001e e e but I love e there any adjustments to the ad um no adjustments this evening that we'll move into public comment and first I have a statement to read members of the public May address the school committee for up to three minutes school and education matters public comments shall be directed to the school committee and be brief and not repetitive the school committee's practice is not to respond or debate with speakers during the public comment period we are here to listen superintendent or her staff will follow up on comments outside of the meeting as appropriate the committee will not permit profanity or shouting and requests that speakers be civil discussion of specific Personnel or student matters and complaints concerning specific employees or students will not be allowed but will be addressed through established
002policies and procedures before speaking we encourage speakers to review school committee policy AC which provides that the committee does not and will not discriminate nor tolerate discrimination against students or employees on the basis of membership in a protected class speakers who share comments contrary to this policy will not be allowed to continue before starting please state your name and place of residence have any public comments thank you very much of course for those of you who don't know me I'm Dawson neveles ran for school committee here in Bangor last fall um Bangor High School student still currently um and I just want to um kind of bring a reminder back into everything about um you know I like to think you know that schools and education matters shouldn't be political but the sad fact about
003it as they are and as we see kind of a disgusting hateful rhetoric coming from the federal level about what our teachers can and can't teach I just wanted to quickly state that I hope this superintendent in the school committee will continue to Foster the great care for Education that we have here in Bangor um and allow a freedom to express and teach basically whichever they like especially when it comes to history you know should teach about diversity should teach about racism and I want to make sure that we're not going to let those teachers down or you know they get harmed for teaching stuff they're not supposed to I we can continue to commit to making sure free teaching for our teachers still thank you very much thank you you have any other public
004comments this evening okay seeing that we move to superintendent's proposals and updates superintendent Robins um at this point um we're going to look at our informational items and our director of community outreach and safety Ray fny along with our students kayn Payton and Charlotte are going to do a presentation to the committee uh focused on our early release days and they'll talk a little bit more about this but we do have our calendar to look look at later on in our agenda so uh we've been kind of preemptive to develop a plan that a proposal that we're still working out the details of um but this idea is to support um supervision for some of our elementary children for with the potential of these early release days next year so that's what they're going to
005be talking about they've done a lot of work so thank you in advance for all of the planning and preparation that you have put into this presentation thank you for giving us this opportunity um it's my pleasure tonight to actually also provide with a small brief update about mentoring in the Bangor school department so at the beginning of this year I started working with three National Honor Society students as mentoring interns um so kayin finny Charlotte Reed and Payton Gord each student was assigned as a communication liazon Community U Mentor recruiter for schools around the city the students work with me and principles to help promote and fill specific needs at those schools we created mentoring totes and delivered them to schools the totes contain supplies to help with mentoring activities that could happen during
006or after the school day items inside those totes include games crafts and supplies and each tote has wheels so that's it's easily movable around the school currently there are 261 peer mentors active in the Bangor School Department as of today a quick list of areas that those mentors are involved in are the BHS multi- learning classrooms they're doing social norming with project transition classrooms in involed in Special Olympics best buddies reading programs at Fruit Street there are 42 students from Bangor High School actually doing sorry doing mentoring at Fruit Street uh Vine Street has 10 students from James at dowy doing reading programs and there attend students from Cohen School at a Lincoln they helped out with the Fruit Street Fall Festival the Downey trunk retreating program the Bangor High School trunk retreating Vine Street
007and down East 21st century program currently Fairmount school actually has a mentoring activity every morning for students before this day starts Fairmount also has an after school peer mentoring program dowy has a lunch server program which has hosted yourselves and 10 other community groups so far this year Mary snow students LED craft and reading activity at Fruit Street those activities um the human women's basketball team came to Abe Lincoln to do a reading program with prek and an activity we've also helped out with gardening clubs chess clubs and Music Makers clubs across the city we're proud to actually announce that after school break which ends next week uh hus education students will be starting starting tutoring and RTI programs with students at Bangor High School on these college students will actually go through training to
008know exactly what they're they will be doing with students but they will be working with students in short periods of time to help them get caught up on their work that they may be behind in also after break Mary snow language Club will start back up like it has the past two years students this year will teach other students in the Bangor School Department French Spanish Chinese American Sign Language Arabic and Portuguese and now the mentors would actually like to present to you um their proposal that they have created for your pleasure this so we're tested with helping to create a plan for elementary students for the half days that are part of the calendar that you will be talking about later in the meeting we have creative mentoring opportunities during these half days during
