Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: Hey. Thank you. We are live. Vermont Senate Education Committee. You're on Tuesday, November 18, 02:33. Students that have prepared questions or comments, this is what we would like you to do. You'll have like a two minute two minute time. You'll be able to see it on the screen here. If you're asking a question or making a comment, please come to this podium. If you are on deck and second to ask a question, have a seat in this chair. If you are third, there's an x right here. Stand. So if I'm third in line, I'm waiting here. If I'm second in line, I'm waiting here. And if I'm asking questions or making comments, addressing the senators from here. Alright. Have a seat please. And?

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: I

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: know there are some students that have been participating this moment and have questions or comments. If you'd like to join us in this aisle, let someone start by taking the podium.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: Hey, buddy.

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: Yeah. And while students are organizing yourselves and coming to the podium to ask questions or comments, I'll have the senators introduce themselves. Thank you.

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: Hi everybody, my name is Nader Hashim, I'm a senator from Windham County.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: My name is Seth Bongartz, I present at the Bennington Senate District.

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: I'm Terry Williams, I'm senator for Rutland District.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Steven Heffernan Senator from the Addison County District.

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: Thanks Senator Students now is your time. You are prepared to ask a question or make a comment to our Senators regarding things that are on your mind, new build, legislation, school consolidations, your programming and experience, and so on. Please come on up. This time was designed for you. State your name, that's how you're residing, and you're great.

[Unidentified attendee (various)]: There you go. Hi.

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: I'm Ben. I'm a senior. I'm from Woodstock. And I'm wondering, in the case of redistricting, how will you account for, like, loss of community specific sort of activities? Like, I know in Woodstock, I'm a member of Change World Kids, and it's not necessarily like a school group, but, you know, if I were to go to school somewhere else, it might be a little bit harder to sort of contribute to that organization. How do you account for, like, loss of community specific opportunities like that in the case of redistricting?

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: Okay. So I'll start off with an answer. First of all, I'm really happy to be here. You know everybody needs to understand that the way everybody's looking at school districts right now is the way the school districts are right now. School houses are where they are and the student the populations are where they are too so nobody is saying that your school district is going to change. It may probably be additional people, additional students brought in from outside but right now because it's a transformation plan it's probably going to take another four years before anything happens.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: I would maybe just add to that that there are schools of various sizes across Vermont and some of the larger schools are doing very well, some of the smaller schools are doing very well. It's really, we are in a preliminary stage as to figuring out how this configuration is going to go together, but the point you're making about the need to maintain a sense of community is vital to this question.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: I'll address that as well. In our county we had two schools closed and it did affect the community And that was the voice from the townspeople. Yeah, it is a big concern to all of us that we try to keep our communities together. That being said, it's also up to the town leaders, your community leaders to really strive to keep your communities going.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: I'm Skyler Kaga. I am

[Skyler Kaga (student, senior at Woodstock)]: also a senior in this high school and I just wanted to speak for the sense of community that we feel not only as students in Woodstock, but I know students across the state and students across ages, like going all the way down to the elementary school. My sister is a sixth grader at Killington Elementary School, and she has been lucky enough to have school choice to decide to go to Killington instead of driving further to a school that has been further away, in the sense of community that that has let her experience, let me experience as an elementary schooler and still as a high schooler. I think if we're trying to increase the younger population of Vermont, we really need to work on maintaining these individual connections that students are not only developing to the people in their community, but also the layouts of them where they are. And that's not something you're going

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: to get by having to

[Skyler Kaga (student, senior at Woodstock)]: drive 45 to an hour. So I really, really want to just advocate that this system that we currently have isn't perfect in a lot of ways, but if we change anything going forward, I want to make sure kids are able to feel a sense of belonging, they want

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: to return to Vermont. That's the reason.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: I'll just say that this morning, as we heard from students and their teachers, we heard the same. We a deep sense of community here, a deep sense of commitment to every student here, and the deep sense of commitment you have to each other. So let you just reinforce that. Thank you.

[Multiple student/parent speakers (various)]: Hi, Addison Tucker, Jr, Woodstock. Would, how, in the case of redistricting, a couple questions. First of all, where would, like, where would the teachers go? Like, there's teachers at different schools, but someone the schools are different and there's not like, how would how would that work essentially? I don't know how to phrase the question quite right, but

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Your next question, well, is it ridiculous?

[Addison Tucker, Jr. (student, Woodstock)]: Oh, and also in the case of redistricting, if we have less schools, would each school have a considerably higher budget for like school things? Or is it or is this whole plan to like save costs?

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: So I can answer your first question. There's still a whole lot of unknowns about what redistricting will look like or if it will even happen. As I think a lot of folks here pay very close attention to what's going on politically, and we did just see that the redistricting task force came out with their opinion that redistricting should be voluntary for communities. So if it does happen, I think it's going to look very different for each district and how or if teachers are going to be moved at all.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: And the second question you asked was about would there be more dollars for schools? I guess you could make the case, and people have been making the case, that if schools were larger, there could be more dollars and you could have more specialized services. I'm not saying that's what I think, by the way, I'm just saying that's what one argument for is that there would be perhaps a more efficient use of resources with fewer schools. That's a large discussion around that that we have yet to fully have. Thank you.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Yeah, I'm Logan Marquez. I am from Wethersfield. I was just wondering when we look at redistricting and one thing that Woodstock has is we have very good curriculum. We have very good teachers. We we are very good at doing what we do.

[Logan Marquez (student, Weathersfield)]: That is very hard to to deny. How can we keep what we do well available for the rest of Vermont students, as well as we look at a lot of these redistricting as a way to cut costs. How will this actually affect the tax payer? Because we all heard from Joe Major, Vermont's expensive to live in and it is hardest thing is affording Vermont. So how will this help Vermonters?

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: I'll start just by saying that it's just reinforcing for all of you we're really early in the process. We're doing these towards the schools to hear about the things that are important to students, the things that are important to the people who work here, and the things that are important to the community. So those questions you're asking, you're asking all the right questions, we don't yet have the answers because we're still at the phase of trying to figure out what does or what doesn't make sense. The fact that something has been proposed doesn't mean that's what we're going to do. We're here to really gather information and hear from people like you about the things that you're concerned about and you want to make sure we take into account. Thank you.

