[0:00] Educating, informing, serving. FACT TV, keeping government honest.
[0:06] You are watching a FACT TV presentation of the Belleau Falls Union High School
[0:10] District school board meeting.
[0:17] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the
[0:22] Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
[0:28] and justice for all.
[0:33] Let's do introductions and let's start on the left-hand side here.
[0:37] I'm Paul Hoski. I represent Rockingham.
[0:40] Ben Wallace, representing Rockingham.
[0:43] Emily Farrens, representing Athens.
[0:45] Jamie Storrow, Westminster. Ginger Drissel, Rockingham.
[0:48] Chris Hotz, and I represent Rockingham.
[0:51] Andy Howe, Superintendent.
[0:52] Sean Robinson, interim principal here.
[0:54] Elise Manning-Sterling, Westminster.
[0:57] Eric Lapide, Energy Efficient Investments.
[1:00] June Sawyer, Westminster.
[1:01] Mary Hall, representing Grafton.
[1:04] And we are at communications and public comment. Oh, I'm sorry, Kim. Yes, sorry.
[1:11] Yes. Kim Keith, Rockingham.
[1:16] Now we're on communications and public comment.
[1:19] Are there any either from virtual participants or anything from folks here?
[1:29] Giving folks a little bit of time to negotiate their keyboard, if necessary.
[1:33] It looks like our C is-
[1:35] Oh, is that a hand right there?
[1:36] Oh, that's me.
[1:37] Okay.
[1:37] I'm sorry. Thank you.
[1:40] No, I
[1:42] see Kim's on here twice, so I didn't know if Kim needed to be on here.
[1:45] Kim, do you need to be on here twice?
[1:47] All right, so I'm just going to delete your second one. No, I got you.
[1:49] Don't worry about it.
[1:58] Well, it appears as though we have none. Adjustments to the agenda.
[2:03] There has been a recommendation that we take item
[2:07] 8D, which is board member Westminster seat update, and move that up
[2:12] to
[2:15] as the first item under 6. There's no A, B, or C there, so we're just going to call
[2:19] it the first item under 6. We'll call that maybe 6A and make approved minutes 6B.
[2:25] Yeah.
[2:27] Unless there's any concern about that?
[2:31] Okay. Any other adjustments to the agenda?
[2:35] Hearing none, that now brings us to the agenda item of board member Westminster
[2:39] seat update.
[2:45] Yeah. So
[2:48] Elise Manning has been recommended by
[2:53] the Westminster
[2:55] school board, and basically the
[3:01] way they go, the Westminster school board appoints a member who is
[3:07] available, or an empty seat.
[3:12] Excuse me. So if there's an empty seat to a union school board,
[3:16] folks who are interested turn
[3:19] letters of interest in, and then that
[3:25] town school board then would make that appointment.
[3:27] And so, the school board has made the appointment of Elise to your board
[3:33] for the remainder of their time up until the March election.
[3:40] So Elise has been appointed. She's taken her oath and all that stuff, so we just
[3:44] need you guys all to kind of accept her so she can vote.
[3:48] Be there in particular-
[3:49] Welcome aboard. Welcome.
[3:51] We don't need to take any action.
[3:52] No, there's no real action.
[3:53] Okay.
[3:54] It's kind of like-
[3:54] Great to see you here
[3:55] ... an acknowledgment of why she's here.
[3:58] Got you. Well, thank you for volunteering your time to do this.
[4:03] I feel very good that we've got a really well-functioning and downright fun group
[4:08] of folks to hang out with at least once a month, if not more.
[4:12] This month being a more one, but yeah, glad to have you here.
[4:17] Thank you.
[4:21] You'll have to sing your alma mater song at the very end when we get to public
[4:25] comments. But I've given you fair warning on that.
[4:30] We are now on to approved minutes. So I'm looking for a single motion to
[4:36] approve the minutes from August 10th, August 18th, August 24th,
[4:42] and September 3rd, unless there's any individuals here who might be voting against
[4:48] the approval. Not that you might have changes, but if any one of those you're
[4:52] feeling like you want to vote against, then maybe we need to take them
[4:55] individually.
[4:58] Hearing no one speaking against any of those, can I have a motion to approve the
[5:03] August 10th, August 18th, August 24, and September 3rd minutes?
[5:07] So moved.
[5:08] We have a motion. Any discussion under the motion? Let's take these one at a time.
[5:14] Anyone want to speak to the August 10th minutes?
[5:19] Yes. So if you have questions about something that was on-
[5:22] Yeah, we're going to take them one at a time.
[5:23] Okay.
[5:24] And then you can tell us what your maybe recommended changes.
[5:28] Well, no, I was just curious as to whether or not we have-- It said
[5:35] under 5 for future add WNESU representatives/reports.
[5:41] Are we in the wheelhouse of doing that?
[5:44] Which particular minutes are you talking about?
[5:46] August 10th.
[5:47] The August 10th. Okay.
[5:51] Do you know, Andy?
[5:52] I'm sorry. I apologize.
[5:54] No, that's all right.
[5:56] What number are you talking about?
[5:57] Under 5. It said, "For future add WNESU representatives/reports."
[6:04] Are we working on that, or we haven't had the chance yet to do that?
[6:08] So your question is, why didn't that make this agenda, if that's what we were
[6:11] working on?
[6:12] Right.
[6:14] Maybe that's just an edit version.
[6:15] Sorry. I got a lot of things going on in my head.
[6:18] Oh, sorry.
[6:19] I apologize. So
[6:21] you're asking me number 5.
[6:24] On the-
[6:26] August 8th
[6:26] ... on the August 10th minutes.
[6:27] Page 3
[6:30] of 11. Sorry, not that yet.
[6:32] Okay.
[6:35] And-
[6:35] I don't remember the conversation, but-
[6:37] So right here. It says, "For future, add WNESU representative reports,"
[6:43] and June is asking-
[6:44] Oh, the SU
[6:45] ... do we want-
[6:45] Yeah.
[6:46] Yeah.
[6:46] Because we don't come back until-
[6:49] Right
[6:49] ... what happens at the SU meetings, and we don't talk about what kind of things
[6:54] you might want us to have in mind or ask to have added to that agenda.
[6:59] So it seemed like a good idea to make that a regular thing.
[7:04] So I apologize if that's something that we forgot.
[7:07] That's as simple as an adjustment to the agenda, and then whomever is your
[7:11] representative could-
[7:12] Okay
[7:13] ... give that update.
[7:16] So we have half adjustments to the agenda.
[7:18] So rather than add it to this one, we are going to be better attentive to that
[7:22] moving forward.
[7:22] Okay.
[7:24] Anything else on August 10th?
[7:29] August 18th?
[7:33] Any concerns or issues there?
[7:37] Oh, yes, I do.
[7:41] I think this is an Andy question. On August 18th, under 4A,
[7:47] Jamie asked about a process to evaluate the interim positions.
[7:53] I was wondering if
[7:55] an update on that or if you haven't had time.
[7:58] I have not had time to put that together yet. I apologize.
[8:03] No.
[8:03] I can have that for our next meeting.
[8:05] Okay.
[8:07] I think it's an important and valid point, especially as we noted when we had that
[8:13] conversation, that as interim positions,
[8:18] we'll be, before we know it, needing to make a decision about each of the
[8:22] positions. So the sooner we know how we are going to be informed
[8:28] as to your recommendation on that, the better.
[8:30] Monday?
[8:31] Yep.
[8:34] Okay.
[8:35] Anything else on the August 18th?
[8:39] August 24th minutes.
[8:45] That's a pretty quick one.
[8:48] September 3rd, where we hired a Spanish teacher.
[8:52] Any questions on those minutes?
[8:55] I think Sean, was this the one that Sean was going to give us the rest of the
[9:01] information on?
[9:03] For Spanish? So-
[9:04] Or was it the other one?
[9:05] No, I think all of them. So we looked back at the packet that was sent out.
[9:08] I think the question was the cover letter, which was in the packet that was sent
[9:11] out.
[9:13] And that was the one that was all jumbled, mixed up. There it is.
[9:16] So
[9:19] let me double-check. So I think there was a question about science, and there was a
[9:22] question when we had science about transcripts, stuff like that. Right.
[9:26] That all gets submitted to central office. I don't have those with me. Oh, okay.
[9:29] And then there was a question about Spanish having, like, a cover letter.
[9:32] When we looked at the packet that went out, the top item was the cover letter from
[9:35] there. If there were other things to go backtrack, we can. Okay. Nope.
[9:45] Anything else on September 3rd?
[9:50] That's all then. Any more discussion on the minutes?
[9:54] All in favor of approving the minutes as presented, because while there was
[9:58] discussion about certain items, there were no recommended changes.
[10:02] So approving them as presented, indicate by saying aye or raise your hand.
[10:07] Aye.
[10:07] Aye. So those in
[10:13] favor-
[10:18] I can't hear you. I can't hear you. I don't know if you can hear me, but you just
[10:22] got muted.
[10:24] Okay, I can't hear you. Yes.
[10:30] And I guess- I may... Oh, now I can hear you. Okay. All right. There you go.
[10:37] And so the motion carries unanimously from what I can tell.
[10:41] All right, moving along.
[10:46] Get back to the agenda here.
[10:49] Reports, principal's report, follow up.
[10:51] And so since we got together last, we've started school, which is crazy to think
[10:55] about. Things are rolling along. I'm going to sort of do a 10,000-foot view from
[11:00] the report itself and not go word for word.
[11:02] If people have specific questions, let me know, and I'm happy to do that.
[11:05] I also try to figure out what was enough information and what was too much
[11:07] information. So if I missed something, let me know.
[11:10] I'm happy to either add lib or come back to it. So just as far as that goes.
[11:15] So enrollment about 294 students, plus or minus a couple.
[11:18] Those include students who are enrolled in other places.
[11:20] We've got kids who go to Vermont Academy sometimes or people who go to tech.
[11:24] They're kind of all over the place.
[11:25] So,
[11:27] that's where we're at at the moment.
[11:29] Looking through attendance, we've got about 67% of the building is here all watch,
[11:34] really more than 95% of the time, with a few more folks who are being here a little
[11:39] bit less than that. That includes people who are on things like vacations, so we're
[11:42] having conversations early on with families just saying that just, "We hear you.
[11:47] You're going to Aruba, and that's super cool.
[11:49] But lots of learning time's hard to make up sometimes, actually a few days." So
[11:53] we're going to keep kind of attentive watch related to attendance.
[11:57] We have a couple of kids we're concerned about.
[11:58] We met today to kind of team around them and reach out to families.
[12:02] So that's an ongoing part of our process, even in the early days of school.
[12:06] We got some updates from the state related to timelines
[12:12] for sharing concerns with them if we were to kind of move forward with something
[12:16] like truancy. So we're going to take a look at some of those in terms of processes.
[12:20] So we're all working kind of collaboratively together for that.
[12:24] Are you open to questions as you go? Yeah, totally. It's all good. Oh, sorry.
[12:27] No, this has to do with the attendance- Yeah ... the enrollment.
[12:31] Do you know off the top of your head if we have any early college students this
[12:36] year and- I don't have the numbers, so yes. Okay. It's not a lot. A couple.
[12:40] I can get that number for you. Oh, so we do have- Yeah, we have a couple kids who
[12:42] are doing that. Okay. Yeah.
[12:45] We also have a number of people who are doing VTLC or dual enrollment stuff.
[12:48] So there's a lot of, like, people doing lots of cool stuff.
[12:51] But well, I know that the early college kids aren't- Yeah ...
[12:55] in this total- Yeah ... until spring. Yeah. Let me-- I'll grab that anyway.
[12:59] No, that's fine if you think it's two. Yeah, like under five, I think. Yeah.
[13:04] So I have a question just about sort of your descriptors of attendance, and I'm
[13:08] just wondering whether they are general descriptors or have specific, like, are
[13:14] quantitative. So you talk about students achieving steady to excellent, and then
[13:19] you later talk about outstanding.
[13:21] Are those, like, official categories or are they just- Yeah.
[13:23] So they're inside of our tracking system- Okay ... which is called Panorama.
[13:28] They actually label it like that based on the number of-- the percentage of days
[13:31] that they're in. So those are our- So the best is outstanding. Yeah.
[13:35] Next down is excellent, next down is steady? No, it's like concerned.
[13:38] Another one underneath of that is like of risk or something to that effect.
[13:42] So they're labeled kind of in different categories. Okay.
[13:45] In general, like I said, the bulk of the building's here all the time, which is
[13:48] great. We're seeing better than 95% for the bulk of the building.
[13:52] We've got a few folks who are in the in-between stages, and one of the things that
[13:55] we're trying to work on, just as new folks coming into the building, is
[13:58] understanding how our systems exist.
[14:00] I don't want to call a family who's lagging from a data standpoint saying, "Hey,
[14:05] you missed a day of school," when that's a family vacation.
[14:08] Or we've had a couple of kids who are already ill.
[14:10] We have one student break their leg.
