001Ain. What I'd like to add to that though, please, is an additional executive session 1BSA 313A10, which specifically allows us to discuss security or emergency response measures, the disclosure of which could jeopardize public safety. So, I'd entertain a motion to that uh that effect, please. >> Second. >> Thanks. First and second. Great. Uh any discussion on adding that to the agenda hearing? None. All those in favor of adding it to the agenda, please signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Any extensions? Great. That passes. Very good. Um, so moving on to the posted agenda. We have the pledge of allegiance, public comment, approval of the consent agenda, finance, policies, operation, a discussion of our ongoing uh problem solving around SBUS, SBUSD, best educational use of facilities, an SU report, superintendent report, chair report, FYI,
002then our executive session. So, I would uh invite anyone who cares to to rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> May I make a suggestion that we slow that down a little bit the next time? >> The pledge of my agenda your recitation of the >> but you're too quick. >> Okay, you bet. Thanks. >> So, moving on to agenda item two, which is public comments. Um, Director G, do we have anyone online? uh who wishes to participate in public comment. >> Very good. We do have uh two members of the public with us. Come here, by all means. >>
003Kathy Clark, um Sh Elementary School, fifth grade. Um I'm here today request that the board put the practice of the saying of the pledge of allegiance back on the schoolboard agenda for discussion. The reason being is as of right now, the practice reads before classes begin. And this wording can be interpreted many different ways. Our principal at Shasper Elementary School elementary school is interpreting this wording the same as before school begins. This does not allow Shaspbury Elementary School teachers or students to say the pledge of allegiance as a class due to the fact that not all students are at school at this time. Class time at Shasbury Elementary School starts at 8:30, which is also the same time when students need to be at school before they are considered tardy. On top of this, all
004fifth and sixth grade teachers need to have their class at their special of the day by 8:30 a.m. As you can imagine, all fifth and sixth grade teachers have a very busy morning trying to get lunch count done, attendance taken, and get their class to their daily special by 8:30. In the past, as a fifth grade teacher, I have always said the pledge of allegiance with my class after they return from their special at 9:35, which is also during our morning meeting, according to our master schedule. This practice was working out very well until June 13th rolled around. On this day, at 9:00 a.m., I was called into principal Mr. Johnson's office. During this meeting, I was told by Mr. Johnson that I am not allowed to say the pledge of allegiance with my class
005during the school day and it needs to be done before the start of the school day at 8:30. I remember a time when this discussion was the topic and Sandy Foster stated we could revisit this practice if need be. I am asking the board to revisit the wording of the practice of the pledge of allegiance. I am asking instead of before classes begin for it to be changed to not during instructional time. This way, the pledge of allegiance would not be said during instruction, but would be able to be said with the whole class and not just those that come to school early before 8:30. I know that it's I know that some of the board are worried that students who choose to sit during the pledge of allegiance will have attention brought to them.
006Where is this worry during other events at school like concerts, games, and ceremonies? For example, this past sixth grade graduation started with our administration, teachers, students, and community opening up the sixth grade celebration with the pledge of allegiance. Almost one year of this, and the pledge of allegiance is still banned during the school day at Shasper Elementary School. I thank you for your time and consideration of opening up this discussion again. >> Who else? >> Hi. Um, Kelsey Kenyon, Shbury Elementary School. Um, in addition to what Kathy said, I have a couple of things um that I'd like to add on to that. Um, she had with the instructional time, it allows for our flexibility. And then I would love as again opening it up because I would love clarification moving forward for this coming
007school year. Um, our building administrators do not say the pledge daily. Our building principal doesn't even hang the American flag in his office. So, I'm wondering who's going to say the pledge next year with my students who said it all year with me this past year who watched me fight for their right to say it. Um, and to me that's confusing for them. >> Um, We were also told part of the argument was that it's it's not developmentally appropriate. It's too confusing for students at this age. But folks that made that argument also then we were seeing how uh protests and rallies and all that which is developmentally inappropriate for children of that age. Um I just feel like this has become a huge issue and it shouldn't be. Um we should be allowed to
008have the flexibility to say the pledge of allegiance with our students when it works for our in our classroom. um especially if our building administrator isn't going to say it or isn't going to put somebody in charge of saying it. Um I guess that's really all I have. So thank you for your time. >> Thank you. So moving on to agenda item three, the consent agenda which was attached. Um there are three rounds of minutes. Um the the June 29th minutes are not posted. Uh Richard had sent an email just noting that he wasn't he wasn't able to attend that. So u consult the cat TV recording of that I suppose. But the primary bulk of the consent agenda has to do with resignations and nominations. So um I guess to start with are there
009any proposed amendments to the minutes from either July 7th or June 10th. So hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as published. Please >> make the motion approve the agenda. >> Thanks. Do we have a second on that please? >> A second. >> Thanks Jeff. So Cindy and Jeff first and second. Uh do we have any discussion on approving the consent agenda as published? >> Hearing none. All those in favor of approving consent agenda please signify by saying I. >> I. Any opposed extensions? Rights. It passed. Thank you very much. U next we move on to finances. Uh the treasur report was posted. So that was in there and I see nope. It's not here. So any any questions regarding what was contained in the finance report? Okay. Hearing none.
