MSAD #51 School Board Meeting, September 4, 2025

001Oh wait, oh yeah? Can you hear me? Testing? Oh, I can, there, it sounds good now. Good evening. Welcome to the MSAD 51 Board of Directors meeting, a beautiful Thursday, September 4th, 6 p.m. We're going to kick it off with the full board here this evening. This is our first really opportunity to be in this space with our newest board members. We've had a couple of workshops over the summer, so we've had a chance to meet as a group, but not. sitting in this format in the Geiger room so we have our newly elected representative from Cumberland Lauren welcome Lauren and we we have our newest student rep Katie welcome Katie Katie's a junior just started you can't win I'm sorry you're Katie Caitlin I'm looking at you Caitlin is a junior and we're just

002so grateful to have our students and Katie who's not a senior This is actually the least number of new board members that we've had in a number of years. So it's really great to bring our new members together with our older board members. Not that we're old, we're all young. Just the students are the only ones getting older. Tonight's agenda, we don't have any slated recognition or highlights, but I just did want to note again what an incredible summer it's been here on campus. And many of you have probably parked in the expanded Geiger parking lot, actually could find a spot with a soccer game going on this evening. A lot of both. incredible work that's going on with the one campus project and then a whole slate of other summer maintenance activities that have

003gone on to make sure our schools were ready to open this week for the students we are going to kick off with the approval of minutes can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the July 17th 2025 meeting as presented Thank you, Megan. Can I have a second? Second. Thank you, Annika. Any questions or comments on the meeting minutes? Great. All in favor? Great. It's unanimous. Yeah, we are all able to make that meeting, which is really great for a board. It was our board retreat, so it was nice that we were all there. Then we had our board workshop on August 4th. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the August 4th, 2025 meeting as presented? Thank you, Sarah. Can I have a second? Second. Thank you, Jesse. Any

004questions or comments? All in favor? Great. And one abstention. Thank you, Annika. All right. So now we're going to move on to public comment. The board welcomes and recognizes the value of public comment. And to ensure public comment is fair and orderly, we follow procedures outlined in our board policy BEDH. And we ask that all members of the public do so as well. We follow this policy to help keep the meeting civil, respectful, and productive. We also hope... that allows for all community members who would like to speak to be heard. I also want to mention that public comment is one of many ways to connect with the school board. And while this format for public comment in a school board meeting does not provide the opportunity for back and forth with school board members,

005we offer many other options to do so. All of us have a board email address that is available on the district website and want to let the community know they're welcome to reach out. to any or all of us at any time. We can also arrange a time to meet if talking in person is easier. We also look forward to opportunities to meet with community members out in the community and plan to have some offerings out this school year. If you ever have any questions or concerns about the school or district, please don't hesitate to reach out directly just this week We received an email from concerned community members about our summer projects They ask good questions about our policies how money is being spent in our approval and oversight process We are grateful for

006these questions and appreciate the opportunity and time to dig in deeper into concerns that are raised For a public comment tonight. I've shared a sign-up list Residents and staff will be given priority but given that we have only two people um we don't need to worry about going over the 30 minutes we ask that you use the designated podium when making your comments and please speak into the microphone comments by individuals are limited to three three minutes at the meeting um after the three minute timer goes off please just try to wrap up your comments please state your name and town of residence before beginning your remarks and last please just keep comments respectful and civil And please do not direct any comments at or about individuals or in our schools or community comments Please

007just direct them to myself the the chair. So I have two individuals who are signed up Michael sweat. Thank you Michael Sweat, North Yarmouth. I would just like to, just a couple of words really, thank the members of the school board and those from the Finance Committee in the past who have reached out and we've reached out to in the past. I just want to point out that for everyone here, especially new people, the budget is a serious piece of business. And it is so serious that I'm just surprised that there's no activity on the Finance Committee through the summer. And there were questions, as you pointed out, Leanne, regarding some of the activities here in the summer that were, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent. There doesn't seem to be any

008checks and balances for that, or at least oversight of that. And probably there are. I think the public needs to hear what they are. But I think we need to get... Absolutely serious about a 54 million dollar budget. This isn't a rinky-dink town budget any a school budget any longer This is some serious dollars and I challenge you to look at the membership of your committee I challenge you to look at the expertise that's in the community who are willing to step forward and advise help You know personally I've had budgets of 150 million dollar budgets. So this is serious business that we're talking about here There are many people willing to help so I asked you to reach out I'd also ask you to consider the time in place the time actually of your

009Finance Committee meetings. They're not necessarily available to many folks Maybe some of us who are retired but not the rest of the folks So I'd encourage you to do that months and months and months and months without a finance meeting In a time when we're opening in a school. We're spending a ton of money on new school and You should be modeling the operating budget now. What does the operating budget look like for this school? So I challenge you for that and ask you to consider the taxpayers who are footing the bill for all of this. You all have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure our dollars are well spent. There are many community members willing to help you with that and advise you with banking experience, business experience, budgeting experience. So with that, I'll

010finish a minute ahead of time. Appreciate it. Dave Noonan yeah Dave Noonan Meadow Lane in Cumberland echoing Michael's sentiment sentiment just really the fiduciary responsibility I talked about that at the tri community meeting just to really have I mean again hundreds of thousands of dollars I'm sorry I'm echoing the same thing but to have a line item on one of those invoices saying painting Materials and labor and not have a breakdown of that is I think very irresponsible of the board overall for not having oversight on that Thank you. By the way, I should have started by saying thank you I wouldn't want to be in your role to be quite honest with you right now with how the budgets have been We got our tax bills this week 500 bucks up. I know that's

011a big portion of that is from the schools as well it's just it's it's getting for me as a 47 year old individual it's getting unbearable. I can't even imagine with you know, I'm the youngest person here I think maybe But in general, you know, it's it's getting very very difficult I actually had to turn away working my second job tonight to come here to just say this so If that tells you anything, you know, so it's getting unbearable I think I don't know when those finance meetings are I want to be it try to be a part of them But if it is during you know, not these type of hours, I won't be able to be there, right? But I think that definitely everybody here on the school board needs to be part

012of those finance meetings as well. And I think you guys talked about that last year. There was a couple of meetings where people didn't even know what was going on, quite frankly, which is just pretty disheartening. So I think that you guys getting together on that a lot more and members of the community involvement need to be, I call for members in the community to be a lot more involved as well. heavily involved because people can complain but if they're not doing anything about it then they have no right to complain so you know definitely need a lot more oversight and a lot more detail into where the money's being spent thank you thank you i appreciate your time would you like to add okay oh you're welcome you you can oh that's fine we

013just try to make sure we get it written correctly in the notes thank you welcome thank you very much I didn't sign up ahead of time because last time I did and I left and then I was called out and everybody knew I had left already my name is Terry Maloney Kelly I am a life long resident of Cumberland North Yarmouth and a lifelong tax supporter of the MSAD 51 and a graduate so September so September means different things to different people and I will share with you as you go through the decades they become very different but similar and I look at September as great hope it's new a refresh you know we're heading into the last of the air whether it's school or anything else and most of us whether we had children

014in the system or not are attached to our community especially those of us who have been here a long time And we're still here. And we're here to support you. But as a citizen, and I've asked this of my town council, I'm greatly concerned about the three leadership bodies that really direct this community and the lack of collaboration and ownership of who your audience is. And especially, I know you've heard from me before, but you know what? I'm just as much of this community as any one of you who have put a child through this system. Maybe even more so, honestly, because I'm still here. And I'm hitting a big milestone this November. And I'm not going anywhere. I also know that, at least in Cumberland, we have $2 going on to our mill rate.

015just from the school bond that will be coming on very soon for all of us. We need a device, excuse me, we need a diverse community which includes every one of us in this room. And I really need to ask you folks in particular to broaden your willingness to not just listen, but you know, I think I heard it today, national news, we're all. This is my community. I feel like this is the only place I can matter right now in my world. I worry about our children because I worry about what's going on. So I'm glad you're here. Welcome back. I'm really looking forward to a better communication process. I'm a little confused. I know the email that I would appreciate you acknowledging Chairman, but I thought it was odd. I saw the response

016and it didn't seem to go to the whole board So I don't know what your communication Guidelines are but if a citizen reaches out and someone I would say your role responds. I would want to be included in that response as a colleague responsible directly to citizens who care about our community. So if that's not protocol, I think you need to really look at it. And your fiduciary responsibility is huge, huge. You take 70% of my tax dollars. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for coming out. I know there's lots of questions about committees. We are just getting underway with scheduling all of the committee meetings for the year. Once they are scheduled, they are posted on the website. And I know tonight we're sharing, I don't know, is it posted yet,

017the committee list? We're waiting for tonight. For tonight, yes. And then we'll post those. Yes, so the list is being discussed tonight, and then the list of committees is posted, and yes, they're available for the public, and they're on the board website, and we'll make sure that we add to the district newsletter. I know we send a weekly newsletter that says when the board meetings are, maybe just list the upcoming. Committee meetings as well that might be helpful just to make sure people can get them on their calendar But yeah, some of them I know we try to get the year scheduled out and posted as soon as we can Now that now that everyone's back All right. Oh One more for public comment. Okay one more for public comment My name is Jacqueline Story