[14:11] So we're trying to refine the system before I call you saying, "Hey, we're
[14:14] concerned about truancy." And they're like, "We have a broken leg." So we're
[14:18] working on some of the kinks, and I'm hoping I can have some comparative data as we
[14:22] get kind of further in the year.
[14:25] Student behavior, we made a couple of changes related to how we're approaching
[14:29] behavior, just for clarity's sake, and helping faculty really understand kind of
[14:34] the role they play in terms of consistency, in terms of expectations, and also
[14:38] knowing that teenagers need support and they need to learn routines.
[14:41] And so how do we help support those systems?
[14:44] And we've seen some positive growth there, which has been great.
[14:47] And also just communication back and forth with families.
[14:49] Our new assistant principal, Andrew Spino, has been really making it a point to
[14:53] reach out to family proactively, trying to problem solve and build those dialogues
[14:57] and those relationships with people.
[14:59] Especially because the kids who pop up, especially as we get closer towards that
[15:02] one-month, six-week mark, are kids who have probably historically had a hard time
[15:07] in school. And so how do we sort of team with them and work and support them?
[15:11] Again, we've really taken a hard look at our process related to check-ins, safety
[15:15] plans, and sort of talks.
[15:18] And then really just trying to make sure that we are promoting safety and time in
[15:22] the classroom, which has been another big theme for us, that time in school is
[15:25] important time, and that if you're out of class, that's taken away from something.
[15:30] And that's been a little bit tough for some folks because it might be complicated
[15:33] for lots of people. But we've really been trying to say, "Okay, if you're out of
[15:37] class, how do you pay that time back?" And that, I think, has also shown us in the
[15:40] first couple of weeks, some pretty sharp decreases in student behavior as they get
[15:45] kind of settled. Yeah. So do we still have the in-school
[15:50] suspension room? Because in the past, if you were really rowdy or whatever in your
[15:55] classroom, you would get sent down there and continue working on what they were
[16:00] working on. Yep. So same idea. So we're calling it student support because the use
[16:05] of the space is kind of multipurpose.
[16:07] The days of the in-school suspension are pretty over. Mm-hmm.
[16:09] So let's suppose you had a tough day in English.
[16:12] The teacher gets to a place after they've redirected you a few times and really
[16:14] tried to coach you. Today's just not the day for English, and you're really
[16:17] impacting the learning of the other 19 kids in the room.
[16:19] You're going to need to ask to leave.
[16:20] So you'll come down to the office, work with either Mr.
[16:23] Spino or myself to talk about, "Hey, what are we doing?
[16:25] What's the game plan moving forward?" Students will, in general, spend the rest of
[16:28] the period working in student support.
[16:30] We have two paraprofessionals who are going to help with work, give you some
[16:33] coaching, spend some time with you to go from there.
[16:35] And then so long as you're, like, good to go, because most people, it's just a
[16:38] blip, right? If you're having a bad day or a bad hour- Yeah ...
[16:40] they'll go back out. From there, we'll either look at campaigns and time back,
[16:45] whether that's with detention during lunch or after school.
[16:48] If safety is a concern or really regulations are a concern, we'll look at ISS being
[16:53] like an entire day
[16:55] in student support. So we've had that a couple of times so far this year, but
[16:59] really saying what's safe, what's appropriate, how do we move from there.
[17:02] So that's not our go-to, but if we have to, we have to.
[17:06] We just want to make sure kids are safe. Right. Thank you.
[17:10] Yeah, Sergeant. All right. So I heard from students that the old zen
[17:16] den- Yep ... has been moved somewhere else, and it's no longer like a place where
[17:21] somebody can stop and step away. Yeah.
[17:25] So I was curious if that's like a permanent thing because I do know that
[17:31] over the last couple of years, that was a useful- Yeah ... space.
[17:35] So the zen den has gone away. Student support is an opportunity if folks are
[17:40] needing a recess space, and we've got kids who have plans related to finding
[17:43] alternative location. The problem with the zen den, based on feedback that I got
[17:48] from early days, is one, kind of purpose of the office.
[17:51] So my understanding is that time in the office at one point turned into sort of a
[17:54] social time. And so for some kids, using the zen den space, from my understanding,
[17:59] was not allowing the effect. So that was some of the initial feedback that I had
[18:04] gotten, and I'm happy to kind of get more feedback related to that.
[18:08] Our goal really, though, is to attach when a kid is having a tough time with an
[18:12] adult who can support them. And that's really one of the places we're trying to
[18:15] figure some of those things out. Working with kids, we're telling them time to take
[18:19] breaks, alternative locations to work.
[18:21] One of our special educators has
[18:24] a background working with kids who have emotional dysregulation stuff, so we've
[18:28] been working with Ms. Arrella a whole bunch to help kind of look at those kids as
[18:31] well. So we've been trying to figure some of those things out. Thanks. Yeah.
[18:38] Okay.
[18:40] So behaviors, and again, our hope long term is to be able to report out
[18:44] qualitatively and quantitatively numbers.
[18:47] Our tracking system has changed a little bit. We went from one program to another.
[18:50] Our old program was very qualitative, so I could talk a lot about them
[18:53] individually, but it was very hard to pull numbers out of them.
[18:58] I tried to end one hand-coding all of them from last year, and there are some
[19:03] errors in the data. There's some stuff there that makes me kind of uncomfortable
[19:06] sharing beyond the biggest big picture.
[19:09] And I don't love comparing that because it's just different than what we're going
[19:13] to do. So we'll be able to hopefully share month to month what those look like.
[19:18] In terms of instructional leadership stuff, we have nine educators who started this
[19:21] year. Folks are settling in, which is wonderful.
[19:24] We think we have a really good team full of really positive energy and some good
[19:28] folks who are getting supported by our folks who've been here for a long time.
[19:31] I think I made the joke about our coordinators having something like 200 years of
[19:34] collective experience here at BF together.
[19:37] And it is humbling how much they are willing to give of their time, of themselves,
[19:41] to their new colleagues, and to each other, and to me, to help get a sense of what
[19:46] do we do here, how do we do it, which is amazing.
[19:50] Faculty are working on professional goals.
[19:52] We need one-on-one to talk through those things.
[19:55] So those will be coming out probably starting next week.
[19:58] One of the pushes we're having is to really look at SMART goals.
[20:00] So, what is going to make sense to you in your professional practice and really
[20:04] say, what's the data attached to that? How does that look?
[20:08] Where do we move from there? And then again, one that would be,
[20:13] and I apologize that that should have been HS, not SH. Sorry.
[20:18] You get typing, and your fingers-- You just look at it forever.
[20:22] And I did learn fairly early that it is either BF or BFUHS, but it is never
[20:27] BFU. That was told to me very early. So I'm mindful of that.
[20:33] So again, working
[20:35] for the CIP and then for people who are administrators here in the building or
[20:38] leaders, one of the things I'd ask them to do is to choose a goal related to a list
[20:42] of trust-building activities or trust-building kind of approaches to things, just
[20:46] to push their thinking a little bit.
[20:48] And so I think that's already spawned some really good conversations for people who
[20:51] are leading parts of the team on how do you build trust with people.
[20:55] And so one of the ways we're going to look at that is artifacts, because I think in
[20:58] our jobs in particular can be hard qualitatively or quantitatively to really pull
[21:03] good data. So I'm hoping by the end of the year, for those folks who are in
[21:07] leadership roles here in the building or in those weird spots that aren't easily
[21:11] supervised, I'll be able to say, "Here are again, 10 artifacts of them doing the
[21:15] work that we can then use as a baseline to talk about it from a place." Yeah.
[21:20] So do our mentors report directly to us?
[21:25] Explain more.
[21:26] Well, I was wondering if someone actually sat down
[21:32] and had a conversation with the new employees like, "How are you doing?
[21:37] Is there anything we could do to help you?" That kind of stuff, and
[21:43] often.
[21:44] Yeah. So they meet with their mentors.
[21:46] The mentors are compensated for their time, so they have a meeting schedule related
[21:50] to that. So I'll use the example of our special educators.
[21:52] Many of them, we decided to cohort them because there's so many, so they're
[21:55] meeting, I think they meet once a month at this point for an hour and change, with
[22:00] a mentor to help support those. They're also getting check-ins from the special ed
[22:02] team as an example. So I think they're on like an, I want to say every other week
[22:06] rotation, maybe every week. I'm meeting with my kind of leadership-y folks.
[22:10] We meet every other week, with the folks who are assistant principal, electric, we
[22:16] meet every other week, and I'm checking in with faculty pretty regularly to see how
[22:19] things are going. And because our mentors are typically the leadership team here,
[22:23] we're building our coordinators largely. We're in communication a lot of the time.
[22:28] So people are not left to their own devices, which is nice.
[22:30] Yeah. Just because in the last two years, it seems like we've had a very high
[22:35] turnover.
[22:37] Yeah.
[22:37] So I'd like to rectify that-
[22:39] Yeah. My whole-
[22:40] -so we don't have any this year.
[22:42] My hope is to really spend-- We've talked a lot about, and this isn't deep in here,
[22:46] but really talking about how are faculty feeling about being here.
[22:50] So there's a faculty engagement committee that's meeting once a month that are
[22:52] based with folks who are interested in this work, and they got given pretty orange
[22:57] open season to say what would make sense, right?
[22:59] And so they had a brainstorming session last month. We're meeting again tomorrow.
[23:03] That included everything from insurance surveys to kind of get a sense of things to
[23:07] really formalizing some processes about faculty appreciation and also the fun
[23:12] stuff. So last year or maybe the year before, they did
[23:15] a soup club as an example. I really want to make sure some of those things get
[23:20] carried forward. And so that work, when it was sort of pitched to faculty to
[23:25] continue, as well as stuff that front office is doing, folks are really excited at
[23:29] this prospect of being given time to do those things that feel really good.
[23:32] And so our hope is between that work on the culture end and then the work we're
[23:36] doing with student behavior, which had been, when I came in, had been sort of an
[23:39] avalanche of stuff. My hope is that folks are going to feel good.
[23:44] Yeah. Good.
[23:44] So we'll see how it goes.
[23:48] Which is great. And then, we started working on the value of walkthroughs.
[23:53] It is always scary when a new guy comes into your classroom, and it's been
[23:56] important to me from the beginning to say, "Hey, not every walkthrough or every
[23:59] time I show up is going to be an evaluative part of the process." Just trying to
[24:02] get people comfortable. And just being our assistant principal, same deal.
[24:05] We're just in classrooms a lot. Seeing what's going on. It's kind of fun.
[24:08] And now kids know us, and they're like, "Oh, hey, that's great.
[24:11] The principal's walked in." Or what those processes look like.
[24:14] And the adults I think are feeling pretty okay.
[24:17] We'll start to our formal walkthroughs after I go through everyone's professional
[24:21] goals. So people liked they were engaged in that process.
[24:24] Back to your point, we have some brand-new teachers who've never had this
[24:26] experience, and some of them are already like, "Oh my goodness, what is a formal
[24:29] walkthrough?" It's okay. It's all good stuff.
[24:31] I'm wondering how they feel about the no walls.
[24:34] Oh,
[24:36] that's a whole separate meeting about that issue.
[24:39] So working through that, and then the other thing I want to throw out is that Zach
[24:42] Roberts and Melissa Wyman are working to come into the buildings.
[24:45] We're going to do some walkthroughs.
[24:46] We're going to do some coaching and some evaluation stuff with them.
[24:49] And so they've been working with collaborators and really trying to synergize all
[24:53] of our work together, which has been really cool.
[24:55] The high school, I'm told, has been siloed for a long time and in a lot of places.
[24:59] There's a lot of really positive energy to say, "How do we build together?" And
[25:03] we're trying to foster it, so.
[25:04] It looks like a company. You might want to have.
[25:06] Please. All right. So, we're going to go through SIP a little bit later, I think in
[25:11] the agenda. Is that the plan?
[25:13] Yeah.
[25:14] Okay. I'm going to jump that. Facilities updates.
[25:17] We did a facility walkthrough with the NG this morning, or sorry, this afternoon.
[25:21] That list is probably more updated than mine. My list was from about a week ago.
[25:26] So just some highlights there for folks to review.
[25:30] A lot of work at Happy Field recently.
[25:32] There's been a lot of removal of stuff outside. Some changes to fencing.
[25:36] The parking lot lining is pending. We've had a lot of pending stuff.
[25:41] The big thing I wanted to share was the PCB mitigation work has been completed on
[25:46] the gym, which is amazing. They will be in tomorrow to do air quality testing, so
[25:51] that'll be the next big step. Did we have improved air quality from this?
[25:56] We are very confident, but we don't want to be wrong about it, so we'll see how
[26:00] that goes.
[26:02] Yeah.
[26:03] How often do they have to do the rest of the building?
[26:06] Three times a year, two times a year?
[26:07] So quarterly air testing.
[26:09] Okay.
[26:10] And depending on how the results go.
