001will not be allowed to continue. Before starting, please state your name and place of residence. Do we have anybody who um here for public comment tonight? eventually high school as well. But I'm going very fast all these universities in there but worse really embarrassing I just wanted to share with you tonight in December 2025 at judicial center in Wilbur Gordon there was plaintiff made some comments to the judge and complaints about the nature of my character and behavior in general. And the judge decided for and in favor of the plaintiff. And so I have been certified as a stalker in the state of Maine as of December 2025. And after that, I was talking to some of the professionals at the the court and they said, "Well, if you're going to try to get a
002class into the schools in Maine, it's going to be very tough, but not impossible, but you just you're going to have to share with them that fact. Maybe it will speed up the background in uh background investigation process. Maybe it won't, but hopefully it will. And have a very great 2026. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you. All right, moving into action uh or moving into superintendent proposals and updates. Looks like we have no action items tonight. We do have severalformational items starting with the New England Association of Schools and College NEAS report. Superintendent Robinson. >> Thank you. Um Principal Dr. Butler will provide the committee with an update on the um special progress report through NEAS uh regarding our accreditation. Thank you, Dr. Butler. a good time to reflect a little bit. Also
003scan ahead because accreditation like I said is a heavy lift. It does involve the committee involves public awareness certainly teaching uh students of course as well. So it's a lot. I've decided to just give you the uh soup to nuts uh with some flavor in there, what how we go about it and what we're looking forward to. So, uh NIASK is our accrediting body. NIASK is an acronym for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Schools seek to become accredited. Uh the NEAS regional accreditation, there are six across the country that roughly uh align to how we think of the states and regions, southeast, west, etc. They don't have a standard name but they have a a standard profile being the gold standard by which every 10 years a school opens itself up prior
004to a visit to a deep self-study across uh six or seven areas. Uh has a real long collaborative process. Looks forward to a site visit. uh and we are uh past year 7 into year 8 and looking forward to a 2028 reacredititation through NEAS. So again, NIASK is a New England Association School and Colleges. If you do the research, dig into this at all, you'll see that NIASK among the gold standard accredititors is uh considered the the top one. They're tough and they should be. They're the regional accrediting body for schools and colleges in New England. It's a uh I consider it an external check of process on a lot of different levels. It focuses on uh ultimately on school quality as measured by uh standards and indicators. Focuses on teaching, learning, leadership and resources.
005Get a little more detailed. I know the committee does have the report, but u we'll try to reinforce some things as we go out that are important takeaways. And ultimately it's a signal that uh that crest that leads the document is the most recently issued and only privately password protected access to the actual accreditation badge that you as an accredited school are given the opportunity to flash in various ways as a sign of your accreditation and having gone through a process with NES. So the cycle is 10 years. on hold. >> It's a 10-year process. We are past the seven-year mark. Um uh so the process includes comprehensive self-study. Our last one went for 15 months. So that would put us, if we're preparing for 2028, it would put us in the middle of maybe
006at the end of this school year, but certainly into the fall of next school year, uh launching into the self-study. It's committee driven. There's teacher leadership. You're asked to have a process by which you select people in cross uh cross departments and across roles in schools to constitute committees that take not only an insider look at one's own content but uh through the lens of multiple people who share their work at the school but in different segments of the curriculum or different segments of the building. So uh the comprehensive self-study is uh in my time boys my memory is probably not as sharp as it used to be but uh we were right teetering on the point where NEAS was as all organizations do they migrate from pen and paper to more digital upload that
007NAS I recall us being on the sort of paper and pencil end on the self-study and migrating into the um into the portal upload etc as it came time to submit, interact with the organization post visit and con and file uh reports, interim reports that I'll give a little more detail on later. But ultimately it leads to uh the language has changed somewhat. They call it a collaborative conference. It used to be a a site visit where you literally you have all this work on display. You have the school uh ready to receive a body of people who come literally from classrooms across New England. Most of them uh in my experience last time was all uh teachers from Maine that have various backgrounds, various uh experiences within the school and they come to your
008school are assigned on the site visit at the direction of a a uh a chair of your NEAS accreditation committee are assigned roles and then undertake their review work over a period of four days in consultation with the school. There's an invitation uh sort of a welcoming by the school committee. There's opportunities to interact with pleasantries and all the good good things that human beings do. Uh and then you get right into it over four pretty intense self-study days that results ultimately in a report. Uh accreditation is not just a one-time thing. It's intended to be revisited. In the most recent seven-year report, there was, you know, I read it with a little like, was it ever in question? The committee has decided to continue your accreditation. You don't lose it. It's not like you
009come out the other side with any metric that says you're A+, B minus. It is you are accredited. Every school has things they need to work on. Every school has things they do well. uh and it's the perspective and and experience of the ask to look at those things critically and to give you actionable uh steps uh that you follow up with through a five and seven year report and of course action on the school level. So again we had our review in 2018. It's a 10-year cycle. We had a 15-month uh self-study. We have broad participation from faculty, administrators, committee members, district leaders, uh the school committee. Again, a big hall. You put a lot into you, you want to put a good show on. You want to have a show your best. And
010that's to me that's been what's the most rewarding part of the NEAS process. You know, what do they say? The carpenters's house is never finished. When you walk around the school, I'm reminded when I walk around the school and I'm asked to show people things that they want to see as evidence of good practice or innovation, whatever it is. It's nice to be reminded and and find ways to relate to people who are visiting looking for quality, pointing them to quality. So, uh that'll be repeated as we prepare for a couple years from now. uh you know the outcome in 2018 was we were reacredited and it is a comprehensive process it ended in a 104 page report I read every word it goes to the committee it gets parked on the website it's consulted