010So we can move on from that. >> No acceptance. >> Um yes. Thank you. Thank you Sandy. So I would understand a motion to accept the treasures report as posted. Please. >> I make a motion to accept the treasures report. >> Thank you Sandy. Do we have a second on that? Thanks Stephanie. So first and a second. Any discussion on accepting the treasures report? Hearing none. All those in favor of accepting the treasures board, please signify by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? And that carries. Um, you'll note that the fifth agenda item is policies, even though it says none. Uh, in conversation with Superintendent Payne, the effort is going to be to sort of standardize what these agenda look like across the different boards. And so, we're just going to we're always
011going to have these things in place, even as placeholders, even if there's nothing to attend to. So, you will see there might be nights like tonight when you see something like policies noted, but there's nothing really to discuss about there. So about that. Can that include executive session? >> Say that again. >> Can that include executive session? >> So standing standing order. >> Yeah, except I I think well more than I think according to open meeting law, we need to be specific why we're entering into executive session. Um which is why I always cite the the actual legal language that's in there. So I mean I suppose what we could do and we would need to to float I'm kind of thinking on label line. We could just say executive session, you know, at all,
012but I also don't know that that is kosher. I don't know if that's if that's permitted to just simply say we're going to move into executive session. I think you need to say why you're moving into it and you only need to speak about >> but just to have it on there as a whole parking spot. >> Yeah. >> Much like policy, you may or may not enter in it. If you don't put down per an academic or a reason why they assume there's no, >> you know, board assistant, chair, whoever's running it, we here's the reason we're going in. here's a statute and let's go. But this way it's a matter of standing order and if we get something that comes in the day before we're not be going to be um out of
013compliance with warrant. It's always there. >> I think that's good. I mean I guess I'm good with trying it until we hear from someone that we shouldn't be doing it that way. >> Fair enough for appreciate it. >> Could we just have Amy know if there's anything an executive session before that? >> Say it again, please. >> Could we have Amy know something if there's executive I mean I guess there's a by line there. Is that >> right? Yeah. >> There's nothing that concession. >> That's right. Yeah. Yeah. >> It was the only reason each board had a different rotation. My concern as a new superintendent is I would miss something. So I asked the chairs could I could I just do you know public comment consent agenda. Do I so when I'm talking to
014directors in preparation for meetings, do I have anything from operations this evening? what you know is there space for the chair's report executive session I'm happy to revisit that I will probably clarify with legal counsel just to make sure that it doesn't hold you responsible you put it there you're supposed to have an executive session and then you get hung up because you didn't quote chapter and verse while you're in there so I'm happy to do that but it would be a good reminder for me too because I had more than one chair say I need an executive session this month Tim to could be any variety something happy to do that >> to shoot the conversation Good. >> So, that brings us to uh our double double number five, our second number five on
015the agenda, operations. Um so, Superintendent Pink, I'll turn that over to you, please. >> Right. Um oper Oh, operations. I do not have a um a report for that specifically. I've invited Nick Gold here as HR. It would part of my report as superintendent. Um and I just made a note to myself because Andy asked for something with regard to policy. Sorry. So there's no items under operations for the city. >> Okay. Very good. Brings us to the next agenda item which is the um SBU ESD best educational use facilities update. Um so Glenn spoke to this at our last meeting just saying that the the next meeting was going to be held in August. And Glenn I'm wondering are there any any updates for when that meeting will be taking place? >> Not seen
016one of those emails from nothing. There's been no meeting of the uh the committee. There's been no emails from the committee. got kick in what I don't have >> Glenn for my point. Who's the point person? >> It's no you Tim from Jen to tip. >> All right. All right. >> I will I have read the report. >> Okay. >> I have read the report. >> What's that >> facilitator? >> Um the I went on two of the trips. It was Jim and I Holly was there too verse one made just herself. So okay check the poly see how you guys back on it I didn't make go so I and talk speak with the superintendent about sort of what this this board holds priorities year forward this this is a pretty major undertaking that
017we began you know coming up on a year ago at this point I understand it is a big deal it also sort of got swallowed up by you know other things that came before the board last month you know expected things and then unexpected things I said last month and then last year last school year Um really this needs to be advanced as a as a priority of this board. We have these buildings, we have these needs. We need to know what to do particularly in the absence of any kind of extra money coming out of the sky somewhere to help us build it in. boards who like to entertain the idea of perhaps in inviting some from the other boards in because if we're talking about the best educational use an elementary school could
