[0:01] Okay, great.

[0:02] If people been let in doing,

[0:06] Can we exit the recording thing

[0:09] so I can see when people raise their hands?

[0:14] Alright, it is six o'clock.

[0:18] I'd like to call this special meeting

[0:20] to the Barry Unified Indian School District Board to order.

[0:24] Our first item is additions or deletions to the agenda.

[0:28] Are there any additions or deletions from board members?

[0:34] Hearing none. I would entertain a motion

[0:36] to approve the agenda as presented.

[0:38] Move. So moved by Jeff, seconded by Jackie.

[0:43] Discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

[0:48] Opposed? Alright.

[0:51] Next is public comment for items not on the agenda.

[0:54] Before we begin, I want to remind everyone

[0:56] that public comment is limited to two minutes per speaker.

[1:00] This portion of the meeting is an opportunity for the board

[1:04] to listen and hear from the public rather than

[1:06] respond directly during comment.

[1:08] I understand that sometimes this can sometimes feel

[1:11] impersonal, but please know we genuinely welcome

[1:14] and appreciate your feedback and participation.

[1:18] So do we have any public comment

[1:19] for items not on tonight's agenda? Paul?

[1:23] I do. What I'm trying

[1:25] to understand is you have moved all three

[1:28] of your committee meetings to exactly the same time

[1:32] at the same night.

[1:34] What I don't understand is how do you expect the public

[1:37] to weigh in on more than just one subject,

[1:40] which is a question well, you guys haven't answered

[1:43] because it's not really my call community engagement.

[1:47] So all the meetings are recorded and open to the public.

[1:51] So if there's a meeting, if you want

[1:54] to attend more than one meeting on the same night,

[1:56] you will still have an opportunity to watch the meeting and,

[2:00] and there are plenty of ways to communicate with the board.

[2:02] And just as a reminder, Paul, these are advisory committees.

[2:05] They're not decision making bodies

[2:08] decisions lie with the full board.

[2:10] I understand that but

[2:11] that's exactly precisely right point.

[2:13] They are advisory and if you want any kind

[2:15] of advisory opinions coming from the members

[2:17] of the community, you yourself could not be at three

[2:21] meetings simultaneously if you had three items

[2:23] that you want to talk about.

[2:27] This doesn't make sense. Okay,

[2:28] I've seen it done in my 45 years.

[2:29] If that's a situation that comes up, we'll note

[2:32] that when we reconsider the format.

[2:36] Thanks so much Paul. Anyone

[2:39] else for public comment?

[2:41] For items not on the agenda.

[2:45] Nancy, I'd like to

[2:47] Follow up to, I'm just thinking about what you said

[2:49] and I believe I sent an email

[2:51] To the whole board.

[2:52] The, the meetings are really meetings for the public.

[2:55] So it gives them an opportunity to come

[2:58] and share their concerns to

[3:00] have engage in conversation with board members.

[3:04] If you can't attend all three then you're outta luck

[3:07] to eight even having a conversation.

[3:11] So to me it's kind of contradictory of what you're trying

[3:15] to do and this is just my opinion,

[3:19] but if it's a meeting of the public,

[3:20] you certainly are going in the wrong direction

[3:23] and you're minimizing

[3:24] and you're kind of eliminating people from attending

[3:28] and voicing your opinion

[3:29] and it kind of feels like that's what you're trying to do.

[3:32] I'm not saying that's your intentions,

[3:34] but unintentionally you're trying to limit

[3:38] the public from participating in these committee meetings

[3:42] or even having a chance to

[3:45] say anything. Thank you.

[3:48] Thank you Nancy. I will remind folks

[3:50] that there is public comment available

[3:51] during the committee meetings

[3:53] and they're not conversations,

[3:54] they're business meetings held in public.

[3:57] The public has an opportunity to comment on them.

[4:01] I'd also like to note as chair of the policy committee

[4:04] there are approximately zero members of the public that came

[4:08] for any of those meetings.

[4:11] Alright, moving on to current business.

[4:13] Oh, thank you Rachel.

[4:19] Still muted. Muted? Yeah,

[4:27] still muted.

[4:30] She on mute? Oh she's got, There we go.

[4:36] This is on one of those.

[4:43] Still muted.

[4:48] Rachel, how about I have you email your comment

[4:50] to the full board and so I can move on with the meeting.

[4:55] Alright, so under current business item 4.1 is FY 27 budget

[5:00] revote discussion as we begin this conversation tonight,

[5:04] I wanna provide a brief overview of

[5:05] where we are in the process.

[5:08] The first budget vote was held on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026,

[5:12] and proposed an overall budget increase

[5:14] of approximately 3.36%.

[5:17] It was not approved by voters.

[5:19] The second vote held on Tuesday,

[5:21] May 12th, 2026 proposed an overall increase

[5:24] of approximately 2.73%.

[5:27] It was also not approved.

[5:30] While what ultimately matters is the cumulative vote,

[5:33] it is worth noting that our most recent May revote was

[5:36] supported by voters in Berry City

[5:38] and opposed by voters in Berry Town

[5:41] creating a more complex path forward for the board

[5:43] as we consider another revote in a way that is thoughtful,

[5:46] inclusive, and considerate of the many perspectives

[5:49] that exist across our greater community.

[5:53] The May Revo also saw approximately 2,665 total voters

[5:58] participate between both the city and the town.

[6:02] According to the November 20, 25 voter information published

[6:05] by the Vermont Secretary of State,

[6:07] there are approximately 12,565 are disturbed voters

[6:11] between Berry City

[6:13] and Berry Town, meaning turnout

[6:15] for the May re vote was approximately 21%.

[6:19] So before we begin this discussion tonight,

[6:22] we'll have a series of prompts for that we'll give

[6:25] to the board before opening it up to public comment.

[6:28] But Joanne, I wanna turn it over to you

[6:30] because I maybe also have some information for the board.

[6:33] Sure.

[6:35] So I've been asked to clarify some information

[6:38] that had been published in the Times Argus or

[6:40] after the last finance committee meeting.

[6:42] And I, I must say that I found some

[6:44] of the information a little confusing myself.

[6:46] I did not, I was not interviewed,

[6:48] I was not asked any questions about the year end projection

[6:52] that was provided in the packet to the community that night.

[6:56] I do wanna confirm that.

[6:58] Yes, in that report it indicated that we had a estimate

[7:02] of $170,000

[7:04] that would potentially end the year in a, in a deficit.

[7:08] However, I wanna remind everyone that

[7:10] that report was completed on April 30th.

[7:12] We still have several months to go.

[7:15] As we end our year, we get a better handle on the,

[7:18] on the received revenues as well as projection

[7:22] projected expenditures.

[7:24] And so I cannot confidently say that we will end the year

[7:27] with a deficit at this point.

[7:30] Please remember that the district always monitors very

[7:33] closely the revenues and expenditures closely

[7:36] and we will provide updated information to the board

[7:39] and the community when it is appropriate.

[7:41] So that is all I have to report about the article.

[7:44] Okay, thank you Joanne.

[7:48] So as I stated, we will have a series of prompts

[7:52] for board members and we'll go around to each board member

[7:56] for each of the prompts.

[7:57] Once we are completed with the prompts, we'll open it up

[8:00] for the public to weigh in on their thoughts

[8:03] and reflections from the revote.

[8:07] So prompts for discussion tonight first.

[8:13] And also one of the prompts at the end will be

[8:16] anything we didn't cover in these prompts.

[8:18] So please don't feel like there'll be an opportunity to,

[8:22] to share your thoughts about the budget.

[8:24] You're not just restricted to specific prompts.

[8:29] First, what specific concessions

[8:31] or modifications are stakeholders requesting?

[8:35] And are those requests something we can

[8:37] reasonably accommodate?

[8:46] We like to start with who would like to start

[8:50] and then we'll go around in order

[8:52] or I'll pick someone one I can start.

[8:55] Sure. I haven't heard anything. Okay.

[8:58] So you know, I, I think

[9:01] that information would be helpful if, if you feel

[9:03] that the district is spending too much, we need to know on

[9:07] what, I haven't heard anything here.

[9:11] Emily.

[9:17] I, I agree.

[9:21] I think maybe we need a another to communicate with

[9:26] the community of

[9:30] what they are requesting.

[9:32] We had a very limited response with our survey

[9:36] and we did adapt our

[9:39] second budget proposal based on those responses.

[9:44] But it either wasn't enough

[9:47] or people didn't respond to the survey.

[9:54] I suspect much

[9:55] of it is about taxes, it's about money.

[9:59] And there, as our budget process evolved,

[10:04] the yield changed, which improved our tax,

[10:11] the projected tax rate.

[10:12] You know, it was reduced by four more cents.

[10:17] So there a lot of things had happened that we weren't able

[10:21] to fully communicate with people.

[10:23] But yeah, maybe it's good to ask people again like

[10:26] what are they

[10:29] requesting with this?

[10:31] No vote

[10:34] Steven.

[10:36] So yeah, with the conversations that I've had

[10:38] and the feedback I've received from the community,

[10:41] I haven't heard anything regarding concessions.

