001e e e y regular meeting today is Wednesday February 26 please rise with to United States of America recognition the first is IND Champions yes the Bangor School Department hello good um the bangard school department and the school committee uh would like to recognize the class A girls indoor track team for the 2025 state champions thank you very much good evening everyone I've already peaked ahead at tonight's agenda and it looks very busy so I will keep my comment short and sweet I would like to start out with some thank yous first I'd like to thank Dr Robinson and our school committee for having us here tonight as we celebrate the 2025 girls class A indoor track state championship additionally I'd like to thank Dr Robinson again Dr Harris Smedberg for your kind words and
002extremely well-written notes that I've received in your department mail means a lot to us the extra time and reaching out to us all means so much like to thank Dr Butler for his positive support all season Along by either asking me how the team is doing or checking in with me in with the athletes during the school day I'd like to thank our coaches I say this every time that I'm up here and I'm extremely biased but I'm going to say this again and again and again this is the best coaching staff in the state we are so fortunate to have such highly qualified and dedicated staff a big thank you goes to our athletic administrator Mr vetstein his Administrative Assistant Mrs Margo Miller they are the dynamic duo and they are the glue that
003holds our athletic department together additionally this is our school's 116th state championship in 81 have come under Mr Vin's watch his incredible guidance and insight is something that I'm very very grateful for and finally to our amazing group of athletes they demonstrated so much of what is great about High School athletics and on a daily basis they display such values as hard work dedication skill cooperation and most importantly They Carried themselves with a high high amount of class I'm a sucker for a good quote kids to tease me on that a lot the quote that I found the day of our state championship was from Olympic gymnast Mary L R each of us has a fire in our hearts for something it is our goal in life to find it and keep it keep it
004lit our something was each other at the state we found ourselves Midway through the meat trailing a very talented scar BR Team by 20 plus points but that fire and our something kicked in we fought back we up seated in three consecutive events and then finished the meet with a state winning four by 200 relay to capture our third state championship in four years and our fifth overall congratulations to all of all of you is our something was truly special to watch and it represents the efforts everyone made this season but what is truly special about this team is what is you made the effort not only for yourself but for the program and each other and that in my opinion is a big reason why we stand here tonight as state champions ladies congrats
005again we are so proud of each and every one of you congrats what I'll do now is I'll call us up you come up get a certificate from me and then you're G to go right over there to Mr finny and what we'll do is we'll just hold off an announce um on Applause until everybody gets up there I'm going to call up the team they'll come to me and then also I'll call up our coaches as well and again we'll just hold off on the Applause if we can number one is our talented freshman group Quin Andrews [Laughter] emry Higgins Emily Murray Anna St Peter not here tonight but Rachel westbar now to our sophomores elol andero W Bushnell Emma nean Sero not here tonight Liliana Wilcox now to our junior class Alexis blue
006Sophia Chase not here tonight grace2 four Bailey frier not here tonight Brook Harris not here tonight with us Maddie rice Kia Saunders not here tonight with us Brooklyn schurle Alice Tibido now to our seniors Alexander Collins jna elcot Gabrielle goding Olivia Mitchell meline Tai Jaylen Williams and now to our amazing coach is over there in the corner they can come down one Feer Sun Garrett Johnson not here tonight Maddie trit we here tonight Lanny Ty Steve early rogie Hubert ladies and gentlemen your 2025 state champions and then school committee members if I could have you s stand on the right hand side as well I have a wide lens I can't I can see all the students faces everyone say go thank you everyone than up next we have another grouping a tonight we have
007the first Lego League state champions so the Bangor and school committee would like to recognize the Lego Legends robotics team as the first Lego League champion uh challenge 2025 main state champions uh the team consists from Bangor and Brewer and uh director fny will share a little bit more thank you very much we're proud to recognize the exceptional achievements of three students in the Bangor School Department who recently triumphed in the Statewide Lego robotics competition their hard work creativity and teamwork have not only brought them success but they have also showcase the incredible Talent within our community this remarkable accomplishment was highlighted in the Bangor Daily News bringing well-deserved attention to our students dedication and passion for their sport we applaud their efforts and encourage them to continue striving for excellence in all their future
008endeavors I will call everyone up to receive their certificate and we will take a picture um with the school committee in the same location that the uh sports teams did as well the first certificate goes to mastri Ru next Isa s and last but not least Dan Ru now ask the school committee to join us for a v [Laughter] robotics thank you so much congratulations everyone congratulations than you up next we have adjustments to the agenda are there any adjustments to the agenda no adjustments this evening then up next we have public comment as a reminder members of the public May address the school committee for up three minutes on school and education matters public comments shall be directed to the school committee and and not repetitive the school committee's practice is not to respond
009or debate with speakers during the public com period we are here to the superintendent or her staff follow up on comments outside of the meeting as appropriate the committee will not permit profanity or shouting and request that speakers be civil exuse discussion of specific Personnel or student matters and complaints concerning specific employees or students will not be allowed but will be addressed through the established policies Anders before speaking we encourage speakers to review school policy to or School Pol School policy AC which provides that the committee does not will not discriminate or tolerate discrimination against students or employees on the basis of membership in protected class speakers who share comments contrary to this policy will not be allowed to continue before stating please state your name and presidence any public comment tonight we have super
