[0:00] You don't have a

[0:04] fish now?

[0:06] We do.

[0:12] Oh yeah. 14.

[0:16] Yeah, we had a

[0:20] really split the difference.

[0:29] Alright, well ladies

[0:31] and gentlemen, the hour is upon us and we have a quorum.

[0:34] So I'd like to call this meeting to order.

[0:37] This is the Central Vermont Career Center

[0:42] Special Meeting of the board, Monday,

[0:44] August 25th, 2025.

[0:51] Do we have any special gifts

[0:55] other than routine individuals?

[1:01] Any comments for items

[1:03] that are not on the agenda from the public?

[1:09] Any comments from anyone online for anything

[1:11] that is not on the agenda?

[1:17] All right, we'll move forward to the consent agenda.

[1:21] We have to approve our agenda first

[1:26] before we move on to the consent agenda.

[1:28] So I need a motion to approve the agenda as printed.

[1:33] I move that we approve the agenda. Okay, Jan.

[1:37] Alright, any discussion? Hearing none.

[1:42] All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

[1:47] A Ladies and gentlemen, on on,

[1:53] on online, we will accept your, your eyes.

[1:58] And now the consent agenda.

[2:02] The consent agenda is for the approval

[2:03] of the minutes from the August 11th, 2025 board meeting.

[2:08] Any questions or concerns?

[2:13] Deletions or additions?

[2:17] Hearing none. I need a motion to approve this agenda.

[2:22] Minutes. The minutes? Yes. I'll get there Minutes.

[2:26] Move to approve the minutes from August 11th? Yes.

[2:30] I need a second. I'll second. Okay. Thank you gentlemen.

[2:35] Any further discussion? Hearing none.

[2:38] All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

[2:44] Any nays? Any abstentions? Hearing none. Motion carries.

[2:49] Board reports, committee reports, facilities.

[2:55] Is there a facilities report?

[2:57] We actually have a presentation. Okay.

[3:00] So we will move that report

[3:02] to our presentation moving forward.

[3:07] The board discussion

[3:08] and action items, which is the facilities project, budget

[3:13] and bond projection, and then the marketing updates.

[3:16] So we'll move this committee report to facilities to 6.1

[3:20] and include it in there.

[3:22] So let's proceed with facilities,

[3:26] project budget and bond projections.

[3:31] Who would like to break the ice?

[3:34] I will start and I'll ask Cam data to help.

[3:38] And would you sir, please identify yourself? Sure.

[3:41] My name is David Epstein. I'm with Trucks Collins.

[3:44] And we're the architects, one

[3:46] of the architects for the project.

[3:49] Hi everybody. Good to see you in person.

[3:51] Usually we are all floating heads.

[3:55] The this is a, an abbreviated version.

[3:58] Is there a possibility

[3:59] of turning some lights off or dimming lights?

[4:02] Yeah. Thank you. See, that might help everybody see,

[4:11] Think up above there. I

[4:13] Was like, these are pretty minimal.

[4:21] Next slide, please.

[4:23] Excuse me. I just wanna check,

[4:25] can everybody online see these slides?

[4:30] Yes.

[4:33] Okay. Are

[4:39] Jenna, Todd, or Corey can?

[4:41] Yes. Canice says yes. Thank you. Okay, very good. Okay.

[4:44] Yes, so it's very short, it's very abbreviated.

[4:48] Last time we were here, we gave a very long, not long

[4:53] but detailed presentation.

[4:55] So we'll start with the site design

[4:57] and the building design show a few of the renderings

[5:00] and then really the, the meat of the presentation.

[5:03] We'll be talking about what is the cost impacts from a tax

[5:06] standpoint, and then talk about next steps in the,

[5:11] the media campaign.

[5:12] So next slide please.

[5:15] So as everybody knows,

[5:19] the Site 16 Baptist Road is the site we're going.

[5:22] You can see right here, this is relative

[5:25] to the catchment area.

[5:26] It has a, those qualities, this is a location plan.

[5:31] You can see the building right here. This is Rock of Ages.

[5:35] You can see the quarries.

[5:36] If you go to the next slide, this is one of the updates is

[5:41] that the traffic study showed

[5:44] that there were two section intersections of concern,

[5:49] middle Road in Graniteville

[5:51] and Baptist Road in Graniteville.

[5:54] They calculated the number of trips.

[5:57] They, you know, made some assumptions about distribution

[6:00] and, and they're not even sure that, you know,

[6:04] there's any improvements that need to happen.

[6:06] But they, what happens is when there's a certain number

[6:09] of trips, additional trips at an intersection

[6:11] that triggers the review,

[6:16] they didn't have any issues with the ingress

[6:18] and egress out of the site.

[6:20] And it's distanced from this intersection.

[6:22] But this is something that say when the bond vote passes,

[6:27] we will have to look at further and we've budgeted money.

[6:33] There's an impact fee that you have to, if you have to do,

[6:36] you don't have to, you don't literally have to pay

[6:38] for the improvements, but you have to contribute to a fund

[6:42] that might improve those intersections.

[6:44] And we've budget for that in the project budget. Next slide.

[6:48] This is just a little bit closer view

[6:51] and go to the next slide.

[6:52] So the site plan,

[6:55] and I apologize, this site plan is rotated so that north is

[6:59] to the right before we were looking north up the page,

[7:03] we had to modify this front area here

[7:07] because of wetlands.

[7:09] And we, when we had the wetlands delineated, we discovered

[7:15] wetlands up in this area here that are,

[7:18] we did not know about.

[7:20] We knew about the ones off to the south of the site,

[7:25] the left on the page.

[7:26] And so we, what, what we did was we modified

[7:32] the site plan to get all of the parking out of the,

[7:36] the wetlands and the buffer.

[7:38] If you go to the next slide, there'll be kind

[7:40] of a blow up to make it can see easier.

[7:42] So this is the 50 foot wetland buffer here

[7:46] and the wetlands are, are right here.

[7:49] So we moved everything out of there.

[7:51] We sent those to the regulators

[7:53] and we got a positive, some positive feedback.

[7:58] We showed the original plan

[8:00] and we showed this plan to show that we're making, you know,

[8:04] every effort to avoid

[8:08] impact on the wetlands.

[8:09] There is one class three wet. This is class two.

[8:12] There's one class three wetland

[8:14] that's right in the middle here that

[8:18] we are impacting.

[8:19] And there is a, once again, another mitigation fee,

[8:23] which has been budgeted for.

[8:26] But so far we've got, we've got like, I don't know,

[8:30] would you say one and a half thumbs up or two thumbs up?

[8:34] Tell we're waiting for the to be to be candid.

[8:37] We're waiting, we're still waiting for feedback from the

[8:39] US Army Corps of Engineers.

[8:40] Although that's less nerve wracking than the,

[8:45] and we have some other, we have some other ideas if we

[8:48] have to go further.

[8:49] But we like this site plan a lot.

[8:52] So we're gonna stick with this if, if,

[8:54] If it gets a blessing regulated.

[8:58] Okay, so next, Jay,

[9:00] do you wanna talk a little bit about the building?

[9:01] Yes. Just a couple slides here.

[9:03] So if you don't mind me presenting for the back.

[9:05] I'm Jay Ty, I'm one

[9:07] of the other architects that's working on the project.

[9:08] I'm from Resinger.

[9:11] Our specialty is the lab planning, looking at the actual

[9:15] spaces within the building.

[9:17] So just a quick recap

[9:18] because I know we've, we've talked

[9:19] to you about this at great lengths before.

[9:21] This building has two round levels.

[9:24] So at the, the way the, so site slopes,

[9:27] it gives us two opportunities to get materials

[9:31] and things in and out of the building.

[9:33] So at this level, which is the lower

[9:35] of the two levels is the main entry, which is

[9:37] that red arrow you see, which comes into admin,

[9:40] which provides a series of doors.

[9:43] So safety and security, we can make sure students are safe.

[9:46] And then as you move further in, there's another set

[9:49] of doors that can be locked to keep the students

[9:51] safe within the building and still have access to some

[9:54] of the arts and business and hospitality spaces up front.

[9:58] Which in this one are the, the culinary dining space

[10:01] and the cosmetology space that can now service the public

[10:04] and still keep the students secure.

[10:07] In the center of the space is the heart of the building.

[10:09] We'll see in 3D in a few minutes,

[10:11] but that's really the stair, the meeting area,

[10:14] the gathering area, kind of the, the, the Greek

[10:19] agora stair that that learning takes place on.

[10:22] So that's, that's the heart of the school.

[10:24] Off of that, we've got some common spaces,

[10:26] which are your gymnasium and some locker rooms

[10:29] and some bathrooms and some service spaces.

[10:31] And then as we move down the, the corridor,

[10:34] you see the health and natural resource science spaces

[10:38] there, which we have plant

[10:39] and animal, we have natural resources, we have

[10:44] childcare, I'm sorry, human services.

[10:48] Yeah, human services, human service,

[10:49] Emergency services and medical professions.

[10:52] And they're all, they're all working together to create a,

[10:57] a cluster that, that has a center

[10:59] or has a space that will let natural aid in

[11:01] that becomes their home, within their home.

[11:04] So this would be some class cross pollination that happens

[11:07] between these programs.

[11:10] As we move up that stair, that main stair, that center,

[11:14] we move up and we have design construction,

[11:16] manufacturing down one side,

[11:18] which has our electrical trades, our building trades, our

[11:23] welding or HVC

[11:27] and our advanced manufacturing, manufacturing spaces home.

[11:34] Thanks. And, and those spaces again have a heart

[11:37] or have a space that's around them

[11:39] that becomes their cluster home.

[11:41] That collaboration between these

[11:42] types of programs would happen.

[11:44] As I said before, they're all like, great,

[11:46] they all have doors outside for project yards

[11:49] and space to get materials in and out.

[11:51] And at the very end we have transportation,

[11:53] which is automotive

[11:54] and our, our heavy diesel spaces

[11:57] that are working together there at the end, as we move back

[12:00] to the heart of the school, the center of the school,

[12:02] we have some spaces which are our arts

[12:06] and business spaces, which are the art is actually media.

[12:11] So we have digital media and film media that happens there.

[12:15] And then the business space,

[12:17] which is the business program that happens there.

[12:21] Also off that heart we have the library,

[12:23] which is a important space to be part of that,

[12:26] that central commons

[12:27] and the support space for students to be able

[12:30] to receive support that's right in the center of the school.

[12:34] And further down you'll see kind of the, the reddish spaces.

[12:37] Those are the exploratory and flex spaces.

[12:40] So these are really trying to get younger students

[12:43] or early students interested in really engage

[12:47] in a bunch of programs.

[12:48] That's the feeder programs that will happen there.

[12:51] Hit everything Jody,

[12:54] These are some views of the exterior and interior.

[12:58] So this is the what as you come up the drive.

[13:02] Next slide please. Here you can see the

[13:06] parent drop off.

[13:07] At this end you have the childcare area, whether,

[13:10] whether the playground,

[13:13] that upper large feature window is into one

[13:15] of the exploratory laps.

[13:16] And in the distance you can see the entry,

[13:18] which we'll see in the next slide.

[13:21] So this is the entry, you know, as we've mentioned

[13:26] before, the base is this kind of rust located stone

[13:30] buried granite, you know, we want it

[13:33] to be evocative of the region.

[13:35] And then up on the upper is a more lightweight

[13:40] panel system, could be metal or, or some kind of resin.

[13:46] So here you can see it from above.

[13:49] Once again, you have student parking in front,

[13:51] you've got the bus and car drop off.

[13:55] There's the, the playground.

[13:57] And as we go to the next slide, you'll see the back

[14:00] and you'll see the solar panels.

[14:04] The, the roof is being planned for the solar panels.

[14:07] We're approaching it.

[14:09] They're not in the project budgeted for it,

[14:11] but it's approaching as a lease.

[14:15] We did a, a winooski, they leased the roof

[14:18] for a very large solar array

[14:20] and they get the benefits of it without having

[14:22] to put any money down the back.

[14:25] This as, as Jay was talking about, you can see the

[14:29] project yard and the doors directly to grade.

[14:32] There's the loading dock and back.

[14:34] That's the gymnasium projecting out.

[14:37] And then we'll move to the inside.

[14:40] So this is the injury I was talking about before.

[14:42] You can see we have cosmetology

[14:45] and dining that happened here

[14:46] and there's a set of secure doors further down at your left

[14:49] here is that admin that monitor all this.

[14:53] As we move into the heart of the school, that's stair

[14:56] that learning stair, it becomes the, the, the space that

[15:01] most school can gather together.

[15:03] That it can be all school

[15:04] meetings, you can be groups together.

[15:06] This also becomes the cafeteria.

[15:07] Just really a multifunctional space that really

[15:11] engages the whole building.

[15:12] You see above natural light being poured in here.

[15:15] Again, these are, this is a really deep building,

[15:17] but when we get natural light,

[15:18] these spaces really energized.

[15:23] It's just another look at that, that's the top

[15:24] of the stairs now and spin

[15:26] around looking down at the presentation wall.

[15:29] So this, this space will have presentation capabilities

[15:33] and with the, the, the media department right

[15:37] behind can now provide support for presentations

[15:40] and things that have happened in this space.

[15:45] And this is one of those homes, those center cluster homes

[15:49] where you have cross pollination of these different programs

[15:53] to be able to work together on projects or, or things.

[15:56] So this is one of those spaces

[15:58] with natural light coming down

[15:59] and a variety of seeding

[16:00] that they can work on different projects.