011as you know that report comes with accommodations comes with needs and priorities sometimes those things are concrete such as look at your cafeteria Consider new spaces where the nurse might work. Think of these layout things up to and include what's your vision of a graduate. What evidence do what evidence can you show us that you're personalizing learning? How can you show us and demonstrate in a relatively large school? How you're streamlining instruction and how you're keeping things comparable and balanced. Um so it's a comprehensive report. It's again guides the followup and focuses on uh these standards. They put them in two large buckets. Teaching and learning and support and resources. Teaching learning has to do with your core values. The expectations for learners. How written curriculum and active curriculum. Actual instruction and how students are
012assessed. And then on support resources, what's your culture? What's your school culture and leadership? what resources that's that's where you'll see on the resources for learning they'll they'll look at things like infrastructure and a good living example I wasn't at the high school at the time but sometime at the end of um in the '9s the last accreditation in the 1990s there was concern about the quality of the science classrooms there was concern about some elements of age of the building that resulted in a pretty fast-tracked renovation that resulted in new science labs the the uh telescope scope, the catwalk that connected the two wings, the extension of awing and created sort of all of the flow with some updates and things that I believe is the impetus of that was accreditation saying hey you
013you really should look at these things. Um so those are the standards. Uh as I shared the you know the point of the report is obviously to commend good practice and to encourage a look relative to standards and expectations broadly. Uh how could you be better? The strengths were clear. They identified clear shared core values and strategic direction of the schools. There was identification of access. That was a key theme that keep coming up. broad access to rigorous and diverse courses and learning and academic programming. They saw evidence of really strong engagement of students inside and outside of the classroom. They saw a positive safe school culture emphasizing the sense of belonging. There it is. and um and responsibility and uh practices that not only scheduled uh courses well but in a way that focused
014on access uh student access and u long-term outcomes. So, we were pleased with that academic program highlights. They had they uh paid a lot of attention and it's it's still remarkable the high school uh advanced placement honors and dual enrollment opportunities at that time even since the 2018 report. Uh the number and of availability of ability for students to access dual enrollment courses has quadrupled at least. And so uh that was just kind of burgeoning when when they did their last visit and we sort of we had a lead on that. We had done a lot of work with uh rural schools rural rural u bridge year. A lot of those things were fledgling and now later they've proliferated to the point where we have seven uh in-house dual enrollment courses at the high school.
015That's a high number. I don't have any comparator but it's a good number for us. And uh so that's something that we built on. Uh they were pleased with the career in CTE all those pathways pathways to UTC how available it is made and how frequently it's accessed. They uh paid a lot of attention to the academy programs. At that time it was STEM and I think STEM and visual performing arts and since then we've added uh business and the humanities academy on that same model. uh they saw that at school within the school as a really positive thing and they cited high engagement of students in co- extracurricular activities was a was a highlight in terms of needs theme-based wanted more as always um improved consistency in documentation of the curriculum across departments they
016wanted us to look at fully implementing crosscurricular rubrics that were in development at the time uh assessments and those rubrics they wanted uh they encouraged us to look at expanding uh interdisciplinary and crosscontent collaboration courses while also maintaining a focus on that idea of one of our hallmarks which is equitable access as programs grow and very specifically we consulted the NEAS document when we took a review of STEM after eight years. It was our original, you know, it was our original academy. We had a good amount of data where we were saying these are the these are the issues that we're seeing with access. How do we do a better job of on-ramping students? How do we do better of making it accessible to students and supporting them, persisting through the program? So, that's one
017way in which the accreditation uh highlights an idea and encourages you to continue and review through that lens. So, uh, in terms of followup, there's a, uh, in terms of follow-up, there's a requirement that you file periodic progress reports. They sort of tear out their recommendations, uh, tier out over time the the indicators they'd like you to address first. uh they you address them, you put them through your systems of communication and whatever you're doing in your school to respond to them in writing in the portal at 5 years. At seven years, same thing. Schools are expected to address the recommendations over time, including those reports and uh seek resolution of the indicators or the things they thought were were necessary or highlighted as needs or possibilities for growth when the team visited and they're
018really a road map for improvement uh with the lens and the experience that NAS brings to your school. So key takeaways I would say for tonight are we're a fully accredited NASCAR. We have the badge. I have proprietary rights to the NEAS logo and I display it proudly on our letterhead. Uh the the review affirmed a lot of good things that we have strong practice across all NEAS standards. Every school has something they can work on. We've been working on those. We'll continue to do so. uh you know the idea of being accredited and open yourself up with depth and commitment like we do is that um we're transparent that we have trust of organizations we value an external check and we value the time to look at ourselves critically and barring any need either
019on the part of NEAS or the high school or the district uh will prepare beginning perhaps at the end of this year but certainly into next school year pulling together the committees to do the uh do the self study and the reason I reference that is uh we were actually our last cycle 2018 was supposed to have been conducted in uh NAS asked us a couple of times hey do you mind putting it off do you mind putting it off okay uh and then we asked one time and I don't recall the specific reason but there was there was a good bonafide reason for us to say can we do this in another year? I'm not thinking along those lines right now personally from my perspective the high school but uh what we've done is
020uh we've had leading into the accreditation uh the self-study we get flooded with requests from the to send teachers on visiting teams and we'll do that within the first within about two or three years out. So I have a teacher who was requested. We're debating, discussing about that teacher going, but certainly we got to we got to be good neighbors. They do need people who who are experienced and willing. And it also informs your own work at your school preparing for the logistics of the visit, but it's also a good idea to a good way to steal some cool ideas and, you know, refresh the lens and all that stuff. So looking forward to it. I did list on back the sources. All right. Well, there it is right there. Uh sources that I use
