[0:00] Educating, informing, serving. FACT TV, keeping government

[0:04] honest.

[0:05] You're watching a FACT TV presentation of the Rockingham School District

[0:10] school board meeting.

[0:12] So we will project in the direction of the computer.

[0:15] The next thing we have on the agenda is adjustments to the agenda. Hi, Christine.

[0:20] Any adjustments to the agenda?

[0:22] You want to sit up there.

[0:23] Oh, sorry. That way you won't-

[0:24] I don't have any

[0:25] ... so close to the elf.

[0:27] I was going to suggest that we talk about the

[0:31] collective bargaining agreement, but some of that may be

[0:35] executive session.

[0:36] Okay.

[0:38] We can do that anytime.

[0:41] Yeah.

[0:42] Okay.

[0:45] Thank you.

[0:45] Probably not projecting very well.

[0:49] We will consider executive session for the CBA discussion.

[0:54] Any other adjustments?

[0:57] All right. Next up is communications and public comment.

[1:01] Don't see anyone in the room.

[1:04] Good luck finding us. And online.

[1:07] They're wandering downstairs.

[1:08] Yeah.

[1:11] Okay, so seeing none, I'll move on to review and approval of the minutes from July

[1:14] 21st. I was not able to be in that meeting.

[1:18] I took a look. Has everybody had a chance to take a look?

[1:22] I make a motion we accept the minutes of the special

[1:26] meeting on July 21st.

[1:28] Okay. All right.

[1:31] Second.

[1:32] Great. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[1:35] Aye.

[1:35] Okay. So the meeting minutes are approved.

[1:39] And next up we have new business for discussion and action, starting with boiler

[1:43] repair at CES.

[1:46] Yeah, and Kate, if you

[1:49] can help me out here. Shawn had a-

[1:53] I know we need a boiler repair.

[1:54] Well, yeah. So, Shawn had emailed me,

[1:58] and I'm going to try and pull up my notes here a little bit as we go along.

[2:03] Let

[2:06] me

[2:09] pull it up. I apologize here. Just as I get here.

[2:16] So,

[2:19] one of the boilers is down completely.

[2:22] So there's two boilers at CES, and so one has

[2:26] been down for a while. And

[2:31] so Shawn had gone out and looked and gotten some quotes

[2:35] to have them repaired. And,

[2:42] so, he had gotten

[2:44] just two quotes, one from Alliance and then one from Control

[2:48] Technologies.

[2:50] And

[2:51] his recommendation is that we go with the one

[2:55] from Alliance.

[2:58] And

[2:59] what this would allow us to do is to bring both

[3:03] boilers into working order.

[3:07] And essentially one of the boilers,

[3:11] the gaskets

[3:13] are completely shot on it and need to be

[3:16] replaced.

[3:18] And then

[3:21] the other one is, there's a burner issue with it that needs to

[3:25] be fixed. But

[3:29] my understanding is last year, they were basically just running on

[3:33] one boiler.

[3:34] That's true.

[3:36] And so as you know, at Saxons River, we put in a second boiler

[3:40] this past year

[3:42] for redundancy purposes.

[3:44] But

[3:46] given the sense of if one boiler goes down, we do need to keep the school

[3:50] heated for the students,

[3:53] so we can

[3:55] be able to maintain school.

[3:58] And if that were to happen, we'd be in a situation where we wouldn't be able to

[4:02] have school.

[4:04] And so

[4:06] it just seems

[4:07] like it would be smart to get the two repaired.

[4:11] And instead of just, when I was talking with Shawn, just trying to pull back my

[4:15] memory here,

[4:18] it's having the second one fixed. The second one

[4:21] needed just a few minor repairs. It sounded like now is the time to do

[4:25] it while the guy's there. It's summertime, get it done, as

[4:29] opposed to just fixing one and then wait

[4:33] for the other one to go down and have to pull the guy back in.

[4:36] So,

[4:38] the reason why I suggested that we put it on

[4:44] for your consideration is it will be

[4:47] $15,750 for

[4:51] repair. It isn't something that we budgeted.

[4:54] It is something we need to do. We could just take it right out of the

[4:58] regular budget.

[5:00] But I would

[5:03] suggest it's something that we could run right out of our regular

[5:07] budget, make you aware of, and then we could

[5:11] go over and then pull it out of capital

[5:14] if we need extra monies as we go along in the future.

[5:18] Or you could

[5:20] authorize us to pull it out of capital now.

[5:27] The only thing I can add to that is that we have no hot water as a result of this,

[5:30] so that's a problem too.

[5:34] And so all the controls are through CTI,

[5:38] right? For the building systems. Do you have any

[5:43] building management system there

[5:45] that this is connected to, or is it all-

[5:48] I don't think so.

[5:53] I do not believe that it's controlled through that

[5:57] system.

[5:58] For this, it doesn't read like it makes any difference.

[6:01] Just-

[6:02] Well, I'll make a motion that we accept the boiler repair

[6:07] quote from Alliance and that the monies are

[6:11] taken out of the capital reserve fund.

[6:16] Okay.

[6:17] The only question I'd have is if there's any

[6:20] overlap between what's happening with the boiler, and then I know we had that

[6:24] whole...

[6:26] I'm sorry that I'm forgetting-

[6:27] Mm-hmm

[6:27] ... every person and plan name. The guy who came to talk to us-

[6:31] Yeah

[6:31] ... about the efficiency plans for the schools overall.

[6:34] I don't know if considering the boiler systems-

[6:37] Eric

[6:37] ... was it. Thank you.

[6:39] EEI.

[6:40] Yes. A part of that, and if it would be putting 15,000 in, but then reconsider

[6:44] the whole system at some point in the future near.

[6:48] Can I speak to that?

[6:50] Thanks.

[6:50] Yes.

[6:52] I don't-

[6:52] It's my meeting, Rick. No, yes, please.

[6:54] I don't think that we can afford to not do that-

[6:57] Yeah

[6:57] ... because

[6:59] we're just

[7:01] be putting off stuff. If they don't have hot water now-

[7:03] Right, we have to do something

[7:04] ... they may not have heat this winter.

[7:05] Yeah.

[7:06] This is

[7:08] a great fix to what they have there, but

[7:11] if we don't do it, it could be worse.

[7:15] We could be sitting here in December, January saying, "Okay, we

[7:19] have to rent a bunch of space heaters-

[7:21] Yeah.

[7:21] ... and thermal stuff." To me, this sounds like a

[7:26] borderline emergency repair that we should not put off.

[7:30] Yeah.

[7:31] It's a small portion of whatever the investment would be

[7:35] of what the next steps could be.

[7:38] And I think with Eric and EEI, it

[7:42] might be replacing and putting in wood chip or wood-

[7:46] Yeah

[7:46] ... pellet kind of thing. It'd be like a whole energy efficiency.

[7:49] Yeah.

[7:49] So this is, as Rick was saying, is kind of an

[7:53] emergency fix now. It's almost-

[7:56] Yep

[7:56] ... it's an expensive band-aid.

[7:58] Well, it's not really a band-aid.

[8:00] Not a band-aid, but it's a... Because this will get it and last for a long time.

[8:03] Yeah.

[8:03] So I don't want to... But it's

[8:06] not

[8:07] going to improve the efficiency of it, but you have a good boiler system-

[8:11] Yeah

[8:11] ... in there already.

[8:12] The work, that efficiency work, could take a year and a

[8:15] half or two years before we'd really even know what we're going to

[8:20] do. So I would not be a fan of trying to wait

[8:24] to

[8:25] fix this.

[8:26] Okay.

[8:28] Okay.

[8:28] Yeah. That makes sense then. All right, so we have a motion on the floor to accept

[8:31] the boiler repair quote and have the money taken out of the capital reserve.

[8:35] Any further questions or discussion?

[8:38] All right. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

[8:40] Aye.

[8:41] Aye.

[8:42] Okay,

[8:43] great. Thank you.

[8:43] Thank you.

[8:45] Okay. Next up, we have replacement locks at the middle

[8:49] school.

[8:51] All right. So this

[8:55] one was

[8:57] one of the things that

[9:01] Sean had done was look at the

[9:04] locks here at the middle school, and Henry,

[9:07] jump in here also.

[9:09] But they went through

[9:12] all of the doors here,

[9:15] and they found that there's quite a few lock issues.

[9:19] Some of them even into bathrooms.

[9:24] And so,

[9:25] some of the work early on, as Sean came on, I'd asked him to kind of look

[9:29] into.

[9:31] And

[9:35] the quote that

[9:38] he has here is really the kind of the worst case scenario.