[26:13] Our hope is that if the results are really pleasantly low, we may be able to
[26:18] advocate to go to less frequent.
[26:20] Okay.
[26:21] We will talk about what happens to the numbers right now. Not when that happens.
[26:26] A couple of things just so we want folks to know.
[26:29] We're not ready to do a formal pitch of this, but a few things that are we're
[26:32] hoping to pitch to the NG. One is a covered walkway to the front of the building,
[26:36] which has come up a couple of different times.
[26:38] And then working with Jeff, his perspective on the inside of the building.
[26:42] The next item on the list is replacing circuit breakers and a bunch of other stuff
[26:47] here in the building. My hope is to have a formal kind of
[26:51] workups for those for our next set of meetings.
[26:53] We just weren't able to get them done with till starting.
[26:56] But just a warning about what that could be, what it might look like there, have
[26:59] conversations from there.
[27:01] So there's that. And then the other-- I'm sorry, I lost my spot there.
[27:06] I got a couple questions about a few different things.
[27:08] I just wanted to run through them really quick. There was a question about paint.
[27:12] There was a paint donation to paint the Happy Field bathroom.
[27:17] There was, I guess, some miscommunication.
[27:19] I think this might have been up to two years ago.
[27:21] My understanding is that the paint
[27:24] went back to the person who was coordinating the event's house.
[27:30] We can see about getting those back to the building.
[27:31] They're just sitting in the basement at the moment.
[27:35] There was a question about football cards and how all of that stuff works.
[27:39] Without totally derailing, student activities account is a separate fund that we
[27:44] get. It's a regular bank account that we oversee.
[27:48] Student groups or other organizations that fundraise, that money goes into that
[27:52] account, and then they draw from that account, essentially.
[27:56] We just moved that account over from one bank to another.
[27:59] I think folks were involved there.
[28:00] We're currently in the process of shifting our accounting mechanisms to use the
[28:03] same one that we use for the general fund, because they have a lot of detail.
[28:07] It's just one-stop shopping, so we're working through some of the audit attached to
[28:10] that right now, so that folks can know where their budgets are and know where their
[28:15] money is. What are football cards? So it's when if you buy, it's pre-buy, right?
[28:20] So you're getting a season ticket.
[28:21] The AA passes.
[28:24] Got you. Okay.
[28:25] That's different from the discount football cards.
[28:27] Sorry, yeah, there's lots of moving parts.
[28:30] What's discount football cards?
[28:32] I think that's what I was talking, we were talking to you about.
[28:34] The discount football cards, Mr. Lockerbie has sold at the beginning of season
[28:40] for years.
[28:41] Okay.
[28:41] Usually, he has like, that's how we bought our first gator.
[28:45] That's how we-
[28:46] Those are the ones that go to-
[28:47] Yes
[28:47] ... discount to local businesses.
[28:49] That's right.
[28:50] Got you. Okay.
[28:51] AA is for your-
[28:55] Yeah. Oh, yeah. It winds up being like you get two free or something to that
[28:59] effect, by paying ahead, or one and a half free.
[29:04] But so much related pricing. And then, I guess the other question was, again, about
[29:07] what the student activities fund is and does. It's not local money.
[29:11] It winds up being really student related to the fundraising, essentially.
[29:16] And the nice part about that is that, classes build money over time, so that when
[29:20] they get to senior year, they have money to go to King of the Prom versus having to
[29:24] fundraise all at once.
[29:25] So what procedure is used to get that money out?
[29:30] And I'm assuming there's a line item for band-
[29:33] Yeah
[29:33] ... auditorium.
[29:34] Yeah.
[29:34] Because I know we did some
[29:37] fundraising for seats in auditorium.
[29:40] So we're currently doing, we're going through the previous accounting for that
[29:44] right now. And so once that's done, we'll be able to port out what that's going to
[29:47] look like. What past experiences look like is a little unclear to me.
[29:52] Folks will put in requisitions the same way they currently do.
[29:55] I think it'll just be a little different because we have a checkbook, because
[29:57] sometimes you need to cut a check.
[29:58] Right.
[29:59] So it'll be the same process there.
[30:00] We're just trying to audit everything to make sure we understand what went where.
[30:04] Okay.
[30:04] And as we move it all over, just trying to be careful.
[30:06] So I can speak a little bit more to that.
[30:08] So
[30:12] student activities is completely separate from the general fund.
[30:17] The two don't get mixed, and so they also do not live
[30:23] together. So the monies don't mix. Okay?
[30:29] So that way they're almost in two separate banks, if you will, two separate
[30:32] accounts and all that stuff.
[30:35] And,
[30:37] what Constance has done is set up the student activities account now very
[30:43] similar
[30:45] to how you would set up, though, the general account.
[30:48] So it's very clear that there's a fund line, if you will,
[30:54] for auditorium seating. There is a fund line for football cards.
[31:00] There is a fund line for band. There is a fund line for...
[31:05] And so then if someone, the chess club wants to start a line, they want to raise
[31:10] money for a specific thing, he can create a line for that, so that when those
[31:16] dollars come in, it goes specifically to that line.
[31:21] It took a tremendous amount of time on Constance's
[31:27] effort to go back and forensically actually go through the
[31:33] transaction receipts and extract deposits and whatnot
[31:39] to figure out where all these things were and put them in the right
[31:44] fund line. So, I mean, a lot of credit I just want to put forward to Constance to
[31:49] balance out these books, to get them right so that he knows exactly and can give
[31:55] Jeff and all these groups accurate accounting for where the things are.
[31:59] He works for us in business office, right?
[32:01] Pardon me?
[32:01] He works for us in-
[32:02] Yeah, he's the assistant business manager, and he's done a phenomenal job of just
[32:06] getting it really cleaned up and very clear.
[32:10] He showed me the work that he'd done the other day, and it's
[32:15] done really--
[32:19] I don't want to call it-- It's a simplified fund accounting.
[32:23] So if you've gone in and signed some of our stuff, it's pretty
[32:29] complex. This is a simplified version of that, so that it's very clear, so people
[32:34] can figure it out. And now with two signatories, it'll flow very easily. So.
[32:39] And that's, we voted on those-
[32:41] Yes
[32:41] ... last meeting.
[32:43] So I have one question then. So the, whatever it was, $110,000 that
[32:49] was in our budget, that was co-curricular budget.
[32:55] So football had
[32:57] $17,500 to get new
[33:03] shoes, get new helmets, pay the referees.
[33:07] Is that included in this account, or does that run through the main budget?
[33:15] That's for the athletics.
[33:18] If you want. So, no, there's two different things.
[33:19] So the co-curricular line inside the high school budget is representing
[33:25] the funding for like advisors and stuff, right?
[33:28] So an advisor who might be advising
[33:32] theater, as an example, or the theater director.
[33:34] So the theater director is compensated out of the line, the high school budget line
[33:40] related to those things. We wouldn't ask the kids who are fundraising with ticket
[33:44] sales to fund their own advisor. I mean, philosophically, there's some conversation
[33:49] there, but, yeah, so second stuff like that come out of our local lines rather than
[33:53] the student activities lines.
[33:55] But, so to recondition football equipment-
[33:58] So there's the-
[33:59] ... or new helmets, where does that come from?
[34:02] So it's money that-
[34:03] We, that the taxpayer appropriated-
[34:05] You appropriated.
[34:06] That's correct.
[34:06] From the taxpayers.
[34:08] Correct.
[34:09] And for the specific to take care of certain things, that's going to come out of
[34:15] the local budget.
[34:15] Main budget.
[34:16] Main budget.
[34:17] Thank you. That's what-- You answered my question.
[34:21] Nope. Thank you.
[34:22] And sometimes, and Rob and I were having a conversation actually today about kind
[34:26] of the
[34:28] places in which we would might pull student activities funding money for athletics
[34:33] as an example. So,
[34:35] if we would like to buy like fun T-shirts or something like that, that might come
[34:40] out of something from one of those lines as an example.
[34:43] It just kind of depends on the circumstances.
[34:45] So the football player of the week shirts, they might come from the activity-
[34:50] Yeah. Let me double-check that because I don't know.
[34:53] So there's room inside of the athletics budget for some of those things, not all of
[34:57] those things.
[34:57] Okay.
[34:58] The other thing we were talking about is like let's suppose we were to purchase
[35:03] another gator, right, for football.
[35:05] They need another gator is a thing that would likely come out of student activities
[35:09] funds rather than local funds, because it's not necessarily a thing that we
[35:11] would've budgeted for, as an example. Yeah.
[35:15] So in that student activities fund, there are very specific things that money's
[35:19] been donated for. So that wouldn't go for a football gator-
[35:23] It would
[35:23] ... let me finish, if it didn't specify for auditorium seating or something else.
[35:28] Correct.
[35:28] Great. Thank you. That's what the public wants and needs to know.
[35:30] Oh, absolutely. Ginger?
[35:32] Yeah.
[35:36] Okay. I'm thinking about decision-making, authority, and control for the student
[35:42] activity funds. Is that something that students have the most say in, especially if
[35:47] they're doing all this fundraising?
[35:49] I'm thinking about an instance where students fundraise, and they know that they've
[35:54] got a good amount, and then somebody else comes in and says, "We really need this
[35:58] gator, and so we're going to go ahead and take this out of your activity fund."
[36:02] No, so we wouldn't cross. So they're in a line.
[36:05] So like if the chess club is raising money, that money is for the chess club,
[36:08] right? And so if that builds over multiple years, at the end of the day, it's going
[36:12] to be the chess club, their advisor, and then ultimately me signing off on the
[36:15] appropriation related to the chess club's monies, right?
[36:20] The athletic stuff for
[36:24] gate sales, as an example, is a whole separate account inside of this stuff.
[36:28] So that is a conversation with Rob and I, and depending on the circumstances, the
[36:33] athletic, the Cave Council related to athletics.
[36:35] I'm happy to hear their feedback related to those things.
[36:38] Places that, again, the biggest ones in most of these in terms of like fundraising
[36:42] wind up being classes for the most part.
[36:44] So classes over the course of the year will work with their advisor, with the
[36:47] understanding of like, yeah, you have to pay for prom, right?
[36:50] And so the prom committee is going to say, "Hey, we're going to have prom at this
[36:54] luxury resort." And then we have a conversation about how do we spend the money
[36:59] that your classes raised. Do you want to spend that amount of money?
[37:03] You raised $20,000. Do you want to spend all of it on prom? Do you want to get a...
[37:07] And then having that conversation back.
[37:09] So the class money that each class raises-
[37:11] Yep
[37:11] ... goes into that activities fund.
[37:14] Yeah. Yeah.
[37:15] So it's not-- I think where you're going, it's not a- What people have thought
[37:21] or said negatively. It's not a slush fund where it's like, "Hey, I want to buy the
[37:26] whole faculty coffee today. I'm going to go out and buy coffee for the faculty
[37:30] today." It's not. The principal or someone does not have access to it for
[37:36] that purpose.
[37:37] Right.
[37:39] They are specific lines that people have
[37:43] fundraised, or money's been appropriated for specific purposes that have to be
[37:49] then justified for why you're spending money in those specific areas.
[37:54] Okay. So my understanding is that depending on the line, depends on who has the
[37:58] authority for making decisions about how to spend it. Right.
[38:03] If it's the chess club line, it's probably going to be more student-heavy on
[38:08] deciding how to spend that money.
[38:10] Yeah.
[38:10] If it's the athletics line, then it falls more to athletic director
[38:16] and administration.
[38:17] Yeah.
[38:17] That's what I'm hearing.
[38:18] But within athletics, there are multiple lines.
[38:21] Right.
[38:21] So it's not just one big athletic-
[38:22] So the simplified piece is-
[38:23] Yeah
[38:23] ... depending on the line, depends on where that authority lies.
[38:26] Yeah. And then just philosophically, just real, sort of, my view on the situation
[38:31] and my name is the one that has to sign off on this stuff, is that this is what
[38:34] kids are doing for the most part. This is their money.
[38:37] This is the stuff that they're raising for whatever that purpose is.
[38:40] And so we're leading the conversation, and it's not my money to spend.
[38:44] It's not how any of us are approaching that.
[38:47] So I got a second question, which is, do you feel pretty solid that with this new
[38:53] format, that
[38:56] it matches
[38:58] where the monies should have been?
[39:02] Because it sounds like it might have been messy before.
[39:06] So how solid do you feel like you're not going to come across something where the
[39:09] chess club says... Sorry to pick on the chess club so much.
[39:12] We won't. That's okay.
[39:12] But the chess club-
[39:14] That's okay.
[39:17] The chess club comes and says, "According to our records, we've got $500."
[39:22] Yeah. So once the audit's over, so yes, we feel pretty confident about it.
[39:25] Once the audit's over, I'm going to provide the number that we expect to all of our
[39:29] advisors to see how that matches up with what they're thinking it is.
[39:33] We've had this conversation a couple times, and so yes, it's been messy.