021is pretty pretty simple, straightforward. Be happy to answer any questions you have. >> Thank you, Dr. Butler. Any questions from the committee? >> Member Luciano. >> Um thank you so much for this presentation. Um I had a quick question if we are using any of those findings in preparation with the strategic planning. So any of those suggestions or implementation, you could look at those maybe in conjunction with that and just see if there's an opportunity to incorporate those. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Member Cook. >> Dr. Butler mentioned that this is a comprehensive process. This is a very heavy lift for everyone in the school community. Um but it's a very valuable process. Um, and so I'm wondering with the um commendations and recommendations that are made, does the district or does the high school
022work with um maybe um a regional organization like prep to access other districts understanding that you know every context is different but to understand what their strengths are and then provide our expertise where you know we're really thriving so that if you know if they're if they have a strength in developing those rubrics. We might be able to, you know, have someone come and present on that or something or other. >> Okay. >> I mean, uh, Kathy does a great job, Dr. Harris Senberg does a great job of leading us in those directions. You know, a fresh pair of eyes. U experiences of a school have a strong connection with all the principles in the region. We probably don't meet enough, but uh there's great spirit in that way. And there's I would say from
023our perspective a good good attitude toward the work of others and how it can help us. So would be certainly be open to that. >> Any other questions from the committee member speed? >> Yes. Thank you uh Dr. Butler for the presentation and and to the teachers and staff at Bangor High School for all the hard work and and I'm sure students had a lot of participation as well. Yeah. So I know teaching uh in the Ellsworth schools um as part of the technical center there, we were part of the main state um you know accreditation process and I know Ellsworth High School did um the the NISK process as well and I know how extensive it is and how much work goes into it. 18 months of preparation is incredible. Um and I love
024what you said about how you know giving back to the process and how much you can learn from that. I know when I had a chance to visit other technical centers, I just learned so much just from seeing other classrooms, other programs. Um so I love I love that that learning is happening and ongoing. Um one of the one of the things provided in our packet was a letter um you know from a from a recent revisit, right? So, October of this uh 2025 and they had a chance to kind of review some of the things that you know the improvements that you're working on and and a couple of the things that the commission was pleased uh to see which was I was excited as well was the uh deliberate steps taken to improve
025grading and reporting consistency across identical courses as well as the personalization that is now uh viewed by the professional staff as differentiated responsive teaching that connects curriculum outcomes to individual students. readiness, interest and learning profiles. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about those two things and and what was Yeah, go ahead. >> Couple of substantive things we had done that personalized things for the first time. I guess it was 2017, we surveyed students around some of our core classes. They had pretty standard sequential English curriculum for example, you know, multiple genres, American lit, British lit, world lit. So we we surveyed students about what themes they were interested in, how would that inform how we might uh adjust our classes so they were more relevant to them and draw more
026engagement. So I think personalizing in that way even though it doesn't meet the technical you know cross referencing to the standard I think it speaks to that also speaks to personal learning plans and counselors and the role students play in mapping out their courses based on interest and post-secondary plans. uh in terms of NES language uh they want to see that there is a vision of a graduate. What do they need to know and be able to do? How does each content area define those and assess those skills? How much time do they have to really look at individual student learning? Is it scheduled time? How structured is it? And how related is it to actual points of assessment in the curriculum? uh you know the whole idea is that personalization certainly has a broad
027meaning but in some ways it usually has a connotation of okay this learning is not relevant this student isn't thriving what needs to happen differently so in that case it means we made some specific decisions about our common core element writing assessments four types you know we were all when we launched them we were gung-ho we're going to get all kids to the mountaintop And it's a little scary because, you know, you look halfway through and you see a number of students in the sophomore year who are still lagging a little bit on some of those core embedded writing tasks. And we said, well, that's evidence that we've written good assessments. It's evidence that we need to consider that not every student's going to get there on the same timeline. So, we need to look
028at ultimately what's the four-year run. What can we glean? They spoke to more collaboration across teachers of like courses, common common final exam or semester exam, common assessment in terms of cross table four or five teachers who teach algebra. What are your students struggling with? How are you or should we do we need to adjust the semester exam? Those are the things that they're speaking to that every student that there is a system set up not only to engage kids but there are there's a language and there's a routine and a bigger picture about which students are thriving which students need more and um that there's an orchestrated effort around those things. So I think that speaks to the the comments from the last that was the seven-year report that they were responding to. >>
029Okay, great. >> Thank you. That's wonderful. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Dr. Butler. All right. Next, we have the superintendence update. Superintendent Robinson, >> thank you. Um, so you do have a copy of my report um in your packets. Uh, prior to our break, we did have several um performances um all very successful. Um, we have hired our um, school-based behavioral specialist. She'll be starting in February, so there'll be more information on that. Um, that was connected to the opioid settlement grant um, that we're doing a number of different things with. Um, at this point, I don't want to steal our student representatives updates at all, but I know that they are preparing for midterms. That's all I'm going to say. In terms of the school department, uh we are continuing
030with the Beyond the Bell podcast. Um it's going very well. We were um fortunate to have someone come from the DOE and we're trying to expand outward but also look inward. So um upcoming we are looking at um gathering staff members who may want to be involved. Um we did have principles at least one and there'll be more, don't worry. Um more to come. Um, but it's going well. Uh, the Bangor bulletin, um, I've added to that doing a monthly student edition. Um, I feel like it's been really challenging getting to the schools regularly and really being able to have some, um, deep conversations or at least, you know, more conversations with um, students. So, I thought one way to do that would be to create a um, video for students. So that went out
031to uh fourth through um seniors and hopefully they'll get to know me a little better and then we can have that connection when I come into the schools. Uh the communicay um everyone has a prototype copy um here tonight. Um so that's what it looks like printed. Uh the booklets are um going to be placed when they're all finished in the um areas that are listed in the report. So, we have a number of different locations in and around the city so that they are available um in print form and then of course we have the digital um the digital uh version that goes out for folks to look at. We are deep into the FY27 budget process. Um, I've been meeting with administrators along with our director of business um to review budgets and
