[0:57] All right.

[0:57] Good evening. I'll call the special meeting

[0:59] of the Berry Unified Union School District

[1:01] to order at six o'clock.

[1:03] Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.

[1:10] I pledge allegiance To the flag on the

[1:13] United States of America to the very Republic

[1:16] for Ship stands for one Nation under God, indivisible,

[1:20] with liberty and justice for all.

[1:24] You'll now take a brief mindfulness moment.

[1:48] All right, moving on to additions or deletions.

[1:51] We do need

[1:52] to add an executive session under one VSA 3 1 3

[1:57] A one for confidential attorney client communications.

[2:03] Are there any other additions or deletions?

[2:11] All right. Hearing none

[2:15] For that one.

[2:16] I'm sorry. I was hoping you guys can add a student voice

[2:18] before public comment so the students don't have to wait

[2:21] around till like 10 o'clock at night.

[2:23] I, we will have public comment

[2:25] for all topics coming right up after this agenda item.

[2:30] I was asking for a student voice section so

[2:32] that we can do that first.

[2:33] Get the kids so they can go home and get some rest.

[2:37] If the, if the kids, if the adults in the room can agree

[2:40] that the kids go first during public comment.

[2:43] Yes. Yes, yes.

[2:44] Thank you so much. Alright, do we have a motion to

[2:49] approve the agenda as amended?

[2:51] Moved by Ian second. Seconded by Jackie. Discussion.

[2:56] Emily, where

[2:57] Would you like to add That?

[3:00] We will add that under well at the end.

[3:03] So what would that be? Number six or 5.1?

[3:08] 5.1. Executive session. Sure. Thank you.

[3:14] Any other questions Lindsay? What's 5.1?

[3:17] It's an executive session under VSA 3 1 3 A one

[3:21] Confidential attorney client communications.

[3:28] Alright, I'm gonna take a vote. All those in favor say aye.

[3:32] Aye. Opposed? Motion passes.

[3:37] Alright, moving on to public comment first lemme do a check

[3:42] and make sure, can everyone in the room hear me okay?

[3:44] Is this a good volume? Yes. Okay, thank you for that.

[3:48] So before we begin, I wanna explain

[3:50] how we'll handle public comment tonight.

[3:53] Given where we are after a third failed budget vote,

[3:56] we're gonna do things a little differently.

[3:59] We'll have public comment now before the budget discussion

[4:02] and again at the end of the meeting

[4:05] or if the board takes action.

[4:07] That way the community will have a chance to respond to

[4:10] what they've heard and you can use either

[4:12] or both opportunities to speak to the budget.

[4:17] Normally public comment is limited to two minutes

[4:20] and we do this to give everyone an equal opportunity

[4:23] to speak and to make sure that the board gets

[4:25] through its business tonight we're gonna double that

[4:28] and allow four minutes per person per public comment period.

[4:32] I designated Ian to keep time

[4:34] and we will kindly let you know when time is up

[4:38] so we can get to everyone who would like to speak tonight

[4:43] because there are likely to be questions

[4:45] about the budget tonight.

[4:46] We'll also make an effort

[4:47] to answer factual questions when we can

[4:50] if appropriate a board member

[4:52] or administrator with the relevant information may respond.

[4:57] So that's a little different from our usual

[4:58] public comment process.

[5:00] And the goal here isn't to debate or fight with anyone

[5:04] but to share information with one another

[5:07] and find a path forward that unites our community.

[5:11] We welcome concerns and strong disagreement.

[5:14] We do ask that comments remain respectful

[5:16] and focused on the issues.

[5:18] If comments become personal, disrespectful

[5:21] or threatening the chair may rule a speaker out of order.

[5:26] And if I could share something personal before we begin.

[5:29] I remember the first time I spoke at a public meeting.

[5:33] I was in eighth grade at a school board meeting

[5:35] where the board was considering cuts

[5:37] including cuts to teachers.

[5:40] One of those teachers was one of my favorites.

[5:44] I remember standing in that crowded room waiting to speak.

[5:48] I was so nervous but it was so worth it to speak up.

[5:54] It was the first time I had stood in solidarity

[5:56] with my community and together we made a difference.

[6:01] So we understand that for some of you tonight standing up

[6:05] and speaking about something you care deeply

[6:07] about may feel the same way.

[6:09] We also understand the disillusionment Many

[6:12] of us are feeling about the challenges we're facing

[6:16] economically, locally, statewide and nationally.

[6:21] But in moments like these, an open

[6:23] and honest exchange of ideas as part of how we stay true

[6:27] to our values as a community

[6:29] and find our way towards solutions.

[6:32] And so with that we'll begin public comment.

[6:36] We ask that when you come forward, whether in person

[6:38] or online to please state your name for the record.

[6:43] Can just a reminder, we also have a sign-in sheet.

[6:46] I know some people are late to come in

[6:49] but we do need, I don't know where it went.

[6:53] FYI.

[6:54] Yes please fill that out

[6:55] because we need that for our meeting minutes.

[7:01] Alright, so I'm gonna start online

[7:05] with Natalie.

[7:11] Natalie,

[7:12] Well that's my wife.

[7:13] I'm using her computer. My name is Bill.

[7:16] Hi Bill. Hi George.

[7:20] Just this won't even take two minutes.

[7:22] When I, the one of the previous budget votes,

[7:26] the information that I had was that

[7:29] the budget was going up 10% and or 10 point something.

[7:34] And I said well that's absolutely ridiculous.

[7:36] I'm a former principal

[7:40] but then I don't know where it was.

[7:42] It floated through. There was some information

[7:44] that the actual overall budget, so the per pupil

[7:48] expense expenses is up 10%.

[7:50] Partially 'cause it was low, partially

[7:53] 'cause that's, there's a funny way

[7:54] that the agency construes pure per pupil cost.

[7:59] But if I'm correct, the actual budget

[8:02] increase is two overall is 2.1

[8:05] or two point something, right?

[8:09] That's Correct. Which is say very,

[8:11] I know it's still gonna, you know,

[8:13] make our property taxes go up.

[8:15] That's another battle I believe I feel really,

[8:20] really bad And empathize, not only sympathize

[8:25] for folks who any increases is hard to swallow

[8:29] and hard to pay but I a 2.1%

[8:33] or whatever that is, budget increase overall

[8:37] to me feels pretty respectful.

[8:39] And I'll vote yes again as I did this last time. Thanks.

[8:45] Thanks Bill. Is someone in the

[8:48] room

[8:51] Andy? Hey guys,

[8:55] I'm Andy Evans.

[8:58] I am a senior student of Spalding High School.

[9:01] I participate in two varsity sports. I'm in numerous clubs.

[9:04] I'm a member of NHS.

[9:06] I'm in the band and I have been elected

[9:08] as the student body president of Spalding High School.

[9:11] This position means that my peers saw me as the best fit

[9:14] to speak for them in front of our administration,

[9:17] our school board and our community.

[9:20] I do not take this responsibility lightly at all

[9:22] and as soon as I saw the budget did not pass, I knew

[9:25] that nothing good could come out of this

[9:28] as is expected of me.

[9:30] I actually started asking questions

[9:32] and educating myself on what needs to happen

[9:35] as a result of a budget not passing.

[9:37] And I understand that it is the possibility the removal

[9:40] of funding to numerous cornerstones

[9:42] of our student community is no longer an empty threat.

[9:45] As many have been saying when I stand

[9:49] before the school board in this budget committee,

[9:51] I understand it is a group of people

[9:53] who obviously do not want to be in this position.

[9:55] But I do also understand

[9:57] that you guys have nowhere left to turn.

[10:00] So when being present inside of the community

[10:02] of Spalding in the community of Bay as a whole,

[10:05] you can truly understand what holds us together.

[10:08] And before you is an example of the strong-minded group

[10:12] of people that would like to explain to you

[10:14] and the people of Barry that you are not helping us

[10:17] and you are not sticking it to the man by voting no.

[10:21] You are messing with the possibility

[10:22] of pulling apart the community.

[10:23] We as students, with the help of our coaches, our coaches

[10:27] and teachers work to build, we understand that the costs

[10:31] provided by these taxes are immense.

[10:33] But please do not take this out on us.

[10:35] We have clearly cut all the costs we can

[10:37] and we are far less expensive in comparison to the schools

[10:41] around us shining the blame on our schools.

[10:43] And the school board will do no good for you

[10:46] and will only destroy the community for your children.

[10:50] So for those of you saying

[10:51] that students should not be worried that we should stay out

[10:54] of this and that we have been put up to it

[10:56] by our principal, you're dead wrong.

[10:59] We have trusted you to advocate for us and our

[11:01] and have our best interests in mind our entire lives.

[11:04] Look where that has gotten us.

[11:09] If you knew and you truly cared, you would know

[11:11] that the students of Spalding are passionate.

[11:14] Although we understand nothing is certain, we understand

[11:16] that nothing good can come from this

[11:18] and that it will negatively affect our

[11:19] community in numerous ways.

[11:22] We do not relent and we will fight for

[11:24] what we deserve and what we have earned.

[11:26] So we'll not stop, we'll follow these decisions to

[11:29] where they start and we'll work hard

[11:31] to get the funding we deserve.

[11:33] Personally I leave you with this, educate yourselves

[11:37] before you defund our education.

[11:40] That's enough for me. Here's a look into the students

[11:42] who are going to be affected by this

[11:45] who also want to speak to all of you.

[11:56] Thank you Andy. And I was reminded

[11:58] that we are gonna give the opportunity for the kids

[12:01] to speak first, the students to speak first.

[12:13] Go ahead. It looks good. Yeah.

[12:20] Cool. My name is Luke Libo.

[12:22] I'm a senior here at Spading

[12:24] and like Gadi, I two play soccer.

[12:26] We understand that these times are very difficult.

[12:29] You know, no one wants to pay more than they have to,

[12:33] but at the end of the day, cutting sports

[12:35] isn't where we should go.

[12:36] This is probably one of the last places we need to go.

[12:39] Sports don't just build character, they build character

[12:42] for people, they bring the community together.

[12:45] Overall it's just, it just, it's wrong to cut sports.

[12:49] It derives these kids from the chance to contribute

[12:53] to their community to make new friends,

[12:55] to have the high school experience they truly deserve.

[12:58] And without it, ah, I know at least for myself,

[13:02] I wouldn't be in the position where I am.

[13:04] I've met so many great friends, I met

[13:06] so many great people in and outside of the community.

[13:09] Sports overall just they shouldn't be removed.

[13:13] Like I think you all understand,

[13:15] I'm assuming you've all played a sport before.

[13:18] The actually great experiences you've had come from sports

[13:21] friendships, numerous things.

[13:24] So overall sports are vital to our experience

[13:28] as high schoolers and our experience as people

[13:30] and just making us overall better.

[13:32] And I know everyone out here would agree

[13:34] that without sports they

[13:35] wouldn't be the same person they are.

[13:37] Thank you.

[13:56] My name is Eva Van Norman.

[13:57] I'm a sophomore and I'm three sport varsity athlete

[14:00] and vice president of Kiko.

[14:02] My message is not just for the school board

[14:04] but also for the voters And something that's important

[14:07] for your our town and city people to know is

[14:09] that being a sping student is

[14:12] not what you might think it is.

[14:13] It means whenever we go to another school or game

[14:16] or talk to our friends that live as close

[14:18] as 10 minutes down the road, their experiences are

[14:21] vastly different than ours.

[14:23] We walk onto another campus with a turf field

[14:25] or nice locker rooms or brand new uniforms

[14:28] or tens to have their logos on it.

[14:30] We know that we are the have-nots.

[14:31] We don't have the same experiences,

[14:32] we don't have the same opportunities,

[14:34] we don't have the same support as our peers do.

[14:38] I should have to defend my school when people find out

[14:41] where I go or laugh in my face

[14:43] or judge me from being from Barry.

[14:45] And even though so little that school has to offer,

[14:48] fortunately I've made great connections through the sports

[14:52] and club that I'm a part of.

[14:54] Taking those opportunities away from children just

[14:56] 'cause they're angry about high taxes is not fair to us

[15:01] and there will continue to be tax problems.

[15:03] People aren't gonna wanna move here,

[15:04] they're not gonna wanna live here anymore.

[15:06] You're still gonna have to pay high taxes

[15:09] 'cause there's not gonna be as many people to pay them

[15:12] through all the laughter that has been thrown in my face,

[15:14] I can honestly say this is the first time I've actually felt

[15:16] ashamed being from Barry.

[15:18] I think we all deserve better and you should do better

[15:35] Board.

[15:36] My name is Diego Omo.

[15:37] I've been playing sports here and Barry my entire life

[15:40] and I honestly could say that I don't see

[15:44] how sports could removed, would not affect my life.

[15:46] My life revolves around sports. Everything I do is sports.

[15:50] I've met so many friends

[15:51] that I probably would never have met

[15:53] or never be a part of through sports

[15:55] and as speaking for the soccer team,

[15:59] yeah we get laughed at sometimes

[16:01] but I feel some sort of pride being from Barry

[16:04] and showing that I know a lot of us here, even though

[16:08] Sping hasn't been you know, the top pinnacle of sports,

[16:11] a lot of us here.

[16:13] I know it means a lot for us.

[16:14] So taking that away from us would just make Barry even more

[16:18] of like, oh you're from Barry, why don't you move?

[16:20] Why aren't you like go to race, go

[16:23] to wherever like move go pillar.

[16:25] Like it means a little bit more for us

[16:27] to have a little chip on our shoulder to be a part of here.

[16:29] So if you take that away from us, we don't have much. So

[16:47] Hi my name is Annabel Mira

[16:49] and I'm a freshman here at Spalding High School.

[16:53] I have grown up playing sports since I could walk.

[16:59] I also don't see how removing sports

[17:02] or removing clubs do any good to the student body.

[17:09] The sports

[17:10] and clubs are one

[17:11] of the only things actually keeping people from doing

[17:14] harmful things to themselves.

[17:16] These force people to push themselves past

[17:19] what they think they can do

[17:20] and it gives them a stronger mentality,

[17:24] it boosts their confidence.

[17:26] I for 1:00 AM not usually a very confident person

[17:30] but I am standing here talking in about front

[17:34] of over 50 people

[17:37] and this has all come from my sports.

[17:40] It makes us focus on our education

[17:43] because without keeping our grades up we would not be able

[17:47] to play the sports that we want to play.

[17:51] And I have made so many strong connections through

[17:55] my sport, which is soccer.

[17:57] I'm on the JB girls soccer team and I am very proud of that.

[18:02] I am proud to be from Spalding

[18:04] but without that,

[18:07] without my sport I don't see what I would do.

[18:12] Thank you guys.

[18:24] Good afternoon. My name's Elizabeth Howard.

[18:26] I'm currently a senior here at Folding

[18:29] but I wanna tell you a story about when I was a freshman.

[18:32] When I was a freshman I arrived here.

[18:34] I had almost no friends, basically zero friends

[18:38] and every single morning I did not really

[18:42] want to come to school 'cause of that.

[18:43] But then I joined the drama club and

[18:46] after that I had made almost like so many friends,

[18:50] so many people there understood me.

[18:52] They knew who I liked, I knew what they liked, everyone,

[18:55] everyone got together there.

[18:57] It was amazing. And

[18:59] after that year I felt so much better about myself

[19:02] because that community that we built, I had joined

[19:05] so many more clubs after that.

[19:06] I'm now in the library club.

[19:08] I'm one of the co-presidents in that.

[19:10] I am now in the volleyball as as you see.

[19:13] And I'm having so much fun.

[19:15] Even though I'm not the best actor, I'm not the best player,

[19:18] I'm not the greatest at everything I do.

[19:20] I am proud to be in the clubs that I am in

[19:23] and I'm worried for the freshmen

[19:25] that come here next year if they do not have any

[19:27] sports or clubs to join.

[19:29] If they're in the situation that I am in,

[19:31] then I'm worried about them

[19:33] because if they come in they have no friends,

[19:36] they feel lonely, then they'll not want to come to school.

[19:39] I know many people that the only reason they come to school,

[19:42] the only reason they keep their grades up is

[19:44] so they can play their sports.

[19:46] If freshmen have to feel like that,

[19:47] if freshmen can't even have that chance to play the sports

[19:50] to keep their grades up, to stay at school, I,

[19:53] I really am worried about them.

[19:56] But yeah, thank you so much for your time.

[20:07] My name is Ethan Haw.

[20:09] I play three sports at Sporting

[20:11] and I'm kind of on like both ends

[20:13] of like people not respecting your team

[20:15] but also I'm on the wrestling team, both

[20:18] football team and lacrosse team.

[20:21] I feel like sports first met everyone here.

[20:24] I mean I feel like without sports that's spa.

[20:27] I mean I bet you guys have all heard about the drug problems

[20:31] with like kids struggling for marijuana abuse, nicotine

[20:35] and even worse I feel like without having

[20:39] that sports like having sports at Spalding will lead a lot

[20:43] of kids down that wrong path And I'm thankful for

[20:47] everyone I've met, met here.

[20:52] I'm not trying to get personal but this stress over

[20:57] possibly losing my senior year in sports is like very hard.

[21:02] And I know it's hard for a lot of even freshman, sophomore,

[21:06] juniors and seniors.

[21:09] Without sports a lot of us wouldn't be able to,

[21:13] wouldn't be here in my opinion.

[21:16] And kind of like falling off everyone.

[21:20] And I think having sports in our community really

[21:25] brings the community together

[21:27] and also helps people build friendships

[21:31] for long, long lasting opportunities and stuff.

[21:47] Hello, my name is Charlie Cole at Spalding.

[21:50] I compete in cross country.

[21:52] I'm in the band and I was elected

[21:53] as an ninth grade class president.

[21:56] In my opinion, if you get rid of sports

[21:58] or extracurriculars you are going to see

[22:01] dropout rates increase grades lower

[22:03] and substance abuse increase sports are what makes lots

[22:08] of kids get up in the day and go to school.

[22:10] If we didn't have sports,

[22:12] our community wouldn't be what it is.

[22:14] They bring us together and they teach kids about leadership,

[22:18] teamwork and build character.

[22:22] If we didn't have this, I don't know where any

[22:24] of us would be right now,

[22:26] but I certainly want to be here talking to all of you about

[22:29] how we need this in our community.

[22:32] I've seen many things which come great from sports

[22:36] and many things which come not great but more good than bad.

[22:40] And I believe that getting rid of sports will change that

[22:43] and we'll see lots more bad than good.

[22:46] Thank you.

[22:55] Hi board. My name is Ella Morrison

[22:57] and I'm a freshman at Spalding.

[22:59] I participate in soccer

[23:00] and am planning to participate in basketball.

[23:02] I'm also the treasurer of the freshman body.

[23:06] I recognize that all of you are on this board

[23:07] because you care for the best interest of our community.

[23:10] Well I know that the board does not have full control

[23:13] of whether or not our budget passes.

[23:15] I do know that you all make decisions on what gets cut.

[23:18] I also believe that sports are a part of the best interest

[23:20] for everyone in this community.

[23:22] Sports give students whether they participate in sports

[23:25] themselves or not, opportunities to connect

[23:27] with the community and their school.

[23:29] Many of the students that attend our school believe

[23:31] that they belong here because of the friendships

[23:33] that they've made for sports.

[23:35] I know that for me personally,

[23:37] coming into freshman year was one

[23:38] of the most intimidating things I've ever had to do.

[23:41] Soccer gave me a chance to meet

[23:43] and talk to some of the people

[23:44] that I was gonna be attending school with.

[23:47] This made walking through those doors on the first

[23:49] day a thousand times easier.

[23:52] It would be deeply saddening if next year's freshmen didn't

[23:54] have the chance to experience this.

[23:57] Even if students don't choose

[23:58] to participate in sports themselves, many

[24:00] of us do things like attend soccer, football, baseball,

[24:03] field hockey, hockey and track cross country games or meets.

[24:08] By attending these events, students have the chance

[24:10] to have fun and engage with other people.

[24:13] These events also bring in money for the classes.

[24:15] Spading sometimes, for example the football game on nine 11

[24:18] raise money for our seniors.

[24:20] These events on top

[24:22] of everything else can also offer volunteer opportunities

[24:24] which is highly important to have successful students.

[24:27] As we all know, everyone needs those 40

[24:29] hours of community service.

[24:31] For example, a cross country meet needed volunteers

[24:33] to help out various techs.

[24:35] Attendance is also heavily impacted by sports.

[24:38] Sports may be the only reason that people attend school

[24:41] because in order to participate in your sport

[24:43] and attend games and practices you have to go to school.

[24:47] I believe that without sports we would see a decrease in

[24:49] attendance, which is currently already lower than we all

[24:52] know it should be because sports gives students

[24:54] opportunities to connect, make an impact in their community,

[24:58] gain volunteer hours, raise money

[25:00] and give them a reason to go to school.

[25:01] Cutting sports would be wrong. Thank you.

[25:11] Hi everyone. I am from Northfield.

[25:14] I am, my name is Gabrielle Bach

[25:17] and I am, I have been the

[25:20] Spalding girls hockey goalie since I was a freshman.

[25:25] Spalding has become my second home

[25:29] and I really think that to all voters

[25:34] that you need to think about even if you don't have a

[25:39] kid in the school program, that you need to think about

[25:44] how you were when you were in high school

[25:47] and that you probably played a sport

[25:50] or had people around you that played sports

[25:52] and you know that those are really fundamental to

[25:57] being a teenager and growing up in a place

[26:00] where you can feel like you belong.

[26:03] And I believe that it's just not

[26:08] what we need to cut.

[26:09] And while I don't have a parent

[26:13] that can vote in this, I still believe

[26:16] that everyone should think about how you vote

[26:22] for this next budget and who it will affect.

[26:26] 'cause I will be affected too.

[26:29] A lot of students from other schools will be affected.

[26:33] And yeah, I lead with that.

[26:43] My name is Noah Dunster

[26:44] and I just wanted to talk about one

[26:46] of the programs at Spalding that makes a big impact.

[26:51] Spalding Wrestling has made such a big impact on me

[26:54] because like just all the coaches,

[26:56] sorry I'm totally having a mind like break.

[26:59] But I wanna start from again,

[27:01] in seventh grade I never took my hoodie off.

[27:04] I was always really self-conscious about my entire

[27:06] body and everything about that.

[27:08] And finally towards the end

[27:09] of eighth grade I finally took my hoodie off

[27:11] because I started wrestling,

[27:12] started being way more confident in my body

[27:15] and it really like changed me and it was

[27:17] because of all the coaches I like did

[27:20] that like I didn't have rides at practice every day

[27:22] because both my parents had really like long hours.

[27:25] Like I had **** O'Mara all the coaches, like I can't think

[27:29] of one that didn't bring me to practice when I needed one.

[27:32] And you know, it almost makes me cry

[27:34] because this is my senior year

[27:35] and if I like could think about

[27:38] like all these guys are my little brothers, like Caden call

[27:42] Fallen like everyone below me really need

[27:45] to feel like I'm making a difference in 'em

[27:48] because that's just how it is.

[27:50] And like sorry I'm totally having like a mind break

[27:54] but I just wanted to speak about that.

[27:59] Had this whole thing planned out, you're doing well.

[28:04] We've got four minutes. Like this is my senior year

[28:07] and if it, I couldn't have it.

[28:09] Oh I had everything planned.

[28:11] Oh like the amount

[28:13] of times I cried over these like these guys don't even know,

[28:15] he almost quit the wrestling team last year

[28:19] 'cause of something that happened and I cried to my coach,

[28:21] he couldn't make it tonight but I cried for like an hour

[28:24] because the thought about him quitting like Caden

[28:28] and Olan, I if Oland's here, Olan Mason,

[28:31] they all transferred here from a different school just

[28:33] to come here so they could

[28:34] participate in Spaulding wrestling.

[28:36] It's really made like a big difference

[28:38] on their life and my life.

[28:39] My best friend Mikey, he transferred here

[28:41] and I couldn't imagine like a life without him.

[28:44] And Charlie too. I wish they were here.

[28:47] Like it really like the only reason they

[28:49] at Spaulding is 'cause of that.

[28:50] And I don't wanna talk about like the statistics about like

[28:54] the money, all that,

[28:55] but like stuff that you'd be ripping away from kids

[28:58] and like it would just be so like detrimental

[29:01] to like Spalding especially.

[29:04] And I'm totally, I'm just gonna go into my time limit

[29:12] every day that like I put on my shoes like

[29:15] made such a big difference.

[29:16] I've had two with knee surgeries.

[29:18] I want to keep coming back to the sport

[29:19] because it's the only thing

[29:21] that's like made you wanna do it.

[29:23] Like the only reason I've had those surgeries is

[29:26] so I could progress in my sport.

[29:28] It's not even just that like the relationships you build

[29:31] with your coaches and your friends.

[29:33] Like I wouldn't, I don't even know I,

[29:37] I probably wouldn't even come to Spalding

[29:38] 'cause we don't have buses here and I

[29:41] would totally be at Williamstown.

[29:42] I live right on the border but I had

[29:44] to convince my parents like I've had coaches bring me

[29:46] to school and bring me home from school

[29:48] because of my parents' hours.

[29:49] Like I don't, I don't even know what I'd be at.

[29:52] I'd be at Williamstown like

[29:55] probably crying some bench on the basketball team

[30:02] One more time.

[30:03] So I've just been like,

[30:08] I've been so inspired like we have guys above me

[30:11] that have been like trying bring into my goals.

[30:13] Oh, one thing I did want touch on is we have

[30:16] what make like three people,

[30:18] three coaches are being paid like to be coaches.

[30:21] We have like 20 coaches and like three are being paid.

[30:25] They just love coming back and supporting our community.

[30:27] Like people, like there's so many seniors

[30:31] that just come back and they're in the club room,

[30:33] like just wrestling two to three days a week all year long.

[30:37] Like we don't stop and it's because we love it.

[30:40] Like we just have so much fun

[30:42] and it's like the only like we don't even care about.

[30:58] Hi, my name is Spell Thomas.

[30:59] I'm a freshman here represent from

[31:01] Spalding Works Field Hockey.

[31:03] And I know I haven't been here long,

[31:05] but for me joining field hockey has meant more

[31:07] than learning how to play a sport.

[31:09] It has given me people to look forward to seeing every day

[31:13] teammates who push me to be better in a place

[31:15] where I feel like I belong.

[31:17] I know I'm not the only student

[31:18] who has found this through sports.

[31:20] Sports can also teach students things that we can't,

[31:23] that we can learn outside the classroom.

[31:26] They teach us how to communicate, how to work with people

[31:28] who may be different from us, how to handle losing

[31:31] and how to keep going and something

[31:33] doesn't go the way we hoped.

[31:35] We learned that our actions don't affect the whole team.

[31:38] Oh our actions affect the whole team

[31:40] and not sports are about the athletes

[31:44] so, oh my god, sorry.

[31:46] Sports are only about the athletes.

[31:48] When we have games, our community comes

[31:50] to watch our family's friends, coaches and teachers.

[31:54] This creates memory. Students can carry on with them

[31:56] after graduation.

[31:58] If sports were taken away, we aren't just losing games

[32:00] or practice, we are losing a place

[32:02] where students can make friends.

[32:04] I understand that our school has to make critical decisions,

[32:07] especially when it comes to money and resources.

[32:09] But I think it's important to consider not only

[32:12] what sports cost but also what they provide

[32:13] to our school and community.

[32:16] Even in this short amount of time, I see

[32:18] how much a team can meet people including me.

[32:21] I want students who come after me

[32:22] to have the same experience I did.

[32:24] Please don't take away something

[32:25] that gives students reason for the walk.

[32:33] Hi, my name Ising and

[32:37] before I begin I just wanna say this is an incredible

[32:39] community moment at Spalding.

[32:41] We have been trying to build our community

[32:44] and I'm in a group called Upper Spalding that's

[32:47] that's trying to build it

[32:49] and I have never seen us come together like this before

[32:52] and it is so moving to see that

[32:54] and it just shows how important these things are.

[32:59] Clubs and sports are the building blocks of our community

[33:04] and when you knock those blocks down you don't have it.

[33:08] It's hard to build it back up.

[33:10] We don't have a strong community without

[33:13] those building blocks.

[33:15] A goal for Spalding this year is to build that community.

[33:19] So it's really hard when you don't have the building blocks.

[33:24] I'm part of drama club

[33:26] and I came here to talk mostly about drama club.

[33:30] The kids who are part of drama club,

[33:32] the majority are either outcasted or bullied.

[33:36] I myself was bullied my freshman year.

[33:38] I had a really hard time,

[33:40] but joining the drama club made me feel so much better.

[33:44] I was part of a community.

[33:46] I felt seen, I felt heard, I had a voice.

[33:49] My confidence grew

[33:52] and hard for other kids to find an opportunity like that

[33:56] to step out of their comfort zone

[33:59] and into a place that they can call home like the drama club

[34:03] or like these other clubs and sports.

[34:08] It's also rare to find other opportunities if you were

[34:11] to cut drama club here or if you were to cut another sport.

[34:15] I know for drama club there's not many local theater

[34:17] programs that are free

[34:19] and available for teenagers that also aren't far away.

[34:26] This affects the students' everyday life.

[34:29] It affects their community.

[34:31] As I said, it affects their attendance.

[34:34] People have talked about drug abuse

[34:38] but I think my biggest point at the end here is please do

[34:42] not let us kids pay for adult problems.

[34:47] We are not adults, we are kids. We are learning.

[34:50] This is how we grow our social skills,

[34:53] our developmental skills.

[34:55] This is how we, there are things in school that clubs

[35:00] and sports teach us that that school cannot.

[35:04] It's, it's incredibly important.

[35:07] Thank you for listening and I hope you don't just listen

[35:10] but you truly hear each one of us

[35:12] and see how important this is.

[35:14] Thank you.

[35:21] My name's Alexis Piic.

[35:23] I'm a student athlete, student council member

[35:26] and a lot more at this school.

[35:28] But most importantly tonight I'm a

[35:30] voice for the student body.

[35:33] As an athlete, I've noticed

[35:34] that sports isn't just about playing or competing,

[35:38] but it's about getting healthier

[35:40] for all the things nobody else can see.

[35:43] I struggled a lot with my mental health last year

[35:47] and I noticed most of the time I would only go to school

[35:50] for my sports and I saw a lot

[35:53] of other people doing that too.

[35:55] Sorry, it's not just about the

[35:59] certain clubs you wanna cut,

[36:01] but it's every single one of those is a spot for a student

[36:05] to be seen and to even think about cutting any of those

[36:11] is just disrespectful to students.

[36:14] So voting now for this budget

[36:17] is just saying you don't care about us.

[36:20] We are literally the poorest school in Vermont

[36:25] and U 32 has so many sports

[36:29] and we have little things that we now have to cut back on

[36:33] because people don't wanna pay taxes for the students.

[36:36] They're trying to educate.

[36:38] And I've seen a lot of these students,

[36:41] they're not even motivated to do their schoolwork

[36:44] until they see what they have to do for their sports

[36:47] and they're so smart.

[36:49] I've seen IES focus in on her school even when she

[36:53] roams around the math ball.

[36:58] I've seen my boyfriend just barely pass his classes

[37:03] to keep doing the sports that he's enjoyed.

[37:06] And I don't think any

[37:08] of these students would pass high school without the clubs

[37:11] and sports that they participate in.

[37:14] So if you ever get the chance to vote for a budget

[37:18] and you vote no, I think you're disrespecting your entire

[37:23] state and town by going against your students

[37:28] that you want to be so smart.

[37:39] Hello, my name is Rosalie Johnson

[37:42] and I am a junior playing field hockey.

[37:45] I'm also in the band

[37:47] and I am the vice president for my class.

[37:50] A lot of the people here have been playing

[37:52] sports their whole lives.

[37:55] I have not. I joined the team last

[37:58] year, my freshman year.

[38:00] I really felt like there was something missing.

[38:03] And so when fall sports starts came out,

[38:08] I just put my name down

[38:09] and jumped in with my, I don't know what the expression is,

[38:14] jumped in both be or whatever.

[38:17] And I'm so, so grateful that I did.

[38:25] You know, I can stand up here

[38:26] and talk to you about what sports mean to me,

[38:29] but instead I wanna talk about other kids

[38:32] for whom sports might be their only chance.

[38:35] My brother didn't like high school

[38:37] and the classes he took here only left him feeling bad about

[38:40] himself and what he could accomplish.

