ACT 46 STUDY COMMITTEE
Representing the Brattleboro Town School District, Dummerston Town School District,
Guilford Town School District, Putney Town School District and the Vernon Town School District
http://www.wssu.k12.vt.us
REVISED NOTICE OF MEETING
The Act 46 Study Committee will meet at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 22, 2016 at the Putney Central School.
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER – 6:00 p.m. – Alice Laughlin, Committee Chair
II. REVIEW, PRIORITIZE AND ESTABLISH DESIRED OUTCOMES FOR MEETING BY CHAIRPERSON.
III. REVIEW COMMITTEE MEMBER ROLES AND PUBLIC COMMENTS BY CHAIRPERSON
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – September 8, 2016
V. REVIEW STUDY COMMITTEE PROCESS BY CHAIRPERSON
VI. RECOGNITION OF GROUPS AND/OR INDIVIDUALS
VII. STUDY COMMITTEE WORK SESSION:
Vote Schedule and Process
Vernon and BUHS District #6 Separation Agreement
Ballot Language – Merger
Public Information: Mailings and Information Forums
State Board of Education Meeting Preparation
VIII. FUTURE MEETINGS, DISCUSSIONS
IX. ADJOURNMENT
Note: In accordance with the following excerpt from WSESU Policy E-12 Electronic Communications Use and Retention
II. Use of E-Mail and Electronic Communications
The school board and administration will not use email as a substitute for discussion at board meetings, or for any business properly conducted at board meetings subject to the Vermont Open Meeting Law.
….
Brattleboro Town School District, Dummerston Town School District,
Guilford Town School District, Putney Town School District and Vernon Town School District
Act 46 Study Committee
Work Session Agenda, Minutes & Action Items – September 8, 2016 from 6-8 PM – WRCC-Cusick Room
Present
Brattleboro: Kim Price*, David Schoales**, Jill Stahl Tyler*, Mark Truhan*, Todd Roach**
BUHS/ BAMS/WRCC: Ricky Davidson*, Ian Torrey* * denotes voting member,
Dummerston: Kristina Naylor** ***, Amy Wall* – Clerk ** denotes alternate voting member,
Guilford: Beth Bristol*, Alice Revis** *** denotes ex officio member
Putney: Richard Glejzer**, Alice Laughlin* – Chair
Vernon: Walter Breau*, Mike Hebert**
Also present
WSESU: Lyle Holiday – Curriculum & Assessment, Frank Rucker – Business Manager, Ron Stahley – Superintendent
Others: BCTV staff, members of the public including Laurie Frechette – Dummerston Town Clerk, Denise Germon –
Putney Town Clerk, Penny Marine – Guilford Town Clerk, Annette Cappy – Brattleboro Town Clerk,
Jeannette White, Ines McGillion, Ken McCaffrey, Paul and Jody Normandeau, Walter Breau
Committee Guidelines
1. Work sessions will start and end on time.
2. Work sessions will last 2 hours unless decided otherwise by the Committee.
3. Members will give and receive with good intentions.
4. Members will follow “3 before me” as a guideline so all members have the opportunity to speak.
5. Members will conduct Committee business in front of the group.
6. Members will understand that silence on the part of another member does not imply agreement.
7. Members will site sources of evidence during discussion.
8. All members will be included in conversation and no side conversations will be conducted during the work session.
9. Members will stay on topic during discussions and will request the Clerk make note of additional topic(s) for future discussion.
10. Members will engage in the work at hand and administration will provide the space and support as needed to do so.
Agenda Items Led by
– Call to order Ricky Davidson
– Review, prioritize and establish desired outcomes for meeting Ricky
– Review Study Committee member roles and public comments by Chair Ricky
– Approve of minutes of previous work session – August 25 Ricky
– Review Study Committee process by Chair Ricky
– Recognition of groups and/or individuals Ricky
– Study Committee Work Session Ricky, Ron Stahley, Frank Rucker
– Articles Update from Counsel and Agency of Education
– Vernon and BUHS District #6 separation agreement
– Update of Meeting with Town Clerks
– Information forums – confirm dates
– Required within 10 days of November 8
– Public information – content and mailings
– Future meetings, Discussions Ricky
– Adjournment
Work Session Minutes:
Vice Chair Ricky Davidson called the work session to order at 6:01 pm and confirmed that a quorum was present. He proposed a change in the order of the agenda items and the Committee members agreed by consensus.
Ricky welcomed the Town Clerks and the public present. He opened the floor to the public present who shared the following thoughts, concerns and/or ideas:
Concern that wording re: school closure vote is not consistent with Open Meeting law and clarity needed re: calendar or business days,
Concern that information from the AOE about the at large voting model is not corroborated by VT Secretary of State,
Objections to the at large voting model and commingled ballots.
Ricky Davidson thanked the Town Clerks for attending the meetings yesterday and tonight. At the meeting yesterday, Ron Stahley stated that Town Clerks shared their concerns about adding more the November 8th election and that these sentiments were expressed by VT AOE, Secretary Holcombe and legal counsel in recent communications. Town Clerks stated that federal elections have earlier deadlines than state/local elections so ballot language has already been submitted. This means that Act 46 related ballot language must be counted by handed which will require significant manpower because turnout for federal elections is high. While the Town Clerks recognize the Committee’s desire to involve as many voters as possible in Act 46 related decisions, they do not recommend doing so because of the short time frame in which board director petitions need to be submitted, the complexity of the issues involved, and the importance of educating voters so they can vote without confusion. The Town Clerks confirmed that a Special Meeting at later date(s) can be held with much greater ease and without additional significant expense. Town Clerks shared their preference of a vote on Vernon’s withdrawal from BUHS #6 in January and votes on unification and board members at Town Meeting Day in March. If the Committee agrees to not proceed with a November 8 vote, then Town Clerks would like to have information to pass out to voters to help with the Committee’s voter education efforts. On a motion made by Beth Bristol, seconded by Alice Revis and so voted, the committee agreed to:
– postpone the vote on Vernon’s withdrawal from BUHS #6 to January 10th or a similar date that is appropriate
based on statute and
– postpone the vote on unification and election of unified board officers to March 7th Town Meeting or a similar
date that is appropriate based on statute.