[16:07] So the next part of presentation

[16:11] talks about the project costs and impacts.

[16:13] And I'll, I'll turn it over to Michelle for that.

[16:17] You've all been waiting for.

[16:21] Yeah, sure. So I just wanted to make some notes like

[16:26] to start off, so

[16:27] before I just show you the numbers,

[16:30] these are all good faith estimates.

[16:32] They're based on the most recent data, which is FY 26.

[16:37] We assume a home value of $300,000

[16:40] income sensitivity is not modeled here.

[16:43] So in Vermont, most of you, if not all of you know

[16:46] that some households qualify for property tax adjustments

[16:49] and it reduces their tax bill based off income,

[16:54] not just their property value.

[16:55] So that means that some families, the actual impact

[16:58] that we're gonna show may actually be less s

[17:03] the tax impacts will vary depending on the future state.

[17:07] We don't know what the overall

[17:09] education spending's gonna look like.

[17:10] The statewide yield, the common level of appraisal

[17:13] with pupil counts.

[17:15] So our goal tonight is just to give you a reasonable range

[17:18] of the likely impacts so that voters can have a clear

[17:22] and transparent information.

[17:24] So the best available information

[17:26] that I can give you at this moment

[17:32] cut off.

[17:36] So I think it'll take a little bit of time.

[17:38] But brief digest this amount of information.

[17:42] I tried to actually, I had someone else help me

[17:45] 'cause my graphs were like four pages long

[17:47] and I was like, no, I need all this information.

[17:49] And they're like, no, no, we're gonna show you

[17:52] just the big numbers.

[17:53] Again, this is based off a $300,000 house.

[17:57] This is this year FY 26 tax estimates.

[18:01] So if we had to pay it back this year,

[18:03] this year right now, yep.

[18:06] If payments started this year, if they started this year

[18:11] tomorrow, they were kind of sort of,

[18:15] but then we go into six semester

[18:18] hours and that sort of thing.

[18:19] So anyway, you could see the highest tax increases are East

[18:23] Montpelier Cals in Berlin.

[18:24] But the lowest being Cabot more counted in the field.

[18:28] It ranges from about $99

[18:31] to $420 per household tax bill.

[18:34] So this is not per person, this is per taxable.

[18:38] $300,000? Yes.

[18:41] The average is about $297.

[18:48] Yes. Do you have a number for Worcester?

[18:50] I don't, I don't, I haven't got their appraisal yet.

[18:52] Has it come in yet? Do you know? I don't know. Okay.

[18:56] The last I checked last week hadn't come in yet.

[18:58] So that's the one I'm waiting on.

[18:59] You said 2 97 per household?

[19:02] 2 97 is the average through all

[19:05] of our districts, all of our accounts.

[19:09] The minimum being 99

[19:10] and the highest being four 20 based off a 300,000 bucks x.

[19:19] The next slide just goes into some

[19:21] assumptions that I'm making.

[19:22] So I can give you again, the most clearest possible answers.

[19:27] The total bond is $149 million.

[19:32] We said the average payment is $9.4 million over,

[19:36] over the course of 30 years.

[19:38] Again, that could be different.

[19:40] We're using the level debt services,

[19:42] meaning we're gonna pay the same amount every year.

[19:44] That's the model that I use to estimate these numbers.

[19:48] Sometimes you can pay back a lesser amount at the beginning

[19:51] and higher in the end,

[19:52] or you can do vice versa,

[19:54] pay back a higher amount at the

[19:55] beginning and less at the end.

[19:57] But I chose the most, even peel one that I could.

[20:02] So I could really just kind of keep everything level.

[20:06] How this gets paid back is through tuition payments.

[20:08] That's the only way that CTE that we the district are able

[20:12] to pay for any of our expenses right now.

[20:16] Right now. So tuition payments again is a

[20:21] reminder for you folks or anybody listening?

[20:25] It's based on a six semester average.

[20:27] So what this means for me is that I can estimate what

[20:32] the proportional value

[20:34] of each sending school district will have.

[20:37] So if a school district sends 50% of the total population

[20:41] of students that we have, they'll be responsible

[20:43] for paying about 50%

[20:45] of the bond total cost back, if that makes sense.

[20:47] So we use a six, six semester average.

[20:51] The percent of students from each

[20:53] district remains fairly constant.

[20:55] It goes up about a percentage or two.

[20:58] So what I did was I chose this year with my past three years

[21:03] to make sure it was within range

[21:05] and I estimated of that $9.4 million, what's percentage,

[21:10] what's the allocation that each district

[21:11] would be responsible for?

[21:15] And then I allocated of courts to each district

[21:18] and based off $300,000 house this year.

[21:23] Again FY 26.

[21:26] And that's how I came up with the numbers.

[21:29] Is there any question on how I came up with the numbers?

[21:34] Do you assume an equal setting population from

[21:37] each district of the 18th?

[21:38] I mean just 9 million divided

[21:40] by 18 is half a million dollars.

[21:41] No, that's not, no,

[21:43] because each district sends a different amount of students

[21:46] and we're only able to bill.

[21:47] But how did you calculate

[21:48] It based off FTEs?

[21:50] So okay, yeah,

[21:52] Today.

[21:53] Today, this year. Yep.

[21:55] And we built tuition based off a six semester average.

[21:58] So we have two, last year we had 220 students.

[22:01] I, I'm only able to actually go for 194 students.

[22:05] It takes the last six semester averages.

[22:07] That's what I'm able to bill.

[22:10] And did you model in how it's gonna be UNE amongst the

[22:13] Towns? I did.

[22:14] That's the last slide. Yeah, that's,

[22:17] that's, sorry to jump in.

[22:19] That's why go back. It's a different amount for each town,

[22:22] Right?

[22:23] That's why it's not like you're gonna pay a million,

[22:25] you're gonna pay a million, you're gonna pay a million,

[22:27] half a million, whichever the number is.

[22:29] It's each town has an adjusted amount of

[22:31] that total $9.4 million that they would be responsible

[22:35] for paid back in tuition.

[22:37] Like in my case I live in Berlin.

[22:39] It really comes down to the number of students

[22:41] who originated in Berlin

[22:42] and then up gonna the career center.

[22:44] Correct? Yes.

[22:48] Someone had a question.

[22:51] Peter Anthony, Mr. Anthony, you have a question?

[22:54] Yeah. I guess just refining the

[22:58] preceding statement about allocation across districts,

[23:02] I assume there'd be a lag time for those communities

[23:06] who have not sent a great number of students

[23:11] here to, for for whatever reason

[23:14] and they increase their sending of students.

[23:19] There would be obviously a lag time in terms of catch up

[23:23] of recap, re reallocation of the proportion

[23:28] amongst the collective members of the

[23:33] career center catchment area.

[23:34] Is that not logically correct?

[23:38] That's correct. That's why we use a six semester average.

[23:41] So if you were to spend 20 additional students

[23:44] to me this year, I'm going off a three year,

[23:47] six semester average.

[23:48] So this year you're not paying

[23:50] for an additional 20 students.

[23:52] But over the course of three years,

[23:53] those 20 students will be worked into our average

[23:55] in which we're able to pay.

[23:58] I just to observe, I mean part

[24:00] of the reason we're doing this,

[24:01] and I applaud it, is we're having to turn down two out

[24:05] of every three applicants.

[24:07] So they're obviously sending towns whose participation will

[24:11] dramatically increase once we open.

[24:14] And so there's, there's gonna be a shift,

[24:17] but it will be, if you will, into the future

[24:20] because it's lagged if it's a six semester average.

[24:25] Correct. Yep, you're right.

[24:28] Will, let's have the added knock on benefit of,

[24:31] of tapering the increases because you,

[24:36] because you're gonna have, it'll take you six semesters

[24:38] to get up to full enrollment

[24:42] Billings, presuming that's, that remains for CTE.

[24:45] Oh right. With the foundation formula. We really don't know.

[24:49] We, so that's part of why we had to go with the numbers

[24:51] that we have this year that we know

[24:54] and the way that we budget and tuition now

[24:56] because that's what we know and we can't predict the future.

[25:00] I joked to somebody just yesterday

[25:02] or maybe it was this morning, that I don't,

[25:04] my crystal ball's not working.

[25:06] And so we're doing the best we can

[25:08] with what we know right now. Yeah. Patrick,

[25:11] Thank you.

[25:13] This something we, we discussed a bit at the Washington show

[25:16] meeting was what, what's the ratio of, of students

[25:21] that apply versus students that, that attend at,

[25:25] they were obviously consent were specifically for E 32,

[25:28] but do you have those numbers for each school and

[25:31] and is that appropriate to work into the estimates or

[25:34] or do you feel like it's pretty even?

[25:41] That's a really good question.

[25:42] I don't, I'm trying to think of how we break it out.

[25:45] We break it out by school district

[25:50] when once they've been accepted,

[25:52] but we haven't broken it out that way in who's applied

[25:57] so that we have the data.

[25:59] We can go into it that way this year for the first time.

[26:02] And actually I asked them to go back to last year, I asked

[26:06] how many actual people, single people applied

[26:10] because we have students who if they don't get in the first

[26:12] round, they'll reapply Right.

[26:14] The second round for others.

[26:16] And so there was really, I'm gonna have to dig to find that,

[26:21] but I think we had 400

[26:24] and I'm gonna guess wrong probably,

[26:27] but 424 applicants for this year.

[26:30] And 404 of them were single.

[26:35] I only applied once, sorry, looking on it earlier.

[26:40] Yes, I was. You go to the bottom.

[26:42] Okay, so total applicants this year, 443,

[26:46] but individual applicants was 414.

[26:49] So really we did have over 400 individual students apply.

[26:53] Right. And we have 216

[26:55] that will be starting with us on Wednesday.

[26:58] Yeah,

[27:00] I guess the question is, is the proportion

[27:01] of kids from each sending school the same for the, the 218

[27:06] as for the 414?

[27:08] Right. So that's, that's a really good question

[27:11] and I don't have that information in

[27:12] front of me, but I can ask for it.

[27:13] Thanks.

[27:16] One thing I'll, I'll one thing I'll note. Excuse me,

[27:18] I'm, could you just identify

[27:19] yourself for the record please?

[27:21] Thank you for the request. My name's Camp Featherston.

[27:24] I'm senior associated tr cullins.

[27:27] So when, when I first looked at the, at the

[27:32] impact, this comports very, very closely

[27:36] with the initial projections of the

[27:40] burden on the 18 towns as a whole.

[27:44] And what that tells me, especially

[27:46] as we talk about these things, as populations may change

[27:49] and this town may send more in the future

[27:51] and this one may send less, is that that range of costs

[27:54] that we're seeing is may shift back and forth,

[27:57] but it's, it's, it's, it's gonna be in

[27:59] that same ballpark, right?

[28:01] Because it's, it's the same amount

[28:03] of money that has to be raised.

[28:06] It's just, it's being paid for,

[28:09] it sounds like it's being paid

[28:10] for proportionally based on the number

[28:11] of students from each town that are going.

[28:14] So the proportions may shift as the popul relationships,

[28:19] which seems fair.

[28:21] But it, all I'm saying is that this comports very closely

[28:26] with the overall projections in this range

[28:30] is what we expected.

[28:37] No,

[28:37] You got it.

[28:40] So Michelle, yeah, the,

[28:44] the projections that,

[28:46] that we're looking at the very fancy graph, I love it.

[28:50] So that

[28:55] we know is not going to be the case going forward. Right.

[28:59] This is my best estimate as of right

[29:01] Now.

[29:02] Absolutely. And with the, the legislation that passed,

[29:05] we don't know yet the effect of the foundation formula

[29:10] and we don't know.

[29:14] And the truth. So this is additional to

[29:19] what already is being paid by the school district.

[29:22] If the school district were to shift change

[29:27] what they're paying that will also affect tax rates.

[29:31] So if schools paid exactly what they're paying now

[29:35] and I had to add $9.4 million on this is what it would be.

[29:39] Gotcha. Presumably if we are taking double the amount

[29:43] of students, we're increasing our enrollment from 220

[29:46] to 500, between four

[29:48] and 500 students, that would change

[29:51] what sending schools are are

[29:54] paying presumably.

[29:57] So if theirs went down a little, even though they owed more

[30:01] to the CTE again, that can Yeah. Decrease tax.

[30:05] Yeah. Oh absolutely.

[30:06] And I guess I'm, so the, the, the first students

[30:10] that would ever make it in would be in 2029.

[30:14] When do, when do the

[30:17] taxpayers start paying on the bond

[30:21] The next, it depends when we fully allocate our bond.

[30:26] So when we take the money out,

[30:27] but I would presume it could be

[30:29] that first year that they're in.

[30:31] So during construction there's no, I,

[30:35] I need to verify that, but

[30:37] because of the short timeline of between construction

[30:39] and starting, I don't presume that would be much before.

[30:43] Yeah. Okay, cool.

[30:45] Yeah, I think, yeah, that's definitely a,

[30:49] I'm trying if you can figure out, I'm trying

[30:50] to figure out all of those things that we don't know

[30:53] but we know are likely to change.

[30:54] Right. And so the other, the other question I have, sorry,

[30:59] is the potential for,

[31:03] and Jody maybe this is a question for you.

[31:05] The potential for the change in

[31:08] CTE governance in the state.

[31:11] So if that, if we go to one CTE district,

[31:18] what are the potential impacts on, or even if you know

[31:22] It, it depends what they determine about

[31:24] what would happen with bonds, right?