[10:43] All I have heard is I, the tax, the taxes are too high,

[10:47] I wanna pay less money in taxes.

[10:49] And when I ask, well what outcomes are you looking for?

[10:52] It's, I want better student outcomes.

[10:54] And I, and then like, okay, what specifically?

[10:58] And I'm never getting any specifics

[11:02] and so I'm willing, so that's been a point of frustration.

[11:07] Like I'm trying to do the best best I can,

[11:11] but I'm not getting the feedback

[11:12] that I need from the community.

[11:14] Or at least I don't feel that I'm

[11:17] Lindsay, I'm

[11:21] hearing a lot of the same.

[11:23] I guess one thing I've heard is

[11:27] with enrollment going down that

[11:29] some folks are looking for a reduction.

[11:33] The staff.

[11:42] I think that from what I've seen for the enrollment data

[11:47] by grade

[11:50] and what we have for teachers is it matches our policy.

[11:56] So we got rid of teachers,

[11:58] we might be outta compliance with our policy.

[12:03] And I've also heard they wanna see their principals.

[12:09] So sorry I didn't catch that.

[12:10] Principals, we wanna see rid of principals. Okay.

[12:18] Hey Jeff.

[12:20] Like Lindsay, I've heard that come from

[12:26] the community as well, that there's a lot

[12:28] of administrative staff in our district

[12:30] and when cutting budgets,

[12:36] you know, staffing is a real challenge.

[12:43] I mean what, what's at stake?

[12:44] I haven't heard anybody talk about cutting programs,

[12:51] athletics or arts.

[12:52] I haven't heard anybody in the community bring those up.

[12:57] You hear a lot about taxes

[13:00] and how taxes are crippling a lot of folks

[13:05] and reworking that formula needs to happen

[13:09] sooner rather than later.

[13:12] But when it comes to us making any changes,

[13:19] that's all I've heard.

[13:21] It's Jackie, I mean I've, I've heard the same,

[13:25] it was voted down 'cause people pay a lot in taxes.

[13:30] As far as specifics, I would echo

[13:32] what everyone here has said.

[13:37] I would call it sort of a hopeful narrative.

[13:39] So when people, from what I can tell the, the sort

[13:43] of root cause of this is they feel like costs are out

[13:46] of control and they are, I mean it's labor costs are a

[13:50] response to the costs at large.

[13:52] The cost of groceries, the cost of healthcare, everything.

[13:56] So in that sort of mind space, I've heard a lot of these,

[14:02] again, hopeful narratives.

[14:04] There must be too many administrators,

[14:07] there must be too much spend here.

[14:09] There must be, you know, something going on

[14:13] that we can point to or

[14:16] or the, you know, at the enrollment I've heard the

[14:18] enrollment too, even though a lower population density is

[14:22] always more expensive.

[14:23] But again, it's this hopeful narrative

[14:25] because I think people feel kind of out of control

[14:28] with the costs and we all do.

[14:31] So I mean as far as what we can accommodate,

[14:34] we can't change the economy.

[14:35] So I don't think we can accommodate it.

[14:40] I also, I wrote a note, you know, speaking

[14:43] of finance committee, I think it would be a,

[14:45] and also in response to what Joanna said,

[14:48] I think it might be helpful for finance to, to,

[14:53] to go into how to read these budgets.

[14:55] You know, these are predictions.

[14:57] You can't count your eggs before they ha

[15:01] or your chickens before they hatch.

[15:02] Right? And and how does that look in a budget?

[15:05] 'cause they're, they're complicated

[15:06] and I, I think, I think people are looking for the solution

[15:11] and it's, we're doing our best to find it.

[15:16] Thanks Catherine.

[15:18] Yeah, a lot of what I hear is, is the same

[15:23] that's been mentioned already with the budget survey.

[15:28] A lot of those points were brought up even though it was a

[15:31] small sampling of people, it was the, the largest

[15:36] categories of what concerned people the most

[15:39] was overall spending administrative costs

[15:44] and between staffing levels and unsure.

[15:48] And I think it's that unsure part that is interesting to me

[15:52] because what we have is a community that has

[15:56] doubts about how this is being

[16:01] put forward and,

[16:03] and without addressing the doubts

[16:06] that the community has about our budget,

[16:09] I don't think we're going to be able to connect

[16:13] with those folks

[16:15] that have re reservations about voting

[16:18] yes on a school budget.

[16:20] And I think what they're looking for is the school board

[16:26] to take an active role in going through the budget

[16:31] with administration

[16:33] and coming out with something

[16:34] that we have gone through embedded.

[16:46] Let's see. I echo what a lot

[16:50] of folks have said here.

[16:51] The primary thing that I heard was

[16:56] a concern about, I would say the value of education.

[17:01] And I think that leads back to

[17:02] what Ian was saying when he heard from folks about

[17:04] better student outcomes.

[17:06] And so I translate that,

[17:07] how does that line up with the budget?

[17:09] I think people are, are pushing the value.

[17:13] So how do we speak to to that, that might be more in

[17:18] a future outreach question,

[17:19] but those were specific, specific questions I had.

[17:24] I'm gonna continue to move through the prompts.

[17:26] I I don't and there'll be a chance to speak

[17:31] on generally outside the prompts after.

[17:39] So for the second prompt,

[17:43] should additional tax stabilization money be used?

[17:49] So Catherine, if I could start with you this time,

[17:54] I don't think additional tax

[17:55] deposition money should be used.

[17:58] I think that takes away from the work that we need

[18:02] to be doing and

[18:03] and ensuring that the budgets are

[18:05] where they, they should be.

[18:07] It kind of use an overused verbiage picks the can

[18:12] down the road and I think

[18:17] we need to really work with what we are dealing with

[18:20] and the tax stabilization should be there

[18:23] for future use if needed.

[18:26] But we've been using a lot of that in the past few years

[18:30] and if

[18:32] that's not there then you really have a problem to deal with.

[18:35] So I'd rather deal with it

[18:36] and have it than not have it Jackie.

[18:42] So I mean we fiscally we probably should leave it.

[18:46] However, I don't think it's entirely up to the board.

[18:49] It's up to the community and they've spoken pretty loud

[18:52] and clear that they want more

[18:54] and I think if they saw any sort of surplus that we didn't

[18:59] tap into or use a good amount of,

[19:01] I think they would lose space in that we were listening to.

[19:05] We have to. Jeff,

[19:11] I'm unsure whether we should or shouldn't

[19:15] and I'm still rolling it over.

[19:20] Thanks Lindsay.

[19:31] Oh, I would have to do some math

[19:36] on what would still be left in there

[19:39] and what's the percentage of that

[19:43] of our budget because are we only supposed to I think

[19:48] 5% or something in the fund?

[19:53] So I would have to look into it more,

[19:59] but I think it's supposed to be used to reduce the tax

[20:07] like 5% last year's budget.

[20:11] Fine.

[20:13] That would actually be a board policy or expectation.

[20:18] There are districts that keep 1%, some keep more than

[20:21] that in a reserve for that to happen.

[20:25] But we have not really talked about what our goal is

[20:28] at the board level and I think

[20:30] that's a discussion we need to have going

[20:31] Forward.

[20:32] Yeah, that's something like the limit is 5%,

[20:36] Maybe that's the limit. Okay.

[20:38] So I guess I just, I don't know what the math is

[20:41] of the top of my on what we have left in there.

[20:45] So it's less than 5%

[20:51] I think we can keep it there

[20:53] For, but if it's more Than 5%

[21:00] It, so

[21:03] For me personally, the answer would be no.

[21:06] But with that there is a caveat

[21:09] with members of the community.

[21:10] I've spoken to the, a lot of the individual, a lot

[21:14] of parents and care

[21:16] and those who have students in our schools, they have said

[21:19] that the higher taxes is a, the effect of life that yeah,

[21:22] it's unpleasant, but that's the cost of living in society.

[21:27] However, the most vocal people have been most vocally

[21:30] against the budget have always have been asking

[21:33] for lower taxes without stating how to do that.

[21:36] So in order to appease 'em, they don't know

[21:40] of any other way short of to fulfill their wishes other than

[21:43] to dip into it because they haven't given

[21:45] and given any other meaningful guidance.

[21:50] Emily, In the past

[21:55] we have committed to using a lot

[21:57] of tax stabilization dollars in past budgets

[22:02] under the rationale of saying we're giving the money back

[22:04] to the taxpayers, this is taxpayer money

[22:07] and they would like it back.

[22:11] And I think that still is true.

[22:14] This, this is taxpayer money, it is intended

[22:16] to provide relief for our tax bill.

[22:20] I think that it is a bandaid that doesn't solve the problem,

[22:25] but we don't have the tools

[22:26] to solve the problem at our, on our local board.

[22:31] So I think we have to look carefully at the numbers of

[22:34] how much money we're going to use, what the impact

[22:37] that is on our budget and how to use it most effectively.

[22:44] Okay. Juliana? I'm split.

[22:48] I I would say in the past I would definitely say we need

[22:53] to hold onto it, but in

[22:58] previous years I think we've been reckless on how we

[23:02] used it for tax stabilization.

