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[Senator Ann Cummings (Chair)]: Watching live. Okay. We are back. We are live. And, Senator Gulick, this was your request, and so maybe you can Yeah. Use her in. I I had asked Senator Perchlight because I had seen it in the VAA and then it looked like it was taken out. And so I was just, it sparked my curiosity, it piqued my curiosity. And so I was wondering what it is exactly, the meat of the program, but also what the funding mechanism was gonna be.
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: Sure. So, for the record, Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education, Chief Operations, And thank you, Senator, for inviting us to come in and talk about this. We're, as you know, we were eager and ready to go. So, what we're referring to here is a request for a reversion and reappropriation of FY 26 funds in the BAA, and they're very specifically to support the Read Vermont initiative and literacy initiative, right, which is supporting the requirements of Act 139. So, think I can do this pretty briefly, and then feel free to ask questions. I do also want to say, I'm not sure why it was taken out of the BAA. I don't want to speculate, but it may be because we do also have this request in the Governor's budget. So if it doesn't make it through the BAA, and I'll explain why that would be preferable, you will see this again in the FY27 budget request. So it's not our only bite at the apple, although this is the better apple. I will sort of briefly explain the sort of origin story of these funds. It's a little convoluted, so just bear with me. But the key takeaway here is that these are not new funds, and in fact, the origin of these funds is federal COVID dollars. So they've got a long history here. But that's the important piece. It's not a new appropriation request. It's not new state money. It's old federal money. So, originally, as you've heard from me a million times, we had a lot of these COVID era ESSER funds and GEAR funds. With the passage of Act one thirty nine, this was actually, I think, the first week or two of secretary Saunders being in her new role, said, how are we supporting this? And we all sort of said, well, there's no money appropriated for it. So we immediately looked at the SRN gear funds, and we had set aside a million dollars to actually start the Read Vermont initiative. Under the Trump administration, there was a reversal, of course of the availability of those funds. So we had at that time about $700,000 still available and a plan to use them. And because of that reversal of those ESSER funds and GEAR funds, basically the Reef Vermont activities came to a screeching halt in about March, April. So it was really unfortunate, and we were immediately looking for other sources of money to continue that work. So what we've okay. So that's why those that funding stream stopped. You all also had COVID funds in the form of ARPA SFRS funds. Way back in oh gosh. I wanna say 2021 even, maybe 2022, you had appropriated to the agency of education $4,000,000 for what were called IT modernization projects, education licensure, adult education and literacy, a database platform, and dual enrollment. So we identified that $4,000,000 was an estimate at the time. We actually reverted a million dollars of it as we identified how much that it was going to cost. And even still, we were coming under budget pretty significantly. As the those funds, sort of the deadline to obligate them was coming up, the agency of administration in December 2024 did an administrative action that they were able to basically convert those into general fund dollars. So they lost their federal identity, they became general fund dollars. So we're now at the end of those IT modernization projects. We have about $1,200,000 $1,400,000 of those general fund, now they're general fund, and we've identified that we could probably take 700,000 of that, still be able to finish the projects, complete them with the remaining 700,000, and use that extra 700,000 to support Free Vermont. So as I said, it's a bit of an origin story of how we got here, but we're basically replacing federal dollars that we no longer have access to with other federal dollars that look like general fund dollars now. What this would enable us to do and why it would be preferable for this to happen in the DAA, we've very as as I like to say, we're scrappy and resourceful. So we've pulled together a whole set of different funds to relaunch Free Vermont work that actually relaunched in January. So we're continuing with this, like, intensive coaching and then looking how we're actually going to scale that work up over the next school year. So we're both reaching more schools this way and then also expanding the verdict to reach more grades and other roles within districts. So not just classroom educators, but building leaders and district leaders. So we have a plan to expand. Currently, we are funding that work through the June 2026, so the end of this school year, with a combination of some federal title dollars, so title We two and title also have some other general fund carry forward that we're able to do. It's a DAB, and I can never remember what that that acronym stands for, but it allows us to basically take a $100,000 of one general fund and use it for a different purpose. So I've got $200,000 of general fund. That will carry So I have enough funds to carry us through the end of this school year. So, as I said, you would see this in your FY twenty seven budget request. So you could do it then, but that means that you may have a gap or a pause in the work that we're doing while we get that appropriation and get it stood up. Right? Because, you know, usually we don't actually see appropriations until mid July. So, if this was done through the BAA, what that gives us is media access and the ability to plan and critically to obligate the funds through contracts, because we are using, in addition to agency staff, we're using a national, just really excellent work in this space. So, that is sort of the imperative to try to get this through in the BAA. It gives us certainty and planning and we won't have a pause. I can sort of assure you that I will be as per usual, as resourceful as possible so that we can continue the work during the summer. We will continue to layer in those federal dollars. So, looking at next year, I just had a budgeting and planning conversation on this yesterday. We do have additional title two and title $4 so that we can continue to support this work, but this 700,000 is really critical, whether it's done in the BAA or FY '27. Absent that, we're really going to stall out in this literacy work. And I always like to just for frame of reference and comparison, other states that have done this work and have had generational change, Mississippi, Alabama, we're talking the tune of fifty to a hundred million dollars. So we're doing this on a shoestring budget, but the money's really Yeah. I assume can I assume that you are attending the committee of conference on the VA? I would be happy to and we'll reach out and ensure. Okay, because
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: I know they are conferencing and you were in the House budget, right? Yes. Okay, so it is a subject of negotiations. Thank you. Thanks, Jill. That's helpful. I have a couple questions. So, what first, what specifically are you doing with the funds?