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: So remember the number one priority for Act 73 is education quality standards. That's what we're striving for which means that the Agency of Education is going to have to work with all the schools to come up with a curriculum that is equitable across the board. It also means that funding will go to the places that it needs to go. The Education Senate Education Committee we make education policy or we create bills, we pass legislation that will affect everybody but we can't do it without input from you all so thank you for that.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: And I'd like to follow-up with that. This is a tremendous school and it is your faculty and your senior leadership. I was talking to your superintendent earlier and said I wish you could carbon copy what she is doing here because it is amazing.

[Owen Weeks (student, Bethel)]: Hi, Owen Weeks. I'm a senior from Bethel, Vermont. In Vermont, we have a somewhat of a unique scenario compared to other states where we have a low population and therefore are able to take advantage of low class sizes and really build one on one connections with our teachers. And that is a huge strength. Woodstock is a school, and from the other school in Vermont that I've attended, a huge strength of that one as well. In the case of redistricting that occurs, how would you justify the, essentially the elimination of such small class sizes that allows for those powerful one on one connections to be fostered and built between teachers and students?

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: So

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: your point is well taken out the small class sizes. Grew up initially in Washington DC and then Rhode Island, Massachusetts and so on, and every class that I was in, a lot of students sit there. And you know what I see in schools like this and in my own district is smaller class sizes. They're great. There's also a benefit to having that happy medium number of peers where you're able to have the more broad range of who you're socializing with, but also who you're learning from in that classroom. And so your original question was how would the bill justify removing smaller class sizes, is that right?

[Owen Weeks (student, Bethel)]: Yeah, smaller class sizes are incredible, I guess privilege that we have as residents of Vermont and why take that away?

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: So there are parts of the bill that refer to small by necessity and and creating certain circumstances where it is, where smaller schools and smaller classrooms should continue to exist. I'm not suggesting that they should be removed either. Think smaller classrooms, small class sizes is a good thing. And I can't remember the guidelines off the top of my head for that particular piece, but it is in the bill regarding that in order to keep smaller schools and smaller class sizes where necessary.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: So just to add a little bit to that, one of the challenges that we face, one of the reasons that came before us as the governor began to talk about this challenge is that we have a lot of very small schools around Vermont and each building is an expense center as well. And so the tension or the thing we're trying to figure out is bring costs in down or at least stabilize costs. And one of the ways to do that is to have fewer buildings, somewhat larger class sizes because it's more efficient. You can have one teacher for 15 or 16 kids instead of one teacher for eight. And so what we're talking about and what we're all talking about, we're trying to figure out is something really difficult to get our arms around fully. But there is a, we have had in Vermont the cost of education rising at the rate of fifteen-twenty percent two years ago and that's not a sustainable number. So what we're wrestling with is everything you're saying because it has a lot of validity and the cost and we're trying to figure out where the sweet spots are. But it's turning out to be very difficult because, instance what we heard at Canaan from students there and from the community and what we're hearing every day and this is again the reason we're doing it but those are the challenges that's the difficulty of the job we have but we signed up for a difficult job. So thank you. Yeah.

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: As we've gone through all this I want everybody to understand there's no one size fits all. We started out I think when this whole concept came about about 120,000 students involved. Now we're at last count I think 83,000 and so what you can see we're dropping student population every year. The transformation period goes for the next three years before we even start to implement this thing so we have to get it running and it's like trying to get on a train that's going 100 miles an hour as the student population declines. We got schools that need to be constructed. We really need to get the size of everything stable and then hopefully we get more population coming into Vermont because of the quality of the education that people are going

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: get. We have to move. Only have about ten minutes left so next, Steven. Hi,

[Cody (student)]: my name is Cody. I live in. So I've got a forty minute drive to school already. So I'm curious about how are you gonna plan for these smaller towns that live far away from the other schools. Like, is this more that I can move you safe from say to Hartford that would add another twenty minutes to

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: my ride and not have

[Cody (student)]: an hour ride to school every day. So how are we gonna, like, handle handle the the smaller towns that already have Parkinson's disease?

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: Can you repeat the question or answer your question? Yes,

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: that one was hard. It was a question about did the traveling distance to get to school and that he's already traveling forty minutes, 40 miles, forty minutes and then if it was much further it would become a significant burden. It is certainly one of the things that we have to keep in mind as we're doing this because if you have, I mean, we're not this is not going to happen, but just to state the obvious, somebody having to go an hour and a half each way to school cuts into the day far beyond what is acceptable. Thank you.

[Lesia Beckwith (resident, Woodstock/South Burlington)]: My name is Lesia Beckwith and I live in Woodstock in South Burlington. And kind of like what he was asking,

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: I was wondering how since

[Lesia Beckwith (resident, Woodstock/South Burlington)]: since people will be commuting from further away, I know that that would affect our climate a lot and increase emissions for many people. I was wondering if there are plans to combat that because I know here at Woodstock we have a community that really values our environment and we have very unique programs like the Rausch that really shows those values.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Me just really quickly say that there are parts of Vermont where we have a lot of, like a handful of very small high schools very close to each other, so that if they were to be brought together it really wouldn't impact what you're talking about because they're that close to start with. So again, I think Senator Williams' reminder that one size does not fit all is key to this and key to our ability to approach this. Thank you.

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: Senators, this might be our last one. Students need to dismiss at 02:55. And remind your high school students will dismiss out this exit, middle school without this exit. Be quiet, respectful for our last question. Thank you.

[Isla (student, 9th grade, Woodstock)]: Hi, Isla and I'm in ninth grade and I wouldn't stop. So I know that part of the reason that we need to redistrict or that we're talking about redistricting is because of the amount of money that goes

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: into schools in Vermont, but I'm kind of

[Isla (student, 9th grade, Woodstock)]: wondering how do you plan on accounting for the amount of money that people will have to put in with longer drives and for the fact that the further school away is from where somebody lives the harder it is for them to participate in extracurriculars like sports and that really makes it a lot less equitable for people to go to participate in that school. So do you have a chance for combating that in politics?