010superintendent proposals and updates uh first you have any action items uh we do not and next up we have informational items at at this point um assistant superintendent Dr Kathy Harris Smedberg we'll do a presentation to update everyone on our ccul just going to give you an overview of some of the vertical curriculum work that we're doing um I'm going to give you some background information first um if we Lear to look at our curriculum overall at a really 10,000 foot level we understand that our Elementary uh covers foundational skills Middle School is more content level based High School content rich and that way when we have a VHS graduate we have a very successful learner oops might look better I'm going to go over some of the reasons why we're doing this work and
011the purpose behind that so um a vertical curriculum map ensures that the content and the skills taught at each grade level will build upon each other the progression helps avoid gaps or unnecessary repetition in the curriculum leading to a smoother transition for Learners as they Advance through each grade A compar across grade levels provides a clear understanding of what students are expected to learn at each grade level creating a more cohesive learning experience teachers can align their teaching strategies to ensure that Learners are ready for the challenges of the next grade it also provides a level of transparency for families and students teachers across different grade levels can collaborate more effectively when they have shared understanding of the skills and content students are expected to master it encourages communication and consistent between the elementary middle
012and high school Educators a vertical map also tracks the progress of students across the years allowing Educators to assess whether students are meeting their milestones at each level it makes identifying areas where students may need additional support or enrichment easier with a clear map Educators can make data driven in decisions about curriculum adjustments teaching methods resource allocation options ensuring that LE leers are prepared for the next stage of learning teachers can use the vertical map to better differentiate instruction tailor lessons to meet varying needs of the Learners at different levels it provides insight into what has been taught previously helping teachers identify appropriate starting points for new material differentiation also allows Learners to have multiple opportunities to ramp up for acceleration when I mean acceleration it's at every level for a district like Bangor with
013with multiple schools a vertical curriculum map ensures that the curriculum is consistent across all schools and grade levels reducing disparities and providing all Learners with equal opportunities for Success we especially see the importance of consistency between our East and our West schools effective long-term planning ensures that learning is a scaffolded sorry effective long-term planning ensures that learning is scaffolded appropriately guess that's a big mouthful for me so it also assists with resource planning like knowing what textbooks materials and professional development is needed it's based on the content trajectory as well as large decisions like what courses should be offered and the emies when Learners know what is expected of them at each grade level it can boost motivation and performance a vertical map helps create a clear road map for Learners academic growth from 3ek
014to 12 a clear curriculum map allows parents and Community to better understand the academic Journey Learners are on and how they can support their child's learning it promotes a transparency and helps stakeholders stay informed so in essence p12 vertical curriculum app provides Clarity and transparency improves continuity and fosters better collaboration leading to a more cohesive and effective educational experience for all Learners so what has this process been oops sorry so we're starting with backward planning and the intent was to ensure that every grade in content is align with what is needed to achieve end goals we know that we want a Bangor diploma to be meaningful and to prepare all learners for Life Beyond High School having a clear understanding where the finish line is enables us to strategically plan each step of the project
015by identifying our ultimate goal we can break it down into manageable tasks allocate resources effectively and establish a timeline this approach not only helps us to stay focused and align but also allows us to anticipate challenges and adjust our actions as needed ensuring a smooth and efficient Journey towards completion however we also need to engage in what we identify as forward planning and that ensures that in foundational skills upon which our entire educational journey is built such as reading numeracy critical thinking are included thus forward and backward planning is required to best meet the needs of all of our Learners so that's the process been while we have started with uh 9 through 12 the identification of a baseline of learning represents the standard educational experience for a typical Learner in the Bangor 3K to
01612 system this Benchmark establishes clear end goals and provides a framework for ongoing skill development however it is essential that no student remains complacent in their learning therefore a series of opportunities are integrated to accelerate learning for all students ensuring that Learners are not confined to fixed tracks bangor's 10-year strategic plan outlines a goal of 40% of students having access to accelerated learning act uh opportunities as Educators we have an obligation to ensure that all Learners are achieving their Highest Potential to support this we will Implement a series of rant s to help Learners reach their highest levels this approach will then allow us to provide opportunities for Learners to accelerate their learning no matter where they are in the learning process main statute we are required to align our curriculum with the main learning
017results which are academic standards and competencies based on the Common Core State Standards soft skills are also included in this word things like completing homework passing it in on time attending school regularly executive functioning skills like planning controlling impulses being flexible decision- making and although not part of the grading process these skills are needed to be successful in school and in life so the initial part of this work started um with uh a focused effort to align K12 health and PE math vpa and six through eight social studies last year because of this work um there was a highlighted need for a comprehensive curriculum review bringing everything in for this project I first met with the BHS or the Banger high school department chairs to discuss strategies for capturing this information understanding that it would
018be a significant undertaking based on the number of options that I provided there were lots of examples Jane bentelli and Eric Hutchinson created a final spreadsheet which the department chairs then populated often collaborating with their content faculty for additional input once the high school had a solid understanding of the task before them I brought in interest Middle School teachers to work on Ela math science and social studies they were also to gather input from their content peers grades 6 through 12 are going to meet at the upcoming March in service to begin important discussions on necessary changes identifying strengths and weaknesses developing Curriculum maps and finding ways to better engage Learners meanwhile grades pre-k through 5 as well as 6 through eight health and PE vpa and World Language will start the process of identifying