[9:42] So there might be an opportunity here to go under on this amount,

[9:46] but this is if we can't find parts or if

[9:51] certain things don't exist,

[9:53] like if the whole locking system has to be taken apart.

[9:57] But again, the estimate is for

[9:58] $12,440.80.

[10:03] But

[10:06] it's really to get the locks fixed so that

[10:11] we have operating locks on doors, so that we can

[10:15] secure the building.

[10:17] And it's not money that was budgeted, so

[10:21] again, Sean feels like it is a safety issue.

[10:25] It would bring us into compliance.

[10:28] Henry, if there's more.

[10:29] Yeah. It's the entry doors that aren't keyless currently.

[10:33] They're a mess, to the point where the side doors, I know they don't

[10:37] lock shut

[10:39] if you don't turn the key completely all the way back around.

[10:42] And if you don't pull it shut when you're coming in the building in the morning,

[10:45] meaning staff,

[10:47] it doesn't lock. It's the same with the west side.

[10:50] East side and west side are the same.

[10:52] East side, west side,

[10:54] where, yeah, the locks in and out of the building.

[10:57] The keyless ones are great on the back, but these ones are kind of

[11:01] a problem. Also,

[11:03] the building, the keys, well, which we're going keyless down in front, but some of

[11:07] the downstairs, like the bathroom doors and stuff like that, aren't locking

[11:11] properly. We have classroom doors that don't lock.

[11:14] So he had somebody come and just...

[11:16] He's been great as far as that goes.

[11:18] He's like, "Security's your number one thing here." I was like, "Yep, 100%." So

[11:22] just kind of went and made a list of all these things that he felt like needed

[11:26] to be addressed, so.

[11:29] Okay.

[11:29] Did you,

[11:31] is it going to be like a

[11:33] series? You'll have a master key that fits everything, and

[11:36] then there'll be maintenance team will have keys to different things?

[11:39] Yeah, very similarly to the way that we have that now.

[11:42] Okay.

[11:42] It'd be the same kind of thing. It's from what I understand from Sean when we spoke

[11:45] about it before last week,

[11:47] so.

[11:49] Again, do

[11:51] we have it in the budget or should we take it-

[11:53] Yeah, this is not budgeted.

[11:55] Okay.

[11:55] Which is why I

[11:58] knew we had a meeting coming up.

[12:01] We're going to need-

[12:03] Knowing that we're in that sweet spot right before school starts,

[12:08] and wanting to get the building in order,

[12:11] I thought we had an opportunity here to bring it before you as opposed to just

[12:15] moving forward with the work. But

[12:18] I would recommend we

[12:22] use capital reserves and

[12:27] I'll make a motion that we approve the

[12:31] lock replacement for up to

[12:35] $15,000

[12:37] to come out of capital reserve.

[12:41] All right. Any further discussion?

[12:44] All right. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[12:46] Aye.

[12:47] Okay.

[12:48] And once it's done, can we get

[12:51] some feedback on like-

[12:52] Yeah

[12:52] ... what it actually did cost?

[12:53] Yeah. For sure. And also, I appreciate that in advance because that'd be

[12:57] one of my routines in the morning. I'd check the doors after

[13:01] 8:00 to make sure that they're-

[13:04] Okay

[13:04] ... pulled shut, yeah, and locked.

[13:06] Don't stop doing that.

[13:07] No, yeah.

[13:13] Okay. The next item-

[13:14] I know the tax payer paid it-

[13:15] Yeah

[13:15] ... but I'm a big fan of spending money to do it right, that's why.

[13:19] Yeah.

[13:22] Okay. The next item on our agenda is appointment of a board rep to the merger

[13:26] committee. We actually have one more meeting, I think, before the deadline for

[13:29] this, but I wanted to at least put it on the agenda

[13:33] so that we could start to talk about it because we need to have

[13:37] one representative from our board on the merger committee

[13:41] for our assigned study group,

[13:45] which

[13:47] I've lost track of where our assigned study group is.

[13:49] Group six.

[13:50] Group six. Thank you, Andy.

[13:54] So I linked the Vermont School Board Association overview of the time-sensitive

[13:57] decisions for SU and district boards.

[14:00] I think we are all set as far as the

[14:02] CESA board representative, because I think that is at the SU

[14:06] level.

[14:08] Yeah.

[14:08] And we had appointed you, I believe, Andy, to serve as-

[14:10] Correct

[14:10] ... our rep. Okay, great.

[14:13] But I thought this could be a good opportunity to talk about what would be required

[14:17] and if anybody is interested in volunteering for

[14:20] this.

[14:26] This is me stepping backwards.

[14:31] I was going to throw my commentary in-

[14:33] Yes, please

[14:33] ... that Chris has been through this before and-- But no.

[14:38] I would be the epitome of the bad faith

[14:42] member, and aren't we supposed to be doing this in good

[14:46] faith?

[14:46] We are supposed to be doing a good thing.

[14:47] Yes, you are.

[14:48] I just want to say I am in bad faith.

[14:53] I will ask Chris just a clarifying question here.

[14:56] Because Dave Yons,

[15:01] as we were out there talking with Grafton, asked if I had been appointed by

[15:05] boards. And I said, "I don't

[15:09] think I can be,

[15:11] nor do I know if I want to be."

[15:13] But-

[15:14] It says current board member.

[15:16] That's what I thought it did.

[15:17] Yeah.

[15:17] And so I-

[15:18] It said it's the BS-

[15:19] That's what I had thought it was too.

[15:21] Yeah.

[15:21] So, okay. So I just wanted to...

[15:24] Yeah.

[15:28] Well, it's a real educational experience for someone.

[15:31] I'm sure I'm going to have to accompany people, but that's-

[15:34] I know

[15:34] Would you like to share any of your prior experience, Chris,

[15:38] of what it's been like to go through this-

[15:40] Well-

[15:41] ... 46?

[15:42] ... what you do, I presume it's the same,

[15:46] it's a rerun of that 46, which we

[15:49] did

[15:51] 2016 or so. I don't remember when that was.

[15:59] The group

[16:03] meets, they,

[16:05] just like it says, examine the educational, financial, operational,

[16:09] and governance implications of

[16:13] district mergers. And in this case, it would be a merger

[16:16] of group six, which I guess is

[16:20] somewhat in flux because it looks to me like

[16:24] Wardsboro and

[16:27] what's Dover are thinking about going else where.

[16:31] Yeah. So each-

[16:31] Maybe Marlboro

[16:32] ... each district can basically put a letter in and

[16:36] ask to join a different group. So-

[16:39] An adjacent group.

[16:40] Right. So you all could

[16:44] decide if you want to join...

[16:48] I'm making something-

[16:51] I think only the Springfield, Chester group is the only

[16:54] adjacent one.

[16:56] Could you join Windham Southeast, that group?

[16:59] Because aren't they adjacent?

[17:00] Well, Windsor is between us and them, so.

[17:02] Ah, yes, you're right. You're right. So yeah.

[17:05] So you could join group four.

[17:09] Well, we can have that discussion.

[17:11] Yeah.

[17:12] I'm opposed to that, but-

[17:13] So, no, I was just trying to think. So that would be the adjacent one.

[17:16] Anyway, to go back to what's going to happen.

[17:16] Yeah.

[17:17] Yeah.

[17:17] They

[17:20] look at all the facilities you have.

[17:22] They look at the grade configurations.

[17:24] They look at

[17:28] how they could save money or not,

[17:31] doing what they're doing by having

[17:35] a single district.

[17:38] There's pros and cons and they all get

[17:42] listed out in a report and-- I'm sorry.

[17:45] I haven't put away my notes.

[17:49] And

[17:52] in the end,

[17:55] the electorate is going to vote on

[17:59] this

[18:02] study,

[18:04] the recommendation.

[18:10] And I'm not completely clear, Andy,

[18:13] can the board

[18:16] recommend not

[18:19] merging? I'm not completely clear on that.

[18:25] I

[18:26] would really want to go back and reread it before I-

[18:29] Yeah

[18:29] ... answered that question. And,

[18:32] I think that the other difference between 46 and

[18:36] 170 is there's a facilitator this time.

[18:40] I don't think there was-

[18:41] There was last time.

[18:41] Oh, there was in 46? I'm sorry.

[18:43] Yeah.

[18:44] Okay.

[18:46] No,

[18:47] we had one.

[18:48] Okay. I apologize.

[18:49] And that person kind of drafted the report

[18:53] along with me because it was just our district

[18:57] during that term.

[19:00] But the electorate votes on it in a

[19:04] couple of years,

[19:06] who knows.

[19:08] So voters should be kind of paying attention to

[19:12] what's going on because ultimately they're going to have to vote yea

[19:16] or nay.

[19:20] That's their votes.

