001Good evening everyone. I'm going to call the meeting to order. 7:01 p.m. Um Maria, do we have any adjustments to the agenda? >> We do. We have one adjustment tonight to add a nominee to item number five under teacher nominations. And that nominee is is Ashby Barty. E17 $81,935 for CRMS eighth grade math teacher. Thank you. Do we have any public comments on items not on the agenda? Seeing none. Minutes. Can I get approval for the March 18th regular school board meeting minutes? I'll move that, but I have a correction. One of the women women who spoke to us Yes. Um who sent us that letter, we spelled her name wrong in the minutes. Oh. We spelled it b o w e r and it should be bay b a u e r. Okay. Just
002for future reference. So, I move the minutes. With that amendment. >> With that correction. Can I get a second? Second. All right. All those in favor? Perfect. All approved. Uh we have two teacher nominations. Can I get a motion to approve Jesse and Ashby? So moved. Second. And just to let you know, their resumes are in the left hand side of your folder. Any discussion? All those in favor? Perfect. And then we [snorts] have some continuing contracts, both continuing and second year probationary contracts. Anything you need to say about those? Can I get a motion to approve the continuing contracts? So moved. I can second. All those in favor? Perfect. And then stipends. So, there are four nominations. Um there's one correction to a name that Rick sent by email earlier that we just need
003to fix, but otherwise I think they're all set. So moved. Second. Do you have any Do you have a question before we vote? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I was already voting. [laughter] I just wanted to make sure. All right. All those in favor? Perfect. All right. We've gone through all those formalities. Now we get to do the fun part, the grade four and master program presentation. All right. We will need the TVs on for a slideshow. See what I can do to make that happen. >> [laughter] >> In the closet thing? Nope. Okay. That one went off. Are they on? >> [clears throat] >> Yes. Here you can see it. Two chairs that aren't being used, right? Feel free to come in. Sit. What do I need to do, Chris? The Apple Probably the Apple
004one. I'm just going to keep pressing buttons till something happens. I fell in tech guy. >> [laughter] >> To make you feel better for you with my daughter. It wasn't me. >> [laughter] [cough] >> I have to [clears throat] get it off tech responsibility at home so I have none anymore. It's gone. >> [laughter] >> But I will share it with with everyone. Yeah, they'd love that. Um so I just want to take a moment to frame the spirit of the program you're about to hear about. So the Crest Ambassador program was created back in 2015 by our fabulous guidance counselor, Sue Conover. So over the years it has gone through many changes and revisions, but the core idea has remained the same. At its heart, this program is about giving students real responsibility within
005our school. Not symbolic roles, but meaningful work that helps our school run and work that supports others. So because of that, I felt it was important that you hear directly from the students themselves tonight. They are the ones doing this work every day and they are the best people to share what it looks like and what it means. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to three tonight. We're going to have four. Three three fourth grade ambassadors. Hi, I'm Rona Dayan. I am Mercy Monorton, but you can just call me Hank. Hello, I'm Elena Reed. I want to start with softly. Good evening. We are fourth grade ambassadors at Crest and we are excited to share how we help support our school. A 4th grade ambassador is someone who represents our school, builds
006relationships, and helps support our school community. As ambassadors, we are responsible and kind, and we work to make sure make a positive difference in our school. We have We have different kinds of ambassador jobs in our school. Some ambassadors work for our school learning community. For example, we help with tech support on the iPad and we create a safe place for them. We support younger students by helping in classrooms and playing with students during recess. Ambassadors also help help take care of our school. We organize outdoor spaces, take care of our areas like the Gaga pit, recycling, and keep our school clean. We also like to We also help people in our school and our community. This program connects to our school's priorities. It helps build belonging, gives students leadership opportunities, and supports responsibility and
007independence. It also helps create a strong school community where all students feel included and supported. This program shows that when students are trusted with real responsibility, they can make a meaningful difference in their school. It matters because it helps the community. When the 4th graders When 4th graders do an ambassador job, like the DJ job, they help inspire the young kids. I really like the community service with the church because every time we finish, we got a lot of inches. It made me feel warm inside. Ambassador jobs come with a lot of responsibility. You have to show up to your job every day. >> Uh I feel being ambassador can really be more rewarding than getting paid. The reward is a good feeling. I like feeling seen and heard when I was an MC for