019the typical learning Pathways so what does all this work look like good you could click on say Ela so we have this massive spreadsheet um if you could reduce it just a little please chis you'll see on the left there are the mlr those are the main learning results anchor standards so those anchor standards are placed there always cycling back so that we um ensure that those 10 s of learning are covered each grade level has an expectation of learning so if you scroll down the grade levels you'll see it starts at 12 and works backwards till 11 10 so everything's aligned with a grade level and then if you look at column C you'll see the beginning of the year essential skills in order to move into that course or um pathway of learning
020uh beginning skills are identified to Aid Learners families and teachers it just ensures that knowledge that is that students are appropriately placed we've included common assessments and these will be further reviewed to determine appropriate placement assessing what is covered and addressing redundancy and just to ensure that the assessments reflect purpose um the column e if you could just there we go frequent books and materials so that we would have an idea of what's being used and again is to look for a redundancy ensure consistency and make sure that things are developmentally appropriate and then in column F you'll see an end of your basic essential skills and these are the skills that if they achieve 12th grade English in this case these are all the skills that they should leave with at the end of
02112th grade along the bottom you'll see there also tabs and this is because English isn't just English anymore so we have English and writing and language and writing and speaking so each one of those um subcategories will be delineated out just like this so all of those skills materials assessments will all be broken out um and we've done this for every content area at the high school um it's still a work in progress It's not finished yet um and we have a good start with the middle school but we'd like to have that uh conversation up in March for 6 through 12 um because there's already discussions and and some of them if you go one of please Chris to E I think it is uh okay we didn't have it there on some of
022them we have put um oh things to consider for the future so as people are working on them things have bubbled up and people are saying oh I want to discuss this oh this should look in maybe this would be better in ninth grade rather than eighth grade or um we're doing this at one school but not the other school we should have this conversation and bring it to both um so those conversation running conversations are also being tracked I can show you a different subject there if you'd like um it's a pretty big document spreadsheet but we have a lot of information and I think it's going to mean a lot of information for us you'd like to see any other subject areas get the idea I would love to see them nobody else
023what would you what what temp area would you like to see oh like we have it in the presentation I I'll look at it tonight okay all right so I go back to my see we did all those opening we opened every single one to make sure it was open in case you wanted to look at that topic thank you forting that so what were we finding um whoops I think I SK one there we go um so grades pre uh prek through five will be included in the effort but we want to have that comprehensive learning um accelerated pathways are also going to be part of this so you saw the um just standardized pathway we're also having one for an accelerated and we're also having those that are developing skills developing is going
024to be more individualized because students that have developing skills typically have specific needs acceleration is a little bit broader um and so we are um providing those Pathways but the thing is we always want to ramp up we want to provide the opportunity for students to always accelerate um accelerated Pathways um we want to make sure that there's an academic rigor while individualized interventions will be implemented uh learning Maps will be developed at the middle and um High School levels and course if you could do in that math example this is an old example and each content area is going to develop these things so it's like okay if I took pre-algebra but I want to be able to get to calculus what are the pathways that I could do this is an old one
025it one that I could buy quickly um but I thought it gave a very good um example of how we can ramp into other things so people will always know what their course um pathways are um you know it might be really hard to start Algebra 1 in Junior and think you're going to get up to calculus but as a freshman that's a possibility um and so having these visual Pathways we're hoping we will Aid people in understanding those um and data will also be used to assess our strengths and identify gaps in our current approach go back to you're doing a great job um so we have a strong progression of learning we're finding that we have a very strong progression of learning if a learner stays in the district for their entire School
026career they're going to graduate with a really solid education um soft skills such as communication teamwork problem solving are crucial to education as they help Learners navigate real world challenges and big build strong relationships it is important that we embed these skills alongside of our academic learning um our school offers a diverse array of courses designed to cater to very interest that's one of the things about being a larger school that able to offer Choice um and then we have options to cross multi-disciplines in other words you provide opportunities for Learners to explore and Excel in subjects that may align with their passions and future aspirations but allow also to allow for exploration we need to constantly look at materials we use to sure that they are provided high quality level and that they support
027our curriculum so Learners can see themselves and others in every aspect of their learning neers here we understand that learning is constantly evolving as are the needs of our Learners to enhance learning it is essential to assess learner needs review relevant research and adapt our learning Pathways appropriately achieving this requires careful planning and a systematic approach to ensure ensure that quality is maintained rather than implementing wholesale changes we aim to address these evolving needs in a thoughtful and targeted manner these are my resources I really want to give credit to the people that have worked really hard on these um the high school and midle school participants here they have really knocked it out of the park I believe and then I'll open it up for questions for you you thank you so much Dr
