001e e order the regular meeting of the Bangor school committee it is Thursday November 14th can everyone please rise for the FL uned States America the stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all and do we have any adjustments to the agenda we do have uh one adjustment and that is uh D to d uh resignations motion to to um am to amend the or accept that I'll second it um um next up we have public comment as a reminder um members of the public May address the school committee for up to 3 minutes on school and education matters public comment shall be directed to the school committee and be brief and non repetitive the school committee's practice is not to respond or debate with speakers during the public comment period we
002are here to listen the superintendent or his her staff will follow up um on comments outside of the meeting as appropriate the committee will not permit for vanity or shouting and request that speakers doil discussions on specific Personnel or student matters and complaints concerning specific employees or students will not be allowed but will be addressed through the established policies and procedures for speaking we encourage speakers to review 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 protective class speakers who share comments to contrary of this policy will not be allowed to continue before starting please state your name and your place of residence do we have any public comment no okay next up we have um superintendent
003uh proposals and updates of action items and our first action item is the second reading of the comprehensive emergency management plan um I'm recommending um that the required annual approval of the comprehensive emergency management plan which is included in the public uh in the portion be uh approved can I get a motion so second all in favor 7 Z next up we have um information items and the first is the superintendent update um I'd like to update um everyone with a a few different things uh for the schools um in with our communication uh we continue to receive uh positive feedback from families regarding our news newsletters uh we are planning on releasing the communic uh in the coming month which has been um was on hold for the past year or so but is
004a magazine that comes out when with a lot of um information about the school department in terms of safety I would like to extend uh gratitude and thanks to the um BHS staff and the Bangor Police Department for their Swift response to the uh swatting hopes that we had last week handled very well um at the high school I was able to attend the um Spanish celebration of the Day of the Dead celebration uh back on November 4th I felt as though this was a really uh excellent example of high quality learning uh students were engaged they were uh communicating uh in Spanish and English and had created their own display um of a person that they chose to honor I was also able to attend the National Honor Society ceremony on November 6th uh
005the new students were inducted into the National Honor Society um and this is based on the four pillars of scholarship character leader ership and Service uh so a huge congratulations to all of those students there were 38 students inducted um in the either a junior or or seniors in terms of the district we are currently working with the Auditors to uh wrap up our fiscal year 24 audit thanks to Jerry and his team for a lot of uh lot of hard work around this process um I do have a staff survey that is currently out um that was opened uh last week and it's going to be open until December 15 so all staff department have the opportunity to uh give feedback around uh what they feel is going really well we should keep doing
006here what should we stop doing and what should we consider changing so uh further details around uh the results from that survey will come uh following the closing of it this morning I had my first meeting with a student Advisory Group uh at 7:30 and it went really well we had some great discussions um and more to come on the student uh the cell phone uh that did come up and uh they're Gathering they're doing some mining of data with the uh the high school uh population and we'll be meeting monthly so I'll have more to uh follow up with that I had the uh had a meeting with uh a food the food core representative Ryan Parker uh there is interest in piloting that the program and the school committee will have the opportunity
007to see a presentation from Food Corp on uh December 11th and in terms of region and State uh celebration that the UTC equipment Bond was approved by the voters so that is really uh wonderful news and will uh allow for new equipment and upgrades that are going to serve our student very well thank you very much next up we have the mckin vento quarterly update hi good evening everyone I'm Kathy stanker I am the principal of 14th Street school and I'm also the mckenny ventalon for the Bangor school department and it's that hat I'm wearing as I speak to you tonight um the I forgot I'm in control of this okay so the mckenny vental homeless assistant assistance act um is named for the uh Chief sponsors of a federal law that was passed asked
008in 1987 Stuart McKenna and Bruce vento I look that up today because I realized that I am constantly being asked McKenna vento like what and so I actually looked it up so Stuart McKenna Bruce vento Chief sponsors of this um homeless assistance act which has been reauthorized uh multiple times most recently in 2015 um and what it does is it um it directs the assistance that we provide to our students prek through 12 who are identified as homeless uh the definition of homelessness is um whether you lack fixed regular or adequate nighttime residence uh fixed means one location so if you're staying in a different location every night you're homeless um and that's also actually fix refers to the one location and regular to um whether you're there every night and then adequate they have