[31:25] Because does does it then get spread across the entire state

[31:29] or do the sending schools that are originally voted

[31:32] for it in these towns have to continue to carry it?

[31:36] It's a really good question. I don't know

[31:40] Right now this is assumes that the cost will be

[31:44] amongst the 1870 towns and not the entire state. Correct?

[31:48] Correct. And historically

[31:52] the state paid a hundred percent for CTE centers.

[31:56] There was no bonding No.

[32:00] Through legislative. Yeah.

[32:01] It was just that they didn't build a lot of 'em

[32:05] and you know,

[32:06] but that's to your point of a, of a single district

[32:10] and the whole state supporting the CTE center,

[32:15] that's essentially what was happening in the past

[32:17] through different mechanisms.

[32:19] Yeah. So again, the, the assumption

[32:21] of this is we are not getting our bond our any kind

[32:25] of our census tape through any other means

[32:27] besides this bond.

[32:28] Right. Which I do not know as of right now.

[32:33] As of right now, I'm gonna assume

[32:35] we are paying for the whole thing.

[32:37] At some point in the future there might be other means in

[32:40] which could pay help pay for this.

[32:42] And I truly hope that there is

[32:44] and we don't mind searching for those things either.

[32:47] I will find every pot of money.

[32:55] Any additional questions or concerns.

[33:01] I see the, the, are we do, is it for simplicity's sake

[33:05] or are we, or

[33:07] or what's, what's the status of the 149 versus 140

[33:13] price tag gymnasium?

[33:15] No gymnasium decision.

[33:17] I think the direction we got from the board when we last

[33:20] talked about this was just let's move forward

[33:23] with a full amount and just do the whole thing.

[33:28] I think there was some discussion at that time of if we,

[33:32] if the bond vote failed in November, then we might come back

[33:37] later without the gym portion of it.

[33:41] But that it made sense to go move forward with the vision

[33:44] of the board for the full day and to have that there. Okay,

[33:48] Thank you.

[33:51] So kind of finalize my portion of the presentation.

[33:54] I just wanted to emphasize transparency.

[33:56] For the best available estimates that I have right now,

[34:00] I am committed to providing with ongoing updates

[34:04] as new data becomes available,

[34:05] I'm still waiting on one town.

[34:07] So when I get that information, I'll share that

[34:09] I hear anything about construction cost

[34:13] coverage or anything like that.

[34:14] I definitely, or if you hear anything,

[34:17] definitely share it my way

[34:20] and I'm just really excited.

[34:23] Really excited. And so the,

[34:28] the last slide here is just the project schedule.

[34:31] So tonight the board hopefully will reaffirm

[34:35] that it wants us to move forward

[34:37] with $149 million bond vote.

[34:40] We will warn that vote, assuming

[34:43] that happens on September 8th at our next board meeting.

[34:47] And that would take place on November four.

[34:50] The votes would be comm mingled on the November 6th.

[34:53] So we would not know on November four what the outcome was.

[34:55] We would know by end of day on November 6th.

[34:59] And then if it was a positive outcome, we would move forward

[35:03] with building design and permits, then construction

[35:05] and then with the plan of opening in September of 2029.

[35:09] Jody. Alright, go ahead. I saw Paul Malone and then

[35:15] Thank you.

[35:18] I have a little bit of history here with the career center

[35:22] as well as the high school.

[35:24] I was a chair of the high school board for a number

[35:27] of years, which incorporated the CDCC.

[35:30] I also became the chair of the new BUSD board

[35:34] for the first two years of that.

[35:36] That was fun with COVID and everything else.

[35:38] So I'm, I'm really very rational with numbers

[35:42] and data pours outta my ears.

[35:44] It's just what I, I have some concerns and some issues.

[35:49] The first one, I, I would ask you to indulge me

[35:52] for about five minutes because when I was looking at the

[35:56] news article and I was looking at the,

[35:58] the historical framing of this

[35:59] and also looking at the sites, I, I served on a couple

[36:01] of the boards as its chair in the town of Perry as well.

[36:05] So I have a little bit more of an insight,

[36:07] a little bit more knowledge.

[36:08] And since this is being proposed

[36:09] to be constructed in our backyard,

[36:12] I thought maybe I would come forward

[36:14] and share some of my thoughts.

[36:16] There is an affordability factor that is,

[36:19] has risen in this state.

[36:20] Just over a year, year and a half ago, there were dozens

[36:24] and dozens of communities in this state

[36:26] that defeated their school budgets.

[36:28] Affordability became a very, very real thing

[36:31] and it still is, hasn't gone away.

[36:34] This led to a shakeup in our legislature, change

[36:37] of the balances and so forth that there was just part of a,

[36:41] a radical shift

[36:42] because people had reached at

[36:45] that time the end of their agenda.

[36:48] This hasn't changed much.

[36:50] This led to the current redistricting proposals out there.

[36:54] We're not sure how that's gonna end up

[36:56] and what that's going to do.

[36:58] This may even have an, an effect on the existing buildings.

[37:02] We may have buildings,

[37:03] we may be closing some buildings in the state.

[37:05] I'm talking about education from a 30,000 foot elevation,

[37:09] something I'm used to doing

[37:11] and looking at what does this look like for our area.

[37:15] And a lot of the really small schools that when you go back

[37:19] to Act 60 was kind of intended to close a lot

[37:22] of those smaller schools 'cause they became very,

[37:24] very expensive at that time.

[37:26] I remember Roxbury for example,

[37:28] the average cost per pupil under

[37:30] that particular formula was somewhere

[37:32] around $46,000 a year for student.

[37:35] Which I thought was equivalent to a Harvard education.

[37:38] I won't go into that, but the declining enrollments in

[37:42] students across the state of Vermont

[37:43] and the general cost of education increasing the idea

[37:48] of tacking on another eight

[37:49] or 9% on top of everything else for the next 30 years

[37:54] is difficult to really fathom for a lot of the people

[37:57] who make my phone ring off code sometimes

[37:59] because they still think I'm still seeing on a board,

[38:01] which I am not the, the concern that we have is

[38:06] that over the 30 years time, even if everything was frozen,

[38:11] there was no increase in the cost of education.

[38:13] Which I don't think anybody's sitting on a board

[38:16] will recognize that as being the case.

[38:17] Costs just seem to be going up

[38:20] and generally speaking it is gonna go up a rate

[38:22] that's higher than nutrition.

[38:24] It has done so for the last, oh I don't know,

[38:27] 25, 30 years since I've been gone to schools

[38:31] building the state of the art building may be,

[38:34] but it's not necessary as far as what most of the people

[38:38] that talk to me about, if Randolph can accept 40 students,

[38:44] there's probably a lot of other school systems where there

[38:48] to declar enrollments that are affected

[38:50] the same way Randolph is.

[38:51] They could take in students,

[38:54] maybe we're looking at it from a different point of view

[38:56] that we should be looking at satellites.

[38:59] There are a lot of school districts across the country when

[39:03] I was in Virginia saw that there were district satellite

[39:06] entities and they seem to work very well.

[39:09] True enough there's gonna be ***** no matter what you do

[39:12] as far as where you set things up, whether they be satellite

[39:15] or you have the state of the art building.

[39:18] The graniteville district kind of concerned me

[39:21] because that's their water district.

[39:22] And the water district from my understanding,

[39:24] doesn't have the capacity for this.

[39:26] So I have a real stranges quirky question.

[39:29] My back of my head is,

[39:30] where will the water come from to supply this?

[39:33] 'cause right now that needs a tremendous upgrade.

[39:36] I don't know about the sewer capacities.

[39:38] I know we, we are coed with Barry City for that.

[39:44] And as was mentioned on your presentation,

[39:49] there is some concerns about traffic.

[39:51] Those of us who live in the town, you're gonna have

[39:54] to come up some state hills.

[39:55] You're gonna come to some interesting intersections to get

[39:58] to this location.

[39:59] Which passing understanding is in the farthest corner

[40:03] of the district that this is a interesting place

[40:08] and, and most of us who lived

[40:10] around these general areas knew that there were wetlands

[40:13] and other concerns and obviously not

[40:14] showing up in their maps.

[40:19] We had a response

[40:22] after we had formed our Act 46 group

[40:26] and we realized there were so many other acts

[40:28] that the state was throwing at us.

[40:30] We just couldn't keep up with it.

[40:31] Act 1 73, which dealt with the special ed formula, caused us

[40:36] to buy a piece of property

[40:38] and build what we called as the sea building.

[40:41] And that was the intent

[40:42] to bring in our special ed kids back in

[40:45] because we didn't want to get hammered.

[40:47] 'cause we were told at the time it might cost us a million

[40:50] or two a year, an extra expense to the district.

[40:53] So it made sense to maybe put a couple million

[40:55] dollars in building, building.

[40:57] However that project went 50% over.

[41:01] And we also found out that

[41:04] the way the X 2073 panned out to, we built it basically

[41:10] on a theory and it never panned out.

[41:13] As much as I believe in tech schools

[41:15] and I do believe in tech technology

[41:17] is is very, very important.

[41:18] I believe in education or I wouldn't even be here

[41:21] tonight to talk about it.

[41:24] I'm aware of many of the neighbors in my community that said

[41:28] that they've hit the maximum what they can pay.

[41:32] So if you say an average cost of a home is around 300,000,

[41:36] you are looking at something between oh 110

[41:40] and $140 per house at that range.

[41:45] That's, that's a sizeable increase when you look at it

[41:49] in the real scale of

[41:51] what housing in Vermont has gone since COVID came in

[41:54] those housing numbers.

[41:55] I'm not even sure $300,000 will get you

[41:58] into a decent house anymore.

[42:00] I know there's a lot of people that are in Barr Town,

[42:02] particularly the town that I live in

[42:05] who have properties are way more than that

[42:08] and a lot of 'em are probably paying one to

[42:13] one and a half thousand dollars per month.

[42:15] That used to be a big mortgage many years ago.

[42:18] Right now that's just the ordinary tax.

[42:21] I would encourage you to look at, you know, the,

[42:26] the facts that we're going

[42:27] to have continuing education increase

[42:29] and maybe look outside the box.

[42:32] Whenever I was designing buildings and

[42:34] and doing construction so forth, we looked at, you know,

[42:38] optimum ways to stretching that dollar homeowners

[42:41] and businesses wanted that from us and that was important.

[42:45] I know these gentlemen have done a good job.

[42:47] I mean when we were involved with our C building,

[42:50] I was involved with that committee very directly

[42:52] and talked about its expansion

[42:54] because we thought that's exactly

[42:55] what was going to have to happen.

[42:57] And we allowed for an expansion

[43:00] by planning its infrastructure

[43:01] but that purpose we're not fully filled on

[43:05] that building at this point.

[43:07] That kind of concerns me too.

[43:08] 'cause that's another thing that we are concerned about.

[43:12] It's not that I'm against technical education,

[43:14] quite the contrary.

[43:16] I think it's a very, very important habit.

[43:19] But we are in a state, this is not northern Virginia,

[43:21] we're in a state right now

[43:22] where people are actually having a hard time, A,

[43:25] getting housing B, being able to afford housing

[43:28] and C are having a hard time making all ends.

[43:31] B we are a state of older population.

[43:35] I hear gives testimony to that.

[43:37] And as a result of that, there are a lot of people

[43:40] who are on fixed incomes.

[43:42] We have a difficult time making ends meet.

[43:45] They shouldn't have to choose between their medicines,

[43:49] their their food, clothing and shelter.

[43:53] And they have a tax burden on top of that.

[43:55] 'cause every one of them making that, not to mention energy,

[43:58] energy is a real big problem right now

[44:00] and in this state we've gone in these directions

[44:03] and made it next to it possible.

[44:05] I don't think the legislators really had a clue as to

[44:08] what was gonna happen with Act 1 27.

[44:11] But it was a big blow up. The idea change in models.

[44:14] Once again, coming back to special ed, we don't,

[44:18] we don't know what's gonna happen in the near future.

[44:21] That's the problem we're talking about.

[44:24] What happens to this school system.

[44:27] For example, our population is drawn tremendously

[44:32] and some days we have maybe four

[44:34] or 500 kids in this building, which used

[44:35] to have 13, 14, 1500 kids.

[44:38] That's just one building

[44:39] and we're watching our populations decline.

[44:43] We no longer have, you know, three or 4,000 students.

[44:46] We're now headed towards under 2200 students

[44:48] for this entire district.

[44:50] That's Barry and Barry down,

[44:52] which in this circle is the largest district.

[44:56] What is the burden?

[44:58] I was listening to

[44:59] how this bond might work out if students shift, does

[45:03] that mean that the bond ratios that been put together

[45:06] for the 18 towns also shift?

[45:08] It sounded like it a minute ago.

[45:11] And that's leads to another thing of uncertainty.

[45:15] And we shouldn't go into something

[45:16] with an uncertainty principle.

[45:19] I hope it didn't discourage you,

[45:21] but I just thought somebody had

[45:22] to say it was my ears been getting bent quite a bit on it

[45:25] and I just thought I'd share that. Thank you. Thank you.

[45:28] Thanks.

[45:34] This isn't clear. I thought somebody else

[45:36] Had No I On a different issue.

[45:39] Okay, let's roll with this one.

[45:42] I just wanna say I am a strong support of the test school.

[45:45] I think it's awesome what they offer

[45:47] and I always feel bad for the students that want to go

[45:50] that can't attend for that year.

[45:53] 'cause I know it impacts their,

[45:55] their plans and their future.