009the planning of these days we have talked to a lot about about the structure of the time we have come up with the schedule that we feel is structured but also flexible if we get ahead of our schedule each day is broken up to five areas story snack craft activity and bus the afternoon will start with a story we worked with Mrs defrain the librarian at a Lincoln School to find books that we that we thought were age appropriate and in the theme of what we chose after the story we have planned a healthy snack we worked with Mrs Scott in food food services to provide healthy snacks made up of fresh fruits vegetables juice and milk we have gave our craft session of our day an hour to allow for sharing creativity and enough
010time to finish the projects craft is allow followed by a physical activity so that has the students finish their as students finish their craft they can do they can get some exercise while everyone else is finishing up their craft the day ends it with cleanup and everybody getting ready for the bus car um I would like to share with you the planning that we've done so far in the first four months um so starting with September September's theme is nature explorers this topic covers fall Harvest and nature the book for September is how many seeds in a pumpkin by Margaret mcera um the book teaches students about the scientific method math concepts and not judging things by their appearance we have planned for blueberries and apple slices for our snack because they're in season for
011that particular half day our craft will be uh pine cone bird feeders and we will use honey and sun butter to attach the seeds and then students can like make predictions on what will happen with these and what will become of them and students will take their crafts home at the end of the day after this we have planned a nature walk Autumn scavenger hunt as our activity um groups will have a list of items that they might see in their playground every day and they will work with the mentors um and finding and identifying trees flowers um birds and other items um we have also prepared a list of activities to help us if the weather um is not cooperating with us that day and also to fill any gaps between um crafts and
012snacks or someone finished their crafts early and things like that um after the activity is finished the students will help clean up the area and get ready for the bus and dismissal and like kayn said this is going to be our basic structure for all of the half days um October's theme is spooky science November is giving thanks and December is Winter Wonderland hey We are continuing our work but um have chosen themes for the next months as well so for January we're going to do new year new skills for February it's going to be kindness for March it's going to be cre creativity and art for April it's going to be Earth Day and for May it's going to be celebrate spring um from now until June we'll be working to create a binder
013with lesson plans for each school with detailed instructions on each book and activity we also have a section of this binder dedicated to activities that can be done to fill time some examples of these activities for fourth and fifth graders would be four square Red Light Green Light um and then maybe playing basketball around the gym and then some activities for the prek through third graders would be Simon saids freeze dance freeze tag and also red light green light as well um we feel that we can serve 30 students from each school with our proposal we'll work with Mr finny and principles to create signup sheets and um advertise our activities to families from those schools um we feel that we'll need 10 mentors for each school to be successful most likely seven high schoolers
014and three middle schoolers um at the beginning of next year we'll start recruiting our mentors at high schools tarting targeting clubs and um Ser like organizations with service requirements um we plan to ask Middle School principles for recommendations of students to help us as well we would also like to work with um parent gardening groups for April and May as we' like to have student plant seeds as activities thank you do you have any questions for me or any of the students thanks just want to say thank you great presentation I appreciate the effort I love the themes for each month this definitely helps answer some questions I have that maybe will come later when we discuss the calendar a bit about what to do with the students during that time and as the parent
015of kids from prek to grade five uh your your days seem over stuffed a little bit good way and that you just can't get that much done but I love the ideas and the ambition and the more ment tours you have the better I think and if this rolls out as you're intending I think it'll be a great successful happy thing for the students and mentors likes good job right thank you um I also wanted to Echo U member spray you did a fantastic job on your presentations it's scary at that Podium so um you all did a fantastic job speaking and sharing so much information it's clear you put so much work into it also as similar age children to member as can confirm Force SAR Red Light Green Light very popular Jo um
016thank you very much for your work I do have a question for you Mr finny about um the reading programs that are currently happening at Vine fruit and Aid um how does how is that working with in relation to other schools reading programs is it on a cycle where all the schools receive the mentors for reading is it is that just happening now what's that process look like so we work one-on-one with the principles for what the needs are at their schools um the Fruit Street Reading Program has actually been an ongoing program that started last year and has continued this year um they actually work individually with teachers to meet to find students who have needs and work individually with those students um there's multiple ways that they do it and the teachers are
017actually the ones who direct the mentors on what they may need there is a teacher here at the High School Mrs Gordon who works with the students to give them a little bit of introduction on what types of exercise they may encounter um some ways to help with phonics how to teach students to sound different sounds those types of things so there there's a little bit of prep before they go into the schools uh the programs at Vine and ab Lincoln are actually run by those those schools as well um so Mr moring might be able to answer questions about the program and principal s might be able talk a little bit more about their program um the program for ab Lincoln is actually run by Miss Martin um and it's part of the Barbara
