001e e e good evening and welcome to the Bangor school committee regular meeting today is Wednesday March 12 2025 please rise for pledge congratulations thank you we have a recognition this evening um first we have the main speak yes um the the Bangor school department and the Bangor school committee would like to recognize the winners of in the main state tournament for speech and debate thank you so so much Bangor High School has a really proud tradition for speech and debate victories but this season was really a little bit unique after a period of almost a year and a half when we had no speech team whatsoever our speech team has grown and our debate team has strengthened we won almost every single tournament throughout the season we have several qualifiers for National tournaments both
002for the National Catholic forensics league in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend and for the national speech and debate Association tournament in June in De Moy people talk all the time about how schools are failing and about how students aren't achieving at high levels anymore um I think these students are a testament to the exact opposite of that not only do they show up for practice but they willingly write additional essays that are not assigned for classes they stand up and present they are funny they make people laugh they make people cry they make people think and ask questions about really big issues and all of this is outside of the classroom of their own valtion because thinking and asking questions and talking about things with one another is the way that we seek understanding and
003achieve a better world these students are going to do just that and I couldn't be more proud of their achievements over the course of this season so first of all we'd like to recognize our two students who uh were the state champions this year uh the first one was the state champion in on the speech team and that's Tobias Kennedy and the second was the state champion uh for debate which was uh Lincoln Douglas debate and that's Beatrix Foster I'd also like to take this time to recognize the members of the debate team the debate team was the uh were the state champions this year and the first one is Beatrix laer also the de team Nolan bumgardner noan bomgardner was also on the team Chase Karen Gabriela Curtis Josh grunt Meer sopie Hall [Music]
004Lucy Perry ro Reed AO rler Elizabeth Elizabeth sh Elizabeth is a graduating senior and so we will really miss her next year uh Braden Sloan Ana sé Juliana velli I would also like to take this opportunity to recogize Stephanie Hendricks who was elected or named coach of the year for spe and we also have our speech team here we have Sarah Wallace Tobias kinnedy and Joey R the speech team came in second so that's quite an accomplishment also forgot the school members to join you so next and and you guys come in here stand in front of awesome and then School Comm distribute yourself on the that will work everyone smile just wanted you to smile thank you you're awesome congratulations uh hi moving on do we have any adjustments to the agenda this evening
005no adjustments up next we have public comment before we introduce public comment I'd like to read quy statement members of the public May address school committee for up to three minutes on school and education matters public comments shall be directed to the school committee in brief and non-repetitive the school committee's practice is not to respond or to be with speakers during public comment period we are here to listen the superintendent or her staff will follow up with comments outside the meeting as appropriate the committee will not permit profanity or shoing and request that speakers be civil discussion of specific Personnel or student matters and complaints concerning specific employees for students will not be allowed but will be addressed through established policies and procedures before speaking we heard speakers to review school committee policy AC which
006provides 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 tonight no up next we have superintendent proposals and updates and first planum is the first reading the agenda or the budget so at this time I would like to offer the first reading of our budget with modifications and changes of last time um so this is essentially U the same presentation but I have included a summary of changes so that it is clear what's different from last time to this time and I've also Incorporated the um Staffing shifts that were requested at the last meeting this
007is what we will go through and I will um move through a little quickly on the slides that I did go over last time for uh you know in the interest of time so our summary of changes from uh March 5th um I was able to gather that uh projected prek enrollment so I was able to to update the graphs to reflect the prek to 12 enrollment historical and then also projected I've included the rationale for staff changes and um we did make the decision to add the full premium increase um we still at this point of course do not know what's going to happen with the anthem premium increase um but director heon and I both felt that it was in our best interest to be prepared in the event that it does reach
008that um high 17.89% so that's the additional increase to account for that above and beyond the 10% that we had in there to be our mission and vision and our budget goals again making sure that we are aligned to our strategic plan um presenting budget that will allow us to uh continue to provide a high quality educational program and also ensuring that we are maintaining that fiscal responsibility by looking closely and and thinking maybe a little bit differently about how we could uh potentially do things moving forward to to minimize the impact some of the budget for for some of the budgetary items this is the same process I haven't changed that from last time and of course our areas of Pride and it's amazing how many things happened between the last meeting and this