028harrisberg for this presentation it was um obviously very well put together and I really appreciate the Simplicity of all of this work in one beautiful deck so thank you for that um I have a couple of questions I was hoping that you could share a little bit about um I know you said during the march inservice teachers in grade six through 12 would look at the curriculum I if you could just share a little bit more about what the teacher conversation looks like in this vertical mapping how they how often they're able to talk about it what that process looks like if we're still at the beginning of the process well unfortunately it doesn't happen as often as we would like because we only have professional development days great point just little plug there you
029know um and wasn't planned we didn't talk about that part um I think what what has happened is so the department heads because they have an additional stiping that they have jumped in and they have taken it on and and they've done it I think very willingly I if you look at the Quality of work in that uh document you will see that they have worked really hard um I had a lot of questions for them I had a lot of things that I wanted to make sure that they were in we we talked about what should be in the columns we talked about um what a tra you know what a a traditional just everyday pathway like a regular 12th grade student what would they get you know it took a little getting our
030heads around that because it's like what what what is an average um uh but it's kind of like the median it's kind of like that you know that middle path way that you know it's going to be a solid education for anybody no matter what um and that is our intent that that would be what all of our students would get um well the understanding is that we really want to make sure that we're providing Pathways for every child to accelerate and that can be the child with the most um that has the most developmental needs um it's just that where are they in their learning pathway and then how can we make sure that we extend that learning Pathway to the highest level that they can achieve um I think what's happening is that
031um we haven't done this for a few years so there are things that people have brought in maybe books or something that they have enjoyed you know we've gotten a little off course just a little bit not a lot um or that um we might not have covered everything that we thought that we should be covering and so it's kind of a reminder okay you know there are a series of skills and um content era pieces that we want to make sure that every child gains um and this is kind of just a reminder it's a reflection like um let's let's look again at what what it is that we're doing and what is that pathway we want to make sure the pathway makes sense because we don't want them jumping too fast we don't
032want them leaving lagging you know that's like okay I'm like spinning my wheels here and I already heard this three times and right um and making sure that we're providing a robust well-rounded educational program for every child yeah I can thank you I can see that um so is the expectation then once these all these columns are filled out the the teachers will be able to look at those cols and say okay I need to make sure that my sixth grade students and now I have a very clear view yes and then we'll get to that point where we have the time to be able to have those conversations and look at that way that's great thank you for clarifying also it's like when teachers know what is expected of them and what the the
033students know what's expected of them and we're hoping that this will be posted it will be transparent parents can see it teachers can see it great um that it it's just it's a clear learning pathway yeah that's fantastic thank thank you um and just um I'm hoping really quickly to I don't know if this question is to nuan but you were talking about accelerated Pathways um is there a specific I know that obviously there's differentiated learning at every uh grade level but do those Pathways start at a certain grade in terms of like the accelerated Pathways or were you just talking about the differentiated learning in so primarily I'm talking about differentiated learning so even if a child is two or three grade levels below what we would consider a standard pathway we want to
034make sure that they're making more than a Year's worth of progress because if they're making only a Year's worth of progress then they're never ever going to catch up um so we want to accelerate their learning um but we also want to make sure that if a child is an accelerated learner that we don't say well you know Katie she's already so smart we don't need to push her you know we we want to make sure that they have an equally rigorous program too because it's not helping them to to spin and just say oh well I'll just Glide my way through until something gets a little hard trouble um no thank you very much for that because I do think that people you know see the word accelerated and it's like oh well is
035this a special thing that should be offered rather than recognizing that every student is accelerating in their own way um and is challenged in their own way by their te is correct but we also do have accelerated Pathways for like you know we have gifted and talented students or students that are in an accelerated program and um that we're addressing that within this document also and lots of times especially like at the younger levels it can be that it might be instead of um like skipping a grade or something like that we go deeper in more depth with more more clarity and more understanding um you know at a higher level of sophistication um where at the high school you'll see things like AP courses and um accelerated our honors courses that will be you
036know it will just be content that will be presented at a much higher level thank you thank you for that can I ask one more question out just out again curious you were saying you know people are bringing in books that are interesting to them and I love that um but yes I I also recognize that's that that direction and that path um and that that leads my question of you know if there is obviously there are State Standards there's so many objectives to read through to understand what new curriculum can be introduced is there right now what does that process look like in terms of so anything that should be taught I mean it should be vetted through the the process of especially through my office um it shouldn't just be bringing in things
037should not um we have things that are um that are common so we have like common reads common assessments things like that that every child will be exposed to and then teachers do have some autonomy to to bring in other things but again they should be vetted through a process that okay it might come from I know for a while I was reading a lot of books books and they were very good books but they might have had some biases or things like that that we don't want to perpetuate um people love these books they think though they're great and they do often have very good things about them but you know when we know better we should do better um and so we keep having those conversations great thank you thank you so much
