001e e this e e e the that MERS the school committee for up to three minutes on school education matters public comments shall school committee's practice is not to respond speakers during period here to listen the superintendent or his staff will follow up on comments outside of as the committee will not permit vanity or sh request speak Civ discussion of specific Personnel or student and complaints concerning specific employees or students will not be allowed but will be addressed through established policies and procedures before speaking we first St review school policy KC which provides the does not and will not discriminate tolerate discrimination against students or on the basis membership in aective class speakers who share comments contrary to this policy do not be allowed to continue before starting to moving on we have superintendent proposals
002and we don't have any so information um I do have I've shared with you the msma MS SAA msba legislative priorities um that we did discuss previously uh with our comined city meeting but I just wanted to offer another U copy of that and uh offer any there are any questions I'm happy to respond to those than we have superintendent upd so um I just want to offer some updates um in terms of communications uh we are uh gearing up and I think this week we started our visits to 8th grade for eth grade recruitment start tomorrow tomorrow yes it's coming so um tomorrow so uh Ray is working with the school counseling department and I've listed the um the sending towns there in my report um so we will be uh we've talked a
003lot about that and we know that that is an area that we are looking to focus in on and um we have made some modifications to uh hopefully increase the uh tuition students in the future ask a question about that sure uh do we have any tool or mechanism to get followup data from people um either immediately after a session or I guess we wouldn't probably have all their contact info to track where everybody goes but it would be great to get some sort of data uh just feedback about this session what resonates with people what is missing if anything what we could do better even a simple form or survey would give us some helpful information I think sure we can definitely um look into doing that for sure resols oh I'm sorry sorry
004sorry um so in terms of curriculum um Dr haris Smedberg continues to meet with the uh VHS department chair to review and update our curriculum and vertical alignment and we will there will be a presentation update in February uh at our at our February meeting uh the VHS student advisory um meeting in December uh we were able to discuss uh the cell phone policy and implementation as well as the student schedule uh I'm meeting again with that group next week so um follow that I will have further updates because we're in process with both of those topics um so I don't have U anything final yet to share in terms of our district I just wanted to highlight the peer mentoring that is happening um this is a great way for students to connect and
005also to build that sense of belonging that we are striving U to do and in February there will be a presentation for uh that uh Ray will lead director fny will lead with um students to highlight some of those initiatives and U also a very special initiative that they are working on connected to our changes or proposed changes for our FY 26 Calendar um so those things will be coming in February um we are in the process of updating our policy the lettering to match the msma and MSB nsba um letterings uh we are incorporating uh workshops as discussed at our uh school committee Retreat so our first um Workshop will be the second January meeting on the 22nd and that will be shared at the end of the meeting as well in terms of
006budget uh right now in the process uh working closely uh with director hymon on reviewing our staff analys Anis and starting to put together pieces of the budget so more to follow on that and um in December we were able to complete the doe needs assessment so members of the doe came and um we were able to tour the three buildings that were listed in those applications that came through in August uh so they are touring around to 93 different schools and they are assessing each of those buildings to determine what the actual needs are and whether um they may qualify for funding through the doe to make modifications or changes so we will hear those results in 2025 any questions I'm just curious um for that needs assessment is there anything that is being
007done further to sort of help amplify that Grant application or is it just like a hands off they do a walk through well I was very persuasive during the um during the meetings and uh I would say the principles were as well so I think we um you know we put forth our best effort they don't really want a lot of action that could hurt us okay so that makes sense I was just I was curious about that yeah they have very strict criteria yeah and for the um for the budget uh update is that um the January 22nd Workshop where is that we're not going to have January 22nd no we're not going to have a budget presentation at that point um we're going to talk more about what we'd like to have at
008our future Workshops the budget workshops will come a little bit later and it aligns more to that timeline that we reviewed the last time yeah I think I was just confused because I saw a workshop meeting so I was like what is that at the um November retreat we talked about instead of having meetings twice a month that we would shift to um potential workshops some of those meetings because it made sense to have an opportunity to discuss items there's no voting on those um so we had the governance calendar that we created and then um what I'm planning on for next time would be a um kind of a brainstorming of Workshop topics and then we will prioritize and determine that okay I guess I didn't realize we kicked into so I'm happy thank