009I could have added four or five more slides of areas of Pride and of course there are many things that we celebrate here in the Bangor school department and it's uh it's wonderful to see the students achieving and being celebrated in in a very special way so this is the updated graph hisor enrollment including prek and that uh this graph ends on 2024 2025 and then this next graph begins 2024 and 2025 so you can see that um you know we are in line unfortunately with the rest of the nation in terms of the predicted numbers for enrollment in the public school systems demographic data has remained the same and this is our new summary um so you can see there that we've had an um an increase here the um for the local amount
010and then that has of course impacted our overall increase which is now landing at a 6.15 and I'll go through you can feel free to interrupt me with any oh go ahead perfect you remind us what the previous increase percentage it was 5 11 previous 11 5 yeah 5.11 so that amount because of the nature of that increase um didn't put that up pretty significantly and all of these uh budget these are the state budget categories um remember that the state requires us to have our budget categorized and organized in a specific manner so that's what the cost ERS are and these numbers are all updated to reflect the increase in the um the health insurance premium again is it possible to move the little B it perfect thank you um and these are also
011updated numbers so that you can see the budget pyramid offers a summary of the major the major factors that have contributed to the increase so we've kind of grouped them together and um there are details around that now the proposed Staffing changes um I talked a little bit about some of these uh some of these have a budgetary impact like we talked about and then there are some others that we are looking to uh support with internal shifts so I hadn't mentioned those last time because it didn't have a budgetary impact but in looking at our overall All Staffing changes and in order for us to be clear and transparent I've included those this time um so we have uh the positions that I talked about last time the assistant athletic director and the reasoning
012behind that is to be able to shift this um these the middle level Sports duties to uh one rle so that it can we can increase our Effectiveness in that um and then thinking about that flip side support that is going to allow for our assistant principles to have more time with students and with teachers on a daily basis the school counselor which is um the guidance counselor we're adding one at the elementary level um I think I mentioned last time uh director hymon and I met with all of the principles and you know there were a lot of requests and we had to go through and really look closely at um where is the majority of the need and um after having further conversations and discussions uh we landed on the counselor being uh
013the most impactful piece we could add in at this point um and that person would support the needs at the three elementary schools that are listed there and it will increase the level of support there um and then uh due to the increase enrollment at Vine we are adding a uh a grade one teacher at the elementary level question sorry could you go back just to the pyramid for a second can you just give us a just a high level overview of the student support expenses the million point2 what's driving that increase the students support um a lot of that uh we have some contracted our contracted services in um Beach and Psychological Services there are facilities improvements um playgrounds um the bus contract is in there and that's a a typical we have a
014a contract list year so that's a 4% increase each year um and then the others uh we have our food core positions are included in that and that is an addition uh that we have at the two schools at Fairmount and fruit for this year uh we have our anticipated Capital bonding payments and then we have some additional um Revenue in there um in anticipation of the U out of District placements um we have several students on waiting lists for those and we anticipate those to be able to um those those students will come off of that waiting list for next year so that will be something that uh will be required thank you any other questions on another addition to the uh budget that was uh discussed last time is a maintenance position uh
015the rationale behind this is that systemwide uh we need to increase our support for the ongoing maintenance of our aging buildings uh there's a lot of little things that can be addressed uh but there are a lot of them so um this is a definite need for the Department um and I feel like it will really support uh the principles and keeping their buildings in in the the best shape as as they possibly can now the shifts that are not uh we don't do not anticipate uh budgetary impact um because of shifts and enrollment we are looking to staff these other positions internally and there are two of those um right here the grade six teacher that is at dowy and an instructional specialist which is very similar to um an instructional coach if you
