Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Good afternoon. This is the House Appropriations Committee. It's Tuesday, 02/10/2026. It's just sold at after 01:00, and we are continuing our trip through the FY 'twenty seven budget. And we're delighted to have the VOCA review board hear us up a a little bit this afternoon. And, yes, as you've mentioned to me, it's been a couple of years, so we'll go around in those third year. We'll introduce you. Good afternoon. I'm David Yacovone from Morrisville. I represent Lamoille, Washington.

[Rep. John Kascenska]: Good afternoon, and welcome. John Kascenska from Burke. I represent the Essex Caledonia district, 10 towns. Mike Nigro, Chittenden, Vermont. So good to see you.

[Rep. Michael Nigro]: Still there. Yeah.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: I'm still And your contact.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: That's me. Yes. Okay. Tom Stevens from Waterbury representing Washington Chittenden District.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: Martha Feltus from Caledonia Great. Robin Scheu from Middlebury.

[Rep. Tiffany Bluemle]: Tiffany Bluemle from Carrollton. Lynn Dickinson, I represent St. August Town.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Anyway, welcome. You can introduce yourselves, and then we'll go through your budget.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: I'm Gary McQuiston, I'm the Chairman of the Board.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: I'm Carolyn Dutch from the Paralegal Foot Board.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: Behind you, Brenda Barry, who knows all about the money stuff that I don't.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Brenda. Hello. Great. Thank you. So, we have your presentation and you can talk to us about what you've been up to and what you've achieved and all those things.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: I'll give it to you in a nutshell, think. We are a quasi judicial board established by statute in accordance with federal law that allocated to Vermont the responsibility of handling OSHA and hearings regarding OSHA violations. They assigned that to us. They do provide some money. It comes through Department of Labor. We get some amount of money from them, 20, how much we get.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: They're a little over 50.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: Yeah. Okay. Little over 50 comes out of the Department of Labor, so we're here to fight with you for the balance, I guess. Our job is to supervise any violation that's been founded bound by OSHA within the Department of Labor that is contested. Now what happens is they make inspections, they find violations, they try to work them out. And if they can't, if it's opposed by the employer, it comes to us. At that point, it's a case. And we treat each one of those violations as a separate case because each one has different issues. And Caroline is our halftime third paralegal, and she handles most everything. And we have three hearing officers who are attorneys that work with us. We assign them kind of in a rotation. And between them and Caroline, they coordinate in order to get pre hearing conferences and everything else done, and finally have a contested hearing, a trial. And the hearing officer makes a detailed report, findings, conclusions of law, and a determination of whether or not they're gonna accept all the violations, some or none, then it comes to us as the board. The board then has the right to review it. We're reviewing it tomorrow. It just got decided. And we're gonna review it and decide if there's something we think is not quite right or something that needs further explanation, whatever. And we can handle it as an appeal ourselves as would a court handling an appeal. If we choose not to, either side below has the right to petition to do it, and they might raise an issue we haven't contemplated. We then have the right to either accept or deny their appeal, in which case they have the right to appeal it to the superior court and ultimately to the supreme court. So we're quasi judicial at our level. They do have a right to a judicial appeal for all of their due process. And that's what we do. We handle their due process rights.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: So how many cases come to you after the hearing officers hear things? Because they come to you only if they don't agree with the hearing. Is that right?

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: Well, we review all of them. Okay. Make sure they're consistent with precedent and all. Yeah. And usually they are. But if they choose, they can appeal to us to have us look at it. We don't even by statute have to do that. But we can then we did one that seven or eight different violations were found, and we issued an 18 page decision on one. So you never know. The kicker for us is we never know how many cases we're going to have. We don't know how much money is going to be involved in paying for our attorneys and for sonographers. It's a big unknown. And there is a carry forward that we need desperately as our fallback position, because if we get swamped, which could happen, we could run out of money fast. And that carry forward is vital to us. So that's the main concern we have, I think.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: And do you have carry forwards?

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: Around $27,000

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: It's $27,000

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Okay. But you have to pay for the if it goes to court beyond you, you have to pay for the term?