009you thank you very much so next up we have reports I'm reporting the following reassignments Adam Leech from school counselor to point8 history teacher and point2 school counselor resignations I'm reporting the following resignations Jessica fin speech language pathologist William es Cohen School Clayton Curry dramatic technical adviser at Bangor High School on to action items to approve the minutes of the last meeting motion and I am recommending the approval of the draft minutes of December 11 2024 regular school meeting and motion second all in favor personel Duty assignments I am recommending approval of the following extra Duty assignments for 2024 2025 Jamie Jarvis history department head Bangor High School polies I am recommending um approval following any any additional discussion of second reading of the policy question second first and then discussion second okay thank you
010and now discussion m thank you um so in looking at this uh it uh technology director job description and how that obviously falls into the policy GCA 31 I was lucky enough to participate was a part of the um group that was part of the interviews for our new IT director and so after having those interviews and identifying you know what those what actually the district needs and an IT director I feel like there's a couple of things that are not actually in the policy or drop description that I think would be important to note and so I wanted to share what I think those um additions should bek you um first that actually the explanation or expectation excuse me of coordinating with school administrators to integrate technology into the curriculum is not explicitly R
011talks about sharing it directives but and initiatives but not actually integrating that technology into the curriculum I would love to have that further included more explicitely into this policy additionally um there's no mention of ongoing training to staff while aligning technology initiatives with the district's educational policies I think that is something we all have talked about and definitely all agreed on as part of the search committee is making sure that staff are continually trained and um well aware and well versed in emerging technology IES from the IT director um additionally uh Learning Management systems are not mentioned in the policy which is something that we rely greatly On Our IT director for and student information sections are only mentioned as a part of the day-to-day instruction and I think we all saw this past year
012is Shifting over to Power School having that IT director very well verse knowledgeable and supported well beyond operations in student information um systems is very important so I would like to expand on that and and also include LMS as a part of um the expectations for that uh in that policy um and then in the first reading there were a few um changes made that talked about the physical qualifications of this role I think as we as um a school committee think about what every policy that we look at making sure that we are being casting It Wide in n as possible in equity terms while there has definitely been some updates from the first reading that include you know there was something as simple as um needs to be able to talk into a
013telephone which again there's so many accommodations that are available for that now but there's still aess language like sit stand and the Ada has a list of approved HR language and I would just love to even those requirements are important and should be included but there's better verbage that we could include especially this is going to be our final reading we might as well take the time now knowing what we're looking at knowing what we want to include it now before second reading and so those are the recommendations I would love to see included um before we approve our second reading so can I make a motion to um put those in I second question what does that mean put well we have exact we we can we can uh include the the items that
014member Brien have has just recommended into that what I could also do if we want to hold off on the the vote we can table this and then I can bring it back in February for a second reading where you'll see the strikeouts and you can see exactly what's in the policy so that's another option and um I would like to thank you for bringing this in um because as we are having those discussions around the um HR practices and looking at recruiting and retaining um staff I think these are really important considerations so I would I would love to um table it for now and then bring it back in February if that's okay yes thank you thank you very much she has to withdraw well do we still though um she's gonna Marie's
015going to go ahead and include that and then bring it back to us correct yeah so we don't need to vote so okay so I withdraw that thank you all I appreciate that motion to table this I motion to table it so second I sh my second to that thank you thank you thank you down e school from Bangor Savings Bank snacks to support students having a total dollar value of $400 to Vine Street School from Bangor Savings Bank snacks to support students having a total dollar value of $200 to 14th Street School from Haniford helps schools a cash donation to support students having a total dollar value of $1,455 and4 to William S Cohen from Mrs Chantel homes a cash donation to support students during the holiday season having a total dollar value of