009a very specific that's a place that lacks water electricity or heat is infested with Vermin or mold um lacks a working kitchen or toilet or presents unreasonable dangers to the people who are staying there so any of our students who are couch surfing staying in motels spending the night in a car or a tent are by definition considered homeless and entitled to certain rights I'm guessing you're all familiar with these rights but I'll just briefly men mention um couple things about each of these so immediate school enrollment this is going to include our unaccompanied homeless youth um which is defined as a student who is not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian and who is also who also meets that fixed regular adequate criteria um best interest I'll talk about in the
010later slide um the transportation um I just want to mention in terms of that we provide the transportation and typically the um if the sending district and receiving District are not the same then those costs will be split 5050 and then support for academic success is broadly defined um typically toiletries educational supplies Etc would fall into that so they are guaranteed all of those rights um and then this homeless assistance act um ensures funding for these um to Ure these rights and um I'll talk more about that later too okay so in terms of how we Implement uh first we need to identify our students who are homeless so sure you've all seen the mckenny vento screener that is in the registration packets um so that's an important way that um that we identify students
011um the screener is completed by the parent um signed by a couple people within the school and then forwarded to the mckenny vento Le on me and then um I make the determination um as to whether the student is in fact homeless um we also our social workers have hung posters all over town um with QR codes um people can use or just just identifying rights and then if people want more information um they can they can access that information using their cell phones um and then you know the people who work on our schools they know the families and um they have they build relationships they prioritize building relationships so if family circumstances change um they will hear about it um and we'll work with the family to complete the screener and um and
012forward that on okay and then in terms of that uh once once um once a determin is determination is made that the student is in fact homeless and it's usually fairly straightforward because the definition is so clear um then if the uh sending and receiving districts are different than the mcken vent liaz in each district will um have a conversation about where they think um the student should attend um and there so that again is the best interest determination and there are several factors that come into play the most important is what the student and the parents want um but we also pay attention to the duration of Transportation frankly nobody thinks it's a good idea for a one-hour commute each way so that's going to play um into our decision making and then the
013ages of the students as well um arguably easier to transition to a new school if you're six then it is if you're 16 so that's something we take into consideration as well um if transportation is necessary that we work with the respective folks in our district and I just want to um recognize Linda porier who is the pupil Services Administrative Assistant I can see Christy vavin smiling over there because she works miracles daily um to ensure students um get to and from school and then as far as the assistance goes um we used to provide meals um or vouchers Etc we don't do that when we offer free breakfast lunch to all students um but then the social workers as I mentioned they are the boots on the ground so they are checking in with
014student students and parents Guardians regarding the needs they maintain the supplies closets we have in each of the schools they connect families with general assistance or other community agencies that may be meet may be able to assist in meeting the family's needs so that's how we Implement and then as far as funding goes um so in that first slide I mentioned that the mckenny vento homeless assistance act provides for um funding um through that reauthorization so specifically um the elementary and secondary Education Act you're familiar with Title One Part A I'm sure so they have a mandatory set aside um the state tells us what we're going to receive in um Title One Part A funding and then we get to decide how much we'll put into that mandatory set aside so um uh here
015in Bangor um a u portion of that set aside um pays the um a a part of my salary um the mckenny vento part of my salary and benefits um and then we also use some of that for transportation um as well there are competitive uh there's a competitive Grant the mckenny vental home assistant assistance that we apply for every year um and we use that to pay a portion of a social workers salary and benefits again transportation and then supplies um and then uh the other funding source which is connected to mckenny vento um that I wanted to talk about is the prevent student homelessness grants so this is we're in the second year of this being offered um the idea here is that we don't want our students homeless we want to intervene
016so that to to prevent that I mean it is what the title suggests um so the money can be used to um pay a family's rent um to pay their utilities if they're behind on their utilities payments or to make critical home repairs anything we can do to keep the family in the home so they don't become homeless families are eligible for up to $750 a year per student um so they have two students they can apply for $1500 Etc um and that is they apply and um they submit an invoice that list the vendor name and then the the the check is cut directly to the vendor um okay impact so um this year 62 students have been identified as homeless uh seven of the 62 have either secured permanent housing or moved outside