018Bush um reading Foundation um so she actually follows their curriculum um for ainol I can't speak to H this what picks her kids but I know that we have kids who they basically come and meet with me or they meet with a supervising teacher about why they want to be part of the mentoring program it's going very well this year we actually extended it an extra quarter beyond what we did last year so it's going great it's it is going great um our students at Vine Street sign up for it as part of our 21st century uh Grant programming so they sign up for that after school um activity with the mentoring and it's worked out really well it was so successful that as principal moring said we've extended it for another quarter so we're
019enjoying it great thank you thanks so much for those additional details I really appreciate it thank you guys so anybody else I just have a few questions um first I want to thank the students all the hard work and excellent presentation um I just have a few questions about logistics so did I hear one of the students say that about 30 students it would this be 30 students total across all of the K5 schools are 30 students per School 30 students per school so in total it would actually be 210 students per day um there are seven schools that we're looking to offer this program act so is it safe to say that that there will be a lot of kids and families who want their kids to be able to do this will be
020turned away that is possible but I think what we'd like to do is start with 30 for the first for September to see what that need is and then recruit more students because the first half day on the schedule is scheduled for the third week of school it was one of those realistic things of how many people could we get to actually help us out within that 3 weeks train them make sure that they were ready to offer the program um we can ramp up for October if we need to yeah I'm I'm thinking about a school like fruit street with I think what 320 and I just wonder if a lot of families are going to want to try to take advantage of something like this going be able to absolutely so when we
021had the mentors help out with fruit street during their Fall Festival we actually needed 35 students students to be able to run that one program so all all the teachers in the buildings I assume will be doing professional development while this program is going on is there who's who's somebody a teacher or an administrator who's going to be available in the case of something that something goes wrong absolutely so um there will be people in the buildings but we've also talked about the possibility of having some Ed teexs help out um those days are available um they're not necess if they are not working they wouldn't get paid so this could be an opportunity to extend their day for them um to allow some pay but those are some conversations that we plan on having
022I do believe at the next or not the next but one of the AC one of the academic Council meetings yeah so this is all it is still preliminary um with this proposal and um the principles are aware of the plan and they have been meeting and discussing some of the logistics to so we just haven't come together yet to bridge all of those questions and finalize the details thank you thank you I just wanted to reiterate again excellent presentation thank into it um asembly children m f member brighten um I think it is jam-packed as it should be because things you know a lot of moving Parts make sure well entertained um when I saw the the um half days on the calendar my first thought was you know the parents who won't have
023um supervision during that time they'll have to Str scramble in order to find um some Child Care um unexpectedly so I'm glad to see that this is an option um and once we get to the calendar we can talk more about other options because clearly this at least for the first month this wouldn't be enough um but uh you mentioned that uh you think that there could be a ramping up um in octob what what numbers do you think that would be does it depend on what the interest is in September or your so we would look at the interest of September and see what that is um but I think that after the September date we would open up the signups for October um to give us enough time to plan for that as
024well um always after our students participate in something there's a lot of chatter amongst the students about the positive experiences they had and then they recruit more students because of that um I can honestly say that the reading program at Fruit Street started off as a very small group of students and then as students heard that they were able to go into into a school that many of them had been students at before and they were able to give back to their school they were able to interact with teachers that they knew and they were able to help kids that's what actually grew that program that's you know it was Word of Mouth not us actively recruiting in the hallways but we hope that actively recruiting and um Word of Mouth would help us to
025get enough students to do that um and another question this might be be obvious but will lunch be provided either before the half day whether or not people or students take take part in this or lunch is always provided on half days yes I did have one other question and I think I think this is the right time to ask but maybe we can get into it more when we talk about the calendar why why was Wednesday the day that was chosen there's a lot of uh discussion around which is the best day um it's a day that I'm familiar with um there's I guess uh some anecdotal concern about making it on a Friday because the mindset is like okay we're done you know and that can maybe not be the best um time
026of the week for new or you know continued professional learning um so with that it really landed on Wednesday it's a common day for early releases to occur among schools yeah I was saving a couple of my questions on this for the the calendar conversation but it feels like we're naturally transitioning into that a little bit so thank you again for the presentation but switching to the count uh this is all related is there is the is it dependent on having enough volunteers to watch the kids who are staying at school because having this many inservice days for the teachers and not having the kids in class is going to be potentially very disruptive to parents who are depending on their kids being in school all day so I like the idea here a lot