[23:05] The chunks were much larger

[23:07] and now we're dealing with a smaller pool of money that

[23:14] will help but really

[23:17] won't help in the larger scheme of things.

[23:20] So I'm, I'm I'm torn.

[23:25] Yeah, for me, I I echo that too.

[23:29] I think it's always better to have

[23:35] money saved up

[23:36] for when we need it.

[23:42] I also hear what people are saying with how do we

[23:46] help lower the burden the taxpayers.

[23:48] So, you know, I I would lean towards no,

[23:53] but I I also feel conflicted about it.

[23:59] Do you feel you got All right.

[24:04] Third, what should our community

[24:09] outreach and communication plan look like moving forward

[24:12] to ensure transparency

[24:14] and help rebuild consensus before the next vote.

[24:18] On that same note, are there additional pieces

[24:20] of information we should be presenting

[24:22] to help the community better understand the request

[24:26] before them and repeat

[24:29] that if anyone needs it?

[24:32] Yeah. What should our community outreach

[24:36] and communication plan look like moving forward

[24:40] to ensure transparency and help rebuild consensus

[24:43] before the next vote.

[24:46] And is there any additional pieces

[24:50] of information we should be presenting?

[24:58] Wanna start? Sure go too.

[25:02] I think we need to explain it

[25:07] so that our kids understand what's going on.

[25:12] Yeah, I think it should be broken down

[25:16] in simpler terms

[25:18] that they can understand why we're doing this,

[25:21] why the process is so confusing and hung up.

[25:25] I think if we can do that, we might actually

[25:27] reach more people.

[25:38] I think we need help with communication,

[25:42] sending out flyers, sending out text

[25:46] and emails to people.

[25:48] It's not working. I wonder what kind

[25:51] of resources the VSBA could point us in.

[25:56] I wonder what kind of resources other districts could share

[25:59] with us to help us with the communication plan.

[26:03] One that involves all

[26:05] the communication tools in the district's disposal.

[26:11] I, I think, I think we need to look at someone

[26:15] outside coming in to give us some advice there.

[26:20] Thank you. So

[26:23] With the outreach, I

[26:24] Agree with Emily that we probably should bring in external

[26:27] resource to help us with this.

[26:30] One other variable is,

[26:33] and I just wanna stress the importance

[26:36] of the entire board being on a,

[26:39] maintaining the same message publicly

[26:40] because that for our community.

[26:48] Thank you Lindsay.

[26:54] I agree with having Make

[26:59] Somebody from the outside has stuff come in.

[27:11] Anything else? Okay Jeff?

[27:19] Yeah, the feel like we've

[27:25] had a lot of and used a lot of diligence to get the word out

[27:30] and it just didn't seem to work outside.

[27:38] Yeah, it might be helpful

[27:44] Jackie.

[27:46] Yeah, I agree Juliano, I think some kind of simple

[27:51] sort of all encompassing talking points, videos,

[27:58] something that can be shared at little

[28:01] to no expense to the district.

[28:02] I think that backfired us trying to communicate.

[28:08] So yeah, I, I agree with Juliano about having some very,

[28:13] very simple concise messaging.

[28:15] However

[28:19] You, Catherine,

[28:26] I think community outreach should not be

[28:29] a perennial exercise that comes around every budget season.

[28:34] I think community outreach is an obligation of the board

[28:38] all year every year.

[28:40] And that when we get to the budget time

[28:43] and we lose a vote that that is screaming

[28:46] that we are not communicating throughout the year.

[28:50] The community comes to talk with us to people try

[28:55] to share things with us.

[28:57] If we are shutting them down regularly, they're,

[29:01] they're not going to want

[29:02] to participate in when we decide they wanna

[29:05] participate when they decide.

[29:08] And I think that as a board we need to be more open

[29:12] to receiving feedback

[29:14] and input from the community all year.

[29:19] And I think that will make everything go smoother

[29:22] and we won't need any special help to get that out there

[29:26] because we'll have those connections

[29:28] and relationships all the time.

[29:37] Yeah, pretty

[29:42] much everyone here, I do agree about simple talking points,

[29:45] simple graphics, explaining points of

[29:51] where we are in the process, what we control versus

[29:55] what the state controls.

[29:56] I think there's some people whose minds we won't change on

[29:59] that, but if we can get the right information out

[30:03] still that's important.

[30:06] I agree with having an outsider perspective

[30:09] that would be refreshing.

[30:11] And I agree with Catherine.

[30:14] My old role or my old major

[30:17] before working in libraries was communications and pr

[30:21] and the first rule is you have to do it all the time.

[30:23] You can't just do it when you want someone to do something.

[30:28] So maybe reaching to service clubs,

[30:31] having a process at some public meetings like that.

[30:37] Barry is hard because Barry, what's unique about Barry is

[30:40] that there's so many different groups and perspectives,

[30:42] but the challenge is there's a lot

[30:43] of different base to cover.

[30:46] So it's, it's definitely a challenge

[30:47] but it's a good challenge to get out there and,

[30:50] and meet folks who are there at and hear from them.

[30:52] So I, I keep thinking of service clubs like Rotary,

[30:57] which one is going away?

[30:59] Come on, whatever. Two are still around.

[31:03] And, and there are, there are other groups behind those,

[31:06] but those are what are coming top of mind right now.

[31:10] Go to these people. There are

[31:15] things we just don't see in our feeds.

[31:19] It's easy for things to get lost digitally.

[31:23] So I think we do need to go to people

[31:25] however we can to cover all of our bases

[31:28] and it's, it's gonna be hard.

[31:29] It's a lot of, it's a lot of work.

[31:34] Let's, so before I go around to kind of

[31:40] give everyone a chance to say what's on your mind beyond

[31:44] what were the prompts, I'll also remind

[31:46] that this won't be the last chance to speak about

[31:51] the budget revote that we,

[31:53] our next agenda item is about timeline

[31:56] and that we have a meeting in less than a week and,

[31:58] and the budget will be on the agenda again.

[32:01] So this is not your last, this isn't the last chance

[32:05] to, to weigh in.

[32:08] So with that said, is there anyone

[32:13] that would like to start with final thoughts

[32:16] or I can just pick some point?

[32:26] I'll go. Alright Ian, just

[32:29] with the budget vote Revo.

[32:32] I'll admit it's been frustrating

[32:36] but I think this is something we

[32:38] Can get through that there are just a lot

[32:43] of competing priorities going on right now and a lot of,

[32:46] and a lot of information that we're waiting on from the

[32:49] state that even the state hasn't clarified the

[32:52] yield and everything.

[32:54] So admittedly I understand the community, it's hard

[32:57] for the community to make a decision on vote when

[33:00] we don't have all the facts.

[33:01] So I wish we were in the situation, but we are

[33:06] and we're gonna do the best we can to get through this.

[33:18] So I don't think that we need to

[33:23] necessarily even go to these special groups

[33:26] to communicate with them.

[33:28] I, there's plenty of times people come here to talk to us

[33:33] and we never are able to have a dialogue.

[33:37] And I, and I know we can't do it at every board meeting,

[33:41] but we need to have a dialogue with the community.

[33:45] They come here, they've spoken

[33:47] to the board on multiple occasions

[33:50] and we don't have a dialogue with them.

[33:53] So I think we need to have a meeting.

[33:58] It needs to be on a more regular basis, not just budget time

[34:03] where we do have a back

[34:05] and forth with the community to engage on.

[34:10] And then, you know, if we,

[34:12] there's other opportunities that would be great.

[34:18] I, and I am concerned

[34:23] about the financial stuff from

[34:28] what it looks like to me.

[34:30] It's just not, we're down in the

[34:35] business office and it's showing

[34:38] and I don't know what the plan is to rectify that situation

[34:43] and it's not doing us any favors when it comes

[34:48] to the budget phobe, you know,

[34:50] we just had the article in there and I think that's

[34:52] because things are not current in there

[34:57] or we don't have somebody available to explain to us.

[35:02] And I don't think they put in correctly or something.

[35:07] I just, I I feel like something may be off there.

[35:11] And there's other reductions that we have heard of

[35:17] outside of the budget

[35:19] that I don't know why they're not reflected in the budget,

[35:25] why we're not talking about those reductions.

[35:32] So it was like last year we lost summer

[35:37] school, nobody knew it.

[35:38] And there's, I believe that there's

[35:42] similar things happening in the budget this year

[35:46] that we're not aware

[35:47] of Jeff.

[35:54] Yeah, there's a few things. The,

[35:55] the vote wasn't terribly far off, right?

[35:57] It passed in the city, it didn't pass in the town.

[36:01] And I feel like part of the

[36:05] misunderstanding about school success

[36:06] and student like student outcomes

[36:09] is a little bit misrepresented.

[36:11] And I'm just thinking out loud here

[36:12] because I've heard this from the community

[36:14] and I'm listening to everybody talk about some ideas why,

[36:17] but think about the, it's, it's a pretty small margin

[36:20] that it didn't pass by.

