| 0:00:29 | Roll and consent | "Our clerk is unable to be here at the start of this meeting. So Miss Crawford has agreed to call." Then: "All items on the consent agenda will be accepted or approved without discussion. Unless a motion is made to move a specific item to the regular agenda." No vote follows. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:19 | Citizens' comments | "We'll now open the floor to non-agenda item citizens comments for policy BEDH. Is there anyone present who would like to speak to citizens? Comments? Seeing none, we will close citizens comments." | |
| 0:02:24 | SREB phase two | "So we through Esser grants, we added a phase two." SREB will provide training on programs of study, "Because currently what we have right now is not necessarily a program of studies, but it's just a course catalog." Cost, asked by Crawford (0:13:04): "Because around 28,000." "A little over 28, I believe." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:06 | Strategic plan | "When I was a superintendent in Vermont, we used a company out of Boston called the District Management Group". "We currently don't have a strategic plan for SO6." "Assistant Superintendent Kosky myself will have our first meeting virtually with them on Monday." Preliminary analysis "typically it's up to two months", then "3 to 4 months" for the plan (0:12:11). No cost or contract is mentioned. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:13:29 | Grade 8 at the high school | Petrin: "there was discussion, of possibly moving eighth grade to the high school." Pratt: "that will be part of the discussion". | |
| 0:14:22 | Youth and Government | The advisor: "We had around ten kids this year." "We had our kids submit 14 bills with only ten students" and "of the 14 bills, we had six make it through committee and then make it to the floor of the House." A student delegate was elected youth governor. On cost: "220 right now. For a student to participate in the program" (0:26:31); "it certainly wouldn't hurt if we had a slush fund for students". | |
| 0:32:21 | Superintendent's title | Pratt: "I just want to say, as your former principal and now the superintendent." The agenda and the approved minutes for this meeting still print "Christopher Pratt, Interim Superintendent". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:34:18 | K–8 math materials | "The current situation is that math and focus is not aligned to the standards." "So that means that the district has never been aligned to the standards." No teachers had capacity to pilot because of the new ELA program; Koski: "That lack of teacher participation was was really a signal of capacity." Eureka Squared has "140 lessons all aligned to the standards"; middle-school teachers chose Into Math (0:41:54). | POSITIVE |
| 0:42:09 | Measures and cost | "Grade three, I think, is going to be a really key year to start looking at". "The grand total for purchasing both programs would be $85,729.28, but, we have $120,000 allocated right now". After first-year costs "the cost should be roughly what we're currently spending on math and focus, if not slightly less." The chair: "So we don't need to attach the dollar number to our motion. No, because you had already budgeted" (0:51:00). | POSITIVE |
| 0:51:00 | Math vote | The motion is garbled on tape ("Representative. Good, good. I so more."); the chair asks for a second "approval of the Eureka two and into math program for the 2425 school year". Vote: "All in favor of the motion as articulated by Miss Hawkins? Say, I. I opposed. Motion passes." | |
| 0:53:56 | Pre-bond architectural planning | Herzog: "this is the LaValley resident architects" [Lavallee Brensinger Architects]; "The actual amount is for $50,000." Safety: "we have some real safety concerns from 30 years ago". On funding: "it's not in this year's budget on it. So I wasn't aware if there was any, any year monies available. It can't be in the Esser because that's kind of that window has passed." (0:55:50). Crawford: "I understand that there may be some monies at the end of the year". | MEDIUM |
| 0:57:03 | State share | Petrin: "Renovation is 75 state funding and 25% local." Herzog: "But legislative law says 50%, 50%. But in the past, every renovation was 75%." The chair: "So this 50,000 would be part would be our part of our 20. 5%." (Speaker's characterization; no statute was cited.) | |
| 0:58:17 | Architect vote | Crawford: "I make a motion that we approve of the expenditure of the $50,000 to go forward with the assessment by the architectural firm." Chair: "All in favor of approving $50,000 for the retirement of architectural services for potential renovation." Passes. | MEDIUM |
| 1:00:56 | Roll-call aside | Nester: "I noticed I wasn't asked to call roll today". The chair: "the last time you did roll call was the last time you were going to be roll call." | |