017our catchment area so far enough away that it's we're not um we're not working with them mcken vent is on in the other District um of the 55 students currently identified 49 are attending um Bangor schools a lot of our students are um it's it's Bangor to Bangor right um so then as far it says prevent student homelessness Grant 33 families have accessed it um that's 52 students who've been able to remain in their homes um I hate to end on a on a sad note but the fact is that it is November 14th and 90% of the grant that we have been given has been expended which speaks to the need in our community and our hope that we will receive more um next year thank you any questions oh I'm sorry I don't
018recognize you you get recognized by somebody else um I just need to first of all thank you for the update um and just to say yes it's kind of sad that 90% of the money has been utilized but I'm glad to see that it is being utilized and then it is not money gone to Wast and then is actually achieving the mission that it is set out to achieve so sometimes you see these Grant programs and you go where did the money do was it as a success and I think that if we're keeping the students in their home I'm not sad about it um I'm just motivated to ask for more next year I agree wholeheartedly thank you chair luano um thank you principal sard for this um presentation and really going through all
019of the elements of the McKinny vento act or Stuart and Bruce we'll call them that um have that info um I I have a couple questions um out well first of all since we ended on the um the grant funding I have two questions one is that it's the seconde pilot so is there a long-term plan to implement that pilot to me seems to indicate that that's not something that's firm set in stone going to happen again is that because it's grant funding and we don't know or is it because there's other okay yeah that's a great question so last year it was um it was presented as a pilot this year I'm not hearing pilot quite so much which tells me that maybe there is a long-term plan but um what that is I
020don't know okay um thank you and those six my math correct yeah the six students um of the 55 students that are identified 49 are attending Bangor schools those six students that are not in the Bangor School Department I think that the Bangor school department does an amazing job with our Dropout prevention group that really works to identify students through 12 and the support that they need can you clarify for those six students that are not attending Schools are they are the social workers visiting them like how do we one know that they're in the area and two what supports are they receiving if they don't go to school okay so um an example would be someone who um was attending a school in another district and then they lose their housing um and they're
021doubled up in Bangor um but they are they to continue attending in the school where they originally were right and so so their the so their connection is to the the the dist they're just living in Bangor and their connection to the district where they used to be thank you for that they are in school I was oh yes yes I'm sorry I yes yes no no I appreciate that yes no the other six are in area schools just not ours in the C thank you very much um and then I I don't know if there is any answer if you would have this answer um but for those those Grant funds um to prevent student homelessness I know that everyone is obviously doing what they can so I don't want to imply by asking
022what's next what can be done more I I I know with a beyond the shadow of a doubt everyone is is doing everything they can to determine more options for funds but you have an idea of what that might look like is it waiting for the grant cycle to start over again to bring in more funds for that what options do we have as a I'll be honest I don't I mean it is um and there may be other people who who know the answer to this question it was presented as something that the main Department of Education was offering but I think that the funds may have been connected to the um either Co or um just I yes I don't I don't know where it originated it's it's all being done through the
023main Doe okay thank you thank you for these for clarifying all of these pieces again I really appreciate your report and these updates great thank you thank you very much up next we have um October one enrollment so I'll just direct your attention to the item in your packet that lists all of the um enrollment um just for your information um as a reminder I'm sure this was discussed um with in previous years uh but each October 1st we are required to submit our enrollment to the doe and that um that you the the enrollment is used to determine our subsidy so a very important document again staff worked very hard to make sure that all of this information was put in and accurate um one thing to note um is that you see in
024the bottom leftand corner October of 23 to October of 24 um there has been a a slight decline so it's something to pay attention to uh from 3467 to 3450 for this year um so something that we've been uh discussing as an administrative and District team can I comment on this yes sorry thank you uh on the one hand I don't think the 17 student headcount drop in a district of over 3,400 is really that large given some of Maine's demographics there's slow birth rates in it's an older state so that's not too statistically significant but I'm glad that is on your radar that we want that to be higher what was uh slightly more uh concerning or of interest to me at least is the number of tuition students continues to go down I