[38:44] I know that's a feeling a lot of people in this room shared.

[38:53] He joined the wrestling team

[38:54] and he really, really excelled working harder

[38:57] than I had ever seen him.

[38:59] He became a captain and sport gave him a social

[39:01] outlet he hadn't had before.

[39:04] Instead of graduating a year early, he stayed

[39:06] through into his senior year and walked at graduation.

[39:11] School sports provided an opening for kids who are

[39:13] otherwise unable to participate in group activities

[39:16] because of financial struggles in a place where 17.3%

[39:20] of people live below the poverty line.

[39:22] Sports-based scholarships are the reason why many students

[39:25] can afford seek higher education.

[39:27] College colleges look for students who can,

[39:30] who participate in extracurriculars including sports.

[39:33] Taking sports away will only take opportunities from kids in

[39:36] this town who have no other chance from the kids,

[39:39] from the kid who works hard

[39:41] after school to help their parents pay rent.

[39:43] And from the kid who whose parents can barely afford food on

[39:46] the table, please think about these kids

[39:49] who work their entire high school career

[39:51] for a chance at better opportunities in our future.

[39:54] Thank you.

[40:02] I'm Neil Monroe and I'm the freshman and vice president.

[40:05] And I stayed here because obviously I like sports

[40:08] and it has a really big impact on me.

[40:11] But I wanted to clean up that I was talking

[40:13] to my honors math teacher about our budget

[40:16] and how much money we get compared to other schools

[40:19] and I felt insulted

[40:21] because there the Vermont average

[40:24] to pay per student is $20,838

[40:29] and our average is around $12,000 per student, which is

[40:33] insane when you think about it

[40:34] because that much money, it's not like you're giving

[40:37] that money to a student, it's more,

[40:39] it like includes teacher salaries and busing and sports

[40:42] and just anything that the school needs

[40:45] and it's just we have so much less than other schools

[40:49] and cutting sports is just,

[40:51] it's your graduation rates are gonna go down

[40:54] and kids aren't gonna wanna come to school

[40:56] and Barry's just gonna be impacted really badly.

[40:59] So I hope that you can give us a good budget. So

[41:24] Hi everyone, my name is Alexis Stock.

[41:27] For those of you who don't know me, I'm the treasurer

[41:29] of Spalding's Junior class in the student council.

[41:32] I participate in dream a youth mentoring program

[41:34] and I'm a member of Spalding's Interact Club.

[41:37] I also play field hockey today.

[41:39] I'm not just standing up here to advocate for myself,

[41:41] but for the many other students across the district Vista at

[41:44] Spalding this past school year across our athletic teams,

[41:47] the rosters document 366 participation spots

[41:51] because many students play more than one sport,

[41:54] but those are not 366 different students.

[41:57] But that number still shows the enormous reach athletics

[42:00] as within the school of our sas.

[42:02] And this goes beyond Spalding.

[42:04] Students throughout the district,

[42:05] throughout our district participate in sports clubs

[42:08] and activities that keep them connected

[42:10] to their schools and communities.

[42:12] I'm speaking for those of us

[42:13] who love being on a field court track, ice map,

[42:17] but also for the students who will come after us

[42:19] and help to have the same opportunities they

[42:22] get into college today.

[42:23] Enrollment offices ask us to show who you are

[42:25] beyond our grades.

[42:27] They notice our leadership, service,

[42:29] commitment, interests and experiences.

[42:31] If those opportunities disappear at admissions office may

[42:35] understand why we didn't have them,

[42:36] but understanding it doesn't give us the experience back.

[42:40] Our students may be losing the only opportunities they have

[42:43] to become a team captain.

[42:45] Serve on the student council, mentor others, develop talent

[42:48] to form, compete, volunteer,

[42:51] or discover an interest that influences what they'll

[42:55] eventually study or pursue.

[42:57] I understand that you're facing difficult financial

[43:00] situations, but

[43:01] as a student there is one question I hope stays with you

[43:04] or are we fighting just as hard

[43:06] to protect students in our futures

[43:08] as we are to balance the budget?

[43:10] Thank you.

[43:18] My name's eba, I'm a junior at Spalding.

[43:20] I play volleyball, I do track and field, I'm in band

[43:24] and I'm the treasurer of Interact Club.

[43:27] The biggest thing for me when I first got to Spalding was

[43:31] that in my classes I was noticing, unfortunately a lot

[43:34] of my peers, a lot of my classmates, they didn't care.

[43:38] Like I came from a school, I came from St.

[43:42] Monica's and there's more, there's like a lot

[43:44] of participation there and I was someone, I love

[43:46] to participate, I love to be loud, I love

[43:48] to voice my opinions

[43:49] and it was really hard to be in classes with

[43:54] so many kids that you know,

[43:56] maybe weren't supported growing up

[43:57] and they just, they didn't care, they didn't try,

[44:00] they never put effort into anything.

[44:03] And I think sports not only gives kids a reason to care,

[44:08] but also gives that kind of community of people who care.

[44:12] So you can, you know, you go to your sport

[44:15] and you're with people that they want to be there, they want

[44:17] to try and like other people were saying,

[44:20] sports are such a great motivator for attendance even,

[44:23] you know, for me who has no problems in school,

[44:26] I'll get up in the morning and my only motivation

[44:30] to attend will be sports.

[44:33] I just think it's really, really important

[44:35] that we keep those spaces open for kids who, like me

[44:40] couldn't find a community of people that

[44:45] wanted to be there just because they didn't have anything.

[44:49] And sports are what gives kids that opportunity.

[45:02] My name's Olin Cervantes, I'm a freshman

[45:04] and I'm in the wrestling program.

[45:07] I didn't really come up here with a plan, so

[45:10] I'm gonna talk about what sports mean to me.

[45:13] And when I think sports I takes me back to

[45:18] the whole experience of how this wrestling program

[45:24] has changed my life

[45:26] and how it was so important to me

[45:31] that I felt I needed to do whatever I needed,

[45:35] whatever needed to happen to get here at Spalding.

[45:38] And when my sport has

[45:43] taught me that what I want to do here at Spalding now

[45:47] that I'm here is succeed.

[45:50] And the wrestling program,

[45:53] I don't know much about the other programs here,

[45:55] but if the staff, the people,

[45:59] so the other students I've met, anything related to it,

[46:02] I've had an amazing experience and,

[46:07] and I'd say they're, they've become

[46:11] a supporting cast that'll always be able to lean on

[46:15] and they make me wanna,

[46:22] the aspects that it has on my life and school

[46:26] and how I view my grades is only positive.

[46:32] I don't believe any.

[46:36] I believe even if you were the most out outcasted student

[46:40] and you joined one of these amazing programs at Spalding,

[46:43] you would find a

[46:46] amazing supporting cast.

[46:49] Just like how I feel with wrestling,

[46:54] the, I truly love what the programs here do

[46:59] and how it affects the students

[47:03] and I think to take that away would be,

[47:08] I don't think it would be positive in any way

[47:11] except maybe statistically whatever you're contemplating.

[47:15] But I just think with how my experience has gone

[47:20] with wrestling and I haven't even had my freshman season

[47:23] yet, I feel it just,

[47:30] it would be illogical to take away the sport aspect

[47:34] of the Spalding community.

[47:51] Hi everyone, I'm Madeline.

[47:54] I'm a member of this JV soccer team.

[47:57] Like sports really helped me with my mental health.

[48:01] I feel like when I'm not doing sports I don't feel

[48:03] as good physically or mentally

[48:06] and it just feels really, really great to have something

[48:09] to work for and be confident in and make friends in.

[48:13] Like Annabel, she didn't go to school with me before sports

[48:16] but I just like, I love my team

[48:19] and I love coming together with them

[48:20] and I love feeling like I can have a place to belong

[48:23] and be myself and like people who don't have many friends

[48:28] outside of sports or like made friends in sports,

[48:31] like they don't have anybody else.

[48:32] Like that's their community.

[48:34] Those are their people and the pe, my friends that do soccer

[48:38] with me, they are my people

[48:39] and I feel so comfortable around them

[48:41] and I feel like I can be myself

[48:43] and I just like, they make me so happy

[48:46] and I just, I really like sports make me so happy

[48:50] and I would be really sad if

[48:52] I wasn't able to do these things.

[48:54] So that's really all I have to say.

[49:16] My name's Kate Mason, I'm part

[49:18] of the wrestling program, I'm a sophomore.

[49:20] I also didn't really have a plan coming up here.

[49:22] I just thought I had a good example, a good story to tell

[49:25] about how like a sport can change someone's life.

[49:29] My father, when he was in high school,

[49:32] he didn't have the best life,

[49:33] he didn't have the best influence

[49:35] and once he got into wrestling

[49:40] that really changed his life.

[49:41] There was, he got discipline from it, from it.

[49:44] We had coaches like **** back there,

[49:48] Darren O'Mara to help him out and lead him to a good path

[49:52] and that without that he wouldn't be here today

[49:55] and he wouldn't have brought me

[49:56] to be the person I am right now.

[49:58] That's pretty much all I had to say.

[50:16] My name is Anaya Oman. I am a sophomore.

[50:20] I'm in a lot of clubs.

[50:22] I'm not in any sports but I am in library club,

[50:27] sad club, interact Club d and d club

[50:32] and drama club, which

[50:34] drama club I've been doing since fifth grade

[50:37] and it really is like a passion of mine.

[50:41] I enjoy doing drama club so much

[50:43] and I've met so many great people there.

[50:48] Like everyone is always kind to each other

[50:51] and it just feels good.

[50:54] And I think that cutting clubs

[51:00] is not great

[51:01] because, so the drum club budget

[51:06] is currently 500 I think.

[51:10] And the cost of the rights to one play

[51:15] is over a thousand.

[51:17] So we really just get by off of

[51:22] selling tickets for the actual play

[51:26] and hoping that we make enough money to do it again.

[51:30] And there's so many people

[51:32] who are really passionate about this

[51:34] and the other clubs that I'm part of like Sad Club

[51:37] and Interact Club, they make a difference on the community.

[51:40] Sad Club focuses on like

[51:44] showing people like, well

[51:49] mental health, like raising awareness

[51:54] and Interact Club helps with,

[51:58] well right now we're going to be doing a meals

[52:03] for the homeless and I think

[52:05] that these clubs are really important

[52:07] and there's also chorus that I find

[52:13] very like great

[52:15] and it really helps me get up in the morning

[52:19] and want to go to school is to be a part

[52:23] of all these clubs and chorus

[52:26] and it's just really fun

[52:29] and it brings together the community.

[52:33] Thank you.

[52:40] Good evening. I'm a I, my name is

[52:43] and I'm a sophomore at school high school

[52:45] and I play field hockey and softball.

[52:48] I want you to look around my room tonight

[52:49] and see all the students who are here.

[52:51] We didn't have to be here. We could,

[52:52] we could have gone home, we could stay quiet

[52:55] and we chose to stand here

[52:56] because something we care about is at risk for many of us.

[52:59] Sports aren't just something we do

[53:01] after school, they're a place where we found our people,

[53:03] they're where we found our confidence

[53:05] and for some of us, they're

[53:06] where we finally found a place where we grow.

[53:09] Not every student feels like we belong in school.

[53:11] Some struggle in classrooms, some struggle to make friends

[53:14] and go through the day when be really fit in.

[53:17] But when they step on the field, everything changes.

[53:19] They have teammates calling their names

[53:21] but just who believing them.

[53:22] And people depending on them,

[53:24] they have a place where they matter.

[53:26] School isn't always easy for me

[53:28] and there have been times where I've struggled to focus

[53:30] or felt like I wasn't the student I wanted to be.

[53:33] When I step on the field,

[53:34] I'm not thinking about any of that.

[53:36] I'm thinking about my team

[53:37] and the sports that sports have given me.

[53:39] Friendships, confidence, coaches who believe in me

[53:42] and the reason to keep trying even

[53:44] when school feels difficult.

[53:46] So when we talk about cutting sports,

[53:48] we're not just talking about practices

[53:49] and games, we're talking about cutting away a

[53:52] place where students belong.

[53:56] I understand that difficult decisions have to be made

[53:58] and I know the people in this room care about our school

[54:01] and look at all the students in this room.

[54:04] We wouldn't all be here if sports means something.

[54:07] We are here because we care.

[54:08] We are here because we want to be heard and we are here

[54:11] because we want to make a change.

[54:13] So please listen to us,

[54:14] look at the students standing in front of you,

[54:16] look at what these sports mean to us.

[54:17] Please don't take away the place where somebody

[54:19] with us find their place.

[54:28] Hi, I'm Andrew Ryer.

[54:29] I'm a junior here at Solid at Spalding.

[54:33] The only reason I decided not to graduate early is

[54:36] for sports, specifically wrestling

[54:38] and something about missing out on a year

[54:40] of sports really hurts.

[54:42] I've been in the very community my whole life

[54:44] but I haven't really had a hard day with sports

[54:46] and I've never had the, never had the

[54:48] uncertainty in not being able to play.

[54:50] As of right now, I can think of at least four people

[54:53] who transferred to Sping just for wrestling alone

[54:55] and all the people, let alone all the people who transferred

[54:59] for other sports or clubs.

[55:01] I can't, I can't feel anything

[55:03] but sadness for all the people who take extra time

[55:05] and spend extra money to get quay every day.

[55:08] And I really hope no sports are get

[55:11] get cut regardless of what they are.

[55:13] I

[55:21] And I attend Spalding High School as a freshman.

[55:23] Tonight I want to give insight on

[55:24] how cutting sports will cause less students

[55:26] to show up every day at our school.

[55:29] Recently, as many of you know,

[55:30] school budget did not pass because of this.

[55:32] Sports clubs and all their extra-curriculars are now on the

[55:36] line for many students sports

[55:37] of the reason they come to school every day.

[55:39] As an athlete, I've had days

[55:41] where the only reason I've pushed myself through a long

[55:43] and exhausting school day is

[55:44] that I know I can do something I love after the bell rings.

[55:47] Sports give student athletes something to look work towards,

[55:50] look forward to, and also a reason to stay more connected

[55:53] to the school and community.

[55:56] But they also encourage good attendance. Good attendance.

[55:59] When an athlete misses school, it affects their ability

[56:01] to part participate in practice in games.

[56:04] These rules hold students accountable.

[56:06] Without sports, students could do one

[56:08] of the most motivational things they have not to not only go

[56:10] to school but to also keep connected

[56:13] to friends in the Spalding community.

[56:15] If we have to cut sports,

[56:16] it wouldn't just take away the game.

[56:17] It would take, would take away the important feelings

[56:20] of motivation, belonging, and a reason to show up to school.

[56:22] School every day. Thank you for listening

[56:24] and I hope you all consider

[56:25] what effect this could have on its school and its community.

[56:42] My name is Gabe Van Warman. I'm a senior here at Spalding.

[56:46] I play hockey and lacrosse

[56:49] and I don't really have a plan for what I was gonna say,

[56:52] but I just wanted to talk about like how much

[56:55] of an impact sports and like clubs have on like kids

[56:59] and what I heard the news about.

[57:01] What was in the line after the budget had passed.

[57:03] It just like, I don't know, it was kind of crazy

[57:08] and I just couldn't imagine like a high school without any

[57:12] sports or like other activities.

[57:15] Like just never really heard of that.

[57:18] And I know like sports for me has just like

[57:24] all of my friends I've met playing sports

[57:27] and I think it's just like a major part of a lot

[57:32] of kids like lifes or whatever.

[57:34] And I know like myself, I spend a lot

[57:37] of time just playing sports and it's helped me.

[57:42] It's you know, motivated me to go to school

[57:45] and I don't want to, and I know quite a few like

[57:50] kids that only, the only reasons they're like doing sports

[57:54] or doing school is so they can participate in sports

[57:58] and without that I think just as a whole

[58:02] or things falling would go downhill,

[58:05] like behavior would just not be great.

[58:08] And I don't know, that's all I got.

[58:23] Any other students?

[58:28] So

[58:30] There's another student. Oh I'm

[58:32] So sorry.

[58:34] Hi. If I'm being on

[58:36] or I'm Olivia Birmingham, if I'm being honest,

[58:39] I wasn't planning to talk and speak today,

[58:42] but hearing all

[58:44] of their voices really made me realize

[58:49] more. I'm like shaking.

[58:52] Okay, take your time. Sports mean a lot to a lot

[58:57] of people here and I think that without them

[59:05] It's okay.

[59:13] You can come back up if you wanna speak.

[59:15] I just, I just say one thing real quick.

[59:21] I bet there would be a lot more voices from basketball,

[59:24] but they're all practicing in the gym right now.

[59:34] Good. Alright. Sorry. I jumped the jumped the down there.

[59:39] So that was 58 minutes

[59:42] or around that 50 minutes of voices from my peers

[59:48] explaining to you the danger

[59:51] of taking away the things that may have

[59:53] to be removed in this budget.

[59:56] And I quickly wanted to share

[59:58] with you all something very personal about myself.

[1:00:01] A large motivator for me is

[1:00:04] growing up when I was very young, I didn't have many friends

[1:00:09] and sorry,

[1:00:14] this girl Valeria, she was one of my best friends

[1:00:19] and she told me something when we were really little

[1:00:21] before I lost her.

[1:00:22] And it's that when you love something,

[1:00:24] you don't let anybody take it from you.

[1:00:27] And you can look at all these people

[1:00:30] and you, I want you all to know

[1:00:31] that if you take this from us, we are not going away

[1:00:35] and we are not going to stop.

[1:00:37] We are gonna get these sports back.

[1:00:39] I don't care that I'm a senior, I don't care if I have

[1:00:41] to come back here after I graduate

[1:00:43] to get sports from my friends that are so young.

[1:00:46] We shouldn't have to be in a position for this.

[1:00:48] It shouldn't be something that you're taking away

[1:00:51] that brings me and my peers together.

[1:00:53] So I really hope that you voters sat through the 20% of you

[1:00:56] that got off your butt to do it.

[1:01:03] The 20% of you that got off your butt to do it

[1:01:06] and the majority of that 20% that voted no.

[1:01:09] I hope you feel really bad about yourself

[1:01:11] and you see the damage that you may cause

[1:01:14] and that you go out

[1:01:15] and you do the work to understand

[1:01:17] what your vote actually does

[1:01:18] and where your money actually goes.

[1:01:19] Because I shouldn't know. You should know.

[1:01:22] And a 17-year-old high school kid shouldn't be the one

[1:01:25] that has to teach you all.

[1:01:27] So that's what I have to say

[1:01:29] and I want you to give it up for these kids who showed up

[1:01:33] to do what they need to do to keep what they love.

[1:01:35] Yeah,

[1:01:57] I wanna take this, I wanna take this moment to

[1:02:03] thank all of the students who have come here tonight.

[1:02:07] And with all the rhetoric that was out there, I think all

[1:02:12] of these kids just blew it out of the water.

[1:02:14] They are worth our support.

[1:02:17] We shouldn't take away dollars

[1:02:19] because of what people perceive with the test scores.

[1:02:22] These are bright, funny,

[1:02:25] empathetic, and smart kids.

[1:02:27] And I think an extra round of applause for what they did.

[1:02:41] And if there is anyone that still wants to speak,

[1:02:44] it's not, you're not done.

[1:02:46] You don't have to be done. I'm

[1:02:51] happy to move on to Oh

[1:02:53] No, I would like Adults.

[1:02:54] Okay, cath. Oh yes, please come forward.

[1:02:58] Yes. Hi, I'm Kat Allen, can you come?

[1:03:01] Yes, I will come wherever you want me to go Here.

[1:03:05] Do you want me to sit, stand? Sure. That's great. Stand.

[1:03:08] Hey. Whichever you like. So I'm Kat Allen.

[1:03:11] I am one of the owners of the Berry Social Club downtown.

[1:03:15] I am also a member of the planning commission.

[1:03:19] So one, we partially open the club

[1:03:23] because it is massively difficult for adults

[1:03:27] to make new adult friends through authentic connection.

[1:03:32] Right? All of you are looking at me

[1:03:33] and you're like, yes, I want more adult friends.

[1:03:37] These kids, this is what this is.

[1:03:40] This is their authentic connection.

[1:03:42] It's built into

[1:03:45] what school is supposed to be about.

[1:03:48] We are so fortunate at the club

[1:03:51] that we have become the go-to place

[1:03:53] for Spalding class reunions.

[1:03:56] We just had the class of 91 in this weekend, heritage Fest.

[1:04:01] We had the class of 56. Like they're old, right?

[1:04:05] But all of them talked about their sports

[1:04:09] and there are times with friends

[1:04:11] and the clubs that they were in, we have old yearbooks

[1:04:14] that have been donated to the club.

[1:04:16] Everything highlights these joint experiences

[1:04:21] that students have while they are here in school.

[1:04:25] It's invaluable, right?

[1:04:26] It's also a huge part of just growing up to be a normal,

[1:04:30] well adjusted adult.

[1:04:32] So put that like heartfelt piece to the side.

[1:04:36] And then let's talk about a functioning community

[1:04:42] from like an economics standpoint, right?

[1:04:44] I've been doing a lot of research in preparation for us

[1:04:50] overhauling the municipal plan for Barry.

[1:04:53] For those of you who don't know, it's essentially how we try

[1:04:57] to forecast what we want

[1:04:59] to see in the community in the next six years.

[1:05:02] Last time it was updated was kind of a copy paste in COVID.

[1:05:06] I like your sweatshirt. Yeah.

[1:05:09] And so really it hasn't been touched since 2012.

[1:05:13] What is important for you all to know is that

[1:05:18] wages and employer wages in Barry are rising.

[1:05:22] There is a true increase in income.

[1:05:27] Take out inflation.

[1:05:29] Barry employers are still paying 16% higher than they

[1:05:33] were six years ago.

[1:05:34] That's real net wage increase.

[1:05:37] 12% of Barry's housing stock has sold

[1:05:41] to primary residence owners in the last six years.

[1:05:45] That's massive. That's 12% of 4,000 housing units.

[1:05:49] That's not people putting things into a living trust.

[1:05:52] That is not people signing homes

[1:05:56] over to their children.

[1:05:58] Those are people living in Berry City.

[1:06:01] However, our population is declining.

[1:06:05] All of these good things are happening,

[1:06:08] but our population is dwindling.

[1:06:11] What does that mean? It means you have smaller households

[1:06:16] and a lot of households that do not have children.

[1:06:20] And it is because they don't feel confident

[1:06:24] in the school system.

[1:06:26] If you don't have more residents,

[1:06:29] you don't have more people

[1:06:32] to share a tax load, right?

[1:06:36] Or like economics 1 0 1 here,

[1:06:40] if you don't make the schools an appealing place to be

[1:06:45] speaking to everybody who voted no to the budget,

[1:06:51] we will not attract new residents who will contribute

[1:06:56] to our tax burden, who will want

[1:06:59] to participate in other community activities

[1:07:02] or even people who will play with your kids

[1:07:05] because there will be kids.

[1:07:09] So take both of those two things away, right?

[1:07:12] There's like this whole social part that like we

[1:07:16] as adults are still trying to find

[1:07:18] and kind of harness these shared connections

[1:07:22] that we had when we were in school.

[1:07:24] It was like a gift to us, right?

[1:07:26] That you found your friend group

[1:07:30] and then take the economic side of it away. Thank

[1:07:33] You.

[1:07:47] Good evening.

[1:07:51] I'm Joelle Mulvaney.

[1:07:52] I live on Pleasant Street.

[1:07:53] I wanna talk about the connection

[1:07:55] between education and democracy.

[1:07:59] The quality of mental process, not the production

[1:08:02] of correct answers is the measure of educative growth.

[1:08:07] The source of whatever is dead, mechanical,

[1:08:11] and formal in schools is found precisely in the

[1:08:14] subordination of the life

[1:08:16] and experience of the child to the curriculum.

[1:08:21] Everything which bars freedom

[1:08:22] and fullness of communication sets up barriers

[1:08:25] that divide human beings into sets

[1:08:28] and clicks into antagonistic sex and factions,

[1:08:32] and thereby undermines the demo, the Democratic way of life.

[1:08:37] The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact.

[1:08:41] The superficial explanation is

[1:08:44] that a government resting upon pub, public suffrage,

[1:08:47] popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect

[1:08:52] and who obey their governors are educated.

[1:08:56] Since a democratic society repudiates the principle

[1:09:00] of external authority,

[1:09:02] it must bind a substitute involuntary

[1:09:04] disposition and interest.

[1:09:07] These can be created only by education

[1:09:12] doctrine that eliminates or even obscures the function

[1:09:15] of choice of values and enlistment of desires

[1:09:19] and emotions in behalf of those chosen

[1:09:23] weakens personal responsibility for judgment and for action.

[1:09:28] It thus helps create the attitudes that welcome

[1:09:31] and support the totalitarian state.

[1:09:36] The aim of education is to enable individuals

[1:09:39] to continue their education.

[1:09:41] And the object and reward of learning

[1:09:44] is continued capacity for growth.

[1:09:48] Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members

[1:09:50] of a society except where discourse between people is mutual

[1:09:55] and except where there is adequate provision

[1:09:58] for the reconstruction of social habits

[1:10:01] and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from

[1:10:07] equitably distributed interests.

[1:10:09] And this means a democratic society.

[1:10:13] Democracy has to be born anew.

[1:10:16] Every generation and education is the midwife.

[1:10:21] Now you might think I'm smart. These are not my words.

[1:10:25] These are the words of John Dewey, a very famous

[1:10:28] Vermont and educator.

[1:10:31] He's the person who brought us the modern

[1:10:33] education that we see today.

[1:10:36] There are people in our country who do not understand

[1:10:39] the value of education to democracy.

[1:10:43] Some of them might even be in this room.

[1:10:45] I know some of them is are in our community

[1:10:47] because they voted against the school budget.

[1:10:54] I just wanna say

[1:10:55] that I appreciate the young people here today especially,

[1:11:00] and the adults as well.

[1:11:02] And I just hope that your reason for being here is

[1:11:05] because you care about your freedoms and your democracy.

[1:11:09] And the only way you can truly care about your democracy

[1:11:13] and your freedoms is to be educated.

[1:11:17] Don't stop here. This is only high school.

[1:11:20] This is only elementary school.

[1:11:22] There's much more education in your future

[1:11:24] and in our future as old as I am, I'm learning every day.

[1:11:27] And don't believe that we don't learn from you.

[1:11:32] You are our teachers too and we are your guides.

[1:11:36] Don't listen to those people

[1:11:37] who vote against your best interests.

[1:11:40] Listen to those of us who care about you

[1:11:43] and who vote for your school budget every time

[1:11:47] and not just these little ones.

[1:11:58] Chairman, are we, are we doing some order

[1:12:01] or are stepping forward?

[1:12:03] You're at ex. Come on forward. Okay, thank you.

[1:12:06] My name is Tom Koch. I'm a resident of the town of Barry.

[1:12:11] And I have some words that the board probably does not want

[1:12:14] to hear because budget has been de defeated

[1:12:19] three times now.

[1:12:21] I think not because the people

[1:12:23] who voted no knew the details of the budget.

[1:12:28] I certainly didn't. I think

[1:12:34] Certainly the tax burden is a, is a big factor.

[1:12:39] And I think a bigger factor is in, in my judgment,

[1:12:44] in talking to other people.

[1:12:46] I believe a large segment of the voting community

[1:12:50] has lost confidence in this board.

[1:12:54] And I believe that if the board puts together another budget

[1:12:58] and puts it out to the people

[1:13:00] because the board did it, the vote,

[1:13:04] the budget will almost be automatically voted

[1:13:08] down a fourth time.

[1:13:11] So I have a proposal that I hope will will be useful

[1:13:16] and that is that the board create a special committee

[1:13:21] to develop a new proposal for a fourth vote.

[1:13:26] I would suggest six members, three members of the board,

[1:13:32] three members from the community, equally divided

[1:13:37] between those who have supported the past,

[1:13:40] the past three budgets, and those who have opposed

[1:13:45] and attempted to say lock 'em in a room

[1:13:50] and tell 'em that they can't have anything to eat

[1:13:52] or drink until they come out with a budget.

[1:13:54] But their mission would be

[1:13:59] to develop a new budget with six signatures

[1:14:05] approving it and agreeing to support it

[1:14:11] And to bring that back to the, to the board for submission

[1:14:16] to the to the community.

[1:14:19] Without this representation of people

[1:14:23] who have been known to oppose the,

[1:14:28] the budget in the past, people from the community

[1:14:33] off the board along with board members,

[1:14:37] I think we are probably gonna be back here again in another

[1:14:40] three months having the same conversation.

[1:14:44] And that would be very unfortunate.

[1:14:47] I realize that the opportunities to cut are not

[1:14:52] as great as they are as they were some months ago.

[1:14:59] But I think if you appoint the right people who

[1:15:04] really know the budget, the budget and the figures

[1:15:10] and can and can deal with it in detail,

[1:15:14] I think you'll have a result

[1:15:16] that will be acceptable to the community.

[1:15:19] Although probably everybody will hate the budget,

[1:15:23] but at least they'll pass it. Thank

[1:15:26] You.

[1:15:37] Good evening. My name is Dan Morrison.

[1:15:39] I'm a parent taxpayer in Barry Town and educational leader.

[1:15:42] I wanna start with something I heard tonight from our

[1:15:45] students because I think it's easy for us as adults

[1:15:47] to lose sight of when we're, what we're,

[1:15:50] when we're talking about budgets, taxes, and numbers.

[1:15:53] Our students keep coming back to one core value

[1:15:56] and word belonging.

[1:15:57] They're telling us that schools more than a building

[1:16:00] where they receive instruction.

[1:16:02] It's where they find their people, it's

[1:16:03] where they play sports, participate in activities,

[1:16:06] build relationships with adults,

[1:16:08] discover something they're good at,

[1:16:09] and feel like they matter to a community.

[1:16:12] And I understand that people have legitimate concerns about

[1:16:14] taxes and about the cost of government.

[1:16:16] Those concerns deserve to be hurt.

[1:16:19] A school board has a responsibility

[1:16:21] to be careful with every dollar.

[1:16:23] But I also think we have to be honest about

[1:16:25] what happens when budgets repeatedly fail.

[1:16:28] Eventually. We aren't just talking about spreadsheets,

[1:16:31] we are talking about choices that affect the experiences

[1:16:33] of students have.

[1:16:34] Transportation, athletics, extracurriculars, programs,

[1:16:38] and the opportunities to help young people feel connected

[1:16:41] to their school and their community.

[1:16:43] Right now, our students are doing something

[1:16:45] pretty remarkable for us.

[1:16:46] They're telling us what they value.

[1:16:49] So as we continue this conversation, I hope we can listen

[1:16:52] to them just as seriously as we listen to the numbers.

[1:16:55] And I hope we can have a bigger conversation,

[1:16:57] not simply about whether we are willing to spend more

[1:17:00] or spend less, but about how we build a funding system.

[1:17:03] The communities can actually understand, trust and sustain

[1:17:06] because students shouldn't have to understand the politics

[1:17:09] of, of a school budget to know they belong here.

[1:17:12] I hope they feel the end of this process. They still belong.

[1:17:16] That's our job as adults. Thank you.

[1:17:29] My name's Chandler Phillips.

[1:17:31] I was a kid at Berry Town School.

[1:17:33] I graduated from Spalding High School

[1:17:35] and I've worked at Berry Town School since the year I

[1:17:38] graduated the last 10 years.

[1:17:41] I'm a coach for the baseball team, an assistant coach

[1:17:43] for the soccer team.

[1:17:45] And I like, I got my job 10 years ago working

[1:17:50] with kids because half of my family went down the wrong road

[1:17:55] of substance abuse and things like that.

[1:17:58] And some of them are in prison.

[1:18:00] Some of them are no longer here to share their stories.

[1:18:04] But I got a job working with kids with behavior issues

[1:18:08] because some of these kids in our community

[1:18:12] don't have a happy place at home.

[1:18:14] And these clubs provide a happy place

[1:18:17] for those kids to go and be happy.

[1:18:20] Some of them don't even want to return home.

[1:18:22] They would rather just stay with the team.

[1:18:26] Taking like from an outside, like out of state,

[1:18:30] people know about Berry City.

[1:18:31] Even if you don't live in Vermont,

[1:18:33] like it's a, it's a scary place.

[1:18:35] It's not. So if you take these programs away from these

[1:18:39] kids, it's it, it gives them an easier way

[1:18:42] to go down these bad roads.

