Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Committee staff/AV technician (unknown)]: We're live.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Okay. We're live. This is the Senate Education Committee on the afternoon of April 9. We are among other things today, deepening our work on our budget letter. And we have wanted to get some I guess the full range of testimony on the Higher Education Trust Fund proposal and I think everybody knows that we it has well actually you know what I actually want you to just a couple of drops. But maybe yeah Tom I'm not sure if I did this or not. Oops. History while you're at it. Don't if one was created. It's initial.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: You, Doug. For the record, it's Tom Little from Vermont Student Assistance Corporation. Purpose of the testimony committee is working on. The Higher Education Endowment Trust Fund was established in 1999, and it's been amended a number of times. Some of those amendments relate to a governance committee, sometimes called something else, when one of the fundamental parts of the endowment fund is that it distributes a fixed percentage of its fund balance every year, but it could never distribute it, take it below the the total amount of contributions that were put into the fund. So we can't go underwater. So there have been years when nothing was distributed and other years when less than 5% was distributed. And that was intended to make it sustainable and grow over time at years where it generates more than 5% of three recipients from because they receive a month Vermont State College system get 5%. There's also a supplemental distribution that can happen if, again, it doesn't take it below that cumulative amount of principal to UVM at the colleges, but not to be exact, provided they do a two or three to one match of that from funds they have raised. That's, again, for more more scholarship. Consistent theme is this is for grants and scholarships for students with financial need. So that, and and back to the governance piece, when the state treasurer does their report, usually in every year after they've seen what the June 30 numbers look like. They the treasurer's office does a calculation and sees what's available, if anything, And but presents that to a sometimes it was called council stakeholders, included the state, member of the house, a member of the senate, the institutions involved, and I think there was also somebody from the the democracy. Business roundtable. Yeah. And they sort of said, yes, we agree with you, the treasurer, that's that that's we agree with the numbers, and it's it's that's sufficient earnings to make the distributions. And in some years, if the treasurer said, you know, I don't think it's a good year to do that, they sort of reached a consensus that it's probably a good idea. That governance entity used to be the originally, the Council on Higher Education Funding, called the CHEF. And I can if you're interested, can tell you about the origins of that. That morphed into what became the pre k through 16 council, which had other, statutory responsibilities, but it was also this little body that met basically once a year when the treasurer issued treasurer's report. You have a copy of the most recent report of the treasurer to that council. The reason for the number of amendments to the statute to 16 BSA in 2885 is that that part of it has been that's we was the fundamentals of the the 5% distribution to those three institutions and then supplemental to two of them, if they match it, has been pretty much unchanged. This came out of a period when there had been a lot of, from the legislature's perspective, a lot of very competitive advocacy for appropriations by the institutions. And I think it would be if if we're reading some of the legislators and and, like, administration Let's see. And they've created the council on high recommendation funding, Hishap, as a way to create some structure to help alleviate that problem, address it, and achieve some collaborative a collaborative culture. The secretary of administration worked on it, the chairs of the two appropriations committees, the presidents of all the institutions were were on it. And you said you can't send a destiny, so it's gotta be here. And that works quite well to calm things down and get people to work more collaboratively. And out of that, that period changed the higher education trust fund, which was say, let's since you have you have such a hard time, so difficult to get appropriations with when times are tough. If you create this permanent trust fund that can distribute money in most years, that'll be it's sending a signal that we that's a better way of doing business. So that's been the way it's gone. There's in the treasurer's report from last October, there's a chart that, among others, you're more than sure, tells you which years there were distributions and which years there weren't. And last year, I think as as we know, there was a unusually large one, but in the three prior years, there wasn't any very, very small distribution.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: And the treasurer's report's got a

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: lot of of useful information. Some of it relates to how the treasurer manages the investing of the fund and measures its own performance and the performance of where he's doing the investing. It also includes contributions from the institutions about what they're doing with their share of the funds, the number of awards, the number of students, where the money is going, the types of programs it's being used in, demographic percentages, things like that. It's a good newsy, helpful report. And I should also add that there have been two or three years that I can recall where one way or another, the general assembly, perhaps with the assistance of treasurer's office, or the more likely the apartment of taxes, got wind of a impending large estate tax payment coming in. And, the appropriations committee used outstanding language and those revenues did not go into the fund in those years. So the the fund would have been larger probably by 15,000,020 million dollars if that had not happened. But that was an effective mechanism in the appropriations process in those years to figure out where to spend the money, the priorities. That's. So that's some of the history. In the in the in the ensuing years, I think the the institutions have worked fairly well most of the time to help boost appropriations to all three of them. They've been doing a lot of collaboration in other ways. BSAC and the university, for example, through its AHEC program. We collaborate on that. As you know, there have been a small flurry of forgivable loan programs targeted to specific professions and trades over the last half dozen years. That involves collaboration among the institutions. The money that flows out of the endowment trust fund to the Vermont State College system. A portion of that historically has gone to the community college of Vermont. One of those pro in one of those programs, VSAC and CCB, there's a matching thing going on that kind of combines in a dynamic way that money and that, if you give me my reference to a recent email, the in f y twenty five, the state college system spent a $160,000 as a match to VSAC awards for students attending CCB and Vermont State University. The rest of the state college system money went to supposed to look in some way. I don't have that detail between State University supporting last dollar tuition needs for nursing students and to CCV or cohorts of of certain cohorts of students. So all of that has led led me and led to to caution that that any change to that structure, to that flow of the distributions of that should be done very carefully and cautiously after taking good testimony from all of the stakeholders. I add that that the proposal from foundation on earlier in the week would reduce the dollars going to the and to the University of Vermont, and maybe not in a huge immaterial way, but the fact of the matter is the the the size of the sort of unanticipated infusion last year into the fund caught everybody's attention as if you would expect that it would. And people started thinking, what could we do with that? And I don't think this has never been a high profile program, and people are learning more about it, which which is a healthy thing for them to learn. Our current view is that the fund works well. It's served Vermonters and Vermont students well, and we should let it continue to do that in the way it's done that. And be careful about making changes to it. I we all know that there's another proposal that's sort of floating out there that hasn't been brought to this community yet that would also have a fairly maybe it's our arguments fairly radical proposal. But it's it's a I mean, it's for higher education purposes overall, but it's not for the students. And PSAC's mission and theme and all of that is for students to give them as much any choices they have to excite where they want to take their education and their training and to fund them and support them in collaboration with the other institutions. And we're also collaborating, you know, with the the independent colleges in Vermont in many of the same same ways. So chair, I'll stop there. I I I mean, one more thing. I we Kesha did make a presentation to you all in the January about sort of our annual update to the the committee, which included the budget ask. That's essentially the same proposal that we made later in the sessions with the Appropriations Committee with one change. There was, I think it's the nurse forgive forgivable long program is now proposed to be funded from the Rural Health Transformation Program workforce. And in our our slides, I've we kept I kept it brief. The thing that we're maybe the most significant ask that PSAC has this year, in addition to its its 3% base increase, is an increase, an $800,000 increase to the Vermont Freedom and Community Scholarship, which is designed to currently, we are able to provide free tuition to students enrolled in the Vermont State College system outside of CCB for household students with from households with incomes up to a certain level. And if we get to we get the ask that we're requesting, we could take that to $80,000 household income. Currently, CCV percentage is a $100,100,000 dollars. So anyone any Vermont student going to CCV from a household with up to a $100,000 gets free tuition now. Plus, those students are also eligible for other aid from BSAC and and other. I'll stop there and be happy to take questions.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: And if there's some things that I can't answer, we'll get you the answers. So this is to for individual students, not necessarily for post secondary. Yeah. There