032start to make those decisions and put together for our February 11th um workshop. Our school-based health clinics um they have been providing us with a monthly update. So, in December, they shared with us that um since September of last year, we've had an increase in enrollments. And um you can see those increases there from 24 to 63% pretty significant. Um there is still a wait list for mental health services as of early December. We are working on um and have solidified the process for digital report cards and that will happen for quarter 2 coming up here shortly uh for middle school and high school and paper copies will be available upon request. Dr. Dr. Harris Medberg is currently working with our prek teachers to incorporate an increase of time outdoors. Um, and we're connecting that
033to our science curriculum uh with a partnership uh through main autobon. Um headed to the MSMA winter convocation which is our winter meeting for superintendent tomorrow. Um and of course continuing to monitor uh federal changes. Happy to answer any questions that anyone has. >> Any questions from the committee? Members speak. >> I I really appreciate the uh the publication here. Communique, right? Commission. >> Communique. >> Communic. Yes. Longstanding pre It predates me and I don't know. >> It does. Okay. >> Everyone here probably. >> Great. Well, thank you >> on the committee at least >> except Ben. >> I'm sorry. Except >> Except Okay. >> It came to every house in the city, >> I think. So, wow. And where does it go now? >> We have it st um right now it's going out
034digitally to everyone. >> Okay. >> Um and then we have the actual copies listed that I listed in my report where we place them around the city. >> Cool. So who's who's the audience for this public? >> The whole community. >> So young, old. >> Absolutely. >> K through 12 to retired. >> Birth through 99 I would say. >> Yeah. >> Nothing against the hundred year olds that are out there. Um, >> plus. >> So, um, I'm curious, um, uh, Chair Surret, do we have any sort of newsletter similar to this or do we ever take a corner of this? Like, is there ever has there ever been an iteration where the the the school committee actually uses a similar format or a corner of the communique to to communicate with the the community? >>
035It's a great question. >> Yeah, it's a good question. I don't think so is my answer. I'm not positive but I I don't believe there's been a a a space where the school committee itself has communicated something but >> yeah might be something >> interesting idea >> explore. Yeah. >> Okay. Cool. Thank you >> member Spre. Uh I would just add the audience I think is the community at large really. It's not just this people with kids in the schools. It's the whole community because the community funds the school department but also there's many people who have a interest in what's going on in the schools. Either they are alumni themselves or they're just interested in what's happening in the schools. So I think this whatever the cost of this, it's worth its return on
036investment many times over by getting our story and our narrative out into the community. And I think I'm glad to see this kind of making its return. And as I did mention, I think it went out distributed citywide at one point. And I'm sure there's cost to that, but um I think that we should try to get this out aggressively. And I don't know if there's a way to like partner with the Bangor Daily News. You some people, many people still do get a print subscription to the Bangor Daily News and it could be included as an insert potentially. I'm sure there's logistics of packing it that I'm not sensitive to that they might push back on, but uh if we could think of creative ways to get this out, uh it's worth its weight
037in gold for sure to have people know what's going on and to feel positive about it. Thank you. Any other questions on superintendent's update? Right. Thank you. Next we have a report of reassignments. Superintendent Robinson. >> I'm reporting the following reassignments. Jocelyn York from occupational therapist at.5 Mary Snow School and.5 Fairmount School to Occupational therapist at.5 Mary Snow School 4 Fairmount and 0.1 James F. Dowy School. >> Thank you. Uh next we have report of resignations. Superintendent Robinson. >> I'm reporting the following resignations. David Morris, head co head football coach, Bangor High School. Daniel Mayo, director at the Bangor Regional Program. >> Thank you. And we have report of retirements. Superintendent Robinson. >> I'm reporting the following retirements uh for the end of the school year 2025 2026 unless otherwise noted. Jeffrey Fehee, physical education,
038Bangor High School. Robert Gold, physical education, Bangor High School. And that's for uh January 16, 2026. Susanna Owen, English, Bangor High School. George Redmond, music, Bangor High School. Mary Sue Schilling, French, Bangor High School. Uh certainly, um a lot of expertise and years listed here. I don't know all of them very well, but I've had the pleasure to meet them briefly and um really will be a loss with the retirements, but they've put in a lot of a lot of great years. >> Yes, I'll just echo that and say, you know, thank you so much to these retirees and and congratulations. Thank you for all of your service. >> Moving on to business action items. Uh first is minutes from the regular meeting of December 10, 2025. Superintendent Robinson. >> I'm recommending approval of the
039draft minutes of the December 10th, 2025 regular school committee meeting. >> I have a motion. >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> 70. Thank you. I'm sorry. 6. Thank you. I knew I was. >> And we have a personnel nomination. We have a teacher nomination for the 2526 school year. Superintendent Robinson, >> I would like to recommend the following uh teacher nomination for 2025 2026 with a one-year probationary contract. And I am going to ask um Principal Swat to just share a few words. We have our candidate here um Derek Jandro. We do have a few words um about Mr. Jandro. He is a um recent graduate of the University of Maine Farmington where he also played baseball and soccer there. Um he has he was born and raised
040in Hamden. Some of you may actually know his mom. Um she works for Parks and Wreck here in Bangor. Um Debbie Jandro. Um, Derek is a fabulous teacher. I have not known him for very long, but he brings light and energy everywhere he goes. From the moment he walked through the door, um, I just knew from his energy that he would be a fabulous fit at Bine Street School. Um, he comes with glowing recommendations. Um he recently student taught at Jameson Elementary School in Old Orchard Beach. And when he spoke about interviewing at um Mine Street School for this position, the building administrator immediately called me and offered his recommendation for him. So um I knew he was just going to be an amazing he he just glowed with how wonderful he was. He student
041taught in a resource room um and special ed is his passion. Um based on his recommendations and as I get to know him more he has started and just has jumped on board helping everywhere doing everything um including helping with substituting today. So, um I know that his positive attitude, um his excitement for learning, he's so eager to learn, um and his passion for teaching, it's he's just going to be a benefit to all of Vine Street School's staff and students. So, >> thank you for that. And I would echo um I met with um Mr. Jandro um prior to his uh offer and um felt the same. Very impressive. >> Great. Thank you. Um, we have a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> 6. Thank you.