[1:18:44] And I started working here nine years ago

[1:18:48] or 10 years ago at $12 and 50 cents an hour.

[1:18:52] So it's not a lot of money.

[1:18:54] I still work here for not a lot of money to be a happy place

[1:18:58] for kids in this environment.

[1:18:59] I was a three sport athlete

[1:19:02] and almost 10% of my class

[1:19:06] or even more than that, they're either in prison or didn't.

[1:19:11] And we had sports in clubs.

[1:19:14] And I want to touch on one of the things one

[1:19:15] of the students said, just imagine a high school

[1:19:20] with no club, no sport.

[1:19:23] Just think about that for a few seconds.

[1:19:26] It would be like a prison, but they actually get an hour

[1:19:30] or so in prison to go play sports.

[1:19:32] It would be worse than prison. So think about that.

[1:19:36] That's all I got.

[1:19:52] I've been standing back here

[1:19:53] with Dean Preston Marytown tax payer.

[1:19:56] I've been standing up back for a little over, oh,

[1:20:01] listening to all of these kids come in.

[1:20:04] They were all pretty much saying the same thing about

[1:20:07] how much sports mean to them.

[1:20:09] And it has for anybody that's gone to school

[1:20:11] for the last hundred years

[1:20:13] or more, it's a good outlet for them to release stress

[1:20:17] and they show unity.

[1:20:19] They show teamwork and how to work together as one something

[1:20:24] that is not in team.

[1:20:27] And so I don't get it

[1:20:30] whenever the berry town votes no on a budget

[1:20:33] because they want the school board to be accountable

[1:20:35] for their expenses, which they seem

[1:20:37] to have a hard time doing that.

[1:20:40] They put all these signs up before the poll.

[1:20:43] We love our students. We need our students.

[1:20:46] So why is that When the budget don't pass,

[1:20:49] you target them with sports.

[1:20:51] You put the fear of God into them

[1:20:54] by taking sports away from them to get what you want.

[1:20:57] To me, that is ridiculous that

[1:21:01] they deserve sports from the time

[1:21:04] that they can walk until they can't.

[1:21:07] And to take it away from 'em. I don't get it.

[1:21:09] Why you target them, why not go back

[1:21:12] and dig up your own paperwork?

[1:21:14] See where your expenses are,

[1:21:16] where you're throwing money away

[1:21:18] and where you need to conserve money

[1:21:20] and spend it where it's needed

[1:21:22] and take the pressure off them.

[1:21:23] They're right. They don't have to know

[1:21:26] where you are spending your money

[1:21:28] that their parents are trying to put forth for them

[1:21:30] to keep them in school and keep this school afloat.

[1:21:34] That they need to get an education, which seems

[1:21:37] to be a struggle in the school system.

[1:21:40] A lot of people that want their kids

[1:21:42] to get an education are going to private schools.

[1:21:45] They're not going to public schools now. And why is that?

[1:21:49] Why is the school population diminishing yearly?

[1:21:54] Why isn't it you're not bringing

[1:21:55] the students into the school?

[1:21:58] Those are questions

[1:21:59] that I think the taxpayers deserve an answer for.

[1:22:03] And why do you keep seeing

[1:22:04] for sale signs along the roadside all the time?

[1:22:08] More and more of 'em popping up.

[1:22:10] People are leaving the area

[1:22:12] 'cause they cannot afford to pay the taxes

[1:22:13] to keep these kids in school.

[1:22:15] People on the fixed budget are trying

[1:22:18] to decide whether they're gonna put fuel in your tank,

[1:22:20] food on your table, pay for medical bills or transportation.

[1:22:24] And they just can't do it.

[1:22:26] And that's putting too much pressure on these

[1:22:28] kids and their parents.

[1:22:31] So thank you.

[1:22:47] All right. Good evening.

[1:22:49] Before I introduce myself, I wanna congratulate everyone

[1:22:52] of you students for coming in

[1:22:54] and being brave enough to talk to all these people

[1:22:57] and my and and me.

[1:22:59] My name is Jim Breer.

[1:23:01] I'm the one that unfortunately had been accused of,

[1:23:05] of misinformation by several people on the board.

[1:23:10] And I agree with a gentleman that just sat down here.

[1:23:14] These kids shouldn't have to worry about

[1:23:16] where they're gonna, where the money's gonna come from.

[1:23:19] We're missing $3 million.

[1:23:22] I'd like to know where that went to.

[1:23:25] I'm told that it went into the general fund

[1:23:27] and then used to buy computers and stuff after the pandemic.

[1:23:34] So if you've got $3 million, let's take some of that

[1:23:37] and put that into this year's budget

[1:23:39] so these kids can play sports.

[1:23:42] That's where I feel this is, this board needs

[1:23:46] to go back like he, this last gentleman said,

[1:23:49] and find a place for that money.

[1:23:52] If it means that you gotta fire the principal, let's get rid

[1:23:57] of some administration.

[1:23:59] Crap. You know, these kids don't need a principal.

[1:24:05] I mean, if you want to, if you want to spank them, you know,

[1:24:10] take them, take them.

[1:24:12] That's, that's out order. That's enough outta order.

[1:24:15] Thank you. How, how, how is it that is out order.

[1:24:18] What did I say that was so out order

[1:24:20] to you hitting children.

[1:24:23] Yeah. Well that was just a

[1:24:28] a a a phrase.

[1:24:31] Thank you. Has nothing to do with that, but yeah.

[1:24:35] Well I had a lot of things

[1:24:37] that were much more inappropriate than that.

[1:24:39] Say Sure. The the superintendent like to have a point

[1:24:42] Of clarity.

[1:24:43] Yeah. I'd just like to add one point of clarity.

[1:24:46] So we're, we're having kind of two parallel conversations

[1:24:51] and I think this is important for everyone in the room just

[1:24:54] to be aware of.

[1:24:56] There's the fact

[1:24:57] that the school district when there is not a,

[1:25:00] an approved budget is only allowed

[1:25:03] to have basically cash on hand.

[1:25:05] 87% of last year's operating budget.

[1:25:09] So the school year that ended in June, right?

[1:25:12] The conversation about some of these reductions

[1:25:17] activities, sports, transportation, staffing, all

[1:25:22] of those things have to do with the fact

[1:25:25] that right now we're allowed to have 87%

[1:25:29] of our cash on hand.

[1:25:31] That's $8 million less than the budget

[1:25:34] that folks voted on last week.

[1:25:39] Athletics and transportation

[1:25:44] and clubs don't even

[1:25:48] equal $2 million.

[1:25:50] There would still be $6 million more

[1:25:53] that we would need to look for.

[1:25:55] So I just want that point to be clear

[1:25:58] what the board makes the decision on in terms of

[1:26:02] adopting a budget to send to the voters for budget.

[1:26:05] Four is an important conversation, right?

[1:26:08] But there's, there's kind

[1:26:09] of two conversations happening here at the same time.

[1:26:13] So I just wanted particularly the students to understand

[1:26:16] that part of it, like the board may not be,

[1:26:19] they haven't had the conversation yet

[1:26:20] but may not be having the conversation

[1:26:23] about taking those things out of the budget.

[1:26:26] But because we don't have an approved budget

[1:26:28] and we have to operate on $8 million less,

[1:26:31] there may be temporary reductions

[1:26:33] that they have to talk about.

[1:26:34] So I just wanted to make sure that was clear for folks.

[1:26:37] The superintendent Ley Paul? Yes. My name is Paul Malone.

[1:26:43] I just wanna address some of the commentary

[1:26:45] that came out recently.

[1:26:47] One dealing with accusations

[1:26:50] and statements made to prior board members,

[1:26:54] prior officials of the town of Barry

[1:26:58] and also particularly in the representation

[1:27:00] of Barry Town being the bad people.

[1:27:04] First of all, the commentary

[1:27:08] that had been put out there deals with a lot of people

[1:27:12] who have been in the leadership roles in Barry town.

[1:27:15] They've served this community for decades.

[1:27:17] I know I have served my community for almost four decades

[1:27:23] longer than the chair is alive to this day.

[1:27:27] I know that the facts have been put out there

[1:27:30] that Barry Town voters really

[1:27:34] were controlled into voting.

[1:27:37] No, first of all, I don't do Facebook. I never have.

[1:27:41] The best I might have is maybe a posts

[1:27:43] that I might put out on front Porch Forum posts the chair's,

[1:27:48] posts that went out, never made it to even bury towns

[1:27:51] front porch forum vote made in the city.

[1:27:54] I find that kind of separating two different populations

[1:27:58] if you're trying to bring those who voted no into the cadre.

[1:28:02] If you're trying to convince people

[1:28:04] who have served their own community for a lot of years

[1:28:07] that you're on a right track, you need to convince them

[1:28:10] but you certainly don't need to insult them.

[1:28:12] Done. I am concerned from things

[1:28:15] that I've read in audit reports

[1:28:17] and you know it's interesting.

[1:28:19] We've been told that we've been putting out misinformation.

[1:28:22] I know I haven't because I've always prided myself in using

[1:28:25] the data that is available from the district

[1:28:28] in this particular matter.

[1:28:30] Here's an example of that. I'm gonna be very brief.

[1:28:35] The largest over expenditure category operation

[1:28:39] and maintenance of the buildings was 315,220.

[1:28:44] This was in the year 2223.

[1:28:46] The largest under expenditure category was in direct

[1:28:50] instruction of 600.

[1:28:53] Take that back. $846,000

[1:28:57] in 2324 they o,

[1:29:01] the largest over expenditure category was an administrative

[1:29:05] technology 247,000 operation of building

[1:29:09] and maintenance for 218,000.

[1:29:11] The largest under expenditure category was in behavior

[1:29:15] services of 157,800 in the following

[1:29:20] year, 24 25.

[1:29:22] The largest over expenditure category was operations

[1:29:25] of billing maintenance, which was $445,000.

[1:29:29] And the board of education, which was 433,000, the largest

[1:29:34] under expenditure for that year was direct instruction

[1:29:38] for 479,662

[1:29:41] and behavior assigned services rather, which was 370,000,

[1:29:45] almost $800,000 less spent on kids

[1:29:49] but more spent on buildings and other things.

[1:29:52] So when we say that you thirdly gone through a line

[1:29:55] by line budget, I put it to you that the last line

[1:29:59] by line budget information I have for the

[1:30:02] outgoing year was April 30th.

[1:30:05] Now you're gonna be presenting a budget material

[1:30:08] to the auditor auditors this coming Wednesday.

[1:30:11] Surely have those numbers.

[1:30:12] We should be able to be able to physically see May and June.

[1:30:16] So you can really say that we've done a line by learning

[1:30:19] analysis not only over the course of one year,

[1:30:22] but maybe compare that to three years

[1:30:24] and see if there are any discrepancies.

[1:30:26] That's where you really can find this.

[1:30:28] There's no one here

[1:30:30] that has championed education more than myself.

[1:30:33] I've been a proponent of education all my life.

[1:30:36] I can tell you that I've served for a decade

[1:30:38] and a half just on the scholarship

[1:30:40] programs for this high school.

[1:30:44] Can I finish the last line?

[1:30:47] So having served on that

[1:30:49] and having increased, having increased the awards

[1:30:52] to students for scholarships for both the high school

[1:30:55] and the tech center, I can tell you I'm a very,

[1:30:57] very strong proponent of these children getting ahead.

[1:31:02] So when you start talking about people in the community

[1:31:04] and you don't even name them, I think you ought

[1:31:07] to start thinking about the tactics of

[1:31:09] how you really go about getting a budget pass.

[1:31:12] There's maneuver room here

[1:31:13] and when you get into that part of the discussion,

[1:31:15] I will give you a whole series of numbers.

[1:31:17] Thank you. Thank you Paul.

[1:31:24] We'll do Sonya and then San I'll do you after Sonya.

[1:31:29] So, hi. Sounds good.

[1:31:31] I'm, I'm from Berry City

[1:31:34] and I served on the school board for 13 years.

[1:31:36] And I have to say I do not envy the position

[1:31:38] that any of you are in right now.

[1:31:41] I did serve with some of you

[1:31:42] and I'm grateful that you're sitting here

[1:31:44] because this is a really

[1:31:45] tough decision that you have to make.

[1:31:47] And I recognize

[1:31:49] and want to say that I, I appreciate

[1:31:52] that you have protected our community from this kind

[1:31:56] of a cut up until this point.

[1:31:59] And now we've gotten to a point

[1:32:00] where the voters have said no so many times

[1:32:03] that you can't protect the students anymore.

[1:32:06] So I just wanna make sure that that's very clear.

[1:32:08] This board has done an amazing job of making sure

[1:32:11] that there were no programs cut,

[1:32:13] that there were no sports cut.

[1:32:15] And here we are on our third vote in September

[1:32:20] and we can't pass a budget

[1:32:21] because people are concerned

[1:32:24] about any number of crazy things.

[1:32:28] I will not sit up here

[1:32:29] and say that I have championed the school more than anyone

[1:32:32] else, but I have worked really hard to make sure

[1:32:36] that our students get what they deserve.

[1:32:38] And I've especially done this for Berry City kids

[1:32:40] because I believe

[1:32:42] that our berry city kids deserve more than they have ever,

[1:32:46] ever, ever received, my kids included.

[1:32:50] So I'm not gonna go on and on about the budget

[1:32:53] because I'm gonna ask you some questions

[1:32:56] and hopefully you can answer them.

[1:32:58] I understand the funding formula

[1:33:00] probably a little bit better than

[1:33:02] 95% of the people in the room.

[1:33:04] So my question for you is,

[1:33:07] if you only spend the same amount that we did last year,

[1:33:11] if you say we're going to, we're going to put the budget out

[1:33:15] for the same exact amount as last year,

[1:33:17] how much will your tax rate go down in Berry Town

[1:33:20] versus Berry City?

[1:33:21] Because I recognize that the funding formula already has

[1:33:25] multiple things that are completely out of your control

[1:33:27] and they're already baked into the formula.

[1:33:30] You cannot change the number of weighted pupils

[1:33:32] and you cannot change the yield at this point.

[1:33:35] So the community,

[1:33:37] some people in the community are asking you

[1:33:39] to do a herculean task by trying to change something

[1:33:43] that is completely out of your control.

[1:33:46] So that's my first question.

[1:33:47] And my second question is what I,

[1:33:49] I appreciate this idea of having a committee.

[1:33:51] That sounds so lovely.

[1:33:53] I don't think you have time for a committee.

[1:33:55] You need a budget for this school year

[1:33:57] that's already happening.

[1:33:59] So I don't think you have a lot of time to go through the,

[1:34:04] the, the idea of sitting down finding six people.

[1:34:07] And that may sound wonderful.

[1:34:09] Maybe you could do that for next year's budget,

[1:34:11] which you'll have to start planning on as soon

[1:34:13] as you wrap this one up.

[1:34:15] But my question, my second question is, is what, at

[1:34:18] what point do you have to make a decision about what needs

[1:34:21] to be caused so that you can move forward

[1:34:24] with the rest of the school year?

[1:34:25] Do you know that,

[1:34:28] So the contractual deadline for athletics

[1:34:31] and activities is October 1st.

[1:34:33] So you have less than a week and a half Yes.

[1:34:35] To make decisions? Yes. Okay.

[1:34:38] And how much of the budget is already under contract

[1:34:41] that you do not have any legal room

[1:34:44] Over 85 to I can give you,

[1:34:48] I mean just labor alone is almost 80%.

[1:34:51] Okay. Yeah. So the idea that we could go through

[1:34:54] and sit in a room and look through line by line, we have

[1:34:56] to take, take that 80% and just move it right off the table.

[1:34:59] Am I right? Because you can't touch it.

[1:35:02] So we're dealing with 20%

[1:35:04] and part of that 20% unfortunately is going

[1:35:08] to hit our students and no one wants to hear that.

[1:35:12] So our options it sounds like to me is we can like noodle

[1:35:15] around the edges and maybe cut a little here

[1:35:17] and cut a little there and it's not gonna

[1:35:19] change your tax rate at all.

[1:35:20] 'cause the formula's already half baked.

[1:35:23] Or we could just send the budget back out

[1:35:25] and see if we can get enough parents who, who, who belong

[1:35:28] to all of these children to show up

[1:35:29] and vote yes for the budget.

[1:35:40] You gonna go online and then,

[1:35:45] Hi, how's it going?

[1:35:47] I just have one question Before asking students

[1:35:51] to lose sports clubs

[1:35:52] or other opportunities, can you guys show us dollar

[1:35:55] by dollar alternative alternatives you evaluated first

[1:36:00] vacancies, attrition, central office, non-union staffing,

[1:36:04] hr, payroll, consolidation, contracts, overhead

[1:36:07] and the approximate 11 grand funded positions being moved,

[1:36:10] moved towards the general fund.

[1:36:13] Can you tell us what, how much those salaries are,

[1:36:16] what the benefits are?

[1:36:18] I mean I read through the non-union contract

[1:36:22] employee handbook, so I have some

[1:36:25] questions in regards to that as well.

[1:36:26] But since we don't have enough time, if that

[1:36:29] analysis exists, why isn't it available

[1:36:32] for taxpayers to see?

[1:36:33] And also why

[1:36:34] after a third failed vote, we haven't asked someone

[1:36:39] to come in independently and

[1:36:41] and help us evaluate this budget

[1:36:44] so we can show the community

[1:36:45] where the money is going line by line.

[1:36:48] And that way we can put it to to bed.

[1:36:51] Because right now people think you're hiding money

[1:36:54] and I, I've read it all and I don't think you are.

[1:36:57] That's just, that's all I gotta say.

[1:37:02] Thank you

[1:37:07] Nancy.

[1:37:08] Yes, Nancy LeClaire.

[1:37:10] I am very town taxpayer and I'm also a former board member.

[1:37:13] So I know what the process

[1:37:15] and the due diligence has to be done in order

[1:37:18] to present a budget that is going to pass.

[1:37:22] So I have a couple of questions and that the board chair

[1:37:27] and the member said that you see,

[1:37:29] you went through line by line.

[1:37:31] Is that true? You went through, okay. All right.

[1:37:35] So where did you get your financials

[1:37:38] to develop the third budget?

[1:37:41] Because the only financials

[1:37:44] that are available there are up to April 30th.

[1:37:47] I asked the business manager and the superintendent for May

[1:37:52] and June fiscal year 26th.

[1:37:54] 'cause that's what you do. You look at your,

[1:37:57] your approved budget through your actuals.

[1:38:00] And when you did your budget in March, in

[1:38:02] May when you had your, you had up to April 30th

[1:38:05] for fiscal year 26th, but you did not have May

[1:38:10] and June for fiscal year 26th.

[1:38:12] So how did you come up

[1:38:13] with your third budget? What did you look at?

[1:38:15] We looked at those financials, which is more up

[1:38:17] to date than what the berry city council, what

[1:38:20] Is up update And Barry Council lets board had,

[1:38:22] when they voted to send their budgets their FY 27 budgets,

[1:38:26] they did that in February and March.

[1:38:28] So we actually had more financials at our disposal

[1:38:31] to make our decisions.

[1:38:33] So how come that's not public information?

[1:38:35] 'cause that's part of the, that

[1:38:36] Was public information.

[1:38:37] That's not because I spoke to this,

[1:38:39] I'll send it to you, I'll make a note to send

[1:38:41] It.

[1:38:42] I make, it's gotta be May and June.

[1:38:43] And if that was, why isn't that been made public

[1:38:46] on the website for your budget of September 15th vote.

[1:38:50] That's what is missing. So

[1:38:53] Nancy, the auditors are here this week, right? In the,

[1:38:57] I know what you explained to me about

[1:38:59] The auditors, right?

[1:39:00] But let me tell the other people Sure.

[1:39:01] 'cause they weren't part of that conversation.

[1:39:03] So John and I began on July one, there was a period of time

[1:39:07] where the business office had folks on leave, right?

[1:39:10] The auditors are here this week.

[1:39:13] We are making sure that everything is correct

[1:39:15] because we don't wanna put something out that's incorrect.

[1:39:19] And as I've shared, the documents are preliminary,

[1:39:22] the year end statements right now.

[1:39:24] But as soon as the auditors have done what we're saying,

[1:39:26] that third party independent check,

[1:39:29] we will release them hopefully if they can get them back

[1:39:33] to us hopefully relatively shortly.

[1:39:35] So why is May and June fiscal year 26th

[1:39:39] preliminary information when you've already paid out your

[1:39:42] expenses for 26, those warrants everything you've approved.

[1:39:45] Right? But it's more than just warrants, right?

[1:39:47] We've got all sorts of other stuff that goes in,

[1:39:50] But I was just asking for

[1:39:51] fiscally year 20. I'm not arguing.

[1:39:53] So yeah, that's the, but that is the answer.

[1:39:55] And they're preliminary. As soon

[1:39:56] as the auditor says taking a look at them

[1:39:58] to make sure they're right, we'll

[1:39:59] Release 'em.

[1:40:00] Okay. So just so I have a clear understanding

[1:40:01] for April 30th expenses,

[1:40:04] I wasn't here in April,

[1:40:05] so I can't speak to what happened in April.

[1:40:07] Well they're still there, they're online.

[1:40:09] But anyways, yep.

[1:40:11] So the other thing is This is a

[1:40:15] $57 million budget

[1:40:18] and to me you had incomplete financials to be able

[1:40:21] to come up with a budget

[1:40:23] and then when the budget failed,

[1:40:25] you immediately attacked these students.

[1:40:27] And I wanna, I appreciate every one of you coming in here.

[1:40:30] I love everything that you said and you're absolutely right.

[1:40:34] You should not be affected by this budget

[1:40:37] because I feel it's hasn't been thoroughly looked at

[1:40:41] and I know there's going to be surpluses just

[1:40:45] by do looking at what I did have for information

[1:40:48] and trying to put together

[1:40:49] for fiscal year 26 and going forward.

[1:40:57] Let's see. And I also want to know

[1:41:01] when the budget failed for the first two times, how did you

[1:41:07] respond to the, what did you do to be able to come up

[1:41:09] with another budget when it,

[1:41:11] it failed exactly what you guys did.

[1:41:15] We cut 11 and a half positions since last fiscal year.

[1:41:19] Through attrition, through vacancies,

[1:41:21] through our enrollment reports.

[1:41:25] Okay, I just wanna say in your 11

[1:41:26] and a half you added 16 that you failed to mention.

[1:41:30] It's in your, it's in your, it's in your budget.

[1:41:39] I just, I just wanna say something quick

[1:41:42] and I'm going to use my time not

[1:41:46] to talk about the budget,

[1:41:48] but I just wanna say I'm proud of every

[1:41:53] single one of you who showed up,

[1:41:58] every single one and each

[1:42:01] and one of you deserve to have your face seen

[1:42:05] and know who you are and how much it means to you.

[1:42:08] I know we don't have enough time to do that,

[1:42:10] but I think taking the politics out of it, there are a lot

[1:42:14] of people here, there are a lot of people who are community,

[1:42:17] your teachers, your staff that are proud of you,

[1:42:19] love you and support you.

[1:42:21] And if you do need resources, there are ones out there.

[1:42:25] 9, 8, 8 Washington County Mental health

[1:42:29] services crisis line.

[1:42:34] Talk to a coach. I'm sure you already do.

[1:42:37] So I just wanna say especially the one, the people who,

[1:42:41] who came up here

[1:42:42] and have that anxiety issue and there done that.

[1:42:47] My daughter also participates in these afterschool programs.

[1:42:51] Okay? She's in eighth grade, so I understand,

[1:42:55] especially because she gets services, right?

[1:42:58] I understand how much these programs

[1:43:01] and taking politics out it.

[1:43:03] I just want to take my time to say that I am proud

[1:43:08] of all of the students

[1:43:11] and thank you for reminding us what matters.

[1:43:16] Every single day you carry up the

[1:43:20] 'cause it makes an impact on us too.

[1:43:23] Okay. Alright. That's all I wanted.

[1:43:39] I wasn't even gonna speak today, but

[1:43:41] after what I've seen tonight, I'm very proud of these kids.

[1:43:45] My name's Christie Re I'm from Berry Town.

[1:43:47] I've lived here my whole life.

[1:43:49] But the adults, I've never been

[1:43:52] so embarrassed in my whole entire life.

[1:43:54] We should be teaching these

[1:43:55] kids how we should come together.

[1:43:57] Whether what are differences, what side

[1:43:59] of the board you're on or whatever,

[1:44:02] and come up with a budget to get this thing passed.

[1:44:04] Like the first time it failed.

[1:44:07] I agree we should have like a committee.

[1:44:09] That's a good idea, but that's a mute point.

[1:44:11] Now we have to get this budget passed

[1:44:12] so these kids can go on and play sports

[1:44:14] and be mentally there in school.

[1:44:17] I know from my son that if he didn't have sports, he,

[1:44:21] I don't even know where he'd be.

[1:44:23] He needs them. Our kids need them. We need them.

[1:44:26] Like I love going to the games.

[1:44:28] I love going to all the games.

[1:44:30] And I just think that as adults we should come together

[1:44:33] and figure out how we can get this thing passed.

[1:44:36] Like everything's mute point right now, going live by live,

[1:44:39] we don't have time for that unfortunately.

[1:44:41] We have what, two weeks to get this thing passed.

[1:44:44] We need to come together as a community and get it passed

[1:44:48] and not hopefully not cut the sports.

[1:44:50] If we could find a different way.

[1:44:53] I know it's gonna be hard, but like there's other things

[1:44:55] that we can cut and all these we shouldn't even go on.

[1:44:59] I'm not as bad for kids and it's bad for people.

[1:45:02] All the back and forth and the arguing is ridiculous.

[1:45:06] We should figure out a way just

[1:45:08] to come together as a committee.

[1:45:09] Like these kids said, it brings people together

[1:45:12] and now we're fighting back and forth.

[1:45:14] It's ridiculous.

[1:45:28] Well, I wasn't going to speak, my name's ****, Karen,

[1:45:30] I'm one of the wrestling coaches here

[1:45:32] and vice chair of various sports.

[1:45:36] And we know how important athletics are for, for these guys.

[1:45:42] We, we can't afford to not have them playing.

[1:45:45] The lessons learned in the practice room or field

[1:45:50] or court or wherever it may be for some of these kids are,

[1:45:56] are bigger than what they learn in school

[1:45:58] because they just learn different and they don't.

[1:46:00] And it takes a while to, to, for the,

[1:46:04] for the classroom stuff to come to them.

[1:46:06] And, and it sometimes it comes by mistake, you know,

[1:46:10] doing well enough to stay in their sport, huh?

[1:46:14] All of a sudden they learn math, all

[1:46:16] of a sudden they can pass English.

[1:46:17] And we can't afford to lose that

[1:46:20] because there's a lot of kids that struggle to learn

[1:46:25] and because of sports they learn it almost by mistake.

[1:46:29] So, you know, having done this for almost 50 years, coaching

[1:46:34] some of my best, some of our best stories are from kids

[1:46:39] that barely had any success.

[1:46:42] And I run into, you know, somebody

[1:46:44] that I don't recognize in the, in the hardware store.

[1:46:48] And they have told us so many times

[1:46:51] how much athletics means to them.

[1:46:53] And I speak for every coach I'm sure, and I know I do.

[1:47:00] They get so much out of it

[1:47:01] that you just can't put on a report card.

[1:47:04] We gotta figure this out. And I don't ever you guys,

[1:47:06] but we gotta figure this out.

[1:47:24] Hi, good evening. I'm Megan Spalding

[1:47:27] and I live in Berry Town

[1:47:29] and I have two teenagers in high school here.

[1:47:33] I just kind of wanted to touch on the

[1:47:36] city versus town aspect.

[1:47:40] I grew up here in Berry City my whole life.

[1:47:44] And when I came to high school here at Spalding,

[1:47:48] I was looked down on

[1:47:49] because I came from Berry City, I was looked at

[1:47:52] as like a poor, you know, I don't know, trash

[1:47:56] or something, something terrible.

[1:47:58] And it was really hard.

[1:48:00] And I always heard these wonderful things about Berry Town.

[1:48:03] They had pistol, they had like different opportunities at

[1:48:07] Berry Town and it really felt like it was very true.

[1:48:11] And so when I became an adult

[1:48:13] and decided, oh, I wanna be close to my family,

[1:48:17] I'm gonna buy a house, I'm gonna buy a house in Berry Town

[1:48:20] because I don't want my kids to have to grow up and,

[1:48:24] and you know, not having, having that same experience.

[1:48:29] And so now I'm, I'm an adult.

[1:48:31] I live in Berry Town

[1:48:33] and I get slammed online.

[1:48:37] I see different posts

[1:48:38] or even in public at different events I'm looked down on

[1:48:43] because the town voted down the budget

[1:48:47] and the city passed the budget.

[1:48:49] And so it goes on and on and on and I cannot stand it.

[1:48:54] I really want us to merge the kids, the city and town kids.

[1:48:59] I think it would save us a lot of money.

[1:49:01] I know we don't have time to do that right now to pass this,

[1:49:05] but I'm getting, I'm just so sick and tired of it.

[1:49:09] These are all of our kids.

[1:49:11] I don't care where they come from.

[1:49:13] We care about all of their education and their experiences

[1:49:17] and we need to do better and back them up.

[1:49:21] The other thing is we need to really get creative.

[1:49:24] And I really wanna know like what's the

[1:49:26] building across the street?

[1:49:27] Where central offices, are there children in that building?

[1:49:31] Are there children ever in that building?

[1:49:33] If our numbers are down, can't we move some people?

[1:49:36] Can't we share some offices?

[1:49:38] Can't we have people work from home

[1:49:40] and then come in on certain days?

[1:49:42] Are there different ways of what we can be doing?

[1:49:44] Because I don't think we need

[1:49:46] that building across the street.

[1:49:48] Why can't we sell it?

[1:49:50] I just think that we need to be more creative

[1:49:53] and think about long-term solutions onto

[1:49:58] how to be more fiscally responsible.

[1:50:02] And the other thing is, is I love our staff.

[1:50:07] I love our staff. Whether it's someone

[1:50:10] who works in the office, our counselors here,

[1:50:14] our principal, Denise Maurice, all of our teachers,

[1:50:18] our para-educators, our custodians, the lunch people

[1:50:23] who know how to meet my daughter's sandwich every day,

[1:50:26] you know, by heart.

[1:50:28] I, people here turn up for kids

[1:50:32] and we have to turn up for our staff and support them.

[1:50:37] They, they need our support financially and emotionally.

[1:50:42] And I cannot tell you how many times

[1:50:46] my Infinite campus app goes off on a weekend or at night

[1:50:51] or on a vacation.

[1:50:52] Our teachers are working tirelessly.

[1:50:55] They're taking our kids on different trips.

[1:50:58] I've gone to so many music festivals

[1:51:01] that I never even knew about

[1:51:04] and every single time I go to a different community, it is

[1:51:07] so much nicer than here.

[1:51:09] It is so much nicer.

[1:51:11] And I am so tired of a parent of a kid in drama club

[1:51:15] where I have to man that food table and sell concessions

[1:51:18] and beg people to come and see plays

[1:51:22] because if we don't sell enough tickets then

[1:51:25] they have a crappy play.

[1:51:27] So please just support our kids. Thank you.

[1:51:36] Can I ask? Yeah, you can ask me anything.

[1:51:40] Yeah, go ahead. Okay,

[1:51:42] So when you say it's nicer,

[1:51:44] you mean it's nicer physical plan or it's nicer feeling?

[1:51:47] No, the shows are amazing

[1:51:49] because they get better scripts than we do.

[1:51:52] Our scripts are the cheapest ones possible.

[1:51:56] Also just go, go to our show.

[1:51:59] I don't know when it is because I know this budget.

[1:52:01] Can I add that? Can I, I got you.

[1:52:05] When we go to other schools, one of our, our biggest

[1:52:10] struggles is with Mom Hill's School.

[1:52:13] We love them. We support them a hundred percent.

[1:52:16] The only issue is their show dates typically are

[1:52:19] around the same time as our show dates

[1:52:21] and people are choosing to go to theirs

[1:52:23] because they have shows like Legally Blonde and,

[1:52:27] and Hades Town, these big name shows that everyone knows.

[1:52:30] So people go and they continue to support us.

[1:52:34] We kind of get in this depth loop of let's do the it girl

[1:52:37] because we can afford it, but nobody goes

[1:52:40] because we can't afford it

[1:52:43] or they don't know what the show is so they don't care.