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Well,

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: so being fully candid, mean I hear where you're coming from. I agree with your concerns. That's a major reason why I actually voted no against the bill. So what those plans are, I'm not sure. But it's going to be something that we have to figure out once the legislature picks back up again in January.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Left on four more?

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: More of a statement than a question maker? Yes. Thank you.

[Caitlin Burris (student, senior)]: Hi, my name is Caitlin Burris and I'm a senior. I used to live at Killington and now I live here in Woodstock. We are a very sport and extracurricular run school. Most of our school either participates in Yogi theater or sports. We win championships pretty much every season. We all really care about our sports teams and show up for each other. With the underclassmen that can't drive after school if they stay later, how will they get back home if their parents can't take the forty five minute trips then go get them? If there's no weight loss or nothing like that? Because we already are here and people live so close by and we still have seniors having to give the underclassmen drives home how is that going to change if anything because all of our students really care about sports we wouldn't want to lose that even if it's not health affected.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Thank you. One quick response to that, think we're have to be done, yes?

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Again, your school is great, can't emphasize that enough. With that question, that's going to come down to the parent, what the parents want to do for the child. There's already parents that travel long distances for their children to play sports, being interactive with the community. It's gonna everything we talk about here is when and if, and it is a big if, it's all pie in the sky if this is gonna happen. The change will come over time, it will give people time to give input like you are right now. We hope that the communities will work with common sense of what makes sense. Like we were talking, we have a bunch of closed schools that's like, hey, there's, it's not even up in my county. We have four elementary schools that are literally less than ten minutes apart from each other. So is that going to add on to a parent's drive or it would make sense. That also means that I want community input. It's something that we as a community, your parents have to look at what the cost is. Because with everything comes cost and I think you're all old enough to know that, that

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: everything comes with a cost.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: And our job as your senators and representatives is to try to get that cost where it's affordable. Taxes should not be a burden. Taxes are becoming a burden to many of your parents. So we want to work, we're out here listening to you to make the right decision and we will, or at least I will, make sure that your parents have a voice in your community. And that's all we can promise really.

[Multiple youth speakers (various)]: Thank you.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Thanks everybody.

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: Thank Senator. Thank you, students. Have a great afternoon.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: So good afternoon. We are live now. This is a meeting of the Senate Education Committee. We are visiting five schools. As I said

[Unidentified teacher and MVUEA (Mountain Views Education Association) president]: in the beginning of the day,

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: we tried last year during the session to get out to visit schools and we gave up because it's so hectic and so overwhelmingly busy once the session starts. So we're taking advantage of this time right now to go out and really just listen to members of schools. We get to know the schools, get to know the districts. We We try to pick schools that are different. So we glean different bits of information in the different ways that schools are operating. And then we're ending each hearing by the time for the community members. We met the students, teachers, school for the school administrators, and now we want to hear from the public. What we're going to have to do because a lot of people have signed up. We're not going to be able to we're going to everybody's going to have only one minute and we're not going to respond only because Bennington you won't have a chance to be able to come to us and give us the information you want to give us. So what we're going to do is I'm to call up when I call up the name that'll be the person up and I'm also going to call up the next name and that person will be in the long neck chair ready to go so we can keep moving. And so with that, I'll let members of the So by the way, I'm Seth Bongartz. I'm the chair of the Senate Education Committee, and I represent the Bennington Senate District. I live in Manchester.

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: Hi everybody, my name is Nader Hashim. I'm the Senator from Windham County.

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: I'm Terry Williams. I'm Senator from Rutland District. Steven Heffernan, Addison County District.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: And I note that we have a couple of legislators here, Charlie Kimball, who was here earlier today as well, maybe almost for the whole day, and I know Elsie Clarkson is here, there she is, as well to listen to this today, people from your area. So we're going to get started. So we're going to, I'm going to have to unfortunately be unpleasant and stop you after one minute so that we can get through as many people as we possibly can.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: Oh,

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: yes. Thank you. And if you want to, if you can't, if you want to send, give us information, we don't have time to do it today, you can send written testimony or written contents through from their website, through this set. Okay. And so we're going to start with Paige Miller and then Roger Cogan or something like that. Okay, right behind. Okay. So, Paige is up. Roger's on the on the next circle and Ben Richner should be ready to come up right behind Devin. You're on sixty seconds unfortunately. Hi

[Paige Hiller (former school board member)]: my name is Paige Hiller. I'm from Stock. I was a school board member for fifteen years. I just want to make a couple comments. Act 60 was based on establishing sending and receiving towns. Many politicians in the state insist that that no longer exists, but we see that Woodstock sends about $18,000 into the state education fund and we've received about 8 to $9,000 back. Act 46, the purpose of consolidation for the schools, we got tax incentives along with that if we were voluntarily consolidated our school districts. It was insisted that we would be saving money in those consolidations in new districts. However, we have seen our taxes continually increase from year one until now. We saw a 20% increase plus in Woodstock alone. I think that we should start learning from other states because right now we're spending a forty-sixty split from general to education funding which is funded by property taxes Massachusetts spends 60% of general fund and 40% for property taxes

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: thank you

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: Roger?

[Roger Logan (Woodstock resident)]: I'm Roger Logan, I live in Woodstock.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Ben should be on deck seat.