008the community meetings. I felt good when I painted rocks. It felt relaxing. I helped set up the tables at the church. I felt helpful. Now Ronald was speaking for Ava who couldn't be here tonight, but that was Ava's. So, um just in closing, um I wanted to um you know, just take a moment to thank you guys for putting in the efforts and not only to take on your regular ambassador jobs, but to come here and to take on this role speaking of public which is a big deal speaking public and you guys knocked it out of the park. Um so, just thank you for sharing your thoughts and and coming here tonight and thank you for the families that brought you here tonight for making this work. Um really proud of the leadership of
009our fourth graders that are showing every day of these um ambassadors and and all the students in the school. Um it's a special thing to see students take care of the school. Um so, there was a slide that had some stats on this. So, 92% of the students at the school have taken on an ambassador job this year. And um there's 16 different jobs that um that students choose from. Um and it's broken up into quarters. So, we have like four different like quarters of jobs that And this year there were a few new jobs that we added to the to the mix and one of those was the community meeting job and um Hank is one of the MCs for those. So, um those community meetings happen every month and so Hank and a
010few [clears throat] other the ambassadors run those meetings. So, at the beginning of the year, like I kind of ran the meetings just kind of show people like what they look like and feel like and now it's the students' job and they do a great job with that. We're moving into the last part of the year, so the fourth quarter of the year of the ambassador jobs. And so these guys are putting their name for the next round of jobs and we finish the year strong and and entering the fifth grade with a lot of lot of skills and a lot of confidence. And we're open to any questions that you might have for the group. I told them that that might be something that happened after we present. We'll ask questions, put us on
011the spot. I have a question. When do you do your ambassador jobs? Like sometimes it maybe just happens at recess cuz you're playing with the younger student. But if you're doing recycling, like when would you do some of those things? Do you have time in the day to do that? Um, we do the recycling job at 2:10 in the afternoon. Mhm. End of the day. Yeah, it does. But like sometimes it's before school, too, right? It's depending on the job, like pre-K helper is usually before school. Cuz I know you did that, Rona. Yeah. So you got to get there early for that. >> Yeah. Takes some time to Um, MC is kind of just like any time. When the event is happening. >> Yeah, we have the meetings and then we try to we
012work out the the script before the meeting and practice it and then we go down before the for the show and practice with the microphone. Can you guys tell them some of the other um jobs, perhaps? Like maybe list some of the other ones that you have. Well, there's also um the Um, there's adult organizer. Uh, there are just the the jobs that just help all the younger students, like the >> From second grade and down. And there's a Gaga ball pit at in our playground and people volunteer to help clean up and push away the rocks. It's good for safety. Yeah, that's important. What's the special Friday morning one that's going to be tomorrow morning? Uh Cape Crusaders. Oh, yeah, that's special. Want to explain what that is? So, Cape Crusaders are basically um
013people who deliver capes to the younger kids and capes are it's gained when you get a crest fish and when you get a crest you get a crest fish by uh doing something good and uh they put the the crest fishes in like a bowl and pick a random one and those and the kids that got picked get a cape for either grit, responsibility, kindness, or self-control. And it's not just the younger kids. It's from fourth grade. It's the whole school can be picked. Yeah, but younger kids are people uh in elementary school. Yes. >> [laughter] >> That's an important job. Any other questions, Rick? I My question is this can be any of you, whoever is quickest off the draw and raise your hand. Who has a good story about a time when it
014felt really good when you were able to help a younger student, whether it was a kindergarten. There you go. I felt really good when I was reading Elmo to the younger kindergarteners in my pre-K helper job. Do you remember what book it was? Um two books. It was a Piggy and Gerald. And The classic. I didn't going to one of the other books I had to go. But I can't remember. Something about a bear. Okay, something about a bear. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Roman has been amazing. I was just wondering, Mr. B said that most of the fourth graders participate, 92%. Is there like a selection process for getting to be an ambassador or getting to do different jobs? Well, um there's this little meeting in fourth grade, two classes at a time, and
015Mrs. B and Mr. B um they tell us like if there's new jobs, and then when we get to our classrooms, they hand out these little papers and you sign one through three, and there's like a bunch of jobs. You put your first one that you really want to do, and then your second, and your third. And then you might get selected for it, but usually all kids will get a job at different parts in the school year. And that's just how they kind of select it. Oh. Yeah, the kids that and it's not 100% cuz some of the kids have like opted out of doing the jobs. >> Okay. Yeah, so that's you're pretty much guaranteed of getting something during the school year. But 100% would be a good goal this year. Can you
