001e e e [Music] clock waits for no running sorry good evening and welcome to the September 11th 2024 regular meeting of the Bangor school committee um if you would all please rise and join me for the pled [Music] of United States [Music] all right thank you very much and again welcome um Dr Robinson are there any adjustments to our agenda we don't have any adjustments this evening okay thank you um so next on the agenda we do have our public comments and I will read our brief statement um before we welcome any guest speakers members of the public May address the school committee for up to three minutes on school and education matters public comments shall be directed to the school committee and be brief and not repetitive the school committee's practice is not to
002respond or debate with speakers during the public comment period we are here to listen the superintendent or her staff will follow up with comments outside of the meeting as appropriate the committee will not permit profanity or shouting and requests that speakers be civil discussion of specific Personnel or student matters and complaints concerning specific employees or students will not be allowed but will be addressed through established policies and procedures before speaking we encourage speakers to review School committed policy AC which provides that the committee does not and will not discriminate nor tolerate discrimination against students or employees on the basis of membership in a protected class speakers who share comments contrary to this policy will not be allowed to continue before starting please state your name and place of residence do we have any public comments
003all right mic working can you hear me all right good evening for those of you who don't know me and my name is Dawson neveles I am a student here at dangor high school and I'm also a candidate for school committee of the Fall um about a year and a half ago I spoke to this committee about security matters I'm sure most of you have seen that as well um over the time we had a lock down at the school that went a little arai let's say and um well what prompts me to bring back security again was a mass shooting that we had in Georgia last week where four people were killed and nine more injured and I had a parent come and speak to me about a week ago and she said well
004it's hard for parents to get info about the lockdowns of course you know we make protocols and things public but parents as far as um speaking to their students about safety because the students do ask are like Mom Dad what should I do when there's a lockdown what do we do when there's a fire drill and the parents may say oh I don't know or they might say something that's not in our protocol it's just because you know lack of knowledge or they don't understand what our Protocols are um it's kind of like game of telephone you can you know say one thing and then it gets changed from person to person and this parent had an idea she's like why don't we have assemblies like we do like the first day meeting that we
005have with our students and what if we were to do that parents as well give them the rundown of what happens when we have a lock down drw what happens if there's a shooter in our school um to get everybody on the same page about what's going on and I thought well it's a good idea and I'm not sure if we've ever thought of anything like that before I think it could be a good idea not forcing the school system to do it but I strongly suggest maybe we find a way to do that I know the schools individually they have assemblies all the time so it might be something that we can maybe working on night you know when parents are available at home um obviously you can't do it during the school day
006but I just figured I'd bring that thought up especially since someone mentioned it to me so thank you very much thank you so much all right seeing no other speakers for this evening we will move on to superintendent proport and updates great so um I do have um an update on the first week of school um everyone received my um newsletter I assume uh which I'm hoping will go out a little bit more frequently um at the start of the year uh but then I intend to have that um monthly the Bangor bulletin uh the open houses across the district were very well attended um it was exciting to be able to see um so many families come out um that those two nights uh the opening day with students went very well I was
007able to uh attend all of the schools and um I'm happy to report I know two students names well three the county Dawson so I have three student names at the high school for cting Sophia because there were two others that I've seen since the first day of school and was able um today at the UTC Center um saw another student and I remembered her name and her face so I'm working on that that's exciting um but yeah going around to all the schools and interacting with staff and students was um a great way to start the year um and and and and the excitement from everyone was just um inspirational really I formed a new District team uh with all with representatives from all Departments of BSD and we had our first meeting on
008Monday um so I'm excited to um continue that meeting by weekly just before this meeting we had the doe um piece and I thank all of you who were able to attend that uh the measure what matters taking a look at how do we reimagine schools um I had my administrative council meeting um this morning and we discussed uh that this information that um I will make sure we get back is um really going to serve as a foundation to um help to uh be and be a catalyst for some of the initiatives and changes that we will look at moving forward um we're also one of three recipients of the pcc's 20124 um daddy Woodward community service award this year um so there will be a um a dinner and I understand that um