[39:36] It's been exceptionally messy and constant, and it's an enormous amount of work
[39:39] rebuilding a bank account that transparently should have been our end.
[39:43] Thank you.
[39:44] Yeah.
[39:44] Thank you for all that work and for-
[39:47] And also just Deb Ayer, who's the administrative assistant for the front office,
[39:53] was going through boxes looking for hard copies of
[39:59] stuff to give to Compton because they were missing stuff.
[40:02] And so she has honed out every closet, cupboard, thing all over this building,
[40:06] trying to rebuild some of this stuff.
[40:08] Okay.
[40:08] And so there's been a lot of work for her, too.
[40:10] So it's been an ongoing process related to that.
[40:15] Because it was a lot of money, and we want to make sure that it's all accounted
[40:17] for.
[40:18] Okay. Thank you.
[40:19] Sorry. We're good. And just a couple celebrations. I apologize.
[40:24] It's taken a little longer than I planned.
[40:26] We had a great opening this winter, things were really fun.
[40:29] We're working on an opening video, which was a challenge that central office gave
[40:34] to all the schools, so that should be done hopefully this week, which would be
[40:38] great. Facilities have been doing just amazing things here in the building.
[40:42] A colleague of mine from another school district was walking in on Friday.
[40:45] The first words out of her mouth were, "Wow, what an amazing looking school." Which
[40:49] was cool. Who was someone who'd never been here before, and not one to give praise.
[40:55] Front office team is very, very green.
[40:58] Folks have really been at it, just up and about and doing the work, and it's so
[41:03] humbling and exciting to see. Also, all the new people just being welcomed and the
[41:09] patience when we're like, "Hey, we don't know how to do X, Y, Z thing.
[41:12] How have we done it here before?" People have just been super helpful.
[41:16] It was great. And then the last thing, open house is coming back October 1st, 5:00
[41:21] to 7:00. One big change is that we are having nonprofits who work with our school
[41:26] here in the building tabling. So we have currently 15 people who are 15 different
[41:30] organizations that'll be tabling that night out in the front hall so that people
[41:33] can meet and see the people that we work with, reach out to them, talk to them,
[41:36] which is super fun. The pep band will do a performance.
[41:40] I'll be giving a presentation related to federal funding. It's a requirement.
[41:44] It is always super fun and exciting.
[41:47] The senior class is hosting a spaghetti dinner, so if you're looking for some
[41:50] spaghetti, come down. It's five bucks.
[41:51] And then, we will conclude with the community homecoming bonfire.
[41:56] The game plan for that is just we're all on the same page.
[42:01] The days of it being 85,000 feet high, we're going to try something
[42:07] normal to start with. We'll see how it goes.
[42:09] And the pitch is going to be, exactly, it's going to be itty-bitty.
[42:13] And then,
[42:16] the whole thing is more of a community event so that you can bring your kids.
[42:19] It'll be a fun time, rather than wild and crazy high schoolers.
[42:24] Which we make it anyways. But we're excited, and we appreciate the partnership that
[42:28] the hospital involved, and we're excited to have it happen.
[42:31] So more details as we get closer.
[42:33] You want me to take care of the burn permit?
[42:36] I think so. Let me check with Robin, see if it's already done.
[42:39] We've been talking to fire to have them come, and I think that that's all set, but
[42:43] we will double-check the question of whether or not it dried out or whether the
[42:47] things are wet or not.
[42:48] Okay.
[42:48] But yes, we'll figure that out. But thank you.
[42:50] You're welcome.
[42:51] All right. Thank you, Sean.
[42:53] Yep.
[42:54] Moving on with the agenda, item 8A. Eric, thank you so much for your patience.
[42:58] We have an EDI presentation with Eric Lafayette. Andy, you want to introduce him?
[43:03] Yeah. Just real quick
[43:08] because we've asked Eric to come on in, and Eric has been going around.
[43:13] Eric and his crew have been going around to all of our buildings.
[43:16] And we started last spring, right?
[43:20] May.
[43:20] Yeah, May. Going through our buildings and
[43:24] doing some audits and taking some inventory and whatnot.
[43:27] And so you all are really one of the last buildings and boards that he's been able
[43:32] to speak with. But they're with energy
[43:37] efficient investments, but just some areas where we might be able to save some
[43:42] dollars and look at some efficiencies.
[43:47] And I think just on the heels of all the stuff we did with Esser and some stuff
[43:51] like that, but also where we can maybe move forward, not just as a building or
[43:57] as a district, but also as an entire FU.
[44:00] So
[44:01] Eric, hand it over to Eric.
[44:02] Thank you.
[44:02] Thank you, Andy. Appreciate the introduction.
[44:04] I'm Eric Lafayette from South Burlington, Vermont. Grew up in Burlington.
[44:09] I was trying to look up to see if I played basketball back here, if you guys do the
[44:13] preseason high school tournament, or if that was getting it mixed up maybe with
[44:17] Brattleboro. I think we have a tournament down there. But born and raised here.
[44:22] We have an office in Williston, Vermont.
[44:24] We also have an office in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Those are our two main offices.
[44:29] We specialize in K through 12 schools, municipalities, universities, hospitals.
[44:35] And what we do is we focus on energy sustainability, renewable energy.
[44:39] So we audit facilities, we look for energy-saving opportunities, and we come to you
[44:43] guys with what the potential energy upgrades could potentially be.
[44:48] We've been in business for 20 years.
[44:51] Our office in Vermont's been open for about six years now.
[44:55] I started our office in Vermont. I was working with EDI for probably five
[45:01] years prior to that, when I was at New England Air Systems doing engineering and
[45:05] project management. I asked them how they got all this work in the state.
[45:10] My boss owned it and wouldn't tell me until after like a few years we went out and
[45:14] golfed. And then he's like, "Oh, there's this energy savings performance
[45:17] contracting law in the state that allows you to essentially work with school
[45:21] boards, work with schools to help do energy upgrades." And I was like, "That sounds
[45:24] great. I can sell that. Get me in on that." So I've been here ever since, and it's
[45:28] been a great five years. We're up to 17 employees now in the state.
[45:32] And we have work all throughout the state as well.
[45:36] We are NAESCO accredited. That's the National Association of Energy Service
[45:40] Companies. They require quite a bit of paperwork and verifying that we hit our
[45:44] saving results in order to be accredited and then pay them a bunch of money.
[45:48] But that does allow us to essentially just say that we stand behind our work, and
[45:52] we guarantee our energy savings, and we want to build long-term relationships with
[45:57] all of our customers that we work with.
[45:58] We don't want to be just in there one year and do something.
[46:01] A lot of times these energy projects are a continuous improvement as we get-
[46:08] I'll kind of jump into that. So this is all based around ESPC, the energy savings
[46:12] performance contracting language in the state that I've gotten really expanded upon
[46:18] in the last few years with a lot of talks up with the legislature on what the
[46:22] opportunities could be. But really, the idea is that we leverage the cost savings
[46:29] towards new equipment, leasing new equipment, bonding it, or paying for it in some
[46:34] type of way, and then those energy savings help pay for the project.
[46:37] So a lot of times when we do lighting upgrades, they'll have paybacks in nine, 10,
[46:42] 11, 12 years. They could be even shorter if you just do bulb replacements.
[46:46] And then you use that energy savings and you finance that project so that it's a
[46:50] cost-neutral impact to the school district at the end of the day.
[46:54] This picture, this is a biomass boiler. We do tons of biomass.
[46:58] This one's actually in Sunapee, New Hampshire.
[47:00] We did that probably two or three years ago.
[47:05] Why people work with us and why they continue to work with us is we have no upfront
[47:09] cost on our work. So we come through, we audit your facilities, we look for
[47:14] different improvements without charging anything.
[47:18] We guarantee our energy savings, we improve learning environments, and we
[47:23] ultimately enhance the facility infrastructure.
[47:26] Everything that we do, we do our own in-house designs.
[47:29] We have our own mechanical engineers, electrical engineers.
[47:33] We work a lot with Van Well Architects as our design firm.
[47:37] And we turn-key everything. So we do everything from the initial analysis all the
[47:41] way through procurement. We put stuff out to bid to local bidders.
[47:45] We provide that site supervision.
[47:47] We commission it at the end, and we've found that kind of long-term partner for the
[47:50] schools to make sure that they actually hit their energy savings.
[47:53] What we find a lot is schools have this hockey stick effect where we start working
[47:58] with the schools and show all these savings up front, and then within a couple of
[48:03] years, the building's just operating the way that it always had.
[48:06] All those energy savings went out the door because people change the way they
[48:10] utilize their buildings, how things are set. They override.
[48:13] So we try to provide that long-term relationship where we're actually working with
[48:17] your facility guys. We do analytics on the back end of the control so that
[48:22] different pieces of equipment get set outside of their energy zone, and they get
[48:26] alerted on it, and we work with them to make adjustments to make sure that it gets
[48:29] set back to the way it's supposed to be rated.
[48:34] Some of the school districts-
[48:35] Can we back up just a second?
[48:38] A quick question. Help me connect the dots on improved learning environment
[48:42] upgrades. So energy savings lead to better indoor air quality
[48:48] and more comfortable classroom settings.
[48:51] Can you help me-
[48:52] So for instance, we'll do lighting upgrades.
[48:55] Yeah.
[48:56] And a lot of times when I'm proposing lighting upgrades, we'll do advanced lighting
[49:00] features with it. So actually, they'll come in.
[49:02] You can have a lot of different dimming capabilities.
[49:05] You can actually change the brightness or the color temperature on these lights.
[49:08] Sure.
[49:09] So it actually enhances the-- There's this cool thing I was pitching the other day.
[49:12] I don't know if they were buying it over at Westminster, but it changes the
[49:17] brightness of the colors and the temperatures throughout the day to mimic actually
[49:21] being outside. So in the morning, you start out with cooler temperatures, a
[49:25] slightly lower light, and then through the day, think 3,000, that yellow light that
[49:31] you start with, and then through the day, it gets actually more to a clear 4,000,
[49:35] 4,500. And that's actually supposed to bring more energy to the students.
[49:39] And so that's one way. A lot of times what we're doing, your facility obviously
[49:44] went through a major SR upgrade, so you guys have all new ventilation.
[49:47] A lot of schools that we're going into really have-
[49:49] I got you
[49:50] ... s**t with ventilation. A lot of times we're adding dehumidification to
[49:54] buildings so that-
[49:55] Okay
[49:55] ... and that does increase-
[49:56] So the lighting, is it a sun lamp type thing that you're proposing?
[50:02] That is one style, yeah, that we do that actually changes the color temperatures
[50:07] and supposed to help with your circadian rhythm through the morning, which is
[50:11] really cool. They've actually implemented it at a lot of manufacturing facilities
[50:16] because I hate to say that, but it actually gives the workers more energy, and they
[50:21] get more productivity. So they'll actually pay hundreds of thousands for this
[50:24] lighting because they realize that they actually get more productivity from their
[50:28] employees from it. So now that we're better grades, better learning.
[50:32] You're
[50:34] back.
[50:35] Yeah. Some of the school districts that we continue to work with, a
[50:41] lot around here, Springfield School District, we've been working with them for
[50:45] probably six or seven years. All new ventilation.
[50:47] We got rid of all the unit ventilators, went with a central ventilation system.
[50:51] Keene High School, we went with these.
[50:53] These are anti-bullying bathrooms where there's no-- They're all gender-neutral
[50:59] single cells, common sinks in the middle, open up to the corridor.
[51:04] White River Valley, that's actually Sharon.
[51:07] We just did a big building upgrade over there, building addition and renovation of
[51:11] their school over there. We just wrapped that up this summer.
[51:15] It was actually a modular build, which was really cool.
[51:18] And we put about 7,000 square feet, three classrooms, a library, some circular
[51:23] stays. Two Rivers, Green Mountain High School, we're wrapping up a boiler
[51:27] replacement as we speak. We've done ventilation, lighting over there.
[51:31] Burlington School District, we did a $15 million geothermal elementary school
[51:37] for them with ESSER funds. That was about two years ago.
[51:41] Manchester, New Hampshire, we've been working with them for 15 years probably, and
[51:47] since we've worked with them, I think they were over $4 million in bills, and now
[51:50] they're just about $2 million in bills.
[51:53] Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Massacoy, we keep naming them.
[51:56] Barre, Spaulding, Vergennes, Bennington.
[52:00] We probably work with 15 or 20 different school districts in the state.
[52:06] How we do our services, we start with our investment grade audit.
[52:10] So that's what we're going through right now, where we audit the facility.
[52:13] We look for all the different energy conservation measures that come back to you
[52:17] guys. We present them. We provide design engineering, so we stamp our own drawings.
[52:22] Project manage. We go out. We do procurement.
[52:25] We try to solicit and make bid packages that are
[52:29] appetizing to local contractors.
[52:31] I know how important it is to bring local people into your schools.
[52:34] When we did the Sharon project, I thought it was cool.