[45:59] Speaking about this district, Mr. Malone is,

[46:03] is accurate when he says we just this one year we've lost

[46:06] eight students at Swanley High School

[46:09] and which is quite concerning

[46:13] because it was, it used to be 1600 students here.

[46:17] I went to school here and I remember when it was packed.

[46:20] But anyways, and,

[46:21] but they have a $70 million budget here that we're paying

[46:26] for taxes and in addition to all the property taxes.

[46:31] So I really would like to see this happen,

[46:35] but I just have some questions before we get there.

[46:38] Was there a cost benefit analysis done on

[46:43] the existing building versus the new deal as far

[46:47] as getting your needs here to,

[46:50] do you know if that was done at all?

[46:54] Yes, we actually had the architects design

[46:57] what it would look like to add the spaces here

[47:00] for us to be able to do that.

[47:02] Okay. It doesn't fit. Okay.

[47:04] There are some concerns about this being a floodplain.

[47:07] As you know, we have not had this building tested for PCBs

[47:11] yet, so there might be some mitigation there.

[47:13] Okay. So there's, there are a lot of potential factors

[47:17] and if we're renovating any part of the space to become

[47:21] lab spaces, there are very different spaces than

[47:24] classroom spaces.

[47:26] Okay. So it's a pretty significant shift as far as heights

[47:29] of ceilings ability to carry weight.

[47:32] So we did look at that

[47:34] and we did actually bring it to the very board.

[47:36] You did? Gosh, it was a while ago, two years ago, Joe,

[47:41] I'm not sure if it was two, but it was a while ago

[47:42] Was, wasn't there also an issue that,

[47:44] that we don't own this building?

[47:48] Right. And so I can't remember

[47:50] what it was until I thought that.

[47:52] Right. Honestly,

[47:54] I don't think anyone's answered the question

[47:55] of if CT has become a single district

[47:58] who owns the CTE spaces

[47:59] because the, the funds were direct CTE funds

[48:04] that pay for the spaces.

[48:06] So that's a, that's a really good question,

[48:07] but right now we can pay a facility to use fee for a lot

[48:11] of the infrastructure that is part of the full building.

[48:14] Yeah. Well and we also have the issue that we can't use

[48:18] our grant funding for upgrades

[48:21] because we don't own the building.

[48:22] Right. Question.

[48:26] So beyond the students, which I think would be great.

[48:29] Is there any other plans

[48:30] and you probably haven't got here yet, like for

[48:35] adult workforce training?

[48:37] Yes. Okay. So one of the, one of the things

[48:40] that I've been doing a lot of research on is just

[48:44] CTE across our country.

[48:46] And there are a lot of benefits in just

[48:50] training students here, high school students

[48:52] and what they get and bring to our communities

[48:54] because more of them tend to stay in the communities.

[48:57] And of course I think Lyman, you were talking about this

[48:59] before the meeting started, the average salary

[49:02] that they get coming straight out of tech school instead

[49:05] of straight out of high school

[49:06] and entering in as an apprentice

[49:08] and as an electrician for example,

[49:10] is much higher than their peers

[49:11] that they're sending schools.

[49:13] So their earning potential

[49:14] and their ability to potentially settle here

[49:16] and be part of that tax base is also higher.

[49:21] We are on the precipice of signing an agreement

[49:25] with district six emergency services to do all

[49:27] of their training and the funds that they get for the grants

[49:31] that they get for their training.

[49:33] And some state grants are coming to us to pilot this so

[49:36] that we do it all here, partly

[49:38] because we have redundant equipment

[49:41] and so they won't have to keep investing in equipment

[49:43] that we already have and we have the spaces

[49:45] to do the training instead of having

[49:47] to pull the firetrucks out of the fire station so

[49:49] that they can do a training day.

[49:51] So that's something that we're soon to sign off on.

[49:54] I would say within the next two weeks

[49:58] we have a new adult ed coordinator who's working

[50:01] on some other pieces.

[50:02] And so we're looking at growing not only

[50:04] where our high school students have access,

[50:06] but also any training for adult education.

[50:08] So it, we're hoping

[50:10] that this new facility will be a much better hub for all of

[50:13] that and to support all

[50:15] of the workforce development in our region.

[50:18] I have one last questions to her.

[50:21] One, if one

[50:22] of the sunny districts will know, we won't know.

[50:27] We won't know. Our votes are commingled,

[50:30] so we just have the end result of yeses and nos.

[50:33] Okay. So it's a majority.

[50:35] And from these towns it seems like it's gonna be

[50:37] hard for them to budget.

[50:40] Will there be like a heads up

[50:41] or some kind of That's a really good question

[50:46] and we're gonna do the best we can

[50:48] to provide all the information that we do.

[50:49] As you've sat through a couple of my roadshows in December

[50:53] where I go and let everybody know where's our budget at,

[50:56] what, what's the impact on you?

[51:00] But we're all gonna have to wait and see what happens.

[51:03] There are so many things

[51:04] that we just can't predict right now that we're,

[51:06] that's why we're sitting with these FY 26 numbers

[51:09] because that's the only thing we have that's real right now.

[51:13] And there's nothing that we can predict.

[51:15] So are these numbers real?

[51:17] No, because they apply

[51:18] as if we were paying back something this year under

[51:21] everything that's currently happening.

[51:23] And any change to that shifts those numbers.

[51:26] Thank you so much.

[51:30] I just wanted to address one

[51:32] thing, Mr. Malone, is that right?

[51:33] Yes. Line and gas.

[51:36] The, the idea of Randolph that I had the same idea you did,

[51:41] which was if Randolph could take 40 of our kids

[51:44] and other schools could take some,

[51:46] we'd be set and we'd be fine.

[51:48] And Jody, I thought you responded very well to me, which was

[51:53] now we're talking about a kid somehow getting from Cabot

[51:57] to here, Cabot from their house to cab school to here

[52:03] to Randolph in the middle of winter

[52:07] is a long way away.

[52:09] They'll, they'll spend more time on the bus than they

[52:12] will in the building.

[52:13] I believe it'll be right around the same.

[52:16] And so that's not an ideal.

[52:19] Well I I would add to that,

[52:20] that if you've been watching North Southwest has had two

[52:24] meetings with Pain Mountain School District

[52:27] where they're trying to talk about should they move forward

[52:30] with a merger idea ahead of

[52:33] what the legislature is gonna do.

[52:34] And some very folks, very board folks were there to listen

[52:39] at their last meeting last week, which is the same time

[52:42] as the Washington Central meeting.

[52:44] And basically what I interpreted was

[52:47] that Orange Southwest is saying Randolph school has,

[52:50] is going to, in the near future,

[52:52] have some pretty big failures that are gonna cost them a lot

[52:55] of money and that they would need a new building.

[52:58] And so they were looking for Paine Mountain

[53:01] to potentially join 'em

[53:03] and build a new regional high school in

[53:05] Randolph with a tech center.

[53:09] Our new center could potentially take care of our region

[53:14] and the Randolph students

[53:15] because they're 106 with our students.

[53:22] I'd like to respond to you.

[53:24] I'm the kind of a person that likes

[53:26] to think outta the box.

[53:27] In fact, I usually pretend there is no box.

[53:30] You know, Randolph was a long ways to go.

[53:32] My, my first commentary to that would be

[53:35] that there are a lot of buildings in this district,

[53:37] the overall what might be a new state district, who knows?

[53:41] But there's an awful lot of space that is trying

[53:43] to be created in a lot of the schools

[53:45] to constantly closing schools

[53:47] because there's that much space

[53:49] and small populations kind of forces you to that.

[53:54] So two, two ways of answering that is maybe to look,

[53:57] look at all the schools that we have right now, which are,

[53:59] you're sending the schools and say, is there, is there a way

[54:02] to maybe do satellites

[54:03] or another way to look at that is go ahead the bond go,

[54:07] if it fails, then you come back

[54:08] to looking at maybe some satellite programs.

[54:12] I don't see any other route to that,

[54:14] but that's, I I don't serve in your capacity

[54:17] and you have a a, a way in blaming these two. But it is

[54:22] No, I I I think these are all things

[54:24] that we've been discussing over the past couple of years

[54:28] and there's a lot of yes, ands, let's do this.

[54:32] And there's also a well, but this doesn't work

[54:35] because of this reason.

[54:38] We've kind of been juggling all of those things for,

[54:42] since the district was started.

[54:44] And

[54:46] If, if the state was building tech centers like they did

[54:50] before, go back some time to when this meeting was put on

[54:55] and they were gonna do that a hundred percent.

[54:57] There's no question in my mind. I like the pretty pictures.

[55:01] I like what, what you're trying to do.

[55:02] I like the idea you expanded program,

[55:05] but what's going to be the thing that holds everything up is

[55:08] how do people who actually pay for this,

[55:12] I'm not speaking for myself personally,

[55:16] having put poor kids through college, I can tell you clearly

[55:20] that it's, it's, it's an interesting path

[55:24] and, you know, education costs.

[55:26] But in this reality, in this day and age

[55:29] and being in the state, Vermont

[55:31] moneys are drying up in a lot of different quarters.

[55:33] And you are, our economic growth is,

[55:36] is not really like it was say cir

[55:39] nineties, eighties and so on. That's all I say.

[55:43] Thank you.

[55:49] Anyone online have any questions or concerns?

[55:55] Come on Guy.

[56:02] Can can I ask another quick question? Michelle?

[56:05] I was looking in your, what remains uncertain yield

[56:08] and CLA adjustments are in there.

[56:10] And is that only for like taking, like figuring out

[56:14] how much a specific town would,

[56:18] it would cost a, a 300,000?

[56:20] It's not the actual like proportional. Right. Okay, cool.

[56:24] Right. Yeah, it's simply like XX number

[56:28] of students on average over the last six semesters came

[56:31] from Montpelier.

[56:32] So that proportion of the, the bond bill is paid

[56:36] by Montpelier and then you divide up based on the property.

[56:39] Yep. By grant risk, whatever. Yeah. Fantastic.

[56:42] Now I'm ready to explain the tax system.

[56:48] I mean at, at the end of the day it seems like it has test

[56:51] for me because broadly speaking

[56:54] the project is gonna add about 4.5%

[56:57] to the total expenditures of the 18 towns.

[57:00] And we saw that there's an average about five

[57:02] and three quarter percent

[57:03] or something like that, which probably accounts

[57:05] for financing costs

[57:06] or variability in the, in the

[57:09] translating my rough numbers to real numbers.

[57:13] So to me it passes the sniff test.

[57:15] It may be a little conservative,

[57:20] which is probably where you want to be.

[57:26] Todd, I heard something from my, I thought so.

[57:27] Thought so too. Did anyone try to raise a hand?

[57:33] Alright, well that brings us to

[57:38] conclusion of our discussion.

[57:41] What action does our career center need from the

[57:46] board at this time, if any?

[57:50] I don't have that. We do, sorry to close my computer,

[57:54] but the authorization to draft a warning to get this

[57:59] to our taxpayers.

[58:03] I do have the warning, I do have the language

[58:05] for this summary, but we're just drafting,

[58:08] we're agreeing to draft one.

[58:10] We're not authorizing the warning at this time. No. Correct.

[58:12] I just need you to authorize the ability to drop the warning

[58:16] to bring it to the taxpayer.

[58:18] Okay. So we need a motion for the board to draft a warning

[58:23] announcing the, the bond vote

[58:27] and allowing all those who have

[58:31] significant input to put that together.

[58:34] So I need a motion to draft a warning for the bond vote.

[58:38] I'll make that motion. Alice. Thank you. All right guy.

[58:42] Need a second? A second. Patrick, any discussion?

[58:50] Any questions? Hearing none.

[58:54] All those in favor, please say aye.

[58:56] Aye. Aye. Aye.

[58:58] Aye. Okay. We got everyone in the room.

[59:03] Everyone online. Okay.

[59:07] Any dissension?

[59:11] Any abstentions?

[59:14] Hearing none. Motion carries.

[59:22] Now who will work on that?

[59:24] Me, we're gonna bring it to legal counsel

[59:27] and then we'll bring you the morning for official approval

[59:31] next September 8th.

[59:34] All right. So we will hear from our school administration

[59:39] and legal counsel on September 8th.

[59:43] Can I, for the purposes of our tenants, can I ask,

[59:47] who is the phone number that ends in eight six?

[59:53] This is Yara Mosquito. Oh, thank you Yara.

[59:59] Okay, thank you. All right,

[1:00:03] Just a process question.

[1:00:04] Yes. So we just need to get that vetted warning

[1:00:08] to the town clerks, like, whatever,

[1:00:10] 40 days or something like that.

[1:00:12] 30 days, whatever they're Yep. Before,

[1:00:15] Yeah, before vote.

[1:00:17] I had to start a Google sheet. 'cause there's a

[1:00:18] Lot of, they all have

[1:00:20] In all the different towns. Thank

[1:00:23] You.

[1:00:24] Thank you. Thank you guys.

[1:00:27] Work my way backwards on this one.

[1:00:29] On on that same note,

[1:00:30] the question I was gonna ask earlier was,

[1:00:32] we have the town clerks on to process the votes.

[1:00:38] They're all aware. They're all aware.

[1:00:40] They've had some conversations,

[1:00:41] they've asked some questions.

[1:00:42] Okay. But they know it's coming

[1:00:44] and they've been providing me with

[1:00:46] where the voting will take place

[1:00:48] and the the hours they'll be open.

[1:00:50] So we're updating that information. Awesome.

[1:00:55] All right. Moving forward. Marketing updates.