[36:21] And there's some folks who have a misunderstanding

[36:25] of student success in school

[36:27] regarding student outcomes based on like

[36:30] standardized state testing and how that's published

[36:32] and we're like looked at in a poor fashion for

[36:37] so many different reasons.

[36:39] But just because numbers suggest

[36:41] that we're not out competing different cities in our state,

[36:45] the metric is flawed.

[36:47] It is an important data point,

[36:48] but I will say it out loud, it is very flawed

[36:50] and it's misrepresenting of how we're doing here.

[36:53] And I feel like if we change a little bit of the tone,

[36:56] how we talk and think about our schools in the community

[36:59] to be proud of them, to continue to highlight

[37:02] and look at the things that we're doing well,

[37:04] which we are already doing as a board.

[37:06] I'm just saying like all of us could continue

[37:08] to do it even more frequently, even more loudly,

[37:10] even more assertively because we are doing amazing things.

[37:14] I talk to the kids in my neighborhood all the

[37:16] time, they're jazz.

[37:18] I mean the fill the bowl

[37:21] fundraiser the other night I wasn't able

[37:23] to be in attendance, but I heard it was awesome.

[37:27] The, the musical performance coming up in the city

[37:30] by Andrew Cek is, is really exciting and awesome.

[37:33] I feel like having only 2,500 people vote out of 12,000

[37:39] was like a little bit of an embarrassment.

[37:42] I don't know why we can't get people to the polls

[37:44] to vote yes for our budget because our students deserve it.

[37:48] And I think if we continue to change that conversation

[37:52] around state standardized testing and how we are looked at

[37:55] and judged negatively, maybe

[37:59] that might help change the needle on, you know,

[38:01] getting people out to vote.

[38:03] Ms. Jackie, you know, I'm glad you said that Jeff

[38:08] and I was thinking, you know, with some of these comments

[38:13] there's a lot of sort of fear and mistrust and how, I mean,

[38:18] before you spoke I was thinking how scary it must be

[38:22] to look at something you don't understand

[38:24] and be afraid of it and turn against it.

[38:26] Right? And then I realized, you know, with

[38:31] what you're saying, which is true by the way the the

[38:33] standardized testing is, is good for very narrow range

[38:37] of judgment.

[38:41] We just need to focus on what we're good at,

[38:43] which is educating, I mean,

[38:45] and that's you're an educator, you know,

[38:47] look at something you don't understand

[38:49] and embrace it and try to learn more.

[38:51] And if we, excuse me, if we could bring that energy

[38:55] to the community, I don't think we'd have any more

[38:58] because a lot of what

[39:00] we're hearing is this mistrust based on

[39:03] a lack of understanding.

[39:05] And if we could just learn to embrace that lack

[39:08] of understanding as just the first step in understanding

[39:12] to understanding, I think we have a lot more success.

[39:17] Catherine. Yeah.

[39:22] Couple different things.

[39:24] There's the, the plan

[39:29] that we should have as a board as to how we're going

[39:33] to go about ensuring that we're doing our job

[39:39] in, in looking at things from education, from test scores.

[39:44] 'cause unfortunately we don't have any other metrics really

[39:47] to go by at this point other than the test scores

[39:50] and every other state in the country uses it

[39:53] for better or for worse.

[39:55] We have to have something that's standard.

[39:59] That's our standard. Are there other things

[40:04] that make up a person that make up an education

[40:08] that make up a life?

[40:09] Yes, of course. But that's not really all of it.

[40:14] I think that when people bring that up

[40:16] during the budget discussion, that's a part of

[40:19] what they're worried about.

[40:21] But the budget discussion is about the budget.

[40:24] It's about what we're spending.

[40:26] And I think that we really need to look at like,

[40:30] I agree a hundred percent with what Lindsay said with our,

[40:32] with our business office

[40:34] and the numbers that are getting put out.

[40:36] I know in the Barry town annual report

[40:42] I got, I was made aware that

[40:46] published numbers in there were, were higher, they were not

[40:51] accurate numbers for what the teacher salaries were.

[40:53] And I know a lot of people will take that annual report,

[40:56] they'll, that's one of the first things they turn

[40:58] to is salaries and they go and look at it

[41:00] and those were not accurate.

[41:04] Is that from a business office oversight? Is that from that?

[41:08] I don't know, but I know that when information gets put out

[41:13] to the public, we've gotta do everything we can to make sure

[41:17] that it's accurate and up to date

[41:21] and that it's clear.

[41:23] And that goes along with what Juliano said earlier about

[41:25] making things simple and easy to understand for people.

[41:32] I also think we should really look at the decision

[41:36] that we made about changing our annual meeting to May.

[41:39] Because here we are in May

[41:42] and we, we still don't have a budget

[41:45] and I don't know as if I really wanna be here

[41:49] any other years doing this.

[41:52] I think we might wanna reconsider

[41:55] whether we don't keep our annual meeting in March rather

[41:58] than May because I don't really see where the benefit

[42:03] of waiting till May would come from at this point.

[42:07] That would be a discussion for a different day.

[42:09] But that just came to my mind as we were discussing.

[42:14] And once again, I, I agree

[42:19] with what you had said earlier, Garrett,

[42:21] about communication is something you do every day.

[42:25] And that that's what we are here for

[42:27] as the board is we are the liaison from the community

[42:32] to the school and our job is

[42:36] to represent both to each other the best that we can.

[42:41] And that's something that is going

[42:43] to require much better communication than

[42:45] what we've been having going forward.

[42:51] The information that I read in the newspaper,

[42:56] I just don't even know anymore whether like that's that's

[43:00] what we can rely on or not.

[43:01] Because if that's the case, you know,

[43:05] I it it sounds like if we think that we have some sort of a,

[43:09] a windfall of money that we don't have

[43:11] to look at the budget, it's we can just, we're we're okay.

[43:15] We have a little cushion in there

[43:17] and I don't think that's

[43:18] what the public really wants to hear either.

[43:22] So when are we as the board going to sit down

[43:26] and, and do the work of taking care

[43:31] of the finance part.

[43:38] Juliana? I'm still trying to wrap my head

[43:41] around less than 10,000 people didn't show up to vote.

[43:47] Yeah, I pulled into the parking lot

[43:49] and it's packed with cars.

[43:53] It, they're not here to listen to us.

[43:56] They're not here to give us information on

[43:58] how we should spend their money.

[44:00] They're here for athletics.

[44:05] What are we doing that's wrong?

[44:08] Yesterday we celebrated memorial day

[44:12] and the sacrifices that people made

[44:14] and those sacrifices are, you know,

[44:18] the, the opportunity to vote.

[44:19] And we fall really short on that

[44:23] and that leads to less information that we have.

[44:26] And how are we supposed to make decisions on our students,

[44:31] students, our children when we don't have the information

[44:35] when more than 2000 people stated their

[44:38] opinion, that's not a lot.

[44:41] So what do we do with that?

[44:43] We just guess and the, the, the loud majority,

[44:47] whether it's yes or no of rules today

[44:51] and I find that pretty upsetting.

[44:57] Emily. Emily,

[45:00] Yeah.

[45:01] I really feel that juliano

[45:03] and this disengagement

[45:06] and indifference from parents is really hard.

[45:10] I know that there's, we're all busy

[45:13] and a lot of things on our plate,

[45:16] but that's something that we really have to wrap our arms

[45:19] around and work hard to, to change.

[45:25] And the other thing that's really strikes me in our

[45:28] community too is that there are people

[45:31] who are actively working hard so

[45:35] that our budget fails and they're celebrating when it does.

[45:40] And that hurts us all.

[45:42] It's, this is our seventh

[45:44] failed budget since I've been on the board, this is

[45:48] maybe six or seven

[45:50] and this is the beginning of my fourth year.

[45:53] And that's not a good reputation for our community

[45:56] that we can't support schools.

[46:00] And I see so many homes right now for sale

[46:04] and I think, well who is gonna come here and

[46:08] and say Wow this community can't,

[46:10] they can't afford their schools.

[46:12] Like families aren't coming here, kids aren't coming here.

[46:14] It really hurts us. So I have some questions

[46:20] that these prompts brought up,

[46:22] which I thought were really great.

[46:27] How much admin is too much?

[46:29] That's what I wanna know when we're talking about

[46:32] having too much admin, what does that mean

[46:36] right now admin makes up 9% of our staff.

[46:39] Is that a top heavy percentage? I don't know.

[46:42] Like I would like to find out more about that in terms

[46:47] of commun our communication plan

[46:49] and positive things that we could talk about.

[46:52] I think that we don't talk enough about our continuous

[46:55] improvement plan and we're seeing some really good progress

[46:59] there in growth in our staff and our te in our students.

[47:02] So I would like to talk about that more.

[47:05] And I agree standardized testing is really hard.

[47:09] I asked for the data of my student

[47:12] and just even across all of the data

[47:16] and the tests that I received, the results were so different

[47:20] in, in one test he is performing above proficiency

[47:24] and in another test he is not.

[47:26] So it's really hard even to know what that means

[47:30] and how we're inter like using that data.