042>> Congratulations, Mr. John Row, and we are very happy you're here. >> Welcome officially. >> All right. Next, we have um extra duty assignments. Superintendent Robinson. >> I'm recommending the following extra duty assignments. Adam Caspella, B, baseball coach, William S. Cohen School. Corey Dion, A softball coach, William S. Cohen School. Walker Lens, track coach, James F. Dowy School. Dan Donald McDaniel, soft a softball coach, James F. Dowy School. I have a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor >> 6L. Thank you. >> All right, moving on to donations. Uh, committee member Sprag will share the following donations. >> Thank you. There are quite a few, so please stand by. To Abraham Lincoln School from Golden Key Honor Society, University of Maine, warm gear for students, $200. to Abraham Lincoln
043School from My New Shoes Program. Gloves, snowpants, and boots for students. $300 to Downey School from Bangor Savings Bank. Snacks, hats, and gloves to support students. $300 to Vine Street School from CNL Aviation. Holiday gifts for families, $675 to Vine Street School from Bangor Savings Bank. Hats, gloves, sweatpants, and snacks having a total dollar value of $550. To Fruit Street School from David Tara, gloves and boots to support students, $180. To Fairmont School from Main Savings, campaigned to end hunger, a check for the backpack program having a total dollar value of $1,259.87 to Mary Snow School from Bangor Walmart, boxes of crayons to support students having a total dollar value of $450. To Mary Snow School from Hannerford Help Schools, a cash donation to support students, $45 to William S. Cohen School from Marlene and
044Frank Susi, a cash donation to support students through the holidays, $250 to William S. Cohen School from Beth and Arc Treaties, a cash donation to support students through the holidays. $250 to William and To William S. Cohen School from Ralph and Shantel Holmes. A cash donation to support the food pantry. $200 to William S. Cohen School from Ralph and Chantel Homes, a cash donation to support students during the holidays. $100 to William S. Cohen School from Trisha Martin. A cash donation to support the food pantry. $100 to William S. Cohen School from Danielle Thompson Fund. A cash donation to support students. $200 to William S. Cohen and Mary Snow Schools from CA Straouden Sons. A cash donation to support the holiday program. $200 to William S. Cohen School from Sheila Wood. Winter boots for students
045$100 to William S. Cohen School from Dalen Roderick. Gift cards for the holiday program $150 to William S. Cohen School from Paula H. Hotton. A cash donation for the holiday program. $100 to William S. Cohen School from Shantel Holmes. Gift cards for the holiday program. $200 to William S. Cohen School from Steven and Dana Ratano. Gift cards for the holiday program. $200 to James F. Dudy School from Buchard and Suns towing toys, bikes, and jackets to support students having a total dollar value of $2,500 to the Bangor School Department from Fruit Street School. Grocery donations to support the shop at school food drive. $150 to the Bangor School Department from the Abraham Lincoln School community. Grocery donations to support the shop at school food drive. $1,400 to Bangor School department from Fairmont School PTO. Grocery
046donations to support the shop at school food drive. $500 to the Bangor school department from Shelley O' Carey. A cash donation to support the shop at school food drive. $100 to Bangor school department from Ruth Gell. A cash donation to support the shop at school food drive. $100 to the Bangor school department from Sher Benson and siblings in memory of be McGrath. A cash donation to support the shop at school food drive. $120 to the Bangor School department from Laura Otis and family. Canned goods and toiletries to support the shop at school food drive. $250 to the Bangor School department from Dr. Claire Mandell and Dr. Bill Wood. Food and a cash donation to support the shop at school food drive. $200 to the Bangor School department from Anonymous. A cash donation to support the
047shop at school food drive. $200 to the Bangor school department from Angela and Aaron Domina. a grocery donation to support the shop at school food drive having a total dollar value of $240 to the Bangor school department from Anonymous. Five $20 gift cards to support the food drive. $100 to the Bangor School department from Anonymous. A Hannerford gift card to support the school food drive. $100. And lastly, to the Bangor School Department from Eric Stout and the airport mall Hannerford team, a gift card to support the shop at school food drive, $191. With gratitude, I would move acceptance. >> Thank you. Can we have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? Wait. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Me. >> Technicality. Robert, I think it's just a rules of order thing that mero carry
048should abstain because she's included. It's silly, but I just think >> silly. I get it. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Yep. All those opposed. Any abstensions? >> 51. Thank you. >> All right. Wonderful. And I I just I want to also, you know, express gratitude to our school community. Uh and this this kind of generosity is really a source of strength uh for our for our schools. Thank you. All right. Moving along to introduction items. We have first reading of revised policies. Uh, may we take these? Is the committee open to taking these all together? >> Okay, Superintendent Robinson. >> Thank you. I'm recommending the first reading of revised policies. Revised policy, EFF, meal prices. Revised policy GDB10, Educational Technology Staff Compensation Guide. Revised Policy, ICA, 2026,
0492027, school calendar. Revised policy IHBG, homeschooling. Revised policy IHBGA, homeschooling, participation in school programs. Revised policy KBF, parent involvement in title one. >> Can I get a motion? >> Some moved. >> Seconded. >> Any discussion? Member Speed. >> Yeah, my first question was on uh the policy on meal prices. Just curious, you know, why does this why does the price of the meal have to be included in the policy? >> Typically, we uh align our policies to MSMA which have the um sample policies and we follow that. So, that's our typical process. I'd have to look into it if that could be removed or why does it need to be added? >> Yeah, that's what I'm curious about like is this something that comes up every year every time it is it increased every year?
