AGENDA
I. Call to Order [6:00 to 6:05]
II. Student Issues [6:05 to 6:15]
III. Administrative Report [6:15 to 6:50]
– Social Emotional Learning [35 Minutes]
IV. Education Tax Rate – Budget Impacts & Legislative Action [6:50 to 7:35]
Pipe pile clean out has been completed and the crew is mobilizing the equipment for that operation offsite. The construction of the temporary shoring tower between Piers 1 and 2 will continue over the course of next week. Work on the Pier 1 cofferdam sheets began earlier this week and should be completed in the next few working days. De-watering and excavation to subgrade are both operations that are scheduled into next week.
Superintendent Mark Speno, Curriculum Coordinator Brin Tucker, BUHS teacher Celena Romo, Oak Grove Principal Mary Kaufmann, Putney Central School Principal Jon Sessions, and Academy School teacher Laureen Reavey presented an update on the implementation of Multi-Layered Systems of Support (MLSS)
Central Station and Station 2 were dispatched at 23:28 on a first alarm to 1178 Western Ave. for smoke on the second floor. Ladder 1 arrived on the scene at 23:32 and FF Chase Ibey reported heavy smoke showing from the second floor of a two-story wood framed structure and requested that a second alarm be dispatched. Ladder 1’s crew stretched a hose line to the second floor to encounter a heavy smoke condition and located the fire in the kitchen/living room area. Engine 2 arrived on the scene and assisted with water supply,fire suppression and ventilation. The fire was reported under control at 00:01.
The Brattleboro Selectboard bravely took no action against a non-existent problem at their most recent meeting. Panhandling isn’t a problem to be solved, and existing laws cover any other potential issues. Perhaps we will make… a sign!
The Library has a strategic plan, housing development is lackluster, the town might get McNeill’s property to pay off demolition of his building, the public wondered about unusually large raises for department heads given an expected increase in property taxes, and an exhaustive search led the Town to hire Golden Cross’s billing service for EMS billing.
CALL TO ORDER—6:03 p.m. – Anne Beekman, Chair
On a motion by the chair the board voted to amend the agenda to include retirements.
On a motion by Deborah Stanford the board moved to approve the minutes of November 8, 2023.
Mark announced the upcoming retirements of Sue Mitchell, a Special Education para at BAMS, and Paul Smith, the WSESU Curriculum Coordinator.
Dec 4 Teriyaki Pork
Garlic Mashed Potato
Peas & Carrots
Apple Sauce
WSESU Business Administrator Frank Rucker shared and reviewed a document: “Windham Southeast School District General Ledger – Elementary FY25 Proposed Budget [By School].” Highlights included:
• This document is on the website.
• It contains two different summary formats: by school site, and detailed.
• An explanation of how the two different summary formats are organized.
• The total spending on this part of the proposed budget is $26,450,000, up from the current year’s budget of $26,437,000. This is for all three secondary school sites: BUHS, BAMS, and WRCC. This budget is almost level-funded.
• FY25 goes from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.
Petitions for Brattleboro Town Officers, Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) Board Members, and Town Meeting Members are now available at the Town Clerk’s office. Town elections will be Tuesday, March 5 at the American Legion, located at 32 Linden St., Brattleboro, VT 05301.
Annual Representative Town Meeting will begin on Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. in the BUHS Gymnasium.
Petitions for Town Officers and WSESD Board Members must contain at least 30 valid signatures of registered Brattleboro voters and be filed in the clerk’s office no later than Monday, January 29 at 5 p.m. to have their name placed on the ballot.
The ONE and ONLY Brattleboro
First, let me emphasize that I would not change anything growing up in Brattleboro!
According to the U.S. Census Reports, Brattleboro’s population in 1950 was 11,522; in 1960, it was 11,734 (when I went into the Army); in 1970, it was 12,239 (highest); in 2010, it was 12,046; and in 2022, it was 12,106. So, our population has been pretty unwavering for the last fifty years with no growth.