016just tell me what your favorite job is? Or even if you haven't had it yet, what it's the one you want the most. Oh, um Uh that definitely has to be MC. >> [laughter] >> I could see you being very good at that, so I can appreciate that. Owen. Um I like the recycling. I've been three times in a row. Nice. >> And he does a job. That's great. I really like helping out with the younger students, but I'm I really enjoyed the pre-K. They made my day. You're a teacher in the making. >> Yeah, I know. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, GUYS. >> [applause] [applause] >> THANK YOU. THAT'S AWESOME. THANK THIS IS THE PART WHERE I TELL YOU you do not have to feel obligated to stay for us
017to talk about budget and other things. We will not be offended. >> [laughter] >> All right, so I told them to leave. Um Moving on to the less exciting things, approval of the fiscal year '27 Camden Rockport schools budget. Anything about that, Maria? Sure, the um latest requested budget is in your packet starting on page nine of your packet. The changes that were made at the last board meeting are reflected in the budget. And the um so you'll see on that total expense page, which is on page 11, the second to last number on the right, 2.94, that's where the current expense budget is. And the overall taxpayer impact is at 2.33%. And And can be seen on the next page on page 12. Where the revenues are also outlined to give us the taxpayer
018impact and then that requested budget is just listed again. And then the allocation for each town is on the next page. Um and the percent change for each of the towns that combined are 2.33%. Any questions before we move to take a vote? I don't see any questions. Can I get a motion to approve the budget? Do we have to read this thing? That's the next one, right? I move that we approve the budget. Which I have to fight. Second. You're good, Jamie. You can have it. I'm going with Sarah. She's closer. >> [laughter] >> All right. Marcia didn't vote. Was that on purpose? I voted. >> Sorry. I voted earlier. She did. She just put her hand up. >> [laughter] >> All right. Item eight Item eight vote to call and approve the warrants
019for the budget meeting and the budget validation referendum and to authorize the notice of amounts adopted. So, I'm going to read the motion. I move that the vote entitled vote to call and approve the warrants for the budget meeting and the budget validation referendum and to authorize the notice of amounts adopted be approved in form presented to this meeting and that a copy of said vote be included with the minutes of this meeting. Second. All those in favor? Uh board chair's report, the one thing I put in here I wanted to note is that we have our budget meeting on May 11th, which is a Monday. Our SAU 1 will be at 6:00 p.m. and then we'll move on to the CSD at 7:00 p.m. That's a really important meeting that we've been trying to
020help the public understand the importance of, so we have people come and uh, vote to put everything forward. Superintendent's report. My report is in your packet. I Well, the annual report is going to be in mailboxes sometime in the next few weeks, which will be exciting. In preparation for that May 11th budget vote. Um, I don't think there's anything else that I wanted to highlight. I don't know if anybody had any questions for me. I I did want to ask you a little bit about going down to St. George. Mhm. That sounded really, really cool. Yeah, it's I've been wanting to get down there since it opened. Um, it's pretty impressive what they're doing with the CTE program in grades K-3. Um, the building is really well equipped. It had three separate rooms on the
021first floor and then actually had a basement, which was their maker space was in the basement section. The upstairs section, um, had some different rooms that had different names, but like one room had a bunch of workbenches with, um, uh, vice vices where kids did a lot of work. Like I saw a project that a sixth grader had done. We I can't remember the name of the project, but you you crank a thing and there's a wooden sailboat that goes up and down and there were waves kind of in the front and it was a multiple functioned thing that he had built. While I was there, um, kindergarteners were there and they were working with blocks and they had made a dollhouse a large dollhouse and they were shingling the roof of that dollhouse. Um
022>> Were they like little itty-bitty shingles? They were little itty-bitty I mean, they were, you know, like a quarter of the size of a cell phone. So, the dollhouse was, you know, maybe like yay big. Um, and I I had a tour from two sixth graders and a fourth grader. The sixth graders, we went into a room where a lot of the power tools were and there was, you know, a band saw, sanders drill press, all kinds of different things and those students who were really into this, um, all use all that equipment on their own. Um, so, they've all been trained. They also, again, they were very eager, sixth grade boys in particular and they every Monday from 8:00 to noon get to choose going to the innovation center. So, they're there for 4
