[0:00] Heat.
[0:19] Hey, Heat.
[0:29] Right. It's 5:55. We call the premeating
[0:33] into session. So, the normal town
[0:36] moderator is on vacation this week. So,
[0:39] we need to appoint a moderator for
[0:41] ourformational session tonight.
[0:45] Everett Hammond has agreed to be our
[0:47] moderator. Is there a motion to appoint
[0:49] Mr. Hammond?
[0:51] >> So moved.
[0:52] >> You made the motion. Is there a second?
[0:55] >> Steve second. Any discussion around
[0:56] that?
[0:58] >> All those in favor?
[0:59] >> I
[1:02] is there a motion to adjoin adjourn to
[1:05] go into ourformational session?
[1:07] >> So move.
[1:09] >> Motion. Is there a second?
[1:10] >> Second.
[1:10] >> All those in favor?
[1:12] >> I.
[1:13] >> So we'll reconvene at six for
[1:15] theformational session.
[1:34] should have made it here.
[1:38] >> Maybe somebody else was going to be
[1:40] here. Wanted to be a moderator.
[1:47] » You're hired. Congratulations.
[1:51] » Thank you.
[1:54] >> He gave me his vacation.
[1:57] >> Thank you for all being here.
[2:11] Dr.
[5:20] Good evening everyone. I'd like to call
[5:21] thisformational meeting of the
[5:23] Springfield School District to order.
[5:25] The time is now 6:00 p.m. Eastern
[5:28] Standard Time. My name is Ever Hammond
[5:31] and I'm serving as a moderator for
[5:32] tonight's meeting. Thank you for taking
[5:34] the time to be here. Whether you are
[5:36] joining us in person, by phone or
[5:38] watching live stream live stream, please
[5:41] note that in accordance to Vermont's
[5:43] open meeting law, tonight's meeting is
[5:44] being recorded by and broadcasted by SAP
[5:47] TV live. Correct.
[5:51] Let us please stand for the pledge of
[5:52] allegiance.
[6:10] Before
[6:21] we begin, I would like the school board
[6:22] and administrators to join at the front
[6:24] desk, front tables here to introduce
[6:26] themselves.
[6:28] Uh, Troy Palmer, school board chair.
[6:31] >> Denise Hunter, school board clerk.
[6:33] >> Jessica Austin, school board member.
[6:36] >> Steve Cara, school board vice chair.
[6:39] >> Steve Geller, school board member.
[6:48] » Thank you. The purpose of tonight's
[6:50] meeting is strictlyformational.
[6:52] We are here to review proposed FY27
[6:55] Springfield School District budget.
[6:57] Article one, as it is written, is shall
[7:01] the voters of Springfield Town School
[7:03] District approve the school board to
[7:04] spend 41,666,512
[7:10] which is the amount the school board has
[7:11] determined to be necessary for the
[7:13] ensuing fiscal year. It is estimated
[7:15] that this proposed budget, if approved,
[7:17] will result in education spending of
[7:19] $15,08 per pupil. This projected
[7:22] spending per pupil is 7.96%
[7:25] higher than the spending for the current
[7:27] year.
[7:31] Because this is anformational meeting,
[7:33] no binding votes will be taken tonight.
[7:35] The actual vote will take place by
[7:37] Australian ballot on Tuesday, May 5th
[7:40] between the hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
[7:42] at the Riverside Middle School. Our goal
[7:44] tonight is to ensure you have all the
[7:45] facts, figures, and context you need to
[7:48] make an informed decision at the polls.
[7:51] Some ground rules for this meeting.
[7:54] The presentation first, we will begin
[7:55] the presentation from the school board
[7:57] and administration outlining,
[7:59] excuse me, the FY27 proposed budget.
[8:02] Please hold all questions until the
[8:04] presentation is complete. During number
[8:07] two, during the question answering
[8:09] portion, if you have a question or
[8:11] comment, please raise your hand or
[8:13] approach the microphone. I will call on
[8:15] people in the order they raise their
[8:16] hands. Please do not speak until you
[8:18] have been recognized by the moderator.