018and I live on Shirley Lane here in Cumberland. I know there has been a lot of reference already to a letter that was sent to the chairman and the board. And so I just kind of wanted to put a part of that out there because I've seen it as well. It did come from one of my family members, I believe, so who was unable to make it. There was a request for contracts and invoice between the district and doten construction and last week copies of those were received six invoices totaling two hundred and seventy seven thousand three hundred and fifty four dollars and ninety nine cents half of those Half of those invoices exceeded the board policy which is requests that bids in it bids for expense requests that there's bids for expenses over 350

019K and then There were no contracts as part of the request even though those were And then furthermore, in addition to the board policy, there's a state statute which requires bidding of any amount over $250,000, including small projects that incur with a six-month period. So I think there's just a lot of concern about the fraudulent activity surrounding those because those weren't put out to bid and whatnot. And I'm sure... people have more questions about what that letter is I know a lot of you on the board I think got that letter but I know it's not wasn't as far as I'm concerned sent out to public but I think that they have a right to know of all that activity that's going on so just wanted to say thank you thank you anyone else Hello,

020my name is Pat Oles, a resident of Cumberland County. I also have seen the email that went out with the invoices. I've run more than one business in my life, and if anybody ever gave me an invoice like you received, they'd have a lot to explain. How much were the materials? How much was this or that? It's not broken down for you, and it's a very odd way to receive an invoice for small business, yet alone this business. Enough about the invoices. I know you're aware of them. Two concerns that I have. I'd like to know what the school is doing about the security of the schools. With all the money that we spend, what is going into- This secures measures you read about them in other schools what they're doing. What are we doing?

021And on another note the parking lot which looks beautiful. It needs more arrows We agree thank you for coming out tonight, yeah, hopefully we'll get some more arrows soon Signs arrows. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay Now we have presentations Superintendent Porter is going to present the 2526 recommended strategic priorities All right. I'm happy to present the draft strategic priorities for the board's consideration this evening. It's an action item on the agenda as well And I will be talking about safety and security as I have for many years tonight. So it's very good timing for the public comment. Just a reminder that our mission statement, and this has been the mission statement of the district for about as long as anyone can remember, so at least three decades, to guide all students as they acquire enthusiasm

022for learning, assume responsibility for their education, achieve academic excellence, and discover and attain their personal best. That's a mission statement that we don't just read once a year. We talk about it with staff. As part of our new teacher series that the district administration works with all new teachers And staff to our districts. We really dive into the mission our mission is the North Star for our districts and it is a reference point that we go back to over and over and over again so our strategic priorities each year and as part of the district strategic plan that this one dates back to 2018 Advance our mission. This is a young lady who is just starting the class of 2038 is our kindergarten class and actually our kindergarten the class of 2038 actually had their

023first day of school today at Maple I Wilson school So just a reminder these have been the strategic priorities and I know the board is committed That this will be a development year for the new strategic plan So we'll be sunsetting the current strategic plan and these priorities at the end of the current school year in June of 2026 So but a reminder these are the four overarching buckets of the strategic plan skills for the 21st century skills for life early childhood education the critical building block Every Student, College and Career Ready, and Wellness Foundation for Teaching and Learning. Again, these have been guiding priority buckets for as long as, pretty much as long as the strategic plan has been in place since 2018. So obviously a huge strategic priority, which is... We are underway

024right now as the one campus project. So number one, the Geiger Way parking lot. Obviously, I think most of you use that parking lot as you came in tonight. We are going to be putting, we have signage. It's on order, has not arrived. We were hoping it would. We've been helping students and staff and community during the school day anyway, get in and out of the new parking lot and the way to get in and out. But we're proud to have that parking lot completed by the time school started. Number two is the artificial turf field. That turf field has now been turned over to the district, and it has been used for about a week now for games, practices. I believe there's a game going on right now on the turf field, and the

025first football game of the season will be tomorrow night at 7 o'clock on Hutchins Field. inviting everyone in the community and I think probably a lot of the community will be there tomorrow night and I know our student representatives have a lot more to say about the turf field so I am not gonna say anymore. Not gonna steal your information. Number three, that picture's a little bit dated but this is the new maintenance building. The new facilities building is about halfway finished, about 50% now. It should be completed hopefully by Early to mid-november is the expected completion date That is a very important building to get done because it is the old building The old maintenance building is sitting right in the site of the Pre-K to one school, which will be the Pre-K to

026one school. Number four is the MIW addition. Tomorrow we start the first of several iterations of concrete pouring for the addition site. So that will be tomorrow morning is the first one. And we have put out information about people please avoiding campus drive in the morning commute if you can do it. And number five, obviously, is the new pre-K to one school. And that site work is largely completed. And starting next week, they will begin excavating for the foundation. And the contractor is expecting that the foundation will be fully in place by mid-December, which is a huge undertaking. So the other part of the one campus is the non bricks and mortar and it's all the other stuff and we've been planning the leadership team has been planning for a year now ever since the

027project passed. It's not just the construction of the buildings and the projects that go with it but also the huge transition and the huge amount of work that it takes in planning to get from here to August of 2027 when everything changes in our district. So there will be transition committees pre-K to one, a two, four, and a five, eight. Those are the new grade spans. Each of the three principals who will be moving to those grade spans will be inviting staff members and parents to participate in those transition committees. Those are specific to those grade spans, and they have to deal with the day-to-day operations of those grade spans. So instead of waiting until those new grade spans go into effect, We're starting that work mid-year. Actually, we'll be starting November in a couple

028months. Those transition committees will be up and running. And we've been talking about those and planning those at the leadership level for several months now, so we're ready to go. Also, staffing reassignments. We have a survey going out in two weeks to all of our staff at the elementary level, asking them their preference. of where they want to be in two years, what school, what grade span, and what's their preference in terms of role. We will be reassigning staff by the end of October. They will know their new staff assignment that will be taking place in the 27-28 school year. And we had to get that done in order to start, before we can get the transition committees up and running. So that's an important piece. And it may seem early that we're doing this

029stuff and that we're doing this work. But as far as I'm concerned, we're probably behind schedule already in terms of the workload that needs to. There's so many details to get to from point A to point Z in the next two years. And finally, the pre-K plan. The state of Maine, the legislature has required now that school administrative districts across the state take on three-year-olds who are on an IEP and four-year-olds in addition to four-year-olds. We are now on the countdown to get that done. We are in the last cohort in the state. We waited because of the building project. We've had a lot of other work to do, but Julie Olson, Director of Instructional Support, will be heading up that committee. We did put out information for people to request to be on the

030committee. We received several applications and I believe that as we have the membership now for that work group, that group will then be reporting to the curriculum committee of the board along the way and the curriculum committee will then approve that plan and then pass it along to the full board by June of 2026. So that's the process that will be used for that work group. For college and career strategic priorities this year Most of this work is continuation fact really all of it is The literacy program is at the elementary level CKLA is a brand new literacy program to improve our reading scores the first review of this literacy or a new literacy program goes back to 2018 with this current strategic plan that was the strategic priority for literacy was to make sure

031that we are looking at our reading scores making improvements and if we need to to move to a new literacy program so this is the full implementation after a couple of years of piloting there was a year of an audit And there's been all kinds of work many teachers and many many teachers and administrators have been involved in this huge undertaking this year So this is a big one at the elementary level for the whole district pre-k to 12 Mari Tribblecock the director of academic services will continue working with teacher groups Around writing and math scope and sequence to beef up our curriculum in both of those areas Writing has been something that the district has not worked on for many, many years, I'd say probably two decades, that writing has not been a focus.

