The meeting began with the normal Call to Order, Agenda Review, and Flag Salute.
The first Community Comments portion of the meeting included one community member thanking the school board for approving the changes to the transgender policy and sending out the letter regarding it before making further statements regarding transgender individuals. Another community member thanked two of the school board members regarding clarifying prior comments and requesting a moment of silence at the school board meeting held on 9/11. She then concluded her statement by taking issue with the final comments made during board comments regarding Charlie Kirk (board comment transcribed below for reference). Another community member, graduate of MHS, current substitute teacher at MHS, and daughter of the prior speaker, mischaracterized a school board member’s statement of “clarity on where I stand on the transgender policy” made at the September 11, 2025 meeting as “retracting [his] statement” (that is shown here: https://lcatv.org/milton-school-board-2025-09-11 at the 51:30 mark) of a statement he made at an earlier discussion of the transgender policy. She further also took issue with the board comment statement made at the prior meeting regarding Charlie Kirk and made the statement “I feel as though it is necessary to mention that I do not personally believe that people should die against their consent. I’m not even pro-death-penalty. I do however believe that if people must die due to a lack of gun reform then you should be glad it is those who find that sacrifice worthy of the cost of guns and not the lives of those who don’t.”
The Consent Agenda included the approval of a warrant, contracts, minutes from the Finance Committee and Regular Board Meeting.
The Reports to the Board portion of the meeting included:
– Superintendent’s Report: Discussed initial school events in all of the schools as they come back to life. Discussed mandatory periodic policy notifications to families and staff that occur, and other avenues policies are highlighted to ensure necessary parties are aware of their responsibilities. Finally, provided more updates from the VT Agency of Education.
– Committee Report: Facilities Committee met prior to this meeting and discussed several projects desired to be completed within three years of the recently approved school bond funds receipt (approximately August 2028). Timing on getting projects done during the summer will be critical with the electrical switchgear taking power off at Herrick for an extended period. Library updates, bathroom upgrades, and replacing window A/C units with new A/C not in the new windows were discussed. Also discussed some safety issues that came up from some state agency inspections (of note these things have been this way for decades and just now popped up).
– Finance Report: Reports provided to the board that were not in the packet were discussed. Auditor will be here October 9th with deliverables ahead of time for review ahead of time. Goal to have completed before Christmas.
– Student Report that had been scheduled was cancelled.
– Principal Report for MES (more details in the LCATV video) like all principal presentations they are formatted to discuss work completed towards the goals of:
o 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.
o 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.
o 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 Presentations portion of the meeting included an MES Presentation of the summer LEAP program.
The Discussion portion of the meeting included:
– Discussion of a possible fence addition due to information state agency inspection discussed during the Facilities Meeting. Adding to the Actions portion to fund.
– Update on District Quality Standards (DQS): Discussion of whether and how the board wants to participate in the process.
– Follow-up from Activities Fair: Received 12 surveys back. Question regarding what school board roles the community would like to learn more about. Question regarding how to receive information from the board.
– Joint Meeting with Selectboard to be held on Monday September 29 in the MHS Library. Also noted the Town’s October Economic Development Commission Meeting will be held at the MHS Innovation Center.
The second Community Comments portion of the meeting included a second statement from the first commenter, above, made additional comments relating to the transgender policy that was passed relating to their perceptions of public comments made online. A second commenter mentioned the MES summer LEAP program discussed above and the communications thus far this year.
The Action Items portion of the meeting included:
– Approving the installation of a playground fence for approximately $15,500.
The Board Comments portion of the meeting included no comments.
An Executive Session concluded the night for premature public knowledge and contracts.
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As reference to the first comments portion of the summary above, this is the Board Comment portion of the 09/11/2025 school board meeting that included only a statement from Allison Duquette regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk:
Yesterday a young man was taken from his family. He was stolen from the children that he will never see grow up and who will only have vague memories of their father. I wanted to bring this up because Charlie Kirk was such a prominent voice in students’ lives. I guarantee any student at this school who has TikTok on their phones or otherwise knows who Charlie Kirk is. Turning Point USA has been around most of their lives. I think more students are going to be affected by his death than we realize. Maybe the colleges they matriculate to have a Turning Point chapter. If they decided to watch any of his videos, they would have seen a guy who very graciously, politely, and calmly talked to all different kinds of people from all walks of life. If they were willing to talk to him in good faith, he was willing to engage. He exemplified what it meant to bridge the gap. I think those who say otherwise have never actually taken the time to watch him do what he did best; talk with people. He wasn’t a politician. He wasn’t rude or insulting. He wasn’t violent. He was just a guy who liked to talk to people, and you could tell, especially with those who disagreed with him. I saw a social media post that spoke about it quite well. It said that he did all the things we want and teach our kids to do. We teach them to stand up for their beliefs and be passionate. We teach them to speak the truth and treat others with respect. By all accounts, from those that knew him, Charlie Kirk embodied all of that and for that he was called a fascist, a NAZI, and a bigot among other things. The demonization and name calling, the type of rhetoric that led to the tragedy of yesterday, has to stop. This country is careening down a road that will be very hard to walk back from. On this day, the anniversary of 9/11, I am asking us all to take a deep breath, look in the mirror, and let’s walk a different path towards understanding and unity as Americans.