[8:21] State your name. When you're recognized,
[8:22] please state your name, your town of
[8:24] residence clearly, the record, and the
[8:26] minutes. There will be a time limit for
[8:28] each person. To ensure everyone gets a
[8:31] chance to speak, please limit your
[8:32] comments or questions to
[8:35] If you have more questions, I may ask
[8:37] you to yield the floor after your first
[8:38] question and get back into the queue.
[8:42] Address the moderator. Moderator. All
[8:44] questions and comments should be
[8:45] directed to me as the moderator and I
[8:47] will direct them to the appropriate
[8:48] board member or administrator to answer.
[8:52] Are there any questions about these
[8:53] rules before we begin?
[9:01] Seeing none, I will now turn the floor
[9:03] over to board chair.
[9:05] >> Thank you, Mr.
[9:07] I will turn it over to our
[9:10] superintendent.
[9:15] » Good evening. I'm gonna share my the
[9:18] main kind of objective in my
[9:20] presentation tonight is going to be
[9:22] sharing the changes we made from our
[9:24] first version of the budget to the
[9:26] current current budget that we we are
[9:29] presenting to you. that is being voted
[9:32] on on May 5th and talk a little bit
[9:35] about some of the the kind of the
[9:37] framework and the the work that we did
[9:39] collectively as an administrative team
[9:41] to listen to the community to hold on to
[9:45] the things that we felt were really
[9:46] important um connected to all of the
[9:49] work that we have shared through our
[9:51] strategic planning process through our
[9:52] action planning etc um I will be asking
[9:57] our director of curriculum to come up at
[9:59] one point in my presentation to share a
[10:01] little bit about our literacy work which
[10:03] is a big part of what this budget
[10:05] supports
[10:07] and happy to answer any questions that community members may have about
[10:11] the budget the process or the why behind
[10:15] this budget.
[10:17] So can I get my presentation
[10:38] You have present.
[10:58] This is glacial slide changing.
[11:06] » Can you just advance it when I say
[11:08] advance?
[11:26] Great. So, um, some of the big changes,
[11:30] uh, we
[11:32] had a couple meetings after our budget
[11:35] defeat and we talked with the board and
[11:40] really needed wanted to get a sense of
[11:42] direction in terms of, you know, how how
[11:45] deep should we go back to the budget. I
[11:46] think it's import share that when we
[11:49] presented budget, our first version of
[11:51] the budget,
[11:53] we were
[11:56] we did not present that budget with
[11:58] additional
[12:00] funding within that budget that we
[12:02] thought we could cut later. We really
[12:04] did a lot of work going into version one
[12:07] of our budget to be sure that we had
[12:10] looked at previous budgets to make sure
[12:13] that we had made changes to budget lines
[12:16] where maybe we had overestimated or
[12:19] underestimated so that when we came
[12:21] forward with a budget it was our best
[12:24] work.
[12:25] We knew coming into this second version
[12:28] of the budget that we needed to both
[12:32] look at what changed from the first
[12:34] budget which you know primarily was was
[12:38] constructed in January that was kind of
[12:40] the end point for that budget um to
[12:44] April when we finalized this current
[12:47] one. Um we did have some fortunate
[12:50] shifts from January to April where we
[12:52] were able to find some savings.
[12:55] Primarily those savings were in the
[12:58] utilization of grant funding.
[13:01] We did have positions that we and I'll
[13:05] share this in a moment. We had a few
[13:06] positions that we did not um that we
[13:10] that either were retiring or leaving
[13:13] that we did not repost those positions.
[13:16] So those were savings as well. So our
[13:19] total after doing all that work and I'll
[13:21] show a little bit more of that in the
[13:22] next slides was a decrease from the
[13:26] first version to the second version in
[13:27] local spending of $367,000.
[13:32] So, so that ultimately, next slide.
[13:41] You can see here was in $150,000 savings
[13:45] in special ed tuition. Um, that grant
[13:48] money I said which was able enabled us
[13:51] to
[13:53] decrease our general fund spending was
[13:55] $25,000.
[13:57] U and then some smaller savings in
[14:00] transportation and technology. Next
[14:02] slide.
[14:06] This is just a graph to show kind of
[14:08] where that $367,000
[14:11] is coming from. Another another picture
[14:13] there. Next slide.