027of having options for the kids that are staying at school but are we going to have that staff whe whether it's through volunteers mentors other people uh because otherwise I'd have some hesitancy about the disruption to family work families who are dual working households or single parents who are working if there's going to be like one day a month where the kids are going to be getting out early uh we are definitely feeling confident that this program will work um we haven't had discussions beyond that in terms of Staffing it um because again the idea behind the early release is to provide time for professional learning for the staff and I completely hear the concerns and I know this is a big shift for the calendar um this is the other reason why we are
028trying to promote and communicate this um well well in advance um being February this doesn't start until September so uh my thought process is also looking at uh potential Community Partners and um you know diving into that a little bit more um I haven't done that yet but certainly that's part of the process um I will say um in terms of the needs of the department and if we're looking at certainly the families and being able to make that adjustment is a concern that we have and I do want to be supportive of that in any way that I can also feeling as though with changes that are happening increased student needs uh we're looking at a new math curriculum um it really is uh necessary for us to allocate the time and the for
029continuous learning within the department um so right now there is a limited time and um that doesn't really provide the best working conditions sometimes for staff when things are rushed and they don't have the time they need to really learn and hone their skills to be able to bring their best to students so um and again you know globally I think I mentioned this before but you know if you look at high performing uh excellent education systems globally uh what you'll find is that the professional learning minutes far exceed that in the United States so this is a small effort towards increasing that so that we can hopefully see the translation through continued professional learning improved instructional practice keeping up to date with best practices and then ultimately that trickling down to students so that's
030the rationale behind it but I hear your concerns with about yeah I appreciate the rationale and I'm supportive of that I just want to make sure we have a plan for really any kid who does who needs a place to be from that 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock time frame if we're going to roll this out I think we have to be absolutely sure um an this is all anecdotal but some parents in my co age cohort who have kids at school districts that have a lot of early release days again very anecdotal they're just very resentful the school department for not for disrupting their work week because they're dependent on those kids being in school 9 to three and when they're out at 12 it it takes away a whole half day really of
031the school of the work day for those parents so we have and I good I appreciate the lead time on this to give people that time to start thinking sure yeah super yeah so um I do have an update for each of you I have a printed copy that I handed out um I also just wanted to add a piece that um was not on my update but uh monthly I have a meeting um Dr Harris medur and I meet monthly with the vaa and part of that we have Incorporated the positive happenings of the school so I just have an additional piece to hand out to everyone that we just received earlier today and I thought you know we have the newsletters we have updates but it's always great to be able to see
032additional pieces about the positive happening that are occurring around the department uh and moving on to uh the printed update uh we have uh been having U continued um the high school recruitment events going on and we had talked a little bit about looking at the number from the sending schools and what I wanted to share is that currently from all of the the sending schools that have the high school choice um there are 168 current eighth graders there are 67 current seventh graders and 192 current sixth graders so just keeping that in mind when we look at the tuition students um that that that is the the total number that we are looking at I did mention a little bit uh continued on with curriculum we are reviewing uh Dr Harris mberg is leading
033the review of new map curriculum for K to8 and also overseeing the curriculum update um and she'll be providing enough update uh at our next meeting the end of the month we mentioned a little bit uh at the high school Dr Butler is in the process of forming a cell phone committee uh to further look at how we can create a um implementation plan that you know really suits the needs of everyone involved we did have our cheerleaders in a local commercial that was really cool and they had a lot of fun it's a really fun commercial I don't know if you've seen it but um the main potato board yeah it's a small little snippet they had a lot of fun in terms of the district we've continued on with our uh belonging campaign
034and uh director finny has coordinated with just uh Miss stanova correct isn't that yes watch that u in a video focused on collaboration uh so with the document that I shared with you you'll be able to click on those links and see those um in terms of the staff survey I don't want to uh let everyone forget about that I know um I put that survey out back before Christmas um and had some really high hopes that Dr Harris Smedberg and I would do the qualitative analysis and then when I really looked at it and saw 600 individual um pieces of data which is great I love we've gotten so much uh high response um we're we're looking into and I have the agreement on my desk for the main education policy research insute to
035uh be able to analyze and provide us with a report of that data and after Gathering those details I think that's a better way to go um it removes any um you know NE any bias that may occur from um Dr Harris medur and I and really will offer an objective Viewpoint of that data so I'm anticipating that before the end of the school year we're also I'm also in uh communication with that same uh with the the mey the main education policy Research Institute uh for possible support as we look at reviewing our strategic plan U now that we are halfway through the 10-year plan um it really is an appropriate time to take a look at where have we been where are we now and we want to refine revise revamp uh that