[Roger Logan (Woodstock resident)]: I just want to say, I worked in not for profit for a long time. You cannot contract your way out of the crisis. We need to grow our way out of the crisis. We need to find new sources of revenue, one of which is very obviously right in front of us, which is second homeowners. Another of which is to grow. Our own school population and other school populations around the state attracting more people. We need to grow out of this, not save out of it. Thank you. Ben Bennington. Good afternoon.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Thank you for coming. As you know, the redistricting task force voted last week to endorse the voluntary merger proposal rather than provide three maps as Act 73 required. I think you've heard, you will hear and you heard in the previous prior sessions that this has created a lot of uncertainty about which models may survive redistricting. So a question I have, which I realize you can't answer today is, how will the committee ensure that high performing regional hubs like Mountain Views, a 2025 school of distinction, which already embody Act 70 three's vision of shared services, how will you ensure that districts like these are not fragmented by whatever boundaries eventually emerge from the reverse learning process. Thank you. Thank you. Then Jack, I can't read the name, like that. On deck. Oh, you're not gonna go? Okay. Then, Derek Lerner? Yep. Sorry. Light? It's not the light's

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: not the problem. It's the hand.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Can you repeat it? She's here. Alright. You're on deck.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Okay. Now, so

[Unidentified school board member (capital/per-pupil decoupling)]: Senator, thank you for being here today. One thing that we're we're really thinking I'm on the school board, my name is Seth Bongartz. We're thinking about how to take care of our physical facility and how to rebuild it. And there's two things I just want to flag for your attention that we could really use your help with. One is decoupling per pupil expenses from capital expenses. Right now,

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: any

[Unidentified school board member (capital/per-pupil decoupling)]: big repair we make where we have to take on debt, we're going be paid two for one. And I think that's something that our local legislators are hoping to lead on. Thank you, Charlie, thank you, Alison. Number two is, I know that Act 73 established a school construction fund. We intend to pursue a bond to rebuild the school and then we're going to hope that we can get assistance from that. So I hope you were able to fund it. Thank you.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: Move like

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Skillo, something like that is on deck.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: Hi, thank you so much for being here. My name is Sarit Warner and I'm a school board member and the CTO president. What revenue option is the Senate Education Committee considering to fund the school construction fund established by Act 73? And specifically, will you support increasing taxes on second homeowners which are compounding our statewide housing crisis and in my opinion, not paying their fair share.

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: Hi there, Senator. Brian.

[Mike Escuro (alumnus, class of '98)]: Mike Escuro, class of '98.

[Unidentified parent/community member]: My daughter's class of '32 here. I implore you to look at anything that is not educational based. So taxing the sick and homeowners and anything that can be done infrastructure wise to maintain a back office that's more productive. We have a lot of staff in our government, make it leaner

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: and meaner. That's not going

[Unidentified parent/community member]: to affect the endpoint for our students. Geography is also really important for the amount of time that we all spend in our cars here, and this is a hub, and it really is important to look at those things that we get, that we can't make choices around for our roads and how much time our children have to be on buses is really important. Tax second homeowners, look at everything, but if we can try to avoid the changes to our students that would be the best. Thank

[Unidentified attendee (various)]: you. You.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: And you're obviously young with you would be Ma.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: I saw you actually did write it out so I could view it. I didn't see it at first on the side. And then Elizabeth?

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: I'm on deck. Okay.

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: You for being here. I'm Bethlehem of Vermont. I was a previous school board chair. I was a previous school board chair and I did the first merger of two districts between Chester and Raleigh Windsor. If we did it, it didn't work. But anyways, I think that people that are making laws need to visit all our schools and all our towns. We need to change the funding formula. That's the issue. We need to tax our income for those that work here. We need to tax businesses and second homeowners. And Vermont NEA did a great article last November. I am also a parent of two alumni from here and we have a great educational structure and our district is doing great things, you don't need to change that. Yes, we need a new building. So it's the funding formula and people need to visit every school before they make these laws.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: Hello thank you for being here My daughter graduated in 2019 through programs in the school she traveled to England, Scotland, France and Spain. She graduated fluid and Spanish and played varsity softball. She is currently being paid to attend a three year MFA graduate program my son graduated in 2024 as co captain of the state champion football team he attended Hartford's tech program and tech business program and came out with a certification in Windhams. In both cases my students were offered packages that saved our family 50% of the full cost of college tuition. Also with AP and early college classes, they each individually saved us the cost of one full semester of college classes. Everyone knows we need a new building, but we don't need our new programs, teachers, administrators. My other issue is safety. I challenge any of you to drive over Killington on your way home and ask yourselves if you would want to put your student communities community students over that mountain. 36 degrees in Rutland and raining is 32 and sleeting until it's counted. Thank you. Thank you.

[MVUEA president (teacher, unidentified)]: Senators thank you for coming. I'm a teacher here at Woodstock Union Middle High School. I stand in front of you as the president of the Mountain Views Education Association representing 200 staff and faculty here. We wanted to write to express our strong support for the rebuilding of Woodstock Union High School and Middle School and a fair redistricting that preserves this district and the programs you've seen. As you've seen today, there's a school of distinction. There are exceptional offerings at the middle high school. Opportunities for all students to excel to the best of their ability and their interests. I have four asks that would help us with the new bill and to preserve this district. First is a decoupling of construction bonds from general education tests. Second, we urge state funding of 30 to 50% of school infrastructure improvements or new building. Third, we want to voice our support for the fair and equitable redistricting that preserves Woodstock as a regional hub. And lastly a more equitable tax burden for residents looking at schools funding especially variable tax rates for second homeowners, private homeowners, renters, businesses, so forth. Thank you. You.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Laura Paul is on that.

[Karin Park (school board member)]: Hi, I'm Karin Park, I'm on the

[Multiple student/parent speakers (various)]: school board. Lots of things

[Karin Park (school board member)]: to say but I'll just try to pitch the highlights that I think are the most important. Task force, I think did a great job with limited time to come forward with a honorable and fair, they haven't come to their conclusion yet, but recommendation to the legislature. They were looking for data, they were looking for evidence as to whether some of

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: the massive compensation that was

[Karin Park (school board member)]: being promoted would actually fulfill the aims that we're looking for, and they didn't find it. You heard, they heard so much from somewhere across the state that spoke to the kinds of destruction that that kind of thing would cause. So focus on the goals of the legislation and look really deeply at what actually is going to achieve those goals. Thank you.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Thank you.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Annie? Annie Evans on deck.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: Hi, my

[Multiple student/parent speakers (various)]: name is Laura Hall. I just wanted to ask, and I

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: know you can't answer, and when we

[Karin Park (school board member)]: can expect to see visible impact studies of

[Multiple student/parent speakers (various)]: the redistricting. I'm thinking if the premise of the redistricting is to save us money, and we know from Act 46 that our tax rates remain largely unchanged. I would encourage you to remain skeptical that this is going to deliver that and deliver what the governor has promised it will, especially when health insurance costs are driving for budgets. Thank you for

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Elizabeth, I can't read the last name, Russ Gora or something like that. It's on deck. They're on deck. Oh, okay. Oh, there you are. Okay.