032So in the last couple of years, we've really been looking at our writing as part of our literacy program and making sure that we have a good scope and sequence in addition to the math scope and sequence, making sure that we're teaching skills at grade levels that support the next grade level and making sure that scope and sequence is in alignment all the way through. and finally MTSS multi-tiered systems of support and making sure an entire plan for our district is updated that plan ran out at the end of last school year and so we're just renewing it and making sure that that plan internally is meeting the needs of every student in our district In the wellness, safety, and belonging bucket of the strategic priorities this year, we have now completed 100% the installment

033of the Syntegics Crisis Alert Program. This program has been... credited with saving lives in at least one school shooting over the last 12 months. It is now used in half a dozen school districts in the state of Maine. We're joining those school districts. And it is a robust, it's probably one of the most robust safety programs for public entities in the nation at this point. So thank you to the board and for the community for supporting this through the budget process. Evacuation and reunification plan. This is a safety committee initiative. The safety committee has been working on this for a year. They've been working on Suntigix. Actually, this is year three with Suntigix doing all their homework and research on that. Evacuation and reunification. We have a team that's been reaching out to venues. We

034now have three venues that have accepted us in the event of an unforeseen emergency where we need to evacuate the entire district. chronic absenteeism since the pandemic this has been one of our strategic priorities so again it's not new this is not a new priority this is one that we continue with we continue to have a lot of students that are not coming to school on a regular basis and we want to make sure that they are returning to school and are here at school is every day unless they're absolutely sick and again this is a pandemic piece this is a nationwide issue our district also has seen that we've continued working on this priority and finally for priorities this year strategic plan renewal the board has signaled in the last few months that it

035is ready to conduct a new comprehensive strategic plan there hasn't been one since 2018 for very good reason the pandemic And post-pandemic created a situation where that was not a priority to create a new plan. So the board has, boards in the past have chosen to add priorities to the plan but not actually renew the plan. So this year is a development year. It's gathering voices, determining priorities, and creating a new plan for the next four years or whatever the board determines that timeline to be. And I mentioned earlier, again, this curriculum committee will be very involved in that process. I know the curriculum committee is really overseeing that process of renewing the strategic plan, as was discussed at the retreat, the board retreat. And just a note about strategic planning, the one campus project

036and the model and everything, the transition, of course, over the next two years. And then after, even after we move into the new grade spans and new buildings, it takes two years to really settle in, make sure that our curriculum or programming, the buildings are all lined up with where we need to go. We know it's not just you move in and that's it. It takes at least a couple years to really settle into a new framework for our district So just a reminder that the wig or the wildly important goal For the new strategic plan as well as the current one is transitioning to this new grade span as a huge huge amount of effort And we need to keep that in mind and not over build a new strategic plan For the next

037four years either keeping this in mind So here's a recap of all the priorities, recommended priorities for this year. One campus construction, obviously that's a huge piece that we're involved in. Scott Poulin and I are the owner's representatives on those construction projects. Obviously working with the finance committee around the fiduciary part of it, the facilities committee around the actual bricks and mortar. Staff reassignments, transition committees, pre-K plan. College and career the literacy math writing and MTSS Safety and belonging our safety programs and protocols chronic absenteeism and then the renewal of the strategic plan this year, so that's a recap and These are the deliverables and I do have one date that I meant to change earlier and I forgot to the draft priorities obviously being presented tonight for the board's acceptance school SIPs the principals

038will be talking about their individual site improvement plans following the workshop on September 25th. And the change will be that I've asked the district administrators to also provide their SIPs because they're related to the school SIPs. So on October 2nd, we're actually moving that. There isn't a board meeting on October 2nd anyway, but we're moving those to September 25th. And then on December 18th, I will provide a mid-year progress report as I do every year. and i will provide a year-end progress summary on june 4th as i do annually so i'm not going to go through these right now but i'll provide this presentation to the board afterwards this is a more detailed piece taking those priorities and just breaking them into more bite-sized pieces the leadership team really works off of this more than

039they work off the presentation. This is also the genesis for the mid-year report and the end of year report progress summary reports that I will provide. The board is using this progress tracker. You can see that there are a number of trackers that we're looking at who's responsible for the date that we expect it to be completed and the current status right now and that current status obviously will change as the year gets underway. So those are the strategic priority draft recommendations for tonight. Great thank you for the presentation. I know that I'm looking forward to the workshop with the administrators At our net before our next board meeting I don't think we've we've had a chance to sit down for at least since I've been on the board with them in that way to

040talk about both priorities for the coming year, but I also know there's an interest to have you know we want to be involved in earlier conversations just about any you know cost-saving measures that like hear directly from them as overseers of their administrators of their buildings what opportunities there might be so we look forward to those conversations um do other board members have questions yes I don't know that's a question but I know there was public comment about safety and so I wanted to I know last year we kept asking about where the doors and windows numbered and then I know I've seen some numbers while I was dropping my kids off at camp at Mabel I Wilson just wanted to get an update on that because I know we were kept asking you about

041when it was gonna happen and it seems like it has happened and I I think that is a safety piece so maybe you could just speak to why if it's done at all the schools and why it's why we did that So it is mostly completed. I think there's a few that have not been completed, but they all were completed last, I want to say April, Scott, is when they got completed during April vacation. That was a safety and security committee. So everything would stick to the windows. Exactly. We waited until winter was over. That was a safety and security goal, so it was on their goal list. We have a lot of goals that have been on the committee. I actually made a note that I think I've given safety and security presentations before

042in the past, and so either myself or Don Gray, I might ask Don Gray, the chair of the committee, to give an update to the board on safety and security. There have been... I want to say at least 20, 25 initiatives over the last five years with that committee, including the Alice approach that we have, which was a huge lift about three, four years ago that we continue with in our district. But I think it's probably time for an update on some of those things, comprehensive presentation. But yes, the numbers are basically completed. I don't believe that there are any spots that I know of that aren't completed. That is one of our we do have board members sitting on the safety committee, but that is one of our Committees that's not open to to

043the public for safety reasons for safety reasons. Thank you, sir Jesse that was one of my questions You knew I was gonna And then the other one you guys know I'm gonna ask anyway about the Three and four year olds and the group the task force. Is there a board member sitting on that? Maybe you have a board member that has some My understanding is that the curriculum committee are the three board members that will be involved So there is a work. Well, there's a work group that will be bringing forth Information and the plan to the curriculum committee. So the whole curriculum committee is involved in this process But I was one of the new members reached out to ask that I was on the board. So there is a work group that's working

044on it and then they'll bring it forward to the curriculum committee the curriculum committee they'll oversee that plan and you know say yes or no. There's a lot of opportunities. And yes your name is still on the curriculum committee. And glad to be there. Anyone else. All right, I'm jumping in. All right, go ahead. Jeff, can you talk a little bit about the college and career side of things? So, I mean, I understand, obviously, very much, like, our math and writing literacy skills to make sure that they are prepared for college. And I think we do a fantastic job for that. Can you talk about a couple of other buckets, specifically about... other skill sets like, let's say, like non-cognitive stuff, like time management or going to the right school or other things you guys

045do that's along the college readiness spectrum that are beyond just those two academic skills. So obviously we do a lot more than this through MTSS in our district. These are our priorities for this year at the district level. And Mari Trevailcock and Julie Olson will talk more about their pieces with MTSS, as well as each principal will on the 25th. But are you specifically asking about guidance support and guidance services? Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm a little surprised necessarily. Obviously literacy and math are... always going to be a priority. I also think that that's not maybe not something that we as our students are a huge challenge because we do fairly well but obviously we can do better from that. But when I look at this college and career like I mean obviously at

046any school literacy writing and math that that is the foundational aspect yet we kind of attach the college and career aspect to that so I'm really kind of interested in how we look at this from a strategic lens of how we ensure they are college ready, maybe even just beyond the writing, the math, and literacy aspect. Like when we send kids off to college, what other skills are you developing as a priority? Are we developing as a district to make sure that they are ready after they graduate? I only say this because right now it's very much forefront of my mind at UNE. We got a lot of freshmen who are not prepared or are prepared academically but can't handle the new culture, the big step it is transitioning. It's the most at-risk year of

047any college student. We lose a lot of them that freshman year. And so I'm very curious, just when we say college and career, I really want to... mean it and I know we do so what are the other things that we're doing to make sure that that first year they're successful and we retain them in college beyond here because if not like what else are we doing no that's a great question Sam I appreciate it no it's actually it's a perfect question so obviously with the literacy writing and math we're talking about tier one tier one MTSS which is all kids we're preparing all kids right from the beginning for these areas, making sure that our curriculum is aligned so that they're prepared for whatever they do after they leave us. But when we're talking

048about the soft skills, I think that's kind of what you're getting at. We're talking about profile of a learner. So the profile of a learner was a priority for the last two years. The profile of a learner, and I believe Mari presented that actual profile learner presentation to you in the spring. But that is the soft skill. end of things that we've been working on for many years. And that actually came out of the 2018 strategic plan was the soft skills. And are we preparing kids that go right into the armed forces, the workforce, and then post-college? Because we're not just talking about college anymore. And what we do get for feedback from students when we get feedback is we prepare them well for college so they can do well there and then get through

049college in one. in one piece basically. But the profile of a learner is not a priority this year because it was a priority for two years to develop that. So that's why you're not seeing it here this year. It's just not a focus. It doesn't mean that we're not implementing it. We just felt that wasn't something we wanted to highlight this year. We didn't need to. If that answers that. It does, yeah, thank you. And I believe on the actual board goal, we have a goal related to developing the next set of strategic priorities that says, like, in consideration of profile of a learner. So to try to tie it up in a nice bow, right? Tie it all together. Other questions? I was like, Sarah, let's... Within the strategic plan, can we add something

050about fiduciary responsibility and communication with the community and the residents? I will defer to the chair on how you want to do that and what's the step or is that part of your board goals or is that something you want in the strategic plan? This is a draft so as I looked at the four that it was kind of the the place where I thought it might fit Yeah, I mean it's certainly part of our board goals. I Don't have If anyone has any ideas about how it's incorporated in this. Sarah, I agree with you in terms of that gap. And I was thinking of saying the same thing, except then I started thinking, well, I want to make sure that we're aligned on our board goals. And we have community engagement on there. We