[19:24] All right.

[19:29] I am willing to serve if nobody else is.

[19:34] I just don't think I can take on-

[19:36] Yeah.

[19:39] I am also a little unclear as to what the commitment is as far as

[19:43] frequency and

[19:46] timing of meetings.

[19:50] I think because Theresa isn't here, maybe we can put this off until our

[19:54] last-minute meeting before, but then I will be happy

[19:58] to step in if we need someone to-

[19:59] Well, it says in the CSBA thing, so it's at least one.

[20:04] So you-

[20:05] It could be you and Theresa.

[20:07] You could have two people.

[20:09] Yeah.

[20:10] And that way if somebody couldn't make it-

[20:13] Could make it

[20:13] ... you're tagged in.

[20:14] And they tag you in.

[20:14] Yeah.

[20:14] That's true.

[20:16] Okay.

[20:17] But we could put it off till,

[20:20] when do we have to do it?

[20:20] September 15th.

[20:21] September 15th. Yep.

[20:22] We could do our next board meeting.

[20:24] Yeah.

[20:25] September 15th. Yeah, so we'll meet again.

[20:27] Okay.

[20:28] Yeah. And also, if we got more information about the time commitment too-

[20:32] Yeah

[20:33] ... it'd help me be more informed about it.

[20:34] Yeah.

[20:35] Because it's hard to commit to something when you don't know

[20:38] what it is.

[20:39] Yes.

[20:41] It was

[20:43] rigorous-

[20:44] It was rigorous

[20:44] ... the first time around.

[20:46] Okay.

[20:47] But it was

[20:48] different because it was just our district, it was

[20:52] just Westminster, Athens, Grafton, and Rocky.

[20:57] I don't know how-

[20:59] It was just going to be one

[20:59] ... you do it with whatever they're what, eight towns or something.

[21:04] Possibly.

[21:05] Yeah.

[21:08] Okay.

[21:10] We will hold on making an official vote.

[21:12] We will see if we can find out more information about what the shape of this looks

[21:14] like. I could not, in a cursory preparation for this, find anything that was like,

[21:18] "You can expect eight to 10 hours over the next however many months or

[21:22] years."

[21:23] So we will look to find some more information about that.

[21:29] I had had adopting school continuous improvement plans on here, but I don't know if

[21:32] we have those ready for

[21:37] board review. Okay. I think that was on maybe an older version of our work

[21:41] plan, so we can take a look at those and move those to our next

[21:44] meeting.

[21:46] I also have developing our annual board goals, so I think this can be a discussion,

[21:50] and especially since I know we had talked about the

[21:53] summer programming being one of the goals that we wanted to focus on, and that was

[21:57] a piece that Theresa is going to lead.

[21:58] I think maybe we think about the other components of what that could look like

[22:02] for us here tonight, and then,

[22:05] make a vote to approve them in our next meeting, if that sounds all

[22:09] right to everybody.

[22:10] Mm-hmm.

[22:11] Okay.

[22:13] And

[22:15] I will pull up the most recent version of our board goals.

[22:29] I think also, just while I'm doing this, we had talked about

[22:33] updating our work plan at the SU level.

[22:36] So I think that we have Theresa and Teen,

[22:40] and maybe others who are working on what that looks like.

[22:44] And I think that'll help us as we refresh what we're hoping to do each month,

[22:47] and think about what actually makes sense now that we are closer to the

[22:51] month, because I think it was initially developed last year around this time,

[22:55] Andy, maybe. And

[22:57] now that we are facing reality, we may have some adjustments to that.

[23:09] Okay, so our most recent goals

[23:13] were around student outcomes. The last time we

[23:17] talked about this was in April of this year.

[23:21] So we talked about student outcomes and supporting the Rockingham School's

[23:25] continuous improvement plans,

[23:27] in line with the continuous improvement plan overall.

[23:32] We talked about supporting expanded learning opportunities,

[23:36] and I think this is where we could think about what expanded learning opportunities

[23:39] look like after school and in the summer, as well

[23:43] as if there are any options here.

[23:46] Maintenance of school property, we had talked about this being around

[23:51] getting together a multi-year plan for building maintenance, and then

[23:55] understanding where we've been drawing down in the capital

[23:58] reserves, where things stand, and kind of having a running tally of our

[24:02] balance.

[24:03] Um, community engagement, which I think we've been doing

[24:07] a little bit more of as far as putting information out there.

[24:10] But I know

[24:12] Jerusa especially has been talking about the opportunities that we

[24:15] might have for having more actual dialogue and conversation with community

[24:19] members.

[24:21] And now we have a PTO member on the board, which is exciting

[24:24] too, so we can think about ways that we can make

[24:28] more connections there. And then the last piece was on our

[24:32] financial management goal and making sure that we're trying to maximize

[24:35] efficiencies in the budget,

[24:37] and allow for the consideration of funding for programs that support the

[24:41] vision of Rockingham schools.

[24:45] Are there any big

[24:47] areas that we feel like we're missing or anything that

[24:51] feels urgent in any of those areas that we should

[24:54] bring to the surface as we think about this coming year?

[25:03] They're all pretty ongoing.

[25:05] Yeah.

[25:05] Yeah, that's true.

[25:06] I think that covers most of the work of the board. So...

[25:09] Yeah. That's what we're doing.

[25:12] Okay.

[25:12] I guess the after school-

[25:15] Yeah, that would be the only other thing

[25:16] ... program is a new piece-

[25:18] Yeah

[25:18] ... that we need to focus on a little bit, especially as

[25:22] we move into budgeting-

[25:24] Yeah

[25:26] ...

[25:27] this cycle. And kind of figure out if we're going to be involved, then how do we do

[25:31] that and in what way? So,

[25:35] or-

[25:35] Mm-hmm

[25:35] ... are we going to go incrementally?

[25:38] Mm-hmm.

[25:43] Is there the greatest need at the middle school for

[25:47] programming and start there?

[25:51] Yeah.

[25:53] It's going to need to be a topic at that meeting-

[25:57] Yeah

[25:57] ... probably.

[25:59] I think one other thing that-- I feel like these areas are all

[26:04] right because they do cover pretty much anything the board could do.

[26:06] So great job for us.

[26:09] But I do think that getting more specific milestones for this year would be

[26:12] helpful in thinking about what is one or two things that we would like to

[26:16] accomplish in the coming year in each of these areas.

[26:19] I think for the maintenance of school property, we've talked

[26:23] about having that multi-year plan and being able to speak to

[26:27] the use of the capital reserve fund at town meetings.

[26:29] So I think being able to have those pieces in place would be helpful.

[26:34] And if we think about community engagement, having a forum or an

[26:38] opportunity for community dialogue would be helpful, and we could

[26:42] think about how to time that with town meetings so that we're able to

[26:45] maybe answer questions in advance or think about where it makes the most

[26:49] sense to share what we are doing and what we're seeing in our

[26:53] work.

[26:55] There's definitely going to-- I think we're going to need to keep people apprised

[26:59] of this new consolidation-

[27:02] Yeah

[27:04] ... thing as well,

[27:08] and use that as a-

[27:10] Yeah

[27:11] ...

[27:13] reason to meet.

[27:16] Should we start doing a quarterly-- I don't know how we would get people there, but

[27:20] doing it in the auditorium.

[27:23] Yeah.

[27:24] Somehow having some sort of presentation,

[27:27] even if it's just in regards to this.

[27:30] Mm-hmm.

[27:32] Once there's something to present.

[27:33] Yeah.

[27:35] The other thing is that,

[27:38] and you kind of brought that up, that there was a consultant last time, and

[27:43] the consultants kind of have a template that they

[27:47] use when they're working with the districts, we hope,

[27:50] that they've agreed upon.

[27:53] So everyone's sort of template looks the same,

[27:57] and hopefully they will do that again.

[27:59] But they haven't even appointed who these people-

[28:02] They're down to two finalists right now.

[28:05] For our area, or?

[28:10] So I can't recall. I think there's two lead finalists, so it's

[28:14] Dave Yonce and some other

[28:17] person I can't recall right now.

[28:20] And the

[28:21] Vermont Learning Collaborative is

[28:26] working to get that one person, and then that person will be training the

[28:29] other

[28:33] facilitators, I believe.

[28:37] That is, I believe-

[28:38] So somebody else entirely would be our facilitator, or this-

[28:41] Could be.

[28:42] Could be.

[28:42] Yes, I believe.

[28:45] So.

[28:45] Or maybe

[28:47] could be Dave or the other person.

[28:50] But then they could be training other people to-

[28:52] Yeah

[28:52] ... be the facilitators. Because, I mean, you have

[28:55] what, like 10

[28:59] groups, so I don't think that

[29:03] one person can do that many groups, so.