[47:33] So thank you,

[47:39] Thank you to everyone for sharing your

[47:44] thoughts and entertaining those prompts.

[47:50] I'm gonna open it up to public comments.

[47:53] Ian, I'm gonna ask you if you could keep the time for us

[47:57] and then the next agenda item will be the, the timeline.

[48:02] So just throw that out there

[48:04] before we open it up for public comment on

[48:09] what everyone just heard.

[48:12] Would anyone like to go? Paul

[48:15] Might as well go.

[48:19] Am my clock ready to go?

[48:20] Because yeah, long as I'm on speed track,

[48:24] I just don't want you people ought to hear it.

[48:26] First thing. What I noticed within the budget,

[48:29] within the audit report, our sped

[48:33] expenses were down this year.

[48:35] It's interesting because our facilities budgets were up,

[48:39] see quite a bit over budget on that.

[48:42] The student population has been trending down

[48:44] and the forecast is gonna continue to trend down.

[48:47] Test scores are not top flight.

[48:49] Anybody can see that there's a real shift there, there,

[48:53] there wasn't any real shift in the budget,

[48:54] what you presented the first time for the second time,

[48:57] a couple positions move back and forth across the line.

[48:59] It's not really a budget cut

[49:01] and you use a little bit more of the front balance.

[49:04] Using those fine balances up is gonna put you in a real

[49:07] dire place next year.

[49:09] 'cause right now what's happening in the legislature there,

[49:11] there is not gonna be a tremendous amount

[49:12] of monies coming in to education and,

[49:16] and our highway departments and everything else.

[49:18] And also equally effect. That's the scramble right now.

[49:23] No, this comes out of philosophy of, of, of,

[49:26] of problems that we have here.

[49:28] I just heard Mr. Reynolds say that, you know,

[49:30] there's a divisiveness in in what she presented.

[49:33] Certain people champion defeated the budget

[49:35] and then people, you know, want to want

[49:38] to see the budget succeed.

[49:40] That's, that's divisive talk.

[49:41] What we have to deal with is the real numbers.

[49:43] There's a thousand lines or more of budget

[49:46] and I don't believe every one

[49:48] of the board members here has actually gone

[49:50] through every single line

[49:51] and compare that over the course of say two or three years.

[49:54] If you'd done that, you would've found the same things

[49:56] that we were able to find in passports.

[50:00] The information we used to send out,

[50:02] and this is one of my big problems, the information we used

[50:05] to send out before Act 46 when we were three schools,

[50:10] we had publications that were 25 pages long.

[50:13] I still got them now you send out a postcard,

[50:16] it has about one inch of data

[50:19] and some of that wasn't even accurate,

[50:20] but that's just one inch of data

[50:22] and you wanna know why the public doesn't quite understand

[50:26] what it is you're trying to transmit.

[50:27] You might start with that.

[50:30] You know, the best kept secret to

[50:32] to passing a budget is just getting everybody engaged in

[50:36] what that budget is and what is it being used for.

[50:40] Those publications I spoke about

[50:43] lent itself directly to that.

[50:45] We have, we have issues

[50:48] where you wanna engage the community,

[50:50] but you have things that Joanne, you said we shouldn't

[50:56] read the article and there's a lot

[50:58] of misstated facts and that I did

[51:00] Not say that Paul, I I did not say that.

[51:02] If the article's right, there'd be this commentary in here

[51:05] that really hurts people in the public.

[51:07] Yeah, and I I will express those real quickly.

[51:11] We shouldn't be picking winners in those.

[51:14] We're talking about educating our kids.

[51:16] There's nobody saying that's your time.

[51:27] Anyone else?

[51:28] Yes, Nancy? Yes.

[51:30] I wanna kind of talk about communication as you,

[51:34] you're looking for ways to communicate with the community.

[51:38] I'm gonna go back to your committees.

[51:40] You're not making it welcoming for people to come here

[51:43] and want to engage in conversations with you.

[51:46] So you hear what they have to say.

[51:48] You're saying you want to,

[51:49] but yet your actions are saying just quite the opposite.

[51:53] I have a lot of people tell me that they don't come here

[51:56] because you tell them that they got one minute or whatever

[52:00] or they, you just don't wanna hear or they don't get answers

[52:03] and they're not eng they're not allowed

[52:06] to engage in just a simple little conversation

[52:08] or just ask a question to get an answer back.

[52:11] You've done a great job of taking, telling the community

[52:15] that we're here, we wanna engage with you but don't show up.

[52:18] And if you do, we're only gonna allow

[52:20] you to attend something.

[52:21] So I think there's a long ways

[52:23] that communication can be worked out

[52:26] and to spend money on getting somebody in here

[52:28] to tell you just what we're all seeing is kind

[52:31] of a waste of taxpayer money.

[52:36] The other thing is,

[52:38] I think you might wanna have a conversation with the

[52:41] Zoe Sanders secretary of Education

[52:43] because she's out there basically telling everybody

[52:46] that the test scores, the student education is declining

[52:50] and it's continuing.

[52:51] So I don't know the answers, I don't know why,

[52:53] but that's a huge reason

[52:55] and that's what I hear is

[52:57] that the education is not being given

[52:59] to the students that they need.

[53:02] Now I don't, I don't know much about it,

[53:03] but I do know what I hear from the secretary of education

[53:07] and I think that needs to be recognized

[53:09] and I think that needs to be taken into consideration.

[53:12] People putting their houses up for sale

[53:14] because they can't afford to live here anymore.

[53:17] It's not for anybody going around trying

[53:19] to defeat the budget.

[53:21] They can't afford to live here because of the taxes.

[53:24] And if they were getting, if you had a school,

[53:27] the test scores or the education was top-notch

[53:30] or even up to where it was supposed to be,

[53:32] you'd probably have people moving here

[53:34] and be willing to pay the taxes.

[53:36] But they're not getting, they're getting overtaxed

[53:38] and the education isn't there.

[53:40] I hear a lot of students, a lot of parents say

[53:43] that when their student's graduating, they're having

[53:45] to do remedial classes at universities and colleges.

[53:48] I have a niece, I have to do that.

[53:51] You know, I think that

[53:52] until you guys start having those hard conversations about

[53:55] being realistic about what really is going on,

[53:58] about getting a budget passed and,

[54:03] and I agree communication is, is

[54:08] you're not very welcoming on that at all with the community.

[54:11] Thank you.

[54:12] Thanks Nancy. Rachel?

[54:17] Hi. Can you hear me? I think I got it.

[54:19] Yes, I switched my phone. Thank you.

[54:22] I really agree with so many things that were said earlier.

[54:27] One of them being Catherine brought it up

[54:30] and Garrett you echoed it,

[54:31] that this communication really needs to happen all the time.

[54:34] I think about the students, we don't, you know, we try

[54:38] and have, I forget what the best ratio is.

[54:40] Eight positives to one negative.

[54:43] I don't want community to think the only time that

[54:48] the board is reaching out is when we need to pass a budget.

[54:53] I don't think that's the reality,

[54:54] but I do hear that's some of the perception.

[54:58] So I think having ongoing communication, meeting people

[55:01] where they are, it's great.

[55:05] I think about the concerts in the park.

[55:07] I remember I've gotten pop popcorn before there

[55:10] and sunglasses I think from the district a couple years ago.

[55:15] I think the communication is an example of some

[55:21] court excitedness for example, we used

[55:24] to have a communications director.

[55:25] So we are, not that I'm saying we necessarily need that,

[55:30] but that was one way we made that investment.

[55:33] And then there was a lot of positive communication about

[55:37] what's going on in the district.

[55:39] I, one other meeting someone mentioned,

[55:41] why didn't we get grant money?

[55:42] Well we cut the grant writer.

[55:44] So I think that's really important.

[55:45] We need to think not just what, what dimes can I save today?

[55:50] What is really gonna be an investment for our community?

[55:55] I think the task scores going down that is not,

[55:59] Barry is not the only place that's happening.

[56:01] Yeah, Barry is one of the only places

[56:04] that still hasn't passed a budget.

[56:06] A couple years ago we were the last to pass the budget,

[56:08] the only ones to go past July 1st.

[56:12] One thing I do know that spending less money

[56:14] does not mean you're gonna have better test scores.

[56:18] I know that for sure. I think about the different positions

[56:20] that other schools have.

[56:23] Other preventionists I'd love to have.

[56:26] I think the other thing is the outcomes of our students.

[56:29] I see all the time in the community as I used to work with,

[56:33] worked on my car,

[56:34] I saw another student working at a a creamy place.

[56:39] We outcomes.

[56:40] And I think we do have to look at test scores,

[56:42] but we also need to look at other things

[56:44] and what are they're doing

[56:45] because they're more than a test score.

[56:49] So thank you.

[56:50] And I'm hearing also from people that they're frustrated

[56:55] with some of the information coming out

[56:57] and the division that this is creating.

[57:02] I think I'll feel welcome sometimes

[57:09] saying, don't feel welcome

[57:10] to comment in front Porch Forum about supporting the budget.

[57:14] Don't feel welcome coming to meeting.