036plan uh so that's another area that we're looking U I'm looking to start that probably in the spring uh but that is further details to follow up so the timeline is still in discussion we've already talked a little bit about the calendar U looking to add those early release days is the biggest shift in terms of budget um director payon and I have been working very closely to meet with all of our staff members Who oversee a budget to really gather those needs um and wants and then come up with and compile everything so we are in the stages of compiling right now and um we were able to meet with the city manager this past week to get some preliminary conversations going um and also um I think it's important to note that what
037we're really doing this year is to really take a deeper look at restructuring where possible within the department so that we can maximize student support while also uh being really uh mindful to minimize the budgetary impact wherever possible certainly there are going to be increases we have those uh contractual obligations which lend themselves to uh other increases in terms the benefits and then of course we have the Paid Family Medical Leave tax that's added in this year so um we know we're trying to be mindful of and also of course provide that sound educational programming um in terms of uh the department we're beginning discussions around how we can enhance our professional learning and practices to support more inclusive classrooms I think at a previous meeting I mentioned that uh Maine is is noted for
038uh being restrictive in some cases for uh special services Nationwide so uh we are looking at um kind of a special ed audit I would call it um I've been working closely with director Vin to identify areas you know is it possible to create a more inclusive environment um what is that looking like and how can we possibly uh make shifts to ensure that that's happening at its highest level as it needs to 1 I was able to share the uh measure what matters report that came out um they've they've titled that the expanding view of educational excellence in Maine and I watched a preliminary webinar the other evening um and they you know titled it that I don't know if you have a chance to look at it uh we'll be digging into it
039a little bit further um but it really uh they chose that title because that is the theme of the data they collected throughout the state so I'm hoping that that will be a contributing uh document as we take a closer look at our strategic plan and identify uh what items we feel are important to incorporate um into our plan and at the region and state level we're continuing to monitor uh Federal changes and paying close attention to the changes that are occur and how that may impact us any questions um thank you very much for this report I just had a couple more comments on the calendar um namely um that I I truly believe that professional development is critical to the success of our teachers and I recognize that this schedule is less than
040ideal for Working Families but anything that we can do to mitigate that challenge while also giving our teachers as much professional development time as possible is a priority I believe that um edex should be included in the opportunity to receive professional development and I recognize I'm just taking away Solutions with that statement but I do think that there are plenty of adult Volunteers in this community who would be willing and able and interested to support any additional efforts if you as a working parent have to take the afternoon off to help your kid oh help your kid be watch be with your child um or you have the opportunity to take the afternoon off and go into your kids school and help more students I think there are so many individuals in our community who
041would take that opportunity um and I think that we should look into what that looks like I recognize that the volunteer betting process is long which is also something I would love to explore opportunities to look into that um around the legality and options September 17th is a a non-starter honestly wen't having that many volunteers vetted in time so what can we do over the summer what process can we start now what can that process look like in terms of us really evaluating what our volunteer process looks like in terms of you know referrals phone calls every single year um for folks that maybe are either currently volunteering in the schools have volunteered in the schools before are the ways we can evaluate how to do that better so that we can lean on not
042only parents that need to take the day off I'm not saying in no way shape or form mean to say that you should take time away from your own job to for this but if there are individuals who have the flexibility or have the flexibility regardless of work during the day I think we should look into that so that we're not relying solely on individuals who should additionally receive professional development yes thank you m Shrek thank you um I'm sure we'll talk more about the calendar in the future so I'll leave my comments talked about it now uh okay uh I just want to ask about the cell phone committee uh I felt like we had just had a committee on it and I'm wondering what the purpose of the next committee is and what
043the timeline is and I'm all for buying I'm all for betting but I also want to move things along and also I want this group to be able to exert its role as a duly elected body to have its say on these things absolutely um I don't know if Dr Butler do you want to speak to that committee um and the the idea really um is focused around the uh Department of Education put out some guidance on determining cell phone policies and procedures so we are really looking to that and that's the discussion where was happy to take the charge I guess from uh superintendent I drew up a actually don't know shared it with you got to about it uh but it's uh I see it being eight weeks composed of uh it's based
044on the policy recommendations that came from the uh Federal DOA it's a not a super complex document anytime something that's needs broad by and good amount of information um representative group faculty uh to the extent I was talking to somebody that's recently to the extent you can you populate with people who have differing opinions you know so you you don't want to uh over I guess sample up front but in any event the process I see taking place over eight weeks the week after break probably an organizational week drawing in interest uh from faculty uh representative group of students probably building off in part the superintendent advisory committee the Dr Robinson meets with we recently had a session with other uh students that we solicited from faculty of sort of quiet Leaders with a voice