[29:07] Mm-hmm.

[29:07] Yeah,

[29:17] so.

[29:17] Okay. Okay. So maybe what I will do then is ahead of our next meeting, I'll send

[29:21] out an email to the board just asking for any milestones that you would want to

[29:25] see or actions you'd want to see, and then we can bring those to a

[29:28] discussion and do sort of our final approval in the September meeting.

[29:33] We can also-- I think that's maybe when we've looked at the school improvement

[29:36] plans. I don't know if that's right for the timing that you all are-- or the

[29:40] continuous improvement plans for the timing you all are working with.

[29:43] The timeline is different this year-

[29:45] Yeah

[29:46] ... than it has been.

[29:47] So we don't need to submit to the state until the end of September.

[29:51] September.

[29:51] Oh, okay. So it might be more of an October.

[29:54] Yeah.

[29:54] September 30th is the deadline.

[29:56] Yeah.

[29:56] See, so when we first put that work plan together, we

[30:00] were going off of old information-

[30:02] Yeah

[30:02] ... and stuff like that, and then the state in its- Great wisdom

[30:06] has changed things, and so some of the work we're going to do

[30:10] tomorrow with principals and everything is refine some of

[30:13] that work plan to bring back to the board so that we

[30:17] can

[30:19] try and bring things in order. Because we're looking at

[30:23] potentially moving

[30:25] when we do panorama survey, right?

[30:27] Because we've always done it in the spring, and then we've realized that then it

[30:31] only gives us one bite at the apple with that information.

[30:34] And so is it better maybe to give it in the fall and then give it in the spring so

[30:37] we have a pre and a post, right? So we get more data.

[30:40] And

[30:41] so we talked a little bit about that today, but we're going to dive a little deeper

[30:45] into that. So,

[30:47] that might inform some of the

[30:50] information that we can provide back to the boards and stuff like that.

[30:53] So we're trying to get

[30:57] things fixed on our end so we can give the board better information.

[31:00] Yeah. Okay.

[31:01] Hopefully the community, so.

[31:03] Well, that's helpful. So maybe then we'll plan for October for the

[31:07] CIPs, and then for board goals, we can still talk about ours

[31:11] because, again, the broad goal is that we are supporting the CIPs.

[31:14] I don't think that changes, but maybe the actions that we take are

[31:18] informed by what we hear are the priorities.

[31:21] Is October soon enough?

[31:24] For?

[31:24] For a board-

[31:25] That's, yeah.

[31:26] Oh, or do they need to be approved before they get submitted?

[31:29] I think they need to be approved before they're submitted, yeah.

[31:32] So we'll-

[31:32] The next meeting

[31:33] ... we'll probably, so at the September meeting-

[31:37] Okay

[31:37] ... we will have to

[31:39] present the CIPs to you all for your

[31:43] approval,

[31:44] so that we

[31:46] can get them,

[31:48] because we do have to present them by,

[31:52] or submit them to the state by the end of the month, so.

[31:54] We could have a special meeting in September.

[31:55] We could, yeah. If we need to, so.

[31:58] Give them some more, because the start of school is the

[32:02] worst time to-

[32:04] Quick turnaround. Not a big deal, yeah.

[32:06] Mine's almost done.

[32:07] Mine's done because I had to submit it to Martin.

[32:09] Mine's almost done, too.

[32:11] We're pretty close already. I think it's-

[32:13] Whatever

[32:16] ... but we

[32:18] have some tweaking to do on the SU one, which doesn't need to be submitted, but

[32:22] we were working on that today. We got a little bit of work tomorrow, and I think

[32:26] we'll take a straw poll where we are with all

[32:30] the schools and...

[32:33] But I appreciate

[32:36] the flexibility on the board's

[32:39] behalf, so.

[32:39] All right. So we'll plan on September, and then we'll just check in as we get that

[32:43] agenda ready to go. And we'll do a special meeting if needed to

[32:46] approve before they are required to be submitted.

[32:50] Board goals we'll revisit in September.

[32:53] The next item I have is discussing the budget process, so thinking

[32:57] about our timeline. And Andy, I don't know if this works based on

[33:01] what we were thinking for the SU timeline, but I took what we

[33:05] had last year,

[33:08] and updated it with what I think are the dates for our

[33:12] special meetings and regular meetings this year.

[33:15] Some of these pieces will be moved, like adopting the CIPs and setting the board

[33:19] goals.

[33:22] But

[33:23] I think that if it works for you all, what we did last year was to have the

[33:27] second meeting of the month be our budget-focused meeting to the degree possible,

[33:31] and that way we can kind of make sure that we get through those pieces.

[33:35] Mm-hmm.

[33:36] So it would be finalizing the budget timeline in September, and I had

[33:40] this from the prior work plan, so Andy, let me know if this is not in alignment

[33:43] with what we're thinking now, but presenting a proposed budget in

[33:47] September and then reviewing it in October.

[33:50] Does that sound feasible,

[33:53] or is that-

[33:54] Ed and I are scheduled to meet here

[33:57] later this week, so could I get you an email out after-

[34:01] Yeah

[34:02] ... we've met just to kind of look at that?

[34:11] Yeah.

[34:13] That would be ambitious.

[34:16] Yeah. I'm thinking October is probably-

[34:20] Yeah

[34:20] ... more realistic.

[34:21] Mm-hmm.

[34:22] Because he's in the middle of audit right now.

[34:25] Yeah.

[34:26] And if we--

[34:28] The goal is to get the board's finalized audits by the end of

[34:32] September,

[34:35] which I think we're on track actually for this year.

[34:40] That might disrupt it.

[34:43] So let me just check with him, and then I will

[34:48] put you down.

[34:49] Okay. That sounds good. I think we also had a lot of

[34:53] cushion in this timeline to be able to review proposed budgets.

[34:56] So

[34:57] I think if we are also looking at the

[35:01] CIPs in September, it might make sense to identify the budget priorities

[35:04] then,

[35:06] because we'll have a better idea of what the school priorities are.

[35:10] And then we could take a look at a proposed budget potentially

[35:14] in the first meeting in October, or in the second meeting.

[35:18] Depending on where we're at, we can do

[35:21] an overview of anything that might be coming up in terms of finance or

[35:25] components. I think it might be helpful to have a refresh on what

[35:29] those pieces are, although I don't think I need to go into

[35:33] as much depth. You know I love a PowerPoint presentation, and I'm always happy to

[35:36] trot that one out But I think just making sure, especially for folks who

[35:39] might be watching school board meetings, what the tax rate

[35:44] calculation is, and sort of how the school funding features

[35:48] into that.

[35:49] And then I think this was based on the timeline from last year.

[35:53] We looked at the SU budget in October.

[35:56] But we can

[35:58] always update that if we need to as we get a sense from the

[36:02] SU meetings.

[36:06] We would be hopefully looking at any revisions to the initially

[36:10] proposed budget in November.

[36:12] Um, and then we would get some information that would help us finalize the budget

[36:16] with the final

[36:19] SU budget and the tax letter from the AOE happening in November and

[36:23] December,

[36:24] and then be able to vote on the Rockingham budget in the

[36:28] beginning of December, but hold the second meeting if we needed

[36:31] to have any further discussion.

[36:35] Good luck.

[36:40] It's ambitious, but I think it's-

[36:41] The state doesn't even provide the numbers to us that we

[36:45] need

[36:46] to know about the tax rate

[36:50] until the middle of December, right, Andy?

[36:57] Oh, like the pupil count?

[37:00] Yeah.

[37:02] Some other stuff.

[37:06] Yeah.

[37:06] If

[37:10] we just--

[37:11] Ideally,

[37:17] it'd be great to have-- I try to

[37:22] look to,

[37:24] as we get back from January, we're kind of finalizing budgets

[37:28] as we're coming back from winter break, just because then you got to get your

[37:32] articles and everything, because we've got to post them

[37:35] early in February kind of thing.

[37:37] Mm-hmm.

[37:37] Because we've got 40 days with that stuff.

[37:39] So

[37:41] if we

[37:42] cushion that and say, "Hey, it'd be great right before we go on break that we've

[37:45] got

[37:47] budgets done," that'd be

[37:49] ideal. But it's really waiting for the state.

[37:52] That's the hard part. But trying to have them done before we go on

[37:56] break, like at least

[37:59] that pudding, that semi-firm kind of

[38:03] thing-

[38:04] Mm-hmm

[38:04] ... that's ideal because

[38:08] if we're still kind of real liquidy going into break, I think

[38:12] that

[38:16] we're having a lot more weekly meetings at that point.