[57:18] Thank you. Rachel Ellen.

[57:23] K Hi Ellen. K Berry City.

[57:27] Thank you for this discussion tonight.

[57:31] I wanna say first of all,

[57:32] a bo a budget is a moral issue is a moral document.

[57:36] It's a statement of values.

[57:40] Our budget has gone down every year that I,

[57:43] that I can remember having been here.

[57:45] And I don't know if it's all the years I've lived here,

[57:47] but certainly for the past few years,

[57:49] lower and lower and lower.

[57:50] And I echo what Rachel says, lower per pupil spending

[57:55] does not improve education.

[57:57] It's never gonna improve education.

[58:00] I also wanna bring out what Juliana or

[58:02] or what Jeff actually Jeff talked about, which is

[58:05] that a tiny percentage of our voters voted this down

[58:10] and half of those voted it down, the other half voted it up,

[58:15] roughly half right, not enough to win.

[58:17] And it's divided as it often is

[58:20] between Berry city and Berry Town.

[58:23] Berry City being lower income, higher poverty.

[58:29] And yet we understand, the majority of us understands

[58:33] that we need to fund our schools.

[58:35] It's the thing that brings kids out of poverty.

[58:40] So I I just need to call out

[58:42] that we are spending an inordinate amount of time

[58:45] and energy listening to the small majority of people,

[58:50] many of whom are not poor, many of whom want to keep

[58:55] that money in their own pockets

[58:57] and not give it to poor kids, to pull us all up,

[59:01] to lift all boats.

[59:03] And I just, that needs to be said out loud.

[59:06] I don't know, there's some funny background noise here

[59:08] and it's not coming from my speaker.

[59:11] Maybe somebody's unmuted. It's distracting.

[59:17] Sorry, I could somebody, could somebody figure out where

[59:20] that noise noise is coming from and

[59:21] It's not coming from here.

[59:23] It's not, it's not coming from here.

[59:25] Yeah, I just, it's like impossible

[59:28] to keep my train of thought.

[59:29] So hope you'll give me 10 more seconds

[59:31] or something so I can get it back.

[59:35] Yeah, I, I just, I am, I am concerned that we are catering

[59:39] to a small and vocal majority.

[59:43] The answer is to get those voters out who care about schools

[59:48] and get back on track.

[59:50] But if we cut, we undercut our schools over and over again.

[59:54] It is by definition defunding

[59:56] and our community will be much the poorer for it

[1:00:01] and already is.

[1:00:02] We need to support these kids.

[1:00:04] I don't make a lot of money

[1:00:06] and I am happy to pay what I have to pay

[1:00:09] to keep our schools afloat and keep them thriving.

[1:00:13] So I would ask you, all of you people who may be listening

[1:00:16] or maybe in the room who do have the money to think about

[1:00:19] where you want that money to go.

[1:00:21] Do you want it to go to your next vacation?

[1:00:23] Do you want it to go to your next car?

[1:00:25] Do you want it to go to whatever luxury thing

[1:00:28] or, or the schools.

[1:00:29] Thank you

[1:00:31] Lisa Lita.

[1:00:34] Thank you. Thank you Garrett.

[1:00:36] And thank you for providing this forum for us to come

[1:00:39] and make our comments known.

[1:00:41] I didn't prepare a statement

[1:00:42] but I, I wanna just, I jotted down some notes

[1:00:44] and I wanna respond to a lot of things I heard here tonight.

[1:00:49] I hear a lot of complaining about test scores

[1:00:52] and I also hear a lot of complaining about the budget.

[1:00:56] And those two things have gone hand in

[1:00:57] hand in these meetings.

[1:00:59] And the analogy that comes

[1:01:01] to my mind is the beatings will continue

[1:01:04] until morale improves.

[1:01:07] And I believe money significantly

[1:01:11] improves educational outcomes.

[1:01:14] And if we're concerned about the test scores

[1:01:16] and how well our students doing are doing,

[1:01:19] the school has gotta be well funded.

[1:01:24] It just has to be.

[1:01:26] And Emily is spot on when she said there are people

[1:01:31] actively working in this community to drag down the budget

[1:01:36] every single time and it will never be low enough for them.

[1:01:40] And I just wanna acknowledge that 'cause I've heard them

[1:01:43] and we all have, and I believe it was Paul

[1:01:46] who called her out on something like that.

[1:01:48] And it's absolutely true.

[1:01:50] The second thing is I want Barry, both berries to be a place

[1:01:55] where people wanna live.

[1:01:57] They wanna raise their families, they wanna start families,

[1:02:00] they wanna come here because we have great schools.

[1:02:03] And When we have these board meetings where there's

[1:02:07] so much bickering and complaining

[1:02:09] and mistrust of the administration,

[1:02:13] it doesn't do us any good.

[1:02:15] I believe the budgets

[1:02:16] that have been prepared are fair and reasonable.

[1:02:20] I trust our superintendent, I trust our administration

[1:02:24] and this nitpicking of every single line item in a budget.

[1:02:28] And suggesting that you guys do that again is ridiculous.

[1:02:33] Let's just pass the budget.

[1:02:39] Thank you Lisa. James.

[1:02:43] Hey, thank you. The feedback is coming from your meeting.

[1:02:46] I'm not sure what's going on with the mic,

[1:02:47] but that's where the microphone is, is messing up.

[1:02:50] So just to kind of piggyback on what a lot

[1:02:52] of people are saying, I think the biggest takeaway here is

[1:02:55] that the outreach needs to happen well

[1:02:59] before any budget comes to pass.

[1:03:01] And how that outreach happens is not,

[1:03:05] it's not rocket science.

[1:03:06] I think if the community saw all the good things our schools

[1:03:09] are doing and increased test scores,

[1:03:13] there would be any question about is 9%

[1:03:17] or 10% admin too much money?

[1:03:19] I think the question comes into play is are we getting

[1:03:21] what we're paying for with that money?

[1:03:23] And as much as, as a teacher, I hate that idea of teaching

[1:03:26] to the test that hits the road.

[1:03:29] And so what is, what are our admin at age school doing

[1:03:34] to make sure that those test scores reflect

[1:03:36] our students' tru ability?

[1:03:39] And then what is the school doing to make sure

[1:03:41] that all the great things that our schools do is getting

[1:03:45] put out to the community year round.

[1:03:49] So just kind of, I think this is a low enough budget.

[1:03:53] I don't think we need to get any lower,

[1:03:55] but if the community's speaking

[1:03:56] and they are either through a no vote

[1:03:58] or through apathy, The idea that only

[1:04:01] so many people came out to vote, well

[1:04:03] that just tells you the rest of the voters don't.

[1:04:06] And so we wanna make sure

[1:04:07] that we're putting forth the school

[1:04:08] that the community can be really proud of

[1:04:10] and that they know all the great things our school does

[1:04:14] and that our kids are performing really well.

[1:04:16] And I don't think that's too much to ask.

[1:04:17] And so I'd like to see our board stick strong on this budget

[1:04:20] amount, but really hold the admin's feet to the fire

[1:04:23] and say, listen, our community's who has decided

[1:04:27] to speak has spoken loud and spoken.

[1:04:29] We need to see improved test scores.

[1:04:32] We wanna see all of the great things we're doing year round,

[1:04:36] not just when we're asking for money.

[1:04:39] Thanks for your time.

[1:04:42] Thank you James. Garrett.

[1:04:47] Hi. I can't raise my hand

[1:04:49] so when you're ready will you call me please?

[1:04:52] Yep. You, you're at the floor.

[1:04:55] Oh, okay. Thank you. Hi, this is by Rose.

[1:05:00] I don't know why my name doesn't show up.

[1:05:02] But anyway, I wanted to

[1:05:07] add on to something that James just said about highlighting

[1:05:10] what we're doing really well and after visiting school

[1:05:14] and participating in school, there's so much, much

[1:05:17] that I see every time I go.

[1:05:19] I see kids who are learning kids who are not just learning

[1:05:23] things and facts and how to do math and read,

[1:05:26] but they're learning how to be together, how to be social.

[1:05:30] They're learning about the culture of school,

[1:05:32] they're learning to play together, they're learning

[1:05:35] to respect each other, they're learning

[1:05:37] to work collaboratively.

[1:05:39] And those are things that are really hard to test for.

[1:05:43] I really love going to the empty bowls

[1:05:46] and seeing several groups of teachers

[1:05:50] and to all the parents and family nights.

[1:05:54] And I would encourage more community people

[1:05:57] to show up when school's having functions like this so

[1:06:00] that they can be a part of the excitement of learning

[1:06:04] and to volunteer with something like everybody wins

[1:06:08] or one of the sports teams.

[1:06:10] There are just a lot of ways

[1:06:12] and they don't have to take up a ton of time,

[1:06:15] but highlighting all the good things that our,

[1:06:20] our students are doing despite really huge challenges

[1:06:24] for some of them in their home lives and in their community.

[1:06:28] So that's what I'm, I'm here to just say is more

[1:06:31] of the good stuff folks.

[1:06:32] Thank you.