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: No, we're out of a denim, and state just takes over.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: How often or how many times do you recall just getting to a superior court and or the superior court when you've had your

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: Since I've been on, which is like three years or something, it's been one I think that went up, but you've been here for a long time.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: Yeah, either once, or I'm even thinking it might have been a more recent one that went to Superior Court, but

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Very few, it sounds Yeah, not that many. And these are Vermont businesses and people doing business in the hives.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: We don't have that many cases that come before the Voter Review Board where we are writing a decision on that. So it can be very variable, even the hearing officers in terms of them actually hearing a case of anywhere between one in three cases just five, six years. However, they also write decisions on motions to dismiss and other types of motions. So we just had a decision that was like, I don't know, 20 some odd pages that never went to hearing. It was just a motion.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: And do you work on farms, too? Does the OSHA go out to the farms?

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: They do go out to

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: farms, if I remember

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: correctly. You probably shouldn't quote me on that.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: I'm

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: just thinking of a bottling group, but that's not really farms, not really bad per se.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: So the number of cases you have can vary wildly from year to year depending on how our And inspectors find then the three hearing officers you said are all attorneys, are they on retainer or how does that work?

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: I'm a retainer with them. They signed a contract with us, so they're available at a defined price and make themselves available for cases.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Okay. So you're only paying for what you use in this case.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: Right. And one decision could be quite costly. So we were asking about case numbers. So the case summary, I don't know what page number it is in the book, but we ranged from 16 to 36 cases last year. Fiscal year '25 was way eight, not cases, but citations. And then 16 cases that

[Rep. David Yacovone]: we're working on. Oh, okay. I see. Yes, this is page seven.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: Page seven.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: And do you see any trends, or are there certain kinds of things that tend to come up again and again to your types of violations? There's certain violations that are, like, more common than others.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: The trend I've noticed, and I think it's becoming more of a trend, is larger corporations want to fight and appeal everything, and they can do it because they have in house counsel. So they don't have to go out. If they find local counsel, it's just somebody to file a motion to allow their counsel who's out of state to practice So for that one that's the trend I'm seeing. I expect in another five years, you're going to be looking for a problem, but not now. We aren't. We're there. But I do see that as a trend.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: So almost no matter what

[Rep. David Yacovone]: the violation is, they just wanna fight it.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: That's my impression. I've only been around three years, but I mean, you know It's worth

[Rep. David Yacovone]: noting and keeping an eye on, I think.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: It wasn't the case before Gary came, but he came in and he was like, Well, I think we're going to see more cases on this. And I was like, what did you just say that?

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: They don't say that.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: It's not something else, isn't it?

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: Okay, great. So budget is in here somewhere.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: You don't have the biggest budget in the book.

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: State share would be the 91 figure, I guess. And the balance comes from the Department of Labor.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: Okay. That's right.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: From DOL.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: I see

[Rep. David Yacovone]: there's money in there for advertising this year or an increase in money for advertising. We are reviewing our rules of procedure,

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: so we have to pay a fee. Oh yeah, of course.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Yeah, that's right. I'm seeing that at the bottom of Digger they're having rules, rule making is coming up for tracking. Not all of them, but some of them. Okay, so kind of a business as usual. Anything else you want us to know about at this point?

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: Pay the board members more, the chairperson. When I go in for half a day, I don't get my per diem of $50 I get half a day of $45 or it works out to $8.68 an hour. An hour. Just so you know that.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Mileage? Pay mileage. That's where you make your mileage.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: Should move farther away.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: I joke that we make 11¢ an hour. Sorry,

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: came late from another meeting. I don't know if this was covered up already, but do I remember we were hearing something about big budgets that there was federal money for both of us.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: We aren't aware from our end.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Has The UOL gives them about $50,000 That's the closest to somebody else giving

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: me money. You said I'm talking about my complaint. Won't bother you with it then.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: There were some questions about whether the budget was going be cut for OSHA, but I don't think it was and the federal funds for us wasn't affected.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: All right, not seeing any other questions. Liked your contacts and glad to have you come visit us. Now you know where we are. Don't move. We've been around quite a bit. Thanks So we're early, but perhaps everybody's here from the psychologists? Fabulous, why don't you all bring up chairs if you need to have them argue, it's just fine to do that.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: I will start. Yes,

