this. >> I think we >> we don't do it every year. >> Almost year by year. um they'll come to us when they've
027made progress on something they feel like they can address. Okay. So, it's not a yearly thing necessarily. >> So, there's a request from two instructors in two different courses. Um request from our from their video and TV production course uh to approve an art credit after successful completion of first year of video and TV production. um based on well there's a lot here the syllabus and um assignments and things like that that we can go through but basically there's a lot of work on design layout video editing um and photography that first year of that course and so strong believe that students who successfully complete that should be awarded an art credit. Uh also the culinary program is looking to award an art credit after successful completion of two years of that course. Um again
028provided quite a bit of um evidence to support this request. Uh but to summarize a lot of work related to cake decorating uh pastry making uh plating of dishes along the way there. So that is their request that we >> is that one credit after two years >> the for the culinary program looking for one art credit after two years >> uh for the video and TV production course they're requesting one art credit after successful completion of the first year of that program >> a motion I'd be happy to make that >> and I would second it >> a motion by one second by Susan um is there discussion around this request. >> It is called culinary arts for a reason. Right. So >> I'm hungry. Thanks. >> See the food >> I have. >>
029Yeah. >> I guess my question is do you feel that these are reasonable? I mean this seems reason >> very much so. This board in the past has supported it. The Southwest Tech does a really good job of documenting how they fill them at the standards and I feel it exceeds it. So, it's a very reasonable. >> If anybody's curious, just culinary, you want some reading material supporting the request. >> Well, we have a motion on the table to approve the request. Um, any other discussion? All in favor? >> I abain. Okay, sounds good. So Kristen abstained and Scott abstained um on this vote. Motion carries. >> Okay. Uh our next piece of information for you is it is my pleasure to have uh director Melissa Senle here uh curriculum instruction and assessment along with
030director Renee Gordon finance. They are going to uh present two pieces of information. This goes along with our ongoing process. In August we talked about staffing. In October, we talked about or in September, we talked about buildings. This month is student achievement along with a little bit of information around title or grants. Next month, we'll be coming back to you to talk about student services. All of this hopefully will help inform you as you participate in building a budget and putting it forward to the community in November, December, and January. So, uh, Melissa will start tonight, uh, with student achievement and then Renee will show you how grants are used to drive our effort to reach those goals that Melissa will outline. I have extras, too, if you need me to pass those out. >>
031I'm sure some people in the room have extras, too. Um, so this is for the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union, the global. For people who've seen this before, maybe in their SPSU ESD, please note that the last page does pertain just to the two MAU students. So, you might want to take it just for that last page. And for anyone who is watching who would like to um reference this back, you would you would find this on sbsu.org about us and reports. And if it's not there right now, which it might be right, Britney, um it will be there by tomorrow. So you'll be able to reference this again. Again, we go big time picture, big picture of our continuous improvement plan goals for the Southwest Vermont Supervisor reunion. But please note that the last page
032that I'll reference in a moment um was done by the two different buildings from last spring's data setting their goals for this current year. So the sources I think it's really important for you all to know from that first page I documented the sources and the dates of attent of the um data and when it was pulled. I always have to reference all of those acronyms. You can see that we've got acronyms for assessment data for academics. Our NWDA and our fastbridge are two examples. Il for math is a great progress monitoring tool. uh for social emotional behavior. You'll hear a lot in a moment about the SRSSIE. That's a systematic risk screening scale that we do for externalizing and internalizing behaviors that was given to us vetted by the University of Kansas. Um and
033then you'll also in a moment hear about the treatment integrity and social validity that was given to us by the University of Kansas and that that's how are we doing with our MTSS or multi-tier systems of support. So those are just some of those acronyms that you'll hear along the way to reference. But in order to get them to learn, we have to have them here. So we wanted to give you the data about how our students are doing with the Vermont AOE definition of chronic absenteeism. We gave you all schools exactly what happened in the poll of chronic absenteeism in May of 2024 and that was 315 students. Then through tons of work and I I thank all of you in the community for funding things that were done like ours for guidance leadership
034teams to talk about attendance and truency protocols that was local funding. Thank you. Thank you all. And then those regularly scheduled leadership teams with community partners. That's local funding. Thank you. Thank you all because the impact that it's had was right there. So last May we pulled every single school had a positive had a decrease. So they went in the positive direction for having kids avoid that idea of chronic absenteeism. There is still more work to do, but we are making progress everywhere. Going on to our continuous improvement plan, goal number one, safe and healthy. Um I I did dive into the what is internalizing behaviors and what are externalizing behaviors. I gave some examples so you can see just so you can see oh that's the kind of thing that a screener and again
035a staff member that really knows a student through that vetted tool given to us would say oh yeah I see a lot of these kinds of observable behaviors either internalizing or externalizing and so I mentioned before one of the questions that we had to ask with goal number one is do our schools implement the multi-ter systems of supports for all students And we set the goal by 2027 of 80% or higher would be the score on that. We left last spring at 78 more than 78%. We're very close. We're very close. Then we wanted to say, do we have most of our students at very low or no risk for those internalizing behaviors? Again, the examples are right there for you to see what those are. And that is an area that we're focusing on.