[14:18] We have a lot of staffing shifts. This
[14:20] happens every year as new staff are
[14:23] coming on. They're projecting what the
[14:26] costs of health benefits are going to be
[14:30] in in new positions that are opening if
[14:33] staff are leaving. So you can see here
[14:35] there's a net change across 21 positions
[14:38] from that first version to the second
[14:40] version.
[14:42] The reduction of those two positions
[14:44] that are stated here, the tech
[14:45] innovation and high school social
[14:46] studies positions were a significant
[14:49] savings. However, the the changes to
[14:53] primarily to healthcare benefits to
[14:55] employes and hiring new employees. Um
[14:59] again, this is a projection. That's all
[15:01] we have right now. Um
[15:03] we we essentially had saw $41,000 net
[15:07] increase even with those two reductions.
[15:10] And of course, every year that changes
[15:12] as you hire people.
[15:18] Next slide.
[15:22] Um there was some confusion I think from
[15:24] the community when we tried
[15:26] the what the $575,000
[15:29] in federal funding what the impact was
[15:32] on the FY27 budget
[15:36] that is not impacting the the local
[15:40] taxation other than the offset that it
[15:42] was enabled us to do in the curriculum
[15:45] line I mentioned the 200,000
[15:48] because we have to state the total
[15:50] budget number with all of our grant
[15:52] funds it was confusing to some people
[15:55] who thought, "Oh, wait. It looks like
[15:57] the budget's going up." The total budget
[16:00] amount went up, but the the tax burden
[16:03] to community members went down by that
[16:06] $367,000.
[16:10] Next slide.
[16:14] Sometimes it's hard to understand like
[16:16] people are ask questions like what you
[16:19] know how much if we cut this much from
[16:21] the budget, what would what would that
[16:23] mean in terms of So this is just an
[16:26] example. The cost of a 5centent tax rate
[16:28] cut
[16:29] would be the elimination of close to
[16:32] teaching positions.
[16:34] So that that tax rate does not move
[16:36] significantly.
[16:39] An example being from budget to budget
[16:42] version one version two if we went to a
[16:44] version three we wouldn't probably see
[16:47] that
[16:48] impacted significantly.
[16:52] Next slide.
[16:55] We've tried to share. I think it's it's
[16:58] hard it's hard for people even in
[17:01] education who work within school finance
[17:03] to sometimes understand how Vermont the
[17:06] Vermont funding system works. And I
[17:09] think that that is one of the things if
[17:10] you've been following the legislature,
[17:12] one of the things legislature has talked
[17:14] about for many years now is need to
[17:16] reform the ed funding system because
[17:19] it's very opaque and the at large. It's
[17:24] hard to engage in it and understand how
[17:27] it all works.
[17:29] The thing that I think is really
[17:30] important for for folks in Springfield
[17:33] to understand is how much we're spending
[17:36] of our total budget. And I think there
[17:38] is and people have talked about the
[17:40] sticker shock of a $42 million budget.
[17:44] We are fortunate in that of that 42 we
[17:48] are only Springfield is paying roughly 9
[17:51] million of that 42 million and you can
[17:55] see that reflected if you go to the next
[17:57] slide.
[18:02] So this is an actual tax bill from last
[18:06] year
[18:07] and the you can see that the assessed
[18:11] value this is a home that was that
[18:13] $118,000.
[18:16] And you can see even though the town's
[18:19] budget is much smaller,
[18:22] the tax burden to an individual in town
[18:25] is higher because the school budget
[18:29] essentially for a Springfield taxpayer
[18:31] is that $9 million.
[18:35] So you can see that the the municipal
[18:37] tax rate on this this is just a sample
[18:40] tax bill from
[18:44] $2,300 municipal tax, education tax is
[18:47] 1,800.
[18:50] So again, just important to understand
[18:52] how all these pieces kind of fit
[18:54] together as you're looking at our total
[18:57] budget.
[19:00] Next slide.
[19:04] So this brings our cost for people. It's
[19:07] $181 reduction from the first version to
[19:10] this version. We are now at $15,000. We
[19:14] are not considered high spenders across
[19:17] the state. We are
[19:20] probably average in our region as well.
