Note: These proposed minutes should be considered preliminary until they are approved by the Board at a future meeting.
WINDHAM SOUTHEAST SCHOOL DISTRICT (WSESD) BOARD
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2022
REGULAR BOARD MEETING – 6:00PM
HYBRID MEETING: BUHS MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM & REMOTELY VIA ZOOM
DRAFT MINUTES
WSESD Board Members Present: Chairperson Kelly Young (KY), Liz Adams (LA), Benjamin Berg
(BB), Kaiya Colby (KC), Lana Dever (LD), Michelle Green (MG), Tim Maciel (TM), Shaun Murphy (SM), David Schoales (DSC), Deborah Stanford (DST).
WSESD Board Members Absent: Anne Beekman, Emily Murphy-Kaur,
WSESU/WSESD Administrators and Staff Present: Mark Speno, Paul Smith, Mary Kaufmann, Frank Rucker, Wendy M. Levy, Julianna Eagan, Rebecca Olmstead, Cassie Damkoehler, Ricky Davidson
Media Present: Chris Mays from the Brattleboro Reformer.
Others Present: Mindy Haskins Rogers, Robin Morgan, Jaime Contois, Lisa Ford, Cyrus (no surname given; they are a Junior at BUHS)
Please note: this attendance may be incomplete.
I. CALL TO ORDER
Chair KY called the meeting to order at 6:05pm.
KY turned over the leadership of this meeting to DSC, who is Vice-Chair.
DSC announced amendments to the agenda, as follows:
• Agenda item II is not an executive session, but a presentation on executive sessions.
• Amending the August 23 meeting minutes is postponed until the September 27th meeting to allow time for further research.
• TM will make an announcement after agenda item III.
II. EXECUTIVE SESSION PRESENTATION
DSC welcomed the Board’s attorney, Pietro Lynn, to the meeting.
Attorney Lynn gave a presentation on the requirements the Board must meet to enter into executive session. Highlights included:
• Executive sessions are covered in the state statutes under 1 V.S.A. § 313.
• The statute lists specific reasons why a Board can enter into executive session.
• There are two different kinds of executive sessions: those that require the Board to declare a finding, and those that don’t. This differentiation has been established by the Legislature.
• What the Board must do regarding declaring a finding.
• Some items require no finding because they are a matter of right.
• Sometimes entering into executive session requires two motions, such as when the Board needs to make a finding.
DSC asked how the Board can make a finding if they don’t know what the finding will be. Pietro responded: they can’t, so they need that information before making the motion to enter into executive session. Pietro noted Open Meeting Law (which includes 1 V.S.A. § 313) says a Board cannot just take it as a matter of faith to enter into executive session; the information about the finding must be provided in the agenda so the public knows that the Board is appropriately entering into executive session.
TM asked for an example of entering into executive session to discuss a legal matter, and asked if the Board has to say what the legal matter is. Pietro responded: yes. He continued, noting the Board cannot just say “it’s a legal matter;” they have to give some information, such as, “for confidential attorney-client communications,” etc.
III. MIDDLE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAM (MSLT) / YOUTH COUNCIL PRESENTATION
Cassandra Holloway, Diana Wahle, and middle school students on the Youth Council gave their presentation. Highlights included:
• A history of Building a Positive Community (BAPC), and Cassandra and Diana’s history with it.
• The August training with VT Afterschool: what it is, where it happened, who participated, and information about the leadership and building community.
• A movie, “The MSLT Training Video” about the leadership program, which mostly starred the middle school students.
• The purpose of the leadership teams, who serves on them, the use of surveys, the size of the teams, and the ways in which students learn leadership skills.
• A movie, “Oak Grove School Student Leaders,” which starred Oak Grove School students.
• A Quality Youth Development (QYD) presentation, which included information about a QYD certification that Brattleboro achieved, and what this means and its benchmarks. Dummerston School Principal Julianne Eagan gave a presentation on her school’s middle school-level student leadership team and what they were able to do remotely to work together to improve their sense of belonging and school identity, and to raise funds.
DSC called for a brief break at 6:35pm.
DSC called the meeting back into session at 6:52pm.
The presentation continued. Highlights included:
• The BAPC website, BAPC802.org, has the QYD information.
• The Youth Council, what it is, who is on it, which ages it covers, what they do, their purpose, and how they make decisions about the council.
• Three members of the Youth Council spoke about their experiences serving on the council. Paul Smith said the collaboration with BAPC is powerful and important.
TM made an announcement: DSC was recently appointed to the VSBA Task Force on District
Government Standards. TM noted DSC has been a long-standing advocate for teachers, and the VSBA has made a great choice in selecting him.
DSC introduced Kaiya Colby and Benjamin Berg, the new BUHS Student Representatives to the WSESD Board.