025think we've talked in the past about why that is and uh I would love for us to lead sort of a Refresh on that to talk about the messaging we're offering the overall pitch we do uh how we can take a look at that this is very anecdotal and we shouldn't make policy on anecdotes but in the in the conversations I have with people from neighboring towns that have school choice and one of those choices potentially being Bangor they often have very skewed ideas of what the Bangor School Department is like particularly the high school they think it's just this enormous Colossus Beast of a school without really appreciating that it is larger than the other schools but every student can find their trbe and find their people and find their area of interest and
026uh I'm very biased towards the bangar schools otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here but I think more often than not a lot of these students in the Shing towns would be better off in Bangor so I think we have an affirmative responsibility to try to get those kids and their families to come to bank because I think they're going to be better off here and it's uh it's frustrating to see the number go down I just would like us to refresh the conversation uh and it's the pitch but it's also the marketing and the brand and the messaging we're getting out there it all ties together because I think people have incorrect views and it's up to us to make sure a better message out there thank you yeah I I think it is an
027important convers ation and just a couple of things that I or one thing a data point that I think would be important for this conversation and I don't know if superintendent Robinson has anything to say on this now but if not maybe after some research I'm just I'm curious about the pool of eighth graders within the greater Bangor area as a whole that are eligible for tuition to area high schools is that total pool shrinking stable or Rising I think that would be an important data point when we're considering um you know tuition and and the drop we're experiencing and then the only other thing I would I would ask for is when we see these this data it might it would might be nice to be able to see the percentage of tuition students
028as compared to the to the whole in terms of the 912 population um so seeing not just the raw numbers but also just that percent what is the percentage and how much is that percentage changing over time I think would be helpful thank you yes and I'm not sure about the pool of acers but definitely can look into that thanks thank you other coms or questions U moving on to report of residents I'm reporting the following resignations uh Jeffrey winguard history teacher department head at Bangor High School and Matt Stanfield technology director districtwide um both um tremendous losses to our district um will be tough shoes to fill so Bittersweet announcement thank you for the L moving on to uh this is action items and our first action item is the approval of the minutes
029of the regular meeting of October 23rd of 2024 I'm recommending uh the approval of the draft minutes of the October 23rd 24 regular school Kenobi meeting you get a motion so second all in favor next up we have the financial reports and they are the July financial report I'm recommending approval of the July financial report a motion second in favor you uh and next we have personnel and extra Duty assignments I'm recommending the uh approval of the following extra Duty assignments for 2025 Corey Dion be girls basketball coach at the William S Cohen School Randall Allen 75 iup coordinator James F dowy School Chelsea low5 IEP coordinator James F dowy School Tasha Robinson Robertson excuse me uh 0.25 IEP coordinator Down East School Kristen shy 25 IEP coordinator at the Down East school and can
030I get a motion move second favor and next we have donations uh to be read by member Bren thank you madam chair um first changar High School from nmk border LLC a cash donation to the Key Club having a total dollar value of $100 two Bangor High School from Jarvis golf a cash donation to the Key Club having a total dollar value of $300 to Bangor High School from main man flavas a cash donation to the Key Club having a total dollar value of $200 and to Vine Street School from Ron and Cindy liic of RC management for the gift cards having a total dollar value of $160 with gratitude I move to approve these generous donation okay all in favor all thank you and do we have any introduction items tonight we do not
031so moving on to committee updates um do we have any comments or questions from the Committee Member yeah i' just like to wish m all the best in his new position we will miss you dearly the same with Mr Wingard U my kids had him and um such a tremendous loss and I'm you know we do wish him all the best as well but you two will be dearl thank you yeah I wanted to wish Jeff Wingard well um 22 years ago I was a student teacher with Adam leech in the history department and Jeff was just just starting out and I I remember he was he was kind to me he let me into his classroom to do some observations and I was just always really impressed with his teaching and the way he
032interacted with kids and got me excited about about teaching and teaching history so best wishes than you m thank you uh I just want to congratulate Jared Luciano on a very smooth first meeting well done and to also thank you for stepping up to serve I mentioned to per former chair thank you in the last meeting it's kind of nice to have you around the table you get your voice back a little bit and um thank you to member seret as well it takes a lot of time and energy and patience and skill to all of you to lead this group and uh I just want to thank the people of Bangor for let allowing me another opportunity to serve in this position this is a great group of people and as we've all set
033around this table we're very lucky to be in a pro-education community with a school committee that gets along together and can work well together so I'm looking forward to a refresh and start of a new year I also want to recognize Dawson NS who's here tonight and I think it really speaks to his character that he is here and as I mentioned to him earlier uh he's got a lifetime of service ahead of him to this community and lots of good opportunities this was a name year a name year election I think to a certain degree this is the start of my 13th year in service between city council and school committee and I did the math and this this averaging two meetings a month is my 289th meeting uh not counting budget and all