018serve you know an elementary building let's not pick a school but could serve as a alternative program for an MAU just you know I think if we're going to tackle it I think we should have a number of stakeholders at the table so that buildings are going to get used to the best of their ability. >> Yeah. I mean, I I don't think this, and I'll speak for myself as a member of the board, I have no uh interest in in micromanaging how that ad hoc committee does its work. You you you are all the ones at the table. You're the ones with the most up-to-date information. Whatever seems like the best approach to that, the members of that committee works for me. Certainly. Yeah. Um great. So, you know, let's what I'd like to
019do is to keep that as a regular um fixture on our agenda moving forward. Um again, just so we're sure to stay on top of again before soon we'll be in budget season before that. I mean, we know how we know how the year goes. We know how the how the churn churns. So, I really don't want to lose sight of that. Um great. Anything else on the the best use of the buildings? >> Okay, moving on to agenda item seven, the SPSU report. Did the SU meet this summer at all? >> We did. We um we our recent SPSU meeting included a retreat session with a consultant to guide us through district goal setting and to walk us through the district quality standards from the AOE and that was quite a lengthy procedure and
020we are going to continue on our work in our next session. >> Great. Next session mean the next regular schedule issue meeting? Yes. Tail end of the month somewhere. Great. Okay. Uh, anything else from our SB SBSU reps? Who's your turn this month? >> I think that sums it up. >> And that brings us to agenda item. So to our superintendent report. >> All right. So I'm going to beg everybody's indulgence. I'm going to have start my report with Nick G, who is director of human resources. And as Nick sets up, I just want to tell the uh tell this board and I will tell every board that I meet with as I work my way through the month that meeting with directors. Uh I've asked them to be present for meetings. So we've actually
021established a calendar for reports that will come out. Hopefully they will help inform your work. So this month we're asking for our staffing report, which Nick will talk about. Uh, next month we're going to have Holly back here to talk about buildings, how buildings opened up for the school year, work that was done over the summer, projects that are going forward. Um, in October we should have some clarity around grants. I think everybody's aware of the fact that we had some hiccups over the summer at the state or federal level, but that will be helpful to then inform your work in November and December. We talk a lot about budget and then in January uh a report for student achievement because I know we've talked about I've talked with individual members around uh some questions
022about that that would then set us up for February which is typically a an off month for a meeting and then your reorganization in March. So Nick is my first presenter u and as I said I asked him to come in and talk a little bit about u staffing at the SPSU to start the school year. Also, there was a question raised around I was reading the notes around uh provisional licenses and where we stand as an SU in comparison to our peers in the state. So, Nick provided u provided some information in the packet that was also a request from the board, but then there'll be additional information to see. >> Great. All right. Thank you. I'm going to stand like this so you can hear me and hopefully project to the to the
023screen as well. Um, I'm actually going to start with a little information about hiring and then get into the licensing. They're obviously, you know, connected. Um, this actually a very exciting hiring update, probably the most exciting that we've given in the last 5 years or so. Um, as an elementary district, you employ approximately 169 positions. Um, as we head into the school year, at the present moment, we have five vacancies. >> Nice. So, I just want to highlight five vacancies out of 169 positions. Um, I reflected on a staffing overview I gave to the SCSU board in 2022 in the middle of the year in January where we had 58 vacancies as an SU. Um, if that was the low point, we're heading towards, you know, uh, I won't say the high point, but certainly
024we're headed in the right direction. So, it's really nice. Um, we also of those five vacancies, we have plans in place that we are hiring. Just uh made an offer to a teacher uh maybe 20 minutes ago. So, uh, we are headed in a really good direction. Um, and while I don't I won't say by the next meeting we'll be fully fully staffed, um, I have to think we'll be even closer. So, um, that's really exciting. Tomorrow is new teacher orientation. Uh, we have 24 brand new teachers, meaning new to the SU entirely. Um, some of those are elementary teachers. Um, and we also have eight teachers who are sort of moving internally. So, 27 new teachers in total, 24 can join us tomorrow. Um, and so that's really exciting. Last year we had 35
025at orientation. So again, just a nice check-in. 35 new teachers who joined us last year, 24 this year. So again, trending in the right direction, I think. Um, so that's my very quick kind of staffing overview. Uh, similarly, it looks pretty good at our other districts as well. So I'll just say that I know we're elementary board here. So I wanted to transition to talking about licensing because obviously hiring and licensing of teachers are are are interconnected. I I won't read this whole thing to you. It's available uh for anyone to to review, but I'll just point out some highlights and I'll share one or two things on my screen that I think are relevant. Um we have approximately 350 teachers. We're one of the largest SUs or districts in the state of Vermont. Um