[1:06:34] Thank you Bern. Justin?

[1:06:39] Yes. Thank you. I I just wanted to say briefly, just

[1:06:42] to piggyback on what a lot

[1:06:43] of other people are saying here is that I agree that

[1:06:48] test scores are not mutually

[1:06:50] exclusive with student outcomes.

[1:06:52] And my first thought, people that are, you know,

[1:06:56] against the budget citing those things is always

[1:06:59] that it makes no logical sense to me to,

[1:07:04] to not give schools money if, if you're trying

[1:07:06] to increase performance that just doesn't,

[1:07:09] I haven't seen anybody advance an argument that the best way

[1:07:12] to do it's to take money away from schools if they think

[1:07:15] that the students are underperforming.

[1:07:17] That just doesn't make sense to me.

[1:07:19] And I think that, you know, I've tried to look always for

[1:07:24] agreement and consensus,

[1:07:26] but I would be remiss if I didn't say that I think

[1:07:29] that there is a vocal minority of folks

[1:07:31] who are very loud loudly celebrating defeat of the budget.

[1:07:36] And as a property owner,

[1:07:38] I don't wanna pay more property taxes than anyone else.

[1:07:42] But schools are important.

[1:07:43] There are, there are public good

[1:07:45] and I think that there's a lot of folks who for,

[1:07:48] for their own reasons don't want

[1:07:51] to contribute any of their money.

[1:07:52] As somebody said, I think there is a, a shared attitude

[1:07:55] of some folks.

[1:07:57] I'm in Berry Town. I think there's a shared attitude

[1:07:58] of some folks here that it will never be low enough.

[1:08:01] And to me that's just crazy.

[1:08:03] I think that we, you know, the social contract is

[1:08:06] that we need to support our public schools

[1:08:08] because it's a public good And I think that

[1:08:11] the school board focusing on student outcomes I think is

[1:08:14] definitely a great way to get more folks, you know,

[1:08:17] year round is a great way to get more folks

[1:08:20] to realize the good that the schools are doing and, and

[1:08:25] and how the students, you know,

[1:08:26] are coming out in a great place for the community

[1:08:29] and what they're doing for our community.

[1:08:31] So more year-round outreach I think is a great,

[1:08:34] is a great idea and to focus on those outcomes

[1:08:38] I think is very important. That's, that's it.

[1:08:42] Alright, thank you so much Justin. Nathan,

[1:08:47] Hi this is Nathan.

[1:08:50] I would just like to echo what Justin said

[1:08:53] and I believe Lisa

[1:08:55] and by as well apologies if I got that wrong.

[1:08:58] That if you're going to worry about the,

[1:09:03] whether about the outcome of students, whether you want

[1:09:05] to use test scores or some other metric, those are not going

[1:09:09] to improve by continuing to decrease the budget

[1:09:12] and fail the budget over and over again.

[1:09:14] So if that is truly the concern from the people

[1:09:19] who are voting no, then maybe find another solution

[1:09:24] or come up with

[1:09:26] with a positive solution rather than just

[1:09:27] saying no to everything.

[1:09:32] Thank you Nathan. Christie.

[1:09:37] Hi there, this is Christy Amodio from Berry Town.

[1:09:41] I had a couple thoughts.

[1:09:43] One being that it was spoken about

[1:09:48] like simplifying language so students can understand

[1:09:52] and the topic of like doing what we're good at in education

[1:09:56] and thinking about using that as a tool for

[1:10:00] getting more people to understand

[1:10:01] or educate like maybe some vid like a video presentation

[1:10:06] or something of the budget and like the strengths

[1:10:10] and breaking it down in ways in plain language

[1:10:12] that more people can understand.

[1:10:14] Not just the students but everyone,

[1:10:16] not everyone's in finance or might understand all the things

[1:10:19] and they just see these big numbers.

[1:10:21] So I think simplifying that

[1:10:22] and doing it in a way that it could break it down

[1:10:25] and some, especially the pain point areas

[1:10:27] where people wanna attack could be helpful.

[1:10:32] And then my other thought was we're talking about

[1:10:36] spotlighting outside of test scores.

[1:10:38] 'cause I don't take a lot of stock and test scores myself

[1:10:41] 'cause I never tested well

[1:10:42] but I'm successful is

[1:10:46] my old high school does like alumni

[1:10:48] spotlights that I see posted.

[1:10:50] So they, you know, are students

[1:10:53] that aren't students there showing

[1:10:54] success stories and stuff like that.

[1:10:56] So maybe something like that could be helpful.

[1:10:59] But those are just a couple of thoughts that I had.

[1:11:01] Thank you.

[1:11:03] Thank you. I Always get yourself.

[1:11:09] Alright, Scene

[1:11:14] no other hands for public comment.

[1:11:17] I'm going to move on to agenda item

[1:11:21] 4.2 FY 27.

[1:11:24] Budget revote date.

[1:11:27] And at this point I will turn it over to Joanne

[1:11:32] to go over what was attached in our packet.

[1:11:38] So yes, I wanted folks to know that we consulted

[1:11:43] with the town clerks around availability

[1:11:46] and it really did not seem

[1:11:47] that there was an appropriate June date for us

[1:11:50] to have enough time to decide about a revote number

[1:11:54] and to get out a community engagement plan.

[1:11:56] So if the board wants to follow what you did

[1:12:01] in my first year, when parents

[1:12:03] and people are back from vacation,

[1:12:05] it seems like the second Tuesday

[1:12:07] of September might work.

[1:12:12] We do have a primary in August.

[1:12:16] My worry is that a lot

[1:12:18] of folks are still gonna be on vacation

[1:12:20] and we'll, we have potential to get loan numbers

[1:12:22] unless we can get a lot of absentee ballots out there

[1:12:26] and people voting.

[1:12:27] But certainly the dates are up to you just wanted

[1:12:30] to give you some background information

[1:12:32] and so that you can make a decision.

[1:12:34] And from that decision we can make a backwards design plan

[1:12:37] concerning what we need to do to make any changes.

[1:12:43] Any questions from the board? Thoughts for the

[1:12:46] Board, Jeff?

[1:12:48] Well, I'm just wondering about,

[1:12:51] I mean the primary might be the best way to get people

[1:12:54] to the ballots because there's other things on the ticket

[1:13:00] and I, I don't know if waiting till November, of course

[1:13:04] that sounds like way late, that's crazy's late.

[1:13:08] But it might be our best opportunity to get people

[1:13:11] to the ballots even despite it being August

[1:13:16] and people might be out of town or something like that.

[1:13:23] So with the primary, I'm leaning towards September

[1:13:27] 'cause we wanna have as many of the, as much

[1:13:29] of the community, at least for me,

[1:13:30] what I'm thinking is we wanna have as much

[1:13:32] of the community present.

[1:13:33] And August is prime time for people to be on vacation,

[1:13:37] to be hanging out at their camp.

[1:13:38] And if they're at a camp that's up towards,

[1:13:42] up towards the border or elsewhere in the state

[1:13:44] that driving down here, driving here

[1:13:47] on a Tuesday when they're away, they're not gonna do that.

[1:13:51] And sure they could do a mail-in ballot,

[1:13:53] but that's a lot of work too.

[1:13:56] So what I'm thinking is, at least for me,

[1:13:58] I think September 15th is probably where it's at.

[1:14:01] 'cause we'll have as many of the parents here

[1:14:04] and since school's already there,

[1:14:06] it's already on their mind.

[1:14:10] Just so Lindsay knows,

[1:14:12] we're on 4.2 now about the budget revote timeline.

[1:14:16] You don't have to comment now.

[1:14:17] I just want you to know where, where we're at in agenda.

[1:14:21] Emily.

[1:14:23] I support September 15th as a Revo date.

[1:14:29] Jackie, I just Googled the

[1:14:33] Vermont turnout

[1:14:35] for the primary elections was 8 13 20 24.

[1:14:38] City had a 14.73%

[1:14:40] and town had a 17.3% turnout, which was less than our 21.

[1:14:45] So I would not suggest doing it in August.

[1:14:50] I would, I would support September.

[1:14:53] I mean I, I could look up November,

[1:14:55] but I feel like people would get overwhelmed if it was

[1:14:58] tacked on to the main ballot.

[1:15:02] So yeah, I would, I would support September

[1:15:04] just based on those numbers.

[1:15:05] I don't think we're gonna get the turnout for the primary

[1:15:08] regardless, unfortunately. Yeah.

[1:15:14] Yeah. Make a comment.

[1:15:16] As you remember, last year

[1:15:17] or the first year that I was here, we did

[1:15:21] borrow money from the bank.

[1:15:23] We were not, we did not have to use it.

[1:15:25] Therefore we did not have to pay the interest.

[1:15:28] If you did go to a November vote, I would guarantee

[1:15:31] that we would have to use some of the from borrowing

[1:15:35] and be paying the interest just for a point of information.

[1:15:42] Thank you. I'm,

[1:15:45] before I ask anyone for a motion, I wanna make sure

[1:15:49] that there's people that aren't

[1:15:54] feeling strongly about Lindsay.