009member oir will be there to uh present the award which is exciting and that's on September 18th um dinner our current enrollment uh we have had an increase of 16 just compared to to last September um and currently we're at 3,459 any questions thank you all right so thank you for that Dr Robinson next next up we have um an update on Capital Improvement projects and our business our director of Business Services Jerry Hyman will provide that update so good evening um the list I prepared was not part of your packet it was it's a handout at the meeting um much longer to put together than I anticipated so I apologize for that I will not read you the list I want to explain what's on the list these are the major um projects went
010over the summer by school a description of the program or product and the U vendors that are performing the work and the status the status can be anywhere from complete to a punch list to finish in a future time frame but I wanted to briefly tell you that it includes IND indoor air quality projects continuing we are we have two healthcare clinics in our middle schools going in um numerous boiler projects which will help um air quality numerous playgrounds have been upgraded over the summer um our serums in this the be wi in the high school is coming along nicely it'll be finished um probably by Halloween we have numerous roof projects going on we did an art room in the Dy school and it looks amazing and we also are doing several exterior wall
011projects so and the list goes on and on but um if you have any questions um please let me know give back to me I can give you as much detail as you want it's quite a list quite impressive to pull this off in one semester this is the final summer har of the co money as you know so this is probably the largest list you'll see for a while and question member spray thanks for the updates I don't have any specific questions about these and no specific questions for tonight but I do think it would be worth a workshop at some point to kind of go over the facility plans I know there was a study that predates I think practically all of us are around the table uh and there's a lot of
012big questions in the community about our aging school buildings there's budgetary concerns people in this community really like their neighborhood schools but what are our plans what are we going to do I think that's the type of big question topic that this board should have a say in and I I think that sometimes plans languish on shelves and you know nobody knows the community I don't think better than the people who are here in this room we're chosen by the community to represent them so I would like us to have a discussion about that and just get some updates especially with our new superintendent is to see where we're at see if the plans make sense and kind of keep the community in the loop on what we're thinking about thanks thank you thank you
013all right so moving right along we have a safety update and our community outreach and safety director Ray finny will provide that update for us thank you so our presentation is up and running um so after the incident that happened last week in Georgia I was asked to come in and talk to you a little bit about our safety protocols and what we have in place and answer some questions should you have any so as you are all aware safety is our primary concern for our students in the Bangor School Department um we make sure that you know there are a lot of concerns when students walk into a school or whether their parents drop them off at the school at the beginning we want to make sure that we have safe learning environments for
014all of our children uh and emotional well-being impacts academic performance and we we know that stress of concerns about school shootings and other types of violence really impact students throughout the day so with that we have emergency drills and trainings that we do on an ongoing basis and many of our schools have started those trainings and those drills and you'll probably hear from kids that there are fire drills that have been going on also lockdown drills have been taking place as well there these are mandated by the state and so we have multiple types of drills that we do we are required to have 10 fire drills an evacuation drill two lockdown drills two secure drills one hold drill two bus evacuations drills and one tabletop exercise each year per school and so we keep
015track of those so that we're able to know what timeline we're on and we try to plan them evenly throughout the school year so it doesn't impact time in the classroom we also when we do these drills make sure to do learning abilities and learning assessments with them so we will make announcements over the intercom system saying students we will be doing a drill momentarily please listen to your teacher to talk about what instructions are important to you at this time and then the teacher takes over from there they'll explain why the expectations are to the kids what type of message they will be listening to and they walk through those pieces so it's more comfortable for the children involved in August of 2022 we implemented the standard response protocol from the I love you
016guys foundation and many people may have seen these five symbols around schools if you've gone into a classroom um you can see them they're also in the library behind us um there's also information on our website under the school safety section in regards to the different protocols that we have these protocols created a common lexicon a Common Language about what to expect when we have emergencies within our schools and these are the five different protocols that we will use therefore there's a parent um piece on the website that talks about what to expect if you hear our school has had a hold or if our school has gone into a secure protocol it will let you know if there's expectations of parents to actually go to the school and pick up children if you'd be