[Gary McQuiston (Chair, VOSHA Review Board)]: we've met.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Okay. Hello. Welcome. Hi, Nice to see you. It's nice to see you.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: Thank you.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: So I think we can start at any time. Well, introduce yourself and Good afternoon. I am Beth Mauk. I am the chancellor of the Vermont Stakeholder System. Very happy to be back here with you again. Thank the chair for inviting us and giving us this opportunity to talk about our FY 'twenty seven budget. Before I start, though, I'd like to talk about the fact that we were established by the legislature in the early 1960s for the benefit of Vermont. And that is something that is very meaningful to me. Everything I do, I'm always thinking about how are we ensuring that we are for the benefit of Vermont. And really, what that means is that we serve Vermont and that we believe that every Vermonter should have access to high quality, higher education, regardless of their income or their location, and that we have to be that trusted partner for them throughout their lifetime as their need for higher education ebbs and flows. I have some very good news about the system. Are 83% Vermonters. We're both the Community College of Vermont and Vermont State University. So 83% of our students are Vermonters. This year, we did have a modest enrollment increase of 1.4%. And our online enrollment increased by about 10%. In addition, the enrollment at several of our campuses increased, and we showed market increases in some of the very jobs that Vermonters really need. So in elementary education, health care, mechanical engineering, just to name a few. Now, I'd also like to talk a little bit about the demographics of our students in Vermonter. So what we know is that the average student in Vermonter is getting older, and that is the same thing that we are seeing in our population. So we know that our students are older. On average, our students are about the age of 27, both at the Community College of Vermont and Vermont State University. And what that means is that their needs are different than what we would be traditionally thinking. So they're looking for more flexibility. They're looking for college to work around their life, not so much for life to work around their life to work around college. Said to me that you go to college and then you have your life. That's not the way students are approaching higher And it's certainly something that we know. We know that less than half of students go on to higher education in Vermont right out of high school. And we are seeing this, that they get out a couple of years, and then they do have this need to go back for higher education, some form or another. And then also that they are continuing. So they may come into our system, either through CCV or VTSU, and then go back out to get a job in industry or something, and then come back in when they need more employment and more education. And so that is one of the newer models, and it really is our largest growing demographic of students. Now, in addition to our students, we obviously have a commitment to the communities in which we are living. So we have been really working to ensure that the campuses that we have for Vermont State University remain vibrant around the state. And this has been one of the key initiatives that I have worked on. And what we know is, again, since our students are older and have different needs, that means that we have to really look at how do these institutions, which are sitting in Vermont communities, serve the needs of the community. So we've been working with regional partners to see how we might be able to affect this. The campus where we've done really some of the most work and where you've probably heard about things is on the Johnson campus. So I think many of you know that for both in 2023 and 2024, the town of Johnson was flooded with devastating floods. And we've been working and having, really, thousands of conversations with the folks in the Johnson area to see what are their needs. Some of the things that are now coming to fruition out of that, Down Street did receive some community development block granting funds, in addition to some funds from Senator Sanders, to put a senior housing complex up on the Johnson campus in the McClellan Building. And then in addition to that, the Johnson Health Center is looking to relocate onto our campus. What these two examples show is that this will give our students not only more vibrancy on the campus, but it will also give them opportunities for potentially internships or other experiential learning opportunities. And it also just might give them closer access to a health center. So we're excited about that. In Linden, we recently announced to our campuses that we are working with a regional education partner to relocate at the Harvey Building in Linden. And this is very important as well to ensure that we have the vibrancy on our campus. At the same time, we are looking for really mission aligned partners. The other thing we've been working on is an apartment complex we think that could be located in Johnson. A lot of times, the traditional residential style housing that we have is not something that our current students who are older are interested in. And so they have been looking for some of these other options. It's a very important option in Johnson because we already have the Johnson Apartments, which have been there for decades. And we know that there's a demand for those. So we know that there will be a demand for that as well. So if I could pause you for a second. With the McClellan Building and Upper Village I just

[Rep. David Yacovone]: learned last night, the Lower Village and Upper Village, so moving to Johnson, would you be leasing the buildings? Or would you be selling the buildings? Or is that TBD at this point?

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: Yeah, it will depend upon what makes sense. So in the case of the McClellan Building, we are looking to sell it to down street or whichever part. But sometimes leasing the buildings, just making sure that we're meeting the needs of the community and our students at the same time.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: So Linda, is there something you wanted to say?