[38:19] So that's

[38:22] what I'm trying to avoid because I think a couple of years

[38:26] --

[38:26] A few years back, we were having meetings almost every week

[38:30] in January.

[38:32] Yeah.

[38:32] Not with you all.

[38:33] Yeah.

[38:35] But with a previous board.

[38:36] I'd rather stay a little ambitious and-

[38:39] So-

[38:39] So the hearing later.

[38:40] Well, you told me I had till...

[38:42] Yeah. So.

[38:45] All right. So we will aim for December as an approval of the budget, but then know

[38:48] that we have January as well. That's also when we want to have our articles

[38:53] reviewed and approved. Um, and then whenever we have the

[38:57] deadlines that we know we need, I know, Andy, I think last year you had

[39:01] a goal for a deadline for all of the budgets to be adopted and the deadline for

[39:05] article approval based on when it needs to be submitted.

[39:08] We can add those in and add when we will present the budget at town meeting and

[39:12] when it will be voted on. Um,

[39:16] but we will

[39:18] keep to our special meeting budget focus,

[39:22] and we will aim for December to the best of our ability.

[39:26] Question.

[39:26] Yes.

[39:27] So, uh, the budgeting priorities, would that be the

[39:31] second meeting in September?

[39:33] Ooh, that's a great question. Should we start our special

[39:37] meetings in September

[39:40] and have two a month?

[39:45] It gives the principals some time to get their starting school up.

[39:50] Yeah.

[39:52] Starting school is kind of crazy.

[39:55] It's crazy.

[39:55] Principals sometimes.

[39:58] Sometimes.

[39:59] Sometimes.

[40:01] Um, if that would work and another meeting would

[40:05] make it easier to space things out rather than tougher with adding another meeting

[40:09] into a busy September,

[40:12] then I think we can definitely start those meetings in September,

[40:15] um, with the budget priorities.

[40:19] And then we would plan on doing the present and review the proposed budget in

[40:23] October.

[40:24] It seems like we have enough things that have to happen in September that-

[40:28] It's worth doing another

[40:28] ... having that at least as a cleanup meeting, even if it's not for the budget-

[40:32] Yeah

[40:32] ... like if the SIPs or something else.

[40:34] Mm-hmm.

[40:36] So rather than a blockbuster

[40:39] post Labor Day weekend.

[40:41] When would our first meeting be in September?

[40:43] Because Labor Day is not till the second this year.

[40:45] Ah. That's-- Yeah. Well-

[40:48] We're close to Labor Day.

[40:50] No. So-

[40:51] Usually we'll do the Tuesday after. Is that?

[40:55] Yeah. So your all meeting is the eighth.

[41:01] Okay.

[41:01] And, um...

[41:05] So that means the next meeting would be 21st.

[41:11] Excellent. I'll be away on vacation.

[41:15] Hold on. This is-

[41:16] Submit all your budget priorities in writing.

[41:19] So are we meeting September 7th? Because that is-

[41:22] No, we'd meet on the eighth.

[41:24] Oh, the eighth. Can you-

[41:26] Yeah.

[41:26] Yes.

[41:27] So we've-

[41:27] Oh, you did already.

[41:28] I did.

[41:28] Oh, it doesn't show up on mine yet.

[41:29] Oh, do you know why? Because I didn't check. I tracked changes on it instead of...

[41:37] Actually, no.

[41:39] Maybe it's the one before.

[41:39] We'll put that in my calendar right now.

[41:43] Okay.

[41:43] September 2nd.

[41:43] Okay. So September 8th, uh,

[41:46] will be our regular September meeting.

[41:49] September 21st will be our, uh, cleanup

[41:53] meeting/budget priorities.

[42:04] Okay.

[42:05] Okay. And I will, uh-

[42:07] Clean this up,

[42:09] and then

[42:11] we'll have this to operate off of and make adjustments as we go.

[42:16] Okay.

[42:19] Anything else we should discuss with the budget process?

[42:26] Okay. We will skip over the budget priorities, since as discussed, we will

[42:31] be doing those later.

[42:32] But I did link the

[42:35] collaborative budgeting resource from the BSBA, which I thought was a helpful

[42:38] example of ways that you could consider setting budget priorities, just as we

[42:42] think about what kind of guidance might be useful.

[42:44] But for

[42:46] principals and Andy, let us know what kind of guidance is useful as well,

[42:50] and that way we can make sure that we're giving priorities that make sense and are

[42:54] helpful.

[42:59] Okay. And then I think this was also a work plan item that I

[43:03] don't know if we are ready for, the baseline enrollment and staffing.

[43:10] Yeah. No, we're...

[43:17] Do you on dial-up there, Andy?

[43:19] I'm sorry?

[43:19] Sound like it.

[43:21] No.

[43:22] I thought it was doing a good ribbit.

[43:25] Not on dial-up.

[43:32] Baseline enrollment staffing.

[43:36] Did you want principals to report on-

[43:38] We can give you, yeah, we can give you what we have for numbers and staffings.

[43:42] This is from the work plan.

[43:44] Oh.

[43:45] So I'll...

[43:49] Do you know what you meant by that, Andy, when you-

[43:50] I don't

[43:51] ... wrote it down?

[43:51] Off the top of my head, I apologize.

[43:57] Yeah, I do apologize.

[44:00] But I did ask principals to at least just have verbal, some just

[44:04] information about

[44:06] where they are staffing-wise and things that are going on with

[44:10] school just for opening. So, if they could give...

[44:13] I'd ask them not to do it just a written report, but just-

[44:16] Yeah

[44:16] ... things, just so

[44:18] if you want to, real quick, they could use this time for that.

[44:20] Just-

[44:21] Yeah

[44:21] ... if you guys are okay with that.

[44:22] Yeah.

[44:23] Okay. Take your across from me so I make eye contact with you guys.

[44:28] So we are

[44:31] pretty well set for staffing. We have one paraposition that we're

[44:34] still working on.

[44:36] We have two new custodians this summer, and they are doing an amazing job,

[44:40] working really hard, and it's been great.

[44:43] Sean has been fantastic to work with.

[44:47] We did have a water leak in one of our main pipes into the

[44:51] building, and it started out like a

[44:54] drip, drip, drip, and then it became like it filled a

[44:58] gallon,

[45:00] I mean, not a gallon, a garbage pail in eight hours, and then it filled a garbage

[45:04] pail in 40 seconds. So we ended up having to shut it completely off.

[45:08] We were without water for a week while

[45:11] the repair

[45:14] part was purchased. And so the repair's been made.

[45:17] The water's back on. Everything's fine, except we don't have any hot water, that

[45:21] sort of thing.

[45:22] A lot of retiling is happening this year in the gym floor.

[45:26] Not

[45:27] the whole thing, but a lot of sections that have been starting to crack up.

[45:32] And Tyler is there today. I think he's been at your building, too.

[45:35] It's pretty impressive what he does.

[45:38] And the other thing on my list was the boiler repair.

[45:41] And other than that, it's a lot of the normal summer,

[45:44] get the rooms looking spiffy, get the floors all waxed, and

[45:50] we have a couple of staff members returning to us who we're really excited about,

[45:54] Jim Burgess, and well, you guys all know that.

[45:56] You approved her, so

[45:57] yeah.

[45:59] Great. Thank you.

[46:00] Mm-hmm.

[46:01] Any questions for Kate?

[46:04] How big was the garbage bucket?

[46:06] Oh.

[46:07] It was a 50 gallon.

[46:08] Yeah, it was like a-

[46:09] Oh, like a-

[46:09] Yeah.

[46:09] How many seconds? That's a-

[46:11] I was thinking like a little trash can.

[46:12] It was a lot of water.

[46:15] It ended up being a Visbest claim, so

[46:18] we paid our deductible. But

[46:23] insurance did cover the remainder of it.

[46:25] I don't know if we

[46:27] found out if it was... There was a water main break-

[46:30] Yeah

[46:30] ... that happened outside that was

[46:33] something with the town that contributed to

[46:38] probably a pressure spike.

[46:39] It happened right after-

[46:40] Drop in spike, yeah

[46:40] ... they repaired the main, so-

[46:42] Yeah. So,

[46:45] but

[46:47] yeah, because at first, it was like Kate said.

[46:50] It wasn't a big deal. Then it became...

[46:53] And then it was like continual.

[46:55] Weekend.

[46:55] It didn't matter what we did, it was just happening, so yeah.

[47:01] All is well in that regard now, so

[47:03] Good.

[47:04] And then I think the only other thing is-

[47:07] Oh

[47:07] ... the rotary-

[47:08] Oh. Okay. Sorry, go ahead. You can tell.

[47:10] No, go ahead.