[1:15:58] Is there a reason that we don't wanna do the vote

[1:16:00] before July 1st? We can't,

[1:16:04] So, so what do you mean we Can't?

[1:16:06] I only saw two dates in June

[1:16:08] that we could and one was a Friday.

[1:16:10] Unless that was a typo.

[1:16:11] It was a typo. Is there any, it would have

[1:16:16] to be warned by the 29th

[1:16:19] For what date?

[1:16:20] For June 30. For June 30th.

[1:16:23] Because it has to be a 30 day. Yep.

[1:16:25] Morning. And we don't have the numbers yet, so,

[1:16:32] but I don't know, how are we gonna come up

[1:16:34] with a budget to vote on?

[1:16:40] I feel like car course.

[1:16:42] Oh, I mean, we'll still come up with a budget

[1:16:44] that we'll send to voters. It's just gonna happen.

[1:16:47] But if we only have one more meeting,

[1:16:53] You, you, you will have several meetings over

[1:16:55] the summer if it's September.

[1:16:57] So I guess what we're kind of doing is working backwards.

[1:17:00] What's our date we want to pick?

[1:17:03] 'cause that will determine when we need

[1:17:05] to warn a budget by Right.

[1:17:07] And then that, so how much, I guess

[1:17:10] that's kind of the question for the war.

[1:17:11] How much time? Also, you know, we're talking a lot about

[1:17:16] specific dates and turnout, which is important,

[1:17:18] but how much time do we need?

[1:17:20] So for September 15th we'd have to warn it by August 15th

[1:17:25] About

[1:17:28] Juliana September's fine.

[1:17:31] I just kind of find it amusing where we're talking about how

[1:17:37] getting votes and people on vacation when it's too

[1:17:40] expensive to support schools.

[1:17:43] So September's fine. Let's do September.

[1:17:54] Is is there that that was, that was my motion.

[1:17:57] So yeah, there's motion's by Juliano to,

[1:18:05] for September 15th, 2026 to be our budget revote date.

[1:18:10] Seconded by Emily Discussion.

[1:18:13] Yeah. Do all board members have the opportunity

[1:18:15] to weigh in if they felt inclined they wanted to?

[1:18:19] Well there's a motion on the table

[1:18:20] and we're in discussion.

[1:18:21] So if anyone would like to weigh in

[1:18:23] before I open public comment.

[1:18:29] Emily,

[1:18:30] I support moving to September 17th.

[1:18:34] 17th or 15th, sorry, 15th.

[1:18:37] Also the 18th is my birthday.

[1:18:38] So I'm planning ahead to,

[1:18:43] to warn a budget to vote on in June would require us

[1:18:47] to approve a budget by Friday.

[1:18:51] And I don't think we have time for that.

[1:18:55] So I think that

[1:18:58] the SEP voting again in September makes sense for us.

[1:19:03] I hope that we get the same outcome as a new superintendent

[1:19:06] and then a new budget.

[1:19:08] Hopefully that works. I'm worried that people will start

[1:19:11] to think that's our new normal,

[1:19:13] but maybe it, maybe it will be.

[1:19:15] So

[1:19:17] Any other comments from the board

[1:19:19] before I close discussion?

[1:19:22] Open up public comment.

[1:19:26] Hearing none, I'll open up public

[1:19:28] comment. Starting with Paul.

[1:19:30] I have to say that I agree with, the word

[1:19:33] to look at is September 15th day

[1:19:36] you're gonna have information this week coming out from the

[1:19:38] legislature on what's gonna happen

[1:19:40] with the education funding bills itself and yield

[1:19:43] and so forth is part of that.

[1:19:45] And that that's a great conation on itself.

[1:19:49] Secondly, the citizens of Perry City will have in hand,

[1:19:54] without guessing their actual tax

[1:19:59] evaluations as well as what their expected taxes would be on

[1:20:03] what that CLE impact would be.

[1:20:07] I don't know how that's gonna go down.

[1:20:08] It's gonna be a great curiosity piece.

[1:20:11] I I think it also gives you time

[1:20:12] to actually look at this budget in detail.

[1:20:16] From my knowledge in all my years that've been involved

[1:20:18] with this, both on the board

[1:20:19] and off the board, I've never seen a budget that was

[1:20:24] lower than the previous year's budget ever.

[1:20:27] So we've been hearing comments that we're reducing budgets.

[1:20:30] That's not the case. You may be reducing the,

[1:20:32] the increase in the budget,

[1:20:33] but you've never gone underneath

[1:20:35] what you had in the previous year.

[1:20:38] Not in my 40 years anyways. Thank you.

[1:20:41] Thank you Paul. Any other public comment?

[1:20:48] Garrett? Bernadette here.

[1:20:52] Is it Bern or Rachel? That was first.

[1:20:55] I also go with you first bene.

[1:20:57] Okay. I'm so sorry, but I can't raise

[1:20:59] my hand for whatever reason.

[1:21:00] That's okay. I heard someone say that

[1:21:06] they thought about doing mail, doing

[1:21:13] mail-in ballots for everybody.

[1:21:15] And I think that August,

[1:21:19] the August date is a state primary

[1:21:25] and those ballots will be going out to everybody

[1:21:29] unlike the earlier local elections, which you have to apply

[1:21:33] for an absentee ballot.

[1:21:35] So if that makes a difference to anyone, is

[1:21:37] that the August primary

[1:21:39] will be balloted from paid for by the state.

[1:21:44] And I think there must be a way for us to piggyback on

[1:21:46] that, but I'm not sure.

[1:21:47] Thanks.

[1:21:51] Thank you. Burn Rachel.

[1:21:54] Thanks. I definitely agree

[1:21:57] with Paul's earlier statements about having

[1:22:01] Berry City will have more information.

[1:22:03] So that's a good thing. And sorry Mr.

[1:22:07] Gravy's interrupting me

[1:22:10] and oh, there was another point he brought up.

[1:22:12] I agreed with, oh, knowing

[1:22:14] what the legislature is gonna do, we should know by then.

[1:22:19] And then also I, I'm hearing that some people

[1:22:24] might have, might appreciate having

[1:22:28] someone new come in and look over the budget.

[1:22:31] So that would be another plus.

[1:22:34] And the, again,

[1:22:35] I think our last time we voted in June turnout was not

[1:22:39] great, so thank you.

[1:22:41] I think it was Jackie who had shared some voter data.

[1:22:43] I think that's really helpful.

[1:22:48] Alright, Thank you. Last call for public comment.

[1:22:56] All right. Hearing none.

[1:22:57] Sorry Paul, you already had your public

[1:23:00] comments. I'm gonna close

[1:23:01] Second opportunity once everybody was heard.

[1:23:04] No, that's, that's never been the rules.

[1:23:07] No, that's, that's never been the rules.

[1:23:10] I'm gonna close public comment. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah.

[1:23:14] Do you have anything you want to add before the vote? I do.

[1:23:17] I would, if the board pleases, I would like

[1:23:21] to withdraw my motion if the board would like to find out

[1:23:26] if what Bernadette said was true.

[1:23:34] Oh boy. Is it true? I, I I don't know.

[1:23:37] I have not heard that I might be able to solve this.

[1:23:39] Okay. So

[1:23:40] The, the exceptionally low rates

[1:23:42] of turnout include absentee ballots.

[1:23:45] Yeah. Okay. So it's, it doesn't, so it's okay. I, Emily,

[1:23:49] The secretary of state mails out ballots in all primary,

[1:23:53] not primary in all general elections in November.

[1:23:56] But that does not include primary in August.

[1:24:00] It doesn't, It does not. Okay.

[1:24:02] So the motion is on the table still

[1:24:05] for a September 15th, 2020 second revote.

[1:24:09] All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

[1:24:13] The motion passes before we

[1:24:18] adjourn our next say 15th

[1:24:20] Or 22nd. 15th.

[1:24:21] I'm sorry. That's okay. I was like,

[1:24:23] I thought I heard 22nd.

[1:24:27] I think I said the 15th. I hope so. Okay. Okay.

[1:24:31] So before we adjourn, our next meeting is next Monday,

[1:24:37] June 1st at 6:00 PM However,

[1:24:39] there will be a location change

[1:24:42] because there is a t

[1:24:44] this board meeting will be held at Berry City Elementary

[1:24:47] and middle schools library.

[1:24:50] I repeat, the next board meeting will be at Berry City

[1:24:52] Elementary and middle schools school library due

[1:24:57] to a conflict of an art show

[1:24:59] and a concert happening here in miss

[1:25:01] quality and high school library. Lindsay,

[1:25:03] Will there be a sign for me to know where to go?

[1:25:05] Because I don't know where the library is.

[1:25:07] I know where the multipurpose room and the gym is.

[1:25:09] Yes, there will be. Yes.

[1:25:12] And with that, is there a motion to adjourn? Move by Ian?

[1:25:17] Seconded by Jackie. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

[1:25:21] Opposed? We are adjourned at 7 26.

[1:25:25] Thank you.

BUUSD Special Board Meeting - 2026 05 26 17 39 EDT - Recordi

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