016heard and and we're looking at the literacy specialist and looking at you know how we might consider expanding that to all to supporting all instruction um as we make changes with our um special ed uh process and looking at how we can support uh the least restrictive environment as much as possible um I feel very strongly that this instructional specialist will be able to support our regular Ed teachers in that transition so this is a position that will be split between the two middle schools and spend half time at each any questions and then other changes um reductions that came out of the budget uh that these were positions that were not unfilled or retirements that do not need to be refilled so there are two uh at the Bangor High School due to enrollment
017shifts there two uh staff members that are retiring and um after conversations with Dr Butler it's become evident that those positions do not need to be filled and then um talking with director hyon and director bavin uh we looked closely at some of the significant number of positions that have gone unfilled for two at least two years or some more um so we still have some of those unfilled positions in the budget uh but at this time I've removed eight of them uh because currently we are functioning well uh we're functioning within the law and um have come up with alternative solutions to these staff members at this point so I do not feel that they are necessary of course if an emerging need pops up and there's a critical situation um we have that
018considered with our with our budget to be able to meet any needs that come in and then here are the cost centers uh the graph updated to reflect our changes and then this breaks down each of the cost centers so if you have any questions I'm not going to read all the numbers but um if you have any questions about any of these cost centers we can definitely talk about that regular instruction and on on the side of the uh the slide is what I've listed there that that's what's included in regular instruction and again that is um what is decided at the state level of how we organize our budget special education other instruction student and um support staff system administration School administration Transportation that's what I was um speaking about earlier with that
0194% increase facilities maintenance our debt service and our school lunch and other expenditures and then this slide breaks everything down by a division so you can see each of the divisions which are our schools and different departments within the school department um and again there's the link to the details are there any questions that and this uh slide was what we looked at last time with State versus local funding and how that uh subsidy has changed over the years the additional question excuse me thank you so the transfer to Food Service can you explain I don't know if you touched on that I don't I don't recall last time right here yes that so that yeah that is the um food core the oh yeah okay you did did say that I know it's a
020lot it's hard to remember yeah we keep thankfully between Jerry and I keep copious notes strike thank you uh first off I just just want to say thank you for the presentation and all the time you and Jerry and others and the principles have put into it I really appreciate the flow of this presentation and your leadership of the process so thank you for that um a couple questions about the benefits line in various slides here I know a lot of that's probably health insurance is there anything El anything more to that and I don't want to come across as the old anti benefits for our Personnel but some of those Figures were like 20 and 30% increases in some of those categories so we could go back to regular instruction benefits like for example
021this one 1847 I'm going to defer to uh director Heyman on the specifics for is this what you're talking about benefits yeah this one like the regular instruction salary 3.5% makes sense that's line with contracts benefits up 18% even with a big health insurance kick that seems like a lot and then I think not to throw like facilities or something under the bus but I thought I saw one that was in like the high percent range which just seems like especially large amount right here 39 yep we can speak to that yeah facilities I just don't have that copy I can keep talking while you look to it's okay uh the I noticed on a early slide to all the revenue lines in the budget are all flat which i g i get is probably
022for the ease of budgeting and probably because there's just not a lot of movement in those items uh I would like us to think beyond the scope of just this budget of how we could drive some of the revenues there and I I I'm acknowledging that there's probably the juice is not worth the squeeze of trying to double rentals of elementary school from $1,000 to $2,000 it's just not going to move it's not going to move the needle but uh the tuition line especially just to rebubble that up that I bring up from time to time like how are we getting students from the surrounding school districts that have school choice to come to Bangor those are tuition payments that their property taxes in their towns are paying for what do we do to get
02330 or 40 more students a year from the Blen burs and vs and Orrington of the world to come to Bangor it is beyond the scope of the budget but I'm bringing it up now because it's an item in the budget that if we can move these Revenue lines it closes the scap a little bit so I just want to keep that conversation on the Forefront yeah if I could just speak to that a little bit um we have um enhanced our a grade presentations um and modified those but I think it's also important we did um we had shared the numbers um so there's a total I think it's a total of 40 students from um Glenburn so we're we were trying to understand with the declines across the board what is reasonable to