026and as you may or may not know, teachers can be employed under a number of different licenses. You have professional licenses, which is, you know, fully qualified teacher. They have gone through teacher preparation program. They have gone through peer review or some alternative pathway. And they have a professional license that they review. They renew every few years and those are considered fully qualified, you know, professional teachers. We then have temporary lensure. So those are come in two forms, emergency and provisional. Emergency always sounds very scary. I wish they would change the name. An emergency is a one-year license. Can be granted to a teacher in certain endorsement areas, not all. It cannot be granted to administrators um who have a bachelor's degree. It doesn't have to be specific to their endorsement. So that is always
027our sort of path of our last option would be to hire a teacher and grant them an an emergency license or request for them an emergency license. Um that is only good for one year, can't be extended, can't be renewed. A provisional license is far more common. Provisional licenses are two-year licenses with a third-year extension option under certain circumstances. uh applicants for those uh have to have some relevant education in that field or have passed their practice too um or maybe have been licensed in another state. There's a couple other um pathways that somebody can pursue a provisional license. Um and we do far more provisional licenses than emergency licenses. And like so many others, we do far more provisional licenses now than we did, you know, pre- pandemic. Uh the one chart that I've
028included here that you've seen shows the growth of provisional licenses across the state from 2017 to 2024. 2024 meaning fiscal year 24. So the 23 24 school year. Um so that's a doubling. If you were to highlight over this number, it's nearing 900 back in 2024. Given the trajectory and given what we've seen anecdotally, we would anticipate that a report for would continue that trend upwards. It's certainly been our experience here in the SU. Um, I noted here in our in our kind of two-pager, our growth over that same period essentially mirrors what we see at the state level from 22 up to 41. Um, last year we continued to increase up to 57 provisionally provisionally licensed teachers. And given the numbers um that we anticipate for this year, it looks like our numbers are
029going to hold steady almost to the exact number. We anticipate having 57 teachers total under either provisional or emergency licenses. So last year we were at 57 provisional and five emergency. We anticipate being at 52 provisional and five emergency. That number could change as a number of teachers are going through the professional license process now. So we would anticipate it might dip down just a little bit. Um from an administrative perspective AC again suwide um we have six administrators that could be associate directors, directors, principles, assistant principles um that are on some form of a provisional license. You cannot have an emergency license as administrator. As an elementary board, you have um a total of 19 employees. out of that uh 169 not all of those are licensed educators uh but a total of 19
030anticipated provisional and emergency licenses across the district. Okay. Um I want to show one other um two other charts that I think are helpful. All of these this one as well as the next two that I'm going to are all from a VPR article. This is something that I linked in the document and I think it's just helpful. It was certainly helpful for me as an HR professional to understand the trends that we're seeing across the state. Um they certainly reflect national trends as well. And I want to show you two other charts very very quickly and these are uh charts that folks at home can look at as well. Um one of them shows the number of people number of students completing traditional teacher prep programs. So this goes from 2000 to 2022. Obviously
031that's dropping substantially. Uh one would assume that's continuing to drop or at at a minimum stabilized. I use an anecdote that some of you have probably heard. I know superintendent Payne has heard it. I went to a career fair for STEM uh at UVM. This is probably two years ago. And I met a teacher. It was a a graduate from MAU in fact who was in the um high school science teacher program at UVM. they were if they wanted to become a secondary science teacher said that's wonderful I'm talking to them they said they were the only student in their cohort the only student at their grade level in their cohort um this is at our state university the only student going through that program to become a secondary uh science teacher so is obviously
032an area where we have a tremendous teacher shortage here in Vermont nationwide special education um school counseling and other areas that I I could go on and on. So this just sort of validates that trend that we're seeing. And the other thing, and this is also interesting, same article and from 2022. So the data is going to be a little outdated, but this is what they've pulled in. This is a this is a graphic for the entire state of Vermont by school. And it shows what percentage of teachers are fully licensed, what percent of teachers have professional licenses. You see that that ranges from 100% down to 50. And there are states across there are schools across the state of Vermont that have 50% of their teachers who are licensed. You can check out our