[52:36] It was like 68% of the funds stayed within, like, a 40-mile radius
[52:42] of the school, which was really cool.
[52:45] Analytics and commissioning, that's really the post project, making sure things
[52:49] were set up properly, and then we provide these reports that show the verified
[52:53] savings.
[52:57] This is very similar to what you just talked about, but the process, we identify
[53:00] the opportunities. We review them all with yourselves or facilities committee.
[53:05] We design it. We procure it. We site manage it.
[53:08] So it really is a turnkey process from start to finish.
[53:13] I thought this was cool. Your school is doing really well.
[53:16] We actually just did some quick energy use index throughout your guys' school
[53:20] district compared to some of the other schools that we currently work with, and
[53:24] your guys' high school right now is super efficient.
[53:26] I think you can tell by how much you spend on fuel oil to heat this building each
[53:31] year. It's pretty minimal.
[53:32] Our lighting is still atrocious.
[53:35] The lighting needs work.
[53:36] It's very high.
[53:37] The lighting needs work. So there's opportunities to continue saving it, but I just
[53:41] wanted to point out that you guys are doing a good job right now.
[53:44] Perfect.
[53:45] Westminster, I don't think they were very happy when I showed up.
[53:47] No.
[53:49] I know. Now I'm getting my foot from the West-
[53:51] You would think that they would have taken that.
[53:54] Yeah. No, the difference is-
[53:55] Come on, Mr. Get your act together.
[53:57] I know. So this is the part I just want to clarify.
[54:00] Just because you use a lot of energy doesn't mean you spend a lot of money on
[54:04] energy. So green chips are very cheap, but they're not efficient because it takes a
[54:10] lot of energy to burn a green chip. So it's a little bit misleading in a sense,
[54:17] in the fact that Westminster, they also have air purifiers in every room, and they
[54:21] have VRF cooling and other things. So there is some differences.
[54:25] Not all these buildings have that. So that's going to take higher energy.
[54:29] Yeah.
[54:31] I was also told that I may have-- My person who was running my numbers, she said I
[54:36] may have put this up by about four points too high. They might actually be 78, 75.
[54:41] This was another one that I was like, "All right."
[54:43] We appreciate it, by the way.
[54:44] Speaking to Westminster's defense.
[54:46] Yeah, I was like, I may have overshot that a little bit.
[54:49] Okay.
[54:50] Very nice facility.
[54:52] Usually, we're targeting 20% to 30% reductions with the schools that we're working
[54:56] with, and that's usually very achievable.
[54:58] A lot of times it's a combination of doing lighting, building automation systems,
[55:03] and making adjustments actually to how you use and utilize your building management
[55:07] system.
[55:10] Combining projects, this is one that we do quite a bit, but people will do a
[55:14] lighting upgrade, say, for a school like this.
[55:17] It might be a few hundred thousand dollars.
[55:20] They might have savings within seven, eight, nine, 10 years.
[55:25] They would then use those savings, stack another project, say, like a bathroom
[55:29] renovation, and then you can lease that for up to 20 years.
[55:32] And that doesn't have to go out to voter approval.
[55:35] That was another thing that got changed in the state.
[55:37] It was a 10-year lease law, but now they allow up to a 20-year lease law in the
[55:40] state of Vermont. And then those lease rates are about 1% higher than the cost.
[55:46] So you can lease a bathroom?
[55:47] You can lease pretty much anything these days.
[55:51] But you own it at the end. It's a lease to own.
[55:54] So the aspect of the state of Vermont is they have appropriation clause.
[55:59] So essentially, all of the projects that we do have to have this language that
[56:03] says, at any time, if the school district chooses not to pay for it, it is not
[56:09] funded, then they're no longer obligated to pay for that item, and they can come
[56:14] back and revisit.
[56:15] So the state of Vermont actually has a fund that's non-negotiable
[56:21] every year that you can actually draw from?
[56:24] No.
[56:25] No. That's...
[56:27] No, I think I may have spoken on that one.
[56:29] The leasing company, we work with Municipal Leasing Services.
[56:34] Okay.
[56:34] They go out throughout the whole country, and they probably reach out to hundreds
[56:38] of banks, essentially. The next thing about the projects is that they are
[56:42] energy-related, so they get lower rates.
[56:45] So typically on stuff you're seeing right now is typical banks, 7%, 7.5%.
[56:52] A lot of times we're two points lower than that.
[56:54] So usually our lease rates are around 5%.
[56:57] Right now they're at 4.85%, somewhere in there.
[57:02] And then really the idea is it can help reduce capital project costs, and then
[57:08] savings for future work and positive cash flow.
[57:10] So one of the things that I used over at--
[57:14] when I was presenting in front of the legislature for
[57:19] one of their Senate members who's actually on the board at Burlington School
[57:23] District. They needed a new roof at Champlain Elementary School.
[57:27] The roof was about 700,000.
[57:30] They could put about 900,000 of solar panels on that roof and actually have it be
[57:36] a cost neutral to the school district over that 20-year period.
[57:41] And then there's huge savings obviously once you pay that off because the solar
[57:45] panels have like a 0.5-year life expectancy.
[57:50] And then we help you guys with financing and rebates. I used to put grants in here.
[57:55] Grants aren't as much of a thing anymore.
[57:58] We had some really big years a few years ago.
[58:00] I think we picked up over a million bucks for White River Valley Supervisory Union.
[58:06] The reason, just in general, when it was grant funding, we had a lot of this
[58:11] information out. So we're searching for grants and rebates for people.
[58:14] So when a grant opportunity comes up, I'm like, "Hey guys, you guys seem like you
[58:19] qualify for all these items. We should try to go after this." And we were really
[58:23] successful, like I said, at White River and actually Burlington School District.
[58:28] Grants have kind of dried up, but right now there are some big federal funds that
[58:32] are available for solar projects that wrap up at the end of next year.
[58:36] And then Efficiency Vermont is still doing rebate programs for LED lighting, which
[58:42] they are saying that they're going to end by the end of this year as well.
[58:45] So if we make a commitment by the end of this year, we're grandfathered in-
[58:49] Yeah, you would have-
[58:50] And do it-
[58:52] Next year.
[58:52] Okay.
[58:53] Yep. So that I'm working on trying to get you guys that incentive agreement right
[58:57] now through Efficiency Vermont.
[59:01] And I would hope that for the next meeting, I would be coming back to you guys with
[59:05] more information on what we found during our audit information.
[59:09] And then probably have specific information on the LED lighting, just because that
[59:13] program is wrapping up here pretty soon.
[59:17] And I presented a couple different options, straight bulb replacement, an advanced
[59:22] kind of featured light. And I think the one thing I missed at my last roll was kind
[59:26] of that middle tier. I try to get like an A, B, and C for the options.
[59:31] Like bulb replacement, great, down and dirty, cheap, paybacks within
[59:37] two, three years, maybe even less on some of them.
[59:41] But does it get you any additional functionality?
[59:43] Does it actually improve the learning environment, and then you're still putting
[59:46] it... These fixtures actually look nice.
[59:48] This is a double basket two by two light here.
[59:52] So these ones actually probably would be a good
[59:56] just a straight bulb replacement.
[59:58] And actually with the bulbs, you can get some advanced features with it, but it
[1:00:01] does drive the cost up quite a bit as well.
[1:00:05] And then some of the other things, just looking at your facility.
[1:00:09] Some of the things I would bring up is, you guys have a single boiler in the
[1:00:13] building, so there's no redundancy on that system, which is a little bit odd for a
[1:00:17] high school of this size. Typically, there's usually at least two boilers in a
[1:00:21] school of this size. You guys have updated controls.
[1:00:25] You guys have a really nice building envelope here.
[1:00:28] So just thinking of like a low-hanging fruit, you guys have already picked on a lot
[1:00:33] of that stuff. But beyond that, we have a lot of good-
[1:00:47] How do you make the case that something like a bathroom upgrade would be energy
[1:00:50] efficient? I could say maybe toilets, low flush, whatever, things like that.
[1:00:54] But what are the-- Like a remodel. How do you make a case that that-
[1:00:57] They don't all pay for themselves. That's the thing.
[1:01:00] Yeah.
[1:01:00] Because at the end of the day, so we will go through and when we do the bathrooms,
[1:01:05] we'll try to pick efficient low-flow fixtures as long as you guys have the right
[1:01:10] infrastructure around it, so we're not creating clogs in your drains down the line.
[1:01:14] Making sure that the ventilation system is sequenced properly and balanced properly
[1:01:19] in the space. LED lighting. Is it going to pay for itself? No.
[1:01:23] But we do a ton of work with different schools in all three states.
[1:01:27] I think we have a really good understanding of what these projects cost.
[1:01:31] And then we had a lot of success doing these like summer slammers and getting our
[1:01:36] projects done. So that's usually why people will continue to work with us.
[1:01:41] And we do open book pricing too. So, we'll sit down with you guys, we'll review.
[1:01:46] And everything that impacts, right, the cost is the schedule and
[1:01:52] what kind of finishes you go with. So we work-- A lot of times when we're working
[1:01:56] with Banwell, it's kind of like a design assist process where they send me the
[1:02:01] design, I go through and mark up all the things that are-- I would want to see
[1:02:04] changed or are wrong potentially in it, and then trying to come up with the best
[1:02:10] solution for you guys at the end of the day would be the goal.
[1:02:14] So a building this size, the picture of the bathrooms there, we would only need two
[1:02:21] for the whole school? Because that looks like a locker room size-
[1:02:25] Yeah
[1:02:25] ... bathroom.
[1:02:26] So this was originally two game-style bathrooms of boys and girls.
[1:02:32] And they-- Typically, when you look at these buildings,
[1:02:37] they're already at the cusp of the number of fixtures that you have in the
[1:02:41] building. So actually eliminating toilets is very tough from a code standpoint.
[1:02:46] A lot of times what we're doing is we're creating some type of ADA stall, and then
[1:02:51] we're matching the number of toilets or urinals that they had, and we're just
[1:02:55] giving them individual stalls. In this case, they still kept kind of the men's and
[1:03:00] women's sides. When we went up and did Missisquoi up in Swanton, they were just
[1:03:06] like: "You know what? We just want a bunch of single stalls and common sinks." When
[1:03:09] we're down in Springfield right now at Riverside Middle School, we're doing little
[1:03:15] stalls with sinks inside. I'll give you guys my review on that in a couple weeks.
[1:03:20] So they're very little sinks.
[1:03:23] Okay.
[1:03:23] I was trying to explain it to the principal.
[1:03:26] I was like, "So we're going to go in there and we're going to wash our hands in
[1:03:28] these little sinks, and they're not going to get water all over the place." They're
[1:03:32] like, "All right." So those are kind of the process that we work with with schools.
[1:03:37] I'm in there usually like, "Do we really have to tile and epoxy everything?" I have
[1:03:43] nine weeks a lot of times to turn these places over. Those take a lot of time.
[1:03:47] There's not much subset to that.
[1:03:50] So yeah, that's us in a nutshell. And I'm hoping that I'd be coming back in a month
[1:03:55] presenting on LED lighting specifically.
[1:03:58] I think you guys already entered into a solar agreement with somebody recently, so
[1:04:02] I'm going to skip any solar stuff here at the school.
[1:04:06] Probably talk about your guys' boiler systems, generator, electrical service to the
[1:04:11] building. Those are just some of the first items that we picked up on.
[1:04:15] I actually have a proposal to do biomass facility here as well.
[1:04:20] So you'll-- Next time, I think I'll be coming with more actual numbers and that
[1:04:24] energy conservation features.
[1:04:26] So you've already been through the building?
[1:04:29] And you're working on a presentation for us.
[1:04:34] Will that include estimated costs?
[1:04:36] Yes.
[1:04:37] Okay.
[1:04:38] Just to-
[1:04:38] No? Thanks. Just to be clear, the net metering is the only solar we've entered
[1:04:43] into, so if there are other solar options, but we certainly have an awful lot of
[1:04:47] property.
[1:04:48] Yeah.
[1:04:49] We have three.
[1:04:50] I would say that we would have to take a look at it and see once the net metering
[1:04:55] kind of goes into effect and how much you guys bought in for on it, and then we can
[1:04:59] do an analysis, because what we're doing at a lot of schools is they bought into
[1:05:03] net metering, and then we've been picking up kind of that remaining portion of
[1:05:08] their electric bill with an owned solar array.
[1:05:11] Okay.
[1:05:11] Yeah.
[1:05:13] All right. Thanks so much for your presentation.
[1:05:14] We look forward to hearing the details when you bring them in.
[1:05:18] Great. Thank you, guys.
[1:05:19] You're welcome.
[1:05:22] Andy, when does that array...
[1:05:26] When does it start?
[1:05:28] October.
[1:05:29] Okay. Yeah. All right. That was one of my questions for the other business.
[1:05:35] On to item 8B, adopt school continuous improvement plans.
[1:05:40] I think that puts us back to you, Sean.
[1:05:43] Okay. So I don't know how familiar people are with CIPs.