[Jenny Abbott (South Pomfret, VT)]: Jenny Abbott, South Concord, Vermont. And my concern today is around how we balance sustainability in Vermont with our persistent pursuit of equity. So Woodstock is globally known for its charm, beauty, and for being a warm and welcoming place to visit. We are a revenue engine that sends money to Montpelier and to across the state. We have the tourism and we have the brandless value the state heavily relies on, But the reason people visitors come and keep spending is that towns like Bozdoc feel alive in every season with full time neighbors who run teams, events, small businesses that make this the destination. This community invests in quality, and we take pride in welcoming the world to our streets. The revenue follows the community. Risk losing the school, and you deep risk destabilizing, one of the places that makes Vermont work and fund the state. Protect this year round tax base and that helps create experience people are seeking here and then the visitors and the dollars will continue to follow.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: I'm not sure I can make out the first name but it's something like Royson Sorian is on deck. That person here is Royson here? Rajin. If not, Sidney Metzger Metzger Metzger. Okay. David Alls or Alecine Tomales Hall is on that. Somebody be on deck. Okay.

[Multiple student/parent speakers (various)]: You have a whole

[Elizabeth Brascoya (alumna and parent)]: team up here. My name is Elizabeth Brascoya. I graduated from Woodstock in 1996 and I now live here again and I'm raising two kids in the elementary school, who attend the elementary school. And I wanted to just echo what was just said because I think we talk a lot, everyone, about our population dwindling. And if we want to not only keep the people here while we live here and attract new people, we have to have an excellent educational system, and that has been thriving and you know, the small town. I know that that's true for here. I also have a question about the school facility. I think this is exactly the same space I stood in thirty something years ago, and I'd love to see the conditions available for the support of the rebuild that's being proposed. And so, in that vein, how are you all going to look at the facility quality versus school outcomes as you make these decisions about what schools can pre name hubs. So thank you for your consideration and thanks for your patience.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: There's no Cindy, I know there's another sheet somewhere about to come down.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: No.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Here it comes.

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: Yeah.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: So, and by the way, think we said this, we did a very detailed tour of the school and got a sense of some of the things that we've been hearing about building. Ron Reagan, Reagan Fernan, followed by Anne Butler.

[Ron Greenberg (resident)]: Ron Greenberg, thank you for being here. Appreciate it. We moved here a few years ago from Indiana, and the funding structure in Indiana was again a state would set education rates, but what would happen is homeowners, people who homesteaded, would get half the rate that the other two or second owners would not get. So the burden, we say the burden, but a big funder for the schools and education were people who were not residents. Clearly there's an issue here of funding for school, And I would encourage you all to hear what has been already said before about considering increasing the burden on cycle donors. The other thing that I would say, mark of a great community is their school building. And the school building should be the number one building in that community. So I would hope the same will be said and stopped. Thank you.

[Unidentified teacher and MVUEA (Mountain Views Education Association) president]: Hi,

[Ann Butler (Plymouth resident/parent)]: good afternoon. My name is Ann Butler. Thanks for your time. I'm a resident of Plymouth and one of the main reasons that my husband and I choose to raise our family here is because of the wonderful school that we have access to. There are several things currently threatening to dismantle Mountain Views, restricting efforts potentially, and much needed capital improvements for this building. Anything that pulls Mountain Views apart is going to be so harmful to our towns. Families like mine will begin to look elsewhere to live. The most rural towns like mine in Plymouth would be disproportionately hurt by populations shifts. My family is deeply invested in our town and in our community here. I also understand, of course, the importance of spending education dollars responsibly, so I urge you to support efforts that keep Mountain Views together as a broader regional hub and even to replicate the successes that we are having here across the state. Thank you.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: CT Barros or something? It? Is it Seth? I'm not sure what is on that, what was, But anyway, you're up.

[Shannon Kamlinski (Director of Student Support Services)]: My name is Shannon Kamlinski and I'm the Director of Student Support Services here in the District. I don't live here, but I choose to drive almost an hour each day each way to work here because of what is going on.

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: And the people who work in this district. Thank you.

[Shannon Kamlinski (Director of Student Support Services)]: I'm asking you today to please decouple the per pupil spending. Today you heard about the wonderful work happening at our district, and the increasing proficiency scores in literacy and math, and the opportunities that our students have. And all means all in our district, whether our students go on to the trades, military, to work in the hospitality industry, or even on to college. That leads to almost one hundred percent graduation rate in our district for our students, both those with disabilities and those without, while the state graduation rates are only eighty six percent for students without disabilities and sixty seven percent for students with. The second reason for decoupling for people spending is because other than the people and the benefits in the budget, the special education budget was pretty big, and we have approximately between thirteen and fifteen percent of our students who are eligible for special education, while our neighboring districts, multiple neighboring districts, have rates as high as thirty five percent of their students. We are penalized for maintaining our efforts and keeping our numbers low because we don't get the credit that our neighboring districts get for having high numbers of special education students. This is another reason to decouple, because we don't want to merge and do business with districts that might not have as high of a quality of instruction and commitment to the collaborative work that you heard about today in math and literacy, and then what happens to all of that work when you break us apart or chop us into pieces and couple us with other districts who are not performing? That will hurt our students and the work of the great educators in this district.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Terry Bristow, Sondacki.

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: You.

[School facilitator/moderator (unidentified)]: Using a battery? One's still on the from something. Hello.