038I really appreciate your time those details thank you thank you and thank you for this report I wanted to ask about um uh bullet point number 10 on why uh why conduct vertical curriculum mapping which is the better parent and Community engagement and yeah Curriculum maps are dense technical documents with a lot of jargon and acronyms and and they're supposed to be that way are there ways and and maybe this is a question also or consideration for for Ray in Communications are there ways we can tailor our Communications around this to the general public or to the business Community or to other stakeholder groups that's just it's not so technical but it's still communicating the gist of what what our kids are learning the different what they're learning at the different grade levels and so
039on I think if you look now um on the website the curriculum is available um and in a very I think succinct manner so that if parents wanted to go on and say what are they covering in sixth grade social set then the document that is out there is going to be such that it's going to be readable that um people can see all right well that we're studying wanaki studies we're studying um you know personal finance um you know a variety of things that they're covering but it wouldn't be at the level of detail that this would be you I think really part of it is just making sure that parents on understand what it is that they their children should be learning it shouldn't be a secret thank you um for this this
040is very informative just to back it up a little bit for the um those of us who um aren't familiar with vertical learning and just the the process that this spewed from I have several questions one is um when did this start for the high school and um how does this look different than what was done previously it looks very similar to what was done previously I think what it is is we're just clear more clearly articulating it um and it's in one document area so people can easily access it and see it then you had something before that when did this process start for so we've been doing this for many many years um but we haven't always done it in such a way that we are um having that k through2 um discussion
041um and the purpose of that is all the reasons that I gave you but it's just really a clear way of understanding of of the growth that you have each year and what what brought about the changes to Extended beyond the high school level because it's all foundational all builds upon each other so for example um our eth grade has a geoc Civics it starts the first part of geoc civics that actually you have to continue on into ninth grade into the high school so it's very important that we have those conversations to make sure that the skills that they're building at the elementary and middle school are building on so they'll be able to do these courses or skills when they get to the high school and are you aware of other school districts
042that extend it beyond the high school or Innovative in that sense Beyond 12th grade no I mean um pay through right before it's very common I think you you'll find that many districts do this it just might not be clearly articulated or um it may not be as transparent as what we're making it and although I will say there are still districts that really don't have formalized curriculum which is kind of a little scary to me but yes so I appreciate um all the work you've done that bangers a leader in that um when do you expect you'd mention that the younger grades it's not you know complete it's not totally filled in when do you expect that um to be semicomplete knowing that it's always evolving document we have a lot of that already
043done it's just putting it into the document so that it is clearly articulated um there the act the elementary is the easy part because um it's just a lot of foundational pieces um there aren't so many branches like once you get to the high school there are many many branches of choices that you could have um know the elementary like in math we have to make sure that they can add subtract multiply and divide because we can't get into higher order things um they have those foundational skills so that's why I'm saying the elementary you'll find that has a lot more basic and it'll feel maybe not quite as detailed but it's every bit as important than yeah um thank you I also um love the presentation thank you for it um two questions or
044I think um more comment uh comment like um I love that you emphasize the consistency across schools and I think sometimes there's a misconception in the community that one side is stronger than the other or the curriculum is better and so forth can you elaborate a little bit on that touch on that the East Side versus West Side certainly can thank you for asking that um the curriculum is exactly the same on the east side as it is the west side and it doesn't matter which school you go and one of the things that's really kind of unique about Banger is that we really hold firm that the schools have to have an equity as far as the things that they are covering um and so you can go to a third grade classroom at
045fine in the third grade classroom at a and they're going to have the same expectation now there might be different pathways that they'll have to take to get there and that's okay um because everybody learns in a different manner but again a typical third grader is going to be a typical third grader for their expectations um so the curriculum is the same thank you I wanted to clarify that because I hear it often and I think sometimes it's the um maybe the terminology that could be different just a little bit in terms of you know um I can't even think of an example um thank you accelerated you know versus gied and talented GT right so maybe just some changes so um families assume that one side is stronger well um and I think unfortunately
046those will probably perpetuate in some ways because it's it's competition it feels like you know you always want to feel like your side is better or something like that but you know they're all every child in this school is important to all of us and we want every child to achieve their greatest potential and by having consistency and standards and expectations for every child to meet then we're ensuring that you're providing that level of equity that will allow for that perfect thank you and one more comment um so I know I I think I don't know but um the wabanaki studies is that that's fairly new correct so there was new legislation a few years ago um and it is required through main statute and we actually have a through line of wabanaki studies in
047grades um two through eight okay okay so um and we follow you know kind of like you said legislation main de we follow laws and yes I'm the RO follower and they'll say that we love that um but I think it's also it's wonderful um because we get as as a school committee we get questions about you know the diversity and what are you teaching our students about history and so forth so I love I love seeing that and I hope to see more of it too I think that one thing that I'm really I feel very passionate about is that we shouldn't Silo everything um so when we talk about like diversity Equity inclusion that we find that it is embedded um so students should be seeing themselves they should be seeing others throughout