[19:27] Next slide.
[19:31] So at the end of the day, you can see
[19:33] this version is $15,000 per cubicle cost
[19:38] and the local expenditure growth, so
[19:40] that's budget to budget is now just
[19:43] under 1%.
[19:47] Next slide.
[19:52] So one of the things that I think all of
[19:55] us felt all I think the entire school
[19:58] district
[20:00] and and the board really reflected this
[20:02] in in the vision that they set forth in
[20:06] looking at version two was
[20:08] we understand that there is really
[20:11] critical systems work happening at
[20:13] Springfield now and
[20:17] to after we we've done a lot of work
[20:20] over the last year to analyze where we
[20:22] are to be really honest about our gaps
[20:26] and what we need to grow in and address
[20:29] those that if we take the legs out from
[20:32] the district at a time when we really
[20:35] need to be investing in these systems
[20:37] and addressing our issues and
[20:39] celebrating our strengths,
[20:41] we're going to be treading water and
[20:43] it's going to have a real impact on our
[20:45] students.
[20:47] So, as we as our administrative team got
[20:50] together to look at how are we going to
[20:52] develop version two, we were really
[20:55] clear that we we absolutely have to
[20:58] these systems and these initiatives and
[21:01] programs that we're working on
[21:03] at the the forefront and and this budget
[21:06] is is funding all of that work that that
[21:10] we've shared and all the different
[21:12] communications that we've had around the
[21:14] why behind this work. I did want Alina
[21:16] to come up just briefly.
[21:23] Sure.
[21:27] » Yes. Alina Martinez
[21:30] do a presentation.
[21:35] » So I want to just talk a little bit
[21:36] about the literacy work. Um it was clear
[21:40] to me when I first came to Springfield
[21:43] that this really had to be our number
[21:46] one priority because it is the core of
[21:49] learning and everything success revolves
[21:52] around reading.
[21:53] So I wanted her to talk a little bit
[21:55] about the work we've done this year and
[21:57] what we are investing in in terms of
[21:59] that work going through.
[22:03] >> Thank you. Um so as Dr. said we have a
[22:06] huge focus on literacy as I came in last
[22:08] year joined us last year. We looked
[22:11] quite deeply into what our schools were
[22:13] doing and we did a huge um outreach to
[22:18] our staff, our students, our community
[22:20] around what we needed. looked and
[22:21] analyzed all of our data and noted that
[22:24] literacy had to be a number one
[22:26] priority. So from that,
[22:29] excuse me, from that what we did was we
[22:32] created a committee and that committee
[22:34] has committed to really putting literacy
[22:38] on the forefront. And with that
[22:40] commitment, they said every third grader
[22:42] is going to read. In order to do that,
[22:45] we knew we had to provide a lot of
[22:47] training for our teachers to know what
[22:49] they were getting from K through 12. Um,
[22:51] we didn't want did not want to just
[22:53] address our foundational prek K1
[22:56] students that had all of the needed. We
[22:59] wanted to see who our students were high
[23:01] school and we wanted to make sure that
[23:03] they were also addressed. So, all four
[23:05] of our principles have committed to
[23:06] ensure that the teachers know what
[23:09] foundational skills and how to address
[23:11] our students as they come in. This is
[23:14] commitment to do this training. So that
[23:17] in itself is a huge hurdle, right? On
[23:20] top of that, we also recognized that our
[23:23] program was varied in all buildings and
[23:27] even classrooms. So the next piece was
[23:30] bringing a program that could align all
[23:32] of our teachers, create some common
[23:34] language and our next steps are finally
[23:38] taking those pilots of and education
[23:42] resources and deciding which one we're
[23:44] going to use. Um and then we have some
[23:47] lofty goals after that you know with not
[23:50] only programming do quite a bit of
[23:52] training for teachers just on how to use
[23:54] the program and then
[23:57] assessments and PLC's and some real deep
[24:01] dives and data on how we're
[24:04] So
[24:10] final slide.
[24:16] » So thank you and
[24:20] excited to answer any questions you
[24:22] might have.