051have the fiduciary responsibility. And so what that looks like as a board, in theory, I think should drive what that might look like from a school goal situation. And so... I think us giving them or saying like just throw financial responsibility on there, it would be much more like almost like a performative thing without necessarily like an extra step that we're looking at. So that's kind of how I took like we will fill that gap hopefully over the next year as we re-look at the strategic priorities. My hope is around fiduciary responsibility and what that might look like in the school's strategic plan. That's how I justified it in my head. In other words, what you're saying Tim, I think I'm hearing is part of the development work of the next strategic plan as a

052consideration. Yeah. Other thoughts, comments? Okay. Hearing nothing, we do have the next item is a motion to move to approve the superintendent's recommendations for the 25-26 strategic priorities. Does somebody want to make a motion? So moved. Thank you, Kim. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you, Tim. So any other questions or comments about what was presented? All in favor? Okay. It's approved unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Our next item is... Our district health officer. Can I get a motion to approve the appointment of Dr. Charles Desaias? Did I say that right? Desaias. As the district physician health officer as recommended by the superintendent. So moved. Thank you, Megan. Can I have a second? Second. Thank you, Sean. Can you please present? Yes. Dr. Desaias has been our school physician just prior to the pandemic. I

053believe we came on and then during the pandemic. He was extremely involved, obviously, as we were going and navigating those years, and is a great resource to our nursing staff in our district. He really helps with questions around vaccinations when they come up. He helps with the flu clinics, or at least helping the nurses as a resource for those. Medication dispensing, any questions that come up that they need answered, he is a resource for us. So he's on a, he receives a... small stipend for his work as our district physician he also works as a physician school physician for several districts in Maine thank you any questions okay all in favor great it's unanimous Okay, the last item for action is a recommendation for a GMS music teacher. Can I have a motion to approve

054the appointment of the professional position as outlined, which is the GMS music teacher? So moved. Thank you, Annika. Can I have a second? Second. Thank you, Kim. Can you present this, please? Yes. We had a late resignation in August of a music teacher, or retirement, I should say, of a music teacher at the middle school for eight. It's a very specialized position, and we had two applicants. It's very difficult to get an applicant pool in late August. That's generally not when we hire, but we were so thankful. and very fortunate to find an outstanding candidate with tons of experience and who's somebody who's actually worked last year in our district for a period of time so he was already a known quantity and he applied for the position and we're just absolutely thrilled to have

055him so that is the recommendation this evening great thank you any questions okay all in favor great it's unanimous okay Back to you We don't generally say names personal individual meeting yeah, all right superintendents report this evening so obviously this is the first week of school summertime at Mableye Wilson school there's been a lot of activities even though the summer is going on during August we had kindergarten orientation time before school started and we also had a staff picnic and I'm actually going to show you a video short video I can get access to it so that's our staff some of our staff at maybelline wilson school i was also posted on facebook if you follow us on facebook but they were getting into it as the school year was approaching they were ready we

056had some scott will be presenting as he always does in october a full report on summer facilities work but just a couple of photos maybelline wilson school some of the tile replacement this tile probably hadn't been touched for decades and this is really a huge upgrade it needed early 90s when the school edition was put on so this is really you can see the We didn't have the actual floor down on the other photo, but you can see it was ripped up, torn up, and then put down our maroon colors, maroon and white colors. Also, painting was done at Mabel I. Wilson School again this summer. Really needed painting. There's a lot of places in the district that have been repainted over the last couple of years. It's really amazing work. amazing job thank you

057to Scott for organizing getting this all done it's such a short period of time to get all this work done Maybelline Wilson School welcome back obviously we don't have our pre-k students back yet they'll be back tomorrow for their first day but it's been a first great first few days kindergarten started today and one of the students at MIW came ready to go as you can see GMS 6-8 and GMS 4-5. Sorry, I don't have a photo of 4-5's assembly, but both held assembly. Welcome back assemblies yesterday. So this was 6-8's assembly. At Greeley High School, senior mentors came for freshman onboarding, which was on Tuesday. So we had just grade 9 here on Tuesday, and then grades 10 to 12 joined yesterday for their first day. But we had a lot of senior mentors

058who helped the incoming ninth graders. acclimate to the high school. Also this summer, madrigals from the high school, the singers under the direction of choral director Sarah Bailey, sang at the Sea Dogs. They usually do that at least once or twice a year. And also facility upgrades at the high school. Again, these were outside of the one campus project. Again, we had tile that had been at the high school hadn't been replaced for decades. In fact, the reason why this tile got replaced, and I'll be honest with you, I was walking back from a basketball game behind a few people probably a year and a half ago, and I heard the group say, I went to high school here whenever it was decades ago. And this floor has not been switched and changed since then.

059And I wish they would do something about it. And they didn't know I was. listening and I was listening and I think that again it's a great project it has made a huge improvement and also again a lot of the painting there's just painting walls that were worn down and really needed to be repainted in our buildings we take good care of our buildings it's been something that I've been passionate about since I started at this in this role years ago Our all staff opening meeting on August 26th. We had a really great first meeting. It lasts about an hour. I just kind of kick off the year and then we had three days of staff activities. And we had a cohort. New staff cohort, actually the smallest that we've had since the pandemic. We

060only have 13 people, I think there's 11 in this picture, two that were hired right after this, so weren't at the onboarding session. But we generally had on... new staff onboarding with about 25 people in those groups and so we are seeing a real slowing of retirements and resignations and also We had a lot of enrollment growth for many years. We continue to have enrollment growth But we are certainly hiring during those times Superintendent's notebook. Obviously I've shown you some photos of some of the one campus project work. So this is the artificial turf field. The scoreboard came in about a week and a half ago. It's working great. This is the MIW addition. Again, different photos and pictures throughout the summer as that work is continuing, ready for concrete tomorrow. And then just some

061other pictures of the construction entrance in the pre-K to one school as I mentioned earlier. We also have an entire page dedicated on the website. If you haven't visited it, please do. We have lots and lots and lots of photos and information regarding the One Campus project so that you can stay updated to every part of it if you want to. Again, that's on our website. Let's see if I can get to it. When you're pulling that up, I did want to mention that the beautiful scoreboard that you showed was a donation. It was our Cumberland Soccer Club. Yes, thank you for saying that. And also the audio? The audio was also a donation. It was not paid for. Through the school. Yeah, and that is something that we know we've heard a lot of

062community member feedback on And we're hoping this new sound system will help with some I guess ambient noise and hopefully focus it more on on the field Yes, and find out as you go there what you think. I attended a football scrimmage last week, and I did notice a huge difference in the audio. I thought the audio was much crisper. It was more focused. It wasn't all over the place, and you could hear it wherever you were, but didn't feel overwhelming or overpowering like it used to. So I think it does make a big difference. Anyway, please visit the One Campus page. There's just so much information that we continue to post. So source of community pride for the seventh year in a row Greeley High School has been named number one by US News

063and World Report Many years ago We used to be number eight or nine in the in the state for US News So I think it's a source of pride that we continue to be number one that number one high school in Maine And then we just received today an award. It was in my inbox that the Business View Publishing, which actually published an article on our district a few months ago, named Greeley a top school district and one of the best managed school districts in America. We just got that award today. Jeff? Yes? I heard rumors, but I haven't seen the actual things that Maybelline Wilson, I know the rankings are... You know hit or miss on so many things but I have heard like, you know We've there has been criticism including somewhat of

064like even me on this side of where maybe I Wilson has fallen in some of this stuff But I heard this year they've made Significant growth in that same kind of rankings and so I have not seen the rankings for the elementary grades or middle school yet So if that's true, which I have seen I would at what which I've heard I would congratulate that team because I know they've been working super hard on the measures that get you there. Yeah I haven't seen those yet. I've just seen the high school ones, but I will check on both. Yeah, I hadn't seen that business one yet, so I'd be curious. That just came out. That was literally it this morning. And then just a reminder that we are looking for ideas for helping us to

065name the new pre-K to one school. This is, again, on our website. You can scan. There's a QR code. We're looking for ideas and suggestions. We have a committee that's reviewing all those. Eventually, it will come to the full board for a vote. but the submission deadline is October 31st and please go to our website call our office if you can't find it or you want to submit a name we'll make sure we get your ideas so we're looking for ideas and that's my report thank you any questions go ahead Kim so I admit I'm feeling a little uncomfortable at the moment because public comment focused on The summer work that was being done and then you brought it up on the report and I feel like we need to address this It just feels

066very uncomfortable for me to have even an accusation of fraudulent Which I personally don't believe is true, but I think we need to address this publicly. Is there anything that you can say, Jeff, regarding the summer work that was done? Painting was mentioned specifically. What specifically would you like me to talk about, Kim? Well, was it fraudulent? And how do we know that our invoices, that we know what we paid for? That we know what we paid for. First of all, I mean this would be a much longer conversation. I'm certainly prepared to talk we can certainly have that Conversation about fiduciary pieces and I think the board should be part of that presentation on a process that we use here I agree the word fraudulent, when you throw that word out in a public