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: are other, I think we provide statute gives us some already for grants for medical students and used to be vet veterinary students who could go to University of May. I don't if they still have a vet school. They did have a collaboration with them.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Which one is on the funds right now?

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: Roughly 60 some million. K. It's in the treasurer's report. It's less than it was well, I

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: was gonna say less than

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: it was two months ago, but lord knows where it is today. Just for example, the treasurer's report from this past year said the total principal contributions through last June was $59,800,000. The fund balance then was 65,000,007. So there's a $55,800,000 spread here that could be used under the statute for the either the 5% or the five plus 2%.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Yeah, and so it's 5% the, up to 5% of the total.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: That's the one balance as long as it doesn't get the deposits. Correct. The decision was made, oftentimes endowments or trusts were written to say the income only goes to the purpose, goes to the beneficiaries, and over the years people learned that it was not easy always to say, do you mean by income? Is that interest? Is it dividends? Is it appreciation? If capital gain and the attendance now to go to just a percent, that's usually set at a point less than they hope to make every year in terms of growth, but still significant to help the beneficiaries so that the fund over time for all us, that's how endowments get healthier.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: In this case though, okay, it's against up to 5% as long as

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: it doesn't have any quotes. For the base distribution to UVM, the Vermont State Colleges, and VSEC, and then there is this 2% supplemental that has to be matched by those institutions. If it doesn't break it down below that principle amount, I think that gets to you, you know, over to you as well. So one of

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: the so this this becomes a policy discussion for the committee about that So the question I want everybody who comes up to, which if if we the the question is what what of our two choices? If there's something you you wonder if it's two choices and adding the fourth or keeping it to three, which will serve the growth students most in need?

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: I'm not sure if there's a metric for that. I think each of the institutions has its different methodology and practices to achieve those goals. Because they all think, believe, think they are doing that now. And and if you had to line up the student recipients of the awards and measure their financial needs. I think maybe that could be done, but you'd be you wanna talk to somebody other than than me about about that. There's always need for more assistance, the there's some Scott Giles came in and talked to you earlier in the year. There's changes in the federal student loan program now that are causing a lot of disruption in that end of financial aid, and that's more so for graduate students, but also for undergraduates. The parent loan program being squeezed pretty hard by the by the current government.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Yeah. That question's way too complicated. The answer to the way too complicated, I I well, it's very complicated. Yes. So why

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: don't you really wanna see somebody else getting a piece of the pie? Because it opens, as I see it, it opens up more opportunities to individuals that might not realize they coulda had that chance because they're so used to dealing, or they're more comfortable with one outlet over the other. So I Okay. That's a fair question.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: I think that right now, it's the Vermont State College system leadership and board that decides how much of that one third share goes to CCB students and by that they're and I that they have their process and and priorities and goals. So they are doing that and making some judgments about that. It's a limited pot, so if some of it shifts that way, less is going to financially needy students at UVM and less is going to the BSAC pool of students who might be going elsewhere to college. Well, I think, I mean, that's it's it's not zero. It's it there's a limited amount of money, senator, and I I think we just want the committee to be thorough about analyzing this because this we don't like we'd like this to become a slippery slope and have other people coming in and asking to do the same thing. I don't know, Austrian, how much a solid amount of this Robonte College system. Third is going to CCB's. I think that's they they they know, and they can testify on that.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: And I thought that's couldn't quite set two things. Just make sure the city understands this. This gets funded through sort of a it the state tax the state comes in and it's over a certain amount.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: The statute says that it looks to the census state revenue estimate that the emergency board approves every six months, and that includes a a consensus estimate for the revenue from the Vermont State tax. And it says that if that actual revenue comes in at more than a 125% of the That's what it is. More than a 125%, then the overage goes into this endowment. So as you saw from the chart, in some years, there is no money, and it's a it's a it's a caution that we want to benefit the recipients. The three institutions have to be mindful not using that in a way that might not work very well for students if if there's two two years in a row, for example, where none of it's coming. So they have the that's the balance. I'm sure that the the treasurer or the deputy secretary come in and tell you more about how they how they invest the money so that they achieve enough to get over over five percent on an ongoing basis and what that risk is are. And it's like a lot a lot of long term investment accounts, whether it's your retirement accounts or an endowment for scholarships. If you're playing a long game and you want investments that are gonna perform well over 30 and not just things that are once our look able to be liquidated this year.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: And just you touched on this just to make sure that you're making hats that sit there ahead of this the 65,000,000 whatever that's in there at this point is the plot from which I I think the combination of government at the end is seeking to get the $50,000,000.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: $15,000,000 Correct. For the yeah. It's in facility. Okay.

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: Don't think so. Yes. Yeah. I'm sorry. I got a question. Question probably for the chair. I might be missing a connection here, but we haven't heard of CCV themselves, right? We've heard from the clerk, not they? Right. Need to change.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: CCP is part of we have we're trying to get broken. We're gonna be able get a message before Friday. But CCP is part of the state college system, so the way

[Senator Steven Heffernan (Member)]: I can put the state college So what so what do we propose in there

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: that change the language? We're, this, okay, this is why we're here. The language that's been proposed by the Guru Foundation is gonna come up next and we're gonna a rating bill. It's two of these. Group from three recipients, four, which would the fourth now would be the CCB and which is on one level tenancy part of the Mont Saint Charles because there's a but I won't get into that.