016$200 to James fdy school from Arthur and Elizabeth C trees a cash donation to support students have having a total dollar value of $200 to James F dowy school from James and Kelly Stout a cash donation to support students having a total dollar value of $320 to James F dowy school from Chelsea low a cash donation support students having a total dollar value of $200 to James F dowy school from Angela Dom a cash donation to support students having a total dollar value of27 $5 to James F dowy school from Brandy Savage a lighthouse radio network a cash donation to support students having a total dollar value of $200 to William S Cohen School from Rihanna and Corey Kudo a cash donation to purchase a scoreboard for the Middle School field hockey team having a
017total dollar value of $500 to fre Fruit Street School from home Roofing Solutions a cash donation purchase winter clothing for students having a total dollar value of $250 Mo second six first we have the first reading of and I'm recommending the first reading of uh the new and revised policies revised policy ACAA harass M of students revised policy acab harassment of employees um and this shift is due to um we are shifting to align with the msma sample policies um based on attorney recommendation revised policy BBA school committee powers and responsibilities see the minor uh wording updates in that one revised policy bbaa school committee members Authority and duties uh that one has also been updated to align with the msma sample revised policy Babb student representative to the board and this was uh some
018minor updates to align with our current practices and then uh the lettering identification on that is one that uh we are are adjusting and then the new policy bbab is School Board evaluation um and that one is also a result of our fall Retreat um that was discussed to bring about um to the committee I have a question um are we taking a motion first the motion yeah yeah to the read second thank you discussion okay um so so for policy ACAA I know that was um changed the the the terminology from um harassment discrimination and sexual harassment to just harassment now and I I couldn't recall if that was previously done or if this is just something new and is it um like based on those legal references that are that our mention there
019these are um definitely aligned to the msma policies um and that was uh based on our attorney recommendations um director Carver B is here uh to answer any specific questions that we have because she's done a great deal of work on on those policies sure I have a a few questions sorry to put on the SL it's okay okay do you want Yeah official whatever so the the designation in both ACAA and acab I believe is I not I believe I know is harassment and sexual harassment of students for ACAA and acab is of employees so I think the designation is truncated on the the agenda but if you go to the policies unless I'm significantly misremember it should be I there there's a there's a separate policy so now they're separated but they're still
020exist they're separated out and then within the regulations there's ACAA R-1 and r-2 similarly for um acab for employees then there's a regulation D1 and regulation D2 so we have two policies four regulations and the reason for the different regulations is um one is harassment so more affirmative action based harassment and then the second is tital n so sexual harassment or sexual gender identity discrimination um pregnancy status Etc so that's why you have sort of one umbrell policy with two designated procedures within the regulations the other not to create an even more complex Labyrinth out of this but um a lot of the work that we've been doing around this is um to align with um the the codes or the lettering um because I think there was um a lot that we hadn't previously
021so AC which is what we've historically had that I think has been in place dating my role um sort of was the the catchall umbrella for everything Equity based now what we'll have is AC still exists but it's more of a a broad stroke um Mission vision statement than then we have ACA which already went through this process which is um our policy that's just titled Equity we um utilized heavily the language developed from the deip advisory committee from 2223 and 2324 Academic Year and now what was historically just AC is ACAA so the student facing discrimination policy and acab the employee um facing discrimination policy both that deal with affirmative action and title n sexual harassment so if we're creating like a flowchart it started off historically with AC period and now it's AC
022ACA and then acab ACAA and then additionally we have you know other adjoining policies like we have our regulation it's AAAA which is regulation not policy but that's our transgender and gender expansive student guidelines for instance and lot of the the finer Point work within this was to better triangulate and have have our policies speak to each other in ways that I think the intention was always there but it wasn't as explicitly spelled out so ways in which our student um code of conduct and bullying and Technology use would inherently not always but frequently interface with issues of harassment it's now more cross reference and that's by and large due to really great collaboration with um our attorney that makes a lot of sense help didn't have a chance to go through all of them