050>> It's an annual typically an annual increase. >> Okay. So it's something that comes before the the committee of regular. >> Yes. >> But it's possible that it could be taken out and just become a part of operations >> possibly. But I don't >> Yeah, we would have I'd have to look into that. >> Okay. also members uh member Cook >> and I I am seeking a little bit more information from food service on um I understand the cost of milk is related to be because we don't get that federal reimbursement. Um, but I am wondering if food service could provide us with some information around um if there's any food waste generated from students learning that if they get a meal, they could get the milk without having to pay for the milk. So,
051just trying to understand if there's food waste generated um and how we might be able to deal with that or what that looks like in other places. Yeah, there there are um there is composting happening at least at one of our schools. So um that's going on at 14th and um we are looking into a partnership that is going to support the food waste. So I can get more details. I don't have the specific details of that but I can certainly do that. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> I actually have a a question um related to the 2627 school calendar. I just had a few uh folks from school community reach out to me over the last few weeks and ask about the school calendar and just curious they're curious about what the
052process looks like for determining the school calendar. Um I was wondering if maybe you could share just a little information on that. >> Absolutely. Um the school calendar is something that's done regionally. So um we connect with those that go in the that are in the Penquist region um and also work with um UTC and the rule that we all that needs to be followed is there can't be more than five dissimilar days. So we do our best to align to those. Uh we take into consideration of course the 175 days that are required and looking at start time and end time. Um, and then, uh, one one note I will add for this calendar is we did increase, um, and add a half an early release day based on the, um, success that we've
053had this year. Uh, we've added one in January um, for next year. >> Thank you. Any other questions from the committee about these policies? Member Speed. >> Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the calendar. That's something that matters a lot to a lot of people. Um and so um is it is it common for school to begin before the holiday in September? >> It's not common. Um it depends upon when it falls. So what we've looked at here um is that you know Labor Day falls on September what is it the 8 uh the 7th. So when we look at that and we count the days out it puts us late in June without any snow days. So that's the consideration there and that's the reasoning behind um starting we try to keep it right
054into September not in August but um that's the reasoning if Labor Day is late >> right I know in Ellsworth it was always the Blue Hill Fair was really the start of the school year but the um you know other question I had was number of days is that required to be on the calendar or is it is it common practice to have the number of student days on the calendar? >> Um do you mean the in parenthesis there the number of student days? uh just on the calendar at somewhere at the bottom or the total >> in each month a total number >> because we're at 175. >> That's what we're required to have. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Mhm. Yeah. As as my experience, it's been on there. It's always on there. Student days.
055>> Okay. >> Great. >> Any other questions regarding the policies? >> Member Speed, go ahead. So, um I'm I'm curious about the educational technology compensation guide. This is policy GDB uh 10. Um travel reimbursement. Who who has travel reimbursement covered under this agreement because there's several positions that are under the agreement. >> It depends upon conferences. So, if someone goes to a conference, they're reimbursed for the travel up to a certain amount as it's listed there. This mirrors our uh support staff, our other contracts. So, um this was something that we recently discussed kind of under the umbrella of hiring and retaining our highquality staff because we want to encourage um you know that continuous learning and if they have to go somewhere, we look to reimburse that within reason. >> So, it's not just
056the computer technicians, it's anybody under this agreement. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Cool. Any other questions? All right. Uh, I had one more question. Yeah, please go ahead. >> Um, so looking at the looking at the homeschooling policy, I was wondering there's there's two policies there. And so I'm I'm reading through the the first reading of these and I had a couple of questions. One is why are they two policies and not one? And then and then secondly, if I could have a summary of the second one because there's a lot of language that has struck out and a lot of language that is added and without seeing them side by side, it can be a little bit hard to >> Absolutely. I would just ask um Dr. Harris Medberg to join in there with
057this one. I wasn't in attendance at the last policy committee meeting. Um but the the reasoning for the two is we're aligning all of our policies to MSMA's policies. So when they have two, we are adjusting ours to mirror that um just for legal and um streamlining purposes. But the summary, I'm going to ask Dr. Harris Medberg to speak to that. I don't think there's a lot of changes there. There really aren't a lot of changes. We're just aligning with MSMA. Um and I did ask why there are two different ones and they address two different parts. So, um, and there's so many strikeouts in the second one because that mirrors the one that we originally had. >> No, go ahead. Um, so and and so why does it have to be two? Why can't
058it be one? >> We're just trying to align them to the MSMA guidance. So MSMA provides policy guidance to all schools in Maine and there had been a lot of discrepancies that we noticed as we were going through the policies in terms of the letter identification as well as whether there was one or two policies or sometimes there was a you know one overarching policy and then there were two additional supporting policies. Um these are all vetted through Drummond and Woodsome. So as a uh committee last year we started this work to align with MSMA uh to ensure that we are in compliance with the law and the guidance from the attorneys >> and what is the function of both of the policies. >> Well the policies are to support homeschool families and understanding >>