023hours every Monday. Um, the kids who are kind of in their apprentice program and then every student in the school has a STEAM class once a week and the STEAM class also meets in the Grace Innovation Center. So, they're doing, um, a lot of really interesting, um, projects. While I was there Danny Solomon was there with his crew of former high school students, maybe some of them are current, I don't know, but it was during the school day, so I'm assuming they've graduated and they were building a shed out of reclaimed materials for the, um innovation center. Um, so, that was kind of a nice full circle moment for him to be there doing that with our former students. Um, and they did have a lot of very, uh, interesting things going on. I also
024saw a project that a student who's graduated from high school now did at Mid-Coast that was I can't remember how many like tens of tens of thousands of spoons, I think. It was this dragon that like, you know, is sort of the dragon of the Saint of Saint George. Yeah. And it was made out of spoons and other things. It was absolutely amazing. Um, so there are a lot of things. One of the things that I took away, I actually took some pictures of it cuz I thought it was a great idea. They had I I think this is a great idea for all of our schools potentially to do in addition to just what they were doing. Content-wise was great. But they also had posters up of a number of graduates from Saint George,
025but the students had graduated from high school highlighting what they were doing in their careers. They were all young, like, you know, in their late teens or early 20s, highlighting what they were doing for a career and sort of the impact that their CTE programming had had on them. Um, which I thought was, uh, really nice thing for younger students to be able to look at those posters and read and relate to kids who had gone to Saint George and look at what they're doing now. Um, so it was it was a really good visit and I think what they're doing there is a great example of what you can do with quite young students uh, revolving around, you know, learning how to do a lot of things with your hands and building and fixing
026um, and thinking about the trades. Thank you very much. Yep. Any other questions? Well, yeah, are there parts obviously they have a different facility, different programming, but are there parts of that that um, you think we should be paying attention to here and replicating here and Megan has been down there and I'm just kind of curious. >> Yeah, I mean, Megan has been down there and, you know, I think she's incorporated some of that Katie would know better. You know, she's got that maker space. She has some tools. I think they're all hand tools that we've got down there. Um, you know, I also thought it for our middle school age group. I do think that I mean like it was clear the excitement in these sixth grade boys of the opportunities that they had
027um, to do something that was a little bit different. And I think and actually it was two sixth grade boys and a fourth grade girl who were my tour guides. Um, but I I do think that there are opportunities for us to do things that might be a little bit less traditional than the traditional academic programming. Not that we're not, I mean we do a lot of hands-on stuff, outdoor PBL, we do a lot of stuff, but not a lot of it is focused on building and creating um, some of those things. I mean, I wouldn't say creating cuz we do create a lot of interesting things in our PBLs, but um, I do think that there's space for that. We've We've talked about it for years. I mean, Katie and I have had many
028conversations about an alternative program. Um, I personally think it's a K-8 level some kind of alternative pathway for students for whom s- typical school just is not that well suited to them. And I think for some kids programs like that save them in their schooling experience. Um, I recognize we're a district that does a lot of things already. Um, but I do think it is worth thinking about ways that those things could potentially be incorporated. Um, you know, in some way, shape or form because I think it's pretty transformative for those kids who are at that school. I guess And just just a note, I mean, they had a lot of great programming like this even before they built that center, right? So, it's it can be integrated without having to go that extra mile
029in in terms of what they built, which even which expands it more, obviously, but um just so it can be done for for regular schools here. Yeah, I mean we built one we built a middle school. We built a maker space space that's adjacent to the library that I think could be more fully utilized for its intended purpose. Um that could address some of that need as well. All right. We're on administrative reports. Jamie Stone. I have a report in the packet. Um There's a lot there. I'm happy to answer any questions. I didn't look at it before I said this because I'm taking notes. Brett. Uh just I saw that bullet point about the MOU with People Place. I just uh I can you just elaborate on that, please? >> So, I'm glad you
030said that because that's changed since last I wrote this. Um we I'm just scrolling through a couple documents. Hold on a second. Here's the bottom. We have finalized We hit the threshold. Yes, so we have since this was written hit the threshold [clears throat] of students needed to have an MOU. Um so, I'm meeting with Sessa tomorrow actually to go over the MOU. And we're I think she's got a few questions about some things in the hope it'll be to sign it and move forward and we have four slots at People Place next year for students that we would work um to place. And maybe we'll fill all those spots. Maybe we'll at least fill a couple of them. It will depend on the needs of the families and also the needs of the students.