[1:52:46] And it's this death loop.

[1:52:48] And then the other thing about other schools is they have

[1:52:51] the higher budgets for that.

[1:52:52] They also have higher budgets for their music programs.

[1:52:56] And you just go to these other schools

[1:52:57] and you see like how, how much like you get as soon

[1:53:01] as you walk in you get the feeling of wow

[1:53:04] they really care about their students.

[1:53:06] This is like, this community is incredible and you go home

[1:53:10] and you're stuck sitting here looking at what we have.

[1:53:13] And it's heartbreaking, honestly.

[1:53:17] Thank you Sam. I was the principal

[1:53:19] of a pretty rural high school.

[1:53:22] Our budget for theater was $20,000. Oh a year.

[1:53:27] Oh, I know. It says 500.

[1:53:31] It's not, it's, that's also incorrect,

[1:53:34] but it's, it's, it's still really well, it's

[1:53:37] Really low.

[1:53:41] Well I wanna thank you all for the threat

[1:53:43] of canceling sports in clubs

[1:53:45] because without that threat you wouldn't have all these

[1:53:48] fine students here.

[1:53:49] Can you please state your name for the record? Sure.

[1:53:51] Jeff Flow from Beartown.

[1:53:53] I wouldn't have enjoyed the opportunity to be here and,

[1:53:56] and listen to them plead their case so spectacularly,

[1:54:02] when I graduated from Spalding, we didn't have

[1:54:05] to worry about sports being cut

[1:54:06] because budgets were typically approved,

[1:54:09] but there were also a lot less

[1:54:10] money than what they are today.

[1:54:13] I will tell you that from a student's perspective today,

[1:54:15] from the comments I heard, I perceive

[1:54:19] that your position is if somebody voted no,

[1:54:22] they don't want sports and they don't support students.

[1:54:25] I voted no. And I support education, I support schools

[1:54:30] and I support kids.

[1:54:32] What I don't support is a school board that isn't fiscally

[1:54:36] and financially responsible.

[1:54:38] And that's what this school board is.

[1:54:40] At one of your recent meetings, you had an opportunity

[1:54:43] with a board member Waylon,

[1:54:46] making a suggestion about one more minor cut to

[1:54:49] what you were gonna present to the voters that just failed.

[1:54:52] Do you remember what your present presentation was?

[1:54:55] It was 350,000 more

[1:54:57] To get it under 56.

[1:54:58] 50 to be under 56.

[1:55:01] I mean under 57 million it would be 56 something. Yes.

[1:55:05] Nobody on this board cared to listen.

[1:55:08] Can you remind me what was proposed to be cut?

[1:55:10] I can't remember. I think your proposal, we didn't discuss

[1:55:13] that board unfortunately there, so

[1:55:15] There was no proposal. It

[1:55:16] Was just pick a number and we'll figure it out

[1:55:19] later is what I recall.

[1:55:20] Yeah, that's what I recall. Her recommendation

[1:55:22] or suggestion was to make an additional cut

[1:55:26] to be under 57 million.

[1:55:29] It was a perception, a visual perception for the voters

[1:55:34] and nobody on this board cared to even entertain it.

[1:55:38] And the difference between 56.99

[1:55:42] and your 57 1 2 was peanuts that we're talking about.

[1:55:48] Now I feel sorry for you

[1:55:50] that you're sitting here in this predicament today,

[1:55:52] but I will tell you that you've had opportunities along the

[1:55:55] way to make adjustments

[1:55:57] to present something a little more fiscally

[1:55:59] responsible to residents.

[1:56:00] And you haven't done that and shame on you for not doing it.

[1:56:04] Now's your chance to listen to Catherine Wayland

[1:56:08] and a specific number

[1:56:11] that will visually look different to voters.

[1:56:15] You might get something a little more supportive,

[1:56:17] but I've watched your board meetings

[1:56:20] and I almost never hear any of you really talk about budget.

[1:56:24] You almost never talk about it.

[1:56:26] It's very little conversation.

[1:56:28] So I have zero confidence in what you folks put out

[1:56:32] because I don't hear you talk about it.

[1:56:34] So I don't know what the heck you're putting out there

[1:56:36] to us other than what I can dig up and find on my own.

[1:56:39] And and one student made the comment

[1:56:42] that we only spend $12,500 per student.

[1:56:45] Okay? We have about 2100 students.

[1:56:48] Simple math, that's $27 million.

[1:56:52] Our budget's a hell of a long cry from $27 million.

[1:56:55] So we spend a lot more than 12 five per student.

[1:56:59] You know, that's not the way the

[1:57:00] state of Vermont calculates.

[1:57:02] Come on. I don't care how the state

[1:57:03] of Vermont calculates it.

[1:57:04] I care about a taxpayer.

[1:57:05] Well, we're not immune from their laws.

[1:57:07] Jeff Taxpayers calculate their expense budgets

[1:57:10] on revenue and expenses.

[1:57:12] Your expense budget that you just finished

[1:57:17] was north of $64 million on a, on a budget that was,

[1:57:21] I believe it was approved at like 55, 59

[1:57:25] or just under, it was under $56 million budget.

[1:57:29] It was approved. But it is, it's irrelevant at this point.

[1:57:33] My point is that when I sit back and I read the newspaper

[1:57:37] and I see you, you board members say we only spend $12,500

[1:57:41] per student and I can go find your

[1:57:43] budget and your student count.

[1:57:45] And I do the simple math. You're misleading people.

[1:57:48] So I would appreciate you being honest with residents.

[1:57:50] Thank you

[1:57:56] Jeff.

[1:57:57] I have a I have a question for you.

[1:57:58] So, so the $350,000 was eye candy

[1:58:03] for you and and voters.

[1:58:04] So if we, if we dropped the number, I'm just trying

[1:58:07] to understand, I'm listening to you

[1:58:09] and that's what I, what I gathered the $350,000

[1:58:14] in reductions would've turned out a yes vote

[1:58:18] because it, because because it looked good.

[1:58:22] The perception of 57 3 times versus 57 twice

[1:58:26] and 56 on the third time

[1:58:29] would've visually had an impact on loaders.

[1:58:33] And that's something that

[1:58:34] as a board you all need to be talking about.

[1:58:37] So, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't be doing my job if I was

[1:58:39] like, well, you know, that, that looks great, that,

[1:58:43] you know, if we just cut seven positions

[1:58:47] and do sports, it'll drop that number down

[1:58:52] and hey, I'm gonna get a yes vote.

[1:58:53] I'll, I'll do that. I'll make that deal.

[1:58:56] We're not gonna do that.

[1:58:57] We're not gonna cut sports because it looks good.

[1:59:02] I'm not, I'm not here advocating for any cuts

[1:59:04] of sports. I'm, but

[1:59:06] You want something, you'd like something cut

[1:59:07] Exactly what they deserve.

[1:59:10] You, you, you would like something cut.

[1:59:12] You don't care what it is.

[1:59:13] But the, the budget number has to look good to you.

[1:59:16] I'm telling I, I'll say this

[1:59:17] and that'll be quiet 'cause I'm over my time.

[1:59:20] If you want me to level expertise on your board,

[1:59:23] then I'll run for the school board and I'll do that.

[1:59:25] But frankly, I don't want to You people were elected to do

[1:59:28] that, that's your job.

[1:59:30] We're not, you're not supposed

[1:59:31] to put your finger up in the air

[1:59:32] and say, geez, people, what do you want?

[1:59:33] Do? You're supposed to lead, lead your community

[1:59:37] for a budget that you think you can get past. But

[1:59:40] That's what it sounds like.

[1:59:41] That's what sounds like what you're telling me,

[1:59:42] That if you had a 56 point something,

[1:59:46] your budget probably would've had a better

[1:59:47] chance to get approved.

[1:59:49] Instead, you left at a 57,128,000

[1:59:55] and you've got no budget and,

[1:59:57] and I wanna see this board working on the budget.

[2:00:00] I wanna be able to watch a meeting

[2:00:02] and see you all talking about what to do,

[2:00:04] really discussing what to do.

[2:00:06] I think at this point, the only way you have out of this is

[2:00:09] to look at the administrative team

[2:00:10] and make some alterations on the administrative team.

[2:00:13] You can't do it with teachers.

[2:00:14] You certainly better not do it with sports.

[2:00:17] You don't have any choice. You the

[2:00:19] administrative team. Contracts. Contracts.

[2:00:21] Thank you Jeff. I go

[2:00:26] Go.

[2:00:30] As you may know, I tried to speak earlier and I got scared

[2:00:34] and I sat back down.

[2:00:35] But from what I just heard, this is exactly why most

[2:00:40] of these kids came here to speak today is, oh,

[2:00:44] I support not cutting sports,

[2:00:46] but the board isn't fit for this.

[2:00:52] And like voting no is,

[2:00:56] it's just, you see all these kids, they came here to voice

[2:01:01] about what they love and that they don't want it to be cut.

[2:01:05] But then you, I also,

[2:01:10] I have a brother and he goes to Berry Town

[2:01:16] and so she, my kid,

[2:01:21] her kid is friends with my brother

[2:01:23] and I want them to have the same opportunities.

[2:01:27] Like I want them to have opportunities as they grow up

[2:01:31] and I want them to feel like they belong

[2:01:34] and cutting, cutting these opportunities

[2:01:39] with sports and extracurriculars.

[2:01:42] Like it's not going, it's not going to help us at all.

[2:01:47] And like voting now is

[2:01:51] completely like, I think I made that point.

[2:01:54] I

[2:01:55] I say one thing,

[2:02:00] thank you so much for coming back up.

[2:02:03] It's, and good job kid.

[2:02:05] And I love your sentiment

[2:02:07] because that's actually why I am here on the board is I want

[2:02:11] to make sure that you guys have all the opportunities

[2:02:13] that I have growing up and,

[2:02:15] and potentially more if that's even possible.

[2:02:18] So it is very important for me

[2:02:19] and it just means so much to hear.

[2:02:22] One of hear you say that I I cannot even just tell you

[2:02:26] how much that means to you.

[2:02:27] I, I'm not sure if what I said made complete sense, but

[2:02:31] It did.

[2:02:32] Okay.

[2:02:38] All right. I'm gonna go online

[2:02:40] to Sydney first then Rachel, then James.

[2:02:46] Hi everybody. Can you hear me? Barely

[2:02:56] come to me next.

[2:02:58] Hello. I'll come to you.

[2:03:02] Okay, so we'll go to to Rachel.

[2:03:08] My name is Rachel Plet.

[2:03:10] I'm a fifth grade social studies teacher at Berry Town now,

[2:03:13] which is a new position for me.

[2:03:15] This is my 16th year working at Berry Town School.

[2:03:20] I decided to buy a condo here in Berry

[2:03:24] because I love the berry community.

[2:03:27] I also have been coming

[2:03:30] to these meetings very regularly.

[2:03:32] If I don't, if I'm not here in person, I watch it.

[2:03:36] I've been here coming here hearing about the budget since

[2:03:39] October, maybe November when you started discussing it.

[2:03:44] And for those,

[2:03:48] I'm having a really hard time hearing some

[2:03:50] of the people speak knowing that it's,

[2:03:59] they're putting a lot of blame on the school board.

[2:04:01] I've been coming to these meetings again

[2:04:04] like nearly every time.

[2:04:08] And this board, the majority

[2:04:10] of this board wanted everything funded.

[2:04:12] They wanted a higher budget

[2:04:14] because they believe that our students deserve it, But

[2:04:19] because of the community

[2:04:20] and there are certain members in the community

[2:04:22] who absolutely are purposely spreading misinformation.

[2:04:27] I think there are others who think they're doing the right

[2:04:29] thing, but it's a really complicated funding for, I kind

[2:04:34] of get it and I've been watching a lot of the videos

[2:04:36] and again, I come to these board meetings.

[2:04:39] One thing I'm excited about is the legislature meeting

[2:04:42] again, because they're gonna talk about reforming

[2:04:45] how we fund our schools.

[2:04:48] We are cutting so much

[2:04:49] and taking so much away from our schools

[2:04:51] and our students and our community.

[2:04:54] And it has, is not directly tied to

[2:04:58] how much money you're saving on your taxes.

[2:05:01] We are at this point because we have voted

[2:05:04] the budget down three times.

[2:05:06] We say in the district.

[2:05:08] I voted yes every time

[2:05:10] because I believe all these student students deserve just

[2:05:13] as good of an education, as any other school around us,

[2:05:17] any other school in Vermont.

[2:05:20] Again, I come to these board meetings,

[2:05:22] they can get really boring, no offense

[2:05:25] because it's a lot of finances, just details

[2:05:30] and, but they're going through it.

[2:05:32] This was not on a whim.

[2:05:34] This is a last, there's nothing left to cut.

[2:05:37] We already have so much, so little

[2:05:42] for our students, for our staff, for our community.

[2:05:48] I sometimes question why bought a house here?

[2:05:51] Because I know it's gonna be hard to sell it if I need

[2:05:54] to sell it if we continue doing this.

[2:05:57] But then I remember I come to things like this,

[2:05:59] these board meetings and I remember why I'm here in Berry.

[2:06:03] I love the students. I love

[2:06:04] the families I've gotten to meet.

[2:06:06] I love my coworkers

[2:06:10] and berry town's really the only place I've worked.

[2:06:13] I was a para my first year outta college

[2:06:15] and I've been at Berry Town ever since.

[2:06:19] And even when it's tough

[2:06:20] and I'm hearing people in the community

[2:06:25] spread misinformation, be misinformed, some of it really,

[2:06:29] again, genuinely not understanding

[2:06:31] or thinking they understand.

[2:06:34] I just remember the students

[2:06:35] and so I thank all the students who came here,

[2:06:38] all the students I work with

[2:06:39] because they're, I keep coming back

[2:06:42] and I think that we can do better

[2:06:44] and our students deserve better.

[2:06:45] Thanks

[2:06:53] Sydney.

[2:06:54] Are you ready?

[2:06:56] Can you hear me better now? Yes. All right.

[2:06:58] I had to plug in my cell phone

[2:07:00] or my headphones to the student that just talked.

[2:07:03] I completely understand.

[2:07:05] I, I'm horrible at public speaking

[2:07:09] and if you could see me now, my hand is like shaking

[2:07:12] and I don't even have my video turned on, so you know

[2:07:16] it's gonna get better, I promise.

[2:07:19] But I wanted to say something regardless of

[2:07:21] what side you are on or what the outcome in is of this vote

[2:07:26] one, see one thing seems clear, something needs

[2:07:29] to change moving forward.

[2:07:32] This isn't for this year,

[2:07:33] but next year I believe there should be a greater,

[2:07:36] greater involvement from the community members.

[2:07:38] Not just when you know, the second

[2:07:41] and the third vote fails.

[2:07:46] And I think it needs to come from the community members

[2:07:49] with professional and financial

[2:07:51] and accounting experience in the budget development process,

[2:07:56] a budget committee that brings together the school board

[2:07:59] administration and experienced financial

[2:08:02] and accounting profession professionals could provide

[2:08:06] additional perspectives

[2:08:08] and help make an incredible, incredibly complicated process

[2:08:13] more understandable and transparent.

[2:08:16] The community is asking for transparency for many taxpayers.

[2:08:20] School finance is difficult to understand

[2:08:24] and what they see most clearly is the impact on their

[2:08:27] property taxes and a larger bill.

[2:08:28] As a financial professional

[2:08:30] and myself, I believe we need to do a better job

[2:08:33] of bridging that gap.

[2:08:35] Transparency isn't simply providing numbers,

[2:08:37] it's educating people about what those numbers mean.

[2:08:40] What is driving increases

[2:08:42] and where money is going,

[2:08:45] what alternatives are were considered,

[2:08:47] and what the consequences or drug reductions would be.

[2:08:50] And I know that we have been doing that.

[2:08:52] And that responsibility cannot fall solely on you

[2:08:55] guys, the school board.

[2:08:57] It's gonna require leadership, collabor, collaboration,

[2:09:00] financial expertise, like, excuse me, Ika said,

[2:09:04] maybe even an outside auditor.

[2:09:06] But that costs money

[2:09:10] in a rigorous review of the budget

[2:09:12] and the process behind it.

[2:09:14] Our students deserve a strong education

[2:09:16] and our taxpayers deserve to understand

[2:09:19] how their money is being used.

[2:09:21] Those two things should not be treated

[2:09:23] as opposing goals moving forward.

[2:09:25] We need a process that gives both the community

[2:09:27] and our students greater confidence

[2:09:30] that every option has been thoroughly examined

[2:09:32] and communicated.

[2:09:34] And I just wanna reiterate that I am so incredibly

[2:09:39] proud of our students.

[2:09:40] They're doing things that I still sweat and shake about and,

[2:09:45] and that's speaking up for something that they love

[2:09:49] and that they are passionate about.

[2:09:51] And they all, every single one of you kids, young adults

[2:09:56] brought tears to my eyes tonight.

[2:09:58] And I think if anything,

[2:10:00] your impact tonight has been the biggest impact

[2:10:05] that we will see in a long, long time.

[2:10:08] So thank you

[2:10:16] James.

[2:10:18] Hi, thanks. My name is James Carpenter.

[2:10:20] I was a long time teacher at Perry Town.

[2:10:23] I just want to say echo the last speaker's comments about

[2:10:27] how proud I am of the students who get up to speak.

[2:10:31] I thought they were eloquent

[2:10:32] and put forth their concerns to the board.

[2:10:37] I'd like to thank you for putting forth a

[2:10:39] responsible and reasonable budget.

[2:10:41] I think with 4% inflation to put forth a budget that's 2%

[2:10:46] says a lot about the thought and care that you put into it.

[2:10:50] To those who are like, we should cut more

[2:10:53] before hanging sports around.

[2:10:55] The next of our students know that Berry Town used

[2:10:58] to have middle school art.

[2:11:00] Berry Town used to have reading enrichment.

[2:11:02] Berry Town used to have a technology integrationist,

[2:11:07] Berry Town used to have behavioral support staff.

[2:11:12] We are not hanging sports

[2:11:15] around students' next unjustly

[2:11:17] or using it as a threat to taxpayers.

[2:11:21] You have seen again

[2:11:22] and again what happens when the community does

[2:11:25] not support its schools.

[2:11:27] You lose all of those extra classes

[2:11:31] that benefit students.

[2:11:33] And so here we are with a 2% budget increase

[2:11:38] that really just speaks more towards

[2:11:41] the state funded

[2:11:43] or how the state funds education than it does

[2:11:46] towards our board.

[2:11:48] So our board puts forth a a reasonable budget.

[2:11:51] We have nowhere left to cut

[2:11:53] and now we're here saying boards are last

[2:11:57] and community members feel like it's

[2:12:00] somehow a a scare tactic.

[2:12:02] So I would just like to say

[2:12:03] that those community members we've got, we've,

[2:12:07] and I know I no longer work at Berry

[2:12:09] Town, love working there.

[2:12:11] I no longer work there because cuts

[2:12:14] have been me in the past.

[2:12:16] Please stop asking the school to take less and less and less

[2:12:21] and do more with less and just step up for our community.

[2:12:27] Yeah, Thank you for your time.

[2:12:37] So my name is Michael Dearing.

[2:12:39] I know many of you in this room, many different hats.

[2:12:42] I'm gonna speak as a role of city counselor.

[2:12:45] The deputy mayor. I think that it is time

[2:12:47] that our communities, Berry Town

[2:12:49] and Berry City come together

[2:12:50] and figure out what the differences are

[2:12:52] in order to pass a budget.

[2:12:54] This process has gone on for way too long

[2:12:56] and people need to come together in order to get that done.

[2:12:59] Between statements

[2:13:01] and comments that many different individuals have made,

[2:13:04] it seems that we have groups that are on two different sides

[2:13:08] of the spectrum, that one group really wants

[2:13:10] to pass the budget and other people don't

[2:13:13] wanna really pass the budget.

[2:13:14] And what needs to happen is that everyone needs

[2:13:16] to come together to get something done.

[2:13:19] Now when it comes to policy making,

[2:13:20] nobody gets everything that they want.

[2:13:23] Each side kind of puts together what they want

[2:13:26] and out of that comes a product

[2:13:27] that the voters are going to approve.

[2:13:29] We haven't been able to come up with a product

[2:13:31] that the voters are going to be able to approve.

[2:13:35] I try not to get involved in our school issues

[2:13:38] because as a city counselor, I try to just

[2:13:41] maintain focus on the city.

[2:13:42] It's important to keep the separation there,

[2:13:45] but desperate times call for desperate measures

[2:13:48] and everybody needs to get involved.

[2:13:50] So this isn't me making a plea

[2:13:53] for anything other than people coming together

[2:13:55] and working together to get the things done

[2:13:56] for our community that needs to get done.

[2:13:59] So everybody just needs to stop the pettiness.

[2:14:02] We needs to have good solid conversations about what's going

[2:14:06] on because without the discussions that are going on,

[2:14:10] we're not gonna get anywhere.

[2:14:11] We're not gonna pass a budget.

[2:14:13] No one's gonna come and wanna work for our school district.

[2:14:15] Nobody's gonna want to come to live in our city or our town.

[2:14:18] That's just the reality of it.

[2:14:20] So I'm coming as a cheerleader for our community

[2:14:23] to say we all need to come together to support something

[2:14:26] that the voters are going to approve.

[2:14:28] Yes, we want 51%

[2:14:30] to support the budget, but it's more than that.

[2:14:33] We want a community as a whole to support our budget.

[2:14:37] I'm just gonna end with that.

[2:14:45] Ellen K.

[2:14:48] Hi there. Can you hear me all right?

[2:14:51] We can hear you Great. This is Ellen K from Berry City.

[2:14:56] I also wanna applaud the school board and

[2:14:58] and your diligent efforts to pass a budget that gets lower

[2:15:03] and lower and lower every time.

[2:15:07] And yet some people are never satisfied.

[2:15:12] The previous speaker wanted to know what the differences

[2:15:14] between Berry City and Berry Town are.

[2:15:16] Put simply, Berry City has a 25% poverty rate

[2:15:21] and Berry Town has a 5% poverty rate.

[2:15:25] Berry City has a 50%, $50,000

[2:15:28] or around there median household income.

[2:15:31] And Berry Town has an 80,000.

[2:15:34] There are different interests here and,

[2:15:37] and the amount of misinformation on

[2:15:40] what these increases would mean for people

[2:15:44] were really irresponsible and ill-intentioned.

[2:15:49] So you're, so we have se several wealthy people

[2:15:55] putting out information that it's gonna be a 10% increase.

[2:15:59] It was never a 10% increase.

[2:16:02] And a lot of people went to the polls believing that also

[2:16:09] low income people and by low income,

[2:16:11] the the threshold's pretty high

[2:16:15] have in get income sensitivity,

[2:16:17] which means they are not paying the whole thing.

[2:16:21] So also wealthy people putting out information

[2:16:24] that say it's gonna hurt poor people is disingenuous.

[2:16:29] So I think that what needs to happen is that everybody

[2:16:32] who did not get out

[2:16:33] and vote for this budget needs to be cajoled

[2:16:38] and driven to the polls and encouraged

[2:16:41] and every student who spoke here tonight, you were amazing.

[2:16:44] Now please go and talk to your parents

[2:16:47] and your parents friends

[2:16:48] and everyone else to support who, who supports this school

[2:16:52] to get out and pass us a budget that we can live with.

[2:16:57] It's still not gonna be great

[2:16:59] because we are one

[2:17:00] of the most underfunded schools in the state

[2:17:03] and one of the, the schools

[2:17:04] with the lowest per pupil spending, that's a statement

[2:17:09] of principal Barry, do you care about your students?

[2:17:14] Do you value your schools?

[2:17:15] Do you remember that people sent you to school, people

[2:17:19] who may have been on a fixed income, people

[2:17:21] who didn't know any longer have children in

[2:17:23] school, they sent you to school.

[2:17:26] It is our job to make sure that these children get the same.

[2:17:33] Thank you.

[2:17:42] I wanna fix these awesome students over there.

[2:17:45] You guys did a great job

[2:17:47] and I hope that this whole thing Sorry,

[2:17:50] can I just have you state your name for the record?

[2:17:51] Oh, sorry. I'm Mark Tro. I'm a taxpayer in Berry City.

[2:17:56] I also own a business in, in Berry County.

[2:17:58] I pay taxes on that property.

[2:18:00] Not only do I pay a boatload of taxes,

[2:18:04] I mean a boatload of taxes, right?

[2:18:07] I also give back to the community with a lot of hours

[2:18:10] and a lot of money and somebody you, so

[2:18:16] when people voted no one budget,

[2:18:18] they didn't vote against you.

[2:18:20] We love you. You're doing a good job.

[2:18:22] One of the things I was just gonna say is I hope this gets

[2:18:24] you guys to get out and vote when you're old about to vote

[2:18:27] because teeny tiny portion of us voted.

[2:18:32] That's sad. Whether you voted yes or not, that's just sad.

[2:18:35] We need to get people out there and vote.

[2:18:37] They voted no on the budget

[2:18:40] because they didn't have confidence in

[2:18:42] what the budget stood for.

[2:18:43] And it's sad that we get to this point

[2:18:46] where these guys feel like it's about them.

[2:18:49] It wasn't about them, it's about

[2:18:51] how the budget was presented,

[2:18:53] how they felt it was spent.

[2:18:57] And now we're at a point where things are already spent,

[2:19:01] we can't do anything about it.

[2:19:03] It's sad that we got to that point.

[2:19:04] Something should have been done

[2:19:05] before that there was room to do things.

[2:19:08] We need to work harder on that. All right.

[2:19:10] That's why people, people voted wasn't people were vote yes

[2:19:15] for 80,000 budget.

[2:19:17] $80 million budget.

[2:19:18] Excuse me, if they felt it was spent, right?

[2:19:23] So the taxes that I pay, the money that I give

[2:19:26] to the community, I'm happy to do

[2:19:30] that if I feel it's being treated properly.

[2:19:34] All right? It is about you guys,

[2:19:36] but we want that budget to be about you guys,

[2:19:39] not all the other little things that are in there

[2:19:41] that we don't feel confident about.

[2:19:45] So we need to work harder on the budget.

[2:19:47] I'm sad that we're at the point where we're at

[2:19:49] where we don't have a lot of wiggle room now we did before.

[2:19:53] So next year we gotta do better

[2:19:57] and hopefully we do something to get the voters

[2:19:59] to pass budget so we can run all the

[2:20:01] school budget this year.

[2:20:03] You taking care of these guys because they're one job.

[2:20:14] I think you need to. Lisa.

[2:20:20] Hi, good evening.

[2:20:22] I'm Lisa Tta and I live in Berry City

[2:20:24] and I wanted, I was so moved by every single student

[2:20:29] who spoke tonight.

[2:20:31] You guys are phenomenal

[2:20:32] and I know one other speaker said they were moved to tears

[2:20:35] and I was as well because your statements were

[2:20:37] so incredibly powerful.

[2:20:40] But I wanna talk about something.

[2:20:44] I've lived in Berry City for seven years

[2:20:46] and I think for all my recollection is for almost every one

[2:20:50] of those seven years, the budget fails at least once

[2:20:56] it comes back and the board cuts

[2:20:58] and then they bring it forward and sometimes it passes

[2:21:01] and sometimes it doesn't.

[2:21:03] But every single year

[2:21:07] when the new budget comes out, it's based on

[2:21:11] the prior years operating

[2:21:14] everything, programs, everything.

[2:21:17] I rarely see anything added, anything new,

[2:21:21] any new programs, any expansion, anything new offered.

[2:21:26] And every time that budget has to be redrafted and cut

[2:21:29] because voters vote it down, we lose something.

[2:21:34] And I've seen board

[2:21:36] after board try to preserve everything

[2:21:41] for the students and we've cut

[2:21:44] and we've cut and we've cut.

[2:21:47] And now we came forward with a 2% increase

[2:21:50] and it was voted down again.

[2:21:53] I heard so much mistrust in

[2:21:58] what this board is doing and it's astounding

[2:22:03] because this board is working so hard

[2:22:07] that the rubber has hit the road

[2:22:11] and it's a result of so much mistrust.

[2:22:15] So many budgets being voted down.

[2:22:18] They were in a very difficult position.

[2:22:21] And I thank the board for their hard work

[2:22:23] and the administration who I trust

[2:22:28] to bring forward a good budget.

[2:22:30] These are professionals.

[2:22:33] They don't need to be nitpicked line by line

[2:22:36] and go through all these details.

[2:22:38] We've elected this board to do the work

[2:22:43] and I just wish the community would trust them

[2:22:46] and get behind it and do the right thing for our students.

[2:22:49] Thank you.

[2:23:00] My name is Emma Heian.

[2:23:02] I, yeah, it sounded like

[2:23:07] some of the people were saying that they wanted the students

[2:23:10] to have everything that they needed

[2:23:12] and like all that was important.

[2:23:14] There was another group of people that were, did not like

[2:23:18] the like price of the budget or whatever.

[2:23:22] And it just doesn't seem like at this point those two

[2:23:25] things could go together.

[2:23:27] You guys already seem to cut so much of the stuff.

[2:23:31] If like even if you don't like cut sports

[2:23:33] and stuff, you're looking for other like things

[2:23:35] to cut enough to take it down to an amount

[2:23:37] that maybe some people would be okay with it.

[2:23:40] It would still have a fairly large,

[2:23:43] but it would still have some something of an impact.

[2:23:46] And if that's okay that year, then the person

[2:23:51] who just talked, they said it's based off the year

[2:23:53] beforehand then wouldn't it keep getting

[2:23:58] cut and cut and slowly small decreases in like budget

[2:24:03] just hurt the students over time.

[2:24:06] Even if it's not like large things that we can notice

[2:24:12] And wouldn't it, would it be possible it,

[2:24:17] it's already been not passed so many times.

[2:24:21] Would it be possible to put together a budget that

[2:24:25] would fit all the things

[2:24:26] that you guys think the students need

[2:24:28] and then just offer that to the voters, sorry, the voters

[2:24:32] as many times as it takes for them to vote?

[2:24:34] Yes.

[2:24:45] Jayla.

[2:24:48] Hi, I am Jayla. I got three kiddos in Berry City.

[2:24:51] It's only our second year, but I'm not new to Berry.

[2:24:55] I went to Berry City, I graduated from Spalding.

[2:24:59] I got a couple of questions following up some things that

[2:25:02] multiple people have said including our last speaker.

[2:25:05] So he's right in the sense that everything just keeps going.

[2:25:08] Every time we cut, every year it changes.

[2:25:11] I remember having cityscape at Berry City

[2:25:13] that is been long gone for now, like very long time.

[2:25:18] And that had a massive impact

[2:25:20] of us when we were younger kids.

[2:25:22] And I mean I don't think they're wrong if we keep continuing

[2:25:25] to cut, we very clearly have a budget that's hard.

[2:25:29] I don't know all those nuances.

[2:25:30] But my main question is again,

[2:25:33] why are we not merging the schools?

[2:25:35] Like what is stopping Berry Town being a middle school,

[2:25:39] like Berry City being an elementary school,

[2:25:41] we just heard people talk about the poverty differences

[2:25:44] and all those things.

[2:25:45] And again, someone else spoke before I was a Berry City kid.

[2:25:49] I remember exactly what that person said.

[2:25:51] We went to Spalding, we were looked down on,

[2:25:53] we were like the kids that were always troublemakers.

[2:25:56] Supposedly we always heard how gray berry town kids were

[2:25:59] and we're not dumb as adults.

[2:26:01] We see those different things

[2:26:03] and like we're still experiencing kids obviously

[2:26:05] we have a lot more issues.

[2:26:06] There's addiction problems, lots of things going on.

[2:26:09] But that doesn't mean these kids deserve any less.

[2:26:13] And we have a lot more kids needing services.

[2:26:15] And when I was growing up,

[2:26:17] Berry Town always had the services

[2:26:19] for the kids that were doing great.

[2:26:21] Berry City always had the services for the kids

[2:26:22] that were doing bad.

[2:26:24] I don't know if I said that wrong, but Berry Town

[2:26:26] had the good stuff.

[2:26:27] Berry City had the rough stuff

[2:26:29] and it wasn't necessarily bad,

[2:26:31] but it was just like the kids in Berry Town were exce like

[2:26:33] succeeding more because there was more funding going towards

[2:26:36] the kids that were excelling.