[1:01:02] I'll have two tomatoes and a zucchini.

[1:01:05] Careful when asking the zucchinis

[1:01:13] uc.

[1:01:16] So a lot of doors around here.

[1:01:19] Last week a small cohort of folks had the opportunity

[1:01:22] to look at three campaigns.

[1:01:26] I think Todd was probably the only board member there.

[1:01:31] Options that the marketing team had put together

[1:01:35] and to give some feedback

[1:01:36] and we did give some pretty direct feedback that was linked

[1:01:40] to some documents the board got.

[1:01:44] And later the next day, August 21st, Michelle

[1:01:48] and I received a, like the media plan

[1:01:53] in the original agreement.

[1:01:54] There's, I have a couple of concerns,

[1:01:58] but one of which is that they've decided

[1:02:00] to take away a direct mailer.

[1:02:02] And I think that our, I wanted

[1:02:04] to get feedback from the board

[1:02:05] because I feel like our communities expect

[1:02:07] our budget postcard.

[1:02:09] And so not doing that for a bond vote worries me

[1:02:14] that people will be expecting it and they won't get it.

[1:02:18] I wonder if I should just present the media piece

[1:02:22] that they asked us for feedback on

[1:02:26] Somebody in the packet online, right?

[1:02:28] I think I sent it today. Yeah.

[1:02:31] Be updated. Yeah.

[1:02:33] Strongly recommended to direct mail or to constituents.

[1:02:36] It's the most surefire way to hit everybody. Yeah,

[1:02:39] People like it.

[1:02:41] We've gotten the most feedback on our direct mailers than

[1:02:45] anything that we, so there was a recommendation

[1:02:47] that the majority of the majority of what they were going

[1:02:50] to do would be through social media.

[1:02:52] So we do, we did upgrade our Facebook to a paid Facebook

[1:02:57] and we've upgraded all of our Instagrams

[1:02:59] for every single program so that they're all linked to it so

[1:03:02] that we can push out information on Instagram and Facebook

[1:03:07] and so can our marketing team, they will do lawn signs

[1:03:11] and brochures for

[1:03:14] print purposes.

[1:03:16] And the lawn signs and brochures are probably what's coming.

[1:03:19] First. They propose some 32nd radio spots

[1:03:25] on three channels.

[1:03:28] So they are froggy

[1:03:31] and Frank and one other.

[1:03:35] DEV? No,

[1:03:37] We said no, No,

[1:03:39] No.

[1:03:40] The point. No, no, we said no. Sorry.

[1:03:43] Let me hold it Up at DEV. Okay. That's,

[1:03:46] Oh, okay.

[1:03:47] And, and you are searches for the

[1:03:49] Record.

[1:03:50] Memel is my name. Meyers Rome.

[1:03:52] Okay, say that one more time.

[1:03:55] Memel. M-E-R-M-E-L. Okay. First name Meyers. M-Y-E-R-S.

[1:04:01] So froggy, Frank and the penguin.

[1:04:03] And they did note that WDEB said no

[1:04:08] and then placing ads in the times RES basically

[1:04:12] every other week between our, our warning decision

[1:04:16] that happened September 8th meeting

[1:04:18] and up until the bond vote.

[1:04:22] I'm curious about the statement about why they

[1:04:25] didn't include direct mail.

[1:04:27] While we love the impact of a well-designed mailer,

[1:04:31] we have found other channels

[1:04:32] to be much more efficient in reaching the right people.

[1:04:37] And yeah, I just,

[1:04:41] So we have to provide feedback to them by the 30th

[1:04:44] and I'm happy to do it actually by tomorrow, but,

[1:04:48] and that's one where I feel like that was part

[1:04:51] of our agreement with 'em, is

[1:04:52] that there would be a direct mailing

[1:04:54] and that we have to hold them to that.

[1:04:56] Yeah, I would push back on that

[1:04:58] and ask if, if they have any, like to provide some sort

[1:05:02] of rationale evidence support for those, for that statement.

[1:05:06] 'cause

[1:05:08] And of the three campaigns, the strongest one was honestly

[1:05:11] based on education networks, which is our tagline

[1:05:15] and which they actually created all of our, our tagline

[1:05:19] and our, what am I talking about?

[1:05:23] The images? Logo. Logo. Logo, thank you. Several years ago.

[1:05:26] So it's not anything new that they're providing in this,

[1:05:30] it's building off of what they had created before.

[1:05:33] Jody, can you explain a little bit on the, the notes

[1:05:38] that you have on that, that sheet

[1:05:41] and this idea that a lot of this stuff That's

[1:05:46] whether it's we're doing it, they're doing it.

[1:05:51] Yeah. So I shared with the board

[1:05:55] just a spreadsheet of here's what was in our contract,

[1:05:59] here's what we've gotten so far as far as the deliverables

[1:06:02] and the date that we received it.

[1:06:04] And then a few concerns just,

[1:06:08] I think this is their first bond vote.

[1:06:10] And so helping them to realize what we can

[1:06:13] and can't say, we can't put line on signs out to say,

[1:06:17] vote yes, we can say please vote.

[1:06:21] So, you know, those sort of nuances

[1:06:23] that we've been working through.

[1:06:25] There was at one point a time when Michelle reached out

[1:06:28] to have a meeting with 'em 'cause we were concerned about

[1:06:30] our timeline and we weren't seeing anything yet

[1:06:33] and we were declined that meeting.

[1:06:37] There's a lot of phrasing in the first, the three campaigns

[1:06:40] that they offered us that ha have some negative statements

[1:06:43] like education can't wait

[1:06:46] or were, were out of capacity in the space.

[1:06:51] Not outta Hope. Outta hope.

[1:06:52] Which didn't land well for anyone on the committee

[1:06:54] that heard that one, honestly.

[1:06:57] And we're like, that's no, that's not,

[1:06:59] that doesn't feel right for us ourselves against Hope.

[1:07:02] Right? And so what I can say is nobody was afraid to share

[1:07:06] that these, this did not resonate with us.

[1:07:08] And that the education networks really was the best option

[1:07:11] so far that they had been working with.

[1:07:13] And they understood that and they took those notes

[1:07:15] and they got that feedback.

[1:07:17] So I feel like we're going to see that shift.

[1:07:20] It was just, it, it feels like we have a short timeline

[1:07:23] and it's not happening as fast as we would like it to.

[1:07:25] And it's not looking as beautiful

[1:07:28] as I would hope right away.

[1:07:31] We have been collecting information about key stakeholders

[1:07:34] and Yara, you're on the phone, thank you so much

[1:07:36] for your willingness to be interviewed.

[1:07:39] Should they reach out to some of our alumni.

[1:07:43] And that's a hope that we have.

[1:07:44] And we're using those stakeholders with our other consultant

[1:07:47] for our comprehensive local needs as assessment as well.

[1:07:50] And we're currently, you'll see in this week, we'll

[1:07:54] that we're reaching out asking alumni

[1:07:55] and parents, if you are willing to be interviewed for part

[1:07:58] of this process to talk about why you might support this

[1:08:01] or why CBCC for your kiddo, or how, how our education works.

[1:08:07] That's, those are people who are hoping that we'll volunteer

[1:08:10] and let us know so that they can be interviewed

[1:08:12] by both sets of consultants.

[1:08:15] We're wondering about the world.

[1:08:16] A lot of people, as I think Todd wrote to me earlier today,

[1:08:19] lots of people read it just for the obituaries.

[1:08:21] But we might be in there

[1:08:24] and be able to get some, we do some advertisements in there.

[1:08:27] Why wasn't the world mentioned?

[1:08:28] Is Vermont Digger someplace that we're gonna reach out to?

[1:08:31] Is WCAX someplace we're gonna reach out to?

[1:08:34] Our videography class is gonna be doing a podcasting unit.

[1:08:37] They're wanting to do some of this work too

[1:08:40] and see how they can share stories.

[1:08:44] One of our teachers said, what about a lobbyist?

[1:08:47] And I know Myers, you're here to talk about

[1:08:50] what you're thinking we might need, which is different than

[1:08:53] what we've been presented with.

[1:08:55] And so I just wanted the board to have a conversation about

[1:08:58] what are, what are our expectations for this marketing team?

[1:09:02] And we set them and hold 'em to them.

[1:09:05] Or at what point if we feel like they're not making those

[1:09:10] expectations happen, what do we wanna do about that?

[1:09:14] Jenna question?

[1:09:16] Yeah. Yeah. I just was wondering if everybody had posted

[1:09:19] on Front Porch Forum.

[1:09:21] I haven't gotten any feedback from my post,

[1:09:24] but I was just wondering if, I mean,

[1:09:26] that seemed like a good vehicle,

[1:09:28] but it seems like until the bond comes up

[1:09:31] that it's a one shot thing.

[1:09:33] Until now we have to wait.

[1:09:35] I don't think we can keep posting the same kind of thing.

[1:09:39] And now we have to wait and remind people to vote.

[1:09:43] Yes, they'll be including some op-eds

[1:09:45] that was part of their plan as well.

[1:09:48] But as you know, that's that one

[1:09:49] that I asked you to post I created.

[1:09:52] Right. No, that was good.

[1:09:54] I put my name to it so that they could see it was local.

[1:09:58] But the other thing is,

[1:10:03] well, since I just forgot

[1:10:05] what I was gonna say, just forget it.

[1:10:08] So I'll just go away.

[1:10:12] Don't go away, guy.

[1:10:16] Yeah, a co a couple things.

[1:10:18] Follow up on the direct mail stuff.

[1:10:20] I'm, I'm of two minds

[1:10:23] and David, don't take offense to this

[1:10:25] 'cause it's not your fault, but I get my newspaper in the

[1:10:29] mail and I still haven't gotten my weekend newspaper

[1:10:32] and it's gonna be easy probably by the time I get it.

[1:10:36] So, but having heard some of the

[1:10:41] testimony tonight based on, you know, who some

[1:10:45] of the voters are, there are not a lot of, of people

[1:10:50] who are elderly

[1:10:51] and on fixed incomes who necessarily follow social media.

[1:10:56] So I've got a little bit of concern about that,

[1:11:00] but I also know that direct mail is,

[1:11:02] you know, can be expensive.

[1:11:04] The other thing I wanted to second is, you know,

[1:11:07] certainly the Washington world is,

[1:11:10] I think a lot of people pick it up.

[1:11:12] It's a freebie. And I also wonder about the

[1:11:15] Waterbury Roundabout.

[1:11:17] And I think it's an area where, you know,

[1:11:20] perhaps doesn't get reached by, you know, some

[1:11:23] of the other newspapers.

[1:11:25] And quite frankly, I think they were the only ones

[1:11:28] that appeared at, at some of the presentations that we did.

[1:11:32] So I certainly would give them a shot.

[1:11:35] And the last thing I would say, even though WDV has has

[1:11:40] stand us down or you know, is not interested in advertising

[1:11:43] or they're too expensive, they do have the Vermont Viewpoint

[1:11:48] Show where we could, you know,

[1:11:51] strategically get an interview on.

[1:11:54] And I'm more than happy to, you know, to contact, you know,

[1:11:59] certain people to, you know, to get Jody

[1:12:02] or you know, somebody else on to, you know,

[1:12:05] talk about the project.

[1:12:08] I think that's a great opening. Yeah.

[1:12:10] Let's just go to Lyman and then we'll go to

[1:12:12] Mr.

[1:12:13] Mayor. Just really quickly,

[1:12:13] I'm wondering if we could put together just some very short

[1:12:17] two or three sentence from porch forums,

[1:12:20] because I don't read anything.

[1:12:23] It's eight paragraphs along from anybody

[1:12:29] I, I read because, because I should,

[1:12:33] but I really think just some, let's hit 'em hard

[1:12:37] with these little blurbs

[1:12:39] that we've been talking about, I think would be great.

[1:12:42] Alright, Mr. Burl, do you have a presentation or something

[1:12:46] To say?

[1:12:47] Well, just something to say actually. Okay.

[1:12:49] I, so I'm the incoming owner at WDEV Radio Vermont.

[1:12:52] So I'm taking over what a great man started at Ken Squire.

[1:12:57] And we cover these 18 towns.

[1:12:58] We were recently ranked by Nielsen as having,

[1:13:01] as being number one across all age groups, 12 to 65

[1:13:05] with WBB across all of central and northern Vermont.

[1:13:08] We're 73% ahead of our next closest competitor.

[1:13:13] So we're very, we have a very fortunate place

[1:13:16] where we've earned the trust of Vermonters,

[1:13:18] but we also, we hear a lot of things.

[1:13:21] And so when I was approached by one of the,

[1:13:24] the media brokers, I know you don't have any money to spend,

[1:13:27] but I'm not here to ask for money.

[1:13:30] I'm here to, I'm here to ask you to point me in a direction.

[1:13:33] But let me tell you why. When I was first approached,

[1:13:38] they said, well, why didn't you just do five days

[1:13:40] of advertising for 10 days

[1:13:41] of advertising right before the vote?

[1:13:43] That's not enough. That's not even nearly enough.

[1:13:46] This is gonna be the second highest bond vote

[1:13:49] in the state of Vermont.

[1:13:50] And your towns,

[1:13:53] my my own eighth great grandfathers buried Perry.

[1:13:56] I know these towns, right, they don't have a lot of money

[1:13:58] to spend, but this is an investment to

[1:14:01] to, to turn things around.

[1:14:02] I wish Mr. Malone had stayed. Everything he said was right.

[1:14:06] People don't wanna make those decisions.