| 1:01:50 | Special-education rates | Nester: "our identification rate currently is right around 25%, a little bit under". Speech and language: state 11.4%, Claremont "a little lower"; the most cognitively impaired: state 2.7%, Claremont 5.1; emotional disturbance "with Claremont coming in at 10.2% with the state average being 55.7" (as transcribed; Crawford's reply, "So twice the state average.", implies a state figure near 5%). Crawford reads "the state average is 18%" (1:05:30). | |
| 1:07:24 | Programs and recommendations | Recommendations: "the need for behavioral programing at the middle school and high school", the high-school Academy, and multi-tiered systems of support. "I think the most important thing we can do for our special education students is to address the base curriculum and instruction needs for the whole district." The program table carries "a number of typos in the grade level column" (1:13:41). | |
| 1:15:17 | Contracted staff | Easter Seals paraprofessionals "bill out at an hourly rate of maybe around 30 an hour". Nester's figures: "I didn't have Mary review those, so don't completely take that to the bank." Exhibit E projects FY25 contracted related services at $515,000 of $1,092,500 in all. | |
| 1:19:02 | Special-education revenue | Catastrophic aid "usually get around, 600 to 700,000 a year"; Medicaid "around 500, 600,000". Crawford: "we're only reimbursed at a 15 to 20% level." Damon: the tiered funding bill "is in trouble. It did not get a favorable committee report from Senate Education" (1:21:19). | |
| 1:23:07 | 403(b) sidebar | Henry: payments now go to "five, six, seven different avenues"; "This is streamlining that through one place". Existing Fidelity accounts stay; new staff would use the single platform. Cost per account: "I know it's usually like a dollar or two account." | |
| 1:29:30 | Financial update | An additional catastrophic-aid payment for students aged 21 to 22: "We received $205,210.46." The report's bottom line "said 576,000" (Exhibit G: $576,529.59 on a $34,880,311.92 budget); with a $25,000 purchase-order fix "we would be at 601,000", and with the "$420,000, which I have not gone in and put against this budget", "a little over $1 million right now". "I'm still finding things." | |
| 1:33:11 | Unspent lines | Sprague on technology: "about 200,000 in unexpected technology money". Crawford on vocational tuition of $42,000 with nothing spent; Henry: "Haven't gotten any bills yet". Sprague: "about 500,000 here. That's unencumbered" in district-wide instructional salaries (1:36:20). | |
| 1:38:52 | A position not chargeable to ESSER | Henry on a middle-school social worker: "I can't move the money unless the contract says S [ESSER] on it. The contract does not say Esser on it. So I need to keep that in the general budget, even though it was supposed to be earmarked for Esser." | POSITIVE |
| 1:41:20 | Furniture | The chair: "because that furniture was bought with Esser funds or funds associated with Covid relief, we cannot use Esser funds to replace that furniture." Henry will get principals' requests "so that we could you guys could decide if you wanted to use some of this money". | |
| 1:45:14 | Retirees | Pratt: "So we can show in the minutes that the board accepts the list of retirees". Accepted by voice. No district-level retirement recognition exists, members say. | |
| 1:48:36 | Finance subcommittee | Sprague: "we met at length today. Candy. Heather and I met with the whole administrative team" on out-of-district placements, and on audit-cited policy deficiencies. The chair, of the subcommittee minutes: "I just shared it with our group to approve them and make sure that my minutes were accurate." Hawkins: "they go on the website under committees." Chair: "They should that will go." Sprague: "we're meeting monthly". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:53:03 | SRVRTC visioning | A stakeholders' meeting with SREB "On May 30th", "the Teal Lantern room at 6:00". Crawford wants SREB to present to the full board in June, "Because we're not meeting in July." | |
| 1:54:51 | City and school | After meeting the city manager and mayor, the plan is to "reconvene in June or July to kind of fix an agenda for a meeting in September or October. And the real focus is going to be elected officials talking to elected officials." "We want to have these conversations in public." Upcoming items: the cell phone policy and a proposed bell schedule change, with "more time for community comments" (1:57:23). | |
| 1:58:16 | Bonds | Henry: "Not not yet. We're not done with our bond payments." The high-school bond's last payment is "20, 27, I think"; "that's the big bond." Exhibit G budgets FY24 bond interest of $380,901.68 and principal of $847,109.69. | |
| 1:59:33 | SAU retreat and June dates | Hawkins: "A 29th is the say [SAU] retreat 630". The June 5 meeting conflicts with class night; the second June meeting moves to Thursday, June 20, because of the June 19 holiday (2:02:02). | |