036You can see why this year that we're focusing on it because our goal is at 70% to have lower no risk and last spring we were at 58%. So we want to make sure we have more kids at lower or no risk for those internalizing behaviors. How about externalizing behaviors? You can see examples of what those are. We want to have at least 70% and we were at 63%. Almost 64. We want to keep on going math. My math teacher over there. Um but we were we did better on that particular subset. So some examples again I mentioned that I want to thank all of you in the community and the board for funding title funds for that ongoing professional learning for best practices for classroom management. Um the professional learning committee said in uh
037last year that we they wanted September half day to be completely focused on SEAL and it was across the district. Um and so the kind of funding that we have here pays for those kinds of things because we were able to not have to go out to externally find anybody to come in and do that. We it was our trained people from within. So, we paid for their time and they were able to do that and the feedback has been excellent. It'll be reviewed by the professional learning committee next Monday. Goal number two is an academic goal. It's English language arts, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. And we want to make sure that most of our students in grade three have those foundational literacy skills. That makes that makes it really nice though that then
038we get into the secondary schools that they're not lagging behind that they're working on things like vocabulary and comprehension and they have all of that fluency and phonics already solid and the elementarymentaries are making excellent progress with that. Um we set a goal for next 2027 at 65. We were at 61% last year. So our Vermont kids are reading. Um, how about our grade level proficiency? Again, that's at grade level. How are they doing with their national grade level peers? And that includes, of course, both of our schools right here. We set the goal by 2027 of at least 60% would be meeting or exceeding their own national grade level peers. We were at 56%. And what about their growth? Every kid can grow no matter where they fall on that continuum. and we want
039to make sure they make up that national growth and our kids are growing almost hitting that 60% goal. I am commonly asked and I can finally bring it to you. So, how are our kids doing compared to everyone in Vermont for the most recent results that I can give to you? I I apologize that that's right in that way right there, but um you grab it. I don't know if you can grab it on your screen anyway. I apologize friend there. Oh, well now I don't know if I held there. There you go. I'm going to stop because I'm boring. Some people have already seen this. Um, uh, I can show you that we are right on par with Vermont for rating English and language arts. Um, we want to get to meeting, but we
040are approaching right now for the last few years. Again, these are the most recent results that we have. We hope to have last spring's results soon. I can only tell you soon. I check every So, I want to thank everyone in this room for helping to fund. If you're listening and you're voted for our our budgets and everyone in this room who works so hard on them because the kind of things that we were able to do and they're happening in the school right now, we're using some title funding for some SIMS training that's happening at our high school. I know it's not up there, but I wanted to be specific to our buildings that we're looking at here. And that's helping us with ELA. Um, and we are also having ongoing coaching for literacy
041strategies. And that's for all schools, too, because we have an adolescent um modular that teaches our our teachers about adolescent acquisition of literacy. And so that's gone through to make sure all of our studentu all of our teachers have that strong basis in what would be if you come tomorrow night for act 139 read Vermont you would see how well we are doing as a district to align and you can see how well we're doing that is in it's showing that our kids are growing. How about goal number three which is um academic proficiency in math. We want to look at that national grade level peers in math. That's proficiency. And we want to also look at Mr. Payne's very favorite growth and that's the national norm growth rates. Um in math we wanted to
042have at least 60% meeting that proficiency. We were at 43 but our kids are growing. Our kids are growing. They're closer to that 60% with 53 and we continue to see that the line goes up as we follow them as they bounce back from what was CO. And so how are we doing compared to the rest of the state with mathematics? Again, we are on par with approaching. I would thank you with mathematics for some of the things that we were able to do. We have some um some local funds that are covering both it both schools um mathematics first instruction that is tied directly to the standards that we have which are tied directly to the testing that our students we have um both with the SATs and with the BTCAP. So um that's