059but there's a separation of the two. I'm just wondering if you could summarize and maybe somebody from the policy committee could just educate. >> Sure. Maybe. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, so first of all, there doesn't have to be two policies. Oh, sorry. I wasn't recognized. >> Oh, >> I'm the only one here. >> Please, member O'Kee, please. >> There doesn't have to be two policies. Um, it's just Beex best practices since we're a member of the MS um MA um to have our policies mir mirrored mirror theirs. Actually, that was a point of discussion at our policy meeting like why is there two? One of the reasons um is because as you can see there, um if there were one, it would be um more difficult to read. So separating them into two policies um
060makes it easier for uh perhaps you know a parent to find the information that they're looking for. Um they do have two different head headers. So one um talks about um the generality of homeschooling. The other one I can't remember the title um talks more specific. I I did ask um the second policy seemed more like a regulation. Um but we actually asked MSMA and they gave an explanation as to why they have two as a policy. I can read what they say. They said these documents were coded this way um as policies because they address different aspects of homeschooling. Um IHBA is focused on setting up the homeschool experience and making sure that there is a meaningful learning and assessment quality um assurance um as you can say. Um while the HI I excuse
061me IHBGA is about the rights of the students to access um public school opportunities to extend or complement their homeschooling. So that's why there's two separate policies, but but we did have that discussion to be like, well, maybe we could combine them. And of course, we could um because we're not mandated to have two separate policies, but it makes sense, best practice to have um the two separate policies for ease of search as well as to mirror the MSMA's um uh their coding system. >> Thank you. Member Okiri, member speak. Okay, so just so just to make sure I understand. So one is really about um and and and this is I encourage folks to go on our website. We have these policies on the website and so homeschooling families can go on and >>
062and they can see that, you know, one policy is about the expectations of homeschool families >> and the other really is about um extracurricular interaction and what their opportunities are are, you know, so it's kind of like academic and then the second policy is a little bit more about uh extracurricular interaction. Is that correct? Not >> sorry. Member Cury, you >> I mean that's one way to summarize it. Yes. But you if you really want to know what it say, you know, you read the policy. But yeah, that's a good way of summarizing it. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I actually want to just anecdotally share. My son was homeschooled when we moved to Bangor. moved to the the Bangor school system and um and uh as we were transitioning, he actually had the chance to
063uh be a part of the Cohen school and still feel a part of the community and and and visit the school, visit the teachers, get support from the teachers. Uh the curriculums that were shared were immensely helpful uh to him as a homeschool child. And then also, you know, I can say uh the tour that was given to my son Noah was incredible. uh the principal, Mr. Miss Brener, gave the tour and and still asks about Noah to this day to his name. And I'm just incredibly impressed that the staff in the Bangor school department supports homeschool families um whether in the classroom curriculum wise, but also extracurricular. Um so I think it's fantastic. I'm curious how many homeschool children interact with extracurricular activities within Bangor schools. >> I can definitely get that number. Um,
064I know we have around 160 students right now that are in some form of homeschooling. Um, the level of participation is not something that I have um off the top of my head, but I can find out. >> Nice. Thank you. >> Member Cook, did you want to jump in here? I was just going to say that at the bottom of the policy there's um a reference to statute and you can probably if you look at the statute references you can probably see that it's chunked based on the statute. So there's like compulsory attendance and and assessment and so that I I assume that's probably why it's chunked in the way that it is. Gotcha. >> Any other questions on these policies? Member speed. So, I mentioned that these policies are on our website. Are
065are they easy to search? >> Yes. >> So, you can type in the search bar on our website homeschooling. >> Yep. >> And it will come up. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Our um as a member of the policy committee, it's my practice to while we're in the meeting to search the policy to see if I can find it. And we found that, you know, there were some missing links and whatnot. And we corrected that. But um Dr. um Speedberg um Harris Pegberg corrected it within a couple days. So it's it's actively being monitored. >> That's perfect. Nice. >> Any other questions on these policies member speed? So on equivalent instruction policy IH BGA um and uh so section 8 uh if and when the school unit does not provide academic instruction for specific grade
066levels the following applies for students enrolled in an approved program of equivalent instruction. So, and and it goes into class participation and tuition payment, participation uh eligibility, intercgalactic activities. Can can can we provide an example of what this looks like? So, just paint a picture for me. What what does this actually uh look like? >> So, this is on pa this is on page 44 of the school packet. Uh it's um equivalent instruction policy IHBGA and it's uh section 8. So standards for participation when tuition payment to another unit is required. I just wanted to get my arms around this like what is this what does this look like? >> My my section 8 says um mandated educational assessments. I'm not sure if we're looking at the same thing. Okay. >> Oh, 13. Oh, 13.