Ian Torrey abstained because of his thoughts previously expressed on unification. The Town Clerks thanked the Committee for listening to their concerns and supporting them.
On a motion made by Richard Glejzer, seconded by Beth Bristol and so voted, the minutes of August 25 were accepted unanimously with the addition of wording on page 2 from the Brattleboro School Board provided to Amy Wall and the changes requested by Dummerston ex officio Kristina Naylor.
Ron Stahley led a review of the September 8 draft report. It has the following changes (shown in bold) based on input from the AOE and/or legal counsel:
Page 2 refers to new Appendix A – Program overview, enrollment trends and program expansion opportunities;
Page 4 reflects labelling change to Appendix B for financial information;
Page 8 shows additional language in bold added to Article 9 for clarification;
Page 7 has wording in Article 8 that reflects requirements of statute regarding commingled ballot votes.
Frank Rucker shared that because all members are individual at the time of the unification vote, ballots are not commingled. After unification, legal counsel and AOE has stated that ballots for unified board directors may/may not be commingled and ballots for unified budget approval must be commingled. Per legal counsel, commingled ballots are the traditional default in Vermont and at Town Meeting and is applied by statute. Alice Revis and other committee members expressed the importance for local community sentiment to be known. Ricky Davidson reminded the Committee that the reason for the at large voting model was to ensure that small towns are not overwhelmed by Brattleboro as they would be in a proportional model. Jill Stahl Tyler stated that a shift in thinking was needed by the small towns because this is already done in Brattleboro. Frank Rucker shared that according to legal counsel, a union school district budget like BUHS is commingled. Ricky Davidson acknowledged State Senator Jeanette White request to speak. She stated that the question of commingled ballots goes beyond the current discussion because towns are electing representatives with residency requirements and this local representation may contradict with the at large model. She deferred to Secretary of State Jim Kondos. Ron Stahley will follow up on this matter.
Frank Rucker provided an update on the logistics of Vernon’s proposed withdrawal from BUHS #6. He shared that a draft separation agreement has been generated and that Vernon’s share of BUHS debt (11% of $11.2M) and associated assets are essentially equal. Paul Giuliani has been working on this and it is not recommended/workable to assign a practical resale value to Vernon’s share of BUHS assets because it will not be resold. Frank stated that the Vernon School Board Clerk needs to submit the results of Vernon’s August vote to the AOE for verification and that doing so begins the official process of Vernon’s withdrawal from BUHS #6. Walter Breau confirmed that he (as clerk) has not yet certified the Vernon vote and sent it to Secretary Holcombe. Frank stated that this certification/notification and the separation agreement are needed prior to unification vote(s) because they are referenced in the Warning Articles. Walter Breau shared that the Vernon Schoolboard meets on Monday and expects to finalize its next actions.
Ricky Davidson and Ron Stahley confirmed with the Committee that the meeting with State Board of Education would be postponed to a date later than its September 20th meeting. Ricky Davidson led a discussion about future events and meetings and confirmed the following:
9/21/16 at Brattleboro – forum postponed to a later date
9/22/16 at Putney – changed from forum to Study Committee work session from 6-8 pm
9/26/16 at Vernon – not needed
10/3/16 at Guilford – forum by Committee planned
10/11/16 at Dummerston – forum by Committee planned
Ricky Davidson opened the floor to the public present who share the following:
Concern about voter confusion and propaganda that the Study Committee will share,
Need for the 8/30/16 draft report to be posted on the website,
Concern that Vernon’s share of BUHS debt and assets as a “wash” was not correct and left the remaining members with a larger share of the debt,
Concern that Vernon high school students may not attend BUHS
Inquiry on the Study Committee’s “Plan B” if a unification vote fails,
Request that local boards have the opportunity to comment on revisions to the approved Articles,
Request for Study Committee to reject commingled ballot language because of concerns that it will mask small town voting power,
Questions about the Study Committee’s ability to spend public funds, and
Questions about timing if the July 2017 operational deadline is not achieved.
Frank Rucker suggested that the Committee take formal action to notify the AOE of changes to its report. On a motion by Amy Wall and seconded by Kristina Naylor, the Committee voted unanimously to notify the AOE that its report with Articles of Agreement will be revised based on the Committee’s actions to change the Articles of Agreement.
The Committee’s next work session is on September 22 from 6-8 pm at the Putney Central School. Agenda items for this work session include:
– Review of ballot language,
– Preparation for the State Board of Education meeting, and
– Other related matters, as needed.
On a motion made Richard Glejzer, seconded by Alice Revis, and so voted, the work session ended at 7:33 pm.
Respectfully submitted, Amy Wall – Committee Clerk
Meeting Postponed
“The WSESU Act 46 Study Committee meeting scheduled for 6:00 p.m. in Putney tonight has been canceled. It will be rescheduled at a later date.”