034the other committees and stuff and you'll get there you you'll be there someday I hope I hope so keep coming to these meetings I think actually Dawson's influence is already in these documents with like the safety plan and stuff like that so looking forward to another good year and uh spoken too long as it is but best wishes to you for the year ahead you spr as well um any other comments or questions right now so next we have committee assignments um want to make sure we have all of the Committees accounted for because uh they'll just make sure I've captured everybody but it's all right we'll start with um the Dropout prevention committee and for that we are going to have member jandro and member spray for the policy committee we will have member
035seret and member oer for negotiations we will keep members luchano andig you're welcome yes thank you um for deib advisory we have a member house and member Bren and for UTC we currently have member Briden but we do need a second member um several of our members are not available during that time of the week so we can meet offline and figure that out but uh so it's currently am I missing any remember oh I'm sorry well and I just want to mention this and we don't have to go in this direction but it's my understanding correct me if I'm wrong here but it's my understanding that we the person who represents us does not have to be a school Committee Member and in fact we have one member now Dylan who was serving who
036is not a Committee Member so so I'm just just putting that out there thank you that's that's helpful helpful just to piggy back on that member Str you're exactly right I do if there is any flexibility in your schedule serving on the UTC board is such an incredible gift to see the amazing work being done at that school and what um a treasure it is to our community and in any way our committee can step up to uplift that important work I think not only does it speak volumes for the school but it also speaks volumes for the other sending districts that have their representatives there there's about 12 13 other school districts there and I think it would be a shame to only have one representative from Bangor when we are the largest population
037at UTC um to have only one serving member of the school committee if there is an opportunity for others to step up like I said not only is it um just a real bucket fill but I think it's also really important and um valuable to demonstrate our commitment to the work that the school is doing as a school committee um the UTC board appointment is a very fun one if I may say for some of them are stationary this one is not so just let me know it's available you can Circle back to that so are there um any other appointments that I not that I'm aware of there's no Spruce appointment anymore no that was dissolved okay thank you yes is there a scholarship committee this year that's a good question find out andly
038um principal Butler um and I believe the superintendent is on that and maybe one I believe spr has been on that one yeah okay thank you that one and I also had a question about the wellness is that one typically one that we appoint one person to um Wellness is not listed on here we um the way that it works I I think the reason there's a little bit of confusion is because some some are the voting member you know um committee um Representatives the appointments are are for the voting representatives and with deib with policy those are more advisory committee so I think you know they're combined and we still need you know and appreciate the representation on all of it but that's the difference so the required ones are listed on the agenda
039so we can Circle back with scholarship okay thank you and then you know UTC if there's another person who's interested thank you we need to move to appr lot no we're okay so then we moving on to Representatives reports um we don't have any drop prevention updates do we have a UTC update well Dr Robinson solar Thunder by announcing that I'm just kidding no uh we we are very uh proud as Dr Robinson has shared of the bond passing that will go to Great equipments for UTC so thank you for sharing that any your update be very excited about chck with you next time thank you thank you very much um we don't have any other committee updates um student Committee Member UPS I just wanted to start off by congratulating Sarah and Ben on
040the reelection um Bangor High School's performance of The Little Mermaid is next week um November 21st November 22nd and November 23rd the 21st and the 22nd are at 7:00 and the 23rd is at 2 o'clock um ticket should be around5 to $10 to be determined I'll have an update next week um as fall Sports come to a close informational meetings for winter sports have begun so students listen for those meeting and try out times on the announcements I'm going to pass it to Brandon thank you on November 9 the Bangor girls varsity team beat raing state champs Scarboro in the State final and we would like to congratulate them for that and this Friday our football team is in the northern main final against Portland in Portland so show out and that's it thank you
041um do we have any other reports right so we have some informational items coming up um the next important dates we have Monday November 18th is e Comm Retreat from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at room 2:17 in the Leon Hall at Thea Bangor campus Wednesday no 20th 2024 is the regular committee meeting of the Bangor school committee at 7 p.m. at the Bangor Library Bangor High School library uh Wednesday December 11th 2024 is the regular meeting at 7.m Bangor High School library and Friday December 20th 2024 is Bangor Dead uh any other questions or comments in the committee right I move toour a motion move second all in favor