[47:10] You can tell.

[47:11] No, you.

[47:12] Yes. You know this. You were there.

[47:15] Yes, the rotary came on July 12th, and in short

[47:19] order, took out all of the

[47:23] garden beds that were right next to the building in the courtyard side.

[47:26] And

[47:29] we thought it was going to be a massive task and with a bucket loader and a dump

[47:32] truck, it was a couple of hours. So our plan now is

[47:36] to

[47:38] put-

[47:41] Raised beds

[47:42] ... raised beds there, containers for raised beds along those

[47:46] windows and have them connect in ways with the curriculum.

[47:49] So there'll be a pollinator garden outside the second grade and

[47:54] bird plants along the first grade and things like that. So yeah.

[48:01] Oh, I see. And Laurie, would you like that?

[48:03] Sure.

[48:05] We are anticipating 70 students as of today, which is

[48:09] no change from where we ended.

[48:12] As far as staffing goes, in the process of

[48:16] interviewing

[48:19] Paraprofessional.

[48:21] Facilities updates.

[48:25] Work that's been completed so far is the 1915 building

[48:28] front step repair, waterproofing the exterior basement wall,

[48:32] drainage outside of the first-grade classroom, and fixing the sidewalk cracks.

[48:37] Things that are in progress, the paving project, which is going to begin August

[48:41] 5th. Thank you for approving that

[48:44] this summer.

[48:46] Quotes have been obtained for the third and fourth-grade split

[48:49] heat pumps

[48:51] for cooling purposes,

[48:54] but no

[48:56] action on that. And then the LED

[48:59] lighting, Sean had Hamlet come and take a look about

[49:03] replacing the kitchen and the gym, but no

[49:07] action on that either.

[49:10] Other things that are in the works but no action as of today,

[49:14] wood chips for the playground, removing the propane tank

[49:19] and replacing it, installing a new well pump, which

[49:23] is working fine, but it's at the 10-year mark where it

[49:27] ended its life 10 years ago.

[49:31] So we're anticipating it's going to do the same thing.

[49:33] And cleaning the chimney flue.

[49:37] One thing that wasn't, and maybe Andy, it should have been at the top when we were

[49:40] talking about CES in the middle school, but Ricky

[49:44] had wondered if anyone wanted additional keyless access

[49:48] points, and I talked with him about

[49:52] the door by the kindergarten hallway to access

[49:56] our garden area, putting one in there because right now

[50:00] students go outside. They either have to walk all the way around the front, we

[50:03] can't leave the doors propped open, or walk around the back

[50:07] and enter through the gym.

[50:10] So, he did provide a quote from Green Mountain

[50:14] Security.

[50:16] I'll just quickly share it with you.

[50:17] Not that I'm expecting you to do anything with it, but if you did, it would be

[50:20] wonderful.

[50:24] For the one keyless, so staff can use their badge to go in and out,

[50:28] it's $4,674.57.

[50:33] And that is, as I said, from Green Mountain Security.

[50:36] That would be on the playground side?

[50:38] No.

[50:41] You know the hallway that leads to kindergarten?

[50:44] Yeah.

[50:46] Yeah, right across from the administrative offices, there's that

[50:50] exterior door.

[50:51] Oh.

[50:52] So that's the closest,

[50:54] because we could put one outside of second grade, but then if another

[50:58] class wanted to use it, then they'd have to go through the second-grade classroom

[51:02] to access the garden. So,

[51:06] that's

[51:08] where ideally it would be located, just for

[51:11] ease of access.

[51:14] Is it a wired one or a wireless one? Do you know?

[51:18] Um...

[51:20] It's wireless, isn't it? Similar to the ones we have out-

[51:23] Yeah.

[51:23] It's similar.

[51:26] They would all be wireless. Yeah.

[51:30] Yeah.

[51:31] There's just the details on this about how much they

[51:35] want reader-wise.

[51:36] Yeah. No.

[51:38] Yeah.

[51:40] I'm a big fan of the card readers, so it is.

[51:45] And then-

[51:45] It's also good for saying, "No, you weren't here that day because you never..."

[51:51] Yeah. And then, as I was telling Chris prior to the start of the meeting,

[51:55] Burt and Brian, our custodians, are just fantastic,

[51:59] and so efficient, and the building looks beautiful,

[52:03] and they do great work.

[52:05] So you have new custodians, too, or?

[52:08] No, Brian joined us this

[52:11] November, maybe. October,

[52:14] maybe.

[52:17] Late

[52:19] 25.

[52:20] Yeah.

[52:21] Oh, so it's his first summer.

[52:22] Yeah.

[52:24] Well, he's been with us about a year.

[52:26] I thought you might answer that.

[52:28] Yeah. He hasn't been with us like-

[52:30] There was mail today. I was like...

[52:33] But he

[52:35] hasn't been with us like Burt has been with us, but...

[52:38] I think-

[52:38] Burt built the school in 1915, right?

[52:41] Well...

[52:43] 1916, he came along.

[52:46] Put the final brick in.

[52:48] Well, is there any reason for not to go right ahead with the door

[52:52] lock? Well, technically,

[52:55] there is actually another

[52:58] keyless entry that should be dropped in there-

[52:59] Yeah

[52:59] ... which is the

[53:02] inside the, um-

[53:05] It's the opposite of downstairs.

[53:06] I know.

[53:07] I know. So, as you're saying, inside where

[53:13] after students come in and you've got that alternative entrance where Sarah is,

[53:17] there's a second entry. That second door,

[53:21] it's supposed to be locked at all

[53:25] times. It's not locked.

[53:27] Yeah.

[53:27] And it's supposed to be a keyless entry.

[53:29] I don't know how that got overlooked

[53:32] when the ESSER project was being done, but that's supposed to actually...

[53:35] So when you go to Westminster, it's a double entry.

[53:38] So you key less entry to get in, you're caught in that little

[53:42] area, and then you keyless entry to get back in.

[53:46] But that actually, we would have to find out what the cost of that is because

[53:49] that's a buzzer

[53:51] let in too.

[53:53] So Sarah would buzz people in to come in through that door,

[53:57] but then staff could also-

[53:59] So once you go out into the exterior-

[54:00] Yeah

[54:01] ...

[54:02] that's a much better spot than six plus.

[54:03] But it should all be done at the same time to have the guy come out one time.

[54:06] Right. So that would be my only- Well, that's a security

[54:10] concern. Right. So-

[54:11] Shouldn't cost that much more.

[54:13] Well,

[54:14] and I do have a bid as well that we have

[54:17] for a keyless entry, a second secure door

[54:21] there.

[54:22] So-

[54:22] So if you're

[54:23] going to consider it, I'd like to throw that in as well.

[54:24] So maybe let me talk with Ricky. Sure. I don't know. Let me talk with Ricky.

[54:28] I have two as well.

[54:31] But mine go against the Sean thing because Sean was looking to fix the keys on the

[54:35] door, where Ricky gave us a quote to just make them keyless.

[54:39] Let me talk with Ricky.

[54:41] I do.

[54:41] And maybe I can ask if you all might entertain a special

[54:45] meeting, because that might be a-

[54:48] You know, then we could get one, because it's easier to do one contract with

[54:52] a vendor as opposed to boop, boop, boops.

[54:55] Right, and we could pay for it out of the capital reserves.

[54:57] Yeah, because then it would make sense.

[54:59] It would all-

[54:59] Yeah.

[55:00] It's all the same vendor, so.

[55:01] It's all the same vendor, and it would be one

[55:03] invoice as opposed to-

[55:06] I agree

[55:06] ... three separate invoices.

[55:07] Yeah.

[55:08] Yeah. So.

[55:09] Yeah.

[55:10] All right, so for a special meeting for that.

[55:13] Yeah.

[55:13] Along with Sean's.

[55:13] And we could probably get that-

[55:14] So it's a treat to-

[55:16] Can we send this to him?

[55:16] Yes, please.

[55:16] Yeah. Along with the interior.

[55:20] Okay. Can do.

[55:21] Yeah, especially at the beginning of the school year.

[55:22] Yes.

[55:22] Oh, sorry, Laura, were you all set?

[55:24] I am.

[55:24] Okay.

[55:26] So as of today, we're at 205 students, which is

[55:31] about 18 students lower than we were at the end of last year.

[55:34] Not projected, but where we ended last year.

[55:37] We had that huge eighth grade group that was 84 students-

[55:41] Okay

[55:41] ... that we just passed on to the high school. So, 205 right now.

[55:45] However, I do know that there's a couple of registering families

[55:49] from out of district that are coming in and have filled out

[55:52] paperwork, and I don't know if that show...