043very beneficial and our assessment tools to know how we're doing. That's local funds. Goal number four, academic proficiency of science. This one is all tied to how they do on that state test. Um, and I wanted to show you that what we wanted to have is meeting the scale score, which is an average score. Typical performance of a person on a on a group on a test relative to the larger group comparison um should be in the range of 2.76 to 3.65. And this is an area that we are focusing on a lot this year. And you can see why as I gathered and showed the data. We were at last spring at the last time we were um just a little bit off approaching. Just a little bit off approaching and where we want
044to get is um is above approaching into meeting. But you can see instead of showing you the circles, that's why I gave you the numbers. That's what the numbers show you. The numbers show you that we need to make some growth in science. And when we dug deeper, and I when I say we, I list up there the local funds that I thank you that our district science curriculum teams looked at for prioritizing standards and looking at the scores. They knew some areas to to highlight and to focus on this year. I thank principal Carmichael for talking about the very first one listed there and that's where he's talking about Bennington Rising. So th that's funded by title funds. The people are funded to go and do that work by title funds. Those those science
045lessons that our science teachers with our science students at MAU and Bennington College students are going to be ours to then share not just at Bennington Elementary soon, but at every elementary as we try to improve. and we want to grow that small seed that's just starting um with our high school students and our high school teachers going and doing some science within our elementary classrooms. In addition, we are all we are very very close and um you can sign up for it if you'd like. It's an elementary course in STEM or robotics training for elementary school teachers. And so that's going to be done with title funding. But again, what we want to do is we really want to focus and help our elementary school teachers with science. And that's what looking at that
046so that it gets stronger and stronger as they get into middle school and high school. And for those teachers that are content specific, again, when you think about elementary school teachers, their contents are not specific to just science necessarily. Some are, but not all are. At the ele at the secondary level, they are. And so, we want to make sure it's a level playing field. and our our elementary school teachers have the professional learning and so we really want to give them the time and focus to do that. And the last but not least because you know you love hearing my voice. The goal number five for continuous improvement plan is proficiency. This is also focused on gathering data from these two schools in the secondary school of North but these two schools as we
047sit in this room. And so how the question we want to ask is how are our students doing with our PLPS or personalized learning plans? How are our students doing with our flexible pathways? And what about those opportunities that we're giving our kids for flexible pathways? Wow, did our schools hit it out of the park. And I'll show you in a minute what I mean by that. That's how we're doing compared to the rest of Vermont. we are meeting the last time that we they called our data. So, I'll stop to say that I did highlight some things that we're doing, but if I could just maybe ask Principal Carmichael to identify some of those things, those great things that are happening at your school. >> Yes. So, just a couple of the uh key
048things that we do to encourage personalization, flexible pathways at the preschool. Um, one of the big ones I would highlight is our community based learning program. uh run by Allison Brigham. Um we have a lot of students in involved in that program and they talk to each other, they get excited about being part of that program, going out into the community, working with our community partners um and getting that like real world firsthand experience um in different professions, right? Um in addition, we have our early college program. those students while they're still attending high school, an opportunity to take some college courses, you get credit for that. Um, really opens up some doors for them going forward. >> And I would take a moment to highlight the work of Hannah Green at the middle school
049and the career exploration that she has done for many, many years at that school. It all feeds into having our kids starting to think about and explore their careers and what they're going to do after high school. So again, I leave you with the very last page which will be up in SDSU about us and reports if you want to come back to it at any point. But these goals would be ending this year and they are from the data that were done in both of these schools. And you can see that we have a social emotional behavior goal, a literacy goal, and a math goal. And so it's that mini goal as they get to 2027 and we keep on growing. So, thank you and your teachers and everybody and both of you and