024expect that we might increase to so I'm curious to see what happens in the fall um so I'll be happy to to monitor that and see what's going on with the tuition because I'm paying close attention to that as well and I think it I think it is something to look at um in terms of um you know the revenue 100% I am glad to hear that and I really would like us to almost have like working group on this or a task force or something because I think there's a lot you could do with data Gathering From actual you know surveying of families and parents and students themselves about why they chose where they did I get that we're not tracking where everybody ends up but just anecdotally we all have friends in neighboring
025communities that in my opinion often have Miss perceptions of what going to school at Banger high school is like or being in the Banger school department and if there's themes that continually come up can we address those in sort of a public facing way to say yes we are the biggest high school in the region but that doesn't mean that you're going to be overwhelmed you know you're going to find your cohort you're going to find your academic path you're G to find your friend group if there themes that keep coming up that are not correct I think if we could really study on those we would be able able to come up with a plan to cor people's mindset out there and then I know that there's a lot of students that families who
026will choose uh the religious schools in the area and that's a lifestyle thing and I respect it but sometimes I think there's misperceptions that were like the public education is the big bad scary thing out there when actually our teachers and staff and everybody is tremendously caring and compassionate it can feel much smaller when you're in the school so absolutely I think that's marketing storytelling I I I know that you get this I'm just using the opportunity to bring it up no I think it's I think it's perfect and these are a lot of the the discussions that director fenny and I have had um in terms of you know how are we changing that narrative and that that speaks to that uh the the campaign of belonging that we're really trying to do in
027the videos that um that he has been creating with the staff so I think we're in the beginning stages of that but I 100% agree if we don't own the narrative then yeah almost like the telling story of how it's actually smaller in some ways to be at a big school you going find your path so absolutely and there's many different Pathways the other thing on the revenue slide is uh again to kick this back to remember Brian has brought up the foundation idea a lot and are there things within our facilities that we could get donor dollars sponsor dollars philanthropic dollars I know you know Bangor get this tens of thousands of alumni at Bangor High School that have never never been asked never been asked to give and you want to be sensitive
028and mindful of that relationship but the things you could do by tapping that in in the right way um and the last point I wanted to make which is my least positive one is that what what do we have for contingencies if Department of Education funding goes away uh or is severely reduced again well beyond the scope of one budget cycle but I think we should be mindful of what's been stated publicly about the intent to close the Department of Education and I think people have a misperception out there about what the department of Ed does it's not curriculum it's not you know dictating what is taught or how the schools are run it's a lot of funding for programs that serve lower income students in needs so what do we do if those things
029go away I think those are those are all valid that's a significant valid question um we've been having those conversations at the at the regional level and at this Point uh we're we're in a holding pattern the the anticipation is that it's not going to impact the federal funding even if the department of Ed is disbanded um that's the today message so we're monitoring it closely uh we could certainly you know take a a deeper dive into the what if um it's just a little tricky because there are so many different variables um you know we had no funding I mean I think talking to Dr Harris medur recently and is it 10% of the the federal budget is 10% of the state budget so to know how that whittles down into US per se
030um is a little tricky because what they're talking about doing is handing it back to the state so then it's really going to be what is the state want to do so then we're going to have to follow based on what the state does so it's kind of like we're twice removed from any solutions at this point but it is something that's being discussed so I can assure you of that okay so does up my commentary here I generally am down with the budget here the 6.15 increase is a little higher than I would like to see I just want to state that publicly I'm sure it's higher than you want to see too but I think there a psychological thing when you go over 5% but also like it just should be set said
031that Bangor is a larger Community relative to some of the ones around us but it's not necessarily a wealthy community the way people think median income in Bangor is much lower than some of our surrounding towns and there is a commercial base but huge amount of the property in Banger is nonprofit a property tax exempt so the tax base even for larger communities is quite constrained in many ways and there's a lot of people a 6% increase is going to feel like a lot and it's going to be hard to hard to make and we all want good schools we all want well-paid teachers we want all the programs and things but in my opinion 6.15 is just it's a Notch higher than I'm hoping to see that's where I'm at thank you um thank