[24:24] >> Okay. Thank you Dr. Peter Dr. Peter
[24:26] Burroughs. Does the board Rick anything
[24:30] else to offer?
[24:34] Okay, we will now open the floor to
[24:36] questions and comments from the public.
[24:41] » Please state your one more thing. As a
[24:42] reminder, please step out the
[24:44] microphone. Thank you. Wait to be
[24:46] recognized. State your name and address
[24:47] and limit your initial to questions to
[24:49] three minutes.
[25:00] I think
[25:06] this environment
[25:17] said that
[25:20] identified as a problem. So how big is
[25:23] the problem?
[25:27] Why is it
[25:29] so
[25:34] district?
[25:51] » Okay. Thank you, Dr. Burrows.
[25:53] >> Great. So, one of the things I guess I
[25:55] would start by saying how we got here
[25:59] was
[26:01] not dissimilar to a lot of districts
[26:03] that begin argently with initiatives
[26:09] not just on literacy, but it could be
[26:10] about math. It could be about anything.
[26:13] And
[26:15] it's it can be very challenging to build
[26:19] and maintain systems when
[26:22] districts are siloed. And I think one of
[26:25] the things that we recognized and I
[26:28] shared this in the first development
[26:29] plan report and then it it keeps coming
[26:32] up as as we work on our strategic plan
[26:35] too is
[26:36] we need to be thinking as a system. We
[26:39] can't be thinking about you know I can't
[26:42] h you as a teacher and you're a third
[26:46] grade teacher and you come in and I ask
[26:49] you to teach reading, but I don't really
[26:51] tell you how we teach. I don't tell you
[26:53] what our beliefs are in our district
[26:55] about about teaching literacy, how we
[26:58] assess, how we communicate that what our
[27:01] intervention system looks like and how
[27:02] it operates. So, it it is a bit complex
[27:06] and I think I think we got there not by
[27:09] not trying and not good work in places
[27:13] but by by not being aligned and not
[27:15] having real clarity around
[27:19] what our reading system was.
[27:21] So we I think everyone recognizes that
[27:24] people have talked when I first got here
[27:28] um people pointed to this as one of the
[27:31] big things we really need to work on
[27:34] in terms of how long it takes to get
[27:36] there. There is so much research on
[27:38] reading and
[27:41] you've been following education over the
[27:44] last five years. The science of reading
[27:46] during co was this massive title wer
[27:50] that really shifted people's thinking
[27:53] around literacy.
[27:56] So out of co most districts
[28:01] pretty much like
[28:03] double down on the science of reading.
[28:08] What we are doing right now is shared.
[28:12] We are we are making sure that we're not
[28:15] just buying products and blindly putting
[28:19] initiatives in, but that we're building
[28:21] understanding among all our staff and
[28:25] building a system that any new teacher
[28:28] coming in understands so that the work
[28:31] we do doesn't just kind of float away.
[28:34] if Alena is not here or someone else is
[28:37] not here that that work doesn't just go
[28:39] away but it becomes part of the fabric
[28:41] of the district. So that involves both
[28:44] determining the scope and sequence what
[28:47] the curriculum is.
[28:49] It includes strategies for for how we're
[28:52] teaching in the classroom. It it
[28:55] includes what we're doing when a student
[28:57] isn't reading at grade level and when does that become something that a
[29:02] classroom teacher can't manage on their
[29:03] own? They need support of
[29:05] interventionist someone who will help
[29:07] with additional reading.
[29:10] And then teachers need training too in
[29:13] best practice and that's something that
[29:15] we have to sustain over time. We can't
[29:17] do that once. We have to continue to do
[29:19] that
[29:21] and we have limited amount of
[29:23] professional development time. So some
[29:25] sometimes those things take longer. If
[29:27] you were in the private sector, you
[29:29] could send someone away for three weeks
[29:31] and get the training. And we have these
[29:34] little pieces of time to do that. So, we
[29:36] have to do it kind of we're kind of
[29:39] building the plan as we're flying it
[29:41] sometimes in education.
[29:46] » Does that answer your question?
[29:50] >> Open up the floor.
[30:01] I did have a quick question
[30:04] on the county.