050your buildings all of your staff are making this kind of growing. I'll take any questions. >> Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. >> Question. >> Absolutely. >> Is there going to be a report like this on physical fitness levels and obesity? So, I'm still watching to see if Vermont adopts shape um the test that goes along with those PE standards and we've been we've been watching that. The PE teachers um all came together this summer again, thank you local funds um and they have been looking at what's coming. Right now, all they've done is is changed some of the standards. We've not got back to having that fitness test. Um that was three years ago. That was the last time that they did um a fitness test that went up on the state report card. So
051I'm watching for that. >> Questions are good. Okay, >> thank you again, Melissa. >> No, thank you all for listening some advice. >> So, Renee, do you mind if I do the quick introduction? So, um I appreciate Melissa's report to kind of tell you where kids are in a snapshot districtwide. Today's piece this evening is to show you how we use uh grant funds to support uh increasing student achievement in ELA mathematics um social emotional learning. This is timely because given the uncertainty at the federal level as far as grant funding and educational reform also the pretty lively discussion at the state level which has a piece of it as finance as well. This is important I think for the board to understand how much money is actually comes into the SPSU and what it
052supports. Um and I appreciate uh Renee trying to get this down to two pages which was my ask. So I appreciate that. Um, it's a lot, but I just thought it'd be a good starting point for the board as we move into budget building. >> So, what I have up on the screen is included in the board packet. Um, and Mr. Payne does have hard copies. I don't know if anybody wants a hard copy. >> Does everybody have one? We passed them out for >> Okay. So, what I have up on the screen is actually page one and off to the very right is just the the FTEES on page three. So the way that I structured this is pages one and two. So the front and back are giving you the dollar figures of
053grants um showing what we have had from FY24 and 25 and then this uh current year's allocations. Pages three and four are giving in the FTEES associated with those grants. So what I have up on the screen um starting with uh title 1 A, 2 A and 4 A collectively these are known as consolidated federal program. Um the unique thing with these titles is that we can actually take them in the grant application and combine them together um to support consolidated administration and schoolwide programs. to be eligible for a schoolwride program, um, you have to have a a low income threshold. And, uh, with all of our schools in the SVSU, all of our schools do meet that threshold. So, all of our schools, all 10 schools, um, do participate in schoolwide programming. Um, what
054I also wanted to point out in the FY26 column, um, for titles 1, 2, and four, you have an small italics there. we are required to share these federal funds with students that are actually going to independent schools in our areas. So that's the amount of money that we have going to those schools that comes comes out of those pockets. So Title One um in addition to consolidated consolidated administration and schoolwide um it supports our children at greatest need. Um we have tutoring. Um we have homeless transportation and um supplies coming out of title one funds. We also use title one funds to support parent and family engagement nights at the schools. Title two really focuses on professional development. So we have um we have coaches uh SU level coaches um in ELA and math
055um that are being funded out of title 2 plus a lot of professional development going on. And then title 4 has kind of three pillars. Um it focuses on safe and healthy schools, well-rounded education and effective use of technology. So, this is really supporting um social, emotional, and positive behavior supports as well as that personalization work going on. So, with those um three titles, these are the positions and you can see over the I'm sorry, I don't know how to get rid of that little thing up there on the corner. Um, I grade out the FTEES that have been zeroed out essentially from FY24 to 25 and up to 26. The money that we're getting hasn't increased a lot, but we have seen expenses increase, right? So, our salaries are increasing, our benefit costs are