031Okay. And under the MOU, what's the Is it a I know that there's The early discussions reflected but it will this be a a per student charge or is it Okay. So, in the first year we agreed to hold four slots. The slots are each about $15,000. So, it's a $60,000 cost to hold that space. So, if students move in to the district after we've begun and we are full then we would be able also be able to take an empty spot. We might still have People Place for us, too. The expectation being that we would be able to offer universal pre-K. So, house any student who is in our school system who meets the criteria and comes to us at any time. Okay. So, if a fifth student came in, it'd be another 15,000
032that go to People Place? Uh if we had no space, we we could consider that. Yeah. But I'm I'm sorry. The The placement that would A new person came in and we couldn't handle them in-house at Crest. And every additional student in other words at People >> Every student is a $15,000 cost. Yeah. Thank you. We We have built-in buffer in our own classrooms. So, it's not as though we're we're full and we're using those and anyone else would need to add on to that. We're We're full with built-in buffer for new students coming in. Thank you. I'm Tavia. I have a question about your first bullet under the experiential goal two, where you met with some of the local [clears throat] curriculum learning leaders from neighboring districts and obviously the declining enrollment piece came
033up. I'm just curious if there's any takeaways you can share. Maybe beyond the obvious, but Yeah, I mean, I think one of my takeaways were many of our neighboring districts are in a much more dire situation than we are in. They are talking about Belfast, talking about closing schools. It means we were having conversations about how people are managing that change and the communication plans. We also talked a lot as the curriculum and instruction people about alternative models of instructions. When you go from like in the middle school a typical four-person team, you can go to two-person teams or humanities teachers instead of separate social studies and literacy. So, we talked a lot about the models in the different schools. And then, you know, that that delicate conversation about, you know, how many students do
034we decline before administrative leadership structures change at the school level? Cuz Belfast is really going through that right now with their closures because they're talking about like one administrator possibly overseeing multiple schools. And so, and often assistant superintendents are supports to those people. So, we're just talking about like how far is too far before you can't maintain the level of quality and support that's needed at the school level. So, it was it was good to hear other people's strategies and how they're handling things. And their cuts are significantly large in numbers, large numbers of positions and school closure, building closures. So, maybe I mean my thought about that is like we need to do a good job in projection. I think we should be talking to our staff about, you know, we have some people
035who are clear about their retirement plans and see where there's opportunities for people to you know, for us to capitalize on that instead of having to eliminate positions at times. And it doesn't always work out, but I think it's a it's a good thing to talk about, you know, in the next couple of years and then long-term next 5 years. So, Yeah, just a a note that I think is important for the board to know. It's looking very likely that kindergarten enrollment will be significantly less than we anticipated it being for the next couple of years. So, I personally think we need to be bracing for a larger enrollment decline than I have been projecting. And it's just something to keep in mind that I just think we I mean, we do have new housing
036going in, which could offset some of the decline we've experienced, but we are anticipating Um, you know, my best guess is that we'll probably be around 35 instead of 45 incoming for the next couple of years. You know, over time, I mean, if that were true, over time that's 50 fewer students predicted at the elementary school, which is in the low 200s. That's That's half almost of I mean, not quite half, but probably you know, 60 to 65% of where we were. It's pretty significant. While I have the mic, can I ask one more question? Um, Jamie, it looks like you met with Colin and this may not be related to what's in your report, so you can say table it, but um, you know, I've just sort of been following very loosely like the
037iReady lawsuits and of course there's a whole Chromebook backlash and I'm just curious whether you and he or you are thinking about one, um, any privacy questions that we have around the technology and the programs that our students use and whether we need to sort of reinventory those and make sure everything is good. Um, and then two, just I don't know how that's playing into what how you're thinking about use of technology in our schools. Sure. Um, do you want to speak to that or do you want me to? Okay. >> Yeah, you do it. Um, I'm just asking first of all. Um, Colin uh basically approves all technology tools before we use them. So, in our adoption and exploration of some of even the AI tools, like when I went to a conference, I
038come back, I see some things, I go to him and I say, "Are there appropriate privacy agreements?" So, there is a there are steps there. One of the challenges is everybody has a computer, everybody has an email who works for us, and sometimes people jump and get into things before. Um, but staff have had, you know, review of the policy and training around like we don't ever use private student information. Students aren't allowed to sign up for and use AI-related tools again without some type of clearance at the district level. You know, can I can we guarantee that that doesn't not happen ever for an individual student? That I think that's probably impossible. There are a lot of firewall systems that Colin has put in place. Um, and he's it takes maybe 24 hours to
039give him give us an answer on a tool specifically. He's very thoughtful. I also would say we are not looking to grow the use of technology tools without a lot of analysis. I think we're not in a space of, you know, trying to replace instruction with technology. Um, we are at the middle and the high school level looking a little bit into more of the self-paced intervention tools that students need, especially mathematics, which is probably the one piece I brought back from an AI institute, and then the team that went this um past week to Portland have already come back with some ideas and questions. For the most part, people are pretty thoughtful um about what we're putting in front of students. If anything, I think our teachers are more of our users right now.