045had a facilitated conversation recently involving about 18 kids so we've already sort of solicited from staff and we'll obviously continue to for students to be part of uh combination of things focus groups you have a couple of focus groups 9 10 11 12 I have faculty members who are willing to run those we have a brief 10 question teacher survey brief 10 question all student survey and family community survey we got a data process in place for bringing that in considering what we find uh it sounds like a lot but this isn't atypical work for the type of um you know informed involvement that you want in a question like this so uh just the the high points are eight weeks inclusive of uh broad opportunity for constituencies to to weigh in some deeper qualitative
046look facilitated conversation focus groups if you want to call them that uh you know back to the beginning Clarity of mission what are we doing we're making a policy recommend based on input from uh you know the folks within the within the walls who aren't within the walls but connected to the school have uh certainly an interest in the question faculty and ultimately uh over an eight or nine week period with a goal of over the last quarter you know superint assistant superintendent Harris bedburg policy committee there's a question of policy nomenclature those types of things and then ultimately in whatever way superintendent makes his best pull the information together into a single recommendation perhaps a policy document there's a little bit of risk in here of you know coming to A conclus I usion
047before you've considered everything but essentially there are this this group talked about in the workshop there are basically three directions to go and those are also referenced in the federal document either do nothing you have some and this is specific to the question of cell phone access cell phone use presence within the building uh so you you do nothing satis SC you make some changes to limit in some fashion whether it be in classroom you talk about some of them there are degrees of limitation they physically on a person but walked in a little proprietary magnet pouch that's the Yonder pouch or you do something that would be considered more significant uh in terms of as Banning you know some you know it's not rocket surgery you're heading to one of those three things and
048you want to I think there's value in in having uh kids and teachers concerns heard we've structured the the questions again it sounds exhaustive it's really not quick opportunity we're soliciting your input through survey particip opportunity to participate in person and add to the discussion and then certainly ultimately come to this body with uh you know policy uh recommendations of policy adopting committee so we got a we got a plan I promise to share with the superintendent tomorrow but it's been uh been waiting to go so sometime a little bit after we return from break start the conversation now we'll get going with those various steps and by uh mid may have a good direction a good set of recommendations thanks yeah I appreciate that I like the time frame I would just vocalize myself
049that I don't want us to end this school year without a plan for next school year and I like the idea of buying vetting acknowledging student concerns I like that but I don't also want to defer responsibility on this to the students who as I said last meeting don't have fully formed brains yet and I'm not trying to be or patronizing but we have a voice to play in this too as parents ourselves as community members as just informed individuals who care about this stuff and with all this stuff and there's a risk of committing something to doubt I don't think that's necessarily what's happening at this moment in time because you got a very but I have felt over the past three plus years I've been on the school committee that I've constantly been
050delayed roadblocks put up constantly been told well you got to wait till we get the results of this thing back first and you got to wait till we get this back first and this is just not our area of Focus right now we care about it but we're focused on these things and I've just been talking about it a lot and it just seems like every time I'm ready to like do something on it there a new committee or a new process and I I appreciate everything you've just said I'm not trying to be contrarian here but uh I just want to have a see some action on it and I'm probably in the category of already concluding what I think the plan should be before the process has been fully unfold I acknowledge that
051but I've thought about this stuff a lot over the last few years and I think it's a crucial topic I think that we have a responsibility to engender a positive educational setting for our students and you guys know where I stand on this I sure I'll talk about it much more but um I I'll stop there but uh I'm glad to hear that we're going to try to end this school year with a plan for next year and I'll just I'll just add one thing to one and I really do you just said and the process sound wonderful one little wrinkle I think we need to be thinking about though is if there is going to be a recommendation for some type of expenditure related to this policy that's going to push the timeline a
052little bit so they're just just putting that out there right we have to make decisions about we have that in mind perfect thank you thank you um oh sorry M um and maybe um maybe not um I Heard the mention of community involvement so will there be a community survey with the survey with the the cell phone committee or is it just students and teachers for sorry make the it's designed as uh basically anybody outside the wall so it's inclusive of caregivers and those of Interest I hadn't imagined uh to Broad Beyond parents caregivers whoever loves the student at home yeah but uh would be would entertain that idea I think we'll probably have enough internal information to you know to to sort through and just to end um I wanted to see I just