056increasing. So, we're not able to do as much with that fund funds because they're shrinking because of the increasing costs. The other thing is that anybody who's um being funded through title and is participating in the Vermont teacher retirement system legislation was passed a few years ago to help support teacher retirement um sustain that retirement system and uh currently this year 25.47% goes directly to teacher retirement. So, if I have um you know a teacher making $70,000, I have to carve 25.47% of that and that goes directly um to teacher retirement. So, some of the funds we we're actually trying to um move more staff that are funded through municipal retirement into the grants and then get teachers into local funds. So, we're not basically supporting the teacher retirement system. Um, in addition to uh
057well, I guess I can show you to the so the schoolwide the consolidated funds here kind of in the middle. Um, a portion of the assistant superintendent and our early education administrator, director of early education have been funded there, as well as our schoolwide interventionists. And um some of our schools have uh coaches as well. Um that schoolwide equity and climate position uh was one up uh in Arlington um that we could no longer support again just because of um the shrinking funds because of increasing costs essentially. Uh title 4B um actually Chris talked about this earlier. This is our 21st century grant but it actually comes through title 4B funds. um school improvement. We have four schools in the SVSU that are um have been identified as um comprehensive support school. So that's where
058that money is coming in. We are in the uh final year of school improvement. So if you look at our FTEES associated there, um we had nine down to eight and a half last year down to six this year. That money goes away. Um, so you may see in budget season, you know, folks, administrators coming to you saying, "We really need to sustain these these programs. We need to find a way to pay for them." Um, and then lastly, what I'll I'll leave you with is IDA. Um, and this one helps support our uh some special education costs, and you can see a variety of positions um that we fund out of that. But again, trying to pull some of those um positions that are participating in teacher retirement, swapping them out with folks that
059are participating through municipal retirement. Um the distinction between them is if you have to have an educator's license, that puts you into that teacher retirement bucket. Pretty much everybody else that meets the um basically time equivalent working enough hours in a week, then you end up in municipal retirement. So those are the FTEES and then you can see um the dollars associated with that and again with IDA we also do have to allocate a portion of that money um to parentally placed students which means they're they're students whose parents are sending them choosing to send them to an independent school. So, I'm not going to get on to the second pages because it's just more of the same, but you can see just these here. Currently, right now, um, we have 44.3 FTEEs funded with
060just this front page. On the back side, we're in exits of 60 with just grant funds. >> Thank you. just leave this for a thought and Matt, you see the number of positions that are supported through grants. Uh Renee was nice enough to answer a question from me. If if we had to absorb this locally, what would this mean? Um absorbing these positions would raise the school budget by about 8% straight off the top. That would be without a cost of living adjustment for all your other salaries and not including what we anticipate to be a double digit increase in health insurance. So it would be a significant lift for this community to try to cover all those. So just something to consider as we go into budget season. We talk about what our goals
061are and what we want to support and doing some prioritizing because again given the uncertainty at the national level and the state level being aware of what our exper >> I did neglect to mention um at the beginning of this year the feds decided to withhold money. So what you see um in the column for FY26 title two and title four potentially were not going to come through at all. um it came through because it was actually part of their FY20 the federal FY24 budget. So that money had already been allocated um and approved by Congress. The budget that hasn't been approved right now will actually be funding us for next year. So there's a lot of uncertainty right now. Um but knowing that two and four were withheld, um we don't know what's going
062to happen with the rest of it. So that was real. It was real this summer. >> Yep. And we benefit from geography as I have family in in Georgia with schools opening on August 1st and there were programs that were not able to open because they had no money to staff or pay for programming. So we shall see. Any questions for Renee or most just have two more things if that's all right. Um, one, I want to start with uh a a positive note. I had the pleasure of attending a football game on Friday. Uh, and I spent most of the third quarter standing next to a staff member who was also a proud parent of an MAU student. The student is a proud member of unified soccer, unified basketball, and is a current enrolly