033schools here in Bennington and I don't know if this is and the SVUD, excuse me, not just Bennington. I don't know if this is scaled to everybody's viewing ability, but it ranges from 90% for schools like Shaffsbury, 100% for Woodford as of 2022, you know, 90% of the middle school and 90% Bennington Elementary, 90% Monument, 80% Molly Stark, 100% Powell, and I think I got most everybody here. If we include our our friends in Arlington, we get 90% and 100%. Oops. Oops, that's central. 90%. So, sorry if that was rushed. But what you're seeing here, and you can view it at your at your own leisure, is three years ago, uh, where we stood and where the rest of the state stood um, in regards to just percentage of teachers that have their professional licenses.
034I'm going to flip back to my other document um because what I what I presented here and I think is an exciting thing to think about is kind of the opportunities that we have here. Um because we don't anticipate this trend these you know these teacher shortages going away overnight. you know, even if students get interested in in in education and enter programs, there's a, you know, multi-year time span before we're we're seeing applicant pools like uh so many principles will reminisce about from pre-COVID where they might have 30 or 40, you know, qualified applicants. Um, but so when we talk about opportunities, the first thing I want to talk about is what have we done as a as an SU as a district? What are the great things we've done? It ranges from, you
035know, hiring international teachers. Uh, a lot of folks don't know that we've done that. We've hired teachers through the H1B and the J1 program. Uh, there's an article, um, nothing uh, nothing against North Country Union High School. They're doing great work. In January of 2025, they were cited as being the first school in Vermont to do this. We were a year ahead of them. You know, go SPSO. Uh, we were a year ahead of them. We've had a lot of success with that. Um, we've funded cohorts and the board has, you know, has funded cohorts to bring administrators, special education teachers, um, through cohorts to to kind of grow our own, if you will. Um, we are through course reimbursement, we're uh, paying for teachers to participate in the Grow Vermont Ed program. It's this
036awesome program. It's collabor collab collaboration between the NEA and Vermont State University to help teachers navigate peer review. Um, and also raising teacher salaries. I I can't say enough. I I can't say I have data to say that that has helped because I don't ask every new applicant, hey, are you here accepting this job because of our recent teacher salaries? But I have to think it's helping. You know, our salaries are competitive, more than competitive. Um, and so that that has positioned us very very well to uh to bring new teachers uh into the SCSU. When I think about opportunities and where we could go, there are some interesting things happening across the country. Different districts are doing things differently. States are starting to do things differently. Um, I would not presume to make any
037recommendations to the state, but I think some of the things they've done in terms of offering waiverss and trying to help to make the licensing process easier have been wonderful, and I hope they continue that trend. as a district through negotiations, there's some things that we might consider talking about in terms of granting years of experience to those who have industry experience as opposed to only teaching experience. That's something that some districts are are uh starting to experiment with. Uh talking about something like an apprenticeship program, uh something that you're seeing in other parts of the country. So, while the outlook is not necessarily um I can't say that 5 years from now we're going to have more teacher applicants that our numbers of provisional licenses and emergency licenses are going to go down. I
038think if we acknowledge that this is part of the new norm, at least for now, there are opportunities that we can take advantage of. There are ways that we can help bolster grow our own support uh more people to become educators um and hope fill our fill our own pipelines in the future. So, that's sort of my overview of staffing, my overview of licensing. There's some fun articles included in here that I would encourage anyone who's interested in learning more um to read. >> How do you get to that document? So, this is in the board packet. Okay. Um, and those links are all live, but I can also send it. >> No, that's fine. >> Absolutely. >> I just the the map, the interactive map that you pointed to, Nick, is the first link
039that's on there, you know, looking at the the percentage of um >> if you're going to read any one of those articles, the first article, I think, really encapsulates what's happening in Vermont, right? And then there's articles about what's happening nationwide, but it's all really good information. And there's some positive articles about what are people doing, which is also really exciting. Um, just please tell me if I have this correct, Nick. So, the the emergency license, the provisional license, they're all issued by AOE. They're overseen by a by the agency of education. This is not individual districts just sort of slap dash putting it together by themselves is there's a process. >> Correct. AOE. Okay. >> Yeah. So, we have to every temporary license is granted under the superintendent's license. So, we have to go