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: So, like, at the agency level and then, who's the consultant? They're called literacy consultants. Yeah. And so the we've got kind of multiple specific scopes of work here. The approach that we're taking is the one that's a really evidence based approach. It tends to be intensive, which coaching. So it's intensive coaching with classroom instructors, literacy interventionists, it's that really improving that tier one instruction. So that is the work. We've actually had other vendors that have been involved as well. When we lost the ESSER funds, they ended up stepping away, and Literacy Consultants stepped in, which they were very looking to have. We're also looking at strategies around family engagement strategies to support literacy, so materials, curricula, that sort of thing. And then next year and you would wanna hear from Erin Davis and Emily Leshem, because these are our agency leads on the programmatic side, but I've got the the broad strokes of it. Next year, as I said, we want to be reaching more schools because we started with a cohort Mhmm. Of kind of high needs schools. So we wanna be expanding horizontally and able to reach more schools. And then by braiding all of these funds together, we can actually start to do more work with principals, curriculum coordinators, superintendents, those district level, about how do you do things like utilize your local assessment and state assessment data to drive instruction. How do you build and sustain literacy investments over time and build those systems in place? How do you do strategic scheduling? This work actually layers onto other work that we're doing. So we also are doing a full push to implement Act 173, which is all about improving, you know, kind of differentiating instruction and high quality first tier instruction. So we're actually looking at how the 173 implementation will layer onto this. Mhmm. So we're trying to take a pretty comprehensive approach. What we know works also happens to be the most intensive and unfortunately expensive approach, which is coaching.
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: Yeah. And so are is the are the AOE staff the coaches or the consultants the coaches?
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: Or are Right now, keeping the coaches? That's right. So our intention is to build agency capacity to have coaches. So it's not work that our staff have done before, but they are being trained. So we're training the trainers to do that. And then we also need to think, just so you know that we're thinking about this and signaling this, that long term we need to think about the way that the districts are also using their federal dollars. So how do we actually help to sustain this work? It can't always be state appropriations, right? And they do also have funds for this. So how do we think about strategic budgeting to sustain this effort over time?
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: Mhmm. Okay.
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: Okay. Thank you. I told you I was fast,
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: so I know the school report card. Mhmm. I couldn't find it on the website. Has it been released yet?
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: Yes, as of this morning.
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: As of this hour. Okay, was trying yesterday.
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: Yeah, I that's 150 pages up. Well,
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: that'll keep us reading.
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: Yeah, that's right.
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: I hope you put them in county order so can-
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: That was always a no problem. Like, how do we alphabetize it? I think that we're actually working right now on scheduling to have you all
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: get a full briefing- Good.
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: On our accountability framework, the snapshot, which includes more than just the assessment, you know, and and other factors, and then the actual assessment results themselves. I think that would be very, very helpful. I would probably that. So that way you don't have to read off. Okay. Just a
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: quick thing. Literacy consultant, if I Google that, like, bunch
[Unidentified committee member/staff]: of different things come up. Here. She should figure out the LLC.
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was gonna say, think they're Literacy Consulting LLC.
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: Are they brand new? No. They've been around. Website is under construction. Okay. Yeah. I can
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: send to you. I'll make sure that I send just to make sure you have the right link.
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: That would be great. Yeah. That'll be great. Yeah. No worries. Okay. Yeah. If you can send the link,
[Jill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education (Chief Operations), Vermont Agency of Education]: that would be helpful. Yeah. Alright. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. He's been with you all day. Patrick will be here at 03:15. Patrick will be
[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick (Member)]: here at 03:15. I'm not letting you out the door. You can stand at ease, and you can probably go off live for seven missions.