067meeting, that's very dangerous, and I think that is not a word that anyone should say unless they're absolutely sure that that's happening. So I would certainly take exception to that, as you have, Kim, and as the chair of the finance committee on behalf of the district. But we have a lot of work that goes on in the summer, and we have projects that need to happen. We have followed state statute. So if there's any question mark about that, We have a legal opinion that I have asked for, and that legal opinion came in just reviewing our procedures, our policies, and I'm happy to share that with the board when that is finalized and we'll get it to you. Just to make sure for anyone that's asking, wanting to know, or wanting that information, we will

068have that available to you. I have a lot of things I could say about that, and certainly I'll defer to Leanne if this is the time and place for that. Or if that you would prefer that this was done at another time we can certainly talk about the process That we use in our district for financial oversight project oversight and all those things I think that's i'm going to kind of kick it back to leanne yeah i mean we have as as finance chair i know that you've reviewed and signed off on every invoice that comes through the district and have seen all of these invoices as well but it's always good to review our processes and procedures around this and and make sure that we as a board have very solid and shared understanding

069of what those processes are. I think the summer work is especially challenging because summer is so short, although I think this year's was the longest probably that we had for a while. That and not knowing how much money we may have to be able to spend on summer projects leading up to it is why we rely heavily on the longer term facilities plan and the things that need to be updated and done, which the facility committee has been very involved in, especially as the one campus project has been happening to see, okay, what are some of these other things that have been on the one campus plan as well and trying to balance all of those. priorities in a short period of time. But yeah, I think we're really interested. I know Jesse and I

070have already spoke about reviewing our board policy related to the purchasing. It hasn't been updated in how many years? 12 years. 13. 13 years. 2013. And that we are interested in looking at that and seeing what... opportunities there are to make sure that we as a board have oversight but also we know that there's a lot of things that happen um within especially the summer that may come up i think the policy is like 35 000 um in a process related to that and just to say okay 35 000 um is much lower than the 250 000 that is the state The state rules and so we're going to be reviewing that as a board to understand how what what that policy Means for the district and what our responsibilities are as a board related

071to it. Yeah, I mean the question has been asked So I'm happy to say a few things about it if you would like me to. Because I did look into this obviously when the question came up in the email that was alluded to. So I just want to start with a little bit of context. Since 2016, we recognize that our enrollment had been going up. There's been a lot of continuous repairs, space reconfigurations, in addition of 33 modular classrooms that we now have today on this campus necessary to support our students and staff. So these modular units are annual activity involving adding, moving, replacing, significant district efforts to complete site work, retention walls, electrical hookup, gas, sewer, water, security, intercoms, technology, fencing, paving, ADA ramps, stairs, related playground alterations. So we have a very short

072window of time. We've been doing this since 2016, literally every summer. We have about six to seven weeks with very little lead time based on the budget process that gets completed in June. There's three public votes, just to remind everybody, especially anyone in the community that wonders, that fund our facilities expenses. First, there's the district budget meeting in May. That's where we annually ask the board annually asked for a transfer of money to capital reserves Which is voted on by the public at a public meeting There's also a vote of the full board of directors in late June to transfer funds between cost centers for unexpended fund balance and this is need often this money is needed for facilities work through our operations our operating budget And then there's the public community vote on the

073entire budget, which includes facilities work as well. So those are three public votes. So the state statute, and that's the MRS 1743A, and our district policy, DJ, allow minor repairs under $250,000 to forego the competitive bidding process. The threshold amount was increased in 2011 to... from $100,000 to $250,000 by the state legislature. So the statute can be reasonably interpreted by anyone that looks at it to not require aggregating separate and distinct projects. And this is very important, up to $250,000. So those separate and distinct projects are the projects that we have every summer. We don't have just one big project. We have separate and distinct projects. We have them in different buildings. We have them in different cost centers. And they are all they all add up but they are separate and distinct The threshold

074amount again was increased to 250,000 a few years ago statute does not require aggregating these separate projects up to 250,000 And our summer projects included modular work, which is again, bulk of the work every summer, painting, as I've alluded to in my report, exterior painting of the institute and the field house, and some tile replacement at the high school and Wilson School. The value of these projects that are handled in our district is objectively reasonable in today's market. And they are not required by state. statute or policy to have formal contracts, especially for smaller projects when there is a working relationship with a contractor or a vendor already in place. The extent of these projects are not always known up front, especially when you're closing one fiscal year in June and opening another in July

075and you only have six or seven weeks. So the district, like all districts, have to have flexibility to address these issues quickly and to keep projects on schedule so that we can start school on time, usually at the end of August, early September is when we start. This summer for example, we as we were doing tile replacement at the high school there were contaminants Underneath the floor that we did not know about That had to be treated that had to be dealt with right then and there as part of the project We couldn't just halt it. We would never have gotten it done before school started We also discovered black mold as we often do in certain spaces. There was black mold in the classroom We couldn't just stop and not treat it. We had

076to treat it and get it done before school started i keep the board informed along the way with regular updates i provide updates to the board even during the summer of facility projects i have two that i provided you this summer these are written updates and we also provide a annual report that scott does in october summarizing the the projects that we've done during the summer So in my opinion, to place further restrictions on the school administration would create an unnecessary burden. We would not be able to adequately prepare or manage our facilities for a growing student population since 2016. Policy DJ does require a vote of the Finance Committee for projects that are over $35,000 when competitive bidding is not feasible. However, it can be foregoed, obviously, if the Finance Committee... Is okay with

077doing that it's very challenging in the summer months to stop projects and get that we try to keep the Finance Committee in the board Updated on these things and try to get their consent as much as we can throughout the process And I agree with both the chair and vice chair That policy DJ should be reviewed. It was last reviewed in 2013. It was a different time period This policy is very restrictive and it does not align with state statute is way more restrictive than the state law That's in place Allows for and I do think it's review and I appreciate Jesse for you know agreeing to take that up in the policy committee. So there's just some talking points. I think people should know if The school district has conducted itself in a fraudulent

078manner. No, it hasn't. We have a legal opinion that it will be finished tomorrow. But I already saw a draft of it. They reviewed everything that we were doing and said you're absolutely following what you're supposed to be following in this district. And there's a lot of considerations and a lot of details that go into that response, and you'll get that memo. But that's, I appreciate the question, Kim, because I think it needs to be answered. thank you yeah and i appreciate having an opportunity to further look at this just to make sure because yes we feel very obviously we are responsible as a board for oversight and want to make sure that we have a handle on this and make sure that we are following policies and obviously state statute so it's always a

079good opportunity to look into it Okay, the next item is communications. The first is board goals, which we've mentioned a few times this evening. I just wanted to provide an overview of how we develop board goals each year. When we come together as a board in July, we had our retreat, and leading up to that, I as the chair met with every individual board member, and one of the questions that we discussed as part of those conversations were any goals for the year for the board and then also asking about committee assignments and so put a draft of the board goals together shared them at the retreat we had great conversations at the retreat i don't think we ended up spending a lot of time talking about what we had put together as a group

080for the board goals but those have been available and shared over the summer and thank you i i've definitely got some feedback over the summer. I provided an updated draft this week and outlined some kind of minor changes that I made to the goals. The goals were organized into six areas I can count quickly so the areas that we included goals for were one campus project implementation supporting students supporting staff providing fiscal accountability community engagement and communication and then a newly added board evaluation that was really the result of the workshop that we had with MSMA in august so that's what inspired the additional section um So I just wanted to give one final opportunity to see if there was any additional questions comments suggestions for the board goals for this year Or we don't

081need an official vote For the items under communications But just wanting to present these publicly and just make sure everyone knows that they will be posted on the district website And we'll be providing updates throughout the year on these goals Can I just highlight the since it's been such a topic the fiscal responsibility part to it Because we did spend a ton of time talking about that and making sure that it's received like weaved in there and An area of focus for us because as Leanne said last year a number of times like we have to start thinking about doing things Very differently and it was very clear from our workshop and retreat that We all kind of agreed to that and came up with some, I think, some ideas that I'd like to see

082into fruition at some point, but that I think the community will feel some relief from or be like, okay, they're listening to us. I feel confident in that. And even, you know, as Jeff, you were speaking just a minute ago, like that those level of restrictions or what we're used to and stuff, like we're in a different time, like we have to look at different policies to kind of figure out what those checks and balances might look like. And both of us, all of us might feel uncomfortable. But to the point of the workshop and the theme of that goal, I'm really excited to kind of dive into that and happy that we're all kind of open. And so I know it's hard not seeing not not everyone could go to the workshops or the

083retreats, but. um that was definitely an emphasis of of the board goals and i'm happy just generally how not just that one but the other core areas i think are really reflective not just of uh the community but of the um staff as well so i'm proud of them of what we've developed so far thanks sam Yes, Jesse. All right. So on two of these so for community engagement and communication it looks like both of the bullets are Related to sort of communication between the Tricom trying to you know, do what we can there I think maybe we need a bullet about like how we're gonna engage with the larger community I know that's something I think I've been interested in we have this amazing new turf field I know there are a lot of

084folks in the community that maybe had very strong feelings about that field But I would like those people to feel welcome to come to games to enjoy the field even if they didn't want it, to feel like they're a part of campus. I know the seniors last year planted a little fruit orchard so that people walking by someday can pick some fruit and feel welcomed onto campus. I know there's been some tension with folks in the community about various things, but I would like for us to find a way to make the school and the community. get along where we can get along, right? We can disagree on things, but at the end of the day, I would love more people to show up to soccer and football games and watch our community's children playing.