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: No, I think that was doing just fine. I mean, one of the problems with the change in demographics of fewer students that are at the traditional age is that we have buildings that don't serve the same purpose they did thirty, forty years ago. And so we have to really overcapacity, we have to find a new way. And with the flooding in these two communities as an example, it provides a mitigation issue. It's a win win for

[Rep. David Yacovone]: a whole bunch of It seems like it. It solves a bunch of people's problems. That's great.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: We're trying to be good community stewards. And secondly, we do have a commitment to the businesses in the region. So a couple of programs that I wanted to highlight for the committee. We have something called the Career Pathway Entry Program, which is CPEP. It is a program that allows folks who maybe have a high school diploma who haven't really entered some of the workforce where they do need some sort of post secondary education. It allows them to have opportunities to a variety of internship opportunities and shorter internship opportunities, while they're also taking classes at Community College of Vermont and allowing them to have those opportunities so that they can move to an employer where they will have more opportunities. In addition, our plumbing and electrical apprenticeship programs have really just jumped in enrollment. We jumped 3% in headcount over the last year. This is something that we know is a great need for the state, and it is something that we are looking to try to replicate across the state. And the two other examples I have are certainly interesting. I did also want to just let you know that we received late last week, more congressionally directed spending from Senator Welch to look at some of the trades programs, in particular composites programs. That is something that we are looking to collaborate with Beta, at least on, and other industries around the state to see if we can help them to meet the workforce needs that they have. So we're very excited about that program. But it just landed last week. So the next thing I'd like to do is talk about our budget for FY 'twenty seven. On the next slide, I want to just talk about general fund and one time requests. So our general fund request was the 3% request that the governor had recommended, and he recommended that for us. In addition, we did ask for one time funding for a rural micro credential and certificate expansion. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a slide or two. I do want to note that we are not asking for bridge funding anymore. The legislature has yes, this was our last year. The legislature has been very generous in ensuring that the Vermont Psychology System and Vermont State University in particular has this ability to thrive. And so we are really excited that we are not asking for any more bridge funding this year. And we are still looking for some innovation kinds of funds for that. So that is our request. So governor did not recommend the Rural Microcredential and Certificate expansion. I can talk about that

[Rep. David Yacovone]: in

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: a

[Rep. David Yacovone]: minute about Next what that

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: is the Allied Health and Global Commitment Fund. And for the first couple of years I was here, we kind of just went to a particular fund very quickly. So there's a general fund and a global commitment fund. These funds we have been using to support faculty positions and clinical instruction and other student training across nursing, radiologic sciences, respiratory therapy, and other allied health disciplines. We have been receiving $1,500,000 each year. This year, we put in a request for $4,200,000 The reason for the increase in the funding is we do know that there's an acute challenge with our nursing programs and hiring tenured and tenure track nursing faculty members. And one of the things we know is that a nurse can make more money if she works in a hospital than if she or he works for us. And so we're looking to see if we can't make those salaries more comparable, hence the increased request. Just so you know, this is grant funding. So it is not part of the general fund that we are requesting for that. But I wanted to make you aware of that fund and just point it out a little bit more this year. And then finally, last year, on the next slide, we did a capital budget request, The capital request that we received, we received $8,000,000 over the two years. This year, we have an additional request of another $1,000,000 for some capital planning and predevelopment costs for the apartment complex that I was talking about. So we're looking to get a capital stack to be able to fund that. We need to do some site work and some other preparations, and that would be what that million dollar request is for. So that is my charge request. To go back to the micro credential piece, we'll be saying, what is this even? So the micro credential really does allow us to fill some needs in the state that we know are a need, but that sometimes an entire degree program doing all at once is difficult. The example that I'd like to talk about today is in teacher preparation. And this is a program that we have been working with the Agency of Education and the Department of Labor on to both fill that critical paraeducator shortage as well as to fill the critical teacher shortage. What we do know from Vermont's Most Promising Jobs, which is a publication put out by both the McClure Foundation and the Department of Labor, that we will need an excess of 7,000 teaching jobs over the next ten years. And so we've got to do things differently than we've done, where it used to be that someone would go to college, do four years, and then become a teacher. What we know is we already have a number of paraeducators in the system who would like to be teachers, or we also have folks who are interested in being paraeducators. So we're creating a stackable program where a student could start and get a 30 credit paraeducator certificate that we've created in collaboration with Agency of Education. It will be delivered through the Community College of Vermont. After that, a person can become a highly qualified paraeducator and then get into the Liberal Studies and Education program at the Community College of Vermont to get the next 60 credits to get an associate's degree, all the while continuing to work at their school because they'll be able to do any practical experiences actually in the school that they are working in. And then finally, transfer to Vermont State University and have the opportunity to do the last two years of their education program there. That program, we are looking at doing completely online and asynchronously so that folks who are working in schools, again, can have their job, but still can take the classwork that they need. And that's just one of the more recent examples that we have of these micro credentials. Some of the I see it.