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: No. I so that's that's I just wasn't sure if we had heard of TCV or not. No. In

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: a way, effectively through the. Force application.

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: So what is the connection between the McLaren Foundation and TCV? That's

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: Well, I Thank you. One comment, my former as a legislator draft is that the the statutory amendment that the Blue Foundation would would is do a portion of section twenty eight eighty five. There are other places in 2885 that would need to be amended to have that inflow through the way, I think, would be dependent. I also think, chair and members, the information here from the Vermont psychologist from its perspective, which I think at the time since this is different perspective.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: We're working on that. Yeah. So

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: and I'm a you know how to find me if you don't want to hear if there's one. Yeah.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Well, thank you. That was that was very helpful.

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: Glad you're in.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Tom, are gonna stick around? I am. Let's go. So for the record.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: For the record, Rebecca Kovans, North Flair Foundation. You, I could answer directly that or- little bit of

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: a reset, because I will admit that when we first heard the testimony from you, I wasn't very flexible. I said the potential to complex to give the request and and and got clarified for being anybody. And so, I want you to step back, reply to this why you're making this about the basis, what the rationale is, why speaking makes sense, etcetera. And you can work that into Senator Hinshuk's question before or after. Okay.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: So I appreciate being invited back. And what we're asking is essentially that the higher transplant statute reflect by name the places that spermatores go at scale for to seek postsecondary education. The reason this is timely is because of the institutional consolidation that Vermont State College is. So now it's just two institutions. It's Vermont State University and where it used to be five institutions. And this is also really relevant to the places to the conversations that Dustin Ware, how would we be career training more available to Vermonters? I just want to reiterate briefly our position and then we can ask any questions here. So we've been advocating for this modernization statute for a long time because it's really tied to where Vermonters are going for their career training and post secondary education. To share some really high level numbers, 2024 as it relates to the incoming class, the undergraduate degree seeking students, Vermont State University serves approximately double the number of Vermonters that need the office. At which is our state faculty institution, they serve the greatest number of low end care Vermonters and over 14,000 enrollmenters enrolled in the GED class in 2025. I just wanted to sit with that for a second because that is a profound number for our workforce training and education. Simply put, by any measure and by a significant majority, Vermonters are being served at CCV and VTSU. Career connected post secondary education, particularly at our public institutions, drives economic mobility. And that is at the crux of where the Muckler Foundation really focuses our work. How do we promote career and active learning so more Vermonters can reach those most promising jobs. And it's good for Vermont. It's good for Vermonters. It's really good for everyone. So the problem statement is really clear. Too few Vermonters are pursuing the post secondary credentials needed to access these promising jobs and sustain Vermont economy. A clear public policy strategy is what is needed to change that condition, is why we believe the statute should be modernized to reflect CCV and BTSU by name. Is that where students are going? The Higher Trust Fund is just one piece of that puzzle, but something we can point to right now today in the in the complexity of all of the conversations happening. This one place we can improve our public policy to make a difference for promoters. I just want to remind you of what Tom said, I just want to thank oh, she's over here now. Thank him for his incredible history and partnership. VSAC is a big partner of the McLaren Foundation and the Vermont Community Foundation. But we believe deeply in the messaging effects of of it's available to everyone. So when you put a number on a, you know, a $100,000 household income, it creates barrier, either told or untold, and it really it lessens the avail the availability for people to say, yes. That's for me. I can I can see myself going? As as Scott Giles said, people need to see like, they need to know the careers that are available to them, and they need to hear about those careers, and they need to be able to see where their pathway is to get to them. So if they can see it, then they can be it. And it's something that I quote Scott a lot. And I appreciate his clarity on that. So we appreciate your willingness to consider this change. We believe that the legislature is the is the proper place for this competition to be had because, ultimately, you were sent here for your constituents, you should be making this decision. And we're talking about really relatively small dollars. State productions say that's about $250,000 next year that will be diverted from

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: the effective

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: beneficiaries. Vermont, just as a reminder, Vermont has the lowest post secondary continuation rates in New England, and we just need to

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: think about

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: how to change that, and this is one piece of that puzzle.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: So now

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: That's that's helpful. That I was just trying to make the connection in my head there, and it it makes more sense now. And okay. So the other piece I I don't I don't have the language of the statute from me. I just have the the the treasurer's office last year and the language that is being proposed by the foundation. And and just to be clear, I I do support what you're advocating for, but I also wanna make sure I'm understanding that the change is also beyond just, the messaging aspect of it. I think I'm I'm seeing here. It's an amount equal to 5% of the assets distributed equally among the new entities. If the treasurer's memo is accurate now, assuming that it is, the language currently is to distribute up to 5% above of board moving average equally. So that would impact the funds that are going out. Right?

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Well, the the the percentage would remain the same. Yeah. It just would be divided instead of by three, it would be divided by four. So it would be instead of VSAC, UVM, and Vermont State Colleges, it would be VSAC, UVM, CCV, and the Vermont State Colleges. So it'd still be the same amount of money coming out of the fund as it is the five percent distribution, but it would be a slightly different number to TCV and slightly different number to BTSU.

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: Well, I'm I'm I'm referring to the the up to five. So in theory, the treasurer could say, I'm only going to distribute 4% or 3%, and then that would get distributed equally. Whereas the language being proposed is that the treasurer shall withdraw 5%. Right?

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: No. I mean and I'm

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: just apologizing. I'm not a lawyer.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Sorry. You you probably I'm just than than I do on on

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: I promise. It's not a trick question. I'm just trying to All

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: I wanna do is change the the names of who is who is getting the description. The census,

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: nothing changes on that score. Well, then one thing to change is just 4% is not great. Exactly.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: So,

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: yeah, Another question. So, make the case, but we really want to understand this part of the immigrant. So, on one level, I'm sitting here thinking, they're all going to Vermont students. So, everything you're saying is also true of the other because they're all going to Vermont students. CCG is part of the state college system. So in a way you're saying another way to look at it is you're asking for half the money, let's say colleges and policy decision for the committee. And your argument for that is that as compared to the Sac or UVM, what?