[1:14:08] But here's an, here's a chance

[1:14:10] to make an investment in these attempts

[1:14:12] to keep people together, to keep their families together,

[1:14:15] to provide jobs for their own children.

[1:14:18] That will turn the demographics around that alone.

[1:14:22] This is probably one of the most important,

[1:14:23] if not the most important project

[1:14:25] that Vermont is considering today.

[1:14:27] This is a construct of project, not a destructive project.

[1:14:31] Look at energy, healthcare, public safety,

[1:14:35] none of those things are working.

[1:14:36] Here's an opportunity to actually turn something around.

[1:14:39] So we're, we're very much in favor of this.

[1:14:41] We, we typically don't, don't get behind public project,

[1:14:45] but we want to get behind this one.

[1:14:46] This is very important.

[1:14:48] And our concern is, one of the things

[1:14:50] that Mr. Malone mentioned is that if this project doesn't go

[1:14:53] through November, that it's gonna be split into 15 different

[1:14:56] pieces because the new education agenda

[1:15:00] and that you're not gonna be able to consolidate people.

[1:15:02] You're not gonna build a project that you want to build

[1:15:04] that, that frankly our children deserve so

[1:15:08] that they can stay here and work here.

[1:15:10] AI is going to gut literally a lot, you know, 30 to 40%

[1:15:15] of these college graduates.

[1:15:16] But you can't, AI is not gonna replace somebody that comes

[1:15:19] to your house to fix your plumbing or your HVAC

[1:15:23] or drive the ambulance to come and get you.

[1:15:26] These jobs are gonna stay.

[1:15:27] And these are good paying jobs that, that will allow people

[1:15:31] to build, build equity in homes and buy homes

[1:15:34] and stay here, build families.

[1:15:35] So in that regard, our thought was, you know,

[1:15:39] there are 18 pounds and we were thinking of it more

[1:15:41] as a political campaign.

[1:15:43] John Rogers, you know, plumber hate took his first $40,000

[1:15:48] and spent it in WDE and built up this huge grassroots base

[1:15:51] because people listen to the radio.

[1:15:53] We have an older population, they typically don't go

[1:15:55] to digital, but we have a much better coverage of,

[1:15:59] of the population than, than the small papers do.

[1:16:03] So there's an opportunity sort of build grassroots support.

[1:16:05] But as I, as I talked to Jody, it's not clear that

[1:16:09] because you haven't had a lot

[1:16:10] of public attendance at these meetings,

[1:16:12] you don't really know what the public is thinking, right?

[1:16:14] So I've talked to the elected representatives, they,

[1:16:16] they're all negative, they're like, not gonna work, right?

[1:16:20] It's too much money. We, you know, not now,

[1:16:23] but what we thought might help would be a,

[1:16:27] a very quick poll of these 18 pounds,

[1:16:30] because it's not just money.

[1:16:32] I think Vermonters are naturally fiscally conservative,

[1:16:36] but they'll take risks, right?

[1:16:38] And they'll do, they'll stand up

[1:16:40] for the right And I think when they understand

[1:16:42] how important this project is to the wellbeing

[1:16:46] and the fiber of these towns, that they'll wanna support it.

[1:16:48] But you need to find out where, where your votes are.

[1:16:51] I mean, every yes vote regardless of

[1:16:52] where it comes from helps, right?

[1:16:54] So a poll would be able

[1:16:55] to isolate likely voters within these 18,

[1:17:00] within the 18 towns

[1:17:01] and point you in a direction that with additional media,

[1:17:04] and I mean very heavy advertising over the next two months,

[1:17:08] that you might be in a position to overcome.

[1:17:10] So I know that the board doesn't have the, the money

[1:17:12] to fund this, but what I wanted to, what I'd asked Jody is,

[1:17:16] you know, could you point in the direction

[1:17:17] of your five biggest supporters, right?

[1:17:20] We're willing to contribute as well.

[1:17:23] We can't, we can't volunteer at all

[1:17:26] and we certainly can't pay the pollsters,

[1:17:28] but would it be possible for me to meet with your,

[1:17:32] my biggest private company supporters?

[1:17:34] I know private companies have want this thing to succeed

[1:17:37] that will enjoy the, we will enjoy, like we will hire people

[1:17:40] to come out of this, out of this project.

[1:17:43] So would it be possible that I could talk to the,

[1:17:46] the private companies that are supporting this project

[1:17:49] and see if I could get support among them for something

[1:17:51] that's a little bit more robust?

[1:17:55] I I, I really think you need to hit it as hard as you can.

[1:17:58] People are coming back from vacation.

[1:18:00] I mean, they're gonna focus on, on the next 60 days.

[1:18:02] And it may have start,

[1:18:04] it may have should have started earlier,

[1:18:05] but you've got 16 days.

[1:18:06] It's not over yet. And so if you can really bear down

[1:18:09] and I'm more than happy to help if you can point me in the

[1:18:12] right direction for people to talk to.

[1:18:13] I know I'm not alone. So

[1:18:15] that's why I'm here to, to ask the board.

[1:18:20] Mr. Coleman, you have a question.

[1:18:24] Well, thank you very much. I see Guy had his hand up

[1:18:27] as well, but I'll, I'll take this.

[1:18:29] I did attend the marketing meeting with Jody and others.

[1:18:32] Michelle was there. And so I just wanted to reinforce some

[1:18:36] of her concerns about this marketing firm.

[1:18:39] And I know this is public

[1:18:41] and I'm gonna be as gentle as I can,

[1:18:43] but I don't feel like there was an urgency on the,

[1:18:48] from the people at the marketing firm

[1:18:50] because as this gentleman from WDEV,

[1:18:54] I'm sorry I didn't get your name.

[1:18:56] I just pointed out we don't have that much time.

[1:18:58] There's a lot of urgency

[1:19:00] and I felt like they hadn't really even done their homework.

[1:19:04] Of course they hadn't mentioned the world,

[1:19:06] they hadn't mentioned some

[1:19:07] of our local papers like the bridge, any of these sources.

[1:19:12] I know they reached out to DEV

[1:19:13] and they didn't feel like they got a warm reception.

[1:19:16] But again, the creativity

[1:19:21] that they were putting forth, as Jody pointed out,

[1:19:24] was also very limited.

[1:19:25] It was based on what they've done in the past.

[1:19:28] Not much real thought, I think was put into the,

[1:19:32] the taglines they came up with and the, the media messages

[1:19:37] and they kept going back to the survey that they created

[1:19:41] and presented to us.

[1:19:42] Well I think that survey was very simplistic.

[1:19:47] They've probably used versions of it in the past

[1:19:50] and the sample size was very limited.

[1:19:52] So I had some great

[1:19:56] about this firm.

[1:19:58] And so moving forward, I think if we do wanna continue

[1:20:01] with it, we need to give them very specific direction.

[1:20:05] And I think Jody mentioned many things.

[1:20:08] This board has brainstormed some great tactics

[1:20:12] already tonight.

[1:20:13] And I think those specific directions need to be

[1:20:18] given to the, to the directors there.

[1:20:21] I also wanna reiterate the, what

[1:20:25] I mentioned about mailers.

[1:20:29] I reached out to my good friend, my former student

[1:20:32] who was the director of tourism

[1:20:33] and marketing for the state of Vermont

[1:20:35] through three governors.

[1:20:36] Steve Cook, he just got back to me.

[1:20:39] Three of his children have gone through the career centers.

[1:20:42] He's a big support of that.

[1:20:45] And he said

[1:20:46] that he thinks mailers are a really important tool.

[1:20:50] I do too because I think they get to people's mailboxes.

[1:20:54] People like to get mail, they keep it on their tables.

[1:20:56] They might read it several times. They'll think about it.

[1:20:59] You put a URL on there

[1:21:01] and maybe not just one mailer, but maybe several.

[1:21:04] I know it's expensive,

[1:21:06] but we need to be in front of the public consistently.

[1:21:11] I think the gentleman from DEV made a very important point.

[1:21:14] And I was thinking about this when

[1:21:19] the gentleman was talking about Mr. Malone was talking,

[1:21:24] we need to invest in the future here in Vermont,

[1:21:26] we're very stagnant.

[1:21:28] People know that we're at a crossroads.

[1:21:31] We know young people aren't staying.

[1:21:33] Perhaps if we invest in our future,

[1:21:35] like this beautiful center, it will attract more families

[1:21:40] to come here and help our tax base.

[1:21:43] So we can't stay still. We have to move forward with this.

[1:21:47] And we have to look at it as very

[1:21:50] positive about the polling.

[1:21:53] Just just a comment about polling.

[1:21:55] I don't know a lot about it, but I know

[1:21:56] that it's small sample sizes

[1:21:59] and you can't predict the outcome.

[1:22:00] Typically with a poll we'll know who's against it,

[1:22:05] but we have to assume that people could be sprayed.

[1:22:09] And so with our, a good marketing campaign

[1:22:12] and effective tactics, not efficient,

[1:22:15] like maybe social media is efficient,

[1:22:18] but it's not always effective

[1:22:19] because as people have pointed out, it's difficult to reach

[1:22:25] who live in rural areas through social media.

[1:22:28] Sure, some of them may use Facebook marketplace

[1:22:30] to buy their backhoes or their tractors or whatever,

[1:22:33] but are they really gonna see something about

[1:22:37] the career center on Facebook?

[1:22:39] I don't, I don't know. I don't think so.

[1:22:41] Maybe just because I'm old fashioned.

[1:22:44] So I guess my message is,

[1:22:46] I was concerned about this marketing team

[1:22:49] presentations we've seen from them.

[1:22:51] I think we need to empower Jody to be very forward with

[1:22:55] that team and make some specific

[1:23:04] ourselves lawn signs.

[1:23:07] I don't know how effective they're gonna be,

[1:23:09] but we could go to a printer and have lawn signs made.

[1:23:13] So I just wanna throw all that out.

[1:23:14] And that's just my, my take on this at this point.

[1:23:19] I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has any

[1:23:26] Guy, do you need to add to anything?

[1:23:33] The news guy? I just wanna say,

[1:23:35] I just wanna say have me a hello.

[1:23:40] I would just, I would just add

[1:23:41] that there's no comment section for people

[1:23:44] to argue with on a mailer.

[1:23:54] Alright, so we're looking at

[1:23:59] drawing up specific actions for this marketing team

[1:24:04] and who will be responsible for delivering

[1:24:09] that message to the, our marketing team.

[1:24:14] Correct? Yes.

[1:24:17] So let's start with

[1:24:21] talking about some specific actions first.

[1:24:27] Anyone have some? So it, it appears that we seem

[1:24:31] to be in

[1:24:35] acceptance of the fact that we need to have a mailer.

[1:24:41] Anyone have any? Okay.

[1:24:42] So we'll make sure that they, we know

[1:24:45] that that a mailer

[1:24:48] One point that was brought up by Mr. Malone, which,

[1:24:52] you know, of course I don't want to,

[1:24:55] I don't want be in a position where I'm trying

[1:24:57] to rebut against people who are offering their opinion

[1:24:59] and public testimony.

[1:25:00] But I would offer that this comes up on every single job.

[1:25:04] There's always at least one person that says,

[1:25:06] but all the people on fixed income, they can't afford it.

[1:25:08] And this is one reason to perhaps drill down a little bit on

[1:25:12] the income sensitivity question.

[1:25:14] Because people

[1:25:15] who have on a fixed income are generally on the low end

[1:25:19] of the income spectrum.

[1:25:21] And they generally have a lot of relief from these kinds

[1:25:25] of tax increases

[1:25:26] because of tax income sensitivity in Vermont.

[1:25:29] So it's one of these things that's kind of like,

[1:25:31] I don't know, I don't necessarily know how to answer

[1:25:33] that question because I can't give strict facts and figures

[1:25:36] and I don't want to be accused of being wrong

[1:25:38] or having rose colored glasses.

[1:25:40] But I know in other projects they have calculated that

[1:25:44] and that threshold is actually fairly high.

[1:25:46] It's well above what most people are getting

[1:25:48] for likes social security

[1:25:49] and even if they have decent pension.

[1:25:52] So that's, and I don't know if that's something

[1:25:54] that can be explored in the future

[1:25:55] or if that's just a talking point that you give,

[1:25:58] that you have with people who have that concern.

[1:26:01] Because without saying, oh hey, you know, if you're,

[1:26:04] you make less than this, your tax impact is

[1:26:07] zero Short of that.

[1:26:08] I think you just have to sort of make them feel comfortable

[1:26:10] that the tax impact will be mitigated

[1:26:12] by income sensitivity for low income people.

[1:26:18] And then how, just as a question, a follow up question.

[1:26:22] The business people though, they certainly are going

[1:26:26] to have some kind of a concern about this.

[1:26:33] We would need to say something to them as well.

[1:26:36] I landlords and,

[1:26:38] and what, when you start talking about individuals

[1:26:41] who are landlords, that that affects the tenants

[1:26:45] because the rent goes up.

[1:26:48] So that's all.

[1:26:50] And I say this from the, the perspective

[1:26:52] of having been on the berry board for so many years

[1:26:55] that I have seen the ease

[1:26:57] with which some budgets were pla passed

[1:27:00] and the stress with, with others.

[1:27:04] So, and, and those were our

[1:27:08] biggest challenges was making it clear to tenants

[1:27:12] and landlords and business people that commercial operators.

