The meeting began with the normal Call to Order, Agenda Review, and Flag Salute.
The first Community Comments portion of the meeting included a comment from someone clarifying for the board their definition of a term used in a policy and accused some board members of misunderstanding the term. Another commenter took objection with an email sent to “All Staff, Students, and Families” (also received by all those on MTSD mailing lists) dated January 27, 2025 titled “Revisiting MTSD Values,” and asked that the board review similar emails before being sent to the community for possible perceptions of a political bias in them.
The Consent Agenda included the approval of a warrant, contracts, and various regular meeting and negotiation meeting minutes. A couple of board questions were made regarding the expenses in the warrants.
The Reports to the Board portion of the meeting included:
– Superintendent Report: Mentioned the film presented Tuesday evening earlier in the week that was available for anyone in the community to watch dealing with home insecurity in VT. A legislative update was provided indicating that the VT Education Transformation plan continues to move forward with the time for bills related to this plan being extended. The VT Superintendent’s Association (VSA) drafted a framework and timeline related to the Governor’s proposal focusing primarily on the components of governance and delivery model and presented it to the Education Committees. See packet for Summary of VSA’s Timeline and Framework for Incremental Transformation that provides their Key Points on Instructional Scale, Tuitioning, Statewide Leadership, Important Clarification, and a Modified Proposed Timeline.
– Operations Report: The Food Service recently completed an administrative that this time focused on the Middle School that will next need to be completed in four years. Also discussed the implementation of the “E3” Safety App the school is using to manage emergency situations and connect staff. Finally, building cameras in the school interiors have been upgraded and are in the process of upgrading the exterior cameras. The new system is much more user friendly, 4x the pixel quality of prior system, and plenty of room for expansion.
– Committee Reports: Strategic Planning Committee focusing on getting up to speed on the VT Education Transformation plan and progressing from where the Committee was last year. The Facilities meeting that occurred just prior to this night’s school board meeting discussed many topics relating to the bond item that just passed on Town Meeting Day relating to projects to pursue correcting the Herrick Building roof and window issues.
– Principal Report for MHS (more details in the LCATV video) like all principal presentations they are formatted to discuss work completed towards the goals of:
1) Student Achievement and Success – To foster curious and passionate learners through opportunities that further their academic knowledge and skills and meet the challenges of a changing world.
2) Social-Emotional Health and Well-being – To prioritize the health and well-being of all members of the learning organization through programming that promotes care for the heart, mind, and body.
3) Family & Student Engagement – To cultivate engaged citizens inspired to meet the demands of a changing society through an awareness of self, others, and the world around them in the local and global context.
The Principal Report was followed by a discussion regarding a number of questions the board had regarding the athletics programs ranging from bussing costs to uniforms and equipment to fundraising. Please see the LCATV video for more information.
The Presentations portion of the meeting included a Progress Monitoring: Lifting Student Learning report that discusses growth since last testing (not proficiency or achievement rates). The MTSD’s Vermont Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) Goal (Academic) is that “60% of our students will meet the Student Growth Percentile (SGP) and all students will grow in math and literacy, as shown on the STAR, through supporting the whole child and investing in professional learning to support evidence-based instruction and intervention.” STAR numbers were discussed. Also discussed were the Social/Emotional CIP Goals relating to Social-Emotional skill development and restorative approaches to unexpected behaviors. Finally, presented both faculty and student absences and its possible impacts on student learning. Please see the LCATV video for more information.
The Discussion portion of the meeting included:
– Job Description: discussed for data-systems administration position.
– Summer Literacy Contract: Lynne Manley asked to put on hold until funding source corrected. Just need to get corrected documentation for funding source to have as an action item to vote on. Cost is $10,000 for reading programming at MES with a noted $15,275 discount due to a partnership with “Springboard.” A letter discussing the Springboard program is in the packet.
– Finalization of the Board Meeting Calendar: When there’s a 5th Monday in a month looking to add joint meetings with the Selectboard. Other committee meeting schedules discussed and finalized.
– Roof and Windows: Infra-red thermal imaging “Vector Mapping” of the roof insulation was discussed as related to the Facilities Committee meeting discussion of the Herrick Building roof replacement and how to replace the roof.
The second Community Comments portion of the meeting included no comments.
The Action Items portion of the meeting included voting to move forward on bid process for windows, voted to move forward with the roof insulation “Vector Mapping” for $5,950, voted to move forward with the pre-qualification process for the roof, approve the position description for the data-systems administration position, and voted to change the board meetings as discussed in the meeting.
The Board Comments portion of the meeting included a comment mentioning the school movie presentation the prior week and responded to the first community commenter.
An Executive Session concluded the night.