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Well, when we look at the undergraduate students going to UVM and the independent colleges, They it is far fewer than the than the the Vermonters that are going to VTSU or CTBM. CTB serves a an inordinate number of Vermonters. And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna try to to say who where the money went, you know, in in past years. But if we're trying to make those barriers less for for our access institutions, for people stepping in and stepping into one class and saying, I I can maybe see myself as college going. I think that's the real difference. And if we can if we can lower the barriers to someone saying, okay. I'll try it. Particularly, we don't put, when there's fewer financial barriers in place, that's a real barrier. And so if there's more money in the pot for CCB and VTSU, then there's more students that can say, sure, I'll try it.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: It's less money by percentage going to a larger number of students in this arena than the other two. Say that again. Less money, less money distributed over, or the same amount of money distributed over a lot more students than there are with the other, than that's the other program. And one of the other, just to go back to something that Tom said maybe want you both to chime in on this, is that you alluded to was that when this was put together, the other purpose was to bring those three groups of people together kind of as equals talking to each other involved in making education more available for waters and does that does that does that construct on that level change by adding a board?

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: I don't know. I think I mean, I guess I picked the commission here from the Vermont State Colleges to find out how they decide how much of that. They could allocate their third alt CCV if they wanted to, and I maybe looking at a cohort of students at at the Castleton and the other campuses that are very high need, and they want to allocate some to those students. I don't know. One point, to senator Hashim's comment, I think, senator, you found a weak spot in the drafting of the current language of the current statute because in the next and this and two sentences later, it uses the up to 5%. And but in the third time that that appears, it says equal to 5%. And it's always it's always been administered and followed as not more than or up to, and that would be a good thing to clean up at some point. That's certainly how everyone has has taken it to me is not more than or up to. Thank you, Heather.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Or if we can get them gonna get a little more try to get the state colleges in.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Well, I mean, think I think Tom brings up a really good point. I if there is someone of high need, are obviously, there's people of high need in the state college system across the system. That's why I feel like there's there should be more money dedicated in non loan student aid and dedicated to the places that those low income, high volume of students go.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: True.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: The but those are there are there are students at UVM that get that profile as well. And from the the VSAC perspective, the VSAC grant money is generally what we call affordable. So we we fund a lot of students in Windham County, for example, who go to King State for their education, and they can take the BSAC branch there and supplement it with whatever they get from King State and other other need based sources. And so the the VSAC mission has always been to give the choice much choice and and, support to students to choose where they want to go. That this has been a a theme that goes all the way back to the Hoff administration to, have a at least part of the state higher education budget be directed to students and empower them to make those those kind of things. Okay. I think we have.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: You. Thank you.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Thanks. Appreciate it.

[Tom Little (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation)]: Chairman, do you know when you might be hearing from the other witnesses yet? I think

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: we had a way of getting them. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. We have a bath there. They park it tomorrow. Could I hope the one who what they said about this. I can check on something. Yeah. She's checking. We're yeah. Trying to get them to just Keep an eye on the calendar. Yeah. Thanks. It was hopefully we can get something here. July. Yeah. Thank you. Have a good day. So, okay, shifting back to nine thirty one, which is the act of the Missile Exchange of Education Law, Boston. I was so if you recall, one of the pieces that this is why Tim Bulligan has been waiting there. One of the pieces in the bill relates to the time that the start clock starts ticking. One could have a class size. Do you remember that? Oh, I'm looking at $50,000,000 Do remember that discussion? That we have because what happened is we remember this number that the state board contacted us. Remember when they gave testimony here? They said it's not really clear when the clock starts ticking on the three year rolling average for minimum class sizes. And they said we could clear date or clear time. We need clarification. And what the House did was effectively say that either would have all contingencies are met with the foundation for the board July 1 this coming year, whichever comes first, I think, let's just say, effectively July 1, that's when the department would start ticking for figuring out the first time that you would look back and say you typically meet minimum class size therefore would be 07/01/2030 because that would be the first time you had the three year received data.

[Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale (Member)]: What I'm trying to remember post conference committee is the last thing I remember is it was still a pretty soft

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: minimum where

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: That that's all still there. That's all still there. All just when the clock starts ticking over, whatever it is that it does.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Mhmm.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Yes. Don't we have data now? Why is this so It was I think it was we had we have data, but we don't have a story.

[Senator Steven Heffernan (Member)]: Right. So so why can't we use the last three years of data? But why is that the future three years of data? Is it gonna be a mad scramble and all

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: of a sudden the classes are off shuffle? I don't know. But all I know is that the state board said give us clarity because I guess that's not

[Senator Steven Heffernan (Member)]: a clear idea. It's kind of like getting people agitated to Yeah. You know, support like one prospective person. Right. So

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: I was only explaining Right. Kind of what they what they what they asked and what the house did. Right. So what the house did was choose effectively, let's just say 07/01/2017. Then it's not of it is also to give a little People people go on through a lot of change with everything we're doing. Right. So also if you're not to put a behavior pressure on that, think And that's part of that's actually, and so I have a little bit of testimony today and tomorrow because in a conversation with somebody from the law school community alliance, came up that, well, don't want it stealing your testimony, Tim, but there's a lot of, among other things, a lot of angst around this whole Sure. And so the question I think for the committee is, and I don't have, I don't know what it is, but when do we actually think the clock should start ticking?

[Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale (Member)]: Right.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: And so there's all kinds of There's the looking backwards, there's the what the state what the house did or what we want to do. And so I just wanted to get some testimony.

[Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale (Member)]: Can I just add another wrinkle, which is we're talking about the the three year rolling average for student count and how that might affect I you know, in some ways, I'm not sure, like, whether they're small by necessity or not, which does affect their funding, and I say that because the three year rolling average has been a problem in the CTE world, you know, because they might they are kind of paid based on that? So they if they get an influx of students, it doesn't allow them to lower the cost for their district. Right? So if Addison could work something out to get more students from Rutland, they still can't, like, lower the property tax rate for Addison residents because of the three year average.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Yeah, okay.

[Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale (Member)]: I'm just saying like, it's, there's a lot that this three year average can decide beyond like, oh, we just think you're a smaller guy.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: I think maybe Senator makes the answer. Looking back and thinking about last year, might have just been in hard time to adjust if you know the need to adjust this company. That might have been part of this effort. But anyway, just wanted to give the floor to Ed. So, Kim, introduce yourself for the record and who you are and why you're here.