032you for your comments member spray always um brings up a lot of my own questions which I appreciate um I am wondering based on that median Revenue I've seen a lot of other cities do this where they'll give an actual dollar amount to what that 6% could look like at a median cost is there any way for us to figure that out for the city of Bangor we have in the past worked with the city to find out how many thousands people nickel on the mill rate right and we can get that revised those change and get back to the committee thank you thank you sometimes that pill is a little when we actually see the dollar amount stretch out over a year so I would be curious as to that number um obviously the
0336.15% um is a blow after feeling so good about that 5% completely out of our hands and that is my question um is there again no one has a crystal ball here but is there any sort of thought process behind what the chances of us going up that much of a percent I think later in March we're um you know when we have our boat yeah we're hoping that we're going to have a little bit more information I plan on making a couple goals to try to make sure that information is expedited so I'll be working on that and I can keep everyone posted because if we do you know if it comes in and they say oh no it's 10% well obviously we're going to make that adjustment right between now and the 26
034okay thank you yes any other questions right now thank you this is um I'm just of God this has been really engaging presentation so thank you very much Sor um were we waiting on Jerry's information question yeah what are the facilities guys are they up to sure all right thank you member here speak loud so everybody can hear me most of the increases health insurance so 165,000 but included in that is the new maintenance position at family rate which is about 30,000 um the rest of it is due to the 17.89% um premium increase also included in benefits is a couple meetings ago you graciously Pass New retirement plan for ourly staff that did not have a a plan in place that had a match and that increas is 38,000 and that facility budget because
035a lot of those workers are truly hourly s so that's the line sharing of the facilities benefit increase thank you discussion everybody to take a vote we don't we don't need to vote this time we next time okay right thank you thank you next we have superintendent academic Excellence award question I'm sorry yes I'm sorry so we're we don't vote on the first reading of the budget is that correct okay this is this is a different process than what I'm used to at the RSU so I'm relying on everyone there's like no you thought we did I did too and we have well then maybe we should vote just in case just in case I on the side of caution I think that's probably the right choice second all in favor no we have to
036read them all the articles I might be misremembering we definitely didn't read all AR I think we had to do it several times because it was such a problem were so many changes right yes that was there were a lot of Chang end remember last time I read the articles one at a time and got you to vote on them one at a time after the second after the second read okay it was to have the detail in the minutes that you accepted every piece of the budget yeah so I mean at the RSU it was only voted on once too if that helps I don't think I'm ready to vote on it yet exactly I think J so now technically you have a mo yesk you that was informative much learning learning up next
037we have superintendent academic Excellence award so I have good news that you can all feel really good about um I'm pleased to present the names of the 55 Bang High School seniors who have earned the superintendent award this year the award recognizes students who study who who study at Bangor High School have engaged in the most ambitious and rigorous program of studies and have earned honor grades specific criteria for this award requires that they take a minimum of 10 honors or advanced placement courses and maintain a minimum grade point average of 4 and you have two read an alphabetical order I will say highest was 27 courses of these are honors or AP courses 27 I I just amazed at this so in alphabetical order Emily Adams Parker Ashfield ay Abigail bermar Alexander Busco H
038Karen Sophia creso Trum Noah denim Jenna alotti Delany Evans asyn gford Gabriel goding Jasmine ham Isabelle Harrow Connor Hixon Victoria jarck Kaitlyn kellerer Kristen Kendall dashel nap Katherine Lake Ethan levit Aiden Linder Gabriel lock Anna lauring Sophia Lynch Marin lion Sheamus McDonald Evelyn morasco Emme Emory Martin jamaka Moni Andrew nuber Brandon Newan rayan Newan Rowan osmer Lon perio Mark Andre Pon Sarah Phillips Isaac poin Sophie ruer reuer Joseph rutage Elizabeth SCH Lauren small Lindon Lindon Lindell Smiley Elizabeth Smith Ali Snowden Chase Schwartz Adam tardy meline Ty mallerie TR McKenzie boring Camp Ryan War Ryan waroo Emily Whitney and Wendy she I would like to also note that many of these students also I had just attended the um Honor Society um just before this and many of them were also in that so these are
039some people that are highly motivated and you know things that we can really feel proud about so thank you thank you my phonetics lesson thank you next we've got the superintendent's update um so in my update I'm uh I've offered this edition of the Bangor bulletin um in terms of uh School visits continuing to meet with students and staff weekly and um I always wear my Red Sneakers when I go into the schools for the visits and it was um really fun when I went into one of the elementary schools A teacher told me that the one of her students was somehow just couldn't wait to meet the superintendent so um I went there one day last week or the week before and um he was so excited to share that he had his red