017able to check your child out uh and what those what potential things could have had had happened to actually in the school to set those types of protocols off to dive into that a little bit more so in every classroom this sheet is actually hung in every classroom in the school department uh and those information or that information is actually given to students and gone over with them to to cover what the drills are so there's instructions on here for for students and there's instructions for staff if they find themselves in a space we go over these so at a drill lockdown it will actually read to them lock down locks Lights Out of Sight and it will tell students what the protocols are for them to do in our trainings at the school meetings
018that we have at the high school with our incoming classes of freshman and sophomores and next week's Junior and senior meetings we actually go over videos that talk about what happens if you find yourself in a hallway what happens if you find yourself in a classroom without a teacher and so really giving our students the ability to make decisions on their own they're young adults um older children uh and so they have responsibilities and they can do a lot of things themselves but it's giving them the power to do that and giving them the knowledge of what to do with that comes training so the training of teachers but the training of students through drills and signage that signage is has also been updated we have multilingual Learners in our schools and we actually have
019these posters available in Spanish Portuguese and Arabic um in different areas where students frequent um so next time you're enter schools you may see those CICS was something that we implemented in January of 2023 um cix for a quick update is a technology platform designed to enhance school safety um through real-time communication so all of our staff members and from our food service employees to to our principles and our administrators have a button that they are able to push that can call for help this has been used in the Bangor school department at this point in time about a 100 times in the past year 44 of those times were actually for drills which is something that we use often the other 60 times were for instances of when we needed help in a certain
020space so those would be things such as medical issues a student falls in the playground and hurts themselves and a teacher or an edtech needs help um to deal with the situation it could be crowd control it could be that they need the school nurse there's so many different options of what happens in those circumstances it could be that there's a disruption in the hallway and the teacher needs help with crowd control at that point in time it could be that there's a fight between two students um whatever that's been looking at the time reactions most cases have actually been attended to within 30 seconds of that button push and most instances are completed within 2 minutes which really drastically reduces the amount of time that it takes to get a hold of an administrator
021or this crisis response team within schools hearing from staff members that I work with um they're really happy with you know the response rate of being able to push a button and knowing that you don't have to call someone and hope that they're in their office and answer the phone it's an immediate response that instant notification of school alerts and emergencies also goes districtwide it's not just at the school level so whether um Dr Robinson is here at the high school or she's downtown at her office she will get notified as well so the district admin also have that notification system to know what's going on in our schools so if there's a phone call that happens at one of those offices they're able to respond a little bit easier saying I'm aware the incident
022happened um we're looking into the specifics and we'll get back to you the staff alert has reduced response time for emergencies and then the crisis alert is automatically integrated with loal law enforcement and we worked very closely with the Bangor Police Department to do that um they are our first point of contact but they also work with other law enforcement agencies whether that be the Sheriff's Office the state police or the federal agencies that are located downtown at the federal building so school safety best practices uh with this we collaborate with the Bangalore police department and our city partners and actually this picture is a picture of two local off officers that actually attended um an open I think it was a career day at Down East School um at one point in time the
023male officer actually flies across the floor on a scooter um it's a great way to get kids attention on how to recreate an accident uh but he talked about the importance of seeing something and saying something uh we highly encourage all of our students and staff members if they see something that's out of character out of place to tell someone else about it to make those um those reports but also we collaborate with our other departments within the city based on Safety and Security protocols last year I was part of a larger contingency of City departments to talk about reunification and what that looks like if we needed to do a reunification process during a City concert at the waterfront how would we Evacuate the city what resources do we have um they were very
024happy to see our protocols that we had options for all of our schools not just one but multiple um and they looked and took that into consideration when looking at their plans as well uh we also have continuous assessment of our protocols I attend trainings at multiple locations and have had the opportunity to work with the Secret Service the FBI and um the it's the internet police people um can't remember their their acronym off the top of my head at this point in time uh but having those resources and the fusion Center within the state of Maine has been inviable to what we do we've been able to learn and sometimes things change rather quickly whether that be whether to cover a window or not um in our protocols sometimes there's changes we learn things