[2:26:38] And then Berry City had funding going towards the kids

[2:26:40] that were struggling and some of them were doing great too.

[2:26:44] But why are we not splitting funding?

[2:26:46] Why is it still separate schools

[2:26:48] for separate things when we're like sharing

[2:26:50] buses, we've done all the other things.

[2:26:52] Like why aren't we looking at the budget of

[2:26:56] creating schools, merging everything?

[2:26:58] I, that's just my question.

[2:27:00] Like I said, I'm new so I don't like a hundred percent know

[2:27:03] everything that's been going on,

[2:27:04] but that's been the main question since even I was a

[2:27:07] kid like in the nineties.

[2:27:10] Okay, can I, I'm gonna summarize this,

[2:27:12] so correct me if I'm wrong, it's gonna be very simple.

[2:27:15] So when that first merge happened,

[2:27:19] people didn't want it to happen.

[2:27:20] I think town voted more against it.

[2:27:23] I'm not a hundred percent sure we can fact check that,

[2:27:26] but I do know that town facilitated, there's articles in

[2:27:30] that merger merger that we have to have a public vote

[2:27:33] to merge the students into the same building.

[2:27:36] So no matter what we do as a board, we cannot say, okay,

[2:27:40] tomorrow pre-K through four is over there and

[2:27:43] and the rest are over here.

[2:27:44] We cannot do that legally, first of all.

[2:27:47] Secondly, the board has voted twice

[2:27:50] to have someone look at physically merging the

[2:27:53] elementary middle schools.

[2:27:55] Of course I have yet to follow up with superintendent nicely

[2:27:59] because we're doing this for so long

[2:28:00] and putting this fire out.

[2:28:03] But that was begun right at the end of Joanne's tenure.

[2:28:07] So we want to at least look at that.

[2:28:10] I do believe there are cost savings in it.

[2:28:12] For example, it's a lot easier

[2:28:14] to consolidate classrooms if you have lower enrollments,

[2:28:17] if you don't have the grades in two different buildings.

[2:28:21] But we have to look at it so that that's the main Yeah,

[2:28:23] and it does cost money to look at it.

[2:28:25] But that's the main reason we have

[2:28:27] to have, we have to have that looked at.

[2:28:28] And it also has to go to a public vote. Thank you.

[2:28:34] See, my name is Chris Parker.

[2:28:36] I am, I live in Berry Town and a school social worker.

[2:28:42] My kids went to Berry Town

[2:28:43] and graduated from Spalding two years ago.

[2:28:45] They're both in college now.

[2:28:47] And I think when we talk about voting no on

[2:28:52] a budget and thinking that that is mutually exclusive

[2:28:55] of it's not a vote against kids

[2:28:57] or it's not a vote against teachers, that's just incorrect.

[2:29:01] And I think you can think that on vote one, maybe vote two

[2:29:04] because you think there are efficiencies to be had.

[2:29:08] Cut the copier budget, cut the supply budget.

[2:29:11] By the time you get to vote three

[2:29:13] and four, you are voting against kids

[2:29:16] and you are voting against our educators

[2:29:19] because the fat, there's not a lot of fat left to trim.

[2:29:22] And so we're not threatening to say,

[2:29:25] I hear you all saying we need to look at sports, we need

[2:29:27] to look at extracurriculars.

[2:29:28] That's not a threat. That's literally

[2:29:30] where we're at by the vote for.

[2:29:33] And so to tell yourselves this is about taxes

[2:29:36] and this is about this money or that money

[2:29:40] because you can't vote against the prices at Hannaford

[2:29:44] and you can't vote against the prices at Irving,

[2:29:48] but you can vote against these kids

[2:29:50] and you can vote against these teachers.

[2:29:54] The number of teachers that I see online tonight

[2:29:57] and in this room that were my own kids' teachers starting at

[2:30:01] Berry Town until now, decades

[2:30:04] of commitment to these kids.

[2:30:07] And I know working in a school myself,

[2:30:09] when you fail a budget three times

[2:30:11] and you go on to vote for the morale of those kids

[2:30:16] and of those teachers is terrible

[2:30:19] because they hear you don't wanna give us money for sports.

[2:30:24] You don't wanna give us money for curriculum.

[2:30:27] And so that is important.

[2:30:30] And if we wanna keep good teachers, we can't vote down

[2:30:33] for budgets because those teachers don't

[2:30:36] have contracts right now.

[2:30:39] They can leave if they wanna leave. We have no budget.

[2:30:45] Teachers can be looking around and say, you know what?

[2:30:47] I looked at this town across across central Vermont,

[2:30:50] they passed the first time.

[2:30:53] I think I wanna go over there.

[2:30:54] And when we're talking about mergers in all

[2:30:56] of central Vermont, your dancing partners want to know

[2:31:01] that you care about education.

[2:31:04] And you're me in the committees that they might say,

[2:31:08] you know what, I'm not sure I wanna merge with Barry.

[2:31:10] I'm not sure they value education.

[2:31:13] They have this low budget

[2:31:16] and the funding formula is the funding formula.

[2:31:18] So there's no fake math, there's no fake students.

[2:31:22] The things that people are saying online is so inflammatory

[2:31:27] and it's simply not true.

[2:31:28] And it's trying to confuse people.

[2:31:32] Not to mention the name calling online, calling some

[2:31:34] of these board members idiots.

[2:31:38] They're evil. I I, that is shocking to me.

[2:31:42] Like you wanna talk about belonging for our kids?

[2:31:45] You wanna talk about how our mental health is

[2:31:47] how everyone's feeling?

[2:31:49] We don't call each other idiots online.

[2:31:52] We don't call board members evil online.

[2:31:56] And when we talk about the cost of of the revolts,

[2:32:01] it's literally thousands of dollars every time we vote

[2:32:05] to print the ballots, to program the vent,

[2:32:09] the voting machines.

[2:32:10] I'm a justice of the piece in Berry Town

[2:32:12] and these, this last vote we counted by hand.

[2:32:15] And we didn't use the ballot machines

[2:32:17] because it was too expensive.

[2:32:20] So four times you vote, that costs money,

[2:32:23] printing all the ballots, programming, the voting machines,

[2:32:27] these are all costs that add up time after time after time.

[2:32:32] And so if people are still ****** from when Berry Town

[2:32:35] and Berry City merged and we're voting now

[2:32:38] because we're still mad about that, to try to punish

[2:32:41] the administration, punish the superintendent,

[2:32:44] that's just ridiculous.

[2:32:46] And the kids are getting punished

[2:32:47] and the teachers are getting punished.

[2:32:49] Thank you Chris. Thank you.

[2:32:56] All right. We do, we do have an agenda tonight,

[2:33:00] so I'm gonna go to these last couple folks online.

[2:33:03] There is another chance for public comment at the end.

[2:33:07] So I'm gonna start with Alina and then Sarah.

[2:33:14] Hi. Thank you. My name's Alina Shankman.

[2:33:19] I'm a fifth year teacher at Berry City Elementary,

[2:33:21] but I'm a long time parent.

[2:33:24] We've had five kids have gone through Berry City

[2:33:26] and Spalding or still going through

[2:33:29] my oldest graduated from Spalding

[2:33:31] is now just barely a Berry City police officer.

[2:33:34] Hired my youngest, started in kindergarten at Berry City.

[2:33:42] I hear the people, people are tapped out

[2:33:43] financially in the state of Vermont.

[2:33:46] But to me this is a Vermont problem with economy,

[2:33:52] not a bearing problem.

[2:33:55] When I look at the facts

[2:33:56] and hear people talk about the actual facts we are spending

[2:34:00] with this proposed budget around 12,000 per pupil.

[2:34:06] This is thousands less than our country's average,

[2:34:09] which when I looked up would around 17,000 per pupil.

[2:34:14] And that's our country's average, not our state.

[2:34:18] When I looked up the fact I saw that the country's average

[2:34:21] for an increase on budget was around 6.6%.

[2:34:26] 2.2 was it. Why are people still disappointed

[2:34:31] with this budget and with the board?

[2:34:33] And we are so cheap compared to the country.

[2:34:38] I'm confused. And I just think that people want this,

[2:34:43] this vote to somehow magically pad their wallet

[2:34:46] because like I said before, people are strapped,

[2:34:50] but this vote isn't gonna change your wallets.

[2:34:53] It goes deeper than that.

[2:34:55] It's a Vermont problem, not a bear problem.

[2:34:59] So please, please look at the facts, look at the data,

[2:35:04] and make an educated vote for our community.

[2:35:11] Thank you Sarah. Hi. Thank you.

[2:35:16] I am a first grade teacher at Berry Town School.

[2:35:19] I've been there since 2013.

[2:35:21] I also have a daughter in first grade

[2:35:22] and a daughter in fourth grade.

[2:35:24] Thank you to Chris Parker.

[2:35:26] A lot of what Chris said is what I am sitting here thinking.

[2:35:30] But I also just wanted to share not so much with the board

[2:35:32] because I know the board, this is not where you wanna be.

[2:35:36] But with those people, especially in Berry Town,

[2:35:39] as an educator, I feel awful.

[2:35:42] It was so hard to go to work after the third failed budget.

[2:35:45] We have no contract, we have no budget. It feels awful.

[2:35:50] I am a professional. I have a master's degree

[2:35:52] plus 30 credits.

[2:35:54] I'm a human being and I think people

[2:35:57] forget all of those things.

[2:35:59] We're here for our kids.

[2:36:02] I go to my daughter's first grade sport events

[2:36:05] and all my students are there and I hear them call out.

[2:36:07] They're so excited to see me. That is what keeps me going.

[2:36:11] I know I am making a difference

[2:36:13] and I just wish the rest of the community could understand

[2:36:16] that because we're not feeling great right now.

[2:36:19] And I'm also worried that I'm gonna get to a point

[2:36:22] where I'm not gonna vote for the budget

[2:36:24] and I don't know what to do that.

[2:36:26] So I wanted to share that. Thank you.

[2:36:30] Thank you Josh Howard.

[2:36:33] Yeah. Fun night so far.

[2:36:35] So just to clarify, there's a per pupil spending,

[2:36:37] there's a per equalized pupil spending

[2:36:40] that 12,000 per equalized pupil.

[2:36:41] It calls one student count five.

[2:36:45] It's based on race and income and all that stuff.

[2:36:47] All kinds of racist stuff.

[2:36:48] That's how the state calculates it.

[2:36:49] But nationally, that's not how anyone does it.

[2:36:52] So that's, therefore no one else actually recognizes that.

[2:36:54] So in the state of Vermont, our per pupil, the actual,

[2:36:57] which is the budget divided by 2100 students, comes out

[2:36:59] to little $30,000 per head.

[2:37:02] The state average is 28,000. So we're

[2:37:15] Vermont is ranking towards the bottom of the nation testing,

[2:37:21] not, these are the reasons why people are getting,

[2:37:24] Josh, we can't hear you.

[2:37:32] Can You hear me? There's a hum.

[2:37:36] That's what it sounds like. No, we totally lost you. Yeah.

[2:37:42] Is the mic?

[2:37:49] Yeah, we still can't hear you.

[2:37:57] Okay, we're going to move on.

[2:38:01] Hi, my name is Jessica Norman.

[2:38:04] I'm a educator here in Berry. I have multiple roles.

[2:38:08] I teach both Berry City and Berry Town.

[2:38:11] I'm also a two varsity sport athlete, coach of some.

[2:38:16] Awesome. Yeah.

[2:38:18] So I had to sit back here

[2:38:20] and watch all these kids speak knowing full well

[2:38:23] that your hands are tied and we're in this position not

[2:38:28] because you hate kids

[2:38:29] and I know that I think they don't understand the

[2:38:34] implication and what the position that you're in.

[2:38:38] And so they came to speak what they thought was going

[2:38:40] to save their sports.

[2:38:43] I have a question. If you

[2:38:47] can you go rogue and say we're not going

[2:38:50] to follow the 87% rule.

[2:38:52] What is the, what is the consequence if you say,

[2:38:55] we're just gonna use the funds the same as we did last year,

[2:38:58] so you don't have to cut 8 million temporarily.

[2:39:01] Is there an actual consequence? Are you gonna go to jail?

[2:39:04] Are we gonna go to jail? Are they

[2:39:05] gonna shut our school down?

[2:39:07] It's an honest question.

[2:39:09] So I met with Secretary Saunders today

[2:39:12] and the team from the Agency of Education to try to get

[2:39:16] some clarity around what that means for us right now.

[2:39:21] They were very clear that we're allowed to have 87%

[2:39:26] of the basically cash on hand

[2:39:29] of the budget compared to last year.

[2:39:32] The risk, which I think is what, you know,

[2:39:34] the board will talk about when, when we get to that point,

[2:39:37] is that there is a point where we run out of money.

[2:39:41] Right? So if

[2:39:44] and then what happens, I don't know, right?

[2:39:46] Because that's not something that's,

[2:39:48] that's necessarily happened in Vermont before.

[2:39:53] But you know,

[2:39:55] So the, I was hoping run outta

[2:39:57] Money, right?

[2:39:58] I was hoping that we would perhaps get some clarity.

[2:40:02] Oh, and I shouldn't say that She gave great clarity.

[2:40:05] I guess I didn't like the answer. Right.

[2:40:07] None of us like the answer. But there isn't a,

[2:40:10] a clear pathway because this doesn't actually

[2:40:14] happen very often.

[2:40:15] Correct. Right. Yeah.

[2:40:16] That you're in the fiscal year

[2:40:18] and you're in this position as a, as a school district.

[2:40:22] So the board will have to weigh some associated risk

[2:40:26] around some of those decisions.

[2:40:27] Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

[2:40:31] So I just wanna end by saying my,

[2:40:34] both my kids spoke here today

[2:40:37] and my daughter, she said it's the first time

[2:40:41] that I've ever been ashamed to be from Berry.

[2:40:45] And I hope you heard those words

[2:40:46] and I hope our townspeople heard those words.

[2:40:49] We chose to come back here as a family

[2:40:52] and raise our kids here because my family is here

[2:40:55] and I'm deeply rooted in this community.

[2:40:58] I bleed blue and red. Okay. Tied pride forever.

[2:41:02] I came back to where I went to school.

[2:41:06] Unfortunately, I can't afford to sell

[2:41:08] and buy another house somewhere else

[2:41:10] because of where I live is great.

[2:41:12] I've got a great interest rate and I'm kind of stuck there.

[2:41:16] And because of that, my kids have lost out on opportunities

[2:41:21] 'cause I chose to come back here.

[2:41:22] But they're good friends. But they have grown up

[2:41:25] with 10 minutes down the road.

[2:41:26] And the youth three, two district have world more than they

[2:41:28] do because this doesn't happen 10 minutes down the road.

[2:41:33] It only happens here.

[2:41:35] And that's unfortunate for our kids.

[2:41:39] And so no matter what anybody says, when we are saying,

[2:41:42] you know, we support the kids and we vote no

[2:41:45] because we want financial responsibility,

[2:41:47] you're actually voting no against our children.

[2:41:49] They can't control where they live.

[2:41:52] They can't control where they live.

[2:41:56] I'm here because I wanted to be here with my family,

[2:41:58] but now I'm really regretting that decision

[2:42:01] because my children have less than kids down road.

[2:42:08] Thank you.

[2:42:17] I'm Jamie Evans, very community member, born

[2:42:21] and raised here, graduation school, high school.

[2:42:23] I work in the district, been here about 25 years.

[2:42:26] I've seen a lot of these meetings take place

[2:42:28] where sports have been on its own.

[2:42:31] The board doesn't want to cut sports.

[2:42:34] And, and I wanna say something that nobody has has mentioned

[2:42:37] yet tonight, the governor's office

[2:42:39] and legislators helped get us to this point.

[2:42:42] This didn't happen just in the last few years.

[2:42:44] This took decades and decades to get to this point.

[2:42:48] Again, the board doesn't want cut sports.

[2:42:50] We're here because now we failed three, three votes.

[2:42:55] And there is an answer here tonight. It is fairly simple.

[2:42:57] We have a 2.1, 2.1% budget that failed is

[2:43:01] below the poverty is below the inflation rate.

[2:43:05] If we go to 2.05

[2:43:06] or something percent, we still have sports and we have clubs

[2:43:10] and activities, and then the teachers can go

[2:43:13] and get their contract passed and all that.

[2:43:15] And we have a budget and we move forward.

[2:43:18] We, we need to get the governor's office

[2:43:20] and legislators involved in this as well.

[2:43:22] Contact your legislators, contact your governor's office,

[2:43:25] complain to them what you're hearing tonight, you know,

[2:43:27] and applaud our students that had to stick up for

[2:43:32] what they believe in and what makes them be people.

[2:43:36] I would, I play sports myself. I play sports here.

[2:43:39] I carry a lot of those values.

[2:43:40] I learned playing sports to who I'm today as well.

[2:43:43] Nobody wants to cut sports. We're forced.

[2:43:45] We're, we're just predicament right now.

[2:43:48] Go to 2.05, pass the budget. Everybody has clubs and sports.

[2:43:52] We move forward, morale picks back up.

[2:43:55] And then we go to the, the tough task of trying

[2:43:58] to pass another budget.

[2:44:00] That's my 2 cents.

[2:44:05] I'm gonna try Josh one more time, then I'll go to you

[2:44:08] and then we have to get to discussion.

[2:44:12] Can you hear me now? We can hear you Josh.

[2:44:15] Okay, so I'll start over.

[2:44:17] So I hear a lot about per people spending being $12,000,

[2:44:21] that is false as per equalizer pupil.

[2:44:24] And I think that it, it'd be, it'd be who of you

[2:44:26] to kinda explain how that works.

[2:44:27] And you got one student counts as five

[2:44:29] and one student counts as three based on race and income

[2:44:32] and other racist items.

[2:44:34] Not surprising. That's a Vermont thing

[2:44:35] because, you know, well there you go.

[2:44:37] But the actual pure pupil spending, we take to foot,

[2:44:40] the total spending budget of 64 million divided

[2:44:42] by 2100 is over 30,000.

[2:44:45] State average is 28,000. So we're spending above average.

[2:44:48] We spend more than our neighbors in our own communities.

[2:44:51] We, we we're not the lowest spending in even nearby. Yeah.

[2:44:55] Our test scores are, are bottom of the state.

[2:44:57] Vermont tests almost near dead last in the, in the country.

[2:44:59] And you know, yet we spend the second most

[2:45:02] of anyone else in the country.

[2:45:04] So money's not really the issue as far

[2:45:07] as we're doing a 2% increase.

[2:45:09] Yeah, it doesn't sound like much

[2:45:10] until you've realize it's $1.2 million.

[2:45:12] But no one wants

[2:45:13] to talk about the a hundred students who lost last year.

[2:45:15] That's 5% of the student population gone.

[2:45:17] Again, this is not a one time thing.

[2:45:20] As far as the cuts are concerned, I would have to say

[2:45:22] that if you cut sports,

[2:45:24] you'll probably never pass a

[2:45:25] budget till you put 'em back in.

[2:45:27] That's where I kind of stand on it.

[2:45:30] And as far as the easy cuts to make,

[2:45:32] we can just look at administration.

[2:45:34] We look at central office operations manager or

[2:45:36] or director that that's an empty position.

[2:45:39] It can go, we don't need it.

[2:45:40] That's the superintendent's job, facilities director.

[2:45:43] That is, that's been a joke since we,

[2:45:45] as we created, we don't need it.

[2:45:47] It's expensive. I, there's,

[2:45:49] there's probably $3,000 sitting right there.

[2:45:51] It doesn't affect a single student.

[2:45:53] Just might affect the way some tractors look

[2:45:55] or how, how broad a fricking dump

[2:45:57] truck looks outside of a building.

[2:45:58] That's about it. Other than that,

[2:46:01] we gotta start matching actual staff

[2:46:02] to the population we do have now,

[2:46:04] when I first looked at Barry Town as a place to look at,

[2:46:07] I wasn't looking at budgets,

[2:46:08] I wasn't looking at any of that.

[2:46:09] I was looking at how the schools did.

[2:46:11] I was looking at test scores. I went and visited

[2:46:13] and I chose Berry Town.

[2:46:14] Unfortunately, a few years later it merged up

[2:46:16] and it's been downhill ever since.

[2:46:19] And the promise of we're gonna reduce staff,

[2:46:21] we're gonna reduce staff because we're all merged up,

[2:46:23] has gone the exact opposite direction.

[2:46:25] We've increased staff every single year.

[2:46:28] It is time to put that to an end.

[2:46:30] I would say put out a flat budget.

[2:46:32] The answers are right there in your face.

[2:46:33] You don't have to cut anything

[2:46:35] that has anything to do with a student.

[2:46:37] No sports, no, no clubs, nothing like that that get cut.

[2:46:40] It's all sitting right there.

[2:46:41] Just gotta make the tough decisions.

[2:46:42] That's all you gotta do.

[2:46:51] Hope we have.

[2:46:55] My name is Ariel Kay.

[2:46:58] Also very bad at speaking publicly.

[2:47:00] I just wanted to ask a couple of questions, hopefully hoping

[2:47:04] to clarify some things for other people.

[2:47:07] Does it cost the same to educate a preschooler

[2:47:11] as it does a high schooler?

[2:47:13] No. Does it cost the same to educate every student?

[2:47:19] No, actually that's what the funding formula is for,

[2:47:21] Right?

[2:47:22] With special education.

[2:47:22] So we have preschoolers that are apples

[2:47:25] and we have high schoolers that are oranges.

[2:47:27] But that equalization is supposed to help us understand

[2:47:31] the per pupil spending, comparing apples to apples.

[2:47:35] When we start taking the formula out of the question

[2:47:38] and we start just dividing one number by the number

[2:47:42] of students that are there, we lose that.

[2:47:45] We don't get the apples to apples formula anymore.

[2:47:48] So we start saying, well, we're spending 30,000.

[2:47:50] That's not apples to apples anymore.

[2:47:53] You're not comparing anything that has any meaning anywhere.

[2:47:56] You have to keep it apples to apples

[2:47:59] or nobody can understand what's going on.

[2:48:02] That's all I wanted to say.

[2:48:07] I I have

[2:48:08] A limit of one real quick one.

[2:48:10] Do we in fact have lower tuition rates than

[2:48:14] our neighboring high schools?

[2:48:16] No. We, why is a yes or no tuition

[2:48:21] Lower per equalized?

[2:48:22] Long term weighted a DM spending or tuition?

[2:48:25] Oh, you're gonna throw that at me?

[2:48:26] Well, no, make sure I answer the right.

[2:48:29] Spending per student or what we charge

[2:48:32] to have someone else come in.

[2:48:33] Well answer both ways. Okay. So

[2:48:36] Yeah, a student coming in.

[2:48:38] Okay, student coming in.

[2:48:40] Some yes, some no.

[2:48:43] So I can tell, gimme two minutes

[2:48:45] and I can tell you in terms

[2:48:47] of spending per long-term weighted a DM, which is

[2:48:50] what this funny formula is that we keep talking about,

[2:48:52] we are the lowest in the region in terms

[2:48:56] of tuition.

[2:48:59] And the tuition rate.

[2:49:01] Rate is set every year by the board,

[2:49:04] usually like early winter.

[2:49:08] And

[2:49:18] so the announced tuition rate, it's different

[2:49:21] for elementary and high school.

[2:49:23] But are we doing high school for? Yes. Okay.

[2:49:25] So Montpelier, Roxbury,

[2:49:28] their announced tuition was $21,500.

[2:49:32] Barry's was $19,500.

[2:49:37] Harwoods was 22,500.

[2:49:39] And I know this just because we've been putting a data sheet

[2:49:43] together for the regional merger study.

[2:49:45] So we've been pulling data points for all of our surrounding

[2:49:49] possible merger conversation partners.

[2:49:51] Okay, thank you.

[2:49:56] I just have one thing.

[2:49:58] Did we have anyone pull out

[2:49:59] of being in our group for the mergers?

[2:50:01] Because has that happened?

[2:50:04] Yes, Harwood did. Harwood did they give a

[2:50:06] Reason?

[2:50:07] Because we can't pass a budget. Yeah. Gotcha. Thank you.

[2:50:10] So moving on now to four point,

[2:50:15] Probably quick, You'll get the final word.

[2:50:16] That's my,

[2:50:18] I'm out of chase.

[2:50:19] I'm the, I'm the newer football coach here at sa. SHS.

[2:50:24] I'm not from this community. I grew up in Wells, Maine.

[2:50:29] I just want to say that this community, I moved here,

[2:50:32] didn't know anybody 20 years ago.

[2:50:35] And this community, I know, I don't know all of you.

[2:50:37] Welcome me with open arms.

[2:50:40] I got to know **** very pretty well over there.

[2:50:44] You know, I've seen this happen before on a different scale.

[2:50:48] You think that this is a big scale here,

[2:50:50] what we're doing here, you should have seen what they had

[2:50:53] to do in Maine 15, 20 years ago with all these small towns

[2:50:56] that couldn't afford their budget anymore.

[2:50:58] They had to merge. Right?

[2:51:00] And now all over the place,

[2:51:02] there probably isn't just a school going to school

[2:51:05] with one school anymore.

[2:51:07] They're all area high schools.

[2:51:09] And if you can't make the budget,

[2:51:10] it's something that might have to happen.

[2:51:12] Right? Also, I wanna say, you know,

[2:51:17] every time as a coach, I hear cutting sports, you know,

[2:51:24] a lot of kids only show up here every day

[2:51:26] because they want to come play sports

[2:51:28] and you take that away from 'em

[2:51:29] and you think you're gonna have declining enrollment.

[2:51:33] Now it's really gonna be bad after that

[2:51:36] because I, I do know kids that I personally coach

[2:51:40] that say the only reason why they show up to school is

[2:51:43] to come play sports

[2:51:45] because there's nothing else going

[2:51:46] on for them in their life.

[2:51:48] I, I I, I lived, my dad was from a dying mill town.

[2:51:52] And I hate to say it about Barry,

[2:51:53] the granite industry left here and it's a dying milltown.

[2:51:58] And my dad had to make a decision he had to leave. Right?

[2:52:01] So, you know, I I just want to say that I, I hope

[2:52:05] that sports aren't on the table to be cut

[2:52:08] because I could tell you right now, you're gonna have,

[2:52:10] if you have a truancy problem

[2:52:12] or if you have problems with kids coming

[2:52:13] to school right now, you're gonna have a real problem

[2:52:15] here. Probably if you cut sports.

[2:52:17] That's all I got to say.

[2:52:24] So we will now move to our current business

[2:52:29] under 4.1 budget vote, operational impacts.

[2:52:34] I will turn it over to administration.

[2:52:40] One second, just to,

[2:52:44] can we take a personal moment?

[2:52:47] Sure. Let's take a five minute recess. It's 8 51.

[2:52:52] 8 56.

[2:58:05] Watch out. Loons.

[2:58:43] You ready for bed, bud? Some Apple word.

[2:58:49] Nice.

[2:58:56] You gone through your old clothes and phone

[2:59:08] on the,

[2:59:51] can you please your button?

[3:00:49] I'll change the subject.

[3:01:09] Quorum of the board back.

[3:01:10] We will resume with

[3:01:14] 4.1, which is

[3:01:20] budget vote, operational impacts.

[3:01:30] All right, so I'm putting a, a document up

[3:01:34] that was sent to me this afternoon

[3:01:37] by the Agency of Education.

[3:01:40] There, there has been a, I think a version of this floating

[3:01:44] around that was from 2024.

[3:01:47] But basically this goes through

[3:01:51] what happens when a school district does not have a budget.

[3:01:56] And this will be up on the a OE website shortly.

[3:02:01] But, and I have kind of limited capability

[3:02:03] with this document tonight, but I wanted to show it to you

[3:02:06] and then kind of walk people through it.

[3:02:08] But again, this will be on the Agency of Education website

[3:02:12] in the next couple of days.

[3:02:15] Or maybe even it was sent out at about 5:00 PM

[3:02:18] so it might not be there just yet.

[3:02:22] But basically this talks about

[3:02:25] what happens when a school district doesn't have a budget

[3:02:28] at, at this point in time.

[3:02:31] And there are several different laws that basically

[3:02:37] govern what we can do, right?

[3:02:39] And this is kind of the information

[3:02:42] behind the 87% notion.

[3:02:46] So if a school district doesn't have a budget,

[3:02:49] we can borrow some money, right?

[3:02:51] But we can't borrow a hundred percent.

[3:02:55] We do get some aid from the state.

[3:02:57] We get our special education funding, we get reimbursement

[3:03:01] for our title grants,

[3:03:04] but we only get a portion of the education fund money

[3:03:09] that we would get if we had a budget.

[3:03:11] Okay? And according to the director

[3:03:14] of finance at the Ag Agency of Education, Kelly Murphy,

[3:03:18] Murphy, excuse me.

[3:03:20] We're getting about a third of what we would typically get

[3:03:25] until we have an approved budget.

[3:03:27] So that leaves a gap

[3:03:30] and the loan that we've been talking about can,

[3:03:33] can bridge some of that gap,

[3:03:35] but it can't bridge the full gap.

[3:03:38] So the difference between

[3:03:41] what the voters voted on last week

[3:03:46] and 87% is a difference

[3:03:48] of $8,453,000.

[3:03:53] So until we have a budget, the school district has to

[3:03:57] consider the fact that that's our operational

[3:04:00] number in terms of what we can have for cash on hand.

[3:04:04] Do you wanna add anything to that, John? Just Okay.

[3:04:06] Interject as I go along here.

[3:04:11] And so that's our reality right now, right?

[3:04:14] When the school district has an approved budget,

[3:04:17] that's obviously whatever the voters approve, that's

[3:04:20] what we operate on.

[3:04:22] But until that point, this is how the law

[3:04:24] for education funding works in Vermont.

[3:04:29] And so we've talked about this in, in prior meetings

[3:04:32] and we've talked about the fact that we have to borrow

[3:04:37] to, to make up that gap

[3:04:38] and that there are interest rate,

[3:04:40] there are interest payments that we would have

[3:04:42] to make associated with that if we have

[3:04:45] to borrow the full amount.

[3:04:49] So what we're left with at the moment,

[3:04:52] and I'm just gonna stop looking at this

[3:04:54] and go back to here,

[3:05:00] is a conversation about what to do.

[3:05:03] Okay? You know, when we, when I met

[3:05:06] with the secretary today, right there, a little bit

[3:05:09] of a hope that there might be a little bit more

[3:05:11] flexibility on this.

[3:05:12] And this is what the law is.

[3:05:13] It's not that, you know, there's no blame pointed

[3:05:16] to the AOE on that,

[3:05:18] but the board needs to consider the cash flow reality

[3:05:23] of that problem.

[3:05:28] In looking at the budget as a whole

[3:05:31] and what we spend as a school district, we were very clear

[3:05:36] with the secretary that we don't have

[3:05:38] $8,453,000 to cut.

[3:05:42] That's, we couldn't have the schools open

[3:05:45] and run them safely with that kind of cut, right?

[3:05:50] So in the interim, it's thinking about what can we do to

[3:05:55] adjust spending to be able to help towards that goal.

[3:06:01] And that's where the unfortunate conversation about

[3:06:04] co-curricular and athletics has come up.

[3:06:10] And obviously we heard very eloquently tonight

[3:06:15] from the students about the concerns regarding that.

[3:06:18] I don't think the board has any,

[3:06:20] and I don't wanna speak for the board

[3:06:21] and please tell me, just stop, I'm being inappropriate,

[3:06:24] but I don't think the board has any intent of cutting

[3:06:28] athletics in the long term.

[3:06:30] The the problem is this short term situation

[3:06:34] that we find ourselves in.

[3:06:36] So the way that our master agreement works for labor,

[3:06:42] there is a notification in the the contract

[3:06:45] with the association with the union that if we're not going

[3:06:49] to run an activity that we have to make,

[3:06:53] give notification of that to the employee

[3:06:56] who would get a contract for that role.

[3:06:58] So by October 1st, that's our deadline.

[3:07:03] And as we all know, October 1st is, is coming up quickly.

[3:07:08] I met with the association towards the end of last week

[3:07:11] and we, you know, had a conversation about this.

[3:07:13] We, I asked for their assistance to reach out

[3:07:17] to the Vermont NEA to try

[3:07:18] to get some clarity from the legal team there

[3:07:23] that if we had to make the decision

[3:07:26] that we don't wanna make, which is say by October 1st

[3:07:29] that we're not offering contracts for these co-curricular

[3:07:34] and athletic and clubs

[3:07:35] and all of those things, could we

[3:07:40] ask if we pass the budget right, could we try

[3:07:43] to have them again?