063in the community-based learning class. uh the parent could not uh stop talking about how positive CBL that if their student could choose to be in community based learning all day they would absolutely choose that. So I'd like to say thank you to Allison Brigham who by chance is also the coach of both unified teams and community based learning. So this student athlete spends a whole lot of their time >> uh and nothing but praise from the family. So please extend my thank yous to Allison for that workout. Um Dave had a question about um trying to get into the banner more often. I want to thank the editor who has been meeting consistently with Katie West. She's an MAU graduate. She has been an outstanding booster for us in the short period of time that
064she's been sitting in that seat. Uh we are consistently talking to her about communications. Um I think I have to give an interview tomorrow. That just dawned on me. Get my hair done before meeting every two weeks. >> Yeah. Um Katie and and Shalice. for communication. Dave, to make it easier, we've been having weekly meetings around communication. Katie uh met with a group today. Um if you go to um the SPSU website and you go under departments, department tabs on the top and click on superintendent's office, we will start populating that. So August, September, and October, we're doing presentations. If you missed one, you'll find the presentations there, the newsletters, the podcast, uh YouTube, uh we're doing a little YouTube simple questions with Superintendent Payne. You're going to find all of that there and that
065is our hope that we'll just start directing people. Oh, I didn't see that. Where do I get the link? So hopefully that will start to highlight for folks as we move forward. Um next week I'll talk about an additional update for the website and not quite ready for prime time, but more information to come. Um, and then my report is very short. I'm going to just use my last minute to respond to a situation in the community that I became aware of. I want to be really clear. I haven't been on Facebook in a long time. I choose not to participate in that democratic experiment. Um, but I want to read this statement into the uh into the record if that would be all right with the chair. It has come to my attention that
066recent comments made on social media platforms have targeted members of our SVSU community with hate speech. I recognize that we are living in a time where extreme views are amplified by many and celebrated by the few. I want to clearly state that all members of our community deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. No member of our community should live in fear and wonder if they belong here. As a learning community, we can support each other while calling out those who bully and harass our fellow citizens by responding to harm with accountability, action, and respect. It is my hope that the many will join me in the daily pursuit of making our community and schools safer and more welcoming for all. And thank you. >> That's my report. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any
067questions on this? >> Beth has her hand. >> Oh, sorry. >> Hi. Sorry, folks. I was late. I had a something done earlier today and I was asleep. Uh, but I did catch up. Thank you to Cat TV for for um recording all of these. And Tim, I'm really um glad to hear that those meetings are happening. and Susan with the the um editor of the banner and our director of communications. It's a totally a step in the right direction and I know we talked about that during um principal interviews and um you know as a as an SPSU board about our goals in highlighting the good things that are happening in our schools for the community. want to add to that that um we should remember social media is a great avenue to do
068that as well. And I think the kids really pay attention to um our social media accounts. I follow the Facebook group. I'm actually not even sure if we have an an Instagram group, but um I know I was lucky enough to accompany the go the girls golf team um to states last week and uh it was it was wonderful to be able to celebrate with them, but they did notice um that there was no shout out from their school. There was a shout out from uh Mount Anthony Country Club and thanks to them, but they were really looking for that that support from home. And so I think consistency in um highlighting those achievements when they're happening after they're happening um much like the AP scores, much like the soccer team and their recent achievements
069can just be an additional goal to highlighting. >> Just so you know, they did do a shout out at school in the announcements about the girls golf team. I recognize that that doesn't mean that it made it outside of there, but it it was done at school. >> That's so good to hear. I'll let them know. They weren't there. >> They all went up on Thursday, so >> And it was it was announced at the um football game, too. >> Yeah, we made sure to get a hold of Mr. Up. So, I'm so glad. Yeah, they went to the football game. They were wearing their medals. Um super excited. But I know there are other there are other teams too that um we just want to be able to hear all of the amazing things.