040sneakers on too so it's really really great being able to get into the schools and um and make connections with with everyone uh the academic showcase uh is happening in all schools um I've already been to one there's another one um tomorrow so um lots of great uh exciting happenings this spring uh the academic showcas is is really a great event with some schools have different themes um but all of them are there to highlight uh student learning for the year so a wonderful opportunity if you're able to attend um the high school um as uh Dr Harris medur just mentioned uh the humanities Honor Society induction just occurred and that was wonderful ful to see uh so many students celebrated for their achievements and they they've also started a digital maker Club at the
041high school um it sounds like that has a lot of excitement around it so I'll be interested to see uh what results from that new club uh the district calendar uh we had talked a little bit about you know with the changes uh how important it will be to publicize that so uh the link is on our website currently and I've asked all administrators to add that link to their newsletters um and we'll have ongoing uh reminders of things as uh next year comes about uh the budget update that was our key the health insurance increase was our biggest issue there um and we talked about the department wide shifts in the uh presentation um one other highlight in terms of um a partnership that I would like to talk a little bit about is
042um director finy and I met with UMO Representatives last week and we talked about expanding or I guess systemizing more so our mentorship with the athletic program there so it was a really productive meeting um we talked about a um a connection with the 4H ambassador program and merging that with the Athletics so that we could really um be very intentional about pairing some of those athletes with some of our students students who would benefit from that um so that is um really exciting to see to be able to support and right now we talked about um potentially sixth grade um but we're still kind of working out those details so I'll make sure to uh keep those keep all of you updated on that at the last meeting um there was a request for
043the Presque update um at this point um this is the new configuration so uh previously there was uh the spruce board and what has just recently been approved by the doe is to have an educational service center in the region which is Presque so it's pcot region Educational Service Center um so now Spruce is under that and there are going to be future discussions continue discussions on potential shared services that the region can benefit from so I'll make sure to keep everyone updated and then um at this point with the federal changes um I'm not anticipating any disruptions to our federal funding but we are monitoring that closely and I will keep everyone updated thank you very much member um any any information at all about the um the USDA impact on the uh purchasing
044of food from yeah yeah I checked with director uh Scott on that and at this point we haven't heard anything um but again I think that was that was a relatively new development again so um another another piece that we're monitoring I have another um our next District team meeting will be Tuesday so um we may hear something at that point but at this point we haven't yeah did I remember can we purchase food from from farms directly or from the good shepher food bank directly a good question does any I think there was a pilot program a few years ago that good sheeper food bank was running feeding maners that we bought some broccoli and maybe some apples from but it was temporary I can find out definitely find out if we thank you
045any other questions right now all right moving on we are moving into our business action items and but first we have a vote on the minutes of the regular meeting of 26 and workshop meeting of March 2th and can I get a motion to approve those minutes so all in favor uh next is the financial reports of October 2024 and financial reports of November 2024 can I get a motion to approve those reports Mo second all in favor seven up thank you um I'm sorry did we skip reports of retirements oh we did I am sorry that was me I apologize it's going with sorry now apologize all right we're gonna or should we finish the personal no we're gonna stop here back okay apologies great so the retirements um that I have the retirements
046that I have to report this evening are Cynthia fish IEP compliance coordinator the Bangor Regional program Katherine Griffith R teacher at Abraham Lincoln School Mark hacket work study coordinator at Bangor High School Joseph peler history team teacher Bangalore High School Karen smart special education teacher James F dowy and Theodore Taylor science teacher at Bangor High School we don't need to that I apologize to personnel and next up we have um our technology director so um I would just like to take a few moments to um introduce to all of you our new Tech director we had an um pretty extensive search trying to find a replacement um from our previous director who left in December and I feel like we had an excellent interview team and we had several um many I would say highly
047qualified candidates and uh Josh Young Rose to the top and fortunately accepted the position and U just started on Monday so um there isn't a vote necessarily required for this but I wanted to be able to highlight and bring him in and um have him share a little bit about himself and introduce himself to all of you hi I'm Josh hello um I bring many years of experience in educational technology and Leadership I was for nine years the it manager for M Des Island Regional School Systems so learned a lot there and I'm very excited to be here um this is a great system from what I've seen so far I have a great team that I've been getting to know this week and working with and I'm very excited to be working with all