[3:07:44] If, if that's something

[3:07:45] that the board includes in the budget, the view

[3:07:48] of the Vermont NEA

[3:07:49] and of our labor folks is that that would be something

[3:07:53] that we could do, right?

[3:07:55] The problem is, are those people still available

[3:07:58] to do those positions?

[3:08:00] If in fact, when we pass a budget, we

[3:08:03] do have those activities in there.

[3:08:05] So that's where we find ourselves in terms of those

[3:08:11] associated costs

[3:08:13] to run athletics clubs.

[3:08:17] And the transportation associated with

[3:08:19] that is roughly $800,000.

[3:08:22] Obviously we've expended some money already, right?

[3:08:26] Because we're running fall sports.

[3:08:28] I would make the recommendation that we would continue

[3:08:34] fall sports and that we would set some sort of deadline

[3:08:38] regarding winter sports.

[3:08:39] But again, that's a conversation that the board could have,

[3:08:43] could have if you decided that that was an avenue

[3:08:45] that you wanted to pursue.

[3:08:49] So that's one contractual deadline.

[3:08:52] The second item that we had put in the board packet was

[3:08:56] information about transportation and busing.

[3:09:01] Our transportation contract has a 30 day notice period.

[3:09:06] And if we wanted to not run home to school transportation,

[3:09:11] we would have to give the bus company 30 days notice to stop

[3:09:15] that service, as we all know, right?

[3:09:18] The, there's several problems with that.

[3:09:21] But just if we're speaking at about it purely from a

[3:09:24] contractual point of view, if we then have a budget

[3:09:27] that includes transportation

[3:09:29] and pass that budget, those bus drivers

[3:09:32] and that bus company may not be there to provide

[3:09:35] that service for us

[3:09:36] because we know that that bus drivers

[3:09:38] are in high demand.

[3:09:41] So I don't know if you want me to keep going through all

[3:09:43] of this and then we can talk about it

[3:09:45] or what you're, in terms of the, the,

[3:09:50] the contract pieces, I would appreciate that Emily.

[3:09:54] Okay. If you don't mind. Yep. Us through it. Yep.

[3:09:57] So teachers, so the collective bargaining agreement,

[3:10:02] and there were, there were a couple

[3:10:03] of conversations tonight about

[3:10:04] teachers not having contracts.

[3:10:06] We don't have a settled bargaining agreement, right?

[3:10:08] So we haven't come

[3:10:11] to a, an agreement.

[3:10:14] The negotiations committee, the board has not yet come

[3:10:16] to an agreement with the, the teachers

[3:10:18] and the support staff about contracts.

[3:10:20] But that doesn't mean they don't have that,

[3:10:23] the board doesn't have an obligation, right?

[3:10:26] If there isn't a settled contract,

[3:10:27] then we work under the terms of the old contract

[3:10:30] until an agreement is settled.

[3:10:32] So we issued letters of intent for all of the employees

[3:10:36] before I, right before I came in the spring.

[3:10:40] And in order to cut any

[3:10:42] of those positions at this point in time would be a

[3:10:45] violation of that contract.

[3:10:47] So teachers would've had to have been notified

[3:10:52] of non-renewal by February 1st

[3:10:54] and of reductions in force by April 1st.

[3:10:57] And as we know, that date has passed in terms of this year

[3:11:01] that we're operating in support staff, same thing.

[3:11:05] We have an April 1st deadline.

[3:11:08] There were, there was a subgroup of support staff, some

[3:11:11] of the behavioral staff that traditionally have not been

[3:11:14] part of the bargaining unit,

[3:11:15] but have filed with the Vermont Labor Board

[3:11:20] to be part of the negotiations.

[3:11:22] So they are not,

[3:11:24] so they would be considered union employees at this point in

[3:11:27] time and aren't able to, to look at those positions.

[3:11:32] Administrative contracts, there can certainly be variability

[3:11:37] amongst administrative contracts with principals and,

[3:11:39] and other administrators.

[3:11:41] But generally by statute notification for non-renewal

[3:11:44] for principals or is February 1st.

[3:11:47] So that date also has passed at this point of time.

[3:11:51] And that's, I think one of the things

[3:11:54] that we talk about in terms of right, the ability

[3:11:56] that we have to make adjustments to

[3:11:59] labor costs looks very different in January

[3:12:03] than it does in September.

[3:12:07] So those are the contractual pieces.

[3:12:10] Do you want me to do revenue now? Sure. Okay.

[3:12:15] So revenue sources.

[3:12:19] So we do get a, a large amount of funding through title

[3:12:24] through the federal government, through title grants.

[3:12:26] We do have to front the, the payments

[3:12:29] for those grants, right?

[3:12:30] So if we have folks that whose salaries are paid

[3:12:33] through title, we pay them and then we submit to the state

[3:12:38] and they reimburse us.

[3:12:40] But we do have to front that money.

[3:12:41] We don't get like a big lump sum for, for title payments.

[3:12:44] And I did confirm that today with the agency

[3:12:50] we have

[3:12:51] and will receive our block grant for special education.

[3:12:53] So that's a, a large sum of revenue

[3:12:55] that comes in from the state.

[3:12:57] And then we get, as I said, a portion

[3:13:00] of our education fund payments for, which is,

[3:13:06] you know, somewhere between 0.25 and a third.

[3:13:10] They're still kind of sorting that, that piece of it out.

[3:13:13] But again, it's not the full 100%

[3:13:16] that we would typically get in

[3:13:18] September, December and April.

[3:13:20] And that's really what creates that whole.

[3:13:23] And then as we've talked about kind of the importance of

[3:13:27] cash on hand forecasting, knowing that in order to borrow

[3:13:31] and in order to be in compliance we have to have,

[3:13:35] we can't have more than 87% of cash on hand at any time.

[3:13:42] So that's that information. Question

[3:13:48] Questions from the board.

[3:13:50] Juliana? Kind of a weird question. Yeah.

[3:13:53] So 87% cash on hand is

[3:13:58] for the total school year? Correct.

[3:14:00] Until we have an approved budget.

[3:14:01] Okay. So we can't blow through the seven and then try

[3:14:05] and get another 13 somewhere

[3:14:07] because technically we don't have the 87 right now.

[3:14:10] Right. Okay.

[3:14:11] That's, that was part of the conversation that I wanted

[3:14:14] to have today with the finance staff from the AOE

[3:14:16] to really understand like can you, is there a way

[3:14:19] to look at that more upfront?

[3:14:21] Right? But then if you pass a budget eventually, but no,

[3:14:23] because they never let you operate at more than 87%.

[3:14:27] So we're looking at

[3:14:32] take it as like driving a car.

[3:14:33] You only have so much in the tank

[3:14:35] and you, instead of going the speed limit,

[3:14:38] you're going 35 miles an hour to coast it through

[3:14:41] until we get a positive vote.

[3:14:45] Right? And then once there's a, once there's a vote

[3:14:48] that is approved, there's then a 30 day wait period.

[3:14:51] So we won't see any education fund payment

[3:14:54] adjustment for at least 30 days.

[3:14:57] Yeah. Emily,

[3:15:00] Have we received any payment from the ed fund?

[3:15:03] We have. Okay. So last week they sent us,

[3:15:08] within the past couple days, I guess actually they sent us

[3:15:11] just over $11 million.

[3:15:13] So 11,593,465 to be specific.

[3:15:19] But again, that's about a third of what we normally

[3:15:23] would get according to the agency.

[3:15:26] And can I ask a follow up? I'm sorry.

[3:15:29] And our next scheduled payment

[3:15:30] for a third from the December agency, December is December.

[3:15:33] So that, so this money has to last us

[3:15:35] through December even if we pass the budget.

[3:15:38] Yes. And that's typically the way that that works.

[3:15:41] So the scheduled payments are not gonna change? No. Okay.

[3:15:44] Thank you.

[3:15:49] Yeah, I saw Ian hand first then Catherine.

[3:15:52] So I know this is more of a theoretical kind

[3:15:56] of off the wall question.

[3:15:58] 'cause I remember I had a number of, remember

[3:16:00] during the comment section number of individuals mention

[3:16:03] how they were supportive of school and everything.

[3:16:07] Say for example, some of these individuals decide to pull

[3:16:10] and donate money to the school to help fill the gap.

[3:16:13] Is that something that would be remotely helpful

[3:16:16] that would help us through this?

[3:16:18] That's a lot of money. Like say for example,

[3:16:21] that these individuals want to pull $2 million to cover the,

[3:16:25] make sure that our students can have their clubs and sports

[3:16:28] because they're, they wanna support our students

[3:16:30] and make sure that they have their needs met,

[3:16:33] but they still wanna vote no on the budget.

[3:16:40] I would have to ask someone who knows

[3:16:42] who has more information on that than me.

[3:16:44] I wouldn't wanna, I mean, again, I'm like,

[3:16:46] could you donate lots of money to a booster club?

[3:16:49] I mean I, yeah, the problem is right, we can't,

[3:16:51] the problem is we can't pick and choose. So

[3:16:54] Yeah.

[3:16:55] Right. So like this contract thing, like we can't, yeah,

[3:16:58] we can't say we're gonna run basketball because people are,

[3:17:03] and I'm just, please know, I'm just picking a sport.

[3:17:05] Yeah. We're gonna run basketball

[3:17:07] because people are gonna volunteer to coach basketball

[3:17:10] and we're gonna donate the money to run it.

[3:17:12] We can't do that and then not run ev. Right? Yeah.

[3:17:16] And we also can't, it's against labor law to supplant

[3:17:21] contracted work with volunteer work Okay.

[3:17:24] With volunteers for, for us and Vermont.

[3:17:26] Yeah. I just wanted to like, just go

[3:17:28] through a thought experiment in case these individuals wanna

[3:17:30] put their money where their mouth were. Yep.

[3:17:32] Catherine, So I have a few questions.

[3:17:35] And one is the, the $8 million difference from the budget

[3:17:40] that we proposed in the last year, is that

[3:17:45] split up over the year that there's the difference

[3:17:48] of the 8 million or is that like,

[3:17:50] we have it right now all at once

[3:17:53] because it looks to me like the fund payments come in.

[3:17:56] Like normally it would be 33%,

[3:17:58] which would be a hundred percent by the end of the year.

[3:18:00] Right? So if you get it in September, December

[3:18:04] and April, that's a hundred percent of the budget.

[3:18:08] So is the 8 billion difference also split between

[3:18:11] That's the full Year? That's

[3:18:12] The full year?

[3:18:13] Yeah. Okay. So we're basically operating on a budget right

[3:18:16] now of 48,048.

[3:18:21] 40 40, sorry. 48 million. Thank you.

[3:18:25] 675,754. Okay.

[3:18:30] So that's the 87% budget.

[3:18:32] Okay. So from the point of view of the agency, right?

[3:18:36] And state law, that's kind of where we're at.

[3:18:40] We, as you say, we've always gotten all schools, right?

[3:18:43] Always get payments over the course

[3:18:45] of the year from the ed fund.

[3:18:46] Not all at once, but we're still

[3:18:51] operating within that construct.

[3:18:54] Okay. And then have payments from the city

[3:18:57] and town been requested or received?

[3:19:00] Those are the, the city town payments are

[3:19:02] the last payments.

[3:19:03] Those are the ones that come in in

[3:19:04] April.

[3:19:05] They come in in April only. Okay.

[3:19:11] And then for the 87% amount that we approved

[3:19:16] for lending, is it a line of credit?

[3:19:20] So that's The,

[3:19:22] They will allow you to borrow, it's a,

[3:19:25] it's not just an 87, so it's 87% total of the expenditures

[3:19:30] plus cash flows.

[3:19:31] It's a form they have to get to that 87% total.

[3:19:35] But it's, you gotta take out what you've already spent

[3:19:37] plus whatever revenues you have coming in.

[3:19:42] And then it's a kind of a continual calculation.

[3:19:45] So it's not just the set number that's static, it kind

[3:19:49] of moves as the year moves.

[3:19:52] So, but then the hard part right now is like when I went

[3:19:57] back to the bank, I said could we

[3:19:58] extend our line of credit level?

[3:20:00] They have no appetite to extend line of credit further so

[3:20:05] that the line

[3:20:06] of credit we have is all they're willing to give us right now.

[3:20:09] Okay. So it's like a traditional line of credit

[3:20:13] And it's a six month product, right?

[3:20:16] Six months, yes. Six months. Six months from,

[3:20:19] So from that one was executed in

[3:20:27] late, late August.

[3:20:29] But there is a renewal mechanism in that to cover

[3:20:32] for the year if we needed to.

[3:20:33] So I'm not worried about that piece of it,

[3:20:36] but there's no opportunity to extend that

[3:20:38] to a larger dollar value if needed.

[3:20:40] Okay. And to be clear, like that line of credit amount

[3:20:43] that they're willing to give us is to cover

[3:20:46] our gap in cash to, to get us to 87%.

[3:20:51] So that line of credit doesn't allow us to go beyond 87%.

[3:20:55] So there's no ability for us to borrow from 88 to a hundred.

[3:21:00] Right? Right. You know, we, we can't, we can't do that.

[3:21:03] So we've always, even with that line of credit or loan

[3:21:07] or whatever the perfectly proper word is that I'm not using

[3:21:10] that, that still only lets us fill that gap between

[3:21:14] what we're getting from the state, what we're getting

[3:21:17] for these various grant payments.

[3:21:19] There's nothing beyond that.

[3:21:21] And that's the, that's the tricky zone, right?

[3:21:24] Because the board has different

[3:21:29] contractual deadlines that we're aware of right now.

[3:21:31] And so, you know, you lose, you don't, you lose the ability

[3:21:35] to execute some of those options as we go further along,

[3:21:39] which is why we're illustrating it for you, just so

[3:21:41] that you're aware of that.

[3:21:43] Okay. And

[3:21:44] So we're talking about like when the new fiscal year began

[3:21:48] in July Yeah.

[3:21:50] To now. Yes. Yes.

[3:21:51] And so up until that point we've just

[3:21:53] been business as usual.

[3:22:01] There hasn't, well, through the summer you had your,

[3:22:04] your summer staff, right?

[3:22:05] It's the majority right now is the staffing

[3:22:08] and then there's been some grant curriculum stuff

[3:22:12] and stuff like that purchased for the start

[3:22:14] of the school year that has

[3:22:15] to be purchased the start of the school year. Right.

[3:22:18] But we don't really start paying staff from the budget

[3:22:21] that we're, unless they're year round staff.

[3:22:23] Right. But like teaching staff, support staff

[3:22:26] for the most part, their first payroll, you know,

[3:22:30] the first output of cash for us for that group

[3:22:33] of employees really isn't until September. September.

[3:22:35] Yeah. And so, you know, obviously with the,

[3:22:39] the budget draft that was put to voters last week,

[3:22:42] there were some adjustments to staffing that were part of

[3:22:45] that that we've been doing.

[3:22:47] Like we didn't, you know, we didn't change that

[3:22:48] and so those adjustments were made,

[3:22:54] but not further adjustments at this point.

[3:22:56] Okay. Yeah. Jackie, so

[3:23:02] if we could magically put the same budget out

[3:23:05] and it passes, do we still have to make cuts and dec

[3:23:09] and cut things before October 1st with our current funds?

[3:23:15] If magic wand,

[3:23:17] That's the million dollar question, Jackie.

[3:23:20] Okay. I think, you know,

[3:23:21] after October 1st you lose the,

[3:23:27] We have to decide by then, right?

[3:23:29] Yeah. Like we have to decide

[3:23:30] If you, if you decided to go that route, you have

[3:23:32] until October 1st, that's about $800,000.

[3:23:36] After that, that $800,000 locked is locked in just like

[3:23:40] labor costs are locked.

[3:23:42] It just adds to the pile of locked in. Yeah.

[3:23:46] Okay. You know what I mean?

[3:23:47] Is that, please let me know if

[3:23:49] I'm not explaining it clearly.

[3:23:50] So, but we, so we have enough, I don't want to,

[3:23:55] but we have enough to push the decision or we don't

[3:23:58] 'cause we're at 87, like, can we afford

[3:24:01] to push that decision?

[3:24:03] You have 8 million right now.

[3:24:06] We, you, me, all

[3:24:07] of us have

[3:24:08] $8,453,000 to make up.

[3:24:12] Like, I, you know what I mean?

[3:24:14] If we were to think about it through the, the course

[3:24:17] of the whole year, I don't,

[3:24:22] you know, I think it's really, it's hard

[3:24:26] because it's an emotional decision

[3:24:29] and a very real decision.

[3:24:31] But that is a lever that you lose on October 1st.

[3:24:34] I'm not saying you need to pull it,

[3:24:36] I just wanna be very clear about what the fiscal

[3:24:40] reality is of all

[3:24:42] This.

[3:24:43] So I mean, regardless of if we pull it,

[3:24:46] we have to find 8 million

[3:24:49] If we keep going like this.

[3:24:50] Yes. And I, and I was clear with the secretary today,

[3:24:53] and John and I have have looked at it,

[3:24:55] we don't have like it, at some point we will run out

[3:24:59] of money if we don't pass a budget, what happens?

[3:25:02] We don't know. Right? I assume the agency

[3:25:05] of education takes over.

[3:25:08] I, I don't know. But we will run out

[3:25:12] of money if we don't have a budget this year

[3:25:14] that's black and white to me.

[3:25:15] You know what that, when that point is it,

[3:25:19] it depends on some of these cost saving measures that

[3:25:23] we elect to take or not knowing, right?

[3:25:26] That there, there are impacts on experiences for students

[3:25:30] with all of those decisions.

[3:25:32] And even if we cut 15 staff and transportation

[3:25:36] and athletics and all sorts of, of things we don't wanna do,

[3:25:39] we're still not gonna get $8.4 million.

[3:25:43] So that's a Okay, so I mean,

[3:25:50] so then really we're just betting to try

[3:25:52] and get whatever we can, right?

[3:25:54] Sorry, I'm thinking out loud.

[3:25:56] Does that 800 k include our contractual agreement

[3:25:59] with like coaching or is that literally everything else?

[3:26:04] No, that's the labor costs,

[3:26:06] the transportation costs. This, that's the whole,

[3:26:08] So that, that's the, okay.

[3:26:09] Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Could we, if we maintained our labor,

[3:26:13] I don't wanna do this contracts, right?

[3:26:18] 'cause we don't wanna lose the option

[3:26:21] after the first, could we find the magical three 50

[3:26:26] in various other things that we can try and fundraise

[3:26:30] or Hang on, hang tight.

[3:26:35] So like I, I feel like

[3:26:37] In terms of like if we're talking about four two,

[3:26:39] like if we're talking about budget revo Yeah.

[3:26:41] I feel like I, I don't think,

[3:26:43] and I know it's, I know it's hard,

[3:26:46] but it's almost like you have to think about,

[3:26:47] I keep thinking of it as like two trains, right?

[3:26:49] There's, and, and Ian loves train analogy,

[3:26:53] but there's, there's two trains and,

[3:26:55] and one of them is the fact that we're on this,

[3:26:57] this route right now, the 87% route,

[3:27:00] wherever that one's going, right?

[3:27:01] We'll call that one New York.

[3:27:03] And then there's the other train, which is budget four

[3:27:06] and the things that are in budget four.

[3:27:08] And hopefully, you know, we want that train

[3:27:10] to go faster than the 87% train.

[3:27:14] But it's a, I mean there's risk,

[3:27:17] in my opinion there's risk associated with any of it.

[3:27:20] But also at the same point, like there are,

[3:27:25] there's $8.4 million

[3:27:26] that we're short this year if we keep going.

[3:27:29] Yeah. You know, there is the,

[3:27:34] the option

[3:27:35] and I, I this feel, you know, I'm sure we'll, we'll take

[3:27:40] a load of criticism, but there is the option

[3:27:42] to say we're not running winter if we don't have a budget.

[3:27:46] I feel like that's not, you know,

[3:27:47] that's a cha challenging situation to be in

[3:27:50] because that feels lousy.

[3:27:55] But there is at least the, the understanding on the part

[3:27:59] of the union that if we have to cut it, can we put it back?

[3:28:02] Yes. As long as those people are available.

[3:28:07] But I, I don't have a, a good list of items that get us

[3:28:11] to $8.4 million.

[3:28:13] I I saw Lindsay's hand and Sam and Emily.

[3:28:20] Okay, Lindsay,

[3:28:23] So the 800,000 is transportation and athletics?

[3:28:29] No. Well it's a, so it's athletics clubs

[3:28:35] and then transportation for those items.

[3:28:38] Home to school. Transportation is

[3:28:42] $1.1 million roughly.

[3:28:46] So our bus runs to Berry City. And Berry Town.

[3:28:52] Our daily transportation rates are about 1.1.

[3:28:58] And sorry to pig her back, but we may not get that back.

[3:29:01] Right, right. Because the, we don't,

[3:29:03] we not get athletics back.

[3:29:04] Well, that's more likely like the union, those are people

[3:29:07] that work in the union and they're like, okay,

[3:29:09] you know, we'll, we'll hang tight.

[3:29:10] Transportation is not, that's,

[3:29:12] they're gonna get another job somewhere else.

[3:29:14] Well, we make, hold

[3:29:15] On, hold on, hold on.

[3:29:16] One at a time. One at a time. They

[3:29:18] Have jobs.

[3:29:19] They just, they won't

[3:29:21] Point of order.

[3:29:22] Point of order what your 0.1 person at a time. Okay.

[3:29:26] Lindsay, do you have any more questions?

[3:29:28] No, that was just what I was wondering.

[3:29:30] So that when you said transportation

[3:29:33] or the athletics,

[3:29:34] that was just the athletics transportation.

[3:29:36] That doesn't include, like, does

[3:29:39] that include the field trips

[3:29:41] and like transportation

[3:29:43] that the elementary, middle schools use?

[3:29:57] Yes. Field trips. Okay. I believe so.

[3:30:00] I wouldn't swear on it, but I,

[3:30:03] It might believe so.

[3:30:04] It might the same part of it. At

[3:30:05] Least what I, yeah, kind of why field trip transportation.

[3:30:09] Yeah.

[3:30:12] Sam, What's the timeline

[3:30:14] for warning another budget vote.

[3:30:17] Do we have a timeline that we have to meet?

[3:30:20] Can we run it out to November?

[3:30:22] Can we run it out safely to November? We have to decide.

[3:30:26] Do we wanna go to, Well, are we ready

[3:30:29] to move on from 4.1 to 4.2?

[3:30:32] Not really, but I feel like we, okay, so let's hold on

[3:30:34] On that question.

[3:30:35] Co-mingling these things because they're

[3:30:38] So I can, yeah.

[3:30:39] And I can answer. So in the packet we had put information

[3:30:44] about the, the statute.

[3:30:47] So hold on, gimme two seconds.

[3:30:59] So if you weren the same budget,

[3:31:00] I can start with this off the top of my head.

[3:31:01] If you were in the same budget, it's the 30

[3:31:04] to 40 day window.

[3:31:07] If you warn a budget that has any change to it,

[3:31:11] you can use the accelerated timeline.

[3:31:16] And the accelerated timeline. You could, right.

[3:31:20] If you warned a budget and held an informational meeting

[3:31:23] and, and got everything out you could do.

[3:31:27] I don't think you realistically could do it as quickly

[3:31:29] as the statute says you can.

[3:31:31] It would probably be more like two, two weeks. Yeah,

[3:31:35] Probably.

[3:31:36] Yeah. That's the fast turnaround in statute.

[3:31:40] And that mechanism is there for districts who have budgets

[3:31:44] that fail and wanna accelerate. Well

[3:31:48] That's gotta be coordinated with

[3:31:49] the city and the town too.

[3:31:50] So, right.

[3:31:54] Is there a dollar amount that the change has

[3:31:56] to be in order for, to qualify?

[3:31:58] Oh, okay. So it can be $1. So it's going by prices, right.

[3:32:01] Rules. Sorry, I,

[3:32:06] Catherine Did have we paid anything in interest yet?

[3:32:13] Not that I'm aware of, no. Yeah, not that I'm aware of.

[3:32:19] Emily.

[3:32:22] I mean we, we do have to talk about

[3:32:26] what we can stop spending money on like immediately.

[3:32:30] So what would that look like?

[3:32:32] What, what is your recommendation? I mean

[3:32:38] I think I've given them right? I think we've

[3:32:40] Not hiring, right?

[3:32:41] Right. We're not gonna spend, and we've talked about

[3:32:43] Supplies or anything, Right?

[3:32:45] We talked about freezing non-essential items, right?

[3:32:49] There are things we have to legally

[3:32:51] that we're obligated to do.

[3:32:55] But again, right. Even if we, we do all of those things,

[3:32:59] it's still not enough money.

[3:33:01] I mean the, we gave you some of the obvious

[3:33:05] levers in terms of expense costs.

[3:33:08] We don't like those options.

[3:33:12] We certainly would look at not hiring.

[3:33:14] We would have to have a conversation

[3:33:16] with the association about that to a certain degree

[3:33:20] because those positions haven't been re rift, right?

[3:33:24] So to speak. Or there hasn't been a reduction in force

[3:33:26] in place for those.

[3:33:34] And we, you know, might have to look at is there a way

[3:33:38] to cut some positions, either if someone, you know,

[3:33:42] resigns and we don't fill it or, or other ways.

[3:33:47] But I think our goal tonight was to kind

[3:33:50] of take the temperature a little bit of the board on

[3:33:52] where you are and how comfortable you are

[3:33:54] with any of this risk.

[3:33:58] Can I ask a follow up?

[3:34:00] What do you think are, like if we, I mean we have

[3:34:03] to put a timeline on making some

[3:34:05] of these decisions about spending.

[3:34:07] So what are you hoping that that timeline looks like?

[3:34:11] I think we have to make decisions by October 1st. By

[3:34:13] October 1st.

[3:34:14] Yeah. Thank you.

[3:34:17] Ian. Do we have dollar amounts on

[3:34:18] how much the different boats have cost so far?

[3:34:22] Because I know we've,

[3:34:24] Yeah, I don't, I don't, yeah,

[3:34:26] So I wasn't sure how that gets billed.

[3:34:28] Is that, is that something that the like berry

[3:34:30] town Berry city eat?

[3:34:31] Or is that something that we have to reimburse 'em for?

[3:34:35] We pay for. Okay.

[3:34:41] So we really wanna make sure that we are in full support

[3:34:43] of this budget and that we are not making any public

[3:34:45] statements stating that people should not support

[3:34:48] the budget that we're putting out.

[3:34:50] Okay. What,

[3:34:53] any other questions on this item on 4.1?

[3:34:57] I'm sure a lot of questions Lindsey on

[3:35:02] page six, second to last, Y

[3:35:08] 58, 3 5 0 revenue anticipated no interest.

[3:35:14] What's that? Is that what we're anticipating paying on

[3:35:19] the note that we took out? Borrow or?

[3:35:23] No, there's, there's a

[3:35:28] arbitrage between interest earned in a

[3:35:33] money market account when you move money in out of the line

[3:35:37] of credit into your money market account.

[3:35:41] So they've traditionally made money on that.

[3:35:44] So that's where it was budgeted that that's not gonna,

[3:35:48] it's in the budget, but it's not,

[3:35:50] it's not gonna be a reality this year.

[3:35:53] So is that a $70,000 expense?

[3:35:58] No, no, that's, Hey, I just saved this 70.

[3:36:03] That's, that's not, that's not a,

[3:36:05] an expense at this point?

[3:36:07] It could be. I mean we're, we're we're hitting

[3:36:10] that full line of credit

[3:36:11] and we're spending $22,000 a month in interest.

[3:36:15] Yeah, but this is showing that it's summed up in

[3:36:17] that this, this 70,000 is in there.

[3:36:21] Yeah, it's a budget line. Okay.

[3:36:23] So we haven't spent any,

[3:36:25] but if we hit like hitting that full line

[3:36:30] and we we're out on that line for a long period of time

[3:36:34] and it's not sitting, not arbitrage in our money market

[3:36:37] account at all.

[3:36:39] Yeah. So we're like paying the full interest

[3:36:42] rate every month.

[3:36:45] Okay. So like we're out six and a half million dollars.

[3:36:47] Let's just assume that, and I'm, I'm not saying we're saying

[3:36:51] for easy math, we're out six

[3:36:52] and half million dollars for four months at $22,000 a month.

[3:36:56] That's $88,000 in interest.

[3:37:00] Okay. Right. So that

[3:37:02] Could be real expense is what I'm trying to get to.

[3:37:04] It's not right now. It could get to real expense.

[3:37:07] So potentially there would not be that $70,000

[3:37:11] Potentially expense On

[3:37:12] Here.

[3:37:13] Depending on if we can get a budget passed

[3:37:16] and not have to utilize the line.

[3:37:23] And I'm assuming you guys have gone through hopeful.

[3:37:26] We've looked at like supplies to see if there's like

[3:37:31] there's some larger numbers there. There

[3:37:34] Like the individual classroom supply lines are like

[3:37:39] $500 here, $1,500 here.

[3:37:41] There's nothing that's

[3:37:43] That add up to no 535,000.

[3:37:47] Well that it also includes some large items.

[3:37:49] So like there's tech supplies, which is like all

[3:37:53] of our software subscriptions

[3:37:54] and stuff like that sit in the supply

[3:37:56] lines. So we have That's

[3:37:58] Not down with the subscriptions?

[3:38:00] No, they're in supplies.

[3:38:02] So some of the subscriptions are in

[3:38:03] there, some of 'em are in supplies.

[3:38:05] It's

[3:38:07] Okay.

[3:38:08] It's just the way that they're budgeted.

[3:38:13] So the tech supply lines are different than

[3:38:16] every other supply line.

[3:38:22] Plus you also have some larger tech items that are planned

[3:38:25] to be like, they had some major work done here

[3:38:30] this fall that was done to secure the server room

[3:38:35] redundancy for power so that if the power goes out,

[3:38:38] the servers don't go down.

[3:38:41] So that sits in that supply line budget too.

[3:38:44] Okay. Can we

[3:38:47] adjust bus riders?

[3:38:50] Is that contractual

[3:38:55] Bus riders sign?

[3:38:56] An MOU just like any other position.

[3:39:05] Okay. And

[3:39:07] So we're locked in on bus drivers. You

[3:39:08] Can't touch that.

[3:39:09] But the, the other side of that, well the other side of

[3:39:13] that is I've been talking to the lady that oversees

[3:39:18] that and with the principals

[3:39:20] and they say

[3:39:22] for safety reasons those people need be on those buses.

[3:39:28] Yes. I'm just like,

[3:39:31] maybe there would be some reductions

[3:39:33] that could be them there.

[3:39:34] But if, if they're contracted.

[3:39:36] So even if we got rid of home to school transportation,

[3:39:41] then we would have contractual issues with bus riders.

[3:39:44] No. 'cause they're only paid when they

[3:39:45] run, they ride a run.

[3:39:47] So that's how they're paid as per run.

[3:39:49] So we can't reduce bus riders. We'd have to get rid of the

[3:39:52] Bus.

[3:39:53] So if the buses go then there's no runs for them to fly.

[3:39:56] But we can't just reduce bus riders.

[3:39:59] Most of the bus riders too are paras.

[3:40:01] They're, I know they're in the,

[3:40:02] they do other things in the school,

[3:40:04] So.

[3:40:05] Yeah. Yeah. That's why I was like, yeah,

[3:40:07] they wouldn't be losing their job.

[3:40:10] They start extra. Yeah.

[3:40:13] Sam, if we could get a budget passed within two months

[3:40:17] and then there, therefore money's coming in within three

[3:40:20] months, is there a solid figure on what would have to

[3:40:25] cut just to get through those next three months?

[3:40:29] Is that, is that a possible thing?

[3:40:35] It's a bit,

[3:40:42] this is insane that we're having this conversation.

[3:40:44] I just want record this. It's a good question.

[3:40:46] This insane, right?

[3:40:54] Two and a

[3:40:54] Three but it's like it it's a gamble. It's a, yeah,

[3:40:57] It's a gamble.

[3:40:58] Absolutely. We're taking a big gamble. 'cause if we go

[3:41:00] and we say, we're going to say we're gonna put a budget out

[3:41:04] and we're gonna put the budget out and God bless you.