025unfortunately from situations that happen in other places we learned things from the mass shooting that happened in Leon we've already learned things from the shooting that happened in Georgia and those are things that we can put in place and Implement to protect our students and staff here we've also made improvements of our protocols based on National Best Practices which I just mentioned so future planning what do we plan on doing we plan on so next year um during our opening of school Workshop we plan on doing a little bit of training during our second day and really engaging the teachers and administrators within the buildings on that day allowing them to have training simulations and practical exercises that will really enhance their knowledge of what to do within their building do you have any questions
026about yes please um thank you so much um for that uh concise uh review I really do appreciate it I I wanted to start by sharing um I'm sure others have seen this in the news but CICS is actually credited with uh um stopping a lot of further death at appalache high school because appalache School uses some TX and so I applaud the members of that were on the school committee at that time to make this really big investment um it is proven to save lives and I'm I'm really glad that our school department is using that um and thank you for that update on CX um one quick question two I'm sorry red um I love you guys Foundation is are those pieces I know we talked a lot about young adults using it
027but what does that look like at the elementary levels are those images is used in our elementary schools is I love you guys foundation in our elementary school it is okay and so those images in the elementary school are colorcoded so and the lights that would actually be used with system are coordinated with those colors okay so for example if our school goes into a secure protocol the cic lights will Flash Blue okay which is the same color as the code on the wall okay um they're very basic instructions for students and our teachers do over those protocols with the students as well thank you thank you that was definitely a followup I appreciate that um and lastly I know that we talked a lot about pre-training making sure that our students are prepared to
028hear this um prepared for the drills know what's coming to sort of mitigate some of that stress and anxiety are there conversations that are are there template conversations for after a drill that are being used what does that look like so after a drill I found that being in the schools when those happen many of the principls will invite me to actually be present for the drill to make sure that the system works the way it's supposed to the conversation afterwards is that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be the drill announcement is actually it's a man's voice very similar to my own that goes on and actually reads the protocol from the wall um the drill actually says this is a drill lockdown in a real drill or in a
029real situation you would hear the following message and so it's very guiding in what that is um it's not an alarm like a fire alarm um I think students actually have more anxiety from the fire alarm because of the noise how the flashing lights and the the abruptness of that sound than they do from the other drills that we do okay all right thank you you're welcome member sh thank you well thank you for this helpful report um as you were giving it and then the future planning piece and maybe you're already talking about this I I was thinking about weather related dangers and it it feels like we can't get through a fall now without one of these incredible wind storms that's just knocking trees down power lines and a lot of times the
030storm will happen during the day while the kids are at school and then there's the issue of kids walking home and I I just know that that's been there seems to be an uptick in that situation is that part of conversations going forward it is and actually that's a part of the conversation I've had with the city but also the county we are seeing more of those late late fall storms that in the past would have been a nor Easter with a couple of feet of snow on the ground and are not coming with snow they're coming with warm tropical weather um and so they're happening at a time where there are no leaves on the trees um but they're causing major damage so trees are being uprooted the ground isn't Frozen yet to keep
031them down there's a lot of different things that we're looking at and so we're looking as a city on what can we do to mitigate those whether it be trimming trees early identifying trees that need to be removed so working very closely with Public Works um but also looking at our own plans and working with the superintendent on what that safety piece is for kids driving around I know the last time we had something like that happen it was in December December 17th um and um our maintenance director drove around town and was like we cannot be at school today um it's those eyes on the ground pieces are really looking at what the school looks like and making sure that safe for our kids right a lot of our kids walk to school and
032with down power lines it was one of those decisions of do we open or not thank you any other questions or comments all right and with that Ray we thank you very much you all right next on our agenda we have report of resignations I'm reporting the following resignation uh for the uh 2024 2025 school year uh Rand Allen as enrichment coordinator at James FD school all right so we Cruise right along we are moving on to our business and action items and the first item there is approval of our minutes from the last meeting on August 21st I'm recommending approval of the draft minutes of the August 21st 2024 regular school committee meeting can I get a motion so second all in favor thank you all right next up we have personnel and nominations
033of a teacher I'm recommending the following uh teacher nomination for the 2024 2025 school year um this is a one-year teaching position Jamie Coburn grade five teacher at the Fairmount school do I need to ask questions anything first or straight to can I get a motion please second I do have a question I have no I'm supportive of this and I thank you for all the hard work to get this position filled I would just say if there's time sensitive things that we're trying to get somebody in I would be always happy to have a special meeting or have a quorum of people go sign something if we have to I understand in this situation maybe the person needed time to move themselves and it was fairly quick from the start of the year now