053wanted to um just Echo what um M spread said um I'm a new wish to the bo uh to the Comm and um my top priority is not Ling things faser so I'm work with you but hearing that I feel good about the process and knowing that this is a new um new committee um new superintendent I think things are moving differently um but I am hyper focused on things just sitting and and wasting away so I'm right there with you and I don't think this is happen I appreciate the process and I'm looking forward to hearing more about the process I do not have a comment on cell phone I just really quickly wanted to ask in terms of the district report with the budget update um you meeting with the city manager to
054review the initial budget forgive my ignorance on this is that something that I know that our team has collectively met with City councilors we've shared it last year my only experience with a school budget has been presenting it at the end so can you tell us Dr Robinson is that something the superintendent Al does is it's a new thing to meet early and talk about the budget with the city manager it is something that's typically done um we have to keep in mind that the Bangor School Department is a line in the city's budget right so we are a part of that budget so um yes that collaboration is really important and we try to do that as much as possible oh I fully agree with that I would love as much communication as possible
055so we mitigate that back and forth at the very end of the city so um I was happy to see that and I just appreciate some clarification on how that works thank you any other questions about the superintendance report oh one please um on the the actual digital document um I noticed that I attempted to to click on the I mean made education policy Institute and it shates the expanding view of Education I don't know if that's on purpose or are so I get things that and and not necessarily would that um link just take you to the general page the main education yeah so you you can search it yeah finger problem I page on that website ready to move forward thank you report of of retirement I I'm reporting the following retirements Joe
056Clark grade two teacher at Line Street School Kimberly Douglas grade three teacher at Vine Street school and wish those individuals well in their retirement thank you um moving on to the regular meeting of January 8 2025 minutes I'm recommending approval of the draft minutes of the January 8th 2025 regular school committee meeting and the January 22nd 2025 Workshop meeting a motion second all those in favor I on to the financial report I recommending approval of the September 2024 financial report a motion don't move second all those in favor five and next we have the capital reserve transfer I'm recommending approval of transferring the capital reserve amount of 700,000 to the city of Bangor to eliminate the need for bonding for fruit Street indoor air quality project and the Mary snow School Loof structure project motion
057second any questions discussion can you just repeat that did you say the REM the removal of the not the can you say that EV to eliminate the need for the bonding okay okay thank you I that thank you very much any other questions all those in favor by next moving to matching retirement plan I'm recommending approval of the business offices matching retirement plan I get a motion second any questions discussion favor five extra Duty assignments I'm recommending approval of the following extra Duty assignments for 2025 Rebecca Kennedy Dramatics technical adviser Bangor High School Lou Ireland five the baseball coach James F dowy School Robert poell five the baseball coach James F Dy School Alexa Bartley dramatic advisor be school I have a motion so move questions discussion all those in favor by V moving forward
058to Second reading of policies I'm recommending approval of the second reading of policies revised policy ACAA harassment of students revised policy acab harassment of employe REI revised policy BBA school committee powers and responsibilities revised policy BB AA school committee members authorities and duties revised policy Babb student representatives to the board new policy bbab School Board self- evaluation and revised policy GCA 31 technology director I have a motion second any questions for discussion all those in favor five moving on to um donations Committee Member jandre please share the donations all right to James F Dy school from the DMT Fund in memory of Daniel Thompson a cash donation to support students having a total dollar value of $200 to williiam s c school from art and Beth kres a cash donation to support students having a
059total value dollar value of $250 to Vine Street School from Shaw supermarkets picture books having a total dollar value of $180 to Fruit Street School from the Family Dollar on State Street hats gloves crayons to support students having a total dollar value of $150 to Fruit Street School from ARP Penobscot chapter school supplies for students having a total dollar value of $200 to Abraham Lincoln school from Donald Sawyer a cash donation to Abraham Lincoln Garden Fund in memory of Derek Sawyer having a total dollar value of $400 and to Abraham Lincoln school from Aaron Nichols at Cash donation to the Abraham Lincoln Garden Fund in memory of Derek Sawyer having a total dollar value of $100 have a motion to accept these donations don't move second questions discuss those in favor I thanks and next
060we have recommending first reading of new and revised policies superintendent binson I'm recommending the first uh reading of new and revised policies revised policy AC non-discrimination equal opportunity and affirmative action revised policy BCA code of ethics revised policy BBA organizational meeting revised policy VC Committee Member conflict of interest revised policy bdb school committee superintendent relationship and revised policy I Bangor School Department school calendar 2025 2026 I have a motion questions discuss about the calendar again it it Next Step second discussion all those in favor all right moving on to committee updates before we do the updates any comments or questions from committee members members right thank you I will say good job leading to me nice to you uh at the risk of beating this topic to death tonight I have a gift for each
061of you which is this book it's called the anxious generation uh and it's about a lot of the things we've talked about how anxiety depression really spiked almost exactly when everybody started carrying one of these around in their pocket and I know there are other reasons why people experience anxiety mental health issues and depression many reasons family Dynamics Financial stresses the state of the world but it all correlates pretty strongly with when cell phone use and Screen addiction became so evig withous I won't beat on that dead horse anymore tonight other than to add that one of the things I really enjoyed reading this book is he talks about the culture of play and the culture of creativity and how that's changing for a lot of young people creativity really fires the strongest when your