067>> Sorry. >> Okay. >> My mistake. Thank you. >> There's a lot in here to kind of summarize. Can is this something that I can just follow up with you on after some deeper discussion with uh Dr. Harris Medber? >> Yeah, I just want to get get an idea. Yeah, this is first reading. So, I just want to before we do a second reading. >> Absolutely. >> I can give you a quick example. So, like if there is um like they don't offer football, they do have the option to go to another school to be able participate in that. Um if there you know if there are things that are not offered there is an opportunity to go somewhere else to provide those opportunities. Any other questions on the policies member speed? >> Yeah. So
068uh I'm looking at uh the last question I promise. uh parent involvement in title one programming uh policy KBF. And so parent relations in particular um you know reads parents and guardians of children identified for participation in title one program shall receive from the building principal and title one staff an explanation of the reasons supporting their child selection a set of objective to be objectives to be addressed and a description of the service to be provided. Parents will receive regular reports on the child's progress and be provided opportunities to meet with the classroom uh and title one teachers. Parents will also receive training material suggestions as to how they can assist in the education of their children at home. You know, again, this is first reading. So, help me understand a little bit more about
069this policy and a little bit about um this this change what appears to be a change in this policy. Um, how how does this currently change what we currently do and and is it attainable? >> Yeah, Dr. Harris Medberg oversees our title one services, so she can speak to that. >> It it really doesn't change our policy a lot. It just changes the wording to align with MSMA. Um, there are two types of title schools. There's a targeted assistance school and there's a schoolwide school. Within a targeted assistance school, you have students have to test in through a universal screening tool and then test out. We do not have any targeted assistance schools in Banganger. We only have um schoolwide, which means students can flex in and out based upon their needs. So, if it's
070a very short quick thing that they need help in, they can just flex in, get help in that, and then flex out. um the parent by law in order to take the um title allocations we have to allocate 1% of all of the allocation towards family engagement. Those family engagement pieces are through what we call our peak events and they are events that encourage parents to come in with their children to learn um a very a variety of skills or practices that they can do to help their children be successful at home which would help them in turn be more successful at school. You know something simple as simple as how do you read with your child at night and you know types of questions that you can ask and games that you can play
071and things like that. I answer everything. >> Yeah, >> I I think that's wonderful. Thank you so much. I think it's when we're when we're doing first readings of and and sec Well, definitely first readings to better understand these policies, we dive in, we read the policies, um check on them, make sure we understand them, and then just having having this context is really incredibly helpful. I really appreciate the the conversation. >> Thank you. All right. Uh unless there's any other questions, we'll move on. All right, moving on to committee. Oh, we do have to vote. That is correct. Um, can I have a motion? >> You have the motion and >> I do have the motion in the second. All those in favor? >> 6. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Committee updates.
072Um, do we have any representative reports tonight? Scholarship Committee is standing by. Thank you for that update. All right, student committee member update. So, we've just gotten off and lovely winter break and school student morale has been very high. >> Um, at least from what I've observed. Um, we have midterm exams coming up next week following MLK day and the robotics team will compete in their first competition hosted at Bangor High School. And this competition, they've given um opportunities to both students and a bunch of teachers and parents to volunteer there. The winter formal organized by subdeb will be held this Sunday as well. >> MLK day is Monday the 19th, so all Bangor schools students have the day off. Boys hockey is playing in Lewon tonight. We wish them the best. Dr. Hutchkins is
073accepting art from all Banganger High students for the yearbook until this Friday the 16th, I believe. And Phil the Alond is on Saturday night versus Hamen. Thank you all. Thank you for those updates. All right, we're moving on to questions and comments from the committee. Do we have any questions or comments from our committee members? Member Luciano. >> I just wanted to give a quick thank you to uh Chair Surret and Superintendent Robinson for our workshop uh retreat that we had yesterday. Um it was really informative and gained a lot of really great insight from having Tom Tom Eric >> Eric Eric apologies. Sorry, Eric. Eric Wedell from MSBA come and uh share a lot of great information. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the committee? Member
074Speed. >> Yeah, I just wanted to speak really quickly to the UTC meeting that we that we recently attended. Um, and so thank thank you for the opportunity to share what's going on there. the um exploratory uh group at at Bangor High School uh has been looking at residential plumbing systems, reviewing fixtures uh you know such as uh showers, dishwashers, toilets uh and learning how to construct drainage systems, participating in PVC pipe solving, gluing and and uh pipe crimping. And so the different area high schools will reported out on the different areas that they get to to look at. And every month they'll they'll have a chance to look at a different uh uh unit of study such as EMS um uh or or you know making cutting boards or working working with the oral
075fire department for example or Bangor fire department. Um one of the things that we wanted to highlight actually um also was the opportunity that UTC provides to local teachers. Um and so they have a program where um teachers can earn CEUs by attending uh a a program called teaching the tech curricul curricula from on Mondays from 400 p.m. to 6:30. Uh the first class starts Monday, January 26th and goes until Monday, March 30th. And so every evening they'll the teachers from the area will have a chance to actually uh go to three different programs at UTC, learn about uh the programs from those instructors um and and students and the students will be there as ambassadors which is fantastic. UTC does that really well of engaging their um ambassadors and and you had a you
076knew somebody that took that course, right? And and said it was uh an amazing experience as a teacher to learn about the trades um and to just brainstorm ideas of how to integrate that into their own classroom as well. So, thank you. Any other questions, comments from the committee? I'll just add a quick one. I want to uh piggyback on member Luciano's comments uh about the retreat that we had yesterday. It was wonderful. It was a great opportunity for us to come together. Um we met at the University of Maine at Augusta Bangor campus and I want to thank them for hosting us. Uh we had a nice opportunity to talk about our sources of of pride in the Bangor school department over the past year. Uh we had some good discussion about our facilities
077and the the future of our facilities and our school buildings here in the district. Uh some good discussion about district initiatives and goals. So, sort of looking forward and uh as member Luciano mentioned, we had a an excellent presentation from Eric Wadell from uh Maine MSMA uh about school board responsibilities, roles uh and we also had a nice opportunity to engage in some self assessment of ourselves as school committee members and and set some personal goals for ourselves. So, uh thank you for all the the good work yesterday. I really appreciated it. Last, I have some uhformational items to mention. We have uh Wednesday, January 28, 2026, regular meeting uh 7 p.m. here in the council chambers. Wednesday, February 11th, we 2026, we have the budget workshop, 700 p.m. here in the chambers. Wednesday, February
07825th, 2026, regular meeting, 7 p.m. here in the chambers. Wednesday, March 4th, 2026, budget workshop, 700 p.m. here in the chambers. And finally, Wednesday, March 11, 2026, regular meeting, 700 p.m. here in the chambers. Can I have a motion for adjournment? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? 60. Thank you. >> We are adjourned.