034to get somebody in but if somebody had been like standing by waiting to start and all they were waiting for was a school committee meeting I think we could accelerate it somehow if possible but there there is a process that we can um do there's a um a vote that can happen in June to uh provide me that autonomy so we can look at that for next year for the summer be great yes I've already spoken too long yes about that thank you thank you all [Music] favor okay one exstension yes yes right thank you all right next up we have our extra Duty assignments I'm recommending the approval of the following extra Duty assignments for 2024 2025 Angela Domina Dramatics advisor at the James F dowy School Matthew Tipton mountain bike and Trail cup
035Club at Bangor High School Jasmine carver5 Varsity fall cheering the high school Dan consedine 0.25 IEP coordinator at the high school Stuart Greener 0.5 IEP coordinator at the high school Kelly Hassel .25 IEP coordinator at the high school Brianna Saka 75 IEP coordinator at the bangar high school Rebecca Tower .25 IEP coordinator at the high school Nicole Downing IEP coordinator at William S Cohen School Sam Samuel peard IEP coordinator Dam S Cohen School Jacob Dutton .25 IEP coordinator at the Fairmount school Cassandra as a voo 75 IEP coordinator at the Fruit Street School Melissa bartholomy 75 IEP coordinator at Fruit Street Amy Alo 75 coordinator at Vine Street Vanessa Bean 225 IEP coordinator at Vine lri hatch 75 I coordinator at Vine dear dro 0.25 IEP coordinator at Vine Jessica Lee 0.25 IEP coordinator at
036down east Kasha Robertson 0.25 IEP coordinator at down east Kristen shy5 IEP coordinator at down east Courtney bau5 IEP coordinator at Abraham Lincoln Christopher Jenkins 0.5 IEP coordinator at Abraham Lincoln Charlene Southwick five IEP coordinator as Abraham Lincoln just a few more Sarah york5 IEP coordinator Abraham Lincoln School Jillian cookson 0.5 IEP coordinator 14th Street School Danielle ford5 IEP coordinator at 14th Street Pamela Fox 0.55 IEP coordinator Mary snow School Tracy Rearden 0.15 IEP coordinator Mary snow an Marie Roberts 0.25 IEP coordinator Mary snow Heidi Robinson 055 IEP coordinator Mary snow Cassie saier 0.55 IEP coordinator at maryn can I get a motion please some second all in favor thank you very much all right um next up we have second reading of revised policies and if we could take them all together sure um
037I'm recommending approval of the second reading of the um revised policies revised policy acab harassment discrimination and sexual harassment of school department employees revised policy Ada school system goals new policy adaa school system commitment to standards for ethical and responsible behavior revised policy ADF main learning results motion so move second all in favor all right all right next up we have donations which this evening will be read by member o Cary yes uh to Abraham Lincoln school from the Charleston Church 23 backpacks for students having a total value of $460 to down east school for Owens and Miller school supplies to support students having a total value of $300 to Down East School from the Air National Guard School Supplies to support students having a total uh dollar value of $300 to Fruit Street School
038from the Charleston Church backpacks for students having a total dollar value of $300 to Fairmount school from subu loves learning and adopt the classroom six classroom Supply kits having a total value of $450 and to fairart school from Suburu loves learning and adopt a classroom a cash donation to support class classrooms having a total value of $3,000 thank you to all the donators we have one more should I read that one all right um and then there was one more um to the Fairmount school from the Charleston Church 24 backpacks for students having a total dollar value of $600 can I get a motion so second all in favor right with gratitude thank you so much um I do not we have no introduction items and the right all right so next up we have
039our committee updates beginning with comments um and questions from the committee um and I do have a comment to share myself um so bear with me I don't typically write out statements but I have one this evening I often tell my students don't not to engage in public reading but here I am just to make sure I get that one right um so I would like to take a moment and address a recent article in the Bangor Daily News that painted a picture of a disastrous first day for students at Fairmount school well I understand there may have been some confusion and miss confusion and communication missteps leading up to the start of the year to make broad sweeping generalizations that disparage an entire school is unfair and hurtful uh while I have a deep
040respect for freedom of speech and freedom of the press I also believe that with those comes a responsibility to be mindful of the impact of our words and actions on the Greater Community the life of Educators is not often glamorous and is noted in another bdn article addressing the ongoing teacher shortage it's not just the pay that drives people away from the field of Education in that article the author calls for quote changes from parents and community members to ensure teachers feel empowered to teach and aren't second guests to the point of choosing another career end quote this sentiment as I see it also applies to our administrators staff and support staff and everyone else involved in keeping our schools running on a daily basis um so all stories have at least two sides and