048the entire curriculum whether it's in ela or social studies or math or science um and we have to look at it from different perspectives we have to look at it from different views um but it should be constant should be all the time it shouldn't be like okay well like this is whatever special month it is I mean that's not really how we want to operate every month is an important month for everybody it's nice to have those highlight the curriculum I appreciate that but it is embedded throughout and I would say I was um just like we talked about the soft skills those soft skills are going to be threaded throughout the entire curriculum throughout every single grade because passing your homework is important at every single grade level attending school is important at
049every sing single grade level [Music] you you have other questions that come up find me thank you CH great job thank you so up next we've got the superintendent update I'd like to provide you with an update uh for tonight uh so we have continued um with our goals of increased communication and consistent communication with our newsletters um eighth grade visits to sending schools have been completed um and we have our own Middle School's 8th grade uh step up days coming up in April in terms of curriculum um I've linked that to the document that was shared so that you can go right to the website and see the uh curriculum work that is on there right now um and we're looking forward to the continued work and uh thank you to Dr Harris medorg
050meberg it's a lot of work um but has done a great job coordinating the effort and bringing everyone on board to uh work together at the high school uh we have the cell phone policy being formed and further information will follow once that's get once that gets going and discussions ensue um at the elementary schools um of course there's a lot happening and I always have a hard time just picking like what am I going to highlight but the 100th day of school was a big celebration um across the element elementaries um and I was able to visit a prek classroom um and uh they were having a glow party so that was a lot of fun there was a black light and there was highlighters and various items that were glowing including someone's hair
051so it was um it was a special event and they were having a load of fun uh the staff survey it is in process being analyzed so that will those results will be shared once I get those back um looking at the calendar which we are going to talk about in a little more detail um but you know it the uh proposed early release days um as we mentioned are you know very important as you know highlighted with this curriculum work um you know we have a high expectations for students and staff and we really want to make sure that we are creating um a department that supports staff getting what they need to be able to be successful so uh we'll dig into that a little more when it comes down onto the agenda
052um I've been connecting with um Community Partners the YMCA the boys and girls club and the parks and rec department and started those conversations around you know adding those early release days how can we partner how can we make sure that that communication of the dates and the times is really transparent and clear so that those Community Partners can also be of service to our families our budget update um for fin final izing the budget presentation um and we'll obviously have our first Workshop next um next week March 5th um the major impacts that are leading to um not a tremendously huge increase at this point and you know hope hoping that it will be uh we'll stay that way as we continue to analyze and um Factor everything in um but the major impacts
053include really um maintaining our facilities to make sure that things don't uh become a huge issue we really want to maintain our buildings um making sure that we have student support in place and then um of course those contractual obligations which you know I'll get way more into this um next week with a presentation in terms of um shifts we're looking at um discussing uh the focus on enhancing our professional learning and practices to support uh more inclusive classrooms and we are um having ongoing meetings regarding um piloting an online pathway for students um and that would include you know an application recommendation process developing criteria um and we are hopeful that that could be U ready to start this fall more information to follow and of course uh we continue to monitor Federal changes
054and uh will'll provide updates as uh necessary questions M um thank you for the report and I just wanted to make a couple suggestions or put a few thoughts on future updates I in at the higher ed level we're we're talking a lot right now well we have been talking a lot about artificial intelligence and its impact on uh teaching and learning particularly these generative um chat Bots chat chat GTP talking about impact on academic integrity and and all those sort of thorny issues and i' I'd be really curious and interested to hear what bang or school department what kind of conversations you're having either at the high school level or District level about artificial intelligence it's impact on absolutely we can definitely bring that about I can gather input from our administrators um as
055we uh move forward with uh hopefully uh we're very close to Hiring Our Tech director so um that's going to be an important conversation um bringing that in and um you know bringing that new team member in and Gathering some input that way and um speaking of which I did meet with uh the dean of Uma and that was our topic of conversation so um he and I are both on the same page with um yeah we do need to get started and have some more uh transparent conversations around this uh we know it's here we know it's um people are using it um what is our stance I guess moving forward and we've had just some kind of surface level conversations at this point um so I I welcome you know further discussion around
056that and can certainly bring that about for uh future updates thanks and then just the other thought I had a suggestion under the region and state would it be possible when appropriate uh to get some type of update on uh the pencott river educational partnership with what it's doing what Bor is doing within that partnership absolutely yes thank you um thank you for this report I um I was hoping when you um talked about the uh obviously the enhancing our professional learning and support to uh practices to support inclusive classrooms can can you clarify what you said that sure um we're looking at um through the uh mtss uh process which is the multi-tiered systems of supports we're really looking at U kind of doing an overall um audit in special services and really looking
057closely to say know are students uh can students be in the regular classroom a little bit more uh with proper supports and doing some restructuring to support that um we all know that that's um the best case scenario for all students to um be in that least restrictive environment so we're doing kind of a close look at all of that and U identifying ways to shift that that's great thank you for that um and director B I know probably very involved in that obviously um so thank you very much for for that uh and um just really quick I I'm very excited to hear about the online Pathways for students um as a clarifying point this would just be right now for students that are enrolled in Bangor schools yes okay great thank you very