IV. CONSENT AGENDA
– FINANCES
Warrants of August 15, 2022
7/26/2022 ACH Purchasing Card Payment $ 542.98
Warrant No. 1055 in the amount of 750.00
Warrant No. 1060 in the amount of 2,000.00
Warrant No. 1061 in the amount of 84.99
Warrant No. 1062 in the amount of 3,581.25
Warrant No. 1063 in the amount of 3,075.25
Warrant No. 1064 in the amount of 171,764.85
$181,799.32
Warrants of August 18, 2022
Warrant No. 1065 in the amount of $ 3,000.00
Warrant No. 1066 in the amount of 572.72
Warrant No. 1067 in the amount of 139,696.63
$143,269.35
Warrants of August 29, 2022
Warrant No. 1068 in the amount of $ 5,713.71
Warrant No. 1069 in the amount of 1,000.00
Warrant No. 1074 in the amount of 172.24
Warrant No. 1075 in the amount of 197.48
Warrant No. 1076 in the amount of 979,566.69
$986,650.12
Warrants of September 6, 2022
Warrant No. 1078 in the amount of $ 180,312.74
Warrant No. 1079 in the amount of 25,350.00
Warrant No. 1080 in the amount of 500.00
Warrant No. 1081 in the amount of 2,000.00
Warrant No. 1082 in the amount of 1,433.81
Warrant No. 1083 in the amount of 927,942.93
$1,137,539.48
Payrolls
August 12, 2022 $1,249,075.90
August 26, 2022 $1,385,799.36
Robin Morgan asked if the public can be informed on how many schoolchildren missed school this year because of COVID. DSC responded: Superintendent Mark Speno will discuss this in the Administrative Report.
• During the August retreat, the leadership team discussed professional development, outreach, and communications with students.
• The training discussions continue in subsequent meetings.
• In upcoming meetings, leadership will check in on the trainings.
• By the week of September 19, all school staff will be trained on Act I.
• The leadership team will look at the following monthly: trainings on identifying grooming, and working with school counselors on ongoing professional development.
• More outreach and professional development is planned.
• The leadership team is building resources and systematizing them across the District to use in subsequent years.
• This is a more formal and systematized approach than in previous years.
to discuss this issue. A discussion ensued.
• F12 – Transportation – Readoption
• F23 – Policy on the Prevention of Harassment, Hazing and Bullying of Students – Readoption
• F26 – Participation of Home Study Students in School Programs and Activities – Readoption
• F41 – Policy on Section 504 and ADA Grievance Protocol for Students & Staff – Adoption
• H1 – School-Community Relations – Readoption
THE FOLLOWING POLICIES:
F12 – TRANSPORTATION
F23 – POLICY ON THE PREVENTION OF HARASSMENT, HAZING AND BULLYING OF STUDENTS
F26 – PARTICIPATION OF HOME STUDY STUDENTS IN SCHOOL PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES
H1 – SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONS
AND THAT THE BOARD APPROVE FOR ADOPTION:
F41 – POLICY ON SECTION 504 AND ADA GRIEVANCE PROTOCOL FOR STUDENTS & STAFF
VII. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
• The school year is off to a good start.
• His joy at seeing students support their peers at sporting events. He encouraged the whole community to follow the kids’ lead at sporting events, theater performances, etc. He noted the students have been through a lot from COVID, and we should encourage them.
• The attendance committee has reconvened. The goal is to meet monthly, and the public is welcome to attend these meetings. Student and family engagement is a theme of this committee. This committee will collaborate with community organizations, and the community in-general. It’s a work-in-progress, so expect more updates.
• BUHS recently received a national Special Olympics award for inclusion. Cassie spoke about it, and she mentioned this may be the first time a southern Vermont school has been deemed a “banner school” by the Special Olympics. She noted this goes beyond sports, and recognizes the inclusivity of the entire school and community. Events and announcements celebrating this award will come soon.
• The BUHS administrative team is new this year, and they met recently.
• Paul Smith is making good progress on redoing the website with the company that has been contracted to do the work. Paul gave an update on this project.
• Challenges that have emerged this year: supporting Oak Grove School during Principal Mary Kaufmann’s maternity leave, and the BUHS admin changes. The leadership team is looking for more resources for these two items, both internally and externally.
at reading how low the COVID vaccination rate is among children in Windham County, and he
appreciates Rebecca’s focus on prevention.
• A brief review of the Finance Committee meeting.
• An announcement of the upcoming District audit, for which there will be a report in October.
• C7 – Board Relations With the Administrators – 1st reading
• D7 – Volunteers and Work Study Students – 1st Reading
DST noted the committee is now in a 10-day review period for both of these policies. She asked members of the public who have concerns to contact members of the committee, or anyone on the Board. She said the policies are listed on the website.
• The Climate Survey will include and individual meeting with principals and school leadership, and a focus group with representative groups of students.
• While this is happening, the Board will be conducting a secondary analysis of last year’s Panorama data and discussing with the administration—also based on information from above meetings—additional questions or tools to use.
• It is possible that Panorama may prove to be the best tool, especially since it will now provide additional historical/comparative data.
• It may prove useful to have some community/parent meetings (though the attendees will likely be a biased sample so a survey may be better).
• Details and timelines for the 2022-2023 academic year are still being developed.
• The MSLT Training movie.
• The Oak Grove School Student Leaders movie.
This represents my understanding of the above dated meeting. If you have any changes, please submit at the next meeting.