070And if there's um anything that you want me as the clerk to to do on behalf of the board for individual athletes or teams, let me know. Thank you. >> Um okay. are on to SPSC report. It's >> SPSSC report. I'm happy to give a brief report. It will be brief because we are hosting a German and it's the it's German it's the it's the closing closing dinner with the with the Germans tonight and I'm going to head out and and go do that. But um superintendent or sorry SPSU um the board many of whom are on this board had we've had a really really busy um and exciting I think last few months um where the board got together worked with um Tracy Ren from Vermont School Boards Association and Superintendent Payne and um
071for I've been told by a longstanding member of the SU board for the first time ever we have um established board goals for the upcoming year 202526 goals um which I have in front of me yet we're going to they're they're still in an edited version that we the the first group that's going to get them get to see them fully complete will be the SU board who worked on them and then we will be giving a much more formal presentation to the other boards within um within our SU uh in in upcoming meetings. But I can say in broad strokes um uh the first one is to is aligning the SVSU strategic priorities to budget investments. We heard a lot about that tonight, but really what are our strategic priorities as as formed by
072the information we're given and what are the things but from a budget perspective that we need to do to to pull those levers and make those things happen. Um, second one, and there's a number of bullet points under each of these that I'm not going to get into tonight. Second one is cultivating a strong board and superintendent um, partnership. That was talked about talked about um, a lot and it's something that um, we feel really um, really strongly about as a as an SU board. Um, and um, I think it's really going to help us achieve the goals especi those strategic priorities that were mentioned in the first one. And then the last one is um it won't be a surprise to anybody and there's still a lot of um because of all the uncertainty
073um but staying apprised of statewide developments and regional conversations related to Act 73. Obviously that's going to be in close partnership with Superintendent Payne who is you know on the phone with these people learning what's happening um on a very frequent basis. But it's going to be a matter of what does the board need to do to to act or react to those to those things. So, um it was a really it was a really great uh experience to be a part of to work with our board work with the the board members um again some of whom are present. Um it was a great experience to be a part of. Um watching the process evolve from probably in the first one after we had sat there for it was a roughly two hours extra
074maybe three >> maybe three. It was a long one and I think I I think I heard some kind of like what what are we doing? Oh my god, can we just get out of here? I'm starving. um to the last one where um even some of the skeptics in the room on that first one were giving hugs and saying this is one of the most amazing things that we've ever done as a board. Um, and the way so the way everybody came together, shared ideas, disagreed with one another, agreed with one another, um, but had some really great conversations, um, was really inspiring. And my hope as the SU board chair is that it can inspire similar work at the with the other boards within the SU so that we can see what's happening
075at the SU level see what's happening with the superintendence goals um which are also a you know closely feeding with these see what's happening there and then how can all of these boards work in a way that is pulling in the same direction uh and not pulling in opposite actions. Um so, um it was it was a great great part great thing to be a part of and I'm excited uh for what's to come as a result. >> And I'm going to go celebrate our German >> um one, but I think we will have an update at um next meeting on assistant superintendent on the assistant superintendent interim assistant superintendent. Is >> that the best? Okay, fine. Perfect. That's great. is not great. >> Any questions >> for dinner? We can head for dinner. >>
076Yes, I was just told it's at Madison. I better head there. >> Thank you. >> Thanks everyone. >> Um a very quick chair's report. We have other people that want to be out uh and need to be out. Um the I have not received any um requests or at least through my email I don't know if you have for um registration for conference for the schoolboard at the end of the month. I know >> you do have one member who plans to attend. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we'll be there. Okay. And then I am >> well so Okay. And I think the deadline is this evening maybe and I was going I need to register. I know that you have a conflict. Is that for those >> I will have a designated them. >> You
077have to designate. Okay. Sounds good. But there's just a last minute plug for anyone else. >> Kristen, does Amy know that you're gone? >> I do not think so. >> I will let her know. Okay. >> And I will read. >> So, I want to connect you with two people when you're there. >> Okay. Um, if anyone wants the information, I can get on. Uh, my only other last comment is um I just want to say thanks Tim for the comments about the H speech um that was online. you know, uh I know it's not inside our wall, like physically inside our walls, but that like Beth says that the you know, the kids, the students, they they see the social media um and it permeates like the culture in the school. And it's my
078personal belief that the comments online don't represent our values and we're fortunate to have dedicated teachers to create safe, inclusive classrooms, and the teachers and the adults in the building deserve the same. So that that would be Martin. That's my final. Anyone else has anything else? >> The warrants are killing. >> Yes. >> Sitting at that end with nothing else. >> Oh, sorry Beth. Go ahead. >> So sorry. Thank you for that statement, Stephanie. I think that represents my my feelings and understanding as well. And apologies if I missed this in the previous part of the meeting. Was there anything said about the um legislative breakfast that was held? Who attended? Who of our legis? >> Um >> yes, >> that >> I I did not I was going to include it in the uh
079SU because it's connected to an act 73 update that I was going to start with at the SU board. That's okay. >> Okay, I'll watch that one. Thank you. And on that going forward, are we set dates that should go further out than like do we have them set for every >> for the legisl >> it's a new I mean I'm restarting it. I'm happy to plan out far >> if you just just a little bit more notice that way >> remember. >> Yep. >> Any other comments? just is only a motion to make the motion to date. Okay. All in favor? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Only one. So >> yes, even though