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: Yeah, so thank you so much for hearing me today. I appreciate it. So I'm Tim Mulligan, I'm the principal of the Newark Street School. We are a small K-eight school. I can clarify that. I've been saying K-eight for the nine years, eight years that I've been up here and we are our first through eighth school this year. I'll get into talking a little bit about that and where we landed there in the Northeast Kingdom. So we're part of Kingdom East School District. We've got seven schools across a pretty big geographic area, and we have some pretty unique, things going on here. I know that, our superintendent, John McMahon, has done some toast testimony, with you and other committees. And so probably somewhat familiar with with Kingdom East and and some of the challenges that we face within our district and the and the things we've been doing and are hoping to continue to do as we progress forward. So yeah, so I've been at Newark since July 2017 and I am with you today to formally request a delay in the implementation of the Act 73 class size policy. I would like to see more time. And while we understand the legislative intent behind these standards, the current timeline threatens to undermine the success that small rural community has worked tirelessly to which point. Our school, has been a model. We we we wanna be a model for how we educate sustainably. And even being small and rural, we have done that. And we've evolved over time, and we are gonna continue to evolve. So the Newark Street School serves as a powerful example of how a community can successfully navigate the complexities of a modern education. While our school was identified by the state a decade ago as an institution in need of improvement, We have spent the last several years proving that excellence is achievable through focused growth and adaptability. For the past three consecutive years, we have demonstrated significant academic progress with students consistently scoring above state averages and maintaining high performance and high growth in reading and math district assessments. We recognize that there is no single right way to deliver high quality education. I think that's very important. I am an open minded person, and we are in our community. While we are proud of our success with just 53 students here now in ranging from first through eighth grade in multi grade configurations, we also understand that creating schools with more students per grade level opens up new exciting opportunities for students, teachers, and school communities. We are we are not opposed to change, and recognize that, with with changes and growth and progress, we can get we can produce even greater outcomes from our for our students. So that said, is difficult for our community to reconcile a rushed reconfiguration when our school is currently thriving and physically sound. Following the act forty six merger, we purposely utilized capital funds to renovate our facility, ensuring that we have a high quality operationally efficient environment that can serve as a stable foundation for whatever future configurations best serve the district. So the Newark Street School is pretty unique that it is a small school here up in the Northeast Kingdom that actually from a facilities standpoint doesn't have issues. We are an efficient building with upgrades to all of our mechanical systems and we operate a pretty physically sound place. We have a track record of fiscal and operational responsibility. The Newark community and greater Kingdom East School District community has a long history of fiscal responsibility. We are not a community that avoids difficult decisions. Rather, we lean into them when they serve long term interests of our students. We recognize that Newark currently has very few young families. That is an undeniable fact. I've shared this at our town meeting. Our community knows this. We see that there is change coming. We don't have a kindergarten this year because we had no incoming kindergarten students. We are likely gonna be closing also our k and our first grade next year, because we only have two incoming, kindergarten students. So we realized, and and with that became came a reduction in staff too, we're operation again, fiscally responsible with the decisions that we are, that we have moving forward. So, yeah, we are we have already taken proactive responsible steps to optimize our resources. Last year, the district chose not to open up a kindergarten, like I said. Next year, we're not gonna have the k one, and those students will attend another Kingdom East School District, school of choice. These decisions are made with social, economic, and environmental sustainability in mind as these responsibilities are embedded into our core values. We are already doing the act the work that act 73 seeks to encourage, but we are doing it through a lens of local expertise and community care. Last night, I didn't include this in my letter here that in my written testimony, last night we hosted a community forum, an engagement night at the Newark Street School that combined also the Sutton School community, which is adjacent to ours and also a part of community because we are considering a reconfiguration of students across our two communities for next year in which we would have a k to five at Sutton and a six through eight at Newark, to help maximize the use of our resources. So, we've been engaging our community in this work over the past few weeks. We've been doing a lot of work with our district admin team over the course of, I would say, not just this year, but over the past several years because we are continuing to think about how we can, really I I know I kinda wanna take class size all out of this. It's impactful in in our decisions and what we're doing. And the decisions, and this is what we're sharing with our community, these decisions are rooted in what is best for our students. We want to produce the greatest outcomes that we can for all of our kids. That's why when I go the decisions that we're making somewhere earlier, had mentioned that I am not opposed to reconfiguring and changing and progressing forward and doing some different things across our schools to produce greater outcomes for our students. We recognize the work that needs to be done, but time is super important. So effective lasting change can't be rushed. When a policy as significant as Act 73 is pressured by timeline, especially when it's around class size minimums in small communities with declining enrollment, and we're thinking about all of the facility needs that we have in our buildings and what that means to move students, when we start checking the boxes of time and trying to act swiftly, and then decisions can become hasty, and hasty decisions can lead to unforeseen consequences that can dismantle the progress that we've been making in our school and in our district. So I'm advocating for time, specifically for local collaboration, allowing the town district and local stakeholders to collaborate on a vision that fits our unique geography, which we are already engaged in doing here in Kingdom East and in Newark and Sutton. Also, impact analysis, fully exploring the options for reconfiguration and understanding long term effects on student well-being. And then resource alignment, state level resources, particularly construction aid, have to be fully considered in this. If legislation proposes that student populations are being relocated or schools reconfigured, the financial infrastructure must be in place to support those transitions safely and equitably. So know, some of the things that are coming up in our town meetings that we've been having are about like, hey, you know, we could just have Newark students be absorbed by the Sutton School. Well, the Sutton School facility has a lot of challenges to it and the Newark Street School facility is the greatest facility that we have in terms of what building looked like in terms of upgrades and the guts of the of the building itself. And so, you know, those are those are challenges. Right? As as we're moving forward, we really wanna think through them so that we're not making a bunch of decisions and moving students around all over the place over the course of years and that they have long term impact success. Right? So the Newark Street School is a is a success story. We are a high performing, fiscally responsible, and renovated facility that serves as the heart of our rural community. And we ask that you grant us the time necessary to continue our transition thoughtfully rather than forcing a timeline that risks the quality of education that our students have earned. And I appreciate the time that you guys are giving me today and I'm certainly open to any questions that you might have of me.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Go ahead, John.

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: Was just checking where you are on the mat. Are in So control of is there an option, if you do get smaller, to go to a different school? But yours is in the best shape, correct?

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: Yeah.