085I would love people to come sit in the orchard that the seniors planted. So I think some sort of bullet just about how we're going to engage with the community. I will say I have engaged with anyone who's ever emailed me. A lot of people complain on Facebook but never reach out to me. I'm happy to take you for a walk or meet you for coffee. But if you don't reach out I can't communicate with you. So please do I'm on the Budget Committee this year so and then the other one is For provide fiscal accountability. We have a third but third bullet is explore additional funding opportunities through state federal and other programs to support district goals I think that one is huge, but I also don't want to oversell it because Our administrators

086do an incredible job in my view. I think they're doing the best job they can. I assume good intentions and I think they're incredibly highly qualified and run an incredible school. But they only have so many hours in the day. I think we're absolutely leaving dollars on the table, state grants, federal grants. But unless you pay somebody to hunt those down and apply for them, you're not going to get them. I know I got to help to get a technical assistance grant to look at some energy savings in the district. But that sort of had to be brought to the district and no cost to them. Sure, why not? So if people in the community want to help lower our tax dollars or save us money, if you see grant opportunities and you have that

087experience, let a board member know. And if you want to help do some of the legwork, because otherwise Scott's tapped, Jeff has tapped, we can spend $100,000 hiring a grant tracker downer. Maybe AI can do it. I don't know. Please help us like if there's free money out there. I would love to know about it But you know, I found some to try and you know, make our buildings more efficient But like maybe there's millions of dollars we don't know about and if you hear about it Please let us know and help us try and get that money So yeah, those are my two thoughts, but otherwise I think these are really great and I appreciate all the hard work you put in me I agree with adding a bullet to the community engagement and

088communication. It's been my focus my first two years on the board. It remains my focus. I invite input from community, from other board members. I will be our communications liaison, I think is my hat. And specifically about that, Jessie, that if we do get community members who are good at finding... federal, state, local dollars, we will champion you. We will communicate that all over town. And you're right. It is really hard to chase that stuff down. But I think that, as ever, we do need to get along where we get along and broadcast that because we're not always going to agree. But when we can get along and when we can come together, I think that's a huge win. So I think adding a third bullet. Yeah. I like that because now I realize the

089two that are in there don't quite capture everything. But I did want to mention one that is in that section is to identify opportunities for shared services and cost savings via the continued Tricom meetings that we refer to as to focus discussions on long-term planning, growth, and funding with our two communities because I really believe it's shared services. I mean, most of our... expenses are our people right and if there's more opportunities to share staff um that we need to be talking about that and that's a longer term goal that would have to sometimes takes a lot of of lead time um but we have a meeting scheduled is it confirmed in uh the October one I believe it was confirmed yeah I believe it's confirmed um so October 23rd Right in this room. I

090believe it's in this room again. We've been trying to change the venue but To move around but I don't think it is. Okay, so October 23rd and I think what we also want to make sure is that we have a Little more lead time to make sure that we feel ready going into that conversation to have Maybe some more concrete conversations about what some of those opportunities are So I hear add one bullet and our new communication liaison will help draft the goal I just want to Kind of key off what Jesse and Tim said about fiscal accountability and I know our bold board goal due to the fact that I mean you looked at what the vote came in this past year in June it did not say that everybody loved how much money

091we're spending and how much it cost to Educate a child and we took that to heart or at least I did I know many of the people on the other side of the table definitely did too and I look forward to digging in and finding ways to align our profile learner our goals for our students and with the community funds that we do have and that everybody Shells out every year. It's it's a lot of money and I get that I know we the three of us that were on the Finance Committee last year and all the administrators, we really dug in. And I think we're going to do it again, and we're going to probably dig even harder. So it's noted, we understand, and we're on it. You had a Jesse the Digger in

092Chief. Yes, we now have four official board members on the Finance Committee, plus myself. So part of this is just has to be a little bit divide and conquer, but as many Finance Committee meetings as people can attend, they're posted and welcome to come to any of those. I think it's just the scheduling. becomes an issue. But yeah, we're really excited to expand the list of board members who are officially voting members of that committee. Anything else on goals before I move over to the committees? OK. So we'll modify. We'll add one more goal and get that posted, hopefully very soon. So thanks, everyone. Yes, a lot of discussion did. go into putting these together and Thanks Trump for yes reminding us that a lot of that was discussion was focused on you know All

093that we've been hearing both from community members about their concerns and also have the vote when So I appreciate that reminder Okay, so the next item under communications is the board committee assignments. So every year We have the, our board year ends in June. We have new board members that join. a committee assignments or for a year that's board members that's community members that's really everyone and then the chair who's elected in june then constitutes new committees and committee assignments for the year as i mentioned before i went through a process where i met individually with all of our board members asked them about interests in which committees and then i i put together the list and i think it really honored all committees that people asked for um and then also just made sure

094that we had some good continuity for the committees like all different board terms being reflected it's really hard when you turn over an entire committee based on their term so make sure we had good a good balance there and then we also made sure that we had our students assigned as part of that process. We have two official student board members who sit with us at these board meetings and do vote. They also have committee assignments, but then we also have some other student members who aren't part of the board but serve in committee roles. And so this committee list will be posted. It's been shared with... the board for a few months now just for any feedback. But we have two board standing committees. This is just a reminder. The official board standing committees

095are finance and policy. Kim will continue to chair finance. Thank you Kim Jesse Mar Vincent is now chairing policy. Thank you Anika handed over the reins because we've now asked Anika to chair curriculum. So thank you. I'm just hearing curriculum now We now are facilities committees no facility slash building committee and Tim will serve as chair for that committee And then we will continue the work of the Equity Committee under Kim's leadership again. And then, let's see. The other positions are really board liaison positions where board members sit on other district committees, which includes everything from wellness to safety to rec. There's a whole bunch of just other either community boards that have a school board representative or administrative committees that have a school board representative that usually get... one or two board members that

096get assigned to it and then also some student reps. So I'm really like the fact that we have more student representation than ever across our board and administrative committees. That's been really important to us as a board is to continue to lift up their voices. So any questions about committee assignments? I have one comment for you. You spelled Tim's name wrong in the rec department. I saw that. I've never seen that. Thank you. Wrong in a new way that you haven't seen before? If I didn't show up, I had an excuse. Good job. Yes, Sarah. I would like to jump on facilities and building. I feel like with the curriculum committee and the finance committee, Kind of Mary's within the facilities as well Okay, and negotiations is here and there Okay, I thought this was

097vital at this time. I wish you would have said something earlier Sarah It's been signed out and we can talk after for sure I was sort of sharing it as final at this point because I know meetings have been scheduled But let's let's chat You're always welcome to come. I know we have one scheduled tomorrow. But yes, thank you. Okay, any other questions or comments? Thank you. And now we're moving to committee reports. So I have asked. Each of so most committees as I mentioned really haven't started official meeting at meetings yet They're just being reconstituted and scheduled at this time But we I've asked the chair just to give a brief like summary overview of things that they might be looking forward to this year as the committee's come back together, but we're gonna

098kick it off with student reports and our students both have been very busy coming back to school, but have also put together some turf guidelines to share with students so we're really excited. I think we're gonna go her report, my report, and then we'll talk to her. Perfect. If that's okay. All right. Your first student report out. Okay. Okay. Okay. I don't know if it's loud enough. I firstly wanted to just recognize how grateful I am for the opportunity to be able to sit on this board. I talk a lot about how excited I am. to learn from all of you. I'm really excited about public comment, but especially excited about being able to represent my peers. The school community is super important to me, so having this opportunity is something I'm really excited about.

099So this is, today was our second day of school, and as a junior, this was my second day as an upperclassman in the high school. Which junior year is kind of a monumental year I feel like. I watched my brother go through the high school. I watched him graduate and now he's in college. And I think your junior year has a lot of post-secondary planning, which I'm super excited about. And I quickly wanted to shout out all of our staff, actually, but especially our school counselors that help all of our students with what they want to do post-high school. All the students recognize the work that our staff puts in to... ensure a future that we're excited about and that we're passionate about. So I'm excited to see how students work with all of our

100staff to get that started. Also, we have a new bell schedule this year, which I, for one, am super excited about because the schedule last year. was questionable. But it is great this year. So that's different start and end times for our classes, which it's only the second day of school, but I think people, I've only heard positive things. which is great. So there's new, we have advisory twice a week, and now we have ranger support time twice a week, which ranger support time wasn't something I had a lot my first two years of high school, and this year I am extremely grateful to have because it's more one-on-one time with your teachers, which I think is huge, especially, like I said, in my junior year, which is kind of a big year for planning.