[55:54] That's probably not showing yet in Powerschool.

[55:57] Just like Kate said, our building looks amazing.

[55:59] I only have one custodian here who

[56:02] has a summer under his belt, and last summer was his first summer.

[56:06] The other two custodians that are working with him, it's their very first summer.

[56:10] As you know, without Rick and Ralph here,

[56:14] there's been some turnover. The guys have done a great job.

[56:17] The floors look like glass, and I actually think that they

[56:22] are ahead of even where the guys were last summer.

[56:25] Mm-hmm.

[56:26] You know, not knowing that that was something that would be a thing, so I want to

[56:29] commend them on that work. Obviously, there's stuff out in the hallway, so it looks

[56:33] a little bit messy, but when you come in and you see the floors as beautiful as

[56:36] they are, we've had some veteran staff who have already been in the building, in

[56:40] the rooms, and they couldn't believe the rooms have been finished and how good they

[56:42] look. So definitely a shout-out to Justin, Cody, and

[56:46] Dave. So they did some good work there.

[56:49] Like Kate said as well, Sean's been great, I know the short time that he's been

[56:53] here, but he's had some pretty good ideas about ways to improve the building,

[56:57] like the locks and stuff like that.

[57:00] Tiling, Reverend, some of the tile guys were here at the end of last week,

[57:04] kind of spot tiling, doing some replacement.

[57:07] It is really cool to see. I wasn't here last week, but David sent me

[57:11] a video of the guys doing the work, and

[57:14] it's pretty efficient, so it was kind of cool to see that.

[57:16] And some of it was the cracks and the chips, getting to be a safety issue for

[57:20] kids walking through the hallways and stuff, so it's good to

[57:23] have those fixed. You may have seen some of the masonry work that's been happening.

[57:27] There have been tarps over the stairs.

[57:28] Last week they were working on the stairs that go up to the grand

[57:32] staircase to the building there. Currently, the whole side over

[57:36] here, the side entry is caution taped off.

[57:39] They're working on those steps. They've done some masonry work up on

[57:43] the

[57:44] back entry or side of the building here.

[57:47] So they've been all over the place with that. It looks great.

[57:50] The stairs walking up to the main

[57:53] grand staircase entry were pretty beat up, so it's good to see some of those

[57:57] fixed.

[58:00] Hiring needs.

[58:01] We're looking still officially, haven't technically hired a fifth grade special

[58:05] educator,

[58:06] but we have one in the queue potentially, but we got some more

[58:10] investigation to go there and reference checks and stuff like that.

[58:14] We're also looking for two special ed paras, one for

[58:18] seventh and one for eighth grade so far.

[58:20] Not one-on-ones, just small group paras.

[58:24] And

[58:25] that's it.

[58:27] Okay.

[58:27] The tile you both referred to, I assume is the VCT tile, not

[58:31] ceramic or-

[58:32] Yeah, correct. It's what's out there right now.

[58:34] Yeah.

[58:41] Okay. So thank you, principals, for impromptu reports.

[58:46] It's great to hear what's going on.

[58:48] The next items we have are revisiting the CBA,

[58:53] which I think is linked in our agenda.

[58:56] And just as a reminder, this was a way for

[59:00] everyone on the board to feel like they had a basic understanding of the components

[59:03] of the CBA

[59:06] as we are going into negotiations again.

[59:09] This year, yeah.

[59:10] Okay.

[59:10] This year,

[59:13] we should begin negotiations in the fall.

[59:16] So I think the CBA

[59:19] ends in June, so

[59:23] I think-

[59:24] This is teachers?

[59:25] Teachers. Yeah. I can't remember-

[59:27] Teachers or staff.

[59:27] This is teachers.

[59:29] Which was-

[59:29] This is certified, yeah.

[59:30] Yeah.

[59:31] Staff would be.

[59:31] I'm trying to think. Is it Rick who...

[59:33] I can't remember who-

[59:34] It could be Chris.

[59:38] Oh, who is our board representative?

[59:39] Yeah.

[59:39] That's right, yeah.

[59:40] But I think it's...

[59:42] Because there's only

[59:45] three exchanges that can happen with-- Usually there's ground

[59:49] rules that get set up, and there's three exchanges of

[59:53] requests or

[59:56] ideas that want to get put into the

[1:00:00] changes in the CBA and whatnot. And so,

[1:00:05] as many ideas or things that can come

[1:00:09] early or it's a lot,

[1:00:11] just makes it go smoother. And so,

[1:00:15] one of my goals this year is to try and get as much

[1:00:19] language cleaned up as possible because I think many years have gone

[1:00:23] by, we haven't cleaned up the language.

[1:00:26] Mm-hmm.

[1:00:27] Yeah. But you get focused on dollars, which I understand.

[1:00:32] But

[1:00:33] we've worked on language back when Kate was on the

[1:00:39] teacher

[1:00:41] lead negotiator and whatnot, but

[1:00:44] there's some outdated stuff now that as laws have changed and stuff and so-

[1:00:49] We want to make sure those get taken off.

[1:00:51] But Michelle Gould, who's our HR person, has been going through it

[1:00:55] and just catching things that are no longer...

[1:00:59] Things have just changed that I don't think any of us really know, but

[1:01:03] as a

[1:01:04] human resource person, she knows that those things shouldn't even be in

[1:01:08] there. They're just changed and stuff.

[1:01:09] So

[1:01:11] things like that.

[1:01:16] So I

[1:01:19] suggest we go into executive session.

[1:01:22] To discuss any specifics of the-

[1:01:23] To discuss the

[1:01:26] collective bargaining agreement in which we're acknowledged, of which

[1:01:31] might put

[1:01:32] us

[1:01:34] or

[1:01:36] any teachers at a disadvantage.

[1:01:41] I guess I would say I would invite the principals too

[1:01:45] for this meeting.

[1:01:52] That was a save.

[1:01:53] So was.

[1:02:00] All right. So we have a motion to go into executive session.

[1:02:03] All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[1:02:06] Aye.

[1:02:06] Aye. Okay.

[1:02:08] We're out of executive session with no action taken.

[1:02:11] The next item on the agenda is the five-year capital plan.

[1:02:13] And so Andy, I think I put this on here as a follow-up from

[1:02:18] another meeting I was not able to be at.

[1:02:20] I don't know if we have a capital plan ready, but I think our next plan,

[1:02:24] the next time we talk about this, is to have the sheet of what's our five-year

[1:02:28] plan, where are we at with the balance, and what would it be?

[1:02:31] Yeah, I think with

[1:02:36] optimistically, with

[1:02:39] Shawn here, that was the goal, was to have something there.

[1:02:42] With Shawn now leaving us at the end of the month,

[1:02:46] I don't know if we can

[1:02:49] be there. I can work with him to see if we can get something together

[1:02:54] prior to him leaving.

[1:02:56] So that would be hopeful that we can have something in place prior to him,

[1:03:01] because that would be ideal.

[1:03:03] And then for whomever's coming in, that would be a good sounding board.

[1:03:07] Yeah.

[1:03:09] But we're at also at the same point where we're trying to get

[1:03:13] school open. A

[1:03:18] lot of the work he's been working on is working on what Rick had had

[1:03:22] in place and what he was seeing and

[1:03:25] responding to. So some of it's a lot of just sit down and

[1:03:29] just plugging away and putting things in.

[1:03:31] So, at the same time,

[1:03:34] the state has actually developed

[1:03:38] and supposedly launching

[1:03:42] shortly,

[1:03:43] but shortly was a while ago,

[1:03:46] a whole dashboard

[1:03:51] on capital improvement plans for every single

[1:03:54] district.

[1:03:57] And so

[1:03:59] we had to submit a whole bunch of stuff, and then we

[1:04:03] had to go through and actually review a bunch of

[1:04:06] stuff. I think that was just before we left in June,

[1:04:12] because they were supposed to have something out very shortly.

[1:04:15] And so

[1:04:20] trying to balance out those two of do you want to replicate

[1:04:24] work if they're already going to have something that's out there?

[1:04:29] But I'll work with Shawn, and we can have something

[1:04:33] at least put together for you all.

[1:04:36] Yeah. I think baseline, we wanted to understand what our current level is in any

[1:04:40] of the projects that we had approved for that would be taking out, and then I think

[1:04:43] the next-

[1:04:44] Yep

[1:04:44] ... step would be the five-year, where's the rest of it?

[1:04:47] Yep.

[1:04:48] Okay, great.

[1:04:49] And I'd continue to be more than happy

[1:04:52] to help out and participate, and even with the new person, meeting with

[1:04:56] them, you, the principals, to start

[1:05:00] working on some of that stuff.

[1:05:03] All right. Thank you.