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: They couldn't take, you take more students?

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: So we could take, we actually, coming out of COVID, so we operate with school choice across our district. And right now, about fifty percent, slightly more than fifty percent of our students are actually school choice students from other towns within our district. And we also have several students from any K choice. There are a lot of East Haven students that attend the Newark Street School as well, so we are serving their population as well. So, know, can we be absorbed other places? It would be a challenge without configuring other facilities to absorb another 50 students right like so Sutton couldn't do that, Burke couldn't do that, those are the two closest schools to us, Linden might but we're now we're growing to a pretty significant geographic area. I also drive the bus for my school and right now I'm the only bus driver and my bus route takes more than an hour to do and that's just through Newark, right? We're talking about fifteen to twenty minutes between stops at times to pick up kids. And so now if we're also transporting students another twenty to thirty minutes away, that's certainly a challenge.

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: That led to the next question is the ones that are using School Choice to come to you, the parents usually drop them off?

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: Yep. They would be driving. Yeah.

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: Okay. How roughly how many do that?

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: We have we have 53 students in the school right now. And like I said, about 50% of them are school choice.

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: Okay. Great.

[Senator Steven Heffernan (Member)]: Thank you. So, we can see this. Yeah. Thanks, sir. So, the question, the question which I'm hearing is about the question of implementation within three years of data and and what what what I'm advocating is is that we know what the data is now. I think it would be beneficial that whatever school we're talking every single day that we're talking about in the state that we use the data we already have to indicate where the effects of it on schools. That would be good to know and then advertise and make sure that it's accurate information and I think that Newark Street School is a classic example of small by necessity. I'm not sure we ever really landed on what small by necessity really is. Oh, it's a whole another question which I think we need to grapple with. But in in any case, I'm not I'm not advocating because this is not implementation. I'm not advocating that we accelerate implementation. I'm advocating that we get the word out where once we settle on language, on class sizes, and what is small by necessity, we advertise who's affected. So, those conversations get really stimulated when we landed in revised districts on on what's happening next. And I think Senator Weeks' point, if I remember correctly, I think the next step for finding that is at the State Board of

[Senator Nader Hashim (Member)]: Education's small sponsors. Yeah. The guidelines that were developed previously established as a starting point at the state board. It's in their, it's the policy of their court.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: I've lost track, yeah, to be honest with you.

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: Puition per student, roughly, do you have that?

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: Sorry, couldn't hear that.

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: Tuition per student, do you roughly have Tuition

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: per student, I don't have that on me because, and that's gonna be wrapped up into our district numbers. So if you looked at Canoeb East School District's tuition per advice, and I don't know that off the top of my head, I'm sorry.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Alright. Thank you.

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: Yep. We wouldn't have that look just for the Newark Street School though. It's a it's a district number.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Any other questions? Thank you and thank you for your patience. Got a little laid off the floor and then the other discussion went on for a while and that happens.

[Tim Mulligan (Principal, Newark Street School)]: No worries, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Okay, thanks. So we have oh, I see. We have Mary Ann Morris, and this is now we're shifting gears again. And it's a piece of prevention feed organizations. This I don't know if you've seen all, but a lot of people in The States today, but then from people from prevention organizations. They and, Mary, I just wanted to come in and I know you were in House Ad, right? House House Ad. Just to talk to us a little bit about what that actually means and also what your budgetary issues or needs you may be?

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: Yeah, just talking a little bit about that.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: So introduce yourself for the record.

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: Yeah, and I was in house pub and human services. So I'm Mary Ann Morris, I'm an executive director of the Collaborative, which is a small substance misuse prevention organization in Lenten Dairy, Vermont. But we're also the prevention lead for Region 4 of the Vermont Prevention Lead Organizational Model. I'm also a certified prevention specialist and a member of the Substance Misuse Prevention Council. And I appreciate taking the time to switch over and think a little bit about substance misuse as it relates to schools for this time. I'm gonna try to give you the nod to switch gears when you can there. In the last presentation, we had some members from Department of Substance Use and one of the things I kinda wanna start with this, that they noted, and I love this statistic, is that every dollar spent on prevention is $18 spent in other spaces, public safety, workforce issues, health. Think about that in the context of how we spend money. So, what's about the Lead thinking, what's great about the Vermont Prevention Lead structure, there's four regions in Vermont, funded through allocations from the cannabis excise taxes, so I appreciate that from you all, is that it's keeping the money for substance misuse prevention right where it's needed. The people who know the area, know the needs, know the people who have those needs in the communities. And the prevention work doesn't happen in a vacuum. There's support from the much Department Health Division of Substance Use and the networks that are also involved in substance misuse on the ground as SAM. So you can see Vermont Prevention Lead Region four, I wanted to make sure that you guys had a look at the whole map so you can see your region. There's 12, 34. I'm in Region 4. It is divided by health districts. So I have in Brattleboro, Bennington, Springfield Health District, and White River Junction Health District. My organization is right down in the foot of the arm there in the mountains of Southern Vermont. But we've been having ties to those areas doing prevention work in those health districts for at least ten years or so. And we were a part of the planning team for out of Vermont prevention needs rolled out for the state. So the timeline shows that there was a considerable thought put into the planning for how the Vermont Prevention Needs would roll out. There was first a two year round of funding where we had some funded partners do our

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: own work. Yeah. You tell us what prevention means?

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: Yeah, so it provides substance misuse prevention work in all of the communities. Across the lifespan. We work to fill gap areas where prevention might not exist already and where to enhance the protective factors and reduce the risk factors for substance use prevention in the first place. Thanks, Sen. We had two rounds of funding. Right now we're in year one of a three year round of funding and have many partners in that. And mostly why I'm here today is because we're preparing now to roll out to also be the agency that will manage the grants to schools that are specific for substance abuse prevention. And those are the funds that are used in your schools to perhaps hire some staff for it to be a student assistant provider personnel, or to have other activities related to substance misuse in your schools. So, the funding keeps prevention on the ground, as I was saying. I can tell you that we get used to really having inconsistencies of funding in substance misuse before the BPLOs roll out. You had to find the grant, get the grant, be assigned a strategy that might not work for your community. Way that this funding rolls out is that we're able to say, here's what our community needs. We've identified these needs with our partners and here's how we'd like to use that funds and fund these projects. So you'll see as we talk more about how that comes out. 3PL system has strengthened the organizations who are already doing prevention, already partnering with schools on prevention and strengthen them so that they can do the work in front of them instead of having to hunt down the money. Structure for how the regions are rolled out is a little bit different for each of the regions, but I'll tell you about ours. I think we're all pretty much on the same plate. We have the same tasks, we have the same connection to our community. The PL4 lead and the collaborative itself form the planter or the structure that holds the things together and gives the systems a shape. And it provides the stability and the support. Look that afternoon sun, it's all fluff. That would be so