062brain is at rest and other areas of your brain have a chance to those synapses fire but young people today and all of us are so bombarded with the steady onslaught of stimula stimulation that it's preventing us from accessing the part of our brain that promotes freethinking and creativity and just being able to play especially for a kid so I wanted to give you all this copy if you've read it before please just share it with somebody your building principal a guidance counselor the library uh because it really stuck with me I see this as the the big health issue of our time and I learned a lot by reading this and as a parent of young kids now scares me the world they're growing up into and I'm not like an old man shaking
063his fist at Clouds although it probably sound like them it's just the world has changed and um you learn so much from play creativity and being bored there's no time for kids to be bored anymore and uh I think that we all just have to think about this and think about the educational environment that we're cultivating for these kids hope you enjoy the thank you thank you member cig any other comments member bride I just wanted to make a quick com comment I don't envy principal sweat losing to amazing teachers fine um through retirement and I know this is probably just the first of um many teachers as all of our teachers here at Bor so such high quality just wanted to make a a quick personal comment as the neighbor of U Mrs Kim
064Douglas and being her talking to her seeing what she brings into her classroom um what she shares with my own children as an experienced teacher I I recognize how much she has given to um her her career and she will be greatly missed and and um I can't speak to her I I know of her impact at Vine but just her presence as an educator holistically um means a lot and so I appreciate both uh both of uh the individuals ADV buy um Mrs Clark and and Mrs zeas for their service to our education so thank you anybody else M care I just wanted to um probably thank in this book I have read it um and I plan on sharing it um it's um a very powerful book and it's made me um deeply
065at how I'm raising my children and I talk about it a lot with pretty much anybody um ping the book and just reference so thank you for Shing it who else don't believe we have any committee appointments tonight so moving on to Representatives reports have any representative reports toight I'm I'm happy to speak um yeah okay yeah um you can do I was say about yeah I'll do yeah oh UTC is first okay I to first thank you uh on December 14th uh four business leadership students for UTC presented at the educate main Symposium after participating in a pilot program with score of Maine and scores of future Business Leaders organization uh the students refined their small business plans under professional mentorship and overcame public speaking Merit to deliver impressive final presentations um UTC students
066in the video and audio production program piloted a new initiative this year taking husten university courses as part of their UTC experience they completed the same curriculum as Huston's college students earned college credits and even participated in husten art walk all semester Medical assistant students recently visited Northern Light Health to participate in various community service projects they stocked the bo cupboard created holiday cards for long-term residents assembled gifts for hospitalized patients hosted a Coco bar for staff it's excellent uh and just a couple of facility updates there was a new air compressor installed a heating system upgrade and a technology upgrade yes I just wanted to add that I saw um UTC on the news the local news today um promoting their the small business of the thetical pay so students did a great job
067Darlings also have a commercial um with UTC students and their Ed um that Darlings donated to the school so students are now prepared to know how to work on an electric vehicle um which is super impressive and update to on the um bond issue that was passed and the money um that was shared it will be received on May 22nd and does need to to be um allocated have a a plan of where that's going to go returned by June 30th so obviously there that plan is in the works um and extended by June 2026 um so uh they're already doing they already have really extensive plans which is very um exciting for what new opport Comm they're going to come um with the school and they we also got an update on the Bridge
068Academy at um that's a part of UTC I would love for us to add that to a workshop discussion in the future um of how Bangor is working with brid what that looks like how we can expand that I learn a little bit about the history yeah okay um yeah I just wanted to have a quick update that the Deb obviously internal and external um committees met most recently um we had a meeting on Wednesday obviously everyone really came together to support um statements sharing you know how we as a school district um will be moving forward in a place of providing resources and directing people in the best possible way um with information that they need and feel at this time um and again not to go on the theme of beting beating a
069dead horse but when we received all of the updates from the T committee last June and so many of those ideas I feel like we're kind of leading the committee at a standstill when we don't have the professional bent time to implement some of those ideas that were shared which is something that's talked about in these meetings so I think that as we explore what the calendar is going to look like and explore how we can combine some of that work it's just going to continually present new opportunities for our staff you any other reports moving on to information items Wednesday February 26 2025 regular meeting 7M Bangor High School library Wednesday March 5th 2025 budget Workshop meeting 7 PM Bangor High School library Wednesday March 12th 2025 regular meeting 7 PM Bangalore High School
070library Wednesday March 26 2025 regular meeting 7M Bangor High School library last opportunity for any questions or comments from the committee I'll just say the student rep should be here begging for their snow day like usual I miss that I got two text M here yeah I will anyone else motion to adjourn don't move