023so I thought but why so is the Discrimination piece is that part of the harassment oh yeah yeah yep and it it doesn't change I think it creates more um both in the in the name and practice of equity it creates um which you you'll see more embedded within the regulations but more guidelines spelled out explicitly um so that I think in both theory and practice will translate to um continuity across all of our schools are you done yes okay yes I'm thank you um I'm so glad you're here I have some questions I just want to make sure I'm understanding um I recognize an acab for the um harassment of employees we have genetic information including included excuse me on the list of prohibitive harassment but on AAA the forward facing Su one genetic
024information not included and I'm to why um okay not an attorney and not our attorney so I don't want to misspeak but my understanding of the frequency with which genetic information comes up as a protected class um on the protected class list for non-discrimination policies tends to be the ways I've seen it is um around hiring practice so um similarly to now the the inability of um insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or um likelihood of Highly genetic things I'm not in medicine I'm pretending really well here bu it but that's my understanding of why that would be visible within um acab and not ACAA that makes sense thank you for clarifying um yes there are obviously differences that would come up during the hiring process between the two so I appreciate
025that that just I didn't understand that one um and and additionally I know that you're trying to triangulate and formalize and really narrow the scope by separating these out and so I I'm I'm I welcome you telling me that I'm making it too broad but I know that it is best practice in in my experience to include items like gender and gender expression in addition to sex sexual orientation gender identity is that is there a reason that gender as a standalone and gender expression are not included is that somewhere else or is it just Yes somewhere else so um the way I've always approached this is it's less important to me um which protected class um a notion of experience discrimination which is in the eye of the beholder so if a complainant comes forward
026with I feel like I've been discriminated against based on blank if we look at the protected class list there are inherently a lot that overlap so for instance race color um ethnicity national origin hairstyle or color it I'm not going to try parsing out well is it one two and four versus 3 one and two so um along similar lines if there's a notion of discrimination based on when we say um discrimination on the basis of sex which is that critical quote from Title Nine and it's expanded out federal law covers sex sexual orientation gender which is then gender identity um gender expression actualized or perceived and pregnancy status um those things I agree with you that language matters all of those are explicitly defined out in the AAAA regulation which is the um transgender
027and gender expansive student guidelines um and we have like a definition section um it's not ever going to language Evol so quickly but I'm I'm proud of it and I think it's solid that's wonderful to hear yeah thank you yeah and for again it's one of those things that I think aligning and with um our Council and those model policies through msma I think was the the right move and where superintendent Robinson led us to which was really important but again it doesn't it doesn't eliminate or reduce the differentiation exactly well it's I I appreciate also um member H's question so that we can have a better idea of where these are all falling in the grer Stope so that it is in a perfect world easier to find for all of us um when
028really understanding these PES so thank you for that explanation I really appreciate it yeah thank you thank you vacation Bud coming we're gon next up we have committee updates um and first do we have any questions or comments from the committee okay sorry I don't know if this is the right but um I'm really excited about the workshop model um and see how it goes but I think it'll give us a great opportunity to discuss things um in depth and um fully and um I struggle sometimes with taking up space or taking up time um so devoting at least or every so often a meeting just to discuss I think will make me and perhaps other members more comfortable discuss and without feeling like we're keeping people late I fully agree with that we're looking
029forward to this model hopefully every represent reports and student commes okay so for my BHS students we have midterms coming up the week of the 21st through the 24th Martin Luther King days on that Monday so no school then and those are all half days for the high schoolers um and we're looking for any artists within our schools that want to publish their artwork artwork in the Bangor yearbook um and that should be submitted before Friday the 17th varsity hockey had a big win over Oldtown orino 12 to1 on Saturday and we and another win tonight actually upet and we hope everyone had a great holiday season thank you and I'll just I'll make a quick um announcement I guess it's an announcement for the Dei B committee um we will have a table um
030at the mar Dr Martin Luther King Jr breakfast on January 20th at the Wells Conference Center and that is hosted by um the greater Bangor area in aacp so um I know that usually Northern Light Health has a table so I'm really excited this will be the first time that Bangor school department has a table there so I'm glad to represent um so we're going move to information uh so our next Wednesday January 22nd is our first workshop at 7M in school library Wednesday February 1225 is regular meeting School library and Wednesday February 265 regular meeting 7M any other questions or comments at this time we are going to move into executive session for a purpose of discussion of the employment of employ to number one iing I mean I went there we have to
031come out and end the meeting not on camera though e e e