[1:27:16] I just realized it's probably not clear why I brought

[1:27:18] that up, but it was, I was thinking ahead about maybe it's

[1:27:21] not even, maybe it's not just one mailer,

[1:27:23] especially if you're thinking that a mailer is the best way

[1:27:26] to reach people who, again, I don't know if,

[1:27:29] if the stereotype of, you know, people

[1:27:31] who are older aren't on social media, I find that a lot

[1:27:34] of them are, but do, do you want

[1:27:39] to craft mailers for specific people

[1:27:41] or with specific information?

[1:27:42] 'cause the mailers also have to be very concise

[1:27:46] or else they won't be reviewed.

[1:27:49] So that's, you have to be good to be pick picky and choosey.

[1:27:53] And of course we can help counsel on

[1:27:57] what we've seen in other districts that has helped

[1:28:03] It is the big cost of the mailer.

[1:28:06] The postage or the printing.

[1:28:09] The printing and post the printing.

[1:28:10] And yes, for the large mailer there's a significant

[1:28:14] reduction in postage.

[1:28:22] Can we afford it? Double that?

[1:28:28] Can we afford two? Can we afford two mailings,

[1:28:35] Jenna?

[1:28:36] It depends on how we're spending the rest of our money.

[1:28:38] So if we may be asking them to shift

[1:28:42] how we're, what we're funding. So,

[1:28:44] Okay, so like we can do it in the middle and then just

[1:28:47] before the bond vote.

[1:28:49] Well, no, but you can't do it just before

[1:28:52] because it won't actually get to people until after.

[1:28:55] No, I mean before. Before. Just before.

[1:28:59] Yep. And also I think lawn signs,

[1:29:03] I don't think we should poo PPO lawn signs.

[1:29:05] Do we have the capacity to print?

[1:29:10] Yes. So we, so that doesn't cost us anything.

[1:29:18] It doesn't cost as much as if someone else does it.

[1:29:21] Right. I think we should print long signs too.

[1:29:25] Okay. Patrick,

[1:29:28] I'm concerned that we're, we're second

[1:29:30] guessing our contractor.

[1:29:31] Yeah. And if we're, if we're, if we're,

[1:29:34] if we think we know better,

[1:29:36] if we don't think they're doing a

[1:29:37] good job, we get a new one.

[1:29:40] Do we have time to do that? We have other bids

[1:29:43] that we looked over.

[1:29:45] Do we have time to switch?

[1:29:47] I would not suggest switching.

[1:29:49] If we choose to terminate this contract, we would continue

[1:29:53] with what we think that we should have done it.

[1:30:00] What they're offering right now is no different

[1:30:01] than what we will have done.

[1:30:02] What we were hoping for was some out of the box awesome idea

[1:30:06] that we're like, oh duh, we never thought of that before.

[1:30:09] We've thought about Facebook ads, we've thought about print,

[1:30:12] we've been thinking about these, the mailers.

[1:30:14] We've done this in the past, we know how to do it.

[1:30:17] We were hoping for something above and beyond

[1:30:19] and something that just hit every nail in the head.

[1:30:23] Not that we do not have time to move on with a new company.

[1:30:28] Okay. We could transition some

[1:30:30] of those funds into polling if we felt

[1:30:33] that was the right thing for more mailers.

[1:30:38] And so transitioning, so sorry guys, just one second.

[1:30:42] So ing a polling would tell us where

[1:30:46] to focus more resources.

[1:30:49] So we do polling in September,

[1:30:52] then we get an answer in October,

[1:30:55] you could get in two weeks.

[1:30:57] Okay. So we waited answer in September, a sample size of 300

[1:31:01] or the 18 towns would be likely voters would be by phone

[1:31:05] and you could probably te probably tease out 20 questions

[1:31:08] so you could understand what the objections are.

[1:31:10] And it's more interactive

[1:31:12] because you don't know the level of of objection.

[1:31:15] Right. You'll be able to identify

[1:31:18] and segment certain objections by size.

[1:31:21] Okay. Right. Which you aren't gonna get in these kind

[1:31:24] of one way communications.

[1:31:25] Right. The digital is one way you might get some comments,

[1:31:28] but people don't necessarily participate.

[1:31:31] A lot of people don't like their opinion to be known

[1:31:33] to, to their neighbors.

[1:31:35] Right. And with a mailer, you don't see it.

[1:31:36] Mailers are cheap either.

[1:31:38] I mean, a mailer could be 10 grand. Yeah. Right.

[1:31:40] Two mailers is $20,000. Right? Yeah.

[1:31:44] I'm just trying to work the timeline. So if we, we do,

[1:31:46] if we do the polling in September, we know in two weeks

[1:31:49] and then we know where to put the mailers

[1:31:51] and the other other resources.

[1:31:52] You know what to say. Yeah.

[1:31:54] Yeah. That that's the we're not,

[1:31:56] What I'm saying is you know what to say

[1:31:58] Than too much fully will get that feedback. Yeah.

[1:32:01] You know, which points to specifically articulate Right.

[1:32:05] Or which ones to highlight.

[1:32:07] I mean, you may find a very

[1:32:08] favorable block in some of these times.

[1:32:10] You may want to accentuate that,

[1:32:11] try to pull those people out.

[1:32:12] Right. But you know, those people can swamp that nose.

[1:32:18] Do we have the capacity in house to do that?

[1:32:24] We have some folks who are interested

[1:32:26] and we may be able to pay them a stipend for above

[1:32:29] and beyond their contract to support the work

[1:32:35] pay for my here to not be gray.

[1:32:40] That's, I'm sorry.

[1:32:43] Yeah. I mean, against time.

[1:32:45] Michelle, I, I'm a scientist, right? I like, I like data.

[1:32:50] My concern is, is we get that information

[1:32:55] and then the value is what we do with it.

[1:32:58] And do we have the capacity

[1:32:59] to actually act on the information, right?

[1:33:02] Yes. Polls are not precise,

[1:33:05] but they do give you information that you can then

[1:33:08] base your actions on.

[1:33:09] And so that's the piece that,

[1:33:10] and I forgot we asked the question about do

[1:33:12] we have the capacity?

[1:33:13] And so yeah. That, that, that is my concern.

[1:33:16] And I, and I recognize that like time is

[1:33:18] of the essence, right?

[1:33:20] And so yeah, I I'm, I'm more in favor

[1:33:24] of being very clear with the,

[1:33:29] the contractor, like, these are the expectations,

[1:33:33] this is what we want.

[1:33:35] And, and not,

[1:33:38] not just they're, they're experts, right?

[1:33:40] Like we chose them because of their expertise

[1:33:44] and now we're second guessing they're,

[1:33:45] I'm not a media expert, right?

[1:33:47] Like, right. And so I I I wanna sort of hold back that,

[1:33:53] that, that feeling to second guess the experts who we chose

[1:33:57] to, to help us.

[1:33:59] Yeah. And to recognize that urgency is,

[1:34:01] is probably playing a pretty big role

[1:34:03] in that second guessing.

[1:34:05] And I, I don't wanna dismiss the, the Mr.

[1:34:10] Mur, my, my bad.

[1:34:13] The the request that that you made.

[1:34:15] And I just don't know, like where, I don't know

[1:34:20] where the line is for like, us to be able to like,

[1:34:23] make connections versus, like those connections happen

[1:34:27] amongst the community.

[1:34:28] I'm, I'm not a legal expert, so

[1:34:30] I think I can reach out to advisory board members and,

[1:34:33] and let them know of this interest

[1:34:35] and give them your contact information so it goes that way

[1:34:39] that they can reach out and take that step.

[1:34:41] I think that that is a great idea.

[1:34:44] I love that it, if that the community is is,

[1:34:47] or there are folks within the community

[1:34:49] that would be willing to support this.

[1:34:53] Yeah. I think there are, when you think about the jobs

[1:34:55] that we're gonna be creating for the next three years

[1:34:57] and, you know, the construction companies

[1:35:00] and just the landscape, like there's

[1:35:02] so many big projects going be going on here

[1:35:05] that it's going to be worth it.

[1:35:08] And, and I've asked this question of you, Jody,

[1:35:10] in the past, and I'll shut up after this,

[1:35:11] but like, where's the state?

[1:35:12] Right? Like we've heard from the state government,

[1:35:16] we've heard from the federal government, like the importance

[1:35:18] of CTE, right?

[1:35:19] And so yeah, I,

[1:35:22] Again, we did have a member of the Agency

[1:35:24] of Education on for a little bit here.

[1:35:26] I think she's also a very resident, so

[1:35:31] that might be one, but they're not here anymore.

[1:35:36] And getting the support

[1:35:37] of the business community is powerful.

[1:35:39] Yes. Whether it's through funding a poll,

[1:35:42] but just their visual, you know, being interviewed,

[1:35:46] being in the videos, whatever you can do to get them

[1:35:49] to come out and support the project is really good.

[1:35:54] I, a couple of thoughts, having been doing this

[1:35:57] for a long time, I I I,

[1:36:03] I'm not sure what a poll will tell you.

[1:36:05] You know, what the complaint's gonna be. It's expensive.

[1:36:10] Right? Right. I, I don't, everybody is for CTE.

[1:36:15] It's an overwhelmingly positive addition in the community.

[1:36:20] And the only downside to the project

[1:36:22] that people will probably say is, wow, it's,

[1:36:25] it's really expensive and my taxes are high.

[1:36:27] So I, I guess, and, and then,

[1:36:31] and then maybe a more sophisticated polling would yield more

[1:36:35] nuanced responses so you could craft the message.

[1:36:38] But I, given the timeline

[1:36:44] and the urgency of getting media out there, i, I

[1:36:49] personally question whether the poll is

[1:36:54] a worthwhile thing

[1:36:55] because that delays everything

[1:36:56] for even more time. Anyway, that's just,

[1:37:01] I think we could maybe move forward with both.

[1:37:02] Maybe it's an and. Yeah. Yeah.

[1:37:04] I, I agree with David.

[1:37:08] If we had a lot of time polling would probably be

[1:37:11] worthwhile, but since early voting starts

[1:37:15] probably the third week of October,

[1:37:17] and we need to get those people that are, that vote early

[1:37:20] and then head out of town for Florida or wherever they go.

[1:37:24] We, we really don't have time.

[1:37:26] And I know data's great to, to gather,

[1:37:30] but we also know that thousands

[1:37:33] and thousands of people vote in favor of the budget

[1:37:37] for this career center.

[1:37:39] Every, every time there's a, there's a vote

[1:37:41] for a budget vote.

[1:37:43] And we went through those numbers last time

[1:37:45] and it was overwhelmingly like 75%

[1:37:48] of the voters were in favor.

[1:37:51] So we know, like David says, there's a lot

[1:37:53] of positivity around it.

[1:37:55] It it's just about our messaging, the urgency of

[1:37:59] getting consistent messages out there as soon as possible

[1:38:03] and then right up to November 4th.

[1:38:07] So I think we've got multiple tactics

[1:38:10] to get messages out there and we have to begin using those.

[1:38:14] And so if Jody puts together a list, some

[1:38:17] of the things we've spoken about, some of the things me, she

[1:38:20] and Michelle have talked about

[1:38:21] and present that to the marketing team,

[1:38:24] hopefully they'll say, yeah, we're ready to do that.

[1:38:26] If they don't, then I feel like we have the resources in

[1:38:30] house to do much of what they would be doing anyway.

[1:38:34] What we're doing is buying time

[1:38:35] because none of us have time to do this.

[1:38:38] And certainly the administrators at the school

[1:38:41] do not have a lot of time.

[1:38:42] But if we have to, we can make that time.

[1:38:45] So we use our 40,000 plus

[1:38:48] dollars wise.

[1:38:55] I think, I think what we've begun

[1:38:56] to sketch out just from the discussion is

[1:38:59] what the deliverables are that we're looking for from the

[1:39:04] marketing team that we're hiring.

[1:39:08] The question of the mailer, is that one, or is it two?

[1:39:13] Is it one that's dedicated to citizens

[1:39:15] and another that's dedicated to businesses?

[1:39:18] How does that, how do we wanna break that out if we need to,

[1:39:23] making sure that we have enough information, whether

[1:39:28] that is through polling or advertising

[1:39:31] and getting the businesses on board

[1:39:35] for their support, not only financially,

[1:39:37] but also verbally,

[1:39:42] outspokenly what I, to have that kind of

[1:39:46] presence from the business community saying that we are

[1:39:49] behind this endeavor

[1:39:50] because of what it'll bring not only for us as a business,

[1:39:54] but also for the community and, and the, the students.

[1:39:59] Anything else that needs to be added to that?

[1:40:01] I like that Alice,

[1:40:05] I agree with op-eds are free, right?

[1:40:10] And we're talking about the value of the, of the support

[1:40:12] of the business community.

[1:40:13] And so if there is a coordinated like effort

[1:40:16] of our supporters to be outspoken in

[1:40:21] that was redundant in support of the,

[1:40:25] we're not the ones saying go out and vote.

[1:40:27] Yes. We're, we're getting,

[1:40:29] we're getting people to go out and vote.

[1:40:31] That's what we're doing, right?

[1:40:33] Folks in the community can speak in

[1:40:35] favor or against the vote.

[1:40:37] And so, you know, I, I do think that those types of

[1:40:42] efforts in Montpelier, we, we have like op-ed,

[1:40:47] like a schedule when we come up to a, a board budget vote

[1:40:52] of like who's writing op-eds when.

[1:40:54] And so I think, you know,

[1:40:56] something along those lines might, might also be helpful.

[1:41:00] Ms. Palmer? Hi there, my name is Danielle Palmer

[1:41:05] and I am a 1998 graduate of Spalding High School.