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: hot. It's great,

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: but it's so hot, right? Yeah. It provides the stability and support that allow interconnected prevention efforts to take root and grow across Southern Vermont. And the sports includes strategies to fill the gap areas. Just like you're thinking about the gap areas right now after this presentation. Provide opportunities, communication and training supports. And this design highlights the connected players, the partners, the networks, and the EL4 needs that it takes to carry out the work so that the communities can thrive. We have a regional advisory committee that helps us to make funding decisions and to provide feedback on strategy and things like that. These are made up of C suite hospital representatives, officers of the Department of Local Health District Directors, regional planning commissions. Some high level thinking that will include schools as we begin to embrace more of the school Unique to our specific district is that we have eight really well established prevention coalitions in our region. So, really tapped into using them to to help us form our strategy in the way that we walk the board forward into the community. Go ahead. So, we've gathered together funded and unfunded and untapped partners from across our committee, used the regional advisory and the prevention coordination team to make a strategic plan. And we wanted to think innovatively about how we were approaching prevention, and we came up with these five goals for our area. Foster belonging, well-being, combat loneliness, and cultivate connection, increase awareness of prevention and community health, connect people to care, and utilize collective impact for community transformation. And by achieving those goals, the idea is that we're going to have the overarching goal of reducing substance misuse addressed. So, it takes a combination of these actions, let me put my wrong handstand, sorry. It's a combination of actions sustained over time to really be having an effective prevention project and we're so grateful that the BP allows us to offer multi year grants to our community partners and for projects that are trying to just begin to be changed. Can you

[Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale (Member)]: go back to the last slide? You have metrics of success that you're using? I mean, I'm really concerned about loneliness and isolation, and I wonder if you're if you're really, you know, trying to get to the science of

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: We are. And I I mean, I have to fast forward or if you could take a pause or have a couple of slides at the end and if you have more back and forth, that would be great. I appreciate that. This is our epidemiologist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you go to the slide, Sam? Oh, no, that one first, yeah. So, you see here a breakdown of how we fund it in our community across the different health districts. Some of the work is done regionally, so it's just kind of for everyone. And then we ask our partners to pick two to three of our goals, what they're going to work towards. And you can see that we have a good take of what people are working towards as their goals across the spectrum of the five goals for us. Incidentally, I also kind of did a little quick game for myself. I looked at our funded partners and 19 projects directly collaborate with schools already. So it might be for after school activities or embedded activities within the schools. Go ahead, Sam. It's easy to get substance misuse prevention wrong with best intentions and we use some tools to make sure that we're being evidence based. One of them is the Vermont Prevention Model. The idea is that individual work, mentoring within a school, that the social work, peer leadership opportunities, that organizational work across the entire school with staff trainings and things like that. And then the community work, when you bring people into the school area to do presentations and then some policy work. And of course, you're increasing your impact as you go up through the model, but each level is important. So, a real substance misuse prevention, a really good one is going to have representation across all of these levels. And so these are currently where our partners are working across the Vermont Prevention Model. As we provide technical assistance to these partners within our system, they're deepening their work and advancing their work. So, we're seeing these numbers grow throughout the funnel over time, too. Thanks, Sam. As far as we have a focus on evaluation, so we not only ask our funded partners to evaluate, but we do it ourselves. And so one of the things that we ask of them is around evaluation. How are we doing providing technical assistance to you in doing your evaluation projects? So far the results are good. 82% of funded partners report that they have an increased understanding of program evaluation and how to embed it into their work. So we're not only doing it ourselves, but we're asking it of our funded partners. So, this slide, as I indicated with the timeline, the school based thing is new, but not so new. We've all been doing work with our schools around substance use for a while, but holding the grants is a little bit newer. And the Vermont Department of Health has done a great job reaching out with funding to these schools already and evaluating their work. And this last year, they've increased funding to school based prevention programs, that's the map that you see here, by 52%. So, was 19 in FY '25 and now there are 29 funded districts in FY '26 from direct state grants. But you see that there's still gap areas. Know, a big thing is that Vermont as a state is covered with school based prevention services, as well as those community based ties that come along too. So, recently the VPLS were tasked to reach out to the remaining unfunded districts and we're starting to create those relationships now. Base grant funding also in the last year increased from 60,000 to 80,000. So if you had a grant, now there's a little bit more money in it. We've also shifted to allow for community organizations to apply for this funding, that you guys are under a lot of stress with education. The schools are under a lot of stress. They might not have the capacity to apply or manage a grant. So, partnering with a community based organization that does the work the school during the school day of the prevention grant has been a tool that three organizations have taken that opportunity to use. So, this program's consistently evaluated and I don't know if this person's right here, I have some course. Go ahead, Sam. So, these funded grants support a few different things and this is just a sample of them. Sometimes this happens to a student assistance professional or sometimes not, but screening is a primary focus. So, what this does is it catches some of the challenges that our young people face with mental health, perhaps substance use or other issues before they impact their educational outcomes. They also work on capacity so that schools can really be integrated into the community and build a stronger infrastructure of support for substance misuse prevention. And then the community resource is gonna be tailored towards that school's needs. Staff training, a successful program also relies upon a whole school to be involved. And so, ensuring that all staff school staff are trained in order to help students make healthier choices is another one of the initiatives. And student empowerment. Many of these grants are about developing students' assets, increasing those protective factors, and giving our young people a voice. So, those things happen there too. And also some policy. Taking a look at making sure that substance misuse policy is happening in a way that is supportive of our young people and families is also another initiative. So, that's what's happening with the schools right now. I'll give you a brief look at what some of the funded things are happening outside of the schools that might have a tie to it if you will indulge me. This is how they're connecting to the goals that we've established already. So, across all of our health districts at PL4, some of this youth work is happening. So, we saw that there's a little bit going on. Youth work and connection to schools is happening throughout. And if you can get me to the Chester slide, Sam, that would be great. So, Chester Schools, it's interesting, a few years back, Ludlow had to close their school and there was a bunch of students who had to move over to Chester. It was just a bit of a changing time. There wasn't a lot of things for those students to do after school. They didn't know how to participate in the activities of Chester. And some of those, it was gap area and there was a need that needed to happen for some after school support. So, group spoke to the young people and they said they wanted a teen center. Two years ago, the Chester Teen Center didn't exist with the help of the VPLL funds. Now they have 30 people in the day. They do ski adventures, bike adventures, they play to the mural. Chester has all kinds of lovely little festivals. They're asked at all the little festival times to come out, run a booth, and be just a part of that community. It's an important piece of a protective factor for them. And it's really an important quote for me is that when I turn 21, wanna come back and work here because that's how I got to where I am right now. I went to summer camps, I was so attached, continued my work with youth all the way up to the position that I'm in now. It just shows that we're building the leaders right now. And then Brattleboro District, the work is different. It is embedded into the school. And these are kids that might not be getting as much attention or have a voice in other aspects of their world, but they have a voice in these clubs in the school. They've came from them to build a garden and to have a hygiene closet. Nobody's making them do it. And so empowering the youth at the source and connecting them to the resources that they need to thrive is an important piece of that funded partner work. Down in Bennington District, you have a team like the Choice Team who wants to improve the school climate and the community climate, increase healthy behaviors, and they present to the town select board, started a youth council, the third in the state. And one of the things that they do for all of the schools in Bennington is that they make some calm down packets for the school classrooms, but also for the public spaces, so that when young people need to have a little more focus in their moment, they have something available to them right there to help them keep calm and focused. Brattleboro Youth are the leaders in the school and community leading meetings and analyzing data and using voices to work towards better, safer, and more connected community. They were the first Vermont Youth Council and they're the leaders of Vermont AIDS right now too. And then in the Bennington and the Springfield districts, resiliency through understanding makes an impact with out of school time education and skill building around resiliency for young people and their caring adults. They're required to attend five events. If they do that successfully, they get an incentive of a season pass to one of the mountains down in Southern Region, Stratton, Magic Mountain, or a boarding center, or the Dorset Playhouse. We require that the caring adults come to two events so that we're taking that piece up a notch. The second slide for that will show that it has a really wide intergenerational impact. Start with wrapping young people and families, the volunteers, the schools, the business partners that provide the incentives, and the whole community towards a common goal of helping to build resiliency and the resilience to collective impact. So, we do rely upon evaluation. We use results based accountability, which is a simple process of asking people, how much did you do? How many events trainings did you post? How many pieces of paper did you make? How well did you do it? How many people came back to your event? And is anyone better off? And we work with them, with our funded partners, to provide technical assistance, and each of these little goods are based on our goals of the belonging. We wanna cut past the jargon, so we support them through this process and create some commonalities so that we can really gauge substance sets. And so, in the end, right now we are eight months into the project. We use Clear Impact as our data dashboard. Eight months into the project and the grant cycle, we really just have the health kind of things right now. We'll have some of that, is anyone better off, as the year progresses in the next quarter or so, you'll see those results that I can share with you. But they're coming in, we're learning how to do it. There's lots of things happening out there, you can see. 1,000 and some things are happening and we'll wait to see if anyone's better off if results come in. Go ahead, Sam. So, as a lead, and you've seen this already, but it draws the attention to when we're funneling these funds, the Vermont Prevention Week Funds, down to a regional level, who's creating the timely support for the people who are walking the work forward into the world. That is just a really holistic regional portfolio for us to have to create those connections with schools and community and projects like this. Using local data for the community assessments and then that helps to guide our strategies that are specific for our communities. That helps to build a more interconnected and equitable prevention network. And then finally, I'm not doing this work alone, obviously. Thankfully Sam is here. And Thomas and James are on our team at the collaborative, well as all of our partners within the networks. And we have a lot of ideas and energies and hope for this project. The economic and social benefits of investing in this PVPLO and prevention are clear. Preventing substance issues before it starts saves lives and decreases costs. And by sustaining and expanding prevention programs through the VPLO project, can ensure healthier, more vibrant Vermont. So, thank you for that, Nick. Do you have questions? Yeah?