040Um, and if it makes their life more efficient, that's excellent. Um, but we're not trying to replace instruction at this time. So, um and part of the hope with the group that went to the AI conference was just to have a group of teachers who are, you know, on the ground with kids being able to talk with us about our policies and our practices as things are moving fast. Are we considering them as they move fast? Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Mhm. Any other questions? Hi, Jess Yates, special ed director. Good evening. My report is in your packet. Uh just a couple things to highlight. We are looking for an ed tech in our day treatment program at Crest. So, um we have had kind of a slow down in candidates lately. So, if you
041know anyone, send them our way. Um also, uh we had a team of folks from Crest, uh the middle school, and actually our high school attended inclusive education uh conference in Augusta uh in early April. And it um ended up being a really fabulous experience for the team. And I just wanted to share um some of the comments that they uh brought back because they felt like it was number one, very validating about some of the inclusive work that we're already doing. They also felt that they gained some really helpful tools to facilitate um inclusion, universal design for learning, data collection, um and different strategies. And then they actually also were able to make connections with one another. Um so, for example, our life skills teacher at Crest got to attend a session with our
042life skills teacher at the middle school, and they don't often have opportunity to just sit and talk and learn together, and that was equally as valuable, I think, as the conference content and gave me some some ideas for how to bring uh our team together in different ways over the course of the school year to facilitate their learning and increase continuity between programs. So, I thought that was really fabulous. Um I also just wanted to update you on on pre-K. We're engaged in hiring and posting of those positions, and we are getting applicants, which is super exciting. Um we're starting to process all of the stuff that we have ordered um from those state uh funded dollars uh for supplies and equipment, and I just need to send out a public um shoutout to Heather
043Mackie, who like took like hundreds of boxes and made them into like classrooms and organized them. Just fabulous. So grateful. Um I don't know how uh we would have done it without her help. Um And then also I just wanted to note that we're starting to have um pre-K kids come out of the woodwork. Um you know, we get a report every month uh from CDS about the children that they anticipate that we're getting. Um but we are hearing about other children from other districts, and one uh thing I noted, um Katie, I kind of figured out that that one of the issues in the process is there are other districts who are in cohort one who are not involved with CDS for this age range of children. And so, sometimes there are children attending
044their programs who would end up here just due to, you know, placement considerations and the like. So, we're getting notifications from those districts um about children who um are not on our original list. So, there's a lot of moving of of children and piece uh parts and pieces at this time. So, um we're watching that carefully in terms of our projected staffing model. Um and we have scheduled transition meetings for pre-K students and then for incoming kindergarteners in the beginning of May, and that will give us a better sense of um level of need and numbers at that time. But I anticipate it will be a fluid conversation right up until the start of school. And perhaps beyond. So, are kids that don't necessarily live in the district, but So, right. So, so there are
045a couple of children who for example, we learned about who are attending programs in RSU 13, which is a cohort one group, who actually have residence here. So, we will take on responsibility for those kids. So, I just get emails very frequently lately about those things and and then I share them with Katie so she knows to see if she's heard of them. So, so I I I mean it's just one of those things that we're making sure that we're you know, counting everyone and getting as much information as we can so that we can be prepared for them in the fall. Does that the students you just referenced, does that change um my recollection of the projection of maybe six to eight uh students who would have IEPs or Right. So, so we had
046and on the other side of it, some of the children we know about are not showing up because they are moving as well. So, I would say probably we had we with the two incoming we're netting one because we had another child move. So, we are kind of increasing a little a little bit, but not such that we need to suggest a staffing model change at this time. But, if we get lots of others, perhaps that would need we would need to talk with the state about additional resources. Any other questions? Thank you, Jess. Jake Eisman from the middle school. He's very fashionable today. Uh-huh. Thank [laughter] you. It is wacky Wednesday at spirit week at the middle school and I had intended to change, but that didn't didn't play out in the car. We