[1:05:46] Sometimes they're called CIPs, sometimes they're called CIP.
[1:05:50] CIP is two things, which one is an artifact, the other is a lifestyle.
[1:05:55] Continuous improvement is a process in which we set goals, learn goals, and we as a
[1:06:00] district engage people who can CIP work.
[1:06:03] The artifact is the thing to kind of go over today because the state requires us to
[1:06:07] submit one. This is a yearly kind of update of what are your goals for the year,
[1:06:11] where are you going to go with it. It also helps funnel things like federal monies
[1:06:15] if we were to get title funds, which we do.
[1:06:19] And if that continues, they use our CIP to help guide some of that work.
[1:06:23] The format of these have changed a million times.
[1:06:25] Once upon a time, it was just the district, and then it went to buildings and a
[1:06:28] whole bunch of different stuff. So here's where we kind of are for the artifact of
[1:06:32] the CIP.
[1:06:34] Over the course of a year, we do an enormous amount of data analysis, collecting
[1:06:39] feedback from stakeholders. This is stuff that I inherited.
[1:06:43] We'll be starting all of this work again October 1st at the in the past.
[1:06:48] So we'll start this whole cycle again very soon, for the following year.
[1:06:53] So we collect a lot of data. We get a lot of feedback around what are the
[1:06:56] priorities, how are things going, what systems, what needs to be improved.
[1:07:02] If you skip down to page three, this is where the goals are themselves.
[1:07:08] This is a state form. I apologize that it's not a little more user-friendly.
[1:07:13] So our first goal is related. Typically, for most places, you have one literacy
[1:07:17] goal, one math goal, and then typically a behavior or attendance goal.
[1:07:20] That is a very kind of standard operating model for these things.
[1:07:24] So for our math proficiency goal, we're looking at an increase from 40% to
[1:07:30] 55% by the end of next spring.
[1:07:32] How did that come-- Why a 7% increase?
[1:07:36] What is-
[1:07:36] We were looking at sort of where has growth happened before. What's a good number?
[1:07:41] What's too high, too low? I don't have enough experience to be able to kind of
[1:07:46] definitively say where the sweet spot is there.
[1:07:50] So we're going to try to set that number to be an achievable goal-
[1:07:52] Okay
[1:07:52] ... and work kind of based on where we are.
[1:07:55] Some of this is art, not science, to be totally truthful.
[1:07:58] So that's kind of where we're at.
[1:08:00] So 7% just sort of feels like something we can do.
[1:08:05] Is that-
[1:08:06] Yeah, that's really what we're shooting for.
[1:08:08] We're also looking at folks who are kind of in that in-between stage.
[1:08:11] That's the other place we're going to look, is like folks who are on the cusp.
[1:08:14] There's going to be a number of folks who are deep down under the fifth percentile.
[1:08:19] Okay.
[1:08:19] So those are kids for whom growth is really important, but that actual proficiency
[1:08:23] number is really complicated.
[1:08:25] And does the state look at that? In other words, if you said, "We want to go from
[1:08:30] 48 to 49," does the state do that sort of critiquing on this?
[1:08:34] Sure.
[1:08:34] Or is like, "Come on, let's go"
[1:08:36] So potentially.
[1:08:37] Yeah.
[1:08:37] And so the other thing, just for transparency's sake, this process is undergoing
[1:08:40] some change stuff as the state itself changes what it's doing.
[1:08:43] So to be totally truthful, every time you put this in, and this is my, I don't
[1:08:47] know, fourth, fifth CIP, something like that.
[1:08:49] Every single time, they're a little different.
[1:08:50] So the state reviews them hypothetically, and if they're unhappy with them, will
[1:08:55] bounce them back to improve your goals if they don't like it.
[1:08:58] Yeah.
[1:09:01] So, interesting question. And I don't mean that to be sarcastic.
[1:09:04] But I think traditionally, typically what you do when you build a CIP is what is an
[1:09:09] understandable, achievable goal.
[1:09:10] Okay.
[1:09:12] So that we can make steady growth forward.
[1:09:13] And so you look at kind of the, there's in-between numbers, how many folks kind of
[1:09:16] go either way, how do we help buoy those folks up while building better systems
[1:09:21] underneath it, towards sort of this larger goal long term, of improving kind of big
[1:09:26] picture.
[1:09:27] Yeah.
[1:09:29] And so there's that. The next one down is a reading goal.
[1:09:35] Can I ask a quick question about the math goal?
[1:09:37] Yeah, please.
[1:09:38] Do we have it over on the fiscal human and other resources?
[1:09:41] Do we have a district math coordinator/coach?
[1:09:44] Yep. We do.
[1:09:44] Who is that?
[1:09:46] Lily Pipino.
[1:09:48] Okay.
[1:09:49] And we have a half-time interventionist here in the building as part of title
[1:09:53] funding.
[1:09:54] Mm-hmm.
[1:09:57] Sorry, brain fart there for a second.
[1:09:59] Down to the next page, reading goal, very similar.
[1:10:02] Little less, just again, trying to find the number of kids who are in that interim
[1:10:06] kind of number place, where they could go either way from proficient or not.
[1:10:11] So slightly less, but our proficiency numbers weirdly for both math and English are
[1:10:15] the same number.
[1:10:16] Oh, yeah.
[1:10:16] I had to look at that a couple of different times.
[1:10:18] 48% was a weird-
[1:10:19] Yeah.
[1:10:19] I thought it was a typo. It's not. So again, same thing here, working with literacy
[1:10:25] support and coaching. We also have a half-time literacy interventionist here in the
[1:10:30] building that's, again, supported by telefunds, which is great. So processes there.
[1:10:36] Both departments, again, for what it's worth, are engaging professional development
[1:10:39] and learning, and support for those kids.
[1:10:42] And then for our third goal is really looking at student behavior.
[1:10:46] 10% across all tiers is,
[1:10:51] from my perspective, a pretty reasonable goal. Here's the behavior.
[1:10:54] We're talking about severity of behavior.
[1:10:56] Like I said, our data collection systems are changing a little bit.
[1:10:59] So
[1:11:01] I'm comparing apples and oranges a little bit there with that 10% number, but I
[1:11:04] feel comfortable in that kind of position.
[1:11:07] I would be very surprised if we don't do better than that.
[1:11:10] Professionally, that has been 10% is a very sort of low-hang fruit kind of goal.
[1:11:16] So we'll work through some of those stuff.
[1:11:17] And so 10% is a raw number of-
[1:11:20] Yeah.
[1:11:22] If we had
[1:11:24] 20 tier one-
[1:11:26] Yeah
[1:11:26] ... issues, we want to improve that by two.
[1:11:29] Yeah. And so again,
[1:11:32] I feel uncomfortable standing 100% by the numbers from last year because there's a
[1:11:35] lot of moving parts, but like roughly 1,600 individual incidents from last
[1:11:40] year-ish. So 10% would be 160 less of them
[1:11:45] across all tiers.
[1:11:46] Okay.
[1:11:47] That's pretty achievable, and I think that's a number that we can capture in a way
[1:11:50] that feels a little more comfortable.
[1:11:52] I will have more texture for us to talk about than that, but from a state reporting
[1:11:57] standpoint, 10% is pretty achievable, I would suspect.
[1:12:01] Okay.
[1:12:03] Sean, do these continuous improvement goals
[1:12:08] represent the
[1:12:11] primary priority for the school for this year?
[1:12:15] So, in some ways, yes, in some ways, no.
[1:12:18] So I think all of these are part of the district's kind of continuous improvement
[1:12:21] process, right? So they're built and pulled out of what we are all kind of
[1:12:25] collectively in the district working on.
[1:12:27] Are these the primary, ultimate foci focuses of every single
[1:12:32] speck of work we do? Probably not. But I think these are indicators saying that the
[1:12:36] work we're doing is the good work, the right work to do.
[1:12:40] My hope is to take kind of these big goals and then really turn them into more
[1:12:43] actionable steps so that we can measure them a little bit more successfully.
[1:12:46] So what exactly are we going to do if we're going to decrease behavior?
[1:12:50] That isn't something the state asks of us.
[1:12:51] That's something that I want to ask of ourselves.
[1:12:54] Yeah. So just to follow up on that.
[1:13:00] So in your principal's report, you focused on attendance
[1:13:06] as a report out, but there's nothing in the continuous improvement plan
[1:13:12] that's focused on attendance. So I'm just wondering if
[1:13:18] we're keeping everything aligned to stay focused on what we see as
[1:13:24] the top priority.
[1:13:25] Right. So, like, attendance is based on the SU's strategic
[1:13:30] plan and goals, which is maintaining 95% attendance.
[1:13:36] So why would that not flow down to the high school's continuous improvement?
[1:13:40] It may, but because-
[1:13:43] Every year. So, the continuous improvement plans are
[1:13:47] what the school is looking at their data, and what they're looking at how they can
[1:13:52] improve. So they may, as a school, choose different
[1:13:58] areas to focus on that they may see as opportunities based on just the current data
[1:14:04] that they have. So they may see, like, "Hey, if we improve
[1:14:10] discipline, that may actually improve attendance,"
[1:14:15] because there's a connection to it.
[1:14:18] They may not explicitly say it here in that plan, but that's their thought process
[1:14:24] behind that. So that is
[1:14:29] part of what they're doing there. So
[1:14:34] again, I wasn't intricately involved in the development of this plan also, like
[1:14:39] when the last year's group did it. But that's how they try to push and pull by
[1:14:45] looking at where are those areas that we need to really focus on for next year that
[1:14:49] we think are really going to attack some current problems.
[1:14:54] And just to piggyback that for clarity's sake.
[1:14:56] So when I came in the building, and so I'm building this plan with about a month
[1:14:59] worth of knowledge related to BF, what are the main things people are talking
[1:15:02] about? People are concerned about behavior.
[1:15:04] That's really the nuts and bolts of this.
[1:15:06] So when we're talking about what are our priorities, right?
[1:15:09] And there are many, many, many, many priorities.
[1:15:12] Behavior support is a pretty straightforward thing that we can accomplish.
[1:15:16] And I think from a low-hanging fruit perspective, I think that's fine.
[1:15:19] We'll keep looking at attendance. We're not going to not look at attendance.
[1:15:22] I'll keep reporting back out on those things.
[1:15:24] But typically, you're picking three goals when you pick.
[1:15:27] And so this could be an attendance goal instead.
[1:15:28] But from
[1:15:30] what I think most folks are feeling on the boots on the ground place, looking at
[1:15:34] behavior is going to be a primary focus for the year.
[1:15:39] June?
[1:15:40] I have two questions. One, don't we have a SIP committee?
[1:15:45] Yeah.
[1:15:45] Are you part of that?
[1:15:46] Yeah. There's a district or a supervisory union SIP committee.
[1:15:49] I am the high school's representative on that committee. We have not met this year.
[1:15:55] Okay. So you didn't have anything to do with making this?
[1:15:59] No.
[1:16:00] Okay.
[1:16:01] And I actually, I don't think there's an SU SIP yet.
[1:16:07] There is an SU SIP.
[1:16:08] There is an SU SIP. Is it the one that we worked on last year?
[1:16:11] And that's in effect this year?
[1:16:13] The two years.
[1:16:14] Okay. So this SIP that we're looking at that's specific to the high school, this is
[1:16:19] for this year or next year?
[1:16:21] This is for 2026 and 2027.
[1:16:23] So that's this year-
[1:16:24] This school year, yep
[1:16:25] ... this school year. And so hopefully it's pulling from that SIP we worked on,
[1:16:29] although
[1:16:31] it's been a while since I've looked at it.
[1:16:33] The numbers seem less ambitious,
[1:16:37] but I'm not solid on that. And also, the behavior and attendance piece,
[1:16:44] I think we were referring to as social and emotional learning.
[1:16:46] So we seem to have veered into more of a disciplinary kind of language, which
[1:16:52] I'm curious about also.
[1:16:55] Well, I'm going to throw in a little bit of my past experience.
[1:16:59] I think while it may seem like this has a disciplinary focus,
[1:17:05] the reality is,
[1:17:08] as Shawn mentioned, the priority of the building needs to be reflected in the SIP.
[1:17:13] But additionally, the state is really high on things you can measure.
[1:17:19] Yeah.
[1:17:19] And discipline referrals and improving those numbers are easily measured.
[1:17:25] Sure.
[1:17:25] They're also easily sort of
[1:17:29] professional developed around, training folks on new strategies and new
[1:17:35] techniques. So I'm going to say for me, these three goals did not
[1:17:41] catch me by surprise.
[1:17:43] I do want to say that all the social emotional learning things are also data-based
[1:17:46] and part of training and professional development.
[1:17:49] Oh, sure.
[1:17:50] So that's why
[1:17:53] I see a shift is what I'm saying.
[1:17:54] Okay.
[1:17:55] And I see a shift away from what we were discussing as the SU SIP.
[1:18:00] So I just want to put that out there while we're looking at these.