058much for that clarification any more questions thank you very much for that up moving on to our business action items first up we have well I'm sorry wait I ahead we have school committee meeting scheduled yes um and this is in your packet we have our dates uh set for next um so please let me know if you have any questions about that I think we all um had a chance to review that next we've got business action items and first up is approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of Fe well can I get a motion to approve minutes so moved second all in favor I have yeah so there there's I think there's a typo here uh for A1 and two because it says shair luchano and I think Tim shared it
059last time a little that was right above it chair the chel [Laughter] was so sending that update can I get a motion so mov favor 6 so next up we have a second reading of rised policies I'm recommending approval of the second reading of policies uh Revis policy AC non can we can we pull one out instead of taking them all together so that we can talk about one vote on the others have one that I can read them all individually well I think I think what we've done in the past wrong is we'll we'll take the ones that we don't think we're gonna have discussion on as a block that's fine is that okay so i' ask we I'd ask we P the Ia bang school department school calendar oh so I'm recommending approval
060of the second reading of the policy's revised policy AC non-discrimination equal opportunity and affirmative action revised policy BCA code of ethics revised policy BDA organizational meeting revised policy BCB Committee Member conflict of interest revised policy bdd school committee superintendent relationship so second all in favor six Now we move on to the second reading of policy I and do we want to do a we'll go ahead and get a motion and then we'll have open it up for comments so can I get a motion so Mo second thank you and now we'll open it up for questions comments or concerns speak so um at our for our first reading we had um of the calendar we had nine early release days um after you know further discussion and hearing some feedback um and understanding that while
061this is I do feel very very strongly about incorporating time for professional learning I also do want to be mindful of the challenge that that brings for some amilies um so what we have done is modified the calendar at this point to include six early release days for next year um those uh months will be September and October there will be no early release November December and January and then there will be a pickup again in February March April and May so we are hopeful that uh with this modification it will help to ease us into this change and uh support families and we know this could be potentially um but having a few less days we feel may be um helpful so thank you for everyone for the feedback and for um families that
062reached out community members um it was it's helpful for me to hear from everyone to know um you know how we can best move forward to make sure that this will be a sustainable initiative that will support every involved much thank you thank you for that update um quick question um in the off chance folks are not reading the calendar in depth this winter will there be messaging about and uh okay sorry I'm looking at your nonverbal ju for those individuals that yes not looking at the calendar today what type of messaging is going to go home anyway well um I think it's on my newsl my newsletter for this month so I'm happy to start promoting that and sharing that now um so you know I wanted to wait until it was voted on
063and approved um but I can definitely start and once it's approved um you know we can share it out that would be fantastic thank you and highlighting that I just know a lot of parents um you know what I'm not going to reject I usually don't look at the calendar so I I think that anything that we can do to continually promote this um abolutely and and remind folks that there might be some extra days they have to work their schedule yeah and and we can also do um I can set up a Blackboard call like the the robo calls or that you know actually a voice a voice message that can go out reminding folks of these early releases oh that's great we can set that up that is great thank you thank you
064very much I uh I know that a lot of work went into thought and pration and there are so many hands on deck and I also know that it's going to surprise folks next year and so anything we can do to mitigate that I appreciate thank you absolutely yeah I just want to thank Dr Robinson for her um willingness to listen to a lot of different perspectives I know i' contacted you many times on this and I appreciate your your thoughtfulness on this issue and I I do like the moves from 9 to six for for all the reasons you mentioned uh one thing I do want to ask about is and I I'd like it to just continue to be a consideration as we see how things go this this coming school year this
065next school year the the Wednesdays and I'm thinking back to my time it is and Wednesdays are different than what most school districts do in terms of ear these dayss most do Fridays and I go back to my time as a classroom teacher and there is a there's a flow there's a rhythm to teaching and I that middle of the week I I just I think about that a little bit of what what kind of impact that has on the flow the rhythm of we versus a Friday afternoon I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and I know you mentioned this a little bit few weeks ago why you why you were looking at the Wednesdays but I'd be interested to hear again and I hope we look at this that Day next year reach
066out to teachers and get an idea from them how are they feeling about it being on sure I think I think we can definitely um connect with and get feedback from staff um as administrators work through um you know working with staff at the early release days um definitely Gathering feedback to see how it's working um I do know I don't have the numbers but there are a number of schools that do um the professional learning on a um some of the reasoning I've heard and again I haven't experience it on a Friday um but some of the reasoning that I've heard for not using Fridays is that it starts to eat into the weekend and then um sometimes the professional learning environment is more uh is a little bit more challenging because folks are
067looking forward to the weekend I mean there's you can you can pick any day and have a reason that it's going to work or a reason that it's not but I hear what you're saying and and we do want to make sure that uh this is going to work for for the staff as well of course thank you sure thank you um I appreciate this um second viewing and the work that's going into this and the reduction from the the N to the days I'm just concerned about um the ability of families to cover that day unfortunately a lot of parents and families rely on the school day as a form of child care so I appreciate you speaking to other daycare or after school care facilities in the area to see whether they're able