[1:05:05] It's what I like to do.

[1:05:06] I know. It's so great to have a rep on this board because every time we talk about

[1:05:09] capital improvement, you throw out an acronym I've never heard of.

[1:05:13] I feel very reassured by your knowledge of...

[1:05:19] Okay. And then the last item that I had for old

[1:05:23] business is building tours, and when it might make sense to set those

[1:05:27] up. I know we've got a lot of work going on,

[1:05:30] and don't want to add anything to your plates as you are getting ready for the

[1:05:33] start of the school year. But also, I know we've talked about wanting to get in and

[1:05:36] see some of the projects that have been happening.

[1:05:39] I think November.

[1:05:41] November?

[1:05:42] Early November,

[1:05:44] especially if we're going to work on this,

[1:05:46] come up with some idea of this five-year plan.

[1:05:48] I think it would be a good idea if the

[1:05:51] principals and whoever had that list, and then the school

[1:05:55] board was able to go to the schools and then see what they want

[1:05:59] and need and why, and be able to actually visualize that.

[1:06:03] Like when we hear the tile is chipping.

[1:06:05] Yeah.

[1:06:06] You know?

[1:06:06] Mm-hmm.

[1:06:08] Yeah, that would be great.

[1:06:11] Okay. So we will aim for November.

[1:06:17] Yeah, I was wondering if

[1:06:22] we had tried to even think about what budget priorities and as we're

[1:06:26] doing the budget, we

[1:06:28] try in November. You know what I mean?

[1:06:31] How we flow it all together.

[1:06:33] Yeah. I was trying to make sure-

[1:06:36] No, I know exactly

[1:06:36] ... we didn't do it in September or October.

[1:06:38] Yeah.

[1:06:38] No, I know exactly what you're trying to do.

[1:06:42] This might be the time to do it. This month might be the time to do it before

[1:06:44] school.

[1:06:47] So you're saying August before school starts?

[1:06:50] I was almost thinking Thanksgiving break time.

[1:06:58] I guess it depends on how-

[1:07:01] Depends on what we want to really see.

[1:07:02] Yeah.

[1:07:03] What do you really want to get out of it?

[1:07:05] Yeah.

[1:07:05] Are you going to talk about budget priorities, or are you just going

[1:07:09] to say,

[1:07:11] "Yeah, that should be in the plan," or-

[1:07:14] Yeah

[1:07:14] ... that's all set, or what?

[1:07:17] Little bit of both, I would think.

[1:07:21] Probably go away for a budget meeting.

[1:07:23] Yeah.

[1:07:25] Could we, the four of us, talk about it tomorrow, and

[1:07:29] I could get back to you all?

[1:07:31] Just-

[1:07:31] Sounds great. Yeah.

[1:07:32] Because we're meeting tomorrow, so.

[1:07:37] We're meeting. Okay, great. And then,

[1:07:40] I know our next item is future agenda items,

[1:07:44] and Nicole mentioned that there was a follow-up on the net solar.

[1:07:48] And you have any other information on that?

[1:07:51] I just know that

[1:07:54] the gentleman

[1:07:56] from the

[1:07:58] net meter solar had requested to follow up with

[1:08:02] some additional information and asked, and he'd asked

[1:08:06] if he could come here today, and we just

[1:08:09] felt that there was other priorities pushing, and

[1:08:14] so we had pushed him off. But

[1:08:17] I know that he'd had a couple of email exchanges with Chris, so

[1:08:21] I don't know if they're...

[1:08:23] I'll be really honest with you. He's tried to

[1:08:27] contact me, and I'm very uncomfortable with it.

[1:08:29] Yeah.

[1:08:30] I'm just a board member.

[1:08:32] Yeah. No, I understand. Yeah.

[1:08:34] And I still feel

[1:08:39] that if and when we go into a net metering

[1:08:44] arrangement, we want to do it after we've addressed

[1:08:48] or gotten our electric bill down as low as it can be through

[1:08:52] other improvements, so.

[1:08:54] I'd like to get Eric back here and-

[1:08:56] Yeah.

[1:08:56] I want to talk to Eric.

[1:08:59] So.

[1:08:59] My personal view is that this guy should be told

[1:09:03] not now.

[1:09:05] Well, I think-

[1:09:06] We'll call you. Don't call us.

[1:09:07] We have the perfect opportunity right now.

[1:09:11] Our long-term facilities manager director just left.

[1:09:15] The replacement didn't last very long. We need to find a new replacement.

[1:09:19] We need to get them settled, and

[1:09:22] it's not within the reality of scope of work for us right

[1:09:26] now.

[1:09:29] Yeah. I think that makes sense to me too. It sounds fair.

[1:09:33] Okay.

[1:09:34] The other things that I have on our agenda from the work plan that I

[1:09:38] don't think we've yet covered are, we were at some point going to look at the

[1:09:42] spring

[1:09:43] MAP data.

[1:09:45] I don't think we've done that yet. Have we?

[1:09:48] I shared mine in the-

[1:09:49] Yeah.

[1:09:50] Shared ours in the June-

[1:09:52] Okay. I'm so sorry

[1:09:52] ... our June board reports.

[1:09:53] It was in-

[1:09:56] Yeah.

[1:09:57] Yeah.

[1:09:57] And then, so maybe I'm looking at

[1:10:00] a different one.

[1:10:04] Okay.

[1:10:04] I think that's where

[1:10:06] we had

[1:10:07] put on the work plan early certain dates and-

[1:10:11] Yeah

[1:10:12] ... things are kind of like when things are available, and we have to go back

[1:10:16] and massage it because VCAP is been

[1:10:20] released to us, but it's still embargoed at this point.

[1:10:22] Yeah.

[1:10:22] And so it's like some people know it's released, but it's

[1:10:27] only been released to districts, and so we're only just starting to even have

[1:10:31] ability to look at it.

[1:10:32] Okay.

[1:10:33] And so

[1:10:35] we have to--

[1:10:37] We want to be able to give it out, but it's like

[1:10:40] we don't even know when they're going to release it.

[1:10:41] And

[1:10:44] so you put it on a

[1:10:46] work plan saying, "Look at VCAP data," but

[1:10:50] it might be we think it's available one month, but it might not be

[1:10:54] available for two more months.

[1:10:57] So

[1:10:59] that

[1:11:06] was some of the work, as I say we were going to do, is go back and as an admin team

[1:11:10] look at how do we

[1:11:13] realign some of that work plan

[1:11:16] to get it just more realistic as the curriculum committee's done some

[1:11:20] work, as the schools have done some work with their SIPs, and realign

[1:11:25] what's more realistic and

[1:11:27] when DIBELS is, all of that stuff. So

[1:11:31] it

[1:11:32] reflects more of what's happening in the buildings so that you're getting it in a

[1:11:36] more timely manner, so.

[1:11:38] Okay. So maybe what I'll do then is, Andy, the next time we meet before

[1:11:41] our next meeting, we can just take a look at what we have in the upcoming

[1:11:45] months and make sure that those items still feel like they're in the right

[1:11:48] timelines, but we also have the ones that we've talked about throughout this

[1:11:50] meeting. So talking about the SIPs for the

[1:11:54] September meeting and having a special meeting if needed, the annual

[1:11:58] board goals, and thinking about finalizing those milestones.

[1:12:04] And I will send an email out because I feel like there's a lot of different threads

[1:12:07] that we've talked about in this meeting, but that way we can make sure we've got

[1:12:10] anything that we talked about here, plus any other ideas that have come

[1:12:14] up.

[1:12:15] And with that, I think we are at

[1:12:19] director's comments,

[1:12:21] so I'll start with you,

[1:12:24] Chris.

[1:12:24] I'm all set.

[1:12:25] Okay.

[1:12:26] Sue?

[1:12:26] Nothing.

[1:12:27] Okay. Great.

[1:12:29] It's very warm in here.

[1:12:30] Yeah.

[1:12:33] All right. Thank you all.

[1:12:36] Our next meeting will be September 8th, Tuesday at

[1:12:40] 5:00 here.

[1:12:41] All boards will be having a special meeting at large.

[1:12:43] Unless-- Oh, there is an all-board meeting, but do we have that scheduled yet?

[1:12:47] August 19th.

[1:12:49] August 19th. Okay.

[1:12:51] Where is that?

[1:12:52] Be at the high school.

[1:12:53] Thank you.

[1:12:53] Okay. All right. Great. And with that, we are

[1:12:57] adjourned at 7:08. Thank you, everyone.

[1:13:01] Thank you for watching this Fact TV presentation.

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[1:13:15] email us at fact810@gmail.com. Falls

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Rockingham School Board - Aug 03 2026

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