[1:18:04] Mm-hmm.
[1:18:06] And I was curious what in number three, increased secondary student sense of
[1:18:11] engagement. What's that secondary piece mean there?
[1:18:14] Secondary, so second meaning secondary students.
[1:18:17] Secondary, as in high school?
[1:18:18] Yeah.
[1:18:19] Okay.
[1:18:19] Absolutely. So one of the things we do, which will be another data point, is send
[1:18:24] out a survey. We're working on doing that, I think next week or the week after.
[1:18:27] We do panoramic for everyone. We're doing it earlier this year.
[1:18:29] We're going to do it hopefully twice this year.
[1:18:31] How are
[1:18:33] folks feeling like in the building? How are students feeling engaged?
[1:18:36] We have a faculty committee who's working on student engagement and belonging,
[1:18:39] sorry.
[1:18:40] Everything actually.
[1:18:41] You guys look at it, I'm trying. Student engagement and belonging, and really
[1:18:45] making that one of our focuses. And so, one of the other places we'll be working,
[1:18:50] and again, the work that we do versus the set of artifact are slightly different.
[1:18:54] We're starting student forums next week.
[1:18:57] So once a month we'll take a topic that is of interest to kids, find the adults who
[1:19:02] are most related to that situation or that topic, and then get us into a circle to
[1:19:07] talk about it. So I think we're going to start off with like opening days, how you
[1:19:10] feel at school. The following month talking about lunch, the next one student
[1:19:14] activities, stuff like that. So we're trying to engage kids on multiple levels.
[1:19:18] I had a question. Oh, sorry.
[1:19:19] No, sorry. I had to.
[1:19:21] You go.
[1:19:21] No, you were on a roll, so you go, and I'll ask later.
[1:19:24] Okay. Floor is mine. Also, I heard you say the feedback that you're getting.
[1:19:30] Yep.
[1:19:32] I'm curious about where you're drawing that feedback from because it sounds very
[1:19:39] authority related.
[1:19:40] Sure.
[1:19:41] And I think especially when dealing with things like student behavior and things
[1:19:45] like that, it's really important to also get
[1:19:48] student feedback when planning the SIP.
[1:19:51] And I'm nervous about, like, "Hey, what three goals do you pick?" Because this is a
[1:19:56] very data-driven, long-term, and I get it, you've only been here for a short amount
[1:20:02] of time, but you have a lot of people to pull from.
[1:20:04] So I'm wondering who you've been talking to all the way.
[1:20:06] Yeah. So this conversation started early days, beginning with teachers and the
[1:20:12] coordinators. We've gotten feedback from this ran through central office, our
[1:20:16] central office folks to take a look at as well,
[1:20:19] to get positive feedback related to that.
[1:20:21] So this ran through both Deb and Melissa as an example for feedback.
[1:20:26] Ultimately, there are some pieces here where I'm taking data that was built before
[1:20:31] me to build because this thing flew in at the end of September.
[1:20:34] Right.
[1:20:36] And as an artifact in the process, again, this isn't necessarily how I would've
[1:20:39] gone about doing this personally.
[1:20:41] That's why my hope is we start differently this year.
[1:20:45] I think you're picking up some conversations related to kind of authority and
[1:20:48] power. I think the truth of the matter is that 1,600 individual incidents and
[1:20:53] feedback that we've gotten from the kids as well, that truthfully, people have been
[1:20:58] historically very concerned about behavior in the building.
[1:21:00] Mm-hmm.
[1:21:01] And I think coming in here from day one has been this very sort of united front
[1:21:07] from faculty, from students talking about concern related to their peers.
[1:21:11] How do
[1:21:13] we stem the flow there? Sorry.
[1:21:15] How do we-- No, it's all good. No, you were good. Then we move forward.
[1:21:17] How do we stem the flow?
[1:21:19] No, go ahead.
[1:21:20] And so truthfully, a lot of our work this year is behavioral based.
[1:21:23] Yeah.
[1:21:23] You know, really-
[1:21:24] You've talked to students. It hasn't just been teachers and central office.
[1:21:27] Yeah. We're talking to kids. We're still trying to figure out exactly what are
[1:21:30] these organizations, what are the organization groups of kids.
[1:21:33] My hope is that now that we've got this RP group coming up from the middle school,
[1:21:37] we'll be able to get some conversations with them, student council as well.
[1:21:40] Really having these sort of dialogues there.
[1:21:44] Those are hopes that we figure out where we go.
[1:21:47] But the other thing is we have to be in a position where people feel safe in the
[1:21:52] building. And truthfully, people have not historically for some time felt safe in
[1:21:56] this building. And we've been working really hard to challenge behavior that's
[1:22:01] unacceptable, support the kids who are engaged in that behavior by learning
[1:22:06] different techniques and skills, more counseling, and with our various staff here
[1:22:12] to get where we're going. We're about three weeks in.
[1:22:14] So that's the end game is to really start talking about how do we as a community
[1:22:18] interact, how do we teach these skills to kids, so that they're more successful.
[1:22:22] Great. Thank you.
[1:22:23] Yeah.
[1:22:25] June.
[1:22:27] So I have a couple questions again.
[1:22:30] So say the state of Vermont, how seriously does the state of Vermont take this?
[1:22:36] Because at the end of the year, I'm sure you have to report back to them where
[1:22:41] we've made out.
[1:22:45] Could they take our funding away?
[1:22:47] No.
[1:22:50] In my experience-
[1:22:52] Uh, not very.
[1:22:54] Okay.
[1:22:55] I think it's a process that's important that we engage in, and I think they wanted
[1:22:58] to engage in that process. If, for instance, we came in at
[1:23:02] 5% growth instead of 7% growth, I don't-- Thus far, in my professional experience,
[1:23:08] there hasn't been a whole lot of feedback any which way about it, to be totally
[1:23:11] truthful.
[1:23:12] And my second, it was just clarification.
[1:23:15] You had said that you were working on
[1:23:20] getting a group circle up to discuss different things.
[1:23:23] Yeah. So, we'll do a data cycle or we'll do all this work again.
[1:23:29] And so all of that typically starts with a presentation related to federal funding.
[1:23:33] So that's the 10/1 presentation. You start with that, but you say, "Here's where
[1:23:37] we've spent federal funds for title funds.
[1:23:40] This is what we've done in the building and the district level.
[1:23:43] What are people's thought feedback priorities?" So we'll start there as an open
[1:23:46] forum, then we'll get a committee together and kind of roll that forward through.
[1:23:50] They've shifted the due date for these, so they're due, I believe, June 30th.
[1:23:54] My goal will be to be done by mid-April or early May, something like that, with a
[1:24:00] dead by date of June 1st, hypothetically.
[1:24:02] So my hope is that what we'll be able to do there and what I've, in my experience,
[1:24:06] is we'll hold a meeting to say, "Okay, what are our priorities?
[1:24:08] How does this work?" And then also we'll share data back and forth and say, "Here's
[1:24:12] what our various data points look like," as we sort of set priorities.
[1:24:16] All right. Thank you.
[1:24:18] One thing. So they're due to the state by the end of September, and
[1:24:24] if all of a sudden, let's say, in November,
[1:24:29] Sean notices that we've already decreased student behavior by
[1:24:35] 50%.
[1:24:38] Yep.
[1:24:41] We have the ability to adjust the SIP.
[1:24:43] Okay.
[1:24:43] It's a living document. It's continuous improvement.
[1:24:46] So we wouldn't be going like, "Okay, we're right there," and just like, "We got to
[1:24:52] stick there." So the whole point is
[1:24:56] his team is constantly looking at this going, "Hey, we're right there.
[1:24:59] We need to adjust that, and
[1:25:02] let's focus on a new goal now. Because we're already there.
[1:25:05] We'll monitor this, but let's start a new goal." Like, that's continuous
[1:25:08] improvement.
[1:25:10] We don't just say, "Great, we got it.
[1:25:13] We don't have to focus on it anymore." We just keep adjusting.
[1:25:17] So it's a living, breathing document that it's not the old school,
[1:25:23] Chris will appreciate this. We create curriculum and put it up on the shelf and
[1:25:27] just leave it up there and never touch it again, right?
[1:25:29] That's not continuous improvement.
[1:25:32] So we need-- Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Question?
[1:25:35] Yeah. One more follow-up on kind of the alignment with these high school
[1:25:41] goals and the SU goals. So Sean, I think as principal,
[1:25:47] you made it clear that these are what you see as sort of the important
[1:25:53] goals for the high school. That makes sense.
[1:25:57] So Andy, as superintendent, are you comfortable that if the high school
[1:26:03] achieve these goals, that that will allow the SU
[1:26:08] to achieve its goals? And I guess what I'm looking for is that
[1:26:14] you set the SU goals, and then the different schools need to set goals that
[1:26:20] will support that.
[1:26:22] Yeah. I mean, our SU goals are long-term, like five, seven-year vision-
[1:26:28] Right
[1:26:28] ... like goals. I mean, we don't change those goals. Right?
[1:26:32] So,
[1:26:33] and I mean, the building goals have to adjust and live with what the needs of the
[1:26:39] buildings are on a continuous basis, right?
[1:26:42] So,
[1:26:44] they're going to adjust. So, like some of our elementary schools have hit 95%
[1:26:49] attendance all the time.
[1:26:54] They don't have attendance goals at all in their continuous improvement plans.
[1:26:57] And if they do, they got to get them out because they're hitting 95% on a daily
[1:27:01] basis, right? Like, that's normal for them.
[1:27:04] Yeah.
[1:27:05] So they've got other goals in there, right? So they need to have other things.
[1:27:08] So if--
[1:27:12] While attendance is important, and by all means, it's important, right?
[1:27:18] But one of the reasons why attendance is down at the high school, in my opinion, is
[1:27:23] because you've got a lot of kids who are out-of-school suspension.
[1:27:28] Out-of-school suspension leads to is because of behavior.
[1:27:33] And when behavior is impacting kids' ability to access the classroom,
[1:27:40] then that impacts their, you know, that.
[1:27:43] And when kids are now no longer feeling,
[1:27:48] they're getting suspended, right?
[1:27:50] Or they're not feeling comfortable, then they stop going to class.
[1:27:54] When they stop going to class, they fall behind.
[1:27:57] When they fall behind, then they stop coming to school.
[1:28:02] So there's a-
[1:28:02] They get too far behind.
[1:28:04] So they start, you know, like, and then when you have that meeting with them, and
[1:28:07] it's like, "Well, where are you?" "Well, you got a zero in the class right now, and
[1:28:11] if you make up all this work, you can get caught up to a 50."
[1:28:17] And I've heard teachers say that, and it's the reality sometimes of where a kid is.
[1:28:22] And the kid's like, "I got no hope of making it up.
[1:28:24] What's the point of coming to school?" And now you're like, "How am I convincing
[1:28:30] this kid to keep coming to school?" Like, and it's November.
[1:28:37] So let me also just make one point relative to your question, and I'll phrase it
[1:28:41] this way. So first of all, this is a requirement from the state.
[1:28:45] It's a requirement of the state, but it needs to matter.
[1:28:47] It needs to matter at the building level.
[1:28:49] But if at the building level, they have goals A, B, and C,
[1:28:54] and the district has goals A, B, C, and D, there is nothing that precludes the
[1:29:00] high school from working on D along with A, B, and C, even
[1:29:05] though presented to the state are these goals.
[1:29:09] So,
[1:29:11] whether or not these align perfectly with the district goals, it is
[1:29:17] totally reasonable that a building is still going to work on district goals along
[1:29:22] with their own goals. If that helps.
[1:29:27] So as I was saying before, we need a motion to approve this SIP.
[1:29:34] So moved.
[1:29:35] Okay. Yeah, we have a motion to approve the SIP as presented.
[1:29:39] We've had a lot of conversation on this, but we are still open to more conversation
[1:29:43] on this if people have any more questions.
[1:29:46] I have one last super quick question, just about the-- Is the testing switching?
[1:29:50] That's what I understood at that SU meeting, is that-
[1:29:52] Not at the high school level. You are fine.
[1:29:54] Okay.
[1:29:54] So it's still going to be math.
[1:29:56] Yeah.
[1:29:56] Okay. All right. Thank you.
[1:30:00] So hearing no further conversation or questions, all in favor of approving the SIP
[1:30:05] as presented, indicate by saying aye or raising your hands.
[1:30:09] Aye.
[1:30:09] Aye.
[1:30:10] Aye.
[1:30:10] Those opposed.
[1:30:13] And are there any abstentions?
[1:30:15] Abstain.
[1:30:16] We have one abstention, and all the rest are in favor, and so you have an approved
[1:30:21] SIP.
[1:30:22] Thank you.
[1:30:24] And I'll also note,
[1:30:27] I want to note and appreciate the challenging position Sean is in to have a SIP
[1:30:33] ready to go by September. I'm not going to pretend like it probably wasn't being
[1:30:38] worked on
[1:30:40] prior to Sean showing up. But he's still responsible for it.