101And I think that the academic rigor this year and the academic interest in your classes is hugely important. So just having the opportunity to connect with your teachers and ask them questions, that was super important to me. So I'm excited to see if students like that. Sorry. Yeah. All right, my turn. I think that Caitlin said a lot about being really excited on this board and kind of just wanted to echo that. And also just say that I think I can speak for both of us when we say that we are really excited to keep learning from you guys and especially the professionalism that you guys hold, especially with the caliber of your role here. Definitely really good role models for us, and I'm grateful for it. But moving on to the other stuff, we

102had... As a senior, which is so weird and I won't get used to it, we had freshman orientation, which everyone said was a blast. And we had some really fun costumes. And Mr. Porter, I'm going to send you pictures because they're really exciting. And I think that the freshmen are feeling generally pretty good. I have not seen a single, which is the first year, I haven't seen a single kid lost. Which is hard because all, and because, and you know why? It's because of our facilities committee who put those things up on, the labels up on our wings that say science wing, math wing, because you'll be surprised how many kids get lost in the science wings and the math wings. They look identical. So I think that that's pretty much that sums it up.

103I'm really excited to start senior year. I think everything's the general sentiment is that people like the schedule like Caitlin said. I think everyone's excited to get back in full swing. So without further ado, we have written a little report about the turf with the help of Jesse who's our turf genius. And can we go back since that's presenting to the pictures of the turf and then we can just read kind of from this if that's okay. I think it looks like slide nine. Yeah, I thought. Okay. So, okay. So, and good thing Jesse's sitting over here with us because he'll correct us. So. The updates to Glenn A. Hutchins Field is a combination of efforts by the TERF subcommittee as well as the supporting voting community members to find the best performing, safest, and

104most environmentally friendly solution. And they definitely delivered with so much research, countless hours of research that you guys all put in that we all really recognize and appreciate, especially the students who play on this field and get to watch these games. And I mean, there's a soccer game going on right now and everyone like it's... It's a great community building opportunity, and I think everyone's really excited about it. So a little plug-in for it. For weather concerns, the field has a crown, and it's a few inches. shorter kind of if you're looking down the line on the edges on the corners so that the runoff can go off quickly and so everyone can stay dry and not slip on the water that might accumulate during some precipitation which really helps and keeps us safe and

105once again I know we've all heard it a million times but this new field is the first installation of this type of infill free pivot. turf in New England, which is really cool. And whenever I tell that to my friends who play soccer, they're like, wait, what? We're playing on, like, I've never played on anything like this before. And then they feel it and it's awesome. They love it. I've heard nothing but positivity about that also. And beneath the turf itself, there's a high-performance shock pad, which protects us against concussions and other injuries, which they're also excited about. And there's a material underneath it called Pivot Cool, which is made of calcium carbonate from the ocean, which I've done a lot of projects on, actually. So when I read that, I was like, this is

106really exciting. Yeah. Which keeps it really cool. And because I've, I mean, I know a lot of people who have been playing on hot days and... things happen, people pass out, especially the turf can get up to like 50 degrees hotter than it actually is outside most of the time when it's really hot in the summertime. So I think that's a really great addition also. And there's so much more to say about the turf and we will say more about it But I also wanted to talk before we go into the rules and regulations about some frequently asked questions that we have personally found Kids are really can you know what wondering about so I'm gonna have Kaitlyn read them to me as the questions then I'm gonna I'm gonna go back as the as

107the student report Our first question which was our biggest question Are the lights on the field the brand-new lights? No. Caitlin, they're not the brand-new lights. Those ones are coming. And they're very bright. However, they aren't going to cause spillover, as much spillover, into the surrounding neighborhoods, which I live in that neighborhood, and my neighbors are really excited about it. But I also know that a lot of people like to hear the games. They like to know that something's going on back there. So I think that's going to contribute also with our new sound system. So the lights are coming. And they're not colorful, but they can be if you fundraise. Another question asked by students. Commonly are underclassmen with no licenses. Can I go on the field whenever I want? Because that's what I

108like to do for fun. So not necessarily. However, the field is supposed to be a community building opportunity for all of us. It's going to be a great home base for people. However, there is a sign-up system on the district website to reserve time slots that you can use if you want to schedule something with your friends, maybe a little practice, something along those lines. Yeah, and here's our last question. I heard this one for the first time today. Yeah, we have a lot of kids with some big school spirit. Since our turf is, since we now have turf. What did you say? Oh, I read that wrong. Since it's turf now and we can wash it, can we please use baby powder in the student section? No. You may not. Baby powder? So, I

109don't know if you guys know about this. This is a really big thing. This thing? Yeah, baby, no, like. Everywhere. Cans of baby powder just. We've been warned countless times you're going to get a detention. Like, you can't do it. It's terrible for everything. And the environment, people who have to inhale it, all of that. And so... You have to clean it up. Yep, yep. Who aren't the students. We've had confetti problems. We've had baby powder. We've had flour. Weird. But... Someone asked me today, can you use baby powder? No. I did my research, actually, after I heard that, and I found that baby powder is really, really difficult to remove from turf, and you also can't wash turf. I'm not really sure what that is. And there's also allergies that come into effect, so

110we need to consider those, and let's respect each other as well as this new field edition, and we're going to hold back and resort to clapping with our hands. Yeah. Okay. And... We also have, we understand the anticipation around the new field, but much like the, clearly kids are excited about it and excited to use it in different ways, but we have some rules. So Caitlin, do you want to read off those rules? Yeah, I can do that. Okay. I told her, I was like, these microphones are really sensitive. As with the MSAD 51 property, drugs and alcoholic beverages are prohibited. No smoking on any of our school grounds. This facility is no new exception. Teams and spectators are responsible to remove all trash and debris. Trash cans will be available for your use. Gum,

111sunflower seeds, sports drinks, and soda are not permitted on the field. All food and drink, excluding water, clear water, is limited for the concession area and bleachers. Confetti, powder, and all other projectiles are prohibited on or near the field. Artificial noisemakers such as, but not limited to, air horns, bull horns, and sirens are also not allowed. Dogs are not allowed on the turf field. No metal or screwing cleats are allowed. Access is open for maintenance and emergency vehicles only. I assume we meant the road on that, right? Hopefully. No unauthorized painting or marking on the field. Bikes, skateboards, hoverboards, and inline skates are prohibited on the field. And there's absolutely no unauthorized vehicles on the field. And I think that those will all be followed as we need to take care of this beautiful new

112addition to our campus and honor the respect that's been put in by the turf committee and specifically Jazzy for all of this research that he's put in and how much he truly cared about the turf field and how it's going to be. PFAS free. It's going to be recyclable by the time it graduates. And that means everything to the kids because we all really care about the environment and we're looking for new ways to help. So we're really grateful. Everyone else is really grateful and I'm hoping this is well received and that we won't have any issues. Thanks guys. Thank you so much for putting that together. One, just the energy and excitement that you've put into it, but also we just Hearing directly the students hearing directly from their peers about this new asset

113that we have and how to take care of it I think is just a great way to get the messaging out and I really appreciate I know as we talked through board meetings and over the summer just how Much responsibility you guys are wanting to take on around communication from the student perspective in general and I can continue to look forward to that So this is a great first piece. Thank you. Yeah any questions Okay. Yeah, yeah, go, Kim. How are the two of you planning to socialize these expectations from your peers? By not doing them. No, I'm just kidding. We're going to, this, yeah, this email, I think. will be included in probably a report or sent out to the student body. So that will be helpful. But also, I mean, we get questions

114like this a lot, which, I mean, Caitlin's only been on the board a few months now, but still you've been getting people ask us questions, which is really great because usually we know the answers, but sometimes we don't. But with stuff like this, I think that... providing a good example and setting a good example is what's most important, especially for underclassmen. So I think communicating that to our peers that are our age who are also role models will be helpful, and this email will be the first step in that. And have the two of you talk to team captains? I mean, are you making sure that you're getting some of, you know, different groups within the campus that can help you and come on board with you to then bring it out to their teams

115and their groups? Yeah, that's a really good idea. I know we talk to soccer a lot because we have peers who we're close with that are on both the boys' and girls' soccer teams, but I think that field hockey would be an important one to loop in on that and talk about how they're liking this new turf because I know that with field hockey, as you can speak to, Sarah, it's near impossible not to play on turf, and so I'm sure they're very excited about it, and I think that would be good to advocate for as well. Thank you. You guys are awesome. Thanks again. All right. Kim, finance. So Sean and I have prepared a question and answer. Frequently asked questions from the community. We are, Scott and I are finalizing our schedule. We

116are going to try to come up with a schedule for the year so that we are meeting more often, especially in the fall. That is not something that has typically been done, at least while I've been on the committee. So I hear the request to have meetings at a different time of day. Unfortunately, that doesn't work with everyone on the community, but some other, Other board members have also asked for us to consider having at least a couple meetings, especially during budget season, perhaps in the evening. So not all of our meetings will be that way, but Scott and I are talking about some possibilities to make it easier for people to attend. because obviously that is very important. As far as the fall, we will mostly be focused on getting up to date on