[1:41:10] I participated in the career center

[1:41:12] and I think just inviting everyone to think outside the box

[1:41:17] in respect to telling people's stories.

[1:41:21] So for example, maybe soliciting someone like myself

[1:41:25] to share about how the career center benefited me

[1:41:29] and my career path and

[1:41:31] or seeing if there's multi-generational, I have a child

[1:41:34] that's going to partake in the exploratory program, so nice.

[1:41:38] Just looking outside the box sort stories sell.

[1:41:43] So if you are aware

[1:41:45] of people even you can approach it from the angle

[1:41:47] of business owners, the benefit of of students,

[1:41:51] and then eventually them becoming higher

[1:41:53] and the benefits to that.

[1:41:55] So you can really just really invite anybody think

[1:41:57] outside the box and I'm happy to participate

[1:42:01] or help generate more ideas.

[1:42:05] Thank you for that, Danielle.

[1:42:08] That that's something that the marketing firm did not

[1:42:12] address and we had recommended that many times

[1:42:14] and I think we forgot to mention that that's a,

[1:42:18] they dropped the ball on that.

[1:42:19] And so yes, we need to have those testimonials,

[1:42:22] those representatives and should have been started already.

[1:42:26] But the marketing firms still

[1:42:29] putting together their proposal.

[1:42:32] Well, they did ask for some stakeholder information

[1:42:34] and I have provided them with some,

[1:42:36] and I keep adding to that.

[1:42:37] And I think that is where they, Todd,

[1:42:40] when they had those social media posts

[1:42:43] where they had pictures of,

[1:42:45] they weren't our students in those pictures

[1:42:47] for the examples, but that they, the intent was

[1:42:50] to use alumni and other business partnerships and parents

[1:42:55] and to be able to post really quickly short stories.

[1:43:00] But I, the value of a story is really important.

[1:43:03] And I think we, we also heard that from our co consultants

[1:43:05] for the comprehensive of local needs assessment.

[1:43:08] And, and that's something we're trying

[1:43:09] to gather some of those.

[1:43:11] So I really appreciate you saying that Danielle

[1:43:13] and I will be adding you to the list.

[1:43:15] So I'm glad you're up for that. And yes,

[1:43:18] You're Welcome.

[1:43:20] Yes. The parents can tell the story better than the,

[1:43:23] than actually the student can

[1:43:25] because the, the parent is watching the growth

[1:43:28] of their child through the educational system.

[1:43:33] Teachers. Yep.

[1:43:36] Sorry, I'm behind you. That's

[1:43:37] Okay.

[1:43:39] One thing that these small papers,

[1:43:42] people mentioning the world in roundabout the

[1:43:44] Bread, They are desperate for content.

[1:43:48] And if you, you can literally write the article,

[1:43:52] give 'em the photo, and they'll clean it up and,

[1:43:55] and you know, and post it.

[1:44:00] We've, so anyway, I think that's an easier way

[1:44:04] to get content out if you write like press release

[1:44:07] or more like a more info article about maybe with,

[1:44:12] with some of these testimonials from students to parents

[1:44:17] and, and then, you know, talk

[1:44:21] to the different small newspapers

[1:44:23] and a lot of them are connected, so it's the same publisher.

[1:44:26] We'll do three different towns or three different regions.

[1:44:29] And so you, you can propagate an article that way.

[1:44:37] Circling back to your question about deliverables. Yes.

[1:44:39] I think the most important deliverable, the one

[1:44:41] that I was most troubled by was urgency.

[1:44:46] And I think that's come up a couple of times,

[1:44:47] but I just wanted to, to say that to me that's the most

[1:44:51] important thing I think that we need to see out

[1:44:55] of them moving forward is a real sense of urgency.

[1:44:59] And that probably comes down to giving them a, a set time

[1:45:03] by this time really to have this.

[1:45:05] And that's, I'm not trying to

[1:45:07] Your business, but Michelle just did the countdown.

[1:45:09] It's 51 days till the first person

[1:45:11] could vote for that early.

[1:45:13] Yeah, exactly. It's, I think urgency is the

[1:45:15] most critical thing.

[1:45:16] And I would, I would offer that in addition to

[1:45:19] that was left feeling that it was, that the,

[1:45:22] maybe the content wasn't this way,

[1:45:25] but the presentation itself felt a little slick.

[1:45:29] You know, like I was looking

[1:45:30] for a little bit more authenticity

[1:45:33] or a little bit more like it was of this place

[1:45:37] and not, I guess I, it's,

[1:45:39] it felt like a marketing presentation from a marketing firm.

[1:45:43] And maybe that's to be expected.

[1:45:47] Maybe that may be a nothing burger comment, but

[1:45:49] Well, like to your point, when you,

[1:45:51] you helped prepare the slide for tonight,

[1:45:53] but it still looked like us.

[1:45:54] It was our colors. Even though you all,

[1:45:57] we all kind of did it together.

[1:45:58] Like when you're preparing something for us,

[1:46:01] whether it's internal

[1:46:02] or to be shared, it should still look like us.

[1:46:06] So for the, if I can build on the urgency point,

[1:46:09] the September 7th, they have their first, their first

[1:46:12] item on their timeline is the times, August print a

[1:46:16] and so maybe asking to see that week beforehand

[1:46:20] or something could be a double check on,

[1:46:26] on, on, on the urgency.

[1:46:28] Yep. It could have been the way they

[1:46:29] rolled out the presentation too.

[1:46:31] So they were kind of taking their time.

[1:46:32] They had a plan and I could feel everybody in the room

[1:46:35] and kind of chomping feeling get to it, get to the point so

[1:46:39] that could play into it.

[1:46:43] Yeah, I mean to your, to your point just there, right?

[1:46:46] So they want approval of the strategy by the 30th, which is

[1:46:50] a week before the first.

[1:46:52] So it's like, all right, well where's your,

[1:46:53] what's your ad look like?

[1:46:55] You know, because that's a, that's a week and a day. Yeah,

[1:47:00] Yeah.

[1:47:01] And you don't send it on the day it's gonna be in the

[1:47:02] Print. Exactly.

[1:47:04] So do we have a, a list that we need

[1:47:08] to present to them or how are we, I'm marking on one.

[1:47:12] Okay. I also been Oh, thank you. Writing down as well.

[1:47:17] Okay. You read it out and add Yeah.

[1:47:22] Thank you. Knowing that at

[1:47:26] the overarching premise of all of this is the urgency.

[1:47:29] Yeah. That we don't have a lot of time. Okay.

[1:47:33] Is every is everyone on board with that,

[1:47:35] Patrick? Any suggestions?

[1:47:37] Yes, just one more thing and then separately, we'll,

[1:47:38] we'll provide, we'll we'll pull, we'll talk to the stake

[1:47:41] to our, I'm sorry, advisory councils that you said to,

[1:47:44] to give them Yes.

[1:47:46] Miles. Great.

[1:47:51] Any other questions or concerns? Mr. Todd?

[1:47:56] Guy Jana? Anything? Corey? Corey.

[1:48:04] Okay guy. I'm good. You're flashing us guy.

[1:48:11] I'm

[1:48:13] Not literally Okay.

[1:48:18] Your, your, your,

[1:48:21] Honestly I've got my, I've got my sign on.

[1:48:24] It's covering everything. Okay.

[1:48:31] Sandwich board again. Yeah, there

[1:48:35] that guy is

[1:48:36] Ready to go.

[1:48:37] He knows urgent sign.

[1:48:40] We haven't talked about the guy sandwich board.

[1:48:44] We need to add that in. Add.

[1:48:46] Alright, so we need to

[1:48:49] One thing, Alice?

[1:48:50] Yes. Yes.

[1:48:52] Okay. Just one thing, Jody, I'm wondering when you come

[1:48:55] to our schools to talk,

[1:48:59] what can we be doing to bring people out

[1:49:04] other than the postings that we did?

[1:49:07] And could you give me

[1:49:10] alarm signs when you come so I can give, distribute them

[1:49:17] My, I will.

[1:49:19] That sets a very firm date

[1:49:21] for when we need those lawn signs, so yes.

[1:49:24] Okay, great. Thank you.

[1:49:28] I i it it appears that our next situation is

[1:49:32] that we need a motion to

[1:49:38] empower the administration to go ahead

[1:49:40] with this conversation with the marketing team

[1:49:43] and bring to them our discussion of urgency,

[1:49:48] activities and deliverables.

[1:49:51] So moved exactly as you said it.

[1:49:55] Exactly. Alright. Any further discussion?

[1:50:02] I would just like to amend that to say the administration

[1:50:05] or their designees, so we have

[1:50:10] that as, as clear.

[1:50:11] Is that acceptable? Okay. To do that.

[1:50:14] All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

[1:50:20] Aye. Very good. Any any dissension?

[1:50:24] Any abstentions? Hearing none. Motion carries. Thank you.

[1:50:30] We have one item that was not on our agenda. Okay.

[1:50:34] Our lovely clerk.

[1:50:36] Oh, I was gonna say too, so I decided

[1:50:39] to step down from taking board minutes.

[1:50:42] It was a really difficult decision for me

[1:50:46] as I've been doing this this year forever.

[1:50:49] I know I three years, three years for the district

[1:50:53] and then three years for governance and then events as well.

[1:50:57] And I wanna focus on my curriculum this year

[1:51:00] and continuing my education doesn't mean I'm not gonna stop

[1:51:04] and for board meetings, but this was a really difficult

[1:51:06] decision as I've learned so much.

[1:51:12] Oh my God.

[1:51:20] We do not accept your resignation. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

[1:51:23] Write that down. Could we put something,

[1:51:26] something on the record?

[1:51:28] Yes. That expresses our appreciation. Yes.

[1:51:30] We, we are, I think, I think everyone, every, each

[1:51:33] of us really appreciates the work

[1:51:36] and has appreciated the work that you do as well

[1:51:39] as the contributions that you have made to our meetings.

[1:51:42] Because without that, that's a kind of an inside view

[1:51:46] that you have that we don't always have

[1:51:48] as board members, you know?

[1:51:49] And, and I've thought a lot about it

[1:51:51] and, you know, I definitely may hop on

[1:51:54] to board meetings for that.

[1:51:56] 'cause I do, you know, this is my 11th year at CBCC

[1:52:00] and I really strongly believe in what tech ed does.

[1:52:04] And, you know, I've seen my brother benefit

[1:52:06] from going to a tech center.

[1:52:08] I did not get the chance to go to a tech center.

[1:52:12] But seeing our students success and,

[1:52:14] and just seeing what this does for our community,

[1:52:17] I'm very invested in that work.

[1:52:19] I really am. So I'll still hop on,

[1:52:22] but it was a really difficult decision.

[1:52:24] It really was. Motion of appreciation.

[1:52:28] Thank you for our recording secretary who we will miss.

[1:52:33] I thank you. Cry sunglasses.

[1:52:38] I, I appreciate you. I miss you already.

[1:52:41] Oh, I'll hop on. Don't worry. All right.

[1:52:47] Do we need to vote or just accept the fact

[1:52:50] that we will no longer have a vibrant personality

[1:52:55] as part of our staff?

[1:52:57] You guys are all vibrant. Don't worry.

[1:53:00] Well, thank you very much from all of us.

[1:53:02] We really do appreciate your work. You're welcome.

[1:53:04] I really enjoyed it.

[1:53:06] It was just so cool to see the, the back ends

[1:53:09] and not many people get to see that.

[1:53:12] And I wish they would. You know what I mean? I really do.

[1:53:15] And also thank you for being here

[1:53:17] and in person to tell us that

[1:53:20] because it would've been horrible if

[1:53:22] we had just gotten an email.

[1:53:25] No, no, no. I didn't wanna do that.

[1:53:26] We wouldn't have an opportunity to have to, to fret over it

[1:53:30] and, and miss you. All right. I'm gonna,

[1:53:35] I'm gonna make you a gone fishing sign

[1:53:40] Guy.

[1:53:41] I have so many fishing signs at my house.

[1:53:44] Well, you're getting another one

[1:53:48] That you can wear

[1:53:51] sandwich in my classroom.

[1:53:57] All right, so we're set with that.

[1:53:59] Your long side God vision, lawn side.

[1:54:02] It's officially God vision.

[1:54:05] So I think it's

[1:54:10] pretty clear what we have for ahead of us for our meetings.

[1:54:16] As always, if there's anyone who believes

[1:54:18] that there's anything that we can do

[1:54:20] to improve our meetings, to go ahead.

[1:54:22] I, I think always, I really find the discussion that goes on

[1:54:26] among this board and the interplay

[1:54:31] among the all, not only the members, but the public

[1:54:33] and people who are here.

[1:54:35] I think that really adds to our efficiency.

[1:54:40] And it also is a testament to just how well we,

[1:54:43] from different districts not seeing each other all the time

[1:54:48] come together in support of the career center.

[1:54:51] So anyone else?

[1:54:54] Comments, conclusions, all as always.

[1:54:57] We appreciate our administration for

[1:55:00] what you do and how you do it.

[1:55:02] So there's no question about that.

[1:55:06] Any other questions or concerns to come before this board?

[1:55:09] Then I need a motion to adjourn. I will adjourn.

[1:55:15] Jana, you wanna second it? Second.

[1:55:20] We are officially adjourned.

[1:55:22] Thank you very much everyone, everyone at home

[1:55:25] and in the, in the building.

[1:55:28] Thank you Jan. Emojis in there.

CVCCSD Special Board Meeting Aug 25 2025

Transcript