[1:30:43] It's got to be something that works for him, and he had a very short window of time
[1:30:46] to pull that off.
[1:30:49] And I think he will probably be more comf-- I'm not here to speak for you, Sean,
[1:30:52] because you're sitting here, but I bet you'll be more comfortable with the overall
[1:30:56] process and product when you get to spend a year on it.
[1:30:59] That has been very early conversations.
[1:31:01] Great.
[1:31:01] A lot of data to take in in a short time.
[1:31:04] And that we had plenty others really process.
[1:31:07] And I think the process is the way that I would do it best, and I look forward to
[1:31:12] working with you to have that process here.
[1:31:15] Moving on on the agenda to item nine. We already did a board member.
[1:31:20] Are you coming at least?
[1:31:23] Okay. Old unfinished business. Buildings and grounds update. Dylan, yes.
[1:31:27] A question. Oh, wait, we did. Sorry. Oh, yes. Council on Intentional Tech.
[1:31:33] No, I appreciate that. It was included. You can see the link to that.
[1:31:38] I asked to put that on the agenda because we had an, if you saw, we had an email
[1:31:43] come out from Ricky calling this to our attention. I'm just going to read this.
[1:31:47] There's no action to be taken on this, I don't think, except you can join this.
[1:31:50] The WNESU is seeking high school students, staff, families, board members, and
[1:31:54] community partners to join our Council on Intentional Tech.
[1:31:58] The council's first charge is to help WNESU thoughtfully navigate artificial
[1:32:02] intelligence and identify what our learning community should know, understand, and
[1:32:05] be able to do. Whether AI sparks excitement, concern, curiosity, confusion, or a
[1:32:10] mix of reactions, we want a range of voices and perspective at the table.
[1:32:14] No AI technology or expertise is required.
[1:32:17] Again, this is for your individual action if you so desire.
[1:32:22] It says learn more and apply by Monday, September 21st.
[1:32:26] That is not, by the way, to invite a dialogue, discussion, or debate on AI here.
[1:32:32] This is simply to call it to your attention.
[1:32:35] It's been in the news a lot, and if you are interested in participating,
[1:32:40] let Ricky know on or before September 21st.
[1:32:44] And I fill in, yes, the application.
[1:32:48] So now on to item nine,
[1:32:52] old unfinished business, buildings and grounds update.
[1:32:54] We have a buildings and grounds committee meeting today.
[1:32:57] Sean has already provided some information on that.
[1:33:00] I don't know, Mary, if you want to speak anything about our
[1:33:04] walk around today?
[1:33:06] The most pressing issue is or was the bathrooms at Hadley Fields.
[1:33:11] There was some serious septic concerns.
[1:33:13] They have now merged the girls and the boys into one septic, hopefully temporarily,
[1:33:18] if the town of Westminster-
[1:33:21] Westminster
[1:33:21] ... not Rockingham, accepts a proposal, the sewage would flow
[1:33:27] downhill with new piping, it's about 500 feet, into what we have now for the
[1:33:32] building, which is a pumping facility.
[1:33:34] And so there will be costs associated with that, but that might be a good long-term
[1:33:38] plan. And so Jeff Potter is going to be looking into potential people.
[1:33:46] There are other issues.
[1:33:50] Generally.
[1:34:22] So there are cracks showing in our extensive new-
[1:34:26] That's a great name,
[1:34:33] but
[1:34:43] during the
[1:34:49] about the rabid coyote.
[1:34:50] Oh.
[1:34:52] So-
[1:34:53] I don't know if that's a buildings and grounds issue, but it's out like-
[1:34:56] It's on the trail.
[1:34:58] It's on the trails around.
[1:34:59] And it's crossed on high school.
[1:35:01] Yeah, so Fish and Game was here today for like four or five hours.
[1:35:05] There were three of them who were out there looking for things.
[1:35:08] They couldn't find any trace of anything.
[1:35:10] Their belief is that if this is a coyote with rabies, they are likely dead at this
[1:35:16] point. They said that using the field will be okay if we stay close to the building
[1:35:19] and stay off the trails for 48 hours to make sure that the critter has-
[1:35:25] Moved on
[1:35:25] ... just moved on. I'm trying to think of one
[1:35:29] way or the other. Yeah, moved on.
[1:35:32] Passed on its disease to another living critter. That doesn't help us.
[1:35:36] Yeah. So that was the recommendation from them. We're in contact with them.
[1:35:39] I'll give them a call in another day or two.
[1:35:43] I think if there's another problem, we'll figure it out from there.
[1:35:45] And the students and staff, they're all aware?
[1:35:48] Yep. Yeah, so we did that this morning to make sure that folks were in the
[1:35:50] building. Jeff Potter was on top of it, and we had a conversation about it with our
[1:35:55] athletic students to keep them off the trails.
[1:35:57] Well, thank you.
[1:35:59] So if I have--
[1:36:01] So someone tested for being rabid or?
[1:36:04] No. So there was several people who ran in, who, I mean, I'm not friends with
[1:36:08] people on Facebook, that had run-ins with this animal on the property.
[1:36:14] So it's somewhere, because it's been beyond the trails around the school.
[1:36:19] Yeah, my understanding is that it might have 40 miles impacting potentially and
[1:36:22] then also going after, in particular, people who are walking their pets.
[1:36:26] Jess saw some people walking their dogs today and said maybe find another place for
[1:36:29] a couple of days.
[1:36:30] And there has been an increased report of rabies in the area.
[1:36:33] Mm-hmm.
[1:36:33] Which I'm aware because of bats that are showing up in places.
[1:36:39] So we'll keep an eye on it and keep you updated as to what we do, but we'll just
[1:36:43] take our guidance from what Fish and Game gives us.
[1:36:45] Thank you.
[1:36:46] Okay. Anything else for or about buildings and grounds? Yes.
[1:36:50] I just have a question about this. I feel like at some point we talked about like a
[1:36:54] five-year improvement plan. Is that something that we have or are working on for
[1:36:59] buildings and ground, like five-year plan for updates?
[1:37:01] It didn't come up at today's meeting.
[1:37:03] Mm-hmm.
[1:37:03] But I think that it has been a point of discussion.
[1:37:06] Mm-hmm.
[1:37:07] So I think that is a to-do item for buildings and grounds.
[1:37:09] Mm-hmm.
[1:37:11] When you first started, you had mentioned maybe doing a project tracker for all the
[1:37:14] projects that are going on around here.
[1:37:16] Yep.
[1:37:16] I just didn't know if you had an update.
[1:37:18] Is that-
[1:37:18] Yeah, so we have an internal document because it's like a bunch of little stuff.
[1:37:21] So our goal is going to be monthly updates as we've been doing and then do
[1:37:25] quarterly walkthroughs with B&G if that feels good.
[1:37:28] If we need to update where we are there, the reality is like day-to-day stuff is
[1:37:31] subject to what I mean with every day or every other day.
[1:37:34] We update our long-term list once a week or every other week based on availability.
[1:37:39] Good.
[1:37:41] June.
[1:37:41] General question. I can't remember, and I should, what the dollar figure
[1:37:47] is on the estimates before they have to come to the board for approval.
[1:37:52] Can someone remind me of that?
[1:37:54] I know that there's a number for going out to bid, but I don't know, I'm not
[1:37:59] familiar with a number that says you can spend this much before asking the board.
[1:38:04] That doesn't strike me as familiar.
[1:38:07] I don't think there was. No, there isn't?
[1:38:09] No.
[1:38:09] I mean, if it's been budgeted, then they get to spend it.
[1:38:13] Oh.
[1:38:16] So outside of the budget, then.
[1:38:17] Then it's a different item, yeah.
[1:38:20] So,
[1:38:22] okay.
[1:38:24] The last item that we have here under nine is retreat planning.
[1:38:28] It's pretty much as presented there in the agenda, to
[1:38:34] remind you, and at least September 28th, a five-hour meeting.
[1:38:39] Are you up for that? No? Okay, it's not hopefully going to be, I've said this
[1:38:43] before, we're starting at 4:00. Hopefully, we'll get all of our stuff done well
[1:38:48] before five hours shows up. If we get to 9:00 PM, I'm going to cut someone off
[1:38:52] mid-sentence and make a motion for myself to adjourn.
[1:38:54] Yeah.
[1:38:55] So hopefully not that long. It'll involve food.
[1:38:58] There are some agenda items there, visioning, futures, norms, and goals.
[1:39:02] We had talked about putting that on our retreat, bylaws and policies. So Andy?
[1:39:10] Just when you mentioned food, we just need to know if there's any dietary concerns.
[1:39:14] If someone can just please just email Nicole your dietary needs and concerns.
[1:39:21] June.
[1:39:22] Can we get a copy of the norms and goals and the bylaws?
[1:39:27] Yes. Well, our plan is to get as many of these things in your hands before we show
[1:39:32] up.
[1:39:32] So we can review.
[1:39:32] Yep.
[1:39:33] Okay, thank you.
[1:39:33] That's our, yes.
[1:39:35] Last time.
[1:39:37] Yes.
[1:39:38] Last meeting. I do have a question, but it's not on that part.
[1:39:43] I probably missed... No, it's still under old business.
[1:39:47] What did we get this handout for?
[1:39:50] That's part of my report. Those are the goals that I asked administrators to look
[1:39:54] through. Each of them had to pick one.
[1:39:57] I just want you to see it, so you know-
[1:39:58] Oh, okay. Great
[1:39:59] ... each one is supposed to be is related to sort of building trust with the
[1:40:02] community and kind of a practice. So everyone announced a community practice, and
[1:40:06] they're going to build it, essentially a portal we want to know.
[1:40:08] Oh, okay.
[1:40:08] I just want you to know, that was a goal.
[1:40:10] Okay, great. Thanks.
[1:40:12] Anything else about retreat planning?
[1:40:16] We are now at director's comments. We'll start on this side for that.
[1:40:19] Mary, you want to go first? Oh, by the way, Mary, have you been on any district
[1:40:24] boards before?
[1:40:25] Westminster.
[1:40:25] Okay, great.
[1:40:26] So I've been on Westminster, and then I was on the Bike Safety Board.
[1:40:30] Okay. All right. Mary? No, that's-
[1:40:31] I want to thank the really thick participation today for buildings and grounds.
[1:40:35] It was really good participation.
[1:40:38] I'm done.
[1:40:39] Great. June?
[1:40:40] I want to welcome Elise for stepping up. We appreciate you.
[1:40:45] And hope the school year continues off in a good
[1:40:50] way, and sports teams do great, and
[1:40:55] just looking forward to a great year.
[1:40:59] Lisa, anything?
[1:41:00] I'd just like to say that I'm very happy to be involved with a very positive
[1:41:08] board.
[1:41:10] More fun than any other board you've been on?
[1:41:13] I've been not very trying, so.
[1:41:18] Great.
[1:41:22] June, did you collect snacks?
[1:41:24] I brought them.
[1:41:25] Yeah. So my director's comments are thank you for the snacks.
[1:41:28] Thank you for setting the bar at a place where surprise us with snacks.
[1:41:33] Somebody else gets to pick that up next time. We aren't going to assign that.
[1:41:37] Just surprise us with snacks. And great job with this opening of the school year as
[1:41:42] well.
[1:41:46] And Melissa?
[1:41:48] I'm also with Melissa. Thank you. I have nothing today.
[1:41:52] Just congrats on the start of the school year and looking forward to the
[1:41:57] retreat.
[1:41:58] Great. Bobby.
[1:42:00] I know fall sports are full swing. And it's really nice when
[1:42:06] board members do stop by and watch, whether it's a
[1:42:12] varsity, JV, or freshman group playing.
[1:42:16] Yep.
[1:42:16] And yet I get a lot of feedback from just kind of walking there, then all of a
[1:42:21] sudden you got a lot of people talking to you, so.
[1:42:24] Yeah.
[1:42:26] Lisa, last one.
[1:42:27] I had a question about the next meeting beyond the retreat, because
[1:42:34] we meet second Mondays of every month.
[1:42:36] Right.
[1:42:36] But it's on Indigenous Peoples' Day.
[1:42:39] Right.
[1:42:39] So we'll take it to the Tuesday.
[1:42:42] And we can have that Tuesday.
[1:42:44] Okay. Good to say.
[1:42:46] So that can be on our next.
[1:42:50] Thank you.
[1:42:50] Oh, Kim. Say something nice.
[1:42:53] Yes. June, sorry I missed tonight's snacks, and good luck to all the fall sports
[1:42:58] teams.
[1:42:59] Did I just hear you say you're providing snacks next month?
[1:43:02] I thought that was clear.
[1:43:05] It's sort of broken up there. It's hard to hear you, but we can't wait to see what
[1:43:08] you got.
[1:43:11] All right, folks. Motion to adjourn.
[1:43:13] So moved.
[1:43:14] All in favor?
[1:43:15] Aye.
[1:43:16] I hear you have a vote against me?
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