BCTV Channel 1078 Weekly Listing for 12/4/23
Monday, December 4, 2023
5:55 am BUHS Athletic Hall of Fame – BHS/BUHS Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 10/28/23
8:00 am Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! Daily Broadcast
9:00 am Energy Week with George Harvey – This Week’s Energy News
10:00 am Veterans Events – Veterans Town Hall 11/5/23
(December 4, 2023 / JNS)
OFAKIM, Israel—A reverential silence fell on the room as the four American-Muslim women bowed their heads in prayer on Friday for the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel.
Moments earlier, the interfaith crowd in the apartment in this western Negev city, which included Muslims, Jews, a white-turbaned Sikh, a mixed Israeli family and Mayor Yitzhak Danino, stood mesmerized as the Arabic words of supplication for the Israelis murdered in the massacre were intoned.
“Freedom! Justice!” Demand of Generations of Palestinians
Will Not Be Denied All That Much Longer
Israelis are very proud of their Biblical God given cry and order, ‘Let My People Go,’ but never seem to accept, nor hear, nor acknowledge, that ‘Let Us Have Our Freedom’ be the imagined cry of generations of captive Palestinians suffering Israel’s merciless, and very often deadly, illegal military occupation.
An enigmatic Chinese proverb goes something like this: A farmer and his wife have a newborn son, and the neighbors come over to congratulate them. “Now you have an heir to work the field, how great!” The farmer says…”We’ll see.” The child grows to be a strong young man, he indeed was a helper to his parents, but one day he falls off a horse and breaks his leg. The neighbors converge to offer their sympathies, the farmer simply says, “We’ll see.“ Soon thereafter state officials arrive to conscribe all young men of the region into military service. The farmer’s son is deferred because of his disability. The son says to his father, “I guess that was a blessing in disguise.“ ”We’ll see…”
The Esplanade:
Ooops. A “previously overlooked item” will require an estimated base increase in Brattleboro property taxes for FY25 of 3.6%. It’s on the agenda for the next regular meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard.
The Brattleboro Fire Department would like $3000 a month to pay an outside company for EMS billing services. Doing everything in-house is no longer an option.
The board will also hear about a strategic plan for Brooks Memorial Library, and update on how their housing plan has been going, talk of acquiring the McNeill’s property in exchange for the demolition costs, and another discussion of things that can be done about panhandling.
You can bring up almost anything else during public participation unless it is some issue the Chair doesn’t want discussed in public.
The Brattleboro Human Services Committee will meet on Monday, December 4th, 2023 at 4:00pm and on Wednesday, December 6, 2023 at 4:00pm. Both meetings will take place in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room at the Municipal Center (230 Main Street).
The Brattleboro RTM Finance Committee will meet on Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 6:00pm in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room.
The Windham Southeast School District Independent Budget Review Committee Meeting will take place Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 5:00pm in the Cusick Conference Room at BUHS
Crews will continue to clean out the pipe piles into early next week. Site work for the shoring tower along the riverbank near Pier 1 has begun and will continue. The shoring tower will be a temporary means to support the structural steel while Pier 1 is being constructed. The Pier 1 cofferdam is also scheduled for construction to begin next week along with the water filtration system of tanks that will be used to treat the groundwater at Pier 1 once the excavation has concluded and dewatering can begin. The soil and the groundwater at this location will both need to be managed and mitigated due to known contaminants in the old fuel yard.
A number of years ago there was controversy over the use of food that had been modified by genetic engineering. People believed we were heading into unknown territory and that if we manipulated the genes of the food we eat we might have to deal with dangerous unintended consequences. As a result, some states required the labelling of food that might be considered to be Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s).
I have been making a self-guided educational effort to understand the current revolution of genetic engineering for the past four years. There have been monumental scientific breakthroughs in genetic engineering and they revolve around something called CRISPR, an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. The CRISPR technology allows scientists to alter the genetic makeup of cells. It is a complex process, but the bottom line is that CRISPR has the potential to change our ability to fight disease in plants, animals and humans among other processes.
WSESD Policy and Amendment Committee will meet Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 2:30pm
in the WSESU Central Office, 53 Green Street, Brattleboro and remotely via Zoom