047appreciate [laughter] it nonetheless. Um I feel like I already did a lot last month, so I'm not going to say much, but I'll take questions. A couple of corrections are enrollment is now 344. There was an additional sixth grader added since I sent this to Lewis and I referred to teacher appreciation week. We celebrated a staff appreciation week because all of our people are super important. I want to know more about the muffin. Uh the muffin. Oh, you know, I will say the two um that I thought were the best were the ones that won. So, I may actually have a decent palette. Um the winners were jalapeno cornbread on the savory category and strawberry chocolate coconut in the sweet category. That's a meeting. Wow, that's That's a hard conversation. It was really good. It
048was really good. Yeah. Good. Quick. I I just saw the list of the upcoming outdoor visits. Yeah. Fondly remembering Kiev and all that. When do those actually happen? The the the the each one of those? Okay. Kiev is the week of vacation and the others are late May, early June. In fact, we calendared out the week that includes June 10th on a whiteboard and it is fearful to look at the number of events happening on each day. Okay. Well, hopefully you get good weather. Yeah, exactly. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jake. Katie. This is soft. It's really all of it when you look at it in combination. No one item by itself would So, if I got a text from Chris Finelli yesterday at 7:30 in the morning, it says,
049"Where's Heather?" The boxes were supposed to arrive at 9:30, came at 7:30. That was 101 boxes of stuff, of furniture for these pre-K rooms. So, to say that Heather has been instrumental to she's already done the whole other loads that have come that have filled the old specialized office and took care of this yesterday. So, we all heard gift for sure. You know, it's interesting just to comment on the pre-K piece. As Jess said, it is incredibly fluid and you don't want to kind of nail it down and it's clearly not going to get nailed down. And the just the ordering of loan that we did with state, which was incredibly generous on their part, was so overwhelming that and then just and then the volume that's coming in and and getting the reimbursement from
050the you know, so many steps. So, obviously money is not free. We know that there's a lot of >> [laughter] >> effort in this. It's exciting and have worked out the logistics of how things will be delivered finally this summer to get them set up. But it's been It's been a lot and it was exciting. We had two more people sign up yesterday. So, that too is quite fluid. I have talked to you a lot about Sae Play. I'm seeing Heather Bowen here. They had their last session of Sae Play, which if you call is the research project out of Bowden. Do you want to say anything about it, Heather? Cuz you were pretty instrumental in being a part of it. This has been a two-year cohort for this group and I last year got
051to participate a whole lot more than I did this year. But just in terms of the science it brought in from It has given such a beautiful lens of looking at children's play at this age level, four and five years old, and how you can still fit these bits of play into the into the NGSS and see how how creative, how clever, how interesting these children are. And I've known that for years, but now I can actually fit it into categories of the NGSS and say, "Oh, I can see exactly what's happening here." Um I would love to have a little presentation for you later. We've got some beautiful slides and a little video. Um so at some point I'd love to do the whole thing for you all because it's been an absolutely enriching
052experience um and it's given me a lot to think about. And for people who have not been as involved in the outdoors because we've had other teachers involved, they're just like, "Oh my gosh, I can do this. I can do that." And I think a lot of this year was how do you observe what kids are doing and see and tweak it just a little bit so that you're getting more out of the science piece has been really really powerful. When I ran into pre-K today as um I was coming out and they were coming back and they come running out and they go, "We found scat. We found a pile of bones here." And the bones come up and >> [laughter] >> they're just so tuned in and engaged. It's really really lovely and
053it plays out in kindergarten and first grade and then second grade as they move through. As Jamie mentioned, I as well, we were really refining the PD for EL next year. Working hard, we found a model that works very well for us. It was sort of towards the end, which is to have the coach come for 2 days back-to-back. One, it's cheaper cuz we're not paying for their travel and um and then to have them walk do walk-throughs with us in the morning and then they see what's happening in that moment in the classrooms and then they go and coach at each grade level. So we have arranged for four sets of that which next year, which I think will be super powerful. And teachers, you know, are feeling much more confident than they were.