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Your war between region or region four typical at at region two or here, which they'd be saying Synfinity a little bit differently?

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: I'm gonna say yes and no. So, they're really thinking about what their needs are. I started out a presentation saying that we were rich in the assets of having total militiants who are experienced in substance misuse prevention in our area. So, leverage that. Another region does not have any or maybe has one and what they need to do is really begin to build that capacity so that the work can be taken up throughout region. So, we're each treating our agent with the same overarching goals, increasing protective factors, decreasing risk factors, and result of reduction of substance misuse, but we're really assessing our communities and creating strategy that can leverage what the assets are in that community and begin to build that infrastructure. So I hope that helps a little bit.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Okay, so tell us, remind us about the grant. I mean, you've a grant and a grant last for three years?

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: Yeah, so we get funding directly from Vermont's Department of Health who gets that funding through the Cannabis Exercise Tax, Substance, and Issues allocation, and I know that that has a different table and I've asked Tracy to fill that in for me.

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: Yeah.

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: Is. Substance misuse prevention fund Started last year. This is the first year. And so, and then we distribute, we release an RFA or or figure out a way to suffer that money out in our.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: So that's an ongoing funding stream or just sort of three years or something?

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: Each region determines that on their own and so we can determine that sustainability over time

[Rebecca (McClure Foundation representative)]: is important to us. You're doing this. Yeah. Okay.

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: So we have rolled out three years. We have smaller bits of funding that are available in a more timely way to increase partnerships and support promising practices.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Well, was one of our, we have a whole group here at the State House of Air making stops if you wanted to have one in.

[Mary Ann Morris (Executive Director, The Collaborative; VPLO Region 4 Lead)]: And I want to, just to be sure to touch base so that you guys in education know that we're supporting schools as best as we can through direct funding and we'll be continuing to create those relationships. I think it's a positive thing to bring the school base down to a regional level. We already have some relationships with schools because of the other work that happens tangentially to school day. And I think that by also managing grants that we'll be able to embed that work more consistently into our school partners. Thank you.

[Senator Seth Bongartz (Chair)]: Yeah, thank you. Let's drive. Yeah. Well, I'm taking my have a. Let me take a a five minute break, and then we'll be

[Senator David Weeks (Vice Chair)]: back for our last segment.