[3:41:08] If you try going to the clerks

[3:41:10] and let's say we want to add something

[3:41:12] to the November ballot because they're rightfully so gonna

[3:41:17] probably not like you very much.

[3:41:20] But if we go out

[3:41:23] and we try to get something the end of October

[3:41:26] or middle of November, I mean it has to be

[3:41:30] before then for us to be able to get funding

[3:41:33] on a normal schedule has to be

[3:41:35] before then we would be,

[3:41:39] if we, we'd be gambling.

[3:41:41] If we just say, okay, let's just kind of go status quo

[3:41:44] until then we'd be gambling.

[3:41:46] 'cause we could run out of money

[3:41:48] before the end of the year if the budget doesn't pass.

[3:41:52] 'cause to get our December payment, we'd have to pass,

[3:41:54] We'd have to pass a budget in beginning

[3:41:56] of November Juliana.

[3:41:59] So with an accelerated timeline for another vote,

[3:42:03] we could run status quo.

[3:42:09] As long as we understand that we lose,

[3:42:14] Yeah, we lose the the Yes.

[3:42:16] I, I would, yeah. I'm gonna say

[3:42:17] something that's very unpopular.

[3:42:20] I would, even if you do the accelerated timeline,

[3:42:23] I would give the notification just

[3:42:25] so you have the lever to pull if you need to.

[3:42:29] Who was that? I said even if you ran an accelerated

[3:42:33] timeline, I would give the notification so

[3:42:36] that you could pull the lever if you needed to.

[3:42:39] 'cause the lev, given the notification doesn't

[3:42:41] mean you're actually pulling the lever.

[3:42:42] It says you may the same.

[3:42:46] We're not issuing anything right now.

[3:42:48] All the con, all the false reports have been issued.

[3:42:51] We're not in a pressing timeline

[3:42:53] to get some contract out there right now.

[3:42:58] But that's the October 1st deadline.

[3:43:02] And we would need to have a vote out before October.

[3:43:07] No, you don't have to have vote

[3:43:08] out if you're giving notice. You don't have to have,

[3:43:11] Right.

[3:43:12] I mean v if you just think about it from like a VPA sports

[3:43:14] perspective timeline, right?

[3:43:16] So right after Thanksgiving, I'm looking at right

[3:43:19] after Thanksgiving we start practice.

[3:43:22] So right.

[3:43:23] So if we backwards plan from that, we would have to

[3:43:29] fairly give notice to the VPA.

[3:43:32] Right? Because we also, all

[3:43:34] of these things are booked a year ahead of time.

[3:43:36] Right? And including your,

[3:43:37] Including including the very auditorium

[3:43:39] for the state champ leadership.

[3:43:41] Right. And like all of those

[3:43:43] Which will not be able to happen.

[3:43:44] Right? All of those things are, are

[3:43:50] schools would have to fill it.

[3:43:51] Like our athletes would have to see if they could go play

[3:43:54] for other places their VPA, you know, guidelines

[3:43:58] and contracts and regarding all of that stuff.

[3:44:00] Like it's not, it's not easy

[3:44:05] to just quickly turn it around, turn it around.

[3:44:07] So we would, you know, we would realistically need

[3:44:10] to give people notice.

[3:44:14] Go to Emily then Lindsay.

[3:44:16] So it's late.

[3:44:18] So I'm having, I just wanna reiterate

[3:44:21] what we have just talked about.

[3:44:24] We have talked about pulling the levers of giving notice

[3:44:30] on our athletic contracts and our transportation contracts.

[3:44:34] Right. Give 30 day notice.

[3:44:36] So I think while We still are planning

[3:44:39] to have a budget vote within that timeframe.

[3:44:42] So the athletic contract is the October 1st date.

[3:44:46] The transportation contract is 30 days at any point.

[3:44:49] So you have more flexibility

[3:44:50] with the transportation contract than you do

[3:44:53] with the labor contract.

[3:44:54] Okay. Just to, that is

[3:44:57] Just to be clear, something we're considering Yes.

[3:44:59] In this still something we're considering.

[3:45:00] But, but it's, it's not tied to a particular date,

[3:45:05] but it is tied to cash flow.

[3:45:07] The, you know, the reality on that

[3:45:12] contract is those folks may not be there.

[3:45:14] Right. That's a concern we have

[3:45:16] because there's such driver shortage.

[3:45:19] And we also,

[3:45:22] and I'm just going to, I'm not trying to be histrionic,

[3:45:25] but we also don't have buses in a school emergency

[3:45:28] to evacuate schools.

[3:45:30] Wait, I thought you were just talking,

[3:45:31] so I thought you were saying it was just

[3:45:33] for athletics transportation.

[3:45:35] No, that's part of the 800, 800,000 for athletics,

[3:45:38] which includes that transportation 1.1

[3:45:40] home to home transportation. So the

[3:45:42] 800 athletic deadline is October 1st.

[3:45:44] Yeah. So we train the 1.1

[3:45:48] is 30 days before we do it

[3:45:50] Rolling. We're considering both.

[3:45:53] I'm not gonna take public

[3:45:54] comment unless we're doing a vote.

[3:45:55] We have a public comment after. We gotta get through this.

[3:45:58] Okay. Wait, hold on.

[3:46:01] So on the transportation on the 1.1,

[3:46:03] that's every single student.

[3:46:04] That's where taking a bus to and from. Okay.

[3:46:09] One other piece. So if we say for example,

[3:46:12] hypothetically we give 'em three days notice,

[3:46:13] they terminate the contract that terminates contract.

[3:46:16] If we decide we want to have bus service, again,

[3:46:19] not only are we restaffing, I'm assuming they're going to

[3:46:22] give us a different contract dollar amount based on

[3:46:25] what the prevailing fuel cost is.

[3:46:28] Which, yeah, I mean we do pay a, a fuel cost adjustment.

[3:46:31] So we're already paying for whatever the,

[3:46:36] the excess cost is for fuel.

[3:46:38] But John, it would probably mean

[3:46:39] they, we'd have to rebid it. We'd have,

[3:46:41] We'd have to Rebid the whole time the,

[3:46:42] the transportation contract.

[3:46:44] So it would likely be more

[3:46:45] expensive than what we're paying now.

[3:46:48] Lindsay,

[3:46:51] Can you tell me what the difference is between

[3:46:54] on page four under,

[3:46:59] I don't know what this is.

[3:47:00] Salary and wages. It's summer health wages.

[3:47:04] And then in the last line of the grade section

[3:47:08] facilities, summer health.

[3:47:11] What's the difference?

[3:47:12] Like what's the summer help versus facilities? Summer help

[3:47:16] Facilities, summer help as they bring in

[3:47:19] some part-time help, help with grounds keeping

[3:47:22] Anything whatever Did

[3:47:25] So what's the summer help?

[3:47:26] So the summer help is like extended school year stuff.

[3:47:29] So there are some kids that require

[3:47:32] Yes.

[3:47:33] Yeah. So that those are those people.

[3:47:35] So, but, and this is what we have to pay

[3:47:39] after we get money reimbursed from a OE.

[3:47:45] It depends on the situation.

[3:47:48] So this is the expense side? The expense side,

[3:47:50] Yes. Not the revenue side.

[3:47:51] Not the revenue side.

[3:47:56] So we

[3:48:01] would, that's the cost, right?

[3:48:03] The way that we, we build it in here,

[3:48:05] that's the cost for that item.

[3:48:08] There may be offsetting revenue in the revenue side

[3:48:11] of the budget, but we, we would still budget the cost.

[3:48:14] Okay. And then budget the revenue

[3:48:16] And not all of those services are reimbursable

[3:48:19] but we are still required to provide them.

[3:48:23] Yes. So like the way Joanne explained it

[3:48:27] before is we only got the general fund piece.

[3:48:31] So I was like just trying to see. Yeah.

[3:48:32] So this is, this is the piece,

[3:48:34] that piece right there is what's in the general fund budget.

[3:48:37] This is the piece that's in our budget. Okay.

[3:48:40] So we can't touch the summer health. Can we cut the

[3:48:42] facilities summer house?

[3:48:44] It's already happened. Yeah, it's already happened.

[3:48:48] Oh that happened over the summer. Yes.

[3:48:51] It's done not this coming summer. No.

[3:48:54] Do you, do you need slim from the four to tonight?

[3:48:59] Would you like can I get a temperature check?

[3:49:05] Who wants to start? Jackie, do you want me to go first?

[3:49:09] I, if it weren't for the timeline, I would actually like

[3:49:13] to put the same 2% out.

[3:49:16] I think we should change enough the 2 0 5 maybe whatever

[3:49:21] and get that revote out as soon as possible.

[3:49:24] I think I've seen a lot of participation tonight

[3:49:28] that gives me hope that we can actually get to enough people

[3:49:31] to vote and get this over the finish line.

[3:49:37] I think the deadline is more important.

[3:49:39] I think we, I don't like rushing votes

[3:49:42] but I think we kind of have to, I'm glad that Sam asked

[3:49:45] that many questions because I think it's pretty clear.

[3:49:48] It just, the longer we spread it out, no matter

[3:49:50] what the budget is on the ballot,

[3:49:52] the further back we push it,

[3:49:53] the more risky it's So I would say change just enough to get

[3:49:58] that change qualification.

[3:50:00] I don't know if we wanna be as snarky as a dollar,

[3:50:02] but just so we can get that early timeline.

[3:50:07] And I think we use this time

[3:50:09] to really to get to people.

[3:50:14] I think we had a good start

[3:50:16] and we are doing a lot of good things

[3:50:20] and it feels like we're always behind.

[3:50:22] I think Garrett, you did a lot of good things.

[3:50:24] I think getting in front of the news and being open

[3:50:26] and honest and I get to know

[3:50:28] that the students are involved the better.

[3:50:31] But I have a lot more hope this time

[3:50:35] just in the community.

[3:50:38] So I think if we use that momentum, the sooner the better.

[3:50:44] Emily,

[3:50:46] Are you looking for feedback on our

[3:50:49] operational impacts or are we just all feedback?

[3:50:53] We're just doing all, all

[3:50:55] Feedback.

[3:51:01] I don't know. I am so overwhelmed by being in this really

[3:51:07] terrible and unprecedented situation.

[3:51:10] It's really hard to know what to do.

[3:51:12] Everything is a risk and a gamble.

[3:51:17] We have to, if we have to

[3:51:21] cut spending right away, that's clear.

[3:51:24] We can't continue our

[3:51:28] operations as normal.

[3:51:30] So I guess I'd like to, to see that mapped out

[3:51:34] what that really looks like.

[3:51:36] We've talked about a lot of those different pieces

[3:51:39] and their safety considerations.

[3:51:41] We can't cut transportation without recognizing

[3:51:45] that we would lose emergency transportation if

[3:51:50] we had to get kids out of the schools.

[3:51:53] Well what does one person at a time,

[3:51:56] I'm not gonna say it anymore.

[3:52:00] So if we're looking to make some decisions,

[3:52:03] it sounds like we're going to meet again very soon.

[3:52:08] Is that what we're thinking?

[3:52:12] I mean our next scheduled meeting is October 5th.

[3:52:14] That's up to the board.

[3:52:17] That doesn't seem like, it seems like we need to meet

[3:52:20] before then and be able to take action.

[3:52:25] Do does the board need to act

[3:52:29] to cut spending? No, this

[3:52:31] Is, that's a, that's a management decision at this point.

[3:52:33] I mean and I'll if you want the, the black

[3:52:37] and white answer it's management.

[3:52:38] Okay. Do the reason we're sitting here going through all

[3:52:42] of this with everyone obviously is

[3:52:43] because that's not something that we wanna do in isolation.

[3:52:46] But to answer your question from just a contractual legal

[3:52:49] point of view, it is management.

[3:52:51] Okay. At this point the, the budget for

[3:52:54] is definitely board. Okay.

[3:52:56] Yeah. So I, if we're doing a vibe check on operational

[3:53:01] impacts, I am going to trust the judgment

[3:53:05] of our administration to, to make the call for us.

[3:53:09] I think that we've discussed what that looks like,

[3:53:11] different scenarios.

[3:53:14] So maybe the next, if we're going to meet soon

[3:53:18] before October 1st, if that feels like the deadline

[3:53:21] that we need to meet, it'd be nice to see kind of a plan

[3:53:25] of how that's mapped out.

[3:53:26] But

[3:53:30] I guess that's, thank you.

[3:53:32] I'm just, just overwhelmed by being in this unprecedented

[3:53:36] situation and how this is gonna impact

[3:53:39] our community and our kids.

[3:53:44] A lot of what Emily said, like this is just,

[3:53:48] this is a bad situation.

[3:53:49] This has been just,

[3:53:54] I'll just straight out say it.

[3:53:56] I am not happy about situation.

[3:53:58] That being said, I wish I had a way to

[3:54:04] figure it out but it's,

[3:54:09] I just don't see a way, granted my,

[3:54:13] my inner teenager is coming out

[3:54:15] and saying let's just crank up

[3:54:17] and just add $8 million on top

[3:54:18] of the next budget and make it even higher.

[3:54:21] But that's not viable.

[3:54:23] That's just my inner 15-year-old coming out

[3:54:25] and just being oppositionally defiant.

[3:54:28] But realistically all I think we can do is just

[3:54:33] put out updated budget

[3:54:34] and we just all have to really campaign

[3:54:38] and make sure that we are publicly behind this budget

[3:54:41] on front page form front porch forum

[3:54:43] and that we do not publicly speak out against

[3:54:46] what we have decided on as a group.

[3:54:48] Ana, I would run the same budget.

[3:54:52] I think $350,000 isn't going to slide

[3:54:56] the effect, the damage that what?

[3:55:00] What will happen if it looks pleasing?

[3:55:04] That's an issue and

[3:55:09] accelerated timeline.

[3:55:11] And the notice should be given.

[3:55:16] Catherine,

[3:55:22] I would like to champion my prior idea

[3:55:27] not to be contrary to Juliano.

[3:55:29] Yes. But I do think it makes a difference.

[3:55:33] And I think what would make the most difference would be the

[3:55:35] board coming together

[3:55:39] and going through the budget

[3:55:40] and finding exactly what 350 we're going

[3:55:45] to decrease it by a 350.

[3:55:47] That's not going to affect the students a 350.

[3:55:50] That's not going to touch any of the things

[3:55:53] that we don't want it to touch.

[3:55:55] Because if we're running on 20%

[3:55:59] that's not contracted out of last year's budget,

[3:56:01] that's $11 million.

[3:56:04] So I think we could find three 50

[3:56:08] to put out there to get the budget down.

[3:56:10] When we asked the community what they wanted for a budget,

[3:56:13] they didn't say 2.11.

[3:56:15] They said zero to two.

[3:56:17] Putting it out at 56.9 would be

[3:56:20] at the very high end of that.

[3:56:22] We would be doing what the community asked us to do.

[3:56:25] We'd be working together, which is something

[3:56:27] that we really need to see.

[3:56:29] And working together for everyone

[3:56:32] who's involved in this budget.

[3:56:36] Do we know what we have for tax stabilization balance?

[3:56:45] I believe what I reconcile it off

[3:56:48] of the notes from your guys meeting.

[3:56:49] Kind of think, I don't call

[3:56:52] because I, I'll have to double check,

[3:56:54] but I think seven to 900.

[3:56:58] I thought I was gonna say

[3:56:59] 7,000.

[3:57:00] Seven to 900,000. Somewhere in there.

[3:57:02] Alright. That was something else

[3:57:04] that the community brought up was

[3:57:07] use the tax stabilization money

[3:57:09] to keep it where it needs to be.

[3:57:11] I think it's insensitive to take people who are coming

[3:57:17] and at face value telling us that they are not voting no

[3:57:21] to hurt children or to hurt programs

[3:57:24] or to make a point they're not being infantile,

[3:57:27] they're being real, they're having real struggles

[3:57:32] and we don't want to have this, it's our job as the board

[3:57:35] to take this stressful and serious situation

[3:57:41] and do the best we can with it.

[3:57:44] So if we have a, a group of our community

[3:57:47] that is not agreeing with this, we have to try

[3:57:51] and even if it is just,

[3:57:52] I mean I can see Julianos point in

[3:57:54] saying, well it's just optics.

[3:57:55] But I don't think it is just optics.

[3:57:57] I think it would be showing that we really are trying

[3:58:02] to come to a, a compromise where it's balanced.

[3:58:05] Could I just add Sure. Point clarification.

[3:58:07] I just want everybody to understand when you use tax

[3:58:09] stabilization funds, just so everybody

[3:58:12] we're thinking about this, when you look at the expense

[3:58:14] report, it does not decrease your expenditures.

[3:58:18] So you're just using prior surpluses to say, okay,

[3:58:22] you're okay to spend this amount

[3:58:25] but you're decreasing your tax obligation.

[3:58:29] So the expenditure lines don't change, just decreasing.

[3:58:34] You're just funding it differently. Yes. Bring it in.

[3:58:36] So I just wanna make sure everybody's very clear on that.

[3:58:40] And it creates a revenue gap. Yes.

[3:58:42] That you, so you start behind whatever we use

[3:58:45] for tax stabilization

[3:58:47] and that's your choice. We're just explaining that.

[3:58:49] We're just explaining optic. So it's gonna show

[3:58:51] us an overspent.

[3:58:53] Right. So like we'd have to make

[3:58:55] that revenue up next year from the get go.

[3:58:57] Yeah.

[3:58:58] We're almost half of our tax stabilization money.

[3:59:02] We we, we added it into our budget already. Yeah.

[3:59:06] That didn't work. So

[3:59:08] Jeff,

[3:59:13] Yeah, there's a lot on my mind.

[3:59:18] There's a lot of participation tonight

[3:59:22] that was really eye-opening

[3:59:28] as a public school educator, I have a lens

[3:59:31] that's a little unique to say that like

[3:59:36] schools don't have excess like personnel and funds

[3:59:42] and they're, they're, they're not wasteful.

[3:59:46] It doesn't mean every single dollar is spent perfectly.

[3:59:50] But to think that we can scrutinize more

[3:59:55] than we already have,

[3:59:59] just seems like if you were

[4:00:00] to have been in a school every day for the last 10 years,

[4:00:05] nobody would say that there's money to cut

[4:00:09] in certain places that are gonna add up to a certain chunk

[4:00:13] of money that's gonna make people's tax

[4:00:19] contribution feel lower.

[4:00:23] And to be clear, the people who are struggling right now

[4:00:27] are the staff members.

[4:00:29] The teachers and students

[4:00:30] and families that are having to deal with this very public

[4:00:37] situation we're in where our schools aren't being funded.

[4:00:42] When you cut a position

[4:00:43] or a service, it doesn't just go away.

[4:00:48] Somebody else has to pick up that load, wear more hats

[4:00:51] or it just doesn't get done.

[4:00:53] Which is most of the time it just doesn't get done

[4:00:55] because the people with all the hats are busy juggling

[4:00:59] and spinning plates.

[4:01:04] The first couple failures of a budget, people are like, yep,

[4:01:08] we have to find some efficiencies.

[4:01:10] Ouch, this hurts. We have to regroup.

[4:01:12] But after three times failing

[4:01:17] almost a 50 50 vote, it's like 52, 48, something like that.

[4:01:23] It's a little more than 100 votes

[4:01:26] that tank the tank.

[4:01:28] This budget. I'm concerned about

[4:01:33] the staff in our district that is going to consider

[4:01:37] to potentially not renew their contract next year.

[4:01:40] 'cause I assume we'll eventually pass a budget.

[4:01:43] But who's gonna want to stick around for

[4:01:46] not feeling valued in what we're doing?

[4:01:49] Teachers are working clearly so hard with the students

[4:01:54] to show up and sure they had the angle in of sports

[4:01:58] and clubs and those were very important and impactful.

[4:02:02] But the way that they were able to speak

[4:02:06] their authenticity, that gave me strength

[4:02:11] to listen to the testimonials from the students that laughed

[4:02:16] and said, you think we don't need our principal here?

[4:02:19] That is not true.

[4:02:22] And the students just spoke frankly about all the things

[4:02:28] they do deserve our full throated support.

[4:02:33] And when we are so focused on student outcomes in the

[4:02:36] newspapers, we are not performing like we used to.

[4:02:39] That is so frustrating

[4:02:41] because the students that were here tonight

[4:02:43] demonstrated different than that.

[4:02:45] Please fund our budgets.

[4:02:46] I support no more cuts Sam.

[4:02:51] I also support no more cuts.

[4:02:53] If we have to change it by a dollar to get on

[4:02:57] an accelerated timeline, that would be fine

[4:02:58] with me, but not more than that.

[4:03:00] I think it's a disservice to cut more.

[4:03:03] And I know I was really surprised to hear people say

[4:03:07] that they thought the budget hadn't been

[4:03:08] discussed in board meetings.

[4:03:09] Because it seems to me like that's the only thing we've done

[4:03:11] in board meetings is discuss the budget time

[4:03:13] and time again in great detail and enormous detail.

[4:03:17] So that was a surprising thing for me.

[4:03:19] I think there are segments of the population we're

[4:03:21] never gonna move to.

[4:03:22] Yes. And that's really sad.

[4:03:24] It's so sad for these kids who came, but we got Berry City

[4:03:29] and I think that we can bring Berry City out.

[4:03:31] I wish we had more time to bring Berry City out,

[4:03:33] but I think that's, that's

[4:03:35] where the strength in getting this past lies, Lindsey.

[4:03:45] So I'm wondering what's the

[4:03:48] 350,000?

[4:03:50] I feel like I'm missing something here. No one knows.

[4:03:54] I'm just like no one know You were saying you want like

[4:03:56] there's this number three 50,

[4:03:58] but you were talking about the getting it down

[4:04:01] to 56, whatever.

[4:04:04] I'm like, but if we came up with 130,

[4:04:10] that would get us down below the 52nd.

[4:04:16] So I'm just saying we can try

[4:04:17] That too.

[4:04:18] I mean it it, Can I answer that?

[4:04:22] That is is just something I put out. I am one board member.

[4:04:27] It's a suggestion

[4:04:29] and it was hopefully to spark a dialogue between us

[4:04:32] to actually discuss it

[4:04:34] because we haven't really, I mean we've,

[4:04:37] we've talked about it ad nauseum to a point

[4:04:39] that's like a, an overview.

[4:04:41] But we haven't really gone through

[4:04:43] and looked at things particular like this particular

[4:04:47] paperwork that we got tonight.

[4:04:50] It's a generalization.

[4:04:51] I don't, I can see where these codes are.

[4:04:55] I can go to the line item budget

[4:04:57] and try to kind of comb them out.

[4:05:00] But we as the board really in my opinion,

[4:05:05] and it's just my opinion, it's not the board speaking

[4:05:08] but we can go through and find things to match.

[4:05:13] One thing that comes to my mind is the facilities amount.

[4:05:16] Because we had talked about that back at the beginning

[4:05:18] of this last year's budget.

[4:05:21] I really thought that we had said

[4:05:22] that it was gonna be 75 cents a square foot

[4:05:24] and then the last I saw it was 85 cents.

[4:05:27] And if, and the original budget was up to a dollar,

[4:05:30] I would love to have the facilities budget up to a dollar.

[4:05:32] I think that would be great. This particular year,

[4:05:35] we're halfway through the year.

[4:05:37] Like if we need to drop it

[4:05:39] and save another amount, I would say we should do it. But

[4:05:43] I don't know how much we've Spent.

[4:05:44] Exactly. But this is what we need to talk about

[4:05:47] and this is why we need to look.

[4:05:48] A lot of the numbers we have are stale numbers.

[4:05:51] These were from prior dates

[4:05:54] that are not current and up to date.

[4:05:56] How are we making a decision when we

[4:05:59] don't have current numbers?

[4:06:01] I mean if I was,

[4:06:03] if if this board was my fiduciary, I would fire us.

[4:06:07] I'm sorry but this is not how you manage money.

[4:06:11] It's not And money runs the schools.

[4:06:17] So for my So what Oh sorry, go ahead. Sorry.

[4:06:20] So there wasn't certain things that you saw that you

[4:06:23] Were I did.

[4:06:24] I did and I, I had a list that I had originally brought up

[4:06:28] back in November of last year and I

[4:06:30] Thought one of 'em was transportation but it was just

[4:06:33] Because was technology.

[4:06:34] What was technology? Not transportation.

[4:06:35] I thought that technology

[4:06:37] Not transportation. Yes. Okay.

[4:06:38] Yep. And I thought it might have been

[4:06:40] because we hadn't paid out on the contract yet or

[4:06:43] Something.

[4:06:44] And like I said, that was old numbers.

[4:06:45] So what, what I had worked on prior that I had given

[4:06:48] to the chair and the superintendent at the time

[4:06:50] Chair Michael Putin?

[4:06:52] Yes. Not, not you. Okay.

[4:06:55] Our chair at the time, I asked them to share it

[4:06:59] with the board so we could discuss it

[4:07:00] because this was back during

[4:07:02] Talks the board before me

[4:07:04] On, before the talks on the budget.

[4:07:06] This was November, December. Yeah.

[4:07:09] And it was not, it was not done.

[4:07:11] And I asked them again and again and it was not brought up.

[4:07:15] And this is what makes me frustrated

[4:07:18] because I think can have it.

[4:07:21] Who are you asking? I was asking Michael, Michael

[4:07:23] and Joanne can who are no longer here.

[4:07:26] Yeah because so I feel like you're holding onto this still.

[4:07:28] Like we have to move on. What I'm saying is it time to move?

[4:07:32] This was back. So we're at the, we're at the start.

[4:07:34] Let may I speak?

[4:07:37] I have the floor of it. Do I have the floor?

[4:07:40] Well this is actually something

[4:07:41] that I'm a little, hold on, hold on, hold on.

[4:07:43] I know, I know, I know.

[4:07:45] May I please have the floor? Yes, continue.

[4:07:51] My point is that

[4:07:53] before this budget even failed, the first time I was trying

[4:07:57] to get us to get the right budget out the first time

[4:08:02] to go for a vote so that we wouldn't be here in May.

[4:08:07] And whenever, and I'm trying, I'm p pouring you

[4:08:11] to put out the right budget this time so

[4:08:14] that we're not here again in December.

[4:08:17] We don't have time to mess around with this.

[4:08:19] We really need to get the right budget

[4:08:21] and you can play games with $1 or whatever.

[4:08:26] But what people want to see is us working together

[4:08:30] on the budget and then we can get

[4:08:32] to work on everything else.

[4:08:33] Can I ask a question? Yes.

[4:08:35] Catherine, have you ever supported

[4:08:37] and voted for a budget on this board?

[4:08:42] Yes. How many times?

[4:08:47] I, I don't remember One time you voted

[4:08:51] for a budget one time, you've never changed

[4:08:54] your mind or compromised.

[4:08:59] Has anyone ever gone through the budget on this

[4:09:01] board since I've been here?

[4:09:03] I did. And you were invited

[4:09:04] to the meeting and you didn't come?

[4:09:05] It was during a work day.

[4:09:06] I know I was there, it was

[4:09:08] during a work day when most people have to be at work

[4:09:12] and that was me and I can't help it.

[4:09:16] Yeah, I if it was after hours, if it had been

[4:09:18] after work I could have but, and it's interesting

[4:09:22] but I'm not going to get caught up on that

[4:09:24] because like you said, we're here now.

[4:09:27] But the point is I believe that if we

[4:09:32] actually work together and come up with, go through it

[4:09:36] and look at it because I believe when you went through it,

[4:09:39] you guys found things and I think I wasn't there but I heard

[4:09:43] after the fact that you actually

[4:09:45] kind of enjoyed the process.

[4:09:48] And so it's one of those things where then, you know,

[4:09:55] it was horrible and we put money back into the budget.

[4:10:00] Okay, so I think it's time to move

[4:10:02] On.

[4:10:03] Yeah, it's also my turn.

[4:10:05] I agree with what Juliano

[4:10:09] and Jeff were saying about how to proceed.

[4:10:13] So there's my check there

[4:10:14] and let me remind folks,

[4:10:16] I scream this from the mountaintop on interview

[4:10:19] after interview after interview, reduction of 11

[4:10:22] and a half physicians from last year reduction in facilities

[4:10:27] consolidation in the central office.

[4:10:30] We have made cuts. We have made cuts.

[4:10:35] I don't know where this, it's the right budget.

[4:10:37] I don't budget by just picking a number and cutting it.

[4:10:39] That isn't gonna work for me. That isn't gonna work for me.

[4:10:42] And I don't wanna hear it the last minute at a meeting

[4:10:48] to correct a budget.

[4:10:49] We had warned I had never heard that before.

[4:10:54] And I'm sorry if I didn't create

[4:10:55] that environment for you, Catherine.

[4:10:57] I'm really sorry. I will own up to that.

[4:11:02] And I hope tonight's not really a great, a great moment

[4:11:07] 'cause we're all a little heated,

[4:11:08] but I hope that moving forward past tonight

[4:11:12] I can create an environment where you feel comfortable

[4:11:14] to share that before August 14th.

[4:11:20] Thank you. I think we should move on.

[4:11:27] Is that, does that help?

[4:11:32] Do we get any public comment here on this?

[4:11:34] There is public comment after this, so yes, there is,

[4:11:38] but I just wanna make sure this discussion is

[4:11:40] wrapped up before we go.

[4:11:41] 4.21, I don't

[4:11:46] know, are we wrapped up?

[4:11:47] Yep. With this discuss 4.14.

[4:11:49] We've done four one and four two. Okay, I'm gonna do Lindsay

[4:11:53] and Jackie and then I'm moving on to public comment.

[4:11:57] I I wish that we, you

[4:12:02] I was surprised when I heard about the 11 positions

[4:12:04] because I tried to keep track of that because

[4:12:08] before you, when Joanne was here,

[4:12:11] we were talking like 3.5 was like the worst that I got

[4:12:15] and then all of a sudden it's like 11 and I'm like, what?

[4:12:20] I'm like, I like, I feel like some of that,

[4:12:22] like if I didn't know that here I'm like on the public

[4:12:27] wasn't aware of the reductions that were being made if I,

[4:12:32] you know, wasn't aware that there was 11

[4:12:36] and a half and a half.

[4:12:40] And then also like didn't we, we have the tax stable just

[4:12:44] because there's change here we have the, the tax

[4:12:48] stabilization money that we've only gone is like

[4:12:52] in this budget to, okay, I just wanted to make sure

[4:12:56] I'm like, there's been like change

[4:12:59] and I've came in, I was hoping to come in

[4:13:03] after this process, weren't we

[4:13:07] Jackie, I final thoughts.

[4:13:10] So with the whole dollar whatever and, and the amount.

[4:13:14] So I just, I just wanna get the vote out faster.

[4:13:17] Other, I gonna change it dime.

[4:13:19] Because here's the thing, the

[4:13:24] going line by line, not trusting our administrators,

[4:13:29] our business office wanting to see all these things publicly

[4:13:34] wanting to feel like we went through it, wanting

[4:13:36] to feel like there's an impact.

[4:13:38] These small, relatively small numbers like the three 50

[4:13:42] or one 30 to get it down to 56 9.

[4:13:45] That's, that's coddling adult feelings.

[4:13:51] That's not lowering the tax impact without,

[4:13:54] without doing the math.

[4:13:56] The 8 million would definitely cut into the tax impact

[4:13:59] as well as our ability to function.

[4:14:01] But I mean it's just,

[4:14:08] you know, we were here talking about sports as a necessity

[4:14:11] to keep the doors open.

[4:14:12] Which luckily I think we can look at things,

[4:14:14] but we can do that with the sports I think.

[4:14:18] But I mean it, I just,

[4:14:24] I have lost some hope in this community.

[4:14:27] Mine specifically, I'm an at large member,

[4:14:29] but I do live in Marytown

[4:14:31] and seeing the students stand up, I just,

[4:14:36] and then also hearing the teachers

[4:14:39] and Seth, I I have that hope again, like

[4:14:44] I don't think we need to cater to the feelings

[4:14:47] of a very select few.

[4:14:49] I think we need to have cost conversation.

[4:14:51] I think there's a very real concern about costs, about taxes

[4:14:55] and that is valid and that is the majority.

[4:14:59] I do not wanna entertain the spend conversation

[4:15:03] because the spend is just optics.

[4:15:05] The spend is people who don't wanna spend on education.

[4:15:08] Yes there's an overlap,

[4:15:12] but we are here to talk about costs and what we can control.