068to cover it do we know when they will know whether they can cover it or not you do mention that talks had started but know well I I think it's it's just difficult to answer when we don't really know who's going to need it um I know there's a number of um people I've spoken to that already said you know this isn't going to be an issue for me I already have a plan you know that people who have um have been thinking about it um so I I mean first we would have to know who needs the care I think we may have to go through it first then understand more uh but we are um still continuing on with our Mentor uh program as as well that uh will also help to support
069families um and further details um will come from that uh i' say throughout the this spring sure somewhat selfishly will does the T for example or the YMCA would they be a med to the people who already have after school care program in place and just because I understand there's a difference between those who don't have don't have white children in y or or Bo good club but already have their children there would they be amendable to those students who are already there to doing that extra six days of half day the initial conversations I had seemed they seemed very open to that and they were also very appreciative to have such a long advaned notice to be able to know those dates in advance so that they could make sure that the Staffing was
070available um you know and and people could be locked in for those dates so it seems promising um I didn't go too much further I wanted to see where we landed but um I can definitely uh provide all updates and I would imagine some um more at least um Parks familiar with they're they're even flexible with snow days which who knows what those happen um and they step in so I would imagine be okay or Le they be able to S it to those who are already in um one last question um kind of to Katie's point or remember Brian Point uh that um often parents don't start paying attention until school has started was there any reason why um for example the September inservice date was not one of the ones that was moved
071maybe January would be in place was there some thought process that that concern that I well um started in October right right I think you know there's again different schools of thought um having an opportunity we have only the those two inservice days prior to the students coming um and uh when teachers come back in August the workshop days and often times that is jam-packed and um you know teachers really also need time to work in their classrooms and to make sure that they're prepared so this provides an opportunity where you know they have a a couple of weeks getting to know their students and then it it gets a really quick time to come together and say you know okay where are the needs uh because you know they may know some of the
072students from the year before but there's going to be new students um there's going to be a multitude of changes um you know things shift and change over the summer so having that opportunity to really kind of regroup once the students have come and and begun I think is is a an important opportunity for um for teachers no thank Mak and just lastly I I'm hopeful that um you know that we do receive those ongoing updates and and possibly move back to 9 days right because I think it's it is considered best practices and I know there's a necessity for this but just kind of the baby steps I appreciate that and I spoke to Dr Robinson about it as well um you know maybe this is something new for us as a district and
073there's a lot of you know concern and so as we ease into it I'm hopeful that we get back to the nine days if necessary y I'll just add I have my kids in both the parks W and why and both when we sign them up offer snow coverage school day um in service coverage holiday coverage um and they're very flexible prior to those letting us know again you can sign up right now for those so as someone who uses both of those I I would hope they'd be able to flex on this I'm sure they can they're very flexible already so I I'm not I feel terrible being like I'm not worried but my I'm very fortunate to have people that are able to look after my kids for a nominal sum and I'm
074happy continue that exchange so I I think that that will be a great resource for the parents who already have you know this an ability to flex their schedule quite so much so thank you thank you everyone so ready to Le take a vote this all in favor so thank you next up we have donations and member will share all donations um to Abraham Lincoln school from the Family Dollar candy and stuffed animals for staff having a total dollar value of $125 to James fdy school from the DMT Fund in memory of Danielle Thompson a cash donation to support students having a total dollar value of $200 to Bangor High School from Aspen shab and family a cash donation for students of support services having a total dollar value of $500 and I move to
075accept with much gratitude second all in favor so thank you next up we have introduction items and have the first reading of new and revised policies I'm recommending the first reading of the following um new and revised policies revised policy bdb school committee officers revised policy bde subcommittees revised policy BDF advisory committees to the school committee revised policy V school committee meeting schedule new policy VL adjournment of meetings second all in favor Exel and moving on to Comm updates um first do we have any comments or questions from the committee all right moving on to committee apps don't believe you have any those this evening and representatives reports do we have any represent okay all right um student committee report okay so I just have three quick little things um spring Sports um informational meetings
076in these upcoming weeks um so make sure to listen for those um next week we have something really exciting happening at the high school we have the spirit week our theme is Ram into spring I like the slogan a lot we have we have all the theme days and we get to create these big posters that you might get to see up in the Halls we have activities after school every single day um the unified basketball game is a highlight on Tuesday basketball Lego building digital drawing games pickle ball all different types of trivia you could imagine Just Dance we have a math meet and a volleyball tournament Wednesday Thursday Friday put on by the senior class thank you great um any reports so right and in information dates information dates I'm sorry everyone uh
077next up the important dates Wednesday March 5th 2025 budget Workshop meeting 7.m Bangor High School library Wednesday March 12 2025 regular meeting 7.m Bangor High School library Wednesday March 26 regular meeting 7M B Library uh last chance for any questions or comments from the committee just a quick quick question um so is the March 5th budget Workshop meeting is that with city council or is that just us and will we be having with them I forgot there's something in April I can't remember the date okay and that's a joint one okay because usually we like to have that conversation with them we H we have have been having ongoing conversations I've met with de Lori um at least twice with director I I know um a few a couple I should say have reached out
078to me just kind of where are you add and so forth because we have I done that with them as a chair last year and so forth and I was like I'm not sure yeah so we can talk further about that perfect great all right well in that case move to a journ move e e e