040through the licensing system and apply. We have to provide transcripts and other documents to support their application. it gets reviewed by the AOE and then they approve or or or deny the request for an application. Um so an emergency and a provisional license they are a licensed teacher. Obviously, it is a different set of standards than it is for a professionally licensed teacher, but they are considered a licensed teacher by the by the agency in education itself. >> And there are checks and balances in place and there are ways to ensure that even though it's called an emergency or provisional license, even though it's different than the full what I'm maybe professional, the full professional license, um >> there are still quality controls. Yes. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. And a lot of it is things
041that we do internally for new teachers whether they are on a temporary license or not like mentoring programs and things like that to support them. Um but yeah it's not just this this freeforall of lenture um where they're approving anything. We get you know we get told nope that person's not eligible nope we can't do that. Um we have good relationship with AOE but they have standards they have checklists they have things that we have to go through and make sure that people are qualified for the work that they're doing. What kind of questions do we have for director B? >> Um I have one uh 80% seems to be the low number of the percentage of in the entire uh school of licensed teachers. So of the 80% and please I don't want to
042put you on the spot at all if you can't answer this is perfect fine. of the 80% who really are highly qualified or are licensed, how long what is their average tenure? >> I wouldn't know that off the top of my head. Um, I would certainly say that the trend is more recent hires are going to be provisionally licensed than hires from five or 10 years ago. Right? So, I think the bulk of your licensed staff are going to be tenure tenure faculties, tenure staff who have been here you know, a number of years. Um, and I think if you were to look back at hiring from five or 10 years ago, you would see a higher percentage of staff coming in professionally licensed. So, I don't know if that answers your question, but >>
043it does. On a side note, I was just curious of the number of people that are and how long they have been in that in a school. >> That's a good question. I don't know that off the top of my head. So I I could have to look into that to give you a kind of sense of average tenure. >> I'd like to hit on the grow your own aspect that I heard. Are we entertaining something even at this early as a middle school or a high school level to say, hey, what do you guys think about, you know, is there anybody that has an interest in teachers? do your educational magic indulge in coursework around it and perhaps we'd grow our own. >> I don't know of any formalized programs. I know we have
044some work, you know, uh work to learn programs and other things. I can't say I know what's happening at the middle or high school level or or at Southwest our friends at Southwest Tech, but I love the idea. Right. If you're going to start a pipeline, start >> start growing. >> Start early. Yeah. Absolutely. tell you in the last uh two two three years we've had very recent MAU graduates come back and uh have been teaching for us mostly in the science and math departments and that has been a very pleasant surprise they've been very effective and again these are non-traditional candidates they didn't do a teacher prep y >> and a lot of mentoring a lot of support through the central office of you know new teacher support I will tell you uh I
045have a colleague who recently retired from well will retire from Mount Frelock in October and they are talking about the Birkshares of developing a teacher prep program for nontraditional candidates but it's also the same >> but even traditional candidates you know yeah if you give them the tools and they could have accelerated coursework through college or something you know again this is not my valley but the idea I think could be really thrown out to to many and back with some good results that's Great. Any other questions for Dr. >> Thanks. >> Um I can I can be quick. Uh just a couple of updates um that last uh in July uh Sandy already talked about it. We were working with Tracy Ren. She'll return to us uh in August. We'll be doing some goal
046setting. Uh last week I had the opportunity to lead my first uh leadership academy with uh building principles and assistant directors and sitting on the other side of the table for the first time. Um had a very had a very productive two days. Uh provided some updates for the coming school year. Allowed a lot of collaboration time which we got very positive feedback. Um they gave us a uh feedback sheet at the end so we'll kind of go from there and make our plans for next year. But I appreciate all of them joining us together and starting off the school year and they had a good energy about them as I move forward. Um the only other thing I was going to uh inform this board is that I'm off to my first training as
047a new superintendent. Starting tomorrow I'll be in Mont Pillar for two days. This is for new superintendent. For everybody's information, 51 superintendents in the state of Vermont. Seven of us are new to the superintendency this year. 17 new superintendent including us. So that means and that could be someone who was previously a superintendent somewhere else and has moved to another position. So one out of three superintendent is new to their position this year. So I don't know if folks were anticipating all the change coming down the pipeline with forum but uh there'll be a lot of new faces and I'm looking forward to meeting my my partners in crime with the rookie class uh for next two days. So that should be fun. Is that free? >> Any questions for our superintendent? >> Speak notes.