[30:18] However, the actual budget itself
[30:32] I just wanted to
[30:35] see is there a way for that
[30:55] I'd like to make you a legislator.
[31:01] » Yeah. I mean, we we jokingly talked
[31:03] about that. We would love to change the
[31:05] ballot language to to make it clearer so
[31:07] that the public really understood. It's
[31:11] something I have talked about quite a
[31:13] lot and yeah, we are constrained to
[31:16] that.
[31:19] But you know both the cost per pupil and
[31:23] the budget to budget increase both went
[31:26] down.
[31:30] » Thank you.
[31:32] >> Y Mr.
[31:42] My question is about the federal
[31:44] funding.
[31:46] Is it one time only? Is it restricted to
[31:50] specific purposes and how is the
[31:53] district going to spend that money this
[31:55] year and going forward if it goes beyond
[31:58] this year? Thank you. So this funing
[32:02] is for three years. So this is year one
[32:06] of three years. The constraints around
[32:09] this spending are it has to be
[32:14] instructionally focused to support
[32:16] improvement in areas that we have been
[32:20] identified by the state as needing
[32:21] improvement. And these aren't surprises.
[32:24] These are things that we've been talking
[32:26] about and needing to build systems
[32:28] around. So, we are working right now. We
[32:32] haven't allocated all $575,000
[32:36] for next year and it's three schools.
[32:38] It's not four schools. The high school
[32:40] didn't receive the funding. So, three of
[32:42] our four schools received that funding.
[32:45] We've only allocated that 200 or so to
[32:49] the curriculum costs to offset toward
[32:53] this version. So, we we still have, you
[32:56] know, 300,000
[32:59] left to allocate. We want to make sure
[33:03] that our process for doing that is
[33:06] aligned to all of the work that we're
[33:08] identifying and that we're not just
[33:10] looking at trying to fix a problem by
[33:13] hiring a staff member, for example,
[33:16] which in my experience in education, one
[33:19] of the things that happens frequently is
[33:22] there's an issue or a problem and we
[33:24] hire someone with a certain title to fix
[33:27] that problem.
[33:29] What doesn't happen when you do that is
[33:31] you don't solve the underlying issue of
[33:35] the the infrastructure and the framework
[33:38] not supporting the the kind of deep
[33:40] learning that you need. So that is that
[33:43] is the work that we will be doing we'll
[33:45] be making sure that we're really
[33:47] thoughtful and that it's tied to what
[33:49] will soon be a finished strategic plan
[33:52] in June which will drive our budget. It
[33:56] will drive our spending for the grant
[34:00] and it will it will give us direction.
[34:07] » Yes. Go ahead.
[34:17] » Um so if the previous budget had passed
[34:20] and wasn't
[34:24] that increase the u
[34:34] I'm just curious for later.
[34:39] >> Um so we we wouldn't have offset because
[34:42] we would have already allocated those
[34:46] general funds to the the curriculum
[34:49] training and curriculum work that we had
[34:51] identified. It wouldn't have offset
[34:53] that. We would had that full amount and
[34:56] we would have done the same
[35:00] work that we're currently doing to
[35:01] figure out how we're going to utilize
[35:02] that. There could be a potential to offset other general fund
[35:07] spending. So that that's a possibility.
[35:11] Um I think the intention from the state
[35:14] is to provide additional resource to
[35:17] really get at some of these issues. And
[35:21] yeah, so it's a it's a good question.
[35:24] This is more like a point in time.
[35:31] » Thank you. Any further questions?
[35:36] Possibly online, on the phone.
[35:51] » Okay. Uh, looks like we've answered the
[35:53] last of the questions. Before we
[35:54] adjourn, I would like to remind everyone
[35:56] once again that the vote will take place
[35:57] on Tuesday, May 5th at Riverside Middle
[36:00] School from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
[36:04] May I have a motion to for the uh for
[36:06] the board to adjourn the meeting.
[36:10] » Motion to
[36:12] second.
[36:16] » All in favor say I. I.
[36:19] >> Nay. Quick.
[36:21] your
[36:24] >> eyes have it meeting is adjourned at at
[36:28] exactly 6:31 p.m. Thank you very much
[36:31] for attending that.
[36:33] >> Thank you.
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