048of you as we move things forward thank you are we Notting all right so next up we have extra the assignments I'm recommending approval for the following exra Duty assignments for the 2024 2025 school year James Stout second year a baseball coach James f School Matthew o Connell assistant track coach James F dowy School Brook Dew assistant track coach James fdy School Payton Arbor .5 IEP clerical at the Down East school so move second all in favor I'm abstaining sixain moving on to the uh second reading of the new and revised policies I'm recommending approval of the second reading of the new and revised policies uh revised policy bdb school committee officers revised policy BBE subcommittees revised policy BDF advisory committees to the school committee revised policy be school committee meeting schedule and new policy
049BD bedl adjournment of meetings don't move second all in favor so and up next we have donations which will be read by member Bry thank you chair to the Downey school from The Brick Church winter clothing for students having a total dollar value of $300 to the Bine Street School from Lany wellan Warehouse 19 pairs of shoes for students having a total dollar value of $100 to Fairmount school from Bangor breakfast Juan's Club 15 books for Community reading day having a total dollar value of $260 to the William S Cohen School from Beth and art Cod treaties a cash donation to support students having a total dollar value of $200 to Bangor High School from Dr Scott Curtis multiple sheets of Matt Ford having a total dollar value of $2,500 and with gratitude I move
050to approve these donation all in favor 7 next we have introduction items and that includes the first reading of new and revised policies I'm recommending the first reading of the new and revised policies Revis policy AC a hazing new policy becc executive sessions policy and law revised policy BH public comment revised policy gb10 educational technology staff compensation guide revised policy jie pregnant students do we have any discussion on this um move to approve second all in favor 70 and up next we have committee updates um we have any updates or questions from the committee currently M Bren um I'd like to uh may I say my comments first before my committee update yes um thank you um just a few quick comments it has been such a busy week since our last time together and
051I just wanted to give um a big congratulations to Mr Gart and Mr Tipton our um band instructure instructors excuse me fifth grade and uh last night they had an all all City All City band concert that was so well done and so well received by so many of the smaller siblings that had to that maybe didn't want to be there but we're so happy that they went because it was really well done and a big um thanks to director finny for all the work that went into making that really an enjoyable experience at all the students um I also want to give a congratulations to our student board member sopia creso for being um receiving rather the superintendent Award of Excellence tonight congratulations um second or third rather I just want to say publicly
052that while I I not while I do fully agree that the messaging of how we share um Bangor High School and its story is so valuable and I really love the idea of a task force and I want it to be said that UTC has had a similar story right of people having a really um incorrect misconception about what's happening UTC the incredible work that's being done there and having to sort of almost prove themselves to the community um and I think that they have done an excellent job in stating some really new and creative ways to share their story and especially having the students lead it and so I'm fully on board with that advisory idea and I would love to also um in any way shape or form engage the um staff and
053students at UTC that have really found success in doing that um and lastly I just I I really want to thank acknowledge applaud all of these retiring um teachers that have had such an impact on the school community and personally um Kathy Griffith uh just her Decades of experience as a prek teacher at Abraham Lincoln um the world is a better place because she chose to be a teacher and I'm grateful every single day that she does this work and like all teachers were exceptionally lucky to have them but Mrs Griffith is um One of a Kind so congratulations to her and her well deserved retirement thank you member Briden member s yeah I just wanted to well I wanted to wish all the retirees um happy retirement but I also wanted to single out
054maty Griffith who was my children's prek teacher and it was also the the year that covid-19 closed down schools and I'll just I'll never forget right about this time of year five years ago I'll just I'll never forget Mrs Griffin and Miss Rand uh teaching on zoom in in March to my St to my children at home it was yeah let never forget it but anyway best luck to all them thank you members FR thank you I also wanted to acknowledge the retirees is some really good Educators on that list uh I had Mr peler as a teacher he's my apos history teacher in high school and one of my favorite classes and favorite teachers and he's very active in the community in different way ways and I hope he stays in the community coach