048>> Yes. >> Oh, yeah. Oh, and that's a good reminder because uh there will also be an opportunity in September. Business officers Renee Gordon in his case have a training up north. Uh and u the invitation always stands at the superintendent. So I will be joining uh Renee in that training as well. It's in the mid part of September. So, it should be good. I imagine that with all the change that could possibly happen, it'll be very fun. >> Yes. For that >> for that moment. Who knows? >> Great. Thank you, Superintendent Payne. Uh, so that brings us to the chair's report, which which I'll keep brief. Um, we have two weeks from tomorrow when our our new school year begins for our SVU ESD uh students and teachers and families. Um, you know, one
049of the one of the things that has always uh felt like it's been very easy to be a board member is just the the the care and the commitment and the dedication that our our teachers and staff demonstrate month after month, year after year after year. And I hope everyone had a rejuvenating, restful summer full of fun and sunshine and whatever else might be needed. Uh, and uh that they come to to school in two weeks from tomorrow. Uh, raring to go. Um, just thank you for everything that that has been done in the past. Thank you. Everything will that will be done this year and I look forward to hearing great reports about Thursday's bank and all the new things that come from them. So, thank you very much. Um, agenda item 10 is
050the FYI, the budget status report which was posted and then of course as we noted at the beginning of this uh meeting, we now have two reasons to enter into executive session uh pursuant to 1BSA 3137 and 1BSA 313810. So, um I would accept a motion to move into executive session uh for the reasons stated that we invite uh Superintendent Payne and Director G into that into that executive session. >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Glenn. We have a second on that, please. >> Second. >> Thanks. First and a second. Any discussion on the motion? >> Are we staying in for both counts or are we coming out and going back? >> We'll stay in. Yeah, we'll stay in. Um and again the understanding is if we need to make any decisions those
051of course have to take place outside of executive session but yes are we going to um discuss what the two teachers were discussing. >> So we will discuss that as a board to figure out what agendas for the next month want to look like. Um we shouldn't do it now because the the new the topic wasn't worn as a as a as a topic for discussion. So, as as we've typically seen, many people are interested in in the pledge of allegiance and the status in the pledge. So, if we're going to have a conversation about it, I want to warn so everyone in the community knows and they can come if they want to be a part of that. >> I just want to get to the bottom of that. >> I mean, for my
052stance, I think we have come to the bottom of it. But if we as a board decide we I mean, not that everyone is happy because I know that's not and I think we all recognize that when we when we have a case where where some where one position is yes, do it, the other position is no, don't do it. any decision or rather no decision is going to please everyone. So I think this board was really thoughtful in the compromise that it came up with but if we as a board want to continue to discuss it that's for this board to decide and we should warn it so that people know that we're talking. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Do >> um so any discussion uh any further discussion about the motion on the
053floor regarding moving into executive session? >> Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of moving into executive session as described please signify by saying I. >> I. Any oppose? Any extensions? Great. >> Thank you very much. Good luck. >> Um Nick or Tim, if I email you something, would you be able to print out copies for the board, please? >> Yeah, I can do it. Thanks. Um so we got So the first thing offline we are >> Yeah, we're not out yet. >> Are we out yet? You are out. You are the only ones here. You know what? Do this. There it is. Okay, great. Um, so I would entertain a motion, please, to exit executive session. >> Make a motion that we exit. >> Thanks, Eddie. Second. Glad second. Any discussion on exiting executive
054session? Hearing none. All those in favor of executive session, please signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? We are out of executive session. And that exhausts our posted agenda. So I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Please >> make the motion. >> Sending second with Jeff. Uh any discussion on adjourning? Hearing none. All those in favor of adjourning, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? We are journ. Thanks everybody.