[Flora Silvera (parent/teacher) with Sethi Penrose (student, 4th grade)]: Hi, I am Flora Silvera, a parent and a teacher in the district, and this is Sethi Penrose, my son,

[Karin Park (school board member)]: a fourth grader at Woodstock Elementary.

[Multiple youth speakers (various)]: I would like a new school. Okay.

[Flora Silvera (parent/teacher) with Sethi Penrose (student, 4th grade)]: As you said, our family moved here for the grade schools, and that reputation helps every student in the district, whether or not they live in Woodstock Hopper, and that helps them in their adult lives as they move on, and many of us went to good schools, and our children and students deserve the same opportunities. Thank you.

[Terry Bristow (school board chair, longtime teacher)]: Terry Bristow Woodstock, thirty nine years of teaching in the building, three alumni who are successfully navigating their lives to live in Vermont still and now unfortunately at times but really a pleasure to be the school board chair.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: So, I think there's a lot

[Terry Bristow (school board chair, longtime teacher)]: of mixed messages out there. The one thing I heard from the redistricting task force was that they were not there to close schools. They were there to consolidate purchasing and other services, consolidate administrative structures, but they said over and over again, because I attended most of those sessions, that they were not there to close schools. And then we have a governor who recently made it very clear that the goal was to close schools and that it needed to happen, and the task force should be ashamed of the way they handled their, work. If you give people 8 meetings and you give them four months to figure out transformational. Brand new maps, etcetera, etcetera. How could they have ever done anything different? Thank you.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: So there is nobody else listed but we actually I thought we had we're going to have a value to people when we said it in a minute so we have time if there's anybody who hasn't had a chance to speak with like you just come up and somebody come up and be on deck. And when the on deck person leaves, the next person come up because they don't have a list anymore.

[Tanine Peters (resident/parent)]: I'm Tanine Peters. Family moved here

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: almost three years ago and

[Karin Park (school board member)]: has been committed to building our own life here. We excited to quieting student population in Vermont. If the school were to close and our children were to need to travel nearly thirty minutes away, I worry that our family and others would take a hard look at whether they want to continue to build their lives in this state, which is devastating, and I really don't want to see happen. Thank you.

[Michael Gladys (second homeowner, Woodstock)]: Michael Gladys. I am a second home worker here in Woodstock, I'm appalled by the fact that I don't pay as much taxes as everyone else can afford the taxes. It's the right thing to do. Unlike most second homeowners, my wife and my daughter are house here with the intention of moving here with our three year old daughter by the time she reaches kindergarten age. And if you go through with this and move the schools out of this community that we felt elevated, it will probably affect our guidance moving forward as to whether or not you want to.

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: Good afternoon, I'm Anastasza, a Reading resident parent and also a member

[Unidentified community member]: of your school board. Thank you

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: all for being here, truly appreciate your time and attention to everything that you've received today. These have been items that have been spoken on and I think are worthwhile speaking to, to reiterate that our small rural communities, which are the bedrock of the state of Vermont, are really concerned about school closure. That's true for my town and also several of the other towns within the district, and part of that is talking about the financing, and sitting on the finance committee, I can't tell you how important it is to decouple the funding for capital improvements from our school budget, and so I think that you've seen our facilities, I'm guessing that you've seen the real concerns that we have, in the amount of band aids that we're putting on projects right now

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: that are not only going to cost our taxpayers,

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: but unless we decouple those two funds, they're going be the taxpayers are going be paying two to three times the amount of the actual band aids that are not going to rebuild our structure, but really just put band aids on a large issue. Thank you.

[Multiple youth speakers (various)]: Am a seventh grade student at the Stock Union Middle School, and I came here from Arizona and I saw how the school was being patched up with government helping and the school when everything was good and I think if we get this new school environment, I think we will have better grades and better happiness and people will be ready to learn more if they are able to have an environment where they can meet with each other, not having to be crammed into a small space and not and have large passing times and things like that. Small things add up. So thank

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: you. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Ben

[Ben Ford (former school board member)]: Ford, former school board member. I led the effort to get the middle school and high school building replaced a year and a

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: half ago.

[Ben Ford (former school board member)]: We needed 50% of the voters in our seven towns to vote yes, we got 45. For perspective, my brother in Northern Minnesota took four tries to get his girls a new school building over four years. It takes more than one try in many places and it will take more than one try here. We're trying again, but just to put as fine a point as we can on this decoupling issue. The only thing preventing this community from building a hub school in the model of Act 73 is that piece of legislation that so many senators and representatives were asleep when it got passed. Please undo it. Please get out of our way so that we can build a school in the model of Act 73. Thank you.

[Adam Amelin (former school board member)]: Adam Amelin, also former school board member. This was a plan that three of us

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: went back to back to back with

[Adam Amelin (former school board member)]: I school board got to sit with you earlier today, you got to listen to my daughter talk about her unique experience in going to Redding Elementary. I can't help but stand up here with pride that this is where my wife and I decided to move fifteen years ago. To see the process and the progress of education in this district and what we've created is amazing, right? We got to take part in this process of how do we bring together seven towns into one unified district and create a great curriculum with such success, right? What I worry about is when you then consolidate that with bigger and broader areas, where's that quality of education gonna go, right? What's gonna make us an appealing place for my wife and I, if we were fifteen years younger, that come to this state now, right? And I think those are the important questions of what brings people to a state? Quality education and job, right? If we can't have one, what's going happen to the other?