041we should strive to paint the fullest picture that we can are we perfect absolutely not no school department is but our BSD team is working hard often around the clock to ensure that we can offer a robust inclusive and an enjoyable learning experience for all of our kids naturally if there are concerns let your Administration know if they go unaddressed let us as your school committee know that said it's important to note that much of what we do is bound by confidentiality and legal timelines that keep us from being able to move as quickly as even we may like so please allow space for some extra patience and understanding as well I can speak for my family alone when I say that our child had a phenomenal first day at Fount school and has been
042excited to return each and every day which is a a big deal for our household we have a relatively resistant kiddo um so I would like to offer a thanks to everyone um at fairm and across the entire School District who has made the transition between schools rather seamless and for all that you continue to do to support students and families throughout all of Bangor so thank you again um it's been a great first week in our household and I appreciate you very much um so with that any other comments member Briden thank you very much uh member John I fully agree with you in that um it has been a wonderful start to the school year and I applaud all of our administrators and staff that have worked so hard to make that happen
043um what I appreciate and and wanted to comment on in your um piece is that there is this uh this interest especially I think from our committee to move faster than we would like um and I myself am very impatient um and I recognize that but I also see that really good opportunity for us to evaluate what we can do as a school committee to be more um thoughtful more Mindful and how we develop an infrastructure that truly Fosters open and transparent communication for our families for our teachers even tonight we've heard workshops special meetings you know different votes um there's a lot of ways that we as a committee could address some of the things that we're seeing and reacting to in a very proactive way and I'm excited about the ways that we
044can do that and I am excited thank you Dr Robinson for your update about the district team leadership that you've developed um and I would love to hear more again in my own personal uh goal to move as quickly as possible recognizing the work that needs to be done and really empowering and trusting our staff under your lead ERS ship I want to recognize acknowledge and value that um so for that reason I'm hoping that we can start with at least a monthly update from you in your report Dr Robinson about that District team um what's happening in terms of addressing some of these common concerns that we hear so that we as a committee can be better informed about if there are things that we want to do directions that we want to take
045it feels more collaborative and more based on what we're actually seeing from the ground level um and and we're able to move forward with that in a really um thoughtful and inclusive way so that would be wonderful absolutely I can add that to my monthly report thank you any other comments member spread thank you uh I wanted to acknowledge the junior Roc did a wonderful job today with a September 11th Memorial on the waterfront it was quite well done including with a lot of I think brand new ROTC students students just back for the year they did a good job the Battalion Commander Eva kums did a great job with her words and it was a nice ceremony I also wanted to note positively in the superintendent's report the headcount is up modestly for the
046Banger school department this year which is terrific it bucks some demographic trend so we want people to choose Bangor so it was good uh and lastly I want to say nice job Ina leting the meeting tonight I'm comfortable with you leing this I'm setting up my next comment because I'm about to become the least popular guy in this room you did do a nice job with meeting proper Rules of Order are when the chair and the vice chair are not there the members who are there choose the chair and if I wish I had thought of that because I would happily nominated you I don't have any issue with you doing it but everybody knows I'm a governance and transparency guy and if the chair and vice chair aren't there it's the people who are
047there choose the chair otherwise it creates the impression that there's you know non-transparency or a group within the group that's deciding so I didn't know the chair and the vice chair were going to be in until I walked in so again it's hard to say that without being the skunk of the picnic but I would email it later but then people get mad that I email so I'm saying it out loud and I want to go back to what I said before which you did I sh believe the meeting but thank you if this scenario comes up in the future the beginning of the meeting the group that's here chooses to J every opportunity to learn is a good opportunity so had no idea that was a fake it's not for you to decide but
048I reiterate you did a nice job thanks you any other comments from the committee all right so no committee appointments yet um any representative reports we have a really exciting update um like I need a can with a string um Tim and I were able to um attend the very first UTC meeting in the new school year which um has just kicked off obviously at the end of August like the majority of the other schools in the county and um I we have some really exciting news to report from there uh namely that their enrollment is also up to its highest level ever and they're currently serving nearly 700 students at that facility which is actually tripled in size in the past 10 years um and they opened up three new offsite programs this year
049and I want to draw brand new program that opened up at Bor High School in the old maintenance department really being utilized as a space to have this um CTE exploratory program so if students are not going to the UTC facility they're able to learn here and engage in some of the um the learning and um activities and and really essential handson experiences that happen at UTC I'm I'm thrilled that Bangor High School is offering this I think it's a really critical need and really important and so I thank you that for high school and especially the facility staff to make that happen over the summer in such a short amount of time um to get that classroom up and running you know that it was a really big uh round ofth clock effort so