054And so I wanted to share if you're in the building, this is the fourth grade deep sea discovery and they have made and I'm sure you've seen them. Mhm. I was there today. See? >> Yeah. This unbelievable mural up on the fourth grade wing that they built was a residency with an artist. So, they built the creatures out of cardboard and then they've done their research with it and they have QR codes up. It's It's really really stunning. The pictures don't do justice, but um I encourage you to come see and they already have plans for you know, how can we make it more extensive next year. And finally, I just want to share with you a couple of things cuz the rest of the information is is right here. I Adam and I got
055a chance to We had a child this today who shared a video a movie that he made with his family and it was about his autism and what it's like to have autism and he invited us and his class and shared this just such a touching video of what that is and then the series of questions that he's, you know, well, what does it feel like? What is it like? Is it Can you have a choice of having autism? It really was a remarkable experience to see this little fellow do that and I think and Sue kind of was an instrumental in in in having this as with the family and they wanted to share it with the kids and it just was that moment where I was like, oh, you know, this is so
056organic and having a child share that piece and kids be curious and it was really lovely. So, it was a nice day today. It was really beautiful opportunity. Do you have any questions on stuff? Yeah, Sarah. Yeah, so what grade the student was in? Just >> It was in third grade. to be making a movie like that at at that level. I guess with the help of the parents is really interesting concept, I guess for a third grader. Yeah, and I think it came out that you know, they the parents had joined a autism support group and he was part of the suggestion, you know, why don't you do this? And and portrayed it all of my strengths. Like, do you know that my I hear better than you do. I see better than you.
057Everything was that but it was the piece of watching the other children respond and be so curious um basically they wanted to get into his skin. Mhm. Thanks. You're welcome. We've lost Matt. Here we are. >> [clears throat] >> Uh standing committee reports. Short joint curriculum is meeting May 5th. Finance met March 18th, minutes attached, and then met before this meeting. Yes, uh fiscal year 26 general fund. Um our targets based on 20 of 26 payrolls uh through March 31st. Target was to have spent 76.9% of the budget and we have actually spent 71.5% of the budget. Um last year same period um 72.5% of our budget. And should we talk about the health insurance or Mention it. Okay, maybe. Uh health insurance came in. It was budgeted for an 11% increase with the actual
058increase of being 10.5%. Point of celebration even though it's not a nature. Party party with a half percentage. >> [laughter] >> Might be able to buy us a pizza or two. Uh joint facilities met March 16th, minutes attached. But just one thing I wanted to add. That there's not much other than what's in the minutes, but uh one piece I wanted to highlight. That you look under under uh paragraph 3D, the first bullet there about the SAD talks about the outflow. Um there's been some ongoing issues with um with erosion. Basically, where the baseball field basically comes to a very steep hill and then below it is the area that leads down to the swampy part of the river. Uh and um Chris took me and I showed me what that was and basic Basically,
059it's the idea is to with some some combination of riprap and some other uh device uh technology to prevent the erosion from continuing. But, uh he also informed that he's been in communication with the town and the planning department is supportive and is going to do everything they can. So. Moving forward, hopefully we don't lose more dirt. Hopefully exciting. Was it the same area that we had a lot of erosion when we were building? Yep. Same area. We've We've had to >> find us. They wanted to find us. >> We had to redo it cuz the solution that we originally had wasn't effective cuz there was just so much water coming through there. So, it's taking a while to finally get um a solution that hopefully will work. But, yes, it is the same slope.
060Apparently, it's going under the ground. There's There's like a whole channel under what you would see. So, if you would look at out there when it's raining, you don't see like a value. It's just it's like next level down. That's the same. Troy personnel met March 24th, minutes attached. Becky, you're up again. Uh-uh. I think Yeah. Um approval job descriptions. Yeah, we got the job descriptions. Um Going through it. Do you have anything you want to say about it now? No, we went through them. >> Maria Oh. We went through them with the CSD level. And I move that we um accept the changes. Second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? Driver policy, Marsha. Um yeah, we just have a second reads to move. So, I will make the motion that we accept
061the second reads. The policy that was listed. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? All right, we have some future agenda items. Um In May, spring behavior trends at Crest, and then Sierra Mesa community partnerships. I'm wondering if Heather wanted to do May as well. Do would you be able to do it in May? Yeah. >> [laughter] >> I'm like, what did I What did I Third Wednesday. Yeah, that sounds great. All right, and with that, we are adjourned at 7:56.