055the debate team for many years very active and great teacher uh and Mark Hackett I never had as a teacher but he was my freshman basketball coach and that was one of the most important things in my high school career and just I I think of that team in that season all the time and it was he was old school real hard driver actually but sometimes people need that and it was valuable and uh a way that many of the things outside the classroom that take place in these walls and on this campus and facility and all through all our buildings are uh very complimentary and to the academic work that's done here so I'm sad in some ways all these teachers are retiring but happy for them as well thank you oh I had
056one more thing too I'm sorry uh there was uh a very sad passing of Jory Briggs who was the 14th school secretary for a number of years passed away unexpectedly uh just within the last couple weeks and I think as we all know from having young kids at different plac points the secretary at the prek to three schools is one of the most important people in the whole school department because they're the ones that are welcoming these kids and the parents on day one and all through the school year she was perfect at it and it's really she had retired from the school department but she had not retired from you know all the other goings on of life and has grandkids in the school department now it's sad passing so I just want to
057acknowledge how wonderful she was and how how much she'll be missed thank you just a quick uh congratulations as well for both of our student committee members um member Crespo um was also not to put you on the spot here but was also a recipient of the humanities um Honor Society and so was member of Rosman so congratulations to you both and also for the um superintendent award so it it really is a tesate for both of your hard work and um and all the motivation congratulations great any other comments I'm gonna make my own comments really quickly I just wanted to thank um the Fruit Street PTO and Mr fornier for another wonderful spaghetti dinner this is my favorite um Italian food event in I know as a luchiano probably that's not something I'm
058supposed to say but I stand by that statement it is it was it's my it's that moment where you sit around go this is why we moved to main I love it so thank you for that um and the other thing I wanted to share is again to thank you to UTC and director Peterson and uh Mr Jackson who is the video and audio production instructor there um they have free to work with us to pick off our informational podcast more will be coming out about that but um very happy to have that in place uh so I do have committee updates I apologize I I I put us on a journey in comments um but I just really quickly want to remind everyone that um tomorrow probably this week I'm done tomorrow kicks off
059skills USA for our UTC which is this incredible program um at UTC this competition where our students all compete in their area of expertise against other um students in the state and then those winners will go on to our national competition it starts tomorrow and um the big uh and that's hosted um at the UTC campus and then on Friday that is when um the the winners are announced and and the closing ceremonies happen and it's a really big deal so you can tune in you can watch live you can go down to UTC and see that's happening um it just really incredible to see in the way that we all have right with debate with honors with the instruments and music um seeing students also be amazing at welding and automotive and just incredible
060at such a young age it's a really um incredible Testament to the community that we have here and the ways that we uplift our students and I I just want to remind folks that we have that um and additionally we will be um Contin they will be I don't go there they will be continuing to fundraise for the students that are going on to um National competitions um starting with a 5k for those of us that are interested and might want to um participate in that on March 3D so I mean May 3rd so we'll continue to to share updates as that comes along but it's it's incredible their enrollment as of last week was over 800 students have applied to participate in the program for just 11 10th 11th and 12th grade which again
061is stunning considering how much that program has grown and a school has grown so um great things all around thank you any other representative reports speak committee updates so I just wanted to start off by congratulating the seniors on winning our Spring Carnival that we had last week we got a little bit of participation in the costumes throughout the week and we had a lot of fun during the activities after school um tomorrow there's the Regional Mental Health Summit tomorrow at husten which a couple of our students are participating in a big group out of the student council and so they're all going to take a little field trip to husten tomorrow and take part in some activities that have to do with mental health both interactive and not um and don't forget no school
062on Friday for students because it's teacher and Service uh we have spring sports starting up baseball softball tennis outdoor track in Lacrosse and we've had our informational meetings for them in the past week and also the junior class is hosting a craft fair on March 23rd at from 10:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. thank you uh last fall for we're moving informational items us guys keep s have all right moving on to informational items uh important upcoming dates March 26th 2025 regular meeting 7: pm. the bangal high school library Wednesday April 9th regular meeting 7 p.m. Bangor High School library Wednesday April 30th regular meeting 7 p.m. Bangor High School library now any other questions or comments from the committee no okay great move to aour all in favor see