117quarterly reports and the fiscal year audit that has been concluded and was a very successful and affirming audit, which is fantastic, as well as beginning to look, this is just... sort of based on communal conversation and community. There's not a whole lot we can do for the budget before budget season really begins, but I think what we can do in the fall is really start looking at existing budget lines and looking to see how we can really dig in further and build more calluses to really see what we can start doing in the fall. I'm not saying this very well. That's that's my thank you All right, Jesse policy. All right before I talk policy I'm just want to put in a plug that we hot off the presses are gonna have our grand opening

118event for the turf field so community members can come walk around on it. There's going to be three games played. So it's going to be September 20th, sometime around 5, 530. We'll have the ceremony, but there's a boys soccer game earlier in the day. There's a field hockey game, and then there'll be a football game at night. And so hopefully we'll get lots of sports players, lots of community members out. To see what you guys paid for walk around see the kids having fun So hopefully people can show up to that and I just wanted to mention we also had G max testing done on the field Which is what protects you from concussions and our numbers came back Well well below the threshold So not only is it beautiful to play on Hopefully, we'll

119keep everybody safe and concussion free for the next 12 years plus So policy, I will be the new chair of the policy committee. It's handed over to me from Annika who did an amazing job last year. We have a very long list of policies to review. We have an ongoing spreadsheet and so we'll be starting with the high priority policies. We have a few medium priority policies and then we'll start. tackling policies that haven't been reviewed in over a decade. One of those policies happens to be policy DJ bidding purchasing requirements. And so I've moved that up to review at our next policy meeting, which will be next week. We have all of our meetings already scheduled for the entire year. So we'll be digging in to that next week and making sure that. that

120policy works for the way our district district operates make sure we have proper oversight at the proper level yeah and i'm really excited to have our new board member on the committee with me um yeah and we're looking forward to updating policies that need updating and taking a look at policies that haven't been looked at in a long time to make sure they are still relevant great thanks jesse All right, Tim, building facilities committee. All right. So this year, I anticipate last year was probably 70%, 80% new, like a building. committee and then 20-30 percent of facilities and I think this year will probably be the the inverse. There's been a lot of great work as kind of Jeff presented tonight. I tried to see some of it up close myself but then got stared

121down by a construction worker and ran away in fear. So I look forward to tomorrow to actually being permitted to go see some of that stuff. And then one thing that I didn't want to kind of let slide is some of what is most exciting for me almost in the whole turf project is what's underneath it. Literally what's being covered up is a lot of the drainage work that's been done and just kind of the leveling out of that space, which would have needed to be done regardless of that surface and will. benefit us long term as much as the field surface is. So I'm really excited just to see the whole thing and knowing what's under that as well. So this year I'm excited because I think our building work is going to require

122a lot of cross collaboration with finance, with curriculum. There's a lot of in the vision, the building community committee work. That required a lot of vision and idea and space around what we want to do in curriculum or finance a long-term plan So I'm looking forward to collaborating a little bit more closely with some of my fellow chairs And just making sure we're aligned on that and then tomorrow we are gonna have our first meeting It's the walk around and hopefully we can talk a little bit as a group the long-term plan Leanne and Jeff and I hopefully will talk very briefly high level of our facilities plan tomorrow just to kind of review that and get started on the right foot to make sure that we're all on the same page but I think

123it's I'm excited to get back to the one campus project checked off so many boxes of that long-term facilities plan and now it's like okay what's that next phase and what is some some of the stuff that we need to kind of review because there's still you know it's a lot of our tensions been put to to one baby and now it's time to give the rest of the campus a little bit more of a look as well so um should be a good year i'm very thankful for megan and sean being there and sarah to and anyone else the more the merrier i think we've when other board members came last year we benefited from that greatly i think we had some that almost all the board members were there so it felt like

124a full board meeting um so the more the merrier for sure okay great leanne I just wanted to say, me and Caitlin forgot during our student reports, but we had planned to, which this felt like the best time for it, but we had planned to give a little shout out because obviously we've been at the high school the past few days and it has never looked better. Like the outside looks amazing and the inside is even cleaner. It's beautiful. It's spotless. And there's nothing wrong. It's great. It looks so good. And I think that... We can shout out to all the work that has been put in here, but also to the custodians who are working hard at the high school. I think they're doing a really good job right now. Yeah, I totally agree

125with that. And I would also say that it's pretty easy for Katie and I to see that students can recognize and appreciate the behind-the-scenes work that we can see the custodians are putting in to make sure that we stay at school in a clean and sanitary learning environment. I think that's so important and not often talked about. And so I think that the fact that students are recognizing that and having the ability to speak about that and appreciate that is super huge. So we see it and we just wanted to put some recognition out there. Our facility's vision and mission is keep the place clean and maroon, apparently. We're doing pretty well. I do like that color. Yeah. There's a lot of maroon. There's a lot of maroon. Great. All right, Annika, curriculum. Okay, so

126as you all heard earlier this evening, the curriculum committee will play a key role in the strategic planning process that we are undertaking this year. And so I've been spending some time just wrapping my own head around what that might look like. And also Mari Treblecock and I met earlier this week. Mari is the director of academic services and the administrator on the curriculum committee. So we got together to chat both about what we would be doing as well as our meeting schedule and really will be discussing those things with the committee as well. We have a first meeting coming up next week. We did set a schedule for the year, but certainly our continuing conversations with committee members about... schedule timing as well as what we might need in terms of duration of meetings

127and As we look at the work that is in front of us making sure that we have an adequate amount of time to meet to do that work Currently our focus as I understand it is really going to be on gathering voices from the community Getting feedback on some of the draft priorities that have been worked on already by our leadership team and also finding out what areas we might be missing and certainly hearing conversation this evening in terms of the fiscal responsibility aspect that may be something that we end up hearing through the process of gathering voices through surveys and focus groups over the coming months. And we'll certainly want to be providing more information to folks about how you can provide your feedback and input to us but those are all things that

128the committee will take up starting next week and there are some other things that will also be on our agenda over the coming months as the curriculum committee from the pre-k plan that was previously discussed to mtss as i know jeff also mentioned the update of that multi-tiered systems of support plan, the literacy program, the scope and sequencing. And so some of that may be tied into certainly some of the strategic planning, but we'll also have some curriculum committee work that is happening. Alongside in parallel to a strategic plan. Yes The the curriculum committee is a much larger lift this year than I think it has in years past just because that's where this whole planning process is sitting So yes, thank you for taking this on and yes, there will be I think more

129than Typical curriculum committee meetings have had in the past just because it's being extended to this other effort As Anika was talking, I'm thinking, looking at the administrative representatives on the curriculum committee. I know this list is final, but I do wonder whether or not we should add a administrator or a member who was on the building committee last year from an administration standpoint, just to, if that is a priority to come to some of those meetings when we talk about. kind of the pre-K to K through two plan, second grade plan, K through one plan. Sorry, I'm just trying to bring up a copy of the committee list. I guess it was my understanding, and I haven't sat on curriculum, so I don't know this, is that Murray brings in other people. as needed

130yeah yeah i mean certainly other people can be brought in as needed and i certainly also wanted to emphasize that you know while curriculum committee is taking on some of this work that it's in collaboration with the leadership team continues to be in collaboration with the leadership team and with the full board yeah um so you know again we're starting with this piece of um figuring out what I think we'll end up being, you know, starting with the survey, moving into focus groups, that gathering voices aspect that we've talked about previously in terms of the process, but it will not be held exclusively within curriculum by any means. I mean, I just think it's a reminder if they have that for those people that were on as just kind of a content. like a continuity

131thing. They don't have to be full members, but like to invite them just as a reminder, I think makes sense. Yeah, I don't know how administrators typically get assigned. Would that be something that Marie would do? I would be handling assignments, but I can tell you that Julie Olson will be naturally part of that group. Yeah, she's listening. Just because she's in charge of the work group for pre-K and will be working closely with Annika and the curriculum committee. So that will be a natural piece. But I know in the past the curriculum committee. has invited many administrators have come teach many teachers have come and presented to the curriculum committee and the path is just like a regular regular piece that happens yeah thanks awesome okay equity Well, first of all, I neglected to

132say that I'm very excited that Jesse is joining us. I know you already brought that up, but that the Finance Committee is broadening. So very excited to have Jesse join us. And for the Equity Committee, I get two new members this year. We are saying goodbye to Annika, although equity work happens a lot in... Curriculum so I know that you the work that you did last year in the last two years with equity are really going to come out Through curriculum, but we get to welcome Lauren and Caitlin So I'm very excited to get us going I met also met with Marie this week and we came up with a tentative schedule so That should be published very soon as well as our goals for the year and our focus for the year So yeah,

133we'll be getting going soon Thanks, Kim Any ad hoc committee reports I'm gonna assume no, but just giving a chance to make that mention, okay Well, that brings us to the end of the regular agenda we do have motion now to enter into executive session to discuss land acquisition pursuant of state statute mrsa 405 6c can i get a motion so moved thank you megan can i get a second second all in favor Great. Thank you. This ends our public session section of the meeting. Thank you everyone to who came out today again, please Reach out if there was questions that didn't get answered tonight But we we look forward to hearing from you