050kudos to that um but uh the another big thing not but and uh we really want to important uh highlight an important um opportunity for us to be very engaged and informed citizens as we move into the November election there is going to be a bond measure for UTC it's going to be um Region 4 Southern pancot County vocational region that's what UTC covers it actually serves 37 towns and I think like 19 districts there's many many schools towns rather that send their students to UTC and this is the uh grant that has been accessible for UTC to uh seek out funds for industry standard equipment to modernize 18 out of the 23 programs at UTC it's a huge opportunity um and this measure like I said is going to go to every single town
051that sends a student to UTC so it's not just going to be on bangor's ballot but it's really important and as citizens of bang War as community members as engaged individuals we just want to make sure that when people see oh my gosh this Bond measure up to $1.8 million spending um for UTC I don't even know what UTC is that it's actually an opportunity for that school to get very very needed and very expensive equipment and because um this debt service on the bonds will be paid by the state of Maine there will be no um impact on local education taxes so it is an important opportunity for us to support and get excited about um and start talking about really all the great things that are happening at UTC and by extension here
052at Bangor high school did I miss anything no [Laughter] it's a huge opportunity member Briden has all the details correct as always um get out there and support it and it's it's really going to help kids at UTC in some big ways if it happens it'll that's right that's right POS thank you thank you um any other Representatives reports all right so next up we have our student Committee Member updates yes thank you welcome back welcome I hope you guys all had a good summer I just wanted to start off by saying cross country football field hockey soccer and golf are now all in full swing as well as the many clubs available at the high schools middle schools all grade levels um we have a senior parent night Tuesday September 17th in Peaks Auditorium
053here at Bangor High School uh I have but I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a good luck in the new school year thank you very much you all right so we're nearing the end here next on our agenda we have our information items um that list of key important dates so let's make sure I don't get these ones wrong uh Wednesday September 25th 2024 we have our regular meeting 7 pm here in the Bangor High School library Wednesday October 9th 2024 regular meeting 7 PM Bangor High School library Wednesday October 23rd uh 2024 regular meeting 7 p.m. Bangor High School library Wednesday November 13th 2024 is our reorganizational meeting at 11:00 a.m. council chambers Thursday November 14th 2024 a workshop 5:00 pm here in Bangor High School library and Thursday November 14
0542024 our regular meeting here at 7 pm in the Bangor uh High School library uh Final Call for questions comments or anything from the committee members R thank you yeah I just I I want to quickly go back to the to the bdn article just on one point I just want to make one point on that um and and it's related to the teacher shortage piece I I I want to publicly acknowledge and my appreciation for our substitute teachers um you know full-time classroom teachers for many many reasons have to take leaves can't start the school year for for different reasons and we really rely on those substitute teachers and they are excellent and and we do greatly appreciate as a system the patience uh of of our community when we do have to lean
055on and rely on those substitute teachers so I I did want to mention that thanks great point and absolutely there an asset we couldn't do without right and keep things going remember M car um I uh want to Echo what everyone said I'm usually I nod vigorously when people are speaking but I understand that some people might not visually see me um and I think it's important to acknowledge my support for um what you what you said about the the article um M sprad what you said about uh not only the the construction um uh projects and just making that a more regular um conversation um as well as what member Brien said um I just think it's important to acknowledge that um the school committee as a whole has the students um interests at
056heart first and foremost and that's why we all ran um and I I really appreciate all the work that all of the staff from top to bottom do every every single day I'm in this District I mean it moves me uh to tears um to think about all the work and the the lack of appreciation that you guys face on a daily basis tonight I can't say it enough um but oftentimes I'm like well it's running late I don't want to say anything because I agree but um I'm going to take the opportunity now to say thank you to everyone who's listening um who works with in and for um the the school department thank you thank you so much all right last call Katie thank you excuse me I apologize for talking over you
057I just I um feel a kinship to Sophia uh because we started at the exact same time and I am just really happy to have you back and I know that your senior year is very stressful I don't think I recognize what this role took last year when Luke was doing it and to see you return with a smile and great updates about all of the schools is really appreciated and um especially with all you have going on so I'm excited about this year for you and thank you for being here thank you next I love ending on a positive note so we got anything that can I get a motion to adjourn second all in favor all right thank you everyone for being here we'll see you again soon