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: Okay. I'm sorry. Don't Yeah,

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: it says one time investment. How would this be sustainable? So our idea is that we're really looking to see how it is we can develop some of these programs. So we did receive funding from the Department of Labor to actually create the courses for the paraeducator and the teacher ed certificate. And so the reason these are one time funds is they are funds for us to develop some of the coursework in the curriculum one time. We do believe that these will be self sustaining after that through the folks who would be in the programs with enrollment. So it's for course development? Course development, yeah, maybe working on apprenticeship training, those kinds of things that are sort of one time funds we'll need to get started. And then we can look at putting well, we won't have the development for the courses, but we can look at putting some of the other costs just into that regular program. Next, I'd like to talk about Freedom and Unity, which is a program that VSAC has sponsored over the last couple of years. This is an outgrowth of eight zero two Opportunity, which is a grant that allows any student in the state of Vermont whose family is making $100,000 or less to go to CCV completely for tuition free. We had a partner program called Freedom and Unity last year, which we're very thankful to the legislature for funding us at 1,500,000 again in one time funds. I know VSAC is requesting this year a $2,300,000 base appropriation for this that they haven't received yet. But I would like to say that we are very supportive of this. What we are seeing even in this last year, and one of the pieces that this committee knows we are looking at is how to really have a distance education program that will meet the needs of Vermonters. We are seeing significant upticks in those online students who have an opportunity to participate in the Freedom and Unity program. Even now, we had tremendous increases in January when we did a January enrollment, and we'll do another one in March. And we see Vermonters taking us up on this program. So we know that this is helping. And we know that it's helping folks who are interested in going into, as an example, our teacher programs or our nursing programs. So we're very excited about that.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: I'm

[Carolyn Dutch (Paralegal, VOSHA Review Board)]: just confused about your comment here that it's offered to families with

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: an AGI of $65,000 I'm sorry. Yes. So for the $8.00 2 opportunity, they've gotten that up to $100,000 At this point, for Freedom and Unity, the $1,500,000 that we got last year will only cover families that are $65,000 or less for VTSU. Obviously, it would be our goal to ensure that every family at one level can get it, but we're trying to step ourselves up into this program.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: Eileen, did you want add? Yeah, this was a new program last year for the Vermont State University, the more legacy traditional colleges. CCV has had this for a while, it and has been extremely successful in recruiting, retaining, graduating people. It started at a lower level, 75 or 65.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: I think it actually started at 50 even.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: Well, it started lower, and over the years it's gone up. Now it's $100,000 under $100,000 And enrollment, retention, graduation is the ultimate goal. We want people to finish. And people look at it, Beth may be able to describe this, they want to know, does this apply to me and will it be there next year? And this is the last dollar and it provides, you stack your financial aid and this actually provides the very end as a free tuition at that point. I'm not sure if I got it exactly right, but that's correct. And so what we have now is Freedom Immunity starting at $65,000 And we could theoretically start a CCB and have a $85,000 family income and get it for free under this $100,000 But if you want to transfer into VTSU, one of the four year bachelor programs, you're going be over the $65,000 and that then creates maybe a potential barrier. So the goal is to make them be the same at some point, but we're not going to expect that right away. Okay. I would just try to keep it straight. Yeah.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: And next, I'd like to talk just a little bit about the flexible pathways program that the psychologist system participates in. These programs are for high school students, and they were designed to level the playing field for Vermont's flexible pathways. The programs that are particularly important to Vermont's psychology system is the dual enrollment program, and you can see the course placements there, as well as the early college program. I do know that there is some ongoing conversations, in particular, about early college. It certainly is a conversation that I welcome in my career. I have participated in a number of these programs as the higher ed participant. And I think the questions that are being brought up about how does this program interact with high schools, what are maybe some of the unintended consequences, is a conversation that we certainly are willing to engage in and would welcome. But it has been a program, which you can see, we've seen increases in the number of students participating in this year over year. And we know that these students are more likely to go to college once they've completed dual enrollment in early college than our other places. Well, and I know part of these conversations, I used to

[Rep. David Yacovone]: have this as my budget when I first got to approach too. And the question is, are the kids we really want to target making use of this access or are they the people whose parents are really on it and read everything and figure out ways for their kids to do it? Getting that access to the people who we really hope can get there is an important thing. That's not measured in your numbers. It's nice to see the numbers increasing, but how much do we know about the students? Are we doing what we originally hoped

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: to do when these were set up? We do know that the number of students who we would define as Pell eligible or students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch in K-twelve, we have seen a marked increase in those numbers over the last couple of years. I think even from last year to this year, was a 7% increase. So we know that more students who might not otherwise be able to go to college are participating in these programs. And because students are not eligible for federal financial aid as a high school student, this would be their only vehicle to pay for that. So we have seen increases in those.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Questions?

