Hello Everybody!
Please see our agenda for today’s meeting at 6pm. It will be Zoom only and we will be answering any questions you have about the articles for our 6/8 ReVote. Additionally, we will be looking at correspondence received for building use requests.
See you tonight and have a wonderful day.
Regards,
Daniel Roth
Vice Chair
Windham School Board
All are invited to join the Windham Library Book Club on Wednesday, June 5 at 3:30PM.
Book Description:
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the
foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to
find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and
how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the
residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where
immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared
ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona
Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona
ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking
for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin,
the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the
Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the
boy safe.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear
how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian
America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened
on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark
times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
The School Board will host an Informational Meeting on Tuesday, May 28th at 6pm in anticipation of the “ReVote” Day on Saturday, June 8th – 10 am at the Windham Town Meeting House. Details about the informational meeting, including what will be covered, as well as recordings of previous meetings, are available here.
The vote, previously scheduled for May 18th, will now take place on June 8th at 10am at the Windham Meetinghouse. Please come out to vote!
Hi All,
The agenda for tonight’s meeting can be found here. There is a Click Here button on the agenda that should take you straight through to the meeting with as little barriers as possible.
A couple of changes since our last update. I got sick.. For obvious reasons, I will be zoom only for this meeting. Apologies for the late update due this.
Some changes since previous agendas, we are looking to run a tighter ship. Notably, I have attached times to each section of the agenda. The hope is we can provide information, hold discussion, and answer questions you may have in a more reasonable time-frame.
On the docket, an update to our budget will be provided with our assumptions and most current methodology. For more information, prior to the meeting, please visit our Supervisory Union’s (SU) page for all the relevant documents for Windham that have been uploaded. Additionally, we are going to review / approve the FY23 Final Audit with Laurie Garland, the Director of Finance for the SU. After 2 reports (Principal and Superintendent) we will review / adopt the residency policy from previous meetings and have further discussion on the cameras at the school.
One final note worth mentioning: We are looking at the ReVote Day timing currently and coordinating with the Town. There have been concerns about the warning time-frame. Once again, the legality has been questioned with conflicting standpoints within the community as well as within the Vermont Secretary of State’s Election office. I will note that our attorney previously spoke about these and other concerns at our last Special Meeting – describing them as “procedural gotcha” in open session. Regardless, at this time, we are re-evaluating our options and the current ReVote Day of 5/18/24 may be moved. As a result, besides the budget discussion, we will not be holding an informational meeting today. As we have more information we will be sure to update the public as soon as details are more concrete.
We welcome all that can join tonight and please excuse any coughing I may have during!
Thanks,
Daniel Roth
Vice Chair
Windham School Board
UPDATE ADDED
Hello,
Here is the link to all the budget related documentation: Windham Budget Docs Thanks to Laurie for pulling this all together.
Also be sure to check out a recent article from Brattleboro Reformer: Windham schedules school building closure, clarifying vote – I gave an interview that is quote pulled about halfway through. Thanks to Chris Mays for taking the time to sit in with me and understand the issues at hand.
See you at our meeting, 4 PM!
Thanks,
Daniel Roth
Vice Chair
Windham School Board
Hello Windham and friends,
We have a date for our second Windham Vote Day for the School Board on Saturday, May 18 at 10:00 am.
Please come out, vote, and share your perspectives!
Issues to vote on are:
Article 1: Shall the voters of the Windham School District approve the closure of Windham Elementary School?
This article is meant to address our school district not having an operating public elementary school to offer our children. Our current status as a non-operational ceasing of operations puts the health of the district in danger financially. From a risk and liability standpoint, we as a town would open ourselves up for possible litigation otherwise. This means that if we have a lawsuit, everyone pays in FY26 and on.
Important Notes for Closure: Our ability and obligation as a board is not in question regarding all tuitioning – we are required regardless. Also, the power of this closure must be in the hands of the electorate rather than 3 elected individuals. And in no way does this limit our ability to tap into any funding structures currently available to our district nor our ability to promote the school house building use in anticipation of sale in FY25.
Article 2: Shall the voters of the Windham School District approve the school board to expend $546,344, which is the amount the school board has determined to be necessary for the 2024 / 2025 fiscal year?
Our budget reflects the cost of tuition students (Tuitioning – Elem: 74% and Tuitioning – Pre K: 3%) along with shared supervisory union costs for Special Education (4%) and Board of Education/Audits (Other: 8%). Bus Transportation (6%) is the next cost category which includes Gas, Repairs, and Driver(s) Salary. Important Note: The Bus Transportation costs do not include the cost of an anticipated new bus, this has already been voted to be reserved from our FY23 surplus.
Building Maintenance (3%) costs are included with less maintenance assumed than prior years. Originally, we proposed $50k but drove that down to $24k on SU recommendations and finally $15k which is to maintain for about 6 months of the year. The board is committed to maintain the state of the building without significantly lowering its value while the roadmap, community surveys, and selling options are finalized. Just because the $15k is budgeted does not mean that those costs will be the actuals. We are already working to further lower maintenance assumptions through addressing low-cost energy improvements with Efficiency Vermont and we have $8k of rental income which will increase as we finalize other opportunities presented to us. Consider the overall impact of the building maintenance to be $7k with rent money offsetting and more planned to bring these costs closer to $0. Transportation Stipends (1%) for families outside of the bus route and standard Legal Funds (1%).
Finally, I will say a budget must be passed for next year otherwise the district is left with 87% of last year’s budget so $409k. At the next Regular Meeting this Thursday, May 9th I will detail exactly why this would ultimately cost the taxpayers more in the next few years. More information will show that voting for this budget will prevent the unstable financial health of our district thus preventing future tax rate increases that are anticipated otherwise.
Visually – This is what the above looks like:
Article 3: If Article 1 passes, shall the voters of Windham School District grant general authority to the school board to pay tuition for an elementary student at an approved independent elementary school in an amount not to exceed the average announced state-wide elementary school tuition? This authorization is in addition to the March 9th, 2024 electorate authorization for the board to pay tuition to public elementary schools.
Finally, the board wishes to address families left out of the tuitioning structure currently. No petition has been filed and the board has been proactive to bring these families into our district again like Mountain School representing a significant number of our town’s kids.
A lot of info was shared at our last Special Meeting on April 26th. In another update I will be taking clips of common questions asked and answered by either the board or Mark Oettinger, our board attorney. Additionally, an Informational Meeting will be communicated to address any other Q&A needed prior to ReVote Day. Here is the link to the BCTV coverage and the full video: Special Meeting 4/26/24
Our Next Regular Meeting will be this Thursday, May 9th at 4pm, I will provide a reminder and attach the agenda as soon as possible. The setting of the agenda is still underway and will be focused on the budget, forecasts, and tax information.
Please join us and share this email! Our success as a board is dependent on as much sharing of thoughts and participation as possible from everyone. If you have any feedback to this or any other school board updates, don’t hesitate to reply and let me know.
Thanks as always,
Daniel Roth
Vice Chair
Windham School Board
