Education section
Due to the impending icy weather, a decision has been made to hold tonight’s Windham Southeast School District Board meeting as a remote-only meeting, beginning at the regular time– 6:00 pm.
The Zoom link can be found at https://wsesu.org/wsesd-agendas/
The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Board will meet in Executive Session at 4:30 PM on Wednesday, December 11. 2024 in the Windham Regional Career Center, Room #198e, 80 Atwood St., Brattleboro, and remotely via Zoom.
Frank gave an overview of the special education budget for our 10 sites including pre-K. The current draft shows an increase of 5.9% driven by student needs (up $1.1 million). The single largest cost driver is associated with tuition costs for students that we are not able to educate in our schools. In the area of salary and benefits, the cost driver is the increase in health insurance costs.
Tate Erickson and his team have been working hard to refine the budget to be lean and efficient but have capacity for new students moving in. He walked through the number of students as well as staff to student ratios. These numbers are expected to be finalized tomorrow and will be posted. Tate discussed both the ratios for both students in our area schools and those requiring out of district placements.
IV. Board Matters: Part 1
A. Leadership Council Updates [10 Minutes]
B. Board Sub-Committees and SU Updates [10 minutes]
C. Board Retreat 1/13/24
D. Early Education Services: Application for Head Start and Early Head Start services
E. Value of a common read – potential recommendations
Summary
● The Finance Committee reported that they have been meeting to discuss the budget development, specifically reviewing the Elementary and Secondary budget drafts.
● Engaged in a discussion to plan for Teacher Appreciation this school year.
● Discussed the uptick in people reaching out to resources nationwide related to mental health as it relates to injurious language and targeting.
● Began a discussion related to the value of sharing a common read – Board and Administration.
The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Board will meet at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 4. 2024 in the Windham Regional Career Center, Cusick Conference Room, 80 Atwood St., Brattleboro, and remotely via Zoom.
Public Comment – Martha Noyse of Brattleboro and Jody Normandeau of Dummerston spoke on the current budget process.
Administrative Report – Mark spoke of the upcoming school break. While there will be no school for students next week, Monday and Tuesday will be in-service days with school based professional development as well as meeting and planning time for staff.
Martha Noyes, Brattleboro Resident, asked that the committee to keep in mind the public and engage them as you work through this process. Ms. Noyes encouraged finding ways to offer meeting times to allow the public to be involved considering location to make it more accessible to all. Also Ms. Noyes asked for the budget information be presented in a user friendly format for the public consumption. She feels that all of these efforts could assist in the adoption of the budget when presented at the Annual Meeting
The Windham Southeast School District Board will meet at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 26, 2024 in the WRCC Cusick Conference Room and remotely via Zoom.
Summary
● The Board reviewed and established the meeting dates between now and the end of the calendar year, making changes to the standard schedule as needed due to the holidays.
● The Board voted to include a report from the WSESU Board on the WSESD Board meeting agendas.
● Issues with the food service company was touched upon. As the food services falls under that WSESU jurisdiction, it will be discussed more at their meeting 11/13/24.
● The meeting dates for the Finance Committee were altered slightly as related to the budget development. They will occur at 5 pm on Tuesday 11/19/24, Monday 11/25/24 and Monday 12/2/24.
● The Board accepted, with regret, the resignation presented.
The Budget Planning Timeline is a document used to help guide the building of the budgets. Previously, the document held the timeline for the three entities (WSESU, WSESD and VSD), but has been changed to outline the budget timeline for each entity independently. Dates are outlined, but are able to be changed as needed.
The Budget timeline gets developed starting with the Annual Meeting date (3/18/25). Dates are populated by working backwards from that date. Mr. Rucker reviewed the timeline, explaining how dates were determined for each of the steps along this process.
The Windham Southeast School District Independent Budget Review Committee will meet Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 5:00PM at the BUHS Cusick Conference Room.
Agenda
1. Approval of Minutes
2. FY26 Budget Planning – Elementary & District Wide Draft Proposal
The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Board will meet at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, November 13, 2024 in the Windham Regional Career Center, Cusick Conference Room, 80 Atwood St., Brattleboro, and remotely via Zoom.
Agenda
I. Attend WSESD Finance meeting
II. Other business
III. Public comment
Agenda
1. Approval of Minutes
2. FY26 Budget Planning Timeline Discussion
Summary
● The Board voted to have Superintendent Speno to engage in a process to review the notation of class rank on student transcripts.
AGENDA
I. Call to Order
DS called the meeting to order at 6:02 pm
DS read the hybrid meeting statement
DS amended the agenda to transition this meeting from an Executive Session to an Open Public Meeting.
DS requested acknowledgement of community parents that they recognize that their anonymity cannot be protected as this is an open public meeting.
Parents acknowledged verbally.
Summary
● Updates were presented from the Leadership Councils now that the school year is well underway.
● Discussed maintaining the privacy of students related to the review of district-wide and individual school data related to behavioral incidences, use of restraint, health and safety.
● Presentation was given regarding Family Engagement efforts across the district.
SENIOR SOLUTIONS has so many ! And RENEE WOLIVER tells us what’s readily available for local folks over 60. Renee also talks about her life-long work in communication, non-profits….. and women’s hockey!
There was no public comment.
Mark gave an overview of the new HR Clerical position at the Central office being proposed.
Given the new programs and responsibilities including Grow Our Own, Title 9 and HHB oversight, workforce recruitment, onboarding and exit interviews, etc, the central office is in need of additional support. In the current budget, we will use unutilized funds. Next budget year, the plan would be to add this to the office budget. This is a part-time position with benefits.