[4:15:15] We're not here to make people feel comfortable with spending

[4:15:19] because you're never gonna be comfortable with taxes.

[4:15:23] You just need to prioritize what you support

[4:15:26] and I'm gonna prioritize the students.

[4:15:30] Just be very careful about these small ones,

[4:15:33] All of us.

[4:15:35] And so with that, I'm going to close board discussion.

[4:15:39] We will open public comment for 30 minutes

[4:15:41] because we have an executive session to get

[4:15:43] to Sonia Spalding.

[4:15:47] So I wanna throw a little monkey wrench in your,

[4:15:49] I don't know, I'm hoping we don't get to the point

[4:15:51] where you have to say

[4:15:54] that you're not gonna do transportation.

[4:15:56] I, when my first year on the board for B-C-E-M-S,

[4:15:59] I made the, I proposed that idea

[4:16:01] that we would just cut transportation and act.

[4:16:03] We have an act two 50 permit

[4:16:05] and I don't think we can not have transportation

[4:16:07] for various city schools.

[4:16:09] So that may throw a little monkey wrench into

[4:16:11] your total number.

[4:16:13] I I'm putting it out there so

[4:16:15] that you can check and make sure

[4:16:16] We've been doing the permit research.

[4:16:18] It's not apparent, it's not abundantly clear that

[4:16:21] that's a risk, but yes,

[4:16:23] I hear you.

[4:16:24] So I just want you to know that it may not be

[4:16:26] as a big a number as you think it is.

[4:16:28] Yep. And it would only be one school.

[4:16:30] Yeah, because you can't cut it for Berry City. Yeah,

[4:16:37] Thank you.

[4:16:38] I'm gonna go online. I'll, I'll go back and forth.

[4:16:40] Michael Putin.

[4:16:45] So I don't remember the email that was discussed earlier

[4:16:49] and if, if I did receive it, I do apologize

[4:16:54] to the board at the time

[4:16:56] because I just don't remember the email.

[4:17:01] I, I just wanna encourage the school board to,

[4:17:07] you know, keep moving forward.

[4:17:10] And I know it's very difficult

[4:17:13] but try not to,

[4:17:19] we have, we have a divide

[4:17:21] and we, we don't want to increase that

[4:17:25] 'cause I don't think that helps us pass a budget.

[4:17:33] Thank you Pamela.

[4:17:35] Thank you. I want to go over some data

[4:17:39] that was in the audit

[4:17:41] and also bring some things forward from observations.

[4:17:45] We are in the middle of a a tax report.

[4:17:48] That's what we really have.

[4:17:49] People are having a hard time taking care of everything

[4:17:52] and we call whatever you wanna believe about that.

[4:17:55] Parents are having a hard time too.

[4:17:57] They have to take care of their children

[4:17:58] that they're sending to school, they have to have food,

[4:18:01] shelter, transportation, all of that.

[4:18:05] What I am amazed at when I went through these audits is, is

[4:18:09] to find out that there were monies

[4:18:11] that we actually didn't use from year to year.

[4:18:14] For example, fund balances was not used in 23 to the tune

[4:18:18] of about $700,000 in 24

[4:18:23] $700,000 a period again did not get used.

[4:18:27] When we got into 25 there was

[4:18:29] $1,386,450 worth of fund balance

[4:18:34] that was not used.

[4:18:37] This tax stabilization is there to take care of situations

[4:18:42] where things get more expensive

[4:18:44] and to make it easier on the taxpayers

[4:18:46] and to get punches fast.

[4:18:48] You utilize that. Now we talked about

[4:18:52] what I read earlier, that we have

[4:18:56] underfunded curriculum

[4:18:58] and special ed in several years when we

[4:19:02] overspent in other categories, if we're really trying

[4:19:06] to help kids and we're saying

[4:19:07] that any reduction in the increases

[4:19:09] that we have are gonna affect children's education,

[4:19:12] you gotta prove it in the audit, which we paid for.

[4:19:16] Save that. I can give you page your number for that,

[4:19:19] but you should be able to find it yourself.

[4:19:22] We've talked about, you know, $800,000 for sports

[4:19:26] and transportation and the extracurricular activities.

[4:19:32] I'd put it to you that if you put a cap, a freeze on

[4:19:36] your capital improvements area, you could cover that easy.

[4:19:40] Just that one boiler that from some reason went from 400,000

[4:19:45] to 800,000 to $800,000 boiler.

[4:19:47] If that was put on freeze, we take care

[4:19:49] of all the sports issues

[4:19:51] and we have extracurricular, you said it was about 800,000,

[4:19:54] this boiler was about 800,000.

[4:19:56] You talk about square footage for the facilities.

[4:19:59] Yeah, I think if you want to look at this,

[4:20:02] this is not about a revenue problem,

[4:20:04] this is about a spending problem.

[4:20:06] The problem is we are losing students faster than we are

[4:20:10] able to reduce personnel in force.

[4:20:13] And it's catching up, it's gonna catch up

[4:20:16] and nothing you can do about it.

[4:20:17] There are no RIF notices that were maintained surprisingly.

[4:20:21] I remember the superintendents I worked with,

[4:20:24] they always set out RIF notices

[4:20:25] until we got a budget passed.

[4:20:26] And then when the budget was passed it was fine.

[4:20:30] We just have watched this personnel against balloon,

[4:20:34] now we're up to 72 or 80%.

[4:20:38] When I first got on the board

[4:20:40] it was quite a bit lower than that.

[4:20:42] And if that's the general trend,

[4:20:44] then we're gonna have nothing but pencils

[4:20:46] and erases to work with in trying

[4:20:48] to keep a budget reasonable.

[4:20:50] So it does come down to personnel.

[4:20:52] I hate to say that, but it is a personnel issue.

[4:20:56] It's how you balance stuff.

[4:20:57] The other thing is you accuse people of trying

[4:21:01] to manipulate the photos into misinformation.

[4:21:05] I have not heard a documentation of what

[4:21:07] that misinformation was.

[4:21:09] What I am concerned about is that we've gone from May

[4:21:12] to September without considering another vote

[4:21:15] and we wanted to wait till we had

[4:21:17] what we call the school community

[4:21:19] to come back into the schools parents of students

[4:21:22] and faculty and everything to have that vote.

[4:21:25] But there was a danger in that.

[4:21:26] And I think I said that once, that if you wait that long

[4:21:29] and you were to have another failed budget,

[4:21:31] you'd be in a bigger mess.

[4:21:32] And now we're a bigger mess.

[4:21:35] So why not look at this, this capital stuff.

[4:21:39] Why not look at this square footage stuff?

[4:21:41] Why not have items prepared?

[4:21:46] Because I think that's the answer. Get your, your balance.

[4:21:49] Thank you Paul. I, I know but this is a great

[4:21:52] No, I know.

[4:21:53] I'm sure you are more important than everyone else.

[4:21:55] I'm sure. This why ire? It's up to you're up.

[4:22:00] Hi. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear

[4:22:04] You.

[4:22:05] Okay. So my name is I Ava

[4:22:07] and I am the middle school art teacher at Berry City

[4:22:10] Elementary and Middle School.

[4:22:12] First of all, like thank you so much to all

[4:22:15] of the school board members for all the work you are doing.

[4:22:20] It's very, very much appreciated.

[4:22:21] And I, I hope you know that. Can you still hear me?

[4:22:26] Yes. Okay. I was just three, four things.

[4:22:31] I was very impressed by all of the students who stood up

[4:22:33] to talk today during the meeting earlier.

[4:22:36] Second thing I wanted to give a shout out to those people

[4:22:40] who have, who are saying in this meeting that it is

[4:22:45] affecting the morale

[4:22:46] of the Barry Unified Union School

[4:22:49] district's teachers and staff.

[4:22:50] And that the budget fo failed three times.

[4:22:52] That's just a re reiteration. Everybody knows that.

[4:22:57] I hope we can reach out. Two more things.

[4:22:59] I hope we can reach out to more people

[4:23:01] who support our students' education.

[4:23:04] Education has to be valued.

[4:23:05] If a community will thrive,

[4:23:09] I think I'm preaching to the choir.

[4:23:11] And then the last thing is that, for example, I have a

[4:23:17] art club on Fridays that I haven't started yet.

[4:23:21] And so many of my students, so many come to me

[4:23:25] and say that they come to school on the days

[4:23:28] that they have art club.

[4:23:29] So yeah. Thank thank you so much. Yeah,

[4:23:34] Thank you Ireni.

[4:23:36] Amy,

[4:23:38] Thank you.

[4:23:39] I wanted to speak to an issue that I don't think

[4:23:42] comments came up from before.

[4:23:44] And that was that Berry City was going

[4:23:45] through a reassessment this spring and summer.

[4:23:49] And that may have affected

[4:23:50] how some people felt about voting.

[4:23:52] There was a lot of uncertainty about what would happen

[4:23:54] to people's individual tax bills.

[4:23:56] 'cause it was the first reassessment in 20

[4:23:59] years for some people.

[4:24:01] And so there was just a, a lot of uncertainty.

[4:24:04] There was a lot of misunderstandings about

[4:24:06] how the municipal reassessment process would work.

[4:24:09] You know, you'd see comments from people assuming

[4:24:12] if the assessment on their house went up 50%,

[4:24:15] that their tax bill would go up 50%.

[4:24:16] And it's not that simple.

[4:24:18] It depends on, you know, like education funding.

[4:24:20] It's, it's complicated.

[4:24:21] It's not as complicated as the educ education funding.

[4:24:25] There was a postcard

[4:24:26] that went out at some point in the spring.

[4:24:28] I don't remember exactly when.

[4:24:31] I think it was probably confusing

[4:24:33] and misleading to people if they didn't understand it.

[4:24:37] It kind of looked

[4:24:38] as though all the taxes were gonna go down in Berry City.

[4:24:42] But what it didn't really show was that

[4:24:46] a hundred thousand dollars house was not gonna continue

[4:24:48] to be a hundred thousand dollars house

[4:24:49] under the next school budget.

[4:24:51] It was gonna move to be 150,000 house or $160,000 house

[4:24:55] and have that accordingly.

[4:24:57] So we can't go back in time and change that postcard.

[4:25:01] But to the extent you have any time

[4:25:03] to develop outreach materials, I think trying to cover

[4:25:08] now that the reassessment is done in Berry City,

[4:25:11] the better communication about

[4:25:13] what is happening to tax bills.

[4:25:16] You know, my understanding is Berry Town went

[4:25:18] through a reappraisal a few years ago,

[4:25:20] given what's happening with real estate costs, you know,

[4:25:23] they could probably re be reappraised

[4:25:25] or reassessed again just

[4:25:26] because properties values have gone up so much.

[4:25:29] But they are both closer to

[4:25:33] what they should be at the state level.

[4:25:34] It's hard to explain the common level of assessment,

[4:25:37] but I think the way it was done on the

[4:25:39] postcard before was problematic.

[4:25:40] So I think just being really clear about what's happening

[4:25:43] and giving examples, not of tax rates.

[4:25:47] Also, I think tax rates for people

[4:25:49] who deal with this stuff all the time.

[4:25:51] You know, giving these decimals

[4:25:52] and per hundred dollars kind of numbers,

[4:25:55] but like talk about a $200,000 house

[4:25:58] and what is the annual tax bill?

[4:26:01] Not these per mil, per hundred, those kind of things.

[4:26:04] Like just communicate in really simple language about

[4:26:08] what happens to tax bill, how it goes up.

[4:26:10] I think that would help. And I think there may have been

[4:26:13] some people who, even in Berry City,

[4:26:16] maybe they would've voted even more strongly for the budget

[4:26:19] had they not been afraid of

[4:26:20] what was happening with the reassessment.

[4:26:21] So it's just a time to maybe be educate some people,

[4:26:25] because I was still seeing recently that old postcard going

[4:26:28] around and people misunderstanding things about

[4:26:30] the reassessment.

[4:26:33] Thank you Amy. Hey,

[4:26:38] say my name's Noah Ster again.

[4:26:40] I just had a few questions for the board.

[4:26:43] I wanted to clarify a few things I heard tonight.

[4:26:45] So I heard that the budget

[4:26:48] that we have is like the cheapest in Vermont.

[4:26:50] Is that true? Like the one that we're trying

[4:26:51] to project to everyone?

[4:26:54] So I by budget that depends

[4:26:57] because like if we got school districts have different

[4:26:59] number of students, we have one

[4:27:01] of the lowest per pupil spending.

[4:27:02] Yeah. So that rates in the state.

[4:27:04] So that's what I'm trying to say. Yeah.

[4:27:05] So voters said that we're here, said no

[4:27:10] and they also advocated for kids' sports.

[4:27:12] However, they said that they do not trust or do not believe

[4:27:16] and how the board is using the money.

[4:27:18] And I was wondering how you plan on getting those people

[4:27:20] to say yes to the budget

[4:27:21] because you're taking away what they're advocating

[4:27:24] and you're lowering the spending.

[4:27:25] But they didn't say that the spending was an issue

[4:27:28] or like how much money that you guys were asking for.

[4:27:30] They were saying they, they didn't like trust

[4:27:32] or like know exactly what you were using the money for.

[4:27:36] Does that, do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely.

[4:27:38] So how do you plan on getting those people to say yes

[4:27:40] to the new budget if you're taking away

[4:27:42] what they're advocating for, which is kids sports,

[4:27:45] like this guy

[4:27:46] and another guy said that they like advocate

[4:27:49] for kids' sports, but they don't

[4:27:51] advocate for what you guys are doing.

[4:27:53] Sure. So our job

[4:27:57] as board members is to create a number

[4:28:01] based upon the information we get from your principal

[4:28:05] and other principals in the other schools.

[4:28:07] And it comes to the superintendent

[4:28:09] and they give us their recommendations.

[4:28:11] So we set a number

[4:28:13] and that number goes back to your principles

[4:28:17] and they decide what to do with the money.

[4:28:20] We don't micromanage the money.

[4:28:23] It's like me walking into this library

[4:28:26] and pulling a few books off

[4:28:28] because I don't like where the books are

[4:28:30] or there are too many books on that shelf.

[4:28:33] That's not my job. That's the librarian's job

[4:28:36] to organize it and catalog them.

[4:28:38] I just provide the money for those books

[4:28:43] and they can do whatever they want with them.

[4:28:44] They can buy new books, they can get rid

[4:28:46] of some books because they're too old.

[4:28:48] It's just a number we set.

[4:28:50] So the trust is, I don't it,

[4:28:55] it it's feelings.

[4:28:56] They're feeling that they don't trust us,

[4:28:58] but we are here just to

[4:29:01] get information from the professionals and,

[4:29:05] and bring it to the visitors.

[4:29:06] Definitely. It's your job to what you

[4:29:08] Want.

[4:29:09] Well, and I was just gonna say by our metrics from our audit

[4:29:13] from we don't over,

[4:29:14] we've never been accused of overspending.

[4:29:19] I'll say that. So

[4:29:21] by those measures we do.

[4:29:24] Well the problem is you have something like Facebook

[4:29:27] where people can write whatever they want

[4:29:30] and the, the person who runs Facebook, mark Zuckerberg said,

[4:29:33] I'm not fact checking now, if the newspaper were

[4:29:36] to print some of the claims people made,

[4:29:38] the newspaper would get sued.

[4:29:40] And so that's part of the issue that we have

[4:29:42] with building trust in our community in

[4:29:44] 21st Century America.

[4:29:46] So you've got, it doesn't really impact you guys if

[4:29:51] the budget doesn't get passed.

[4:29:52] Is that true? Does it impact you guys?

[4:29:54] Yes, my kids go to school. I'm saying like you Yes.

[4:29:59] Take away the kid's part.

[4:30:01] Like you guys as workers, how you guys are working.

[4:30:04] Like does it impact you guys if

[4:30:05] our budget doesn't get passed?

[4:30:06] Like does it matter for you guys? Yes,

[4:30:08] It matters our entire community.

[4:30:10] Yeah. So we're, we're making an investment in our community

[4:30:15] and it takes time to see that investment

[4:30:17] because you start out in first grade,

[4:30:19] you graduate when you're 18 and you go off into the world.

[4:30:22] That's how long it takes for a, a child to go through.

[4:30:26] And that's the investment. You're

[4:30:28] not gonna see it all at once.

[4:30:29] But people throw test scores at us

[4:30:35] and how much we're spending per pupil and,

[4:30:40] and manipulate the numbers,

[4:30:45] not taking into account how we actually formulate,

[4:30:49] you know, those things.

[4:30:52] I just wanna add, we're not any more

[4:30:53] or less affected than anyone in the community.

[4:30:57] This isn't our budget.

[4:30:59] I think there are, there's again cost for suspend.

[4:31:02] There's small portion of suspenders.

[4:31:05] There's this view in a very small portion

[4:31:07] that it's like our budget and we,

[4:31:08] but it's, it's a public budget.

[4:31:10] It's the same for the city or the town.

[4:31:13] We are just as effective as else.

[4:31:16] Quick. Can I go to Nancy first

[4:31:19] And then I'll go to, unless you have any final thoughts.

[4:31:21] No, let let 'em go ahead if they want.

[4:31:23] Yeah, I had some thoughts. Thank you Nancy.

[4:31:25] I wanna keep going. I was just, I well I was just gonna,

[4:31:29] I was just gonna say, I was gonna add on to

[4:31:31] what Gavin said really quick.

[4:31:32] Like it's applicable when it comes

[4:31:35] to like appeasing those sentiments.

[4:31:39] I think a lot of times the lack of confidence in

[4:31:45] how they feel the money is being spent is often confused

[4:31:48] for a lack of knowledge.

[4:31:52] And take that how you want to take that.

[4:31:56] And I hope you take that in the way that I need it

[4:31:58] and work harder for the students of our community

[4:32:02] to go educate yourselves on where your money is being spent

[4:32:07] and where it has to be spent.

[4:32:11] And think about things more logically.

[4:32:13] Because when I go to school and I write an essay

[4:32:17] and I put something that is I factual in it,

[4:32:19] I get a bad grade when I go to school and I sit there

[4:32:23] and I go, I, I, I, me, me, me, my experiences, I,

[4:32:27] I I at soccer practice

[4:32:28] or in the classroom, I get sat on the bench.

[4:32:32] So I think the lack of consequences for being uneducated

[4:32:36] and for not being responsible as you grow older are

[4:32:41] are definitely shown in this room.

[4:32:44] And I think it's sad that it's has

[4:32:46] to be put on these people for that to be solved.

[4:32:49] So that's all I'm gonna say about it. Yeah.

[4:32:52] One thing that I did want to like bring up is I bet a lot

[4:32:57] of the voters that did vote on the like passing the budget,

[4:33:01] I bet they don't watch this committee every

[4:33:04] single time you guys have a meeting.

[4:33:06] I bet they're uneducated.

[4:33:07] Like he said, like I was talking to my buddies,

[4:33:10] I was like, is your mom watch?

[4:33:11] Like did she vote? And he was like, yeah,

[4:33:13] like did she watch the meetings?

[4:33:15] No. So people are uneducated, like I bet the people

[4:33:18] that came in saying, oh

[4:33:19] you guys don't talk about the budget.

[4:33:20] Like you guys are saying, you do talk about the budget.

[4:33:22] They're uneducated.

[4:33:24] So do you guys, if you guys care about the budgeting passed,

[4:33:28] why is the only promotion that you guys do about, oh,

[4:33:31] you guys are doing this for a good cause

[4:33:33] and like you guys use the money effectively.

[4:33:36] Why you guys only do that on the board meeting?

[4:33:38] Like how you guys show it when people

[4:33:41] that vote are gonna be uneducated,

[4:33:42] they're not gonna watch every single board

[4:33:44] meeting. Do you guys get what I'm saying?

[4:33:46] Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Person. That'd

[4:33:51] Be more admin though, Sam.

[4:33:53] So yeah, so most people are not gonna watch a board meeting.

[4:33:56] It's as someone was point out, it can be a little deadly

[4:34:00] and people showing up every week

[4:34:02] or every, every month when we meet, that's really rare.

[4:34:05] And becoming educated on the issuers is really hard.

[4:34:08] Like we try to put a lot of stuff out there.

[4:34:11] Although we have limitations as board members,

[4:34:14] there's things we can do to encourage people to vote.

[4:34:17] But there's a lot of things that the law prohibits us to do.

[4:34:20] We cannot work together as a board

[4:34:22] to make people's statements.

[4:34:25] Can I just say one more thing?

[4:34:27] So what I wanted to bring up was,

[4:34:31] sorry I'm just blanking a little bit.

[4:34:34] I wanted to bring up that, oh yeah.

[4:34:38] The first time I heard about this budget

[4:34:40] like thing coming out was like three days ago.

[4:34:43] Andy told me about it, told me about this meeting

[4:34:45] that I should come to it and now I'm getting all these

[4:34:48] like things talking about it over the last like month.

[4:34:51] So I think what I'm trying

[4:34:53] to say is you guys should like let us, I've been text,

[4:34:56] like we've been texting the group chat class

[4:34:58] of 2027 talking about how we need to get everyone,

[4:35:00] the parents and everyone to vote.

[4:35:02] So I want you guys to be able to keep sports in our budget

[4:35:06] and let like put your trust into us.

[4:35:08] Let us be the PR person

[4:35:10] and have our like parents, our parents, like our parents',

[4:35:14] parents, our parents' friends, our like friends dogs.

[4:35:19] Yes.

[4:35:22] Put your trust Into us.

[4:35:24] You keep the sports in the budget please.

[4:35:27] And we will get the two, another 200,

[4:35:30] another 300, another 400 votes.

[4:35:32] We have so many people in our falling wrestling community

[4:35:34] that would keep us in there.

[4:35:36] How many have we done? Like Facebook?

[4:35:39] We got 2000 on the Facebook. We'll get them all the vote.

[4:35:41] Like put our, your trust in us

[4:35:43] and we'll get the budget passed

[4:35:45] so we can Well you're hiring.

[4:35:47] Yes. Still gotta

[4:35:51] go get good grades tomorrow.

[4:35:53] So Thank you so much.

[4:35:57] Well I was gonna say, just

[4:35:58] before I leave, one thing that I've always wanted to say

[4:36:02] and I haven't quite had the bravery or to,

[4:36:04] but I think about it a lot.

[4:36:07] Sixth grade history class, US history.

[4:36:11] Are you smarter than a sixth grader?

[4:36:13] I learned that the whole point

[4:36:17] and the good part of being in a democracy is

[4:36:21] that the power is in the hands of the people.

[4:36:25] And I think when we see that only 20% of people

[4:36:28] voted on this budget and the majority of that 20% voted no.

[4:36:33] And a lot of the things that I see that are said online,

[4:36:38] this is not what a democracy looks like

[4:36:40] or what we were supposed to learn about.

[4:36:42] So the fact that the people making this decision

[4:36:45] about my education are not as smart as a sixth grader,

[4:36:49] that is really scary to me.

[4:36:52] So I guess along with taxing, those of you who agree

[4:36:57] with me and Noah to go vote, I would

[4:37:02] ask the people that continuously vote no

[4:37:07] to go take sixth grade history class again

[4:37:12] and learn that it is your honor to get to vote,

[4:37:16] especially those who didn't.

[4:37:17] And understand all of the facts when you go in to vote

[4:37:22] and if you have a lack of confidence that's on you man.

[4:37:26] Go learn. Either gain confidence

[4:37:29] or understand what needs to change.

[4:37:32] Because when you come up here

[4:37:33] and you tell me that you're not confident,

[4:37:35] but you don't tell me what you think needs to change.

[4:37:37] I can't do that in an essay.

[4:37:39] I can't do that on the sports field.

[4:37:41] I can't do that in my clubs. I can't

[4:37:42] do that in student council.

[4:37:45] You guys need to have repercussions

[4:37:47] 'cause we have repercussions and we do

[4:37:48] things right and we learn.

[4:37:50] You guys have none. You don't have the

[4:37:52] repercussions that we have.

[4:37:53] And that has shown day to day in here

[4:37:56] and what you guys write online.

[4:37:58] And it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to us.

[4:37:59] It's embarrassing to my friends.

[4:38:01] And if you haven't changed your mindset

[4:38:03] after hearing all these people and all these facts

[4:38:05] and all these facts from kids that are a third of your age,

[4:38:09] you need to do some serious soul searching.

[4:38:13] That is your problem.

[4:38:15] And I'm sorry that you have it,

[4:38:16] but you are destroying the community that me

[4:38:19] and my friends work hard to build.

[4:38:21] So thank you. And if that doesn't change your outlook on

[4:38:24] things, you got other problems.

[4:38:27] I'm gonna go

[4:38:32] Nancy.

[4:38:33] Yes. I was wondering why you wanted

[4:38:37] to create the fear of these children being infected

[4:38:42] so quickly right

[4:38:44] after the budget failed without looking at your

[4:38:51] items that you could possibly come forth

[4:38:54] and say we can do this and this.

[4:38:57] This is great information for fiscal year 27,

[4:39:00] but how do you know where you can decrease

[4:39:04] or increase without having the prior gears actuals?

[4:39:08] So if you are basing it on the fact that only April

[4:39:12] is available you,

[4:39:14] and if you take it forward a couple of months,

[4:39:16] you are gonna run into a surplus.

[4:39:18] By the way, the tax stabilization

[4:39:20] that you have in your account is 2.2 million.

[4:39:24] 'cause I know he said he was gonna check it out.

[4:39:27] And also Garrett, you said that the, you got rid

[4:39:30] of 11 and a half positions.

[4:39:31] I went through all of your minutes and board meetings

[4:39:33] and saw where you guys approved.

[4:39:35] You approved 16 positions in addition to coming in,

[4:39:40] in addition to the 11.5 that you reduced.

[4:39:42] So just for clarification, so everybody has the facts

[4:39:46] 'cause that's what we want to do is we want facts

[4:39:48] 16 positions in a 2% budget Increase.

[4:39:50] If you go, if you go look at, I'm not,

[4:39:53] I'm not saying one thing, I'm just saying it's important

[4:39:56] that we get factual information

[4:39:58] and accurate information in order for us

[4:40:00] to make a decision on a budget and when we didn't have it.

[4:40:05] And, but I'm really disappointed

[4:40:06] that you immediately knee jerk come right out

[4:40:09] to eliminate this kid's sports

[4:40:11] and all their activities right off the bat without doing

[4:40:14] your due diligence and looking at the budget

[4:40:18] and seeing what else you may have been able to reduce.

[4:40:21] Thank you.

[4:40:24] I'm hoping we can reduce legal fees from people reaching

[4:40:28] out directly to our attorneys.

[4:40:29] That's what I hope for Rachel.

[4:40:31] Yes. Hi. Thanks. I just wanted to, oh, my phone died.

[4:40:36] No, bring it back. I, Andy.

[4:40:41] Oh my goodness. Couldn't have I.

[4:40:43] No, I really appreciate that.

[4:40:45] And just one of the things in one

[4:40:48] of the many budget things you put out that's on our website,

[4:40:54] u usd.org/budget.

[4:40:57] Not one of the many things that as you,

[4:40:59] I know you did a tour, it seems like, like press tour.

[4:41:03] There's a lot of information I appreciate that.

[4:41:05] I think more than I've seen before.

[4:41:06] Even when we had a communications store. No, I don't know.

[4:41:10] Okay, I'm gonna focus back on this.

[4:41:12] Our vision in the BUS state is

[4:41:14] to provide a rock solid education for a lifetime discovery.

[4:41:18] Again, we heard from our students tonight, which is great.

[4:41:21] It's helping us remember why we're here.

[4:41:25] We, this includes ensuring students have equitable access

[4:41:30] to learning resources.

[4:41:32] It includes promoting student engagement

[4:41:35] and ownership of learning.

[4:41:37] Provide the physical, mental, emotional

[4:41:40] and environmental resources that students need

[4:41:43] for successful learning and personal wellbeing.

[4:41:48] Create communication systems that foster

[4:41:51] collaborative internal and external community relationships.

[4:41:56] It also includes develop creative and flexible curriculum

[4:42:00] and career pathways that enable students

[4:42:02] to become successful citizens

[4:42:04] and skillful, skillful workers.

[4:42:09] I appreciate Andy talking about social studies

[4:42:12] and bringing in that civic education.

[4:42:15] Not just because I'm now teaching social studies, but

[4:42:17] because it is so related, the things I'm talking about

[4:42:22] with students would be really great

[4:42:27] for everyone to have and be reminded of.

[4:42:32] I'm gonna share a few more things from our strategic plan.

[4:42:38] I think this is out of date perhaps. Perhaps.

[4:42:41] But yeah, because it says we have summer school.

[4:42:44] I know hard one, we don't have money for things like that,

[4:42:48] but it was really valuable programming.

[4:42:52] So this includes implementing grade level, sequence

[4:42:55] of field trips, revised school schedules

[4:42:57] to allow implementation.

[4:42:58] Implementation of adequate instructional time for literacy,

[4:43:01] mathematics, SEL, social emotional learning

[4:43:04] and project based learning.

[4:43:06] And which should civics promote student engagement.

[4:43:09] I said that, sorry. Teachers work in a professional learning

[4:43:12] community to develop proficiency scales

[4:43:14] so they have a common focus for teaching and learning.

[4:43:18] Implement a multi-tiered system of support

[4:43:20] for both academics and social emotional learning.

[4:43:24] Provide students with healthy

[4:43:25] and nutritious school meals

[4:43:27] where they're involved in taste testing

[4:43:29] and making suggestions for improvements.

[4:43:32] Build a system that promotes social emotional learning

[4:43:35] by employing trained personnel whose roles

[4:43:38] and responsibilities are clearly defined.

[4:43:41] Ensure all teachers, staff

[4:43:43] and administration receive ongoing training

[4:43:46] to implement effective approaches to trauma, poverty,

[4:43:49] homelessness, and other social issues

[4:43:51] that affect school success.

[4:43:54] Ensure that we have best practices, structures, supports

[4:43:57] and programs in place that are delivered with fidelity.

[4:44:02] Build partnerships that welcome the community into our

[4:44:04] schools and engage students with community partners.

[4:44:08] Help families better understand proficiency

[4:44:11] based learning standards.

[4:44:13] Articulate curriculum with proficiency standards

[4:44:16] and learning progressions pre-K through 12.

[4:44:19] Support administrators to increase their capacity

[4:44:22] to be instructional leaders.

[4:44:24] Revise school schedules at all levels

[4:44:26] to support a multi-tiered system

[4:44:27] of support for all learners.

[4:44:29] It's a lot of goals, a lot of things to do

[4:44:33] and we have a lot of students

[4:44:35] and I hope that we remember

[4:44:36] that it all is about the students.

[4:44:38] That's why we're here.

[4:44:41] And to provide a rock solid education

[4:44:43] for a lifetime of discovery.

[4:44:44] Thank you Rachel. And with that it has been half an hour.

[4:44:49] I'm going to close public comment.

[4:44:51] I want to thank everyone for their participation tonight

[4:44:55] and I now move to executive session.

[4:45:01] So is there a motion

[4:45:02] for a finding under BSA 3 1 3 A one

[4:45:07] under confidential attorney-client privilege?

[4:45:09] Are there findings that premature general public knowledge

[4:45:12] would clearly place the public body

[4:45:14] or person involved in a substantial disadvantage?

[4:45:18] Is there a motion? So moved by Jackie. Seconded by Emily.

[4:45:22] Discussion. All those in favor say aye.

[4:45:27] Aye. Opposed? All right.

[4:45:30] Is there a motion to enter executive session moved under

[4:45:35] BSA 3 1 3 A one.

[4:45:37] Inviting the superintendent

[4:45:39] and director of operations three, correct.

[4:45:45] Is there a motion? Moved by Sam, seconded by Jeff.

[4:45:49] Discussion? All. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

[4:45:54] Opposed? We are in executive session at 10:45 PM

[4:46:05] All right.

[4:46:05] Is there a motion to exit executive session? Moved.

[4:46:09] Moved by Ian second. Seconded by Jeff. Discussion.

[4:46:14] Aye. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?

[4:46:19] Motion passes. We have executive session

[4:46:23] at 10:57 PM Is there a motion to adjourn?

[4:46:28] No. Move. Moved by Jackie. Seconded by Sam.

[4:46:31] All those in favor say aye. Opposed?

[4:46:35] We are adjourned at 10:58 PM everyone.

[4:46:40] Thank you. This PhD reporter, my back.

[4:46:45] Is that okay? Whatever.

BUUSD Special Meeting

Transcript