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: Just my last slide, and I just wanted to share this with you. This was a young woman who graduated from Johnson in May. I saw her I went to all the graduations. I saw her walking across the stage. I mean, she just smiled the whole time she was going through there. And she had her baby with her across the stage. And this was just the one that sort of struck me most. But at every graduation I was at, someone brought a child with them. They walked them across the stage or they strolled them across the stage. And to me, this is just why I do this job. We transform lives. And I think that when someone is bringing their child across a graduation stage with them, it really is that they feel so proud of what they've accomplished and what they can show their child. So I just wanted to share this with you to say, when I am thinking about why it is I'm doing this job, it is for people like this who, again, might not otherwise be able to go to college, probably need to do asynchronous online courses, probably need to ensure that the college is surrounding their life and maybe go for a couple of classes this semester and more next. And these really are our biggest increase in the number of students that we'll be able to serve. And so I'm so proud of that. Thank you all for that. And I'm happy to It

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: should be.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: Someone said to me, is that fake? I said, no. You should have seen her come across the whole stage. It's even better. Like I saw her come across the stage, was like, she was just beaming from there. Oh,

[Rep. David Yacovone]: that's exciting. So I'm happy

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: to take any questions. Thank you for having me.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Thank you for coming. So we have your budget request on the very last page. Yes, that's the whole thing altogether. That's just all of it together. So three specific requests. Yes. Millions of this budget.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: Oh, that's on the last page at the bottom of or I'm sorry. At the bottom of it. I don't know if it's I don't have the the last sheet. I

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: if it's it's a two three nine four, the

[Rep. David Yacovone]: one point five and one. Three numbers. Yes, there's

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: a million for the capital budget request. Sounds

[Rep. David Yacovone]: like a corrections and institutions committee request. Are you going to see them?

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: We are. Yes, at 03:15. Yes.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: It seems to me that that would be there.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: Yes, I just wanted to make you aware that we have.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. It's a beautiful picture. That's great. Questions for? Sounds like you're doing great work and accomplishing the goals that you are setting out to accomplish and serving for Monsters.

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: You're and I feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of those who came before. It's been a really wonderful journey. It has

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: been quite a journey. Yes. It has been quite a journey. I just want to say that we have made great progress. Mean, for some of you who were here five or so years ago, it's

[Rep. David Yacovone]: was pretty dire.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: A journal, journey. It's been a real journey. But we have come through it between Sophie and Beth and Sharon Scott and all of the other people who have contributed to this, presidents and

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: Joyce G. Well, our faculty and staff, And they really have stepped when we ask them, they always are right there with us, working hand in hand. But

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: we still have some hills to pawn. We are not out of the woods. We've had so many things going on at once that sometimes some things have fallen through the cracks, and we're still trying to pick them up and keep them going. But we really have to thank the legislature and the governor for standing by us and helping us with this.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Well, it's also exciting to see that you're doing some stuff with your physical plant, because that's been the big elephant in the middle of

[Beth Mauk (Chancellor, Vermont State Colleges System)]: the world kind of thing. I see this all as a big ecosystem. It's ensuring that that physical footprint really is serving the needs of Vermont. It's making sure that we are serving students who now are older than what we're thinking. And it really is thinking about our program array and what kinds of programs are we offering so that we're ensuring that we meet those needs of Vermont. And if you think of all those three things together and move them together, you get it right. Lynn is right. Every now and then, something falls through the cracks. But we're here to continue just to work and figure out how we can do this for Vermont.

[Rep. Eileen “Lynn” Dickinson]: Yes, and it's been a transformation. Stophie hired a project manager, and we included everybody with the project manager and all the different aspects of the colleges and all the different student life and academics and all the financial stuff. And we have gone from four presidents to the legacy schools, to one provost, one admissions. And we have made it a system wide budget. So it's really a much more efficient system and we're trying to make it as effective as possible. We've made great strides, like they say, doing that, but we're still working on it. So continuous improvement. That's what I insist.

[Rep. David Yacovone]: Great. Well, thanks for all your duty. Thank you. It's great to see you for having me. Appreciate all the good news. You. Thank So committee, we