[Unidentified community member]: Good afternoon. I came here today on a listening brief to learn as much as I could about what's actually going on. And I suppose I'm faced with more questions than anything else. I I suppose the first one is that when you're faced with a major project you can approach it in many different ways, but you can do something well or sometimes you can do something fast And I'm trying to understand how this very short arbitrary timeline was put in place for such a massive undertaking that's going to have such a huge impact on communities across the whole state. The second thing that seems quite obvious to me from a lot of the statements that we've heard today is that one of the most problems here is the declining number of students in the area. And a number of members of our community have stood up and said and outlined the reasons they actually moved to Vermont with their families for the education system that's in place. And it's not just the education system, it's also the small communities, the rural environment. You act 73 from what I'm hearing is going to actually remove students from Vermont, disencourage families to move to the state, and potentially decimate small communities who can no longer sustain the likes of elementary schools and this seems very very counterintuitive to what we as a state actually want and how we can actually resolve this issue. And my last and final point is that we as a community are judged and should be judged in two massive ways. How we treat our children and how we treat our elderly and most vulnerable. From what I'm hearing today, our children are going to have much longer commute times than buses. I came in at the end of the students presenting their fears and concerns to you. Time on buses, lack of activity time, inequities depending on how parents can travel and what they're prepared to invest while they're trying to hold down jobs to pay these taxes. So again, I'm failing to see how act 73 is going to improve the outcomes, the quality of life, and educational benefits for children. Thank you.

[Dana Hale (resident, business owner/parent)]: Being here, no, not easy for anyone. I wanted to bring up a small fact, as we chat. Oh, my name is Dana Hale and I live in Woodstock. I own a business, my husband works at the hospital, two children here, and I'm on the board of the Unitarian Church. You all should come. It's my second reason for being up here. The funny thing about this area is that we are a half hour away from two of the best schools in New Hampshire. It's just a fact. So, we don't have decent schools here, we don't have convenient schools here, there will be massive attrition out of state. Whether that means moving or people just paying into the system, I fear that that will, there'll be a mass exodus in this area to Hanover and Lebanon. And that's not what Vermont wants. Thank you so much, Richard.

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: Hi,

[Janice Vogel (teacher and parent)]: I'm Janice Vogel. I am a teacher here, parent of two students. I have lived in the district for over fifteen years, and I think what I want to say is that this is, I was also on a school board during Act 46, and I saw the division that that created and how much turmoil that existed due to that and that's the part that scares me the most I had my son say mom it says that I'm gonna go to Randolph I can't go to Randolph, all my friends are here. So, know that the messaging is getting into our students. I have said nothing to him and he already has that idea in his head that he might have to leave his school. And that's very anxiety producing for kids who didn't grow up recently. And so, I think the thing that's really important for us to just keep in mind is that one of the major drivers of our education costs is our health care and that is not being addressed at all. When I got into education, I had a really amazing health care plan. I no longer take it because my husband's health care is better. And so I think we really need to take a deeper look at that because my taxes have gone up double since I have moved into Syria. Thank you.

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: Hi, my name is Rutz. I'm a ninth grader here. I went to school for not even three months and I love it here so much. The building might not be, like, the best building ever, but I have a lot of really good friends. I love all my teachers so much. I'm part of the theater group. That's our that's part of our staff right there. And I know if we redistricted or anything, I would lose one of my favorite teachers. I have best friends who are talking about their parents saying they would lose away to, like, really, really far away, and I'm not the best with long relationships. So I think especially for people who have been here for so long, like I said, I've only been here for a little while, and this will already mean so

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: much to me. Thank you.

[Unidentified assistant/moderator (various short interjections)]: I was just coming to listen but after listening to everybody here and knowing a number of people in this community, came here in 1988 on our way to Lincoln, New Hampshire with a job that fell through in 'eighty eight, six months later from Colorado, stayed in Killington, driving through Woodstock, looked all over the state, looked in New Hampshire, and I remember seeing the sign on Woodstock High School that said, awarded the achievement of excellence in the state. And that piqued my interest, our interest, my late husband's and my interest. We raised two daughters here and started at Woodstock Elementary, went to both daycares here, went to Waldorf School fifth grade to eighth grade, I brought it from seventh to eighth, chaired that board, very proud of that, went then on to Sharon Academy, the eldest, then the youngest, who is 32, now came to Woodstock. Had a wonderful career here, both daughters have done very well. After living in this community for thirty five years, we rented, excuse me, thirty two years renting. We were able to buy a home together, my daughters and I, on Churchill. We're very fortunate. I get to Airbnb, thank you for Airbnb, to help pay for things, but I see so many homes around me as the gentleman said and I applaud him for bringing up the fact that it would be very helpful if those second homeowners that are living in empty would help contribute to keeping this education going for these fine children, our community. So thank you for whatever you can do to help us keep this school here.

[Bryce Salmon (former board chair, parent)]: Bryce Salmon, former board chair and father of three students, now college, high school, and elementary schools. I just wanted to say something to kind of level set some things because I've heard comments made about second homeowners and businesses and economy around here.

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: You know, this area, I don't

[Bryce Salmon (former board chair, parent)]: know about last year, but as of about two years ago, it said about just under $60,000,000 education taxes to the state. And our budget's obviously not that big, part of Act sixty and sixty eight is for us to shed wealth, I'm actually fully supportive of that. But there's this perceived wealth that comes along with that, and if you will hear the name Woodstock along with some other towns in the state, I think that's very true, and I've heard it from legislative members over the years. I just want to point out that the percentage of our students that fall into the low income habitat based on how the state looks at those things is not abnormally low. You know, we have CBU, Mount Mansfield, Stowe and others that have much lower numbers than us, and we're actually equivalent to Essex, South Burlington, and Harwood, you know. So I just like to point out that I do think there's an issue in that perception when we have these needs that are coming up.

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: Well, my wife and I am very much a senior citizen. I moved here from New Jersey eighteen years ago. I was on the school board there for six years and went through a referendum twice to get our buildings improved there. Importantly, you should be aware that not only are people with children very much affected by this redistricting in our position here, but the taxes. I have three friends of varying degrees of wealth who have sold their homes or have them on the market currently because the taxes are killing them. It's not just the youth problem. It's not just the young mothers and fathers problem. It's everybody's problem. So we have to come up with a solution. Thank you.

[Dr. Claire Derbicko (local pediatrician and parent, former board member)]: Thank you so much for being here today. My name is Claire Derbicko. I'm a local pediatrician who's been providing care to the children of the Upper Valley, both in our district and beyond, for over twenty years. I'm also a parent of three students in our district who have graduated from our district, and I'm a former school board member as well who's been advocating for a new school in our district for over a decade. So I wanted to it's really just reiterating what other people have said. We are a really special community. We have amazing students, amazing faculty. They are working so hard every single day to provide an amazing education despite some of the barriers that our school building imposes on them. And when we're talking about the decoupling and the importance of that, when we're talking about these band aids, we're paying Doug going into the penalty phase for basic things like keeping the heat on in the school and preventing septic from backing up into the building. And I feel like my role in our community is also to advocate for children, and that's just not acceptable for us to have to pay more to make sure our children are warm at school and to make sure that their toilet's flush. So I just want us to reiterate, please focus on decoupling per pupil spend from capital expenditure, and I also want to reiterate that our community and our district really must stay intact, we're a gem, we're already doing so many things right, and can really be used as an example for the state on how other communities can create successful clubs, and funding the school education building fund can help us to retain students and also to grow. I think we're in a unique position where we have a building that met our students' and faculty's needs and met current standards for health, safety, and disability access, I think we're in a position where we want to attract many, many more families to our region as well, and that's exactly what Vermont needs. Thank you so much.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: So thank you for having us. I enjoyed spending a lot of time talking with your principal and your superintendent setting today up. We thought it through pretty carefully to make sure that the committee got a real sense of the school, both the facilities, and most even more importantly, what you're actually doing here, the unified curriculum between the elementary school and the middle and the high school, the fact your test scores are rising, and we heard very clearly from kids and faculty about what a connected community this school provides. The kids talked about, they're the ones who use the language of no, none of their friends being left behind, everybody being paid attention to. So I'm just giving you a couple, a handful of the takeaways that we clearly got here and of course the connection to the community. We heard that here this afternoon, we had heard it over the course of the day. By the way, we went to class as well, I forgot to mention that, that was fun. And so what we're really doing with these doors, as I said at the very beginning of the day, we tried during the last session to get out and visit schools and gave up. As I mentioned this morning, we didn't even have time to get to the Montpelier High School, which we could see out the window, because that's what happens once the session starts. So we're using this time to take a step back, visit five districts, hear from the kids, from the teachers, hear from the principals, hear from the community, and get a sense of the difference in the environments, we tried to put together a school, mini school tour of five, from which we would get something different in each school, although there's obviously unified themes about the connection to community and caring about kids. So I just want to say that the committee, I think it's fair to say we've all, and Senator Weeks had to leave for a medical appointment, we had scheduled before this got scheduled, we all really deeply enjoyed today. We deeply enjoyed interacting with everybody at the school and with this community. We hear you we're, so on the one hand we have a funding formula that is not sustainable. Period. It's not sustainable. So we have to figure out a funding formula that actually is sustainable and provides for the needs of Vermont students. And this committee is trying, by the way, and we heard this from you, but I'll tell you, this committee is very focused on the notion of providing, of our obligation to provide excellent educational opportunity for every Vermont child. That's the mantra. And I think when Senator Williams said one size does not fit all, think it's fair to say we all believe that as well. And so that's why we go to different communities and hearing from different parts of the state and different sets of parents and community members. So was very, the same was highly informative. Your kids are great by the way, they were a lot of fun. We heard from kids as young as first grade. Yeah, first grade, so first grade and then a couple more from fourth grade and then some middle schoolers and then some high school kids and of course they were all great and it was a lot of fun. So any committee members want to add anything before we wrap up? So I'll just say from me and from all of us, thank you so much.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: Thank you again, echo how wonderful your school system is down here. One thing I did want to clarify what the task force original goal was to give us three maps with different districting. They were not supposed to talk about consolidation. They were not supposed to do anything except give three new possible districts and once that happened then we get with the communities and start talking if a school needs to be closed. I heard a lot of concern today about your school. Your school I believe has got to be one of the safest schools out there because of how well you're doing. There's I sure is what might have happened that if you've got outstanding students, the graphs are showing you how well your literacy students here is above average for even the state as well as the country. It's like that would be crazy to take a school system like this and say oh we need to take and ship them somewhere else. If anything, I want to bring more kids to you. This

[Multiple public commenters (various)]: autonomous approach, and I

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: hope my fellow senators and representatives will look at that way, We will look at each other every school. Up my way there's three high schools that are within ten minutes of each other. We probably could consolidate up there and not affect much of we already joined our football team because we don't have enough players among either school. So that's common sense. The community has to get better. Nobody wants their children to have to be the community to join. But for you as Vermonters and these Vermonters to afford living here, we do have to look at changes and they're not always going to be simple but when you're running your school as well as you are your superintendent's amazing. I said I want to thank Luzerne College for the rest of Vermont.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: But that's just what I

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Member, Addison County District)]: want to say. And another about healthcare, it would help if we had a lot more younger people in Vermont. Over 55 and older, there's more of us than theirs than them and that's what's affecting the healthcare cost. Thank you for your time.

[Sen. Terry Williams (Clerk, Rutland District)]: So thank you for hosting us today and I want to say what I've seen here today is you got all the ingredients to bake a perfect cake and what we got to do statewide as a committee we we set a policy for education unfortunately none of us are on a budget committee so we don't get to say where any money goes but we have enough smart people in this state that we ought to be able to sit down collectively to put together a world class education system and that will bring people into the state of the market.

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Member, Windham County)]: Echo what a lot of my colleagues just said. I also wanted to add, please don't hesitate to reach out to us while we're in session. So the session starts in January. We, I mean, my inbox is constantly, you know, new email after one another and which is great. And please keep sending them because we make a concerted effort to read every message that we get. We may not always respond that same day, maybe the day after, but you know, it's even when it's outside of my district, getting information from somebody with a teaching background or administered to staff or anybody who is involved in any way in their community or their school, providing a perspective about how legislation will impact their community. We read that and we keep it in our minds. So please keep reaching out, especially once the session starts in January.

[Sen. Seth Bongartz (Chair, Bennington Senate District)]: Just once again, thank you for having us. And by the way, we all